Englanâ— by Thomas Bolâ—n Viscount Rochford at his return from the Frenâ—h Court where he had been Ambassador for the King of England which firâ—t occasioned areport in the common people and afterwaâ—ds a mistake in our common Chronicles touching this Ladie 's being designed by Wolsie for a wife to his Master whereas she was at that time actually married to the Count of Aâ—bret King of Navarre in title and in title only But Rochford brought with him out of France another Piece which more excelled the picture of the Dutchesse of Alanzâ—n then that Dutchesse did the ordinary beauties in the Court of France that is to say his daughter Anne whom he had bred up for a time in the house of the Dutchesse which render'd her an exact mistresse of the gaities and garb of the great French Ladies Appearing in the Court of England she shewed her selfe with so many advantages above all other Ladies about the Queen that the King easily took notice of her Whether more captivated by the Allurements of her beauty or the facetiousnesse of her behaviour it is hard to say certain it is that he suffered himselfe to be so far transpoâ—ted in affection towards her that he could think of nothing else but what might tend to the accomplishment of his desires so that the separation from the bed of Katherine which was but coldly followed upon case of Conscience is now more hotly prosecuted in the heat of Concupiscâ—nce In the mean time the King adviseth with the Cardinal and the Cardinal with the most learned men in the Realm of England By whom it was modestly resolved that the King had a very just ground to consult the Pope and to 〈…〉 lawful means for extricating himselfe out of those perplexities in which this marriage had involved him The Pope had been beholden to the King for procuring his liberty when the Imperialists held him prisoner in the Fort of St Angelâ— and was in reason bound to gratifie him for so great a benefit But then withall he neither was to provoke the Emperour nor hazard the Authority and Reputation of the See Apostolick by running on the King's errand with more haâ—te then speed He therefore goes to work like a Pope of Rome and entertains the King with hopes without giving the Emperour and his adherents any cause of despair A Commission is therefore granted to two Cardinals that is to say Cardinal Thomas Wolsiâ— Archbishop of York and Laurene Campâ—gius whom Henry some few years before had made Bishop of Saâ—isbury both beneficiaries to the King and therefore like enough to consult more his interest then the Queen's contentment Of the erecting of a Court Lâ—gantâ—ne in the Convent of the Black Friers in London the citing of the King and Queen to appear before them the Kings patheticall Oration in the bemoaning of his own misfortunes and the Queen's Appeal from the two Cardinals to the Pope I shall now say nothing leaving the Reader for those passages to our common Annals Suffice in this place to note that while the businesse went on favourable in the King's behalfe Wolsie was given to understand of his desperate loves to Mistrisse Bollen which represented to him two ensuing mischiefs not to be otherwise avoided then by slackning the course of these proceedings For first he saw that if the King should be divorc'd definitively from his present wife he should not be able to draw him to accept of Madam Rhenee the French Queens sister which was the mark he chiefly aimed at And secondly he feared that Mistrisse Anne had brought so much of the Lutheran with her as might in time become destructive to the Church of Rome Of this he certifies the Pope the Pope recals Campegius and revokes his Commission leaving the King to cast about to some new wayes to effect his purpose And at this time it hapned that Dr Thomas Cramâ—er who afterwards obtained to the See of Canterbury discoursing with some of the Kings Ministers about the intricaâ—enesse and perplexity of this great affair declared for his opinion in it that it were better for the King to govern himselfe therein by the judgement and determination of the Universities beyond the seas then to depend upon the shifts and Artifices of the Court of Rome Which being told unto the King he dispatcheth Cramner unto Rome in the company of Rochford now made Earl of Wilâ—shire to maintain the King's cause by disputation and at the same time employs his agents to the Universities of France and Italy who being under the command of the French King or the power of the Pope gave sentence in behalfe of Henry condemning his marriage with the Lady Katherine the Relict of his brother to be simply unlawful in it selfe and therefore not to be made valid by a dispensation from the Popes of Rome The putting the King upon this course proved the fall of Wolsiâ— who growing every day lesse then other in the King's esteem was brought within 〈◊〉 compasse of a Pramunire and thereby stript of all his goods to an infinite value removed not long after unto York and there arrested of High Treason by the Earl of Northumberland and committed to the custody of Sir William Kingston being then Lievtenant of the Tower By whom conducted towards London he departed this life in the Abby of Leicester his great heart not being able to endure so many indignities as had been lately put upon him and having cause to fear much worse then his former sufferings But the removing of this Rub did not much smooth the way to the King's desires The Queen's appeal unto the Pope was the greatest difficulty from which since she could not be removed it must be made unprofitable and ineffectual for the time to come And thereupon a Proclamation is set forth on the 19 of September 1530. in these following words viz. The King's Highnesse streightly chargeth and commandeth That no manner of person of what estate degree or condition he or they be of do purchase or attempt to purchase from the Court of Rome or elsewhere nor use nor put in execution divulge or publish any thing heretofore within this year passed purchased or to be purchased hereafter containing matter prejudicial to the High Authority Jurisdiction and prerogative Royal of this his said Reâ—lm or to the lett hinderance or impeachment of his Grace's Noble and Vertuous intended purposes in the premises upon pain of incurring his Highnesse's indignation and imprisonment and farther punishment of their bodies for their so doing at his Graceâ—s pleasure to the dreadful example of all others This was the Prologue to the downfall of the Pope in England seconded by the Kings taking to himselfe the Title â—upream Head of the Churches of England and Ireland acknowledged in the Convocation and confirmed in Parliament and ending finally in an Act intituled An Act for extinguishing the authority of the Bishops of Rome And in all this the King did nothing but what
of his love and goodnesse Which so prevailed that the Duke of Norfolk is sent to treat with her upon certain Instructions so neâ—essary to the knowledge of her affairs in this Conjuncture that they deserve a place here and are these that follow Certain Articles and Injunctions given by the King's Highness to his right Trusty and right entirely beloved Cousen and Counsellor the Duke of Norfolk whom with certain others in his company His Majesty sendeth to the Lady Mary his Daughter for the Purposes ensuing FIrst whereas the said Lady Mary hath sundry ways with long continuance shewed her self so obstinate towards the King's Majâ—sty her Soveraign Lord and Father and so disobedient to his Laws conceived and â—ade upon most just vertuâ—â—s and godly grounds that as the wilfull disobedience thereof seemeth a monster in Nature so unlesse the mercy of his Highnesse had been most abundantly extended unto hâ—r by the course of his Grace's Laws and the force of his Justice shâ— endâ—â—gâ—red her self so far that it was greatly tâ— his Highnesse's regret and hearty sorrow to see and perceive how little 〈◊〉 esteâ—meth the same extending to the losse of his favour the losse of her honour the losse of her life and undoubâ—edly to the indignation of Almighty God For that she neither obeyeth her Father and Soveraign nor his just and vertuous Laws aforesaid And that of late neverthelesse calling to remembrance her transgressions and offences in this pâ—rt towards God her Father and Soveraign Lord the King's Highnesse she hath writtâ—n to the same three suâ—dâ—y Letters containing a declaration of her repentance conceived for the Premises with such an humble and simple submission as she appeareth not onely to submit hâ—r sâ—lfwholly and without exception especially by the last Letter to the Laws but also for her state and condition to put her self onely to his Grace's mercy nothing desiring but mercy and forgivenesse for her offences with a reconciliation to his Grace's favour Albeit his Majesty hath been so ingrately handled and used by her as is aforâ— declared that the like would enforce any private person tâ— abâ—ndon for ever such an unkind and inobedient child from their grace and favour yet such is his Majesties gracious and divine nature such is his clemency and pitty such his mercifull inclination and Princely heart that as he hath been ever ready to take pitty and compâ—ssiâ—n of all offenders repentantly calling and crying for the same So in case he may throughly parceive the same to be in the said Lady Mary's heart which she hath put in pen and writing his Highnesse considering the imbecillity of her sex being the same is frail inconstant and easie to he perswaded by simple counsell can be right well contented to remit unto her part of his said displeasure And therefore hath 〈◊〉 this time for the certain knowledge of her heart and stomack sâ—â—t unto her his said Cousen with others to demand and enquire of her certain Questions Her Answeâ—s whereunto his pleasure is they shall require and note in writing which sâ—all throughly decipher whether she be indeed the person she pretendeth or for any respect hath with generall words laboured to cloak the speciall matter which is repugnant and contrary to that which his Majesty hath gathered and conceived of the same 1. And first after their Accesse and Declaration of the Premises they shall for their first Question demand of her Whether she doth recognise and knowledge the King's Highnesse for her Soveraign Lord and King in the Emperiall Crown of this Realm of England and will and doth submit her self unto his Highnesse and to all and singuâ—ar the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as becommeth every true and faithfull Subject to do 2. Also whether she will with all her power and qualities that God hath endu'd her withall not onâ—ly obey keep and observe all and singular Laws and Statutes of this Realm but also set forth advance and maintain the same to the utmost of her power according to her bounden duty 3. Also whether she will recognise accept take and repute the King's Highnesse to be supream Head in Earth under Christ of the Church of England and utterly refuse the Bishop of Rome's pretended Power and Jurisdiction heretofore usurped in this Realm according to the Laws and Statutes of the same made and ordained in the behalf of all the King 's true Subjects humbly received admitted obeyed kept and observed And also will and do renounce and utterly forsake all manner of Remedy Interesse and Advantage by the said Bishop of Rome's Laws Processe or Jurisdiction to her in any wise appertaining or that hereafter may by any Title Colour or Mean belong grow succeed or appertain or in any case may follow or ensue 4. And whether she will and doth of her Duty and Obedience towards God her Alleigance towards the King's Highnesse and the Laws of this Realm and also of the sincere love and zeal that she beareth towards the Truth freely and franckly recognize and knowledge without any other respect both by Goâ—'s Law and Man's Law the Marriage heretofore had between his Majesty and her Mother to be unlawfull 5. Also Be she enquired or examined For what cause and by whose motion and means she hath continued and remained in her obstinacy so long and who did eâ—bold or animate her thereto with other circumstances thereof appertaining 6. Also What is the cause that she at this present time rather then at any other heretofore doth submit her selfe To these six Articles she was required to give a plain and positive answer Which plainly shews the doubtfulnesse and uncertainty of her present condition in being either forced to confesse her selfe to be illegitimate or running on the last hazzard of the Kings displeasure if she should do otherwise But wisely considering in her selfe whom she had to deal with she thought it safest to strike sale and to submit her selfe to him with whom it was not lawfull for her to dispute that point if she had been able She therefore makes a cleer acknowledgement of the four first Articles by the subscribing of her name but craved leave to demur on the two last because some persons were concern'd in them whom she was not willing to discover And by this means she gain'd so far upon the King that from that time forwards he held her in the same ranck with the rest of his children gave her her turn in the succession of the Kingdome assigned her portion of ten thousand pounds to be paid at her marriage and in the interim three thousand pounds per annum for her personal maintenance And more then this he did not do for his daughter Elizabeth notwithstanding the esteem and affection which he bare to her mother for bringâ—â—g whom into his bed he had cancelled all the bonds of his former marriage Little or nothing more occurreth of her in the time of King Henry because there was little or nothing altered in
brother on the 9th and 10th she removes her Court unto Whitehall and there continâ—es till it was within two or three dayes of her Coronation Which time now drawing neer at hand she passed by water to the Tower on the 27th of September accompanied by her Sister the Princesse Elizabeth and a great train of Noble Ladies made her return through the principal streets of the City on the last of the same month in most â—tately manner and the next day proceeded with the like magnificence to the Abby Church where she was met by three â—â—lver Crosses and eighty singing men all in riâ—h and gorgeoâ—s Coaps so sudden a recruit was made of these sacâ—ed Vestments amongst whom went the new Dean of Westminster Dr. Westoâ— and divers Chaplains of her own each of them â—earing in their hands some Ensign or other After them marched ten Bishops which were as many as remained of her perswasion with their Miâ—ers rich Coaps and Crosier staves The Sermon was preached by Dr â—ay whom she had restored to the See of Chichester and the solemnity of the Coronation celebrated by the new Lord Chancellor Craâ—ner Archbishop of Canterbury being then commited and otherwise conceived unworthy of so great an honour Till this time none more dear to her then her Sister Elizabeth whom she alwayes took with her by the hand wheresoever she went and seldome dined or supped without her But this solemnity being passed over as if she were now freed from all the feaâ—s of a competition she estranged her self from her in such a manner as shewed that she had formerly desited her company for some by-respects and not out of natural affection More gratefâ—l unto other persons who deserved well of her she preferred Henry Ratcliff Earle of Sâ—ssex Commander Generall of her Army to the Society of the Gatter which Honour she conferred on his son Thomas after his decease and to be covered in her Presence at all times and places tending to the custome of the Grandees in the Realm of Spain Which priviledge not being very frequent in the Politâ—ie of the Realm of England I find to be recorded in these following words viz. Mary by the Grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and Ireland in earth the Supream Head o all to whom this present writing shall come sendeth Greeting in our Lord everlasting Know ye that We do give and pardon to Our wel-beloved and trusty Cosen and one of Our Privy Council Henry Earl of Sussex and Viscount Fittzwater Lord Egremond and Burnel Liberty Licence and Pardon to wear his Cap Coyfe or Night-cap or two of them at his pleasure as well in Our presence as in the presence of any other person or persons within this Our Realm or any other place of Our Dominions whatsoever during his life and these Our Letters shall be his sufficient Warrant in this behalf Given under Our Sign Manuall at Our Pallace of Westminster 2. Octob. 1 Regni With the like Royal gratitute she advance the Earl of Arundel who had deserved as well of her in the Council as the Earl of Sussex in the Camp to the Place or Office of Lord Steward investing him with all those powers and priviledges which had been formâ—rly exercised by the Lord Great Master whom he succeeded in Authority though not in Title Sir Edward Hastings who came over to her with 4000 men she first made Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garâ—er and afterwards Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold and Lord Hastings of Louthborough Sir John Williams who had done her very good service in Buckingham and Oxfordâ—hires â—hires she honoured with the Title of Lord Williams of Jaâ—e of which more hereafter Sir Hâ—nry Jerninâ—ham who first appeared in Norfoâ—k for her she preferred to be Captain of her Guard aâ—soon as she came unto the Crown and toward the latter end of her Reign Sir Thomas Threâ—â—â—m was created Lord Prior of the Order of St Johns of Jerusalem and consequently according to the old pretension the first Baron of England And as for her domestique servants who had suffered with her she thought it no unfit decorum that they should in part Reign with her also To which end she preferred Hopâ—on her old Chaplain to the See of Norwich Râ—chester to be Compâ—roller of her Houshold Ingâ—â—field toâ— be Master of the Wards and Wâ—lgrave to be Master of the Wardrobe which is sufficiâ—nt â—o deâ—lâ—re that she was willing to comply with all obligarionâ— and not to bâ— too long in debt to her greatest subjects but much lesse to her mâ—nial servants But in â—â—gard that all these were considered for their perâ—onal merits not in reference only to their zeal for the Catholick Cause she was to shew some act of favour unto those of thaâ— party which might create a confidence in them of her good affections To which end she made choice of Sir John Gage a man most zealously addicted to the Church of Rome to be Lord Chamberlain of â—â—r Houshold when she came first to the Tower to the great satisfaction of all those of that Religion And that she might in some meaâ—ure also obâ—â—ge the rest of her suâ—jects and make the entâ—ance of her Reign the more pleaâ—â—ng to them her Coronation was accompanied with a general pardon at the least in shew Out of which all prisoners in the Tower such as remained in the Fleet together with sixty other being excepted and the reâ—trictions and proviso's with which it was in all parts clogged being well observed there were not many especially of those whom it most concerned that could create unto themselves any benefit by it Thus was the Civil State established on a right foundation and the succession setled most agreeably to the Laws of Nature according to the last Will and Testament of King Heâ—ry the 8th and the Laws made in that behalfe But we shall see the pillars of the Church removed the very foundation of it shaken and the whole â—abrick of Religion so demolished that scarce one stone thereof did seem to stand upon the other without regâ—rd unto the Laws and contrary to the will and purpose of King Edwâ—â—d the 6th At the Queens first entrance into London on the thiâ—d of August she discâ—arged Gardinâ—r of the Tower as she did Bâ—â—ner of the Marshelsey and Bishop Tâ—â—stall from the Kings Bench within two dayes after To make way to whose restitution to their former Sees Bishop Ridley is removed from London Bishop Poiâ—ct from Winchester and an Act of Parliâ—ment pâ—ocâ—red for the restoring of the Church of Durham to all its Lands Preheminences and Juriâ—dictions of which it stood divested by the lâ—te Act of Dissolution made in the last year of the King deceased By the like power was Coverdale displaced from the See of Exon Sâ—ory from that of Chichester and Hooper dispossessed of that Jurisdiction whiâ—h he held as the Commendatory of the See
a deprivation So that for want of Canonical Ordination on the one side and under colour of uncanonical Mariages on the other we shall presently find such a general remove amongst the Bishops and Clergy as is not any where to be parallel'd in so short a time And because some affronts had been lately offered to such Priests as had been forward in setting up the Mass in their several Churches and that no small danger was incurred by Dr Bourn above mentioned for a Sermon preached at St Paul's Cross an Act was passed for the preventing of the like for the time to come Entituled An Act against offenders of Preachers and other Ministers in the Church Which two Acts were no sooner passed but they were seconded by the Queen with two Proclamations on the 5th of December By one of which it was declared That all Statutes made in the time of the late King Edward which concerned Religion were repealed by Parliament and therefore that the Mass should be said as formerly to begin on the 20th of that month And by the other it was commanded that no manner of person from thenceforth should dare to disturb the Priests in saying Mass or executing any other divine Office under the pains and penalties therein contained According unto which appointment the Mass was publickly officiated in all parts of the Kingdome and so continued during the Reign of this Queen without interruption There also past another Act wherein it was Enacted That the mariage between King Henry the 8th and Queen Katherine his first wife should be definitively cleerly and absolutely declared deemed adjudged to be and stand with God's Laws and his most Holy word and to be accepted reputed and taken of good effect and validity to all intents and purposes whatsoever that the Decree or Sentence of Divorce heretofore passed between the said King Henry the 8th and the said Queen by Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury should be deemed taken and reputed to be void and null with a repeal of all such Statutes or Acts of Parliament in which the Queen had been declared to be illegitimate The making of which Act as it did much conduce to the establishment of the Queen's estate so did it tacitly and implicitly acknowlege the supremacy to be in the Pope of Rome which could not be attained explicitly and in terms expresse as affairs then stood For since the mariage neither was nor could be reputed valid but by the dispensation of Pope Julius the 2d the declaration of the goodness and validity of it did consequently infer the Popes authority from which that dispensation issued And therefore it was well observed by the Author of the History of the Council of Trent that it seemed ridiculous in the English Nobility to oppose the restitution of the Popes supremacy when it was propounded to them by the Queen in the following Session considering that the yielding to this demand was virtually contained in their assent to the Mariage There also past another Act in which there was a clause for the invalidating of all such Commissions as had been granted in the time of the late Queen Jane and one in confirmation of the attainders of the late Duke of Northumberland Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury c. Which shews that there was somewhat in the said proceedings not so cleer in Law but that there seem'd necessity of calling in the Legislative power to confirm the same for the indempnity of those who had acted in them Together with this Parliament the Queen was pleased to summon a Convocation to the end that all matters of Religion might be first debated and concluded in a Synodical way before they were offered to the consideration of the other Assembly In the writs of which summons she retained the Title of Supream Head on earth of the Church of England c. the want whereof in those of the present Parliament occasioned a dispute amongst some of the members Whether they might lawfully proceed or not in such publick businesses as were to be propounded to them in that Session Archbishop Cranmer had been before imprisoned in the Tower of London and was detained there all the time of this Convocation so that he could not do that service to God and the Church which his place required This took for a sufficient ground to transfar the Presidentship of the Convocation upon Bonner of London privileged in respect of his See to preside in all such Provincial Synods which were either held during the vacancy of the See of Canterbury or in the necessary absence of the Metropolitan The lower house of the Clergy also was fitted with a Prolocutor of the same affections Dr Hugh Weston then newly substituted Dean of Westminster in the place of Cox being elected to that Office On Wednesday the 18th of October it was signified by the Prolocutor that it was the Queens pleasure that they of the House should debate of matters of Religion and proceed to the making of such constitutions as should be found necessary in that case But there was no equality in number between the parties and reason was of no authority where the major part had formerly resolved upon the points So partially had the elections been returned from the several Diocesses that we find none of King Edward's Clergy amongst the Clerks and such an alteration had been made in the Deans and Dignitaries that we find but six of that ranck neither to have suffrage in it that is to say James Haddon Dean of Exeter Walter Philips Dean of Rochester John Philpot Arch Deacon of Winchester John Elmer Arch Deacon of Stow in the Diocess of Lincoln Richard Cheny Arch Deacon of Hereford One more I find but without any name in the Acts and Mon who joined himself to the other five in the disputation Nor would the Prolocutor admit of more though earnestly desired by Philpot that some of the Divines which had the passing of the Book of Articles in King Edward's time might be associated with them in the defence thereof Which motion he the rather made because one of the points proposed by the Prolocutor related to a Catechism set forth in the said Kings time intituled to the said Convocation in the year 1552. Of which it was to be enquired whether or no it was the work of that Convocation But that matter being passed lightly over the main point in debate concerned the manner of Christs presence in the blessed Sacrament It was not denied by Philpot and the rest of the Protestant party that Christ was present in his Sacrament rightly ministred according to his institution but only that he was not present after the gross and carnal manner which they of the Popish party had before subscribed to Six days the disputation lasted but to little purpose for on the one side it was said by Weston and his associates that their adversaries were sufficiently confuted and all their Arguments fully answered And on the other side it was affirmed
cast his eye on the Lands of Bishoppricks though there were some who thought the time long till they fell upon them Concerning which there goes a story that after the Court-Harpies had devoured the greatest part of the spoyle which came by the suppression of Abbyes they began to seek some other way to satiate that greedy Appetite which the division of the former booty had left unsatisfied and for the satisfying whereof they found not any thing so necessary as the Bishops Lands This to effect Sir Thomas Seimour is imployed as the fittest man as being in favour with the King as brother to Queen Jane his most and best beloved wife and having the opportunity of accesse unto him as being one of the Gentlemen of his Privy Chamber And he not having any good affection to Arch-Bishop Cranmer desired that the experiment should be tryed on him and therefore took his time to informe the King that my Lord of Canterbury did nothing but fell his woods letting long leases for great fines and making havock of the Royalties of his Arch-Bishopprick to raise thereby a fortune to his wife and children withall he did acquaint the King that the Arch-Bishop kept no hospitality in respect of such a large Revenue and that in the opinion of many wise men it was more meet for the Bishops to have a sufficient yearely Stipend out of the Exchequer then to be so encumbred with temporall Royalties being so great a hindrance to their Studies and Pastorall Charge and that the said Lands and Royalists being taken to his Majesties use would afford him besides the said Annuall Stipends a great yearly Revenue The King soon smelt out the Device and shortly after sent him on an Errand to Lambeth about dinner time where he found all the tables in the great Hall to be very bountifully furnished the Arch-Bishop himselfe accompanied at dinner with divers persons of Quality his Table exceeding plentifully served and all things answerable to the Port of so great a Prelate Wherewith the King being made acquainted at his coming back he gave him such a Ratle for his false information and the design which visibly depended on it that neither he nor any other of the Courtiers durst stir any further in the suite whilest King Henry lived But the King considering further of it could not think fit that such a plausible Proposition as taking to himselfe the Lands of the Bishops should be made in vaine Only he was resolved to prey further off and not to fall upon the spoyle two neere the Court for feare of having more partakers in the Booty then might stand with his profit And to this end the deales with Hâ—lgate preferred not long before from Landâ—ff to the See of Yorke from whom he takes at one time no fewer then seventy Mannors and Town-ships of good old Rents given him in exchange to the like yearly value certain Impropriations Pensions Tithes and Portions of Tithes but all of an extended Rent which had accrued unto the Crown by the fall of Abbyes Which Lands he â—aid by Act of Parliament to the Dutchy of Lancaster For which see 37 Hen. 8. Câ—p 16. He dismembred also by these Acts certain Mannors from the See of Loâ—don in favâ—ur of Sir William Petie and others in the like manner from the See of Canterbury but not without some reasonable compensation or allowance for them And though by reason of his death which folâ—owed within short time after there was no further alienation made in his time of the Churches Patrimoney yet having opened such a Gap and discovered this secret that the sacred Patrimony might be alienated with so little trouble the Courtieâ—s of King Edwards time would not be kept from breaking violently into it and making up their own fortune in the spoyle of the Biâ—hopricks Of which we may â—peak more hereafter in it's proper place So impossible a thing it is for the iâ—l example of Great Princes not to finde followers in all ages especially where profit or preferment may be furthered by it But then it cannot be deâ—ied but that King Henry left the Church in many Respects in a better condition then he found it not only in order to the Reformation of Religion which none but such a Masculine Prince durst have undertaken but also in the Polity and endowments of it The Mâ—nâ—steries and Religious Houses might possibly be looked upon no otherwise then as so many excrescences upon the body of the Church exempt for the most part from the Episcopall Jurisdiction wholly depending on the Pope and such as might be taken away without any derogation to the Church in Power or Patrimony But Bishopricks being more essentiall to the constitution of the same he did not only preserve as before he found them but increased their number Such of the old Cathedralls as were founded on a Prior and Covent he changed into a Corporation of secular Priests consisting of a Deane and Prebendarles according to the proportion of their yearely rents of which sort were the Churches of Canterbury Winton Durham Elie Rochester Norwich and Carlile Six of the wealthier Monasteries he turned into Episcopall Sees that is to say the Abbyes of Westminster Peter Borough Bristoll Glocester and Chester with that of Oâ—sney for the See of the Bishop of Oxon assigning to every new Episcopall See its Deane and Chapter and unto every such Cathedrall a competent number of Quiremen and other Officers all of them liberally endowed and provided for And that the Church might be continually furnished with sufficient Seminaries he sounded a Grammer Schoole in every one of his Cathedralls either old or new with Annuall pensions to the Master and some allowance to be made to the children yearely and ordained also that in each of the two Universities there should be publick Readers in the faculties of Divinity Law and Physick and in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues all which he pensioned and endowed with lâ—berall Saâ—aries as the times then were Besides which publique benefactions he confirmed Cardinall Wolsies Colledge in Oxon by the name of Kings Colledge first and of Christ church afterwards and erected that most beautifull piâ—e of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge those being the two faâ—rest and most magnificent foundations in the Christian World As for the Polity of the Church he setled it in such a manner that Arch-bishops and Bishops might be chosen confirmed and consecrated and all the Subjects be relieved in their suits and Grievances without having such Recourse to the Court of Rome as formerly had drained the Realm of so much Treasure For having by his Proclamation of the 19th of September Anno 1530. prohibited all addresses and Appeales to the Popes of Rome he prevailed so farr upon his Bishops and Clergy intangled by the Cardinalls fall in a Premunire that they acknowledged him in their Convocation to be the Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and signified as much in a Publick Instrument bearing date the
22th day of March next following Upon this ground were buâ—lt the Statutes prohibiting all Appeales to Rome and for determining all Ecclesiasticall suites and controversies within the Kingdom 24. Hen. 8. cap. 1â— That for the manner of declaring and consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 20. and the prohibiting the payment of all impositions to the Court of Rome and for obtaining all such dispensations from the see of Canterbury which formerly were procured from the Popes of Rome 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 21. and finally that for declaring the King to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England and to have all Honours and Preheminences and amongst others the first-fruits and tenths of all Ecclesiasticall promotions within the Realm which were annexed unto that Title In the forme of consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rule by which they excercised their Jurisdiction there was no change made but what the transposition of the Supreme Power from the Pope to the King must of necessity infer For whereas the Bishops and Clergy in the Convocation An. 1532. had bound themselves neither to make nor execute any Canons or Constitutions Ecclesiasticall but as they were thereto enabled by the Kings Authority it was by them desired assented to by him and confirmed in Parliament that all such Canons and Constitutions Synodall and Provinciall as were before in use and neither Repugnant to the Word of God the kings Prerogative Royall or the known Lawes of the Land should remaine in force till a review thereof were made by thirty two Persons of the Kings appointment Which review not having been made from that time to this all the said old Canons and Constitutions so restrained and qualified do still remaine in force as before they did For this Consult the Act of Parliament 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 1. And this and all the rest being setled then followed finally the Act for extinguishing the Power of the Pope of Rome 28. Hen. 8 Cap. 10. which before we mentioned In order to a Reformation in points of Doctrine he first directed his Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation Aâ—no 1537. to compile a Book containing The Exposition of the Creed the Lords Prayer the Avemary and the Ten Commandements together with an Explication of the use and nature of the seven Sacraments More cleerely in it self and more agreeable to the Truth of Holy Scripture then in former times which book being called The Institution of a Christian Maâ— was by them presented to the King who liked thereof so well that he sent it by Doctor Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to King James the fifth hoping thereby to induce him to make the like Reformation in the Realm of Scotland as was made in England though therein he was deceived of his expectation But this Book having lien dormant for a certain time that is to say as long as the six Articles were in force was afterwards corrected and explained by the Kings own hand and being by him so corrected was sent to be reviewed by Archâ—Bishop Cranmer by him referred with his own emendations on it to the Bishopâ— and Clergy then Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1543. and by them Approved VVhich care that Godly Prelate took as himselfe confesseth in a Letter to a friend of his bearing date January 25. because the book being to come out by the Kings Censure and Judgement he would have nothing in the same which Momus himselfe could Reprehend VVhich being done it was published shortly after by the name of a Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man with an Epistle of the Kings Prefixt before it in which it was commended to the Perusall of all his subjects that were Religiously disposed Now as the first book was ushered in by an injunction published in Sâ—ptember An. 1536. by which all Curates were required to Teach the people to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Aveâ—ary and the Ten Commandements in the English Tongue â—o was the second countenanced by a Proclamation which made way unto it bearing date May the sixth 1541 whereby it was commanded that the English Bible of the Larger Vollumne should publiquely be placed in every Parish-Church of the Kings Dominions And here we are to understand that the Bible having been Translated into the English Tongue by the great paines of William Tyndall who after suffered for Religion in the Reigne of this King was by the Kings Command supprest and the reading of it interdicted by Proclamation the Bishops and other Learned men advising the reâ—traint thereof as the times then stood But afterward the times being changed and the People better fitted for so great a benefit the Bishops and Clergy Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1536. humbly petitioned to the King that the Bible being faithfully Translated and purged of such Prologues and Marginall Notes as formerly had given offence might be permitted from thenceforth to the use of the people According to which Godly motion his Majesty did not only give Order for a new Translation but in the Interim he permitted Cromwell his Viccar Generall to set out an Injunction for providing the whole Bible both in Latine and English after the Translation then in use which was called commonly by the name of Matthews Bible but was no other then that of Tyndall somewhat altered to be kept in every â—arish Church throughout the Kingdome And so it stood but not with such a Generall observation as the case required till the finishing of the new Translation Printed by Grafton countenanced by a learned Preface of Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Authorised by the Kings Proclamation of the sixth of May as before was said Finally that the people might be better made acquainted with the Prayers of the Church it was appointed a little before the Kings going to Bolloigne Anno 1545. that the Lâ—tany being put into the same forme almost in which now it stands should from thenceforth be said in the English Tongue So farr this King had gone in order to a Reformation that it was no hard matter for his Son or for those rather who had the Managing of Affaires during his Minority to go thorough with it In Reference to the Regall State he added to the Royal Stile these three Glorious Attributes that is to say Defender of the Faith The Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and King of Ireland In what manner he obtained the Title of Supreme Head conferred upon him by the Convocation in the year 1530. and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the 26 yeare of his Reign hath been showne before That of Defender of the Faith was first bestowed upon him by Pope Leo the tenth upon the publishing of a Book against Martin Luther which Book being presented unto the Pope by the hands of Doctor Clark afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells hath been preserved ever since amongst the choisest Rarities of the Vatican Library Certain it is that the Pope was so well pleased
with the present as to receive the same in a Sollemn Assembly of the Cardinalls and Court of Rome expressing the contentment which he took therein by a fluent Oration the Copy whereof we have in Speed Fol. 991. And whereas in former times the French were Honoured with the Title of Most Christian and the Spaniard lately with the Title of The Catholick King This Pope in due acknowledgement of so great a Merit bestowes on Henry the more Glorious Attribute of The Defender of the Faith Which Bull being dated on the tenth of Octob. Anno 1521. is to be found exemplified in The Titles of Honour and thither I referr the Reader for his satisfaction Twenty three yeares the King enjoyed this Title by no other Grant then the Donation of Pope Leo. But then considering with himselfe that it was first Granted by that Pope as a Personall favour and not intended to descend upon his Posterity as also that the Popes by the reason of such differences as were between them might possibly take a time to deprive him of it he resolved to stand no longer on a ground of no greater certainty And therefore having summoned his High Court of Parliament to Assemble on the 29th of March Anno 1544. he procured this Title to be assured unto his Person and to be made perpetuall to his Heires and Successors for all times succeeding For which Consult the Statute 35. Hen. 8. Cap. 3. And by the Act it was ordained that whosoever should malitiously diminish any of his Majesties Royall Titles or seek to deprive him of the same should suffer death as in case of Treason and that from thenceforth the Stile Imperiall should no otherwise be exprest then in this forme following that is to say N. N. by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and on Earth of the Churches of England and Ireland the Supreme Head By vertue of which Act Queen Mary still retained this Title though she disclaimed the other of Supreme Head by Act of Parliament in the first yeare of her Reign as being incompetible with her submission and Relations to the See of Rome As for the Title of King of Ireland it was first given unto this King by a Parliament there holden in the Month of June 1541. under Sir Anthony Saint-Leiger being then Lord Deputy The Acts whereof being transmitted to the King and by him confirmed he caused himselfe to be first Proclaimed King of Ireland on the 23th of January then next following Which though it added somewhat to him in point of Title yet it afforded him no advantage in point of Power but that the name of King was thought to carry more respect and awe with it amongst the Irish then the Title of Lord which only till that time had been assumed by the Kings of England For otherwise the Kings of England from the first Conqâ—est of the Country by King Henry the second enjoyed and exercised all manner of Royalties and Preheminences which do or can belong to the greatest Kings Governing the same by their Vice-Gerâ—nts to whom sometimes they gave the Title of Lord Lieutenants sometimes Lord Deputies of Ireland then whom no Vice-Roy in the VVorld comes nearer to the Pomp and splendor of a Soveraign Prince And though they took no other Title to themselves then Lords of Ireland yet they gave higher Titles to their Subjects there many of which they advanced to the Honour and Degree of Earles And at the same time when King Richard the second contented himselfe with no Higher Stile then Lord of Ireland he exalted his great Favourite Robert d' Vere the tenth Earle of Oxon of that Family first to the Dignity and Stile of Marquesse of Dublin and after to the invidious Appellation of Duke of Ireland which he enjoyed unto his death The Countrey at the same time changed it's Title also being formerly no otherwise called in our Records then Terra Hiberniea or the Land of Ireland but from henceforth to be called upon all occasions in Acts of Parliament Proclamations and Letters Patents by the name of Regnum Hiberniae or the Realm of Ireland At the assuming of which new Title by this King the Scots were somewhat troubled but the Pope much more The Scots had then some footing in the North parts of that Iland and thought the taking of that Title by the Kings of England to tend to the endangering of their possession or at least to bring them under a Subjection of a Foreign Prince And on the other side it was complained of in the Court of Rome as a great and visible encroachment on the Pâ—pall Power to which it only appertained to erect new Kingdomes and that the injury was the greater in the present case because the King holding that Iland by no other Title as it was then and there pretended then by the Donation of Pope Adrian to King Henry the second was not withâ—ut the Popes consent to assume that Title But the King cared as little for the Pope as he did for the Scots knowing how able he was to make good all his Actings against them both and not only for enjoying this Title for the rest of his life but for the leaving of it to his Heires and Successors though afterward Queen Mary accepted a new Grant of it from the Pope then being Having thus setled and confirmed the Regall Style his next care was for setling and preventing all disputes and quarrells which might be raised about the Succession of the Crown if the Prince his son should chance to dye without lawfull issue as he after did In which as he discharged the trust reposed in him so he waved nothing of the Power which he had took unto himself by Act of Parliament made in that behalfe in the 35 year of his Reign as before wasnoted In pursuance whereof finding himself sensibly to decay but having his wits and understanding still about him he framed his last Wil and Testament which he caused to be signed and attested on the 30 of December Anno 1546 being a full Month before his death First published by Mr. Fuller in his Church History of Brittain Lib. 5. Fol. 243 244. And out of him I shall crave leave to transcribe so much thereof as may suffice to show unto posterity the sence he had of his own condition the vile esteem he had of his sinfull body what pious but unprofitable care he took for the Decent Interment of the same in what it was wherein he placed the hopes of Eternall life and finally what course he was pleased to take in the intailing of the Crown after his decease by passing over the line of Scotland and setling the Reversion in the House of Suffolk if his own children should depart without lawfull Issue as in fine they did In which and in some other points not here summed up the Reader may best satisfie himselfe by the words and tenour of the VVill which are
much at once upon the People it was thought sit to smooth the way to the intended Reformation by setting out some Preparatory Injunctions such as the King might publish by his own Authority according to the example of His Royal Father in the year 1536. and at some times after This to be done by sending out Commissioners into all parts of the Kingdom armed with Instructions to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments in the manner of a Visitation directed by the King as Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England Which Commissioners being distributed into several Circuits were accompanied with certain Learned and Godly Preachers appointed to instruct the People and to facilitate the work of the Commissioners in all Towns and Places where they fate And that the People might not cool or fall off again in and from that which had been taught them by the Learned Preachers they were to leave some Homilies to the same effect with the Parish-Priest which the Arch-Bishop had composed not onely for the help of unpreaching Ministers but for the regulating and instructing even of Learned Preachers Which Injunctions being agreed upon by such of the Great Council as favoured the Design of the Reformation and the Commissions drawn in due form of Law by the Counsel learned they were all tendered to the Lord Chancellour Wriothsley that the Authority of the Great Seal might be added to them Which he who was not to be told what these matters aimed at refused to give consent unto and so lost the Seal committed as before is said to the Custody of the Lord Great Master by whom the said Commissions were dispatched and the Visitours thereby Authorised in due form of Law And here it is to be observed that besides the Points contained in the said Injunctions the Preachers above-mentioned were more particularly instructed to perswade the People from Praying to the Saints from making Prayers for the dead from Adoring of Images from the use of Beads Ashes and Processions from Mass Diriges Praying in unknown Languages and from some other such like things whereunto long Custome had brought a Religious Observation All which was done to this intent That the People in all places being prepared by little and little might with more ease and less opposition admit the total Alteration in the face of the Church which was intended in due time to be introduced Now as for the Injuctions above-mentioned although I might exemplifie them as they stand at large in the First Edition of the Acts and Monuments fol. 684. yet I shall choose rather to present them in a smoother Abstract as it is done unto my hand by the Church-Historian the Method of them onely altered in this manner following That all Ecclesiastical Persons observe and cause to be observed the Laws for the abolishing the pretended and usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome and Confirmation of the King's Authority and Supremacy and four times in the year at the least that they teach the People That the one was now justly taken away according to the word of God and that the other was of most Legal Duty onely to be obeyed by all the Subjects That once a Quarter at the least they sincerely declare the Word of God disswading the People from Superstitious Fancies of Pilgrimages Praying to Images c. exhorting them to the Works of Faith Mercy and Charity 3. And that Images abused with Pilgrimages and Offerings thereunto be forthwith taken down and destroyed and that no more Wax-Candles or Tapers be burnt before any Image but onely two lights upon the High Altar before the Sacrament shall remain still to signifie That Christ is the very Light of the World That every Holy-Day when they have no Sermon the Pater-Noster Credo and Ten Commandments shall be plainly recited in the Pulpit to the Parishioners 5. And that Parents and Masters bestow their Children and Servants either to Learning or some honest Occupation That within three Moneths after this Visitation the Bible of the Larger Volume in English and within twelve Moneths Erasmus his Paraphrases on the Gospels be provided and conveniently placed in the Church for the People to read therein 20. And that every Ecclesiastical Person under the Degree of a Batchelour of Divinity shall within three Moneths after this Visitation provide of his own The New Testament in Latine and English with Erasmus his Paraphrases thereon And that Bishops by themselves and their Officers shall Examine them how much they have profited in the study of Holy Scripture That such who in Cases express'd in the Statute are absent from their Benefices leave Learned and expert Curates to supply their places 14. That all such Ecclesiastical Persons not resident upon their Benefices and able to dispend yearly xx pounds and above shall in the presence of the Church-Wardens or some other honest men distribute the fourtieth part of their Revenues amongst the poor of the Parish 15. And that every Ecclesiastical Person shal give competent Exhibition to so many Scholars in one of the Universities as they have hundred pounds a year in Church-Promotions That a fifth part of their Benefices be bestowed on their Mansion-Houses or Chancels till they be fully repaired 8. And that no Ecclesiastical Persons haunt Ale-houses or Taverns or any place of unlawfull Gaming That they Examine such as come to Confession in Lent whether they can recite their Credo Pater-Noster and Ten Commandments in English before they receive the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar or else they ought not to presume to come to God's Board That none be admitted to Preach except sufficiently Licenced 11. That if they have heretofore extolled Pilgrimages Reliques Worshipping of Images c. they now openly recant and reprove the same as a Common Errour groundless in Scripture 12. That they detect and present such who are Lettours of the Word of God in English and Fautours of the Bishop of Rome his pretended Power That no Person from henceforth shal alter any Fasting-day or manner of Common-Prayer or Divine Service otherwise then is specified in these Injuâ—ctions untill otherwise Ordered by the King's Authority 21. And that in time of High Mass he that sayeth or singeth a Psalm shall read the Epistle and Gospel in English and one Chapter in the New Testament at Mattens another at Even-song And that when nine Lessons are to be read in the Church three of them shal be omitted with Responds And at the Even-song the Responds with all the Memories By which last word I understand the Anniversary Commemoration of deceased Persons on the day of their deaths which frequently were expressed by the name Obits That every Dean Arch-Deacon c. being a Priest Preach by himself personally every year at least 27. That they Instruct their People not obstinately to violate the Ceremonies of the Church by the King Commanded to be observed and not as yet abrogated And on the other side that whosoever doth Superstitiously abuse them doth
the same to the great Perill of his Souls health 25. And that no Curate admit to the Communion such who are in Ranchor and Malice with their Neighbours till such controversies be reconciled That to avoid Contentions and strife which heretofore have risen amongst the King's Subjects by challenging of places in Procession no Procession hereafter be used about the Church or Church-yard but immediately before High-Mass the Letany shall be distinctly said or sung in English none departing the Church without just cause and all ringing of Bells save one utterly forborn That they take away and destroy all Shrines Covering of Shrines Tables Candlesticks Trindils and Rolls of Wax Pictures Paintings and other Monuments of feigned Miracles so that no Memory of them remain in Walls or Windows exhotting their Parishioners to do the like in their several houses That the Holy-day at the first beginning Godly-Instituted and ordained be wholly given to God in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publique Prayers in acknowledging their Offences to God and amendment in reconciling themselves to their Neighbours receiving the Communion Visiting the sick c. Onely it shall be lawfull for them in time of Harvest to labour upon Holy and Festival days and save that thing which God hath sent and that scrupulosity to abstain from working upon those days doth grievously offend God That a Register Book be carefully kept in every Parish for Weddings Christenings and Burials 29. That a strong Chest with an hole in the upper part thereof with three keys thereunto belonging be provided to receive the Charity of the People to the Poor and the same at convenient times be distributed unto them in the presence of the Parish And that a comely Palpit be provided in a convenient place That because of the lack of Preachers Curates shall read Homilies which are or shall be set forth by the King's Authority 36. That when any such Sermon or Homily shall be had the Primes and Hours shall be omitted That none bound to pay Tithes detain them by colour of Duty omitted by their Curates and so redoub one wrong with another 33. And whereas many indiscrete persons do incharitably condemn and abuse Priests having small Learning His Majesty chargeth His Subjects That from henceforth they be reverently used for their Office and Ministration sake 31. And that to avoid the detestable sin of Simonie the Seller shall lose his right of Patronage for that time and the Buyer to be deprived and made unable to receive Spiritual Promotion That to prevent sick persons in the damnable vice of Despair They shall learn and have always in readiness such comfortable places and Sentences of Scripture as do set forth the Mercies Benefits and Goodness of God Almighty towards all penitent and believing persons 30. But that Priests be not bound to go visit women in Child-bed except in times of dangerous sickness and not to fetch any Coars except it be brought to the Church yard 34. That all persons not understanding Latine shall pray on no other Primer but what lately was set forth in English by King Henry the Eighth and that such who have knowledge in the Latine use no other also that all Graces before and after Meat be said in English and no Grammar taught in Scholes but that which is set forth by Authority 39. That Chantry-Priests teach Youth to read and write And finally That these Injunctions be read once a Quarter Besides these general Injunctions for the whole Estate of the Realm there were also certain others particularly appointed for the Bishops onely which being delivered unto the Commissioners were likewise by them in their Visitations committed unto the said Bishops with charge to be inviolably observed and kept upon pain of the King's Majesties displeasure the effect whereof is as in manner followeth 1. That they should to the utmost of their power wit and understanding sâ—e and cause all and singular the King's Injunctions heretofore given or after to be given from time to time in and through their Diocess duly faithfully and truly to be kept observed and accomplished And that they should Personally Preach within their Diocess every Quarter of a year once at the least that is to say once in their Cathedral Churches and thrice in other several places of their Diocesses whereas they should see it most convenient and necessary except they had a reasonable excuse to the contrary Likewise that they should not retain into their Service or Houshold any Chaplain but such as were Learned and able to Preach the Word of God and those they should also cause to Exercise the same 2. And Secondly That they should not give Orders to any Person but such as were Learned in Holy Scripture neither should deny them to such as were Learned in the same being of honest conversation or living And Lastly That they should not at any time or place Preach or set forth unto the People any Doctrine contrary or repugnant to the effâ—ct and intent contained or set forth in the King's Highnesse's Homilies neither yet should admit or give Licence to Preach to any within their Diocess but to such as they should know or at least assuredly trust would do the same And if at any time by hearing or by report proved they should perceive the contrary they should then incontinent not only inhibit that Person so offending but also punish him and revoke their Licence There was also a Form of Bidding Prayer prescribed by the Visitours to be used by all Preachers in the Realm eiâ—her before or in their Sermons as to them seemed best Which Form of Bidding Prayer or Bidding of the Beads as it was then commonly called was this that followeth You shall Pray for the whole Congregation of Christ's Church and specially for this Church of England and Ireland wherein first I commend to your devout Prayers the King 's most Excellent Majesty Supreme Head immediately under God of the Spirituality and Temporality of the same Church And for Queen Katharine Dowager and also for my Lady Mary and my Lady Elizabeth the King's Sisters Secondly You shall Pray for my Lord Protectour's Grace with all the rest of the King's Majesty His Council for all the Lords of His Realm and for the Clergy and the Commons of the same beseeching God Almighty to give â—very of them in his degree grace to use themselves in such wise as may be to God's Glory the King's Honour and the VVeal of this Realm Thirdly You shall Pray for all them that be departed out of this VVorld in the Faith of Christ that they with us and we with them at the day of Judgement may rest both body and soul with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Such were the Orders and Injunctions wherewith the King's Commissioners were furnished for their Visitation Most of them such as had been formerly given out by Cromwell or otherwise published and pursued but not
partâ—kers of the Holy Communion Which Exhortation beginning with these Words Dearly-beloved in the Lord â—ye coming to this Holy Communion c. is in effect the last of those which afterwards remained in the Publick Liturgie Then followed the Invitation thus You that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins c. proceeding to the General Confession the Absolution the Comfortable Sentences out of Holy Scripture and so unto the Prayer of Humble Address We do not presume to come to this Table c. the Distribution of the Sacrament to the People present continuing still upon their knees and finally dismissing them In the Peace of God Which Godly Form being presented to the King and the Lords of the Council and by them exceeding well approved was Published on the eighth of March together with his Majestie 's Proclamation Authorising the same and Commanding all His Loving Subjects to conform unto it in this Manner following By the King EDWARD by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and Ireland in Earth the Supreme Head To All and Singular Our Loving Subjects Greeting For so much as in Our High Court of Parliament lately holden at Westminster it was by Vs with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons there Assembled most Godly and agreeable to Christ's Holy Institution Enacted That the most Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ should from henceforth be commonly Delivered and Ministred unto all Persons within Our Realm of England and Ireland and other Our Dominions under both Kinds that is to say of Bread and Wine except necessity otherwise require lest every man fantasying and devising a sundry way by himself in the Vse of this most Blessed Sacrament of Vnity there might thereby arise any unseemly or ungodly Diversity Our pleasure is by the Advice of Our most Dear Vncle the Duke of Sommerset Governour of Our Person and Protectour of Our Realms Dominions and Subjects and other Our Privy Council that the said Blessed Sacrament be Ministred unto Our People â—nely after such Form and Manner as hereafter by Our Authority with the Advice before-mentioned is set out or declared Willing every man with due Reverence and Christian Behaviour to come to this Holy Sacrament and most Blessed Communion lest that by the unworthy receiving of such high Mysteries they become guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord and so eat and drink their own Damnation but rather diligently trying themselves that they so come to this Holy Table of Christ and so be partakers of this Holy Communion that they may dwell in Christ and have Christ dwelling in them And also with such Obedience and Conformity to receive this Our Ordinance and most Godly Direction that we may be incouraged from Time to Time further to travail for the Râ—formation and setting forth of such Godly Orders as may be most to God's Glory the Edifying of Our Subjects and for the Advancement of true Religion which is thething We by the help of God most earnestly endeavoured to bring to effect Willing all Our Loving Subjects in the mean time to stay and quiet themselves with this Our Direction as men content to follow Authority according to the bounden Duty of Subjects and not enterprising to run before and so by their Rashness become the greatest Hinderers of such things as they more arrogantly then Godly would seem by their own Private Authority most hotly to set forward We would not have Our Subjects so much to mistake Our Judgement so much to mistrust Our Zeal as though we either would not discern what were to be done or would not do all things in due time God be praised We know both what by his Word is meet to be redressed and have an earnest mind by the Advice of Our most Dear Vncle and other of Our Privy Council with all diligence and convenient speed so to set forth the same as it may most stand with God's Glory and edifying and quietness of Our People Which We doubt not but all Our Obedient and Loving Subjects will quietly and reverendly tarry for The next Care was to see the said Order put in execution of which the Lords of the Council discharged the King and took the whole Burthen on themselves For causing a sufficient Number of the Printed Copies to be sent to each Bishop in the Realm they there withall directed Letters to them Requiring and in Hiâ— Majestie 's Name Commanding them and every of them to have an earnest Diligence and carefull Respect both in their own Persons and all their Officers and Ministers for causing the said Books to be so delivered to every Parson Vicar and Curate in their several Diocesses that they may have sufficient time well to instruct and advise themselves for the Distribution of the most Holy Communion according to the Order of the said Book before Easter following and that by the good Means of them the said Bishops they may be well directed to use such Good Gentle and Charitable Instructions to their simple and unlearned Parishioners as may be to their good Satisfaction Letting them further know that as the said Order was set forth to the intent there should be in all parts of this Realm and among all men one Vniform manner quietly used so that the Execution thereof did very much stand in the Diligence of them and others of their Vocation who therefore were again required to have a diligent respect unto it as they tendred the King's pleasure and would answer the contrary Which Letter bearing Daâ—e on the thirteenth of March was subscribed by the Arch-Bishop Cranmer the Lord Chancellour Rich the Earl of Arundel the Lords St. John and Russel Mr. Secretary Petre Sir Anthony Wingfield Sir Edward North and Sir Edward â—otton In Obedience unto whose Commands as all the Bishops did not perform their parts alike Gardiner of Winchester Bonner of London Voysie of Exeter and Sampson of Coventry and Lich-field being more backward then the rest so many Parish-Priests not being willing to Advance so good a Work laboured to disaffect the People to the present Government And to that end it was endeavoured in their Sermons to possess their Auditours with an ill opinion of the King as if he did intend to lay strange Exactions on the Subject by forcing them to pay half a Crown a piece for every one who should be Married Christened or Buried For Remedy whereof it was Ordered by Proclamation bearing Date the twenty fourth of April That none should be permitted to Preach but such as were Licenced under the Seals of the Lord Protectour or the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury In the next place we must attend the King's Commissioners dispatched in the beginning of March into every Shire throughout the Realm to take a Survey of all Colleges Free-Chapels Chanteries and Brother-Hoods within the compass of the Statute or Act of Parliament
Execution â—ft-times happily supplyeth former Defects Recâ—llect Your selves then and so make use of Your Authority that the Princess Mary the undoubtedly Lawfully Heir may publickly be Proclaimed Queen of England c. No other way but this as the Case now stands to recover our lost Honours and preserve the State The Earl of Pembroke was a man altogether unlettered but so well skilled in humouring King Henry the Eighth that he had raised Himself to a great Estate for whâ—ch he could not but express some sense of Gratitude in doing good Offices for his Children And having formerly been suspected to have had too great a part in Northumberland's Counsels he conceâ—ved himself obliged to wipe off that Stain by declaring his Zeal and Resolution in the Cause of the Princess And therefore assoon as the Earl of Arundel had concluded his Speech he very chearfully professed that he approved and would subscribe the Proposition and therewithall laying his Hand upon his Sword he signifiâ—d his Readiness and Resolution to defend the Lady Marie's Cause against all Opponents The rest of the Lords encouraged by these good Examples and seeing nothing but apparent Danger on all sides if they did the contrary came to a speedy Conclusion with them and bound themselves to stand together in Defence of the late King's Sisters against all their Enemies Which being thus so generously and unanimously agreed upon a Messenger is presently dispatched to the Lord Mayour requiring him to repair to Baynara'â—-Castle within an hour and to bring with him the Recorder and such of the Aldermen of the City as to him seemed best Who being come accordingly at the time appointed their Lordships told them in few words as well their Resolution as their Reason of it and so desired their Company to Cheap-side-Cross to Proclaim Queen Mary Which said without any further Dispute about the Title they rode all together in good order through Saint Paul's-Church-Yard till they came to the Gate which openeth into the Street where they found such Multitudes and Throngs of People whom the Noise of such a Confluence at Baynard's-Castle and the going down of the Lord Mayour and Aldermen had drawn together that they could hardly force a Way through them to come to the Cross. But being come thither at the last though with much ado Sir Christopher Barker Knight of the Bath and Principal King at Arms Proclaimed by the Sound of Trumpet the Princess Mary Daughter of King Henry the Eighth and Queen Kaharine His Wife to be the Lawfull and Undoubted Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith adding thereto that Sacred Title of Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England which She retained till the beginning of the following Parliament and then rescinded all those Acts by which it had been formerly united to the Crown of this Realm The Proclamation being ended they went together in a Solemn Prâ—cession to Saint Pauâ—'s Church where they caused the Te Deum to be sung with the Rights accustomed and so dismissed the Assembly to their several dwellings Being returned to Baynard's-Castle the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget are presently dispatched to Framlingham with thirty Horse to give the Queen a Narrative of their whole Proceedings Some Companies are also sent to assure the Tower and to Command the Duke of Suffolk to discharge the Family and Attendants of the Lady Jane to signifie unto Her that She must lay aside the Name and Title of Queen and suffer Her Self to be reduced to the Rank of a private Person All which he readily obeyed as easily subject to Despair as before he had been swelled with Ambitious Hopes and the next day adjoyns himself to the rest of the Counâ—il subscribing amongst others to such Instructions as were to be dispatched to the Duke of Northumberland for the disbanding of his Forces and carâ—ying himself like an obedient and dutifull Subject as he ought to do But there was little need of this last Message and none at all of the other Foâ— the noise of these loud Acclamâ—â—ions which were made at the Proclaiming of the new Queen passing from one Street to another came at last to the Tower â—efore the Message had been sent to the Duke of Suffolk where they were heard by the â—ady Jane now no longer Queen with such Tranquility of Mâ—nd and Composedness of Countenance as if she had not been concerned in the Alteration She had before received the offer of the Crown with as even a Temper as if it had been nothing but a â—arland of Flowers and now She lays aside the thought thereof with as much contentedness as She could have thrown away that Garland when the sent was gone The time of her Glories was so short but a nine Days wonder that it seemâ—d nothing but a Dream out of which She was not sorry to be awakened The Tower had been to Her a Prison rather then a Court and interrupted the Delights of Her former Life by so many Terrours that no day passed without some new Alarms to disturb Her Quiet She doth now know the worst that Fortune can do unto Her And having always feared that there stood a Scaffold secretly behind the Throne She was as readily prepared to act her Part upon the one as upon the other If Sorrow and Affliction did at any time invade Her Thoughts it was rather in reference to Her Friends but most of all unto Her Husband who were to be involved in the Calamity of Her Misfortunes then upon any Apprehensions which She had for Her Self And hereunto the bringing in of so many Prisoners one day after another gave no small Encrease brought hither for no other Reason but because they had seemed forward in contributing towards Her Advancement In the middest of which Disconsolations the restoring of the Duke Her Father to his former Liberty gave some Repose unto Her Mind whose Sufferings were more grievous to Her then Her own Imprisonment And then to what a miserable Extremity must his Death have brought Her And though the Attainder and Death of the Duke of Northumberland â—hich followed very shortly after might tell Her in Effect what She was to trust to yet She was willing to distinguish betwixt his Case and Her own betwixt the Principal and the Accessaries in the Late Design In which Respect She gave Her self no improbable Hopeâ— thâ—â— possibly the like Mercies which was shewed to Her Father might possibly be extended unto others and amongst others to Her Husband as innocent as Her self from any open Practice against the Queen And who could tell but that it might descend on Her self at last whom no Ambition of Her own had tempted to the acceptation of that Dangerous Offer which She beheld as the greatest Errour of Her Life and the onely Stain of all â—er Actions But neither the Queen's Fears nor the publick Justice of the Land could so be satisfied It was held Treason to accept of a Kingdom
for out of the Country to give her attendance on the Queen as in former times impatient of a longer absence and fearful of a second Rival if he should any longer conceal his purpose Which having taken some fit time to disclose unto her he found in her a vertue of such strength against all temptations that he resolves upon the sentencing of the divorce which he little doubted to take her to him as the last sole object of his wandring loves A matter not to be concealed from so many espials as Wolsie had about the King Who thereupon slackneth his former pace in the Kings affairs and secretly practiseth with the Pope to recall the Commission whereby he was impowred together with Campegius to determine in it Anne Bollen formerly offended at his two great haste in breaking the compliance betwixt her and Percy is now as much displeased with him for his being too slow in sentencing the Kings Divorse On which as she had built the hopes of her future greatness so she wanted neither will nor opportunity to do him ill offices with the King whom she exasperates against him upon all occasions The King growes every day more open in his cariage towards her takes her along with him in his progress diâ—es with her privately in her chamber and causeth almost all adresses to be made by her in matters of the greatest moment Resolved to break through all impediments which stood betwixt him and the accomplishment of his desires he first sends back Campegius an alien born presently caused Wolsie to be indicted and attainted in a premunire and not long after by the counsel of Thomas Cromwel who formerly had been the Cardinals Solicitor in his Legantine Court involves the whole body of the Clergy in the same crime with him By the perswasions of this man he requires the Clergy to acknowledge him for supreme head on earth of the Church of England to make no new Canons and Constitutions nor to execute any such when made but by his consent And having thus brought his own Clergy under his command he was the less solicitous how his matters went in the Court of Rome to which the Pope recalled his cause which he either quickned or retarded as rather stood with his own interess than the Kings concernments The King being grown more confident in the equity and justice of his cause by the determinations of many of the Universities in France and Italy better assured than formerly of his own Clergy at home and wanting no encouragement from the French King to speed the business advanced the Lady Anne Bollen for by this time her father for her sake was made Earl of Wâ—ltshire to the Title Stile and Dignity of Marchâ—oness of Pâ—mbrook on the first of September 1532. assigning her a pension of a thousand pounds per annum out of the Bishopâ—ick of Durham And now the time of the intended interview betwixt him and the French King drawing on a pace he takes her along with him unto Calais where she entertained both Kings at a curious Mask At what time having some communication about the Kings intended mariage the French encouraged him to proceed assuring him that if the matter should be questioned by the Pope or Emperour against whom this must make him sure to the party of France to assist him with his utmost power what fortune soever should beâ—ide him in it On which assurance from the French the mariage is privately made up on the 14th of November then next following the sacred Rites performed by Dr Rowland Lee whom afterwards he preferred to the See of Lichfield and made Lord President of Wales None present at the Nuptials but Archbishop Cranmer the Duke of Norfolk the Father Mother and Brother of the new Queen and possibly some other of the Confidents of either side whom it concerned to keep it secret at their utmost peril But long it could not be concealed For finding her self to be with child she acquaints the King with it who presently dispatcheth George Lord Rochfort her only brother to the Court of France as well to give the King advertisement of his secret mariage as to desire him not to fail of performing his promises if occasion were and therewithall to crave his counsel and advice how it was to be published since it could not long be kept unknown It is not to be doubted but that the French King was well pleased with the news of a mariage which must needs fasten England to the party of France and that he would be forward enough to perform those promises which seemed so visible to conduce to his own preservation And as for matter of advice it appeared unnecessary because the mariage would discover it self by the Queens being with child which could no longer be concealed And being to be concealed no longer on Easter Eve the twelfth of April she shewed her self openly as Queen all necessary officers and attendants are appointed for her an Order issueth from the Parliament at that time sitting that Katherine should no longer be called Queen but Princesse Dowager Cranmer the new Archbishop repairs to Dunstable erects his Consistory in the Priory there cites Katherine fifteen dayes together to appear before him and in default of her appearance proceedeth judicially to the sentence which he reduceth into writing in due form of Law and caused it to be openly publish'd with the consent of his Colleagues on Friday the 23d of May. And on the Sunday sevennight being then Whitsunday the new Queen was solemnly crowned by the said Archbishop conducted by water from Greenwich to the Tower of London May 29. from thence through the chief streets of the City unto Westminster Hall May 31. and the next day from Westminster Hall to the Abby Church to receive the Crown a solemn tilting before the Court gate on the morrow after All which was done with more magnificence and pomp than ever had been seen before on the like occasion the particulars whereof he that lists to see may find them punctually set down in the Annals of John Stow fol. 563 564 c. And he may find there also the solemnities used at the Christning of the Princess Elizabeth born upon Sunday the 7th day of September and Christned on the Wednesday following with a pomp not much inferiour to the Coronation her Godfather being the Archbishop of Canterbury her Godmothers the old Dutchess of Norfolk and the old Marchioness of Dorset by whom shâ— was named Elizabeth acâ—ording to the name of the Grandmothers on eitheâ— side Not long after Christmass then next following began the Parliament in which the Kings mariage with the Lady Katherine was declared unlawful her daughter the Lady Mâ—ry to be illegitimate the Crown to be entailed on the Kings heirs males to be begotten on the body of the present Queen and for default of such issue on the Princess Elizabeth an oath devised in maintenance of the said succession and not long after
conclusion to his just reward Others there were and doubt less many others also in the House of Commons who had as great zeal as he to the Papal interess but either had more modesty in the conduct of it or preferred their duty and allegiance to their natural Prince before their zeal to the concernments of the Church of Rome In this Parliament there passed an act for recognizing the Queens just Title to the Crown but without any Act for the validity of her mothers mariage on which her Title most depended For which neglect most men condemned the new Lord Keeper on whose judgement she relied especially in point of Law in whom it could not but be looked on as a great incogitancy to be less careful of her own and her mothes honour than the Ministers of the late Queen Mary had been of hers But Bacon was not to be told of an old Law-Maxim That the Crown takes away all defects and stops in blood and that from the time that the Queen did assume the Crown the fountain was cleared and all attainders and corruption of blood discharged Which Maxim how unsafe soever it may seem to others yet since it goes for a known rule amongst our Lawyers could not be questioned at that present And possible it is that he conceived it better for the mariage of the Queens mother to pass unquestioned as a matter justly subject unto no dispute than to build the validity of it on no better ground than an Act of Parliament which might be as easily reversed as it was agreed to There paâ—t an Act also for restoring to the Crown the tenths and first fruits first serled thereon in the time of King Henry the 8th and afterwards given back by Queen Mary as before was said For the better drawing on of which concession it was pretended that the Patrimony of the Crown had been much dilapidated and that it could not be supported with such honour as it ought to be if restitution were not made of such rents and profits as were of late dismembred from it Upon which ground they also passed an act for the dissolution of all such Monasteries Convents and Religious Orders as hâ—d been founded and established by the Queen deceased By vertue of which Act the Queen was repossessed again of all those lands which had been granted by her sister to the Monks of Westminster and Sheene the Knights Hospitalers the Nuns of Sâ—on together with the Mansion Houses re-edified for the Observants at Greenwich and the Black Friers in Smithfield Which last being planted in a house neer the dissolved Priory of Great St Bartholomews had again fitted and prepared the Church belonging thereunto for religious offices but had scarce fitted and prepared it when dissolved again and the Church afterwards made a Parochial Church for the use of the Close and such as lived within the verge and precincts thereof How she disposed of Sion House hath been shewn already and what she did with the rich Abby of Westminster we shall see hereafter In the passing of these Acts there was little trouble in the next there was For when the Act of the Supremacy came to be debated it seemed to be a thing abhorrent even in Nature and Polity that a woman should be declared to be the supream Head on Earth of the Church of England But those of the reformed party meant nothing less than to contend about words and phrases so they might gain the point they aimed at which was the stripping of the Pope of all authority within these Dominions and fixing the supream power over all persons and estates of what ranck soever in the Crown Imperial not by the name of Supream Head which they perceived might be made lyable to some just exceptions but which comes all to one of the Supream Governesse Which when it gave occasion of discourse and descant amongst many of the captious Papists Queen Mary helped her sister unto one good Argument for her justification and the Queen helped her self to another which took off the cavil In the third Session of Parliament in Queen Mary's time there pass'd an Act declaring That the Regal power was in the Queens Majesty as fully as it had been in any of her predecessors In the body whereof it is expressed and declared That the Law of the Realm is and ever hath been and ought to be understood that the Kingly or Regal Office of the Realm and all Dignities Prerogatives Royal Power Preheminences Privileges Authorities and Jurisdictions thereunto annexed united or belonging being invested either in Male or Female are be and ought to be as fully wholly absolutely and intirely deemed adjudged accepted invested and taken in the one or in the other So that whatsoever Statute or Law doth limit or appoint that the King of this Realm may or shall have execute and do any thing as King c. the same the Queen being Supream Governesse possessor and inheritor to â—he Imperial Crown of this Realm may by the same power have and execute to all intents constructions and purposes without doubt ambiguity scruple or question any custome use or any other thing to the con trary notwithstanding By the very tenor of which Act Queen Mary grants unto her sister as much authority in all Church concernments as had been exercised and enjoyed by her Father and Brother according to any Act or Acts of Parliament in their several times Which Acts of Parliament as our learned Lawyers have declared upon these occasions were not to be consider'd as Introductory of a new power which was not in the Crown before but only Declaratory of an old which naturally belonged to all Christian Princes and amongst others to the Kings and Queens of the Realm of England And to this purpose it is pleaded by the Queen in her own behalf Some busie and sedâ—tious persons had dispersed a rumour that by the Act for recognizing of the Queens Supremacy there was something further ascribed unto the Queen her heirs and successors a power of administring Divine Service in the Church which neither by any equity or true sence of the words could from thence be gathered And thereupon she makes this Declaration unto all her subjects That nothing was or could be meant or intended by the said Act than was acknowledged to be due to the most Noble King of famous memory King Henry the 8th her Majesties Father or King Edward the 6th her Majesties Brother And further she declareth That she neither doth not will challenge any other authority by the same than was challenged and lately used by the said two Kings and was of ancient time due unto the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is under God to have the Soverainty and Rule over all persons born within her Realms or Dominions of what estate either Ecclesiastical or Temporal soever they be so as no other forein power shall or ought to have any superiority over them Which explication published in the Queens
rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX Of Both Kinds 32 The Cup of the Lord is not to be denyed to the Lay People For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs Ordinance and Commandment ought to be ministred to all Christian People alike _____ XXX Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Crosse. The Offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for sin but that alone Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said that the Priests did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt were fables and dangerous deceits XXXI Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Crosse. The offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption c. were blasphemous fables and 33 dangerous deceits XXXI A single Life is imposed on none by the Word of God Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the estate of a single life or to abstain from Marriage XXXII Of the Marriage of Priests Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by Gods Law c. Therefore it is lawful also for them 34 as for all other Christian men to marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to godlinesse XXXII Excommunicated Persons are to be avoided That person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an Heathen and Publican untill he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Judge which hath authority thereunto XXXIII Of Excommunicated Persons how they are to be avoided That person which by open Denunciation of the Church c. XXXIII Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one and utterly like for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countries Times and mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren XXXIV Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies c. Every particular or National Church 35 hath Authority to ordain change or aboâ—ish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Man's Authority so that all things be done to edifying XXXIV Of the Homilies The Homilies lately delivered 36 and commended to the Church of England by the Kings Injunctionâ— do contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and fit to be embraced by all men and for that cause they are diligently plainly and distinctly to be read to the People XXXV Of Homilies The second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joyned under this Article doth contain a godly and wholsome Doctrin and necessary for the times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People The names of the Homilies Of the Right use of the Church Of Repairing Churches Against the Peril of Idolatry Of Good Works c. XXXV Of the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England The Book lately delivered to the Church of England by the Authority of the King and Parliament 37 containing the manner and form of publick Prayer and the ministration of the Sacraments in the said Church of England as also the Book published by the same Authority for Ordering Ministers in the Church are both of them very pious as to â—uth of Doctrine in nothing contrary but agreeable to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel which they do very much promote and illustrate And for that cause they are by all faithful Members of the Church of England but chiefly of the Ministers of the Word with all thankfulness and readiness of mind to be received approved and commended to the People of God XXXVI Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers The Book of Consecration of 38 Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of King Edward the sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering Neither hath it any thing that of it self is superstitious and ungodly And therfore whosoever are Consecrated or ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second year of the afore-named King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully Consecrated and Ordered XXXVI Of the Civil Magistrates The King of England is after Christ 39 the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and Ireland The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Civil Magistrate is ordained and approved by God and therefore are to be obeyed not onely for fear of wrath but for conscience sake Câ—vil or temporal Laws may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences It is lawful for Christian men at the commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars XXXVII Of the Civil Magistrates The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Forein Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government 40 by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended We give not to our Princess the Ministry either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that onely Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptutes by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of this Realm may punish Christian men with death
these that follow IN the name of God and of the Glorious and blessed Virgin our Lady St. Mary and of all the Holy Company of Heaven We Henry by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and in Earth immediately under God the Sùpreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland of that name the eighth Calling to our remembrance the great gifts and benefits of Almighty God given unto us in this Transitory life give unto him our most lowly and humble thanks acknowledging our selves insufficient in any part to deserve or recompence the same But feare that we have not worthily received the same and considering further also that we be as all mankinde are mortall and borne in sin believing neverthelesse and hoping that every Christian creature living here in this Transitotory and Wretched World under God dying in stedfast and perfect Faith endeavouring and exercising himselfe to execute in this life time if he have leisure such good deeds and charitable workes as Scripture commandeth and as may be to the Honour and pleasure of God is Ordained by Christ's Passion to be sacred and attain eternall Life of which number we verily trust by his Grace to be one And that every creature the more high that he is in Estate Honour and Authority in this World the more he is bound to love serve and thank God and the more diligently to endeavour himselfe to do good and charitable works to the Laud Honour and Praise of Almighty God and the Profit of his soul We also calling to remembrance the dignity Estate Honour Rule and Governance that Almighty God hath called us to in this World and that neither we nor any other creature mortall knoweth the place time when nor where it shall please Almighty God to call him out of this Transitory World Willing therefore and minding with Gods grace before our passage out of the same to dispose and order our latter Mind Will and Tâ—stament in that sort as we trust it shall be acceptable to Almighty God our only Saviour Jesus Christ and all the Holy Company of Heaven and the due satisfaction of all Godly brethren in Earth Have now being of whole and perfect mind adhering wholly to the right Faith of Christ and his Doctrine repenting also our old and detestable life and being in perfect will and mind by his Grace never to returne to the same and such like And minding by Gods Grace never to vary therefrom as long as any remembrance truth or inward knowledge doth or may remaine within this mortall body most humbly and heartily do commend and bequeath our soul to Almighty God who in person of the Son redeemed the same with his most pretious body and blood in time of his Passion And for our better remembrance thereof hath left here with us in his Church Militant the Consecration and Administration of his most pretious Body and Blood to our no little Consolation and Comfort if we as thankfully accept the same as he lovingly and undeservedly on mans behalfe hath ordained it for our only benefit and not his Also we do instantly require and desire the blessed Virgin Mary his Mother with all the Holy Company of Heaven continually to pray for us whilest we live in this World and in the time of passing out of the same that we may the sooner attain everlasting life after our departure out of this transitory life which we do both hope and claime by Christs Passion And for my body when the soul is departed shall then remaine but as a Cadaver and so returne to the vile matter it was made of were it not for the Crown and Dignity which God hath called us unto and that we would not be counted an infâ—inger of honest Woâ—ldly Policies and Customes when they be not contrary to Gods Lawes we would be content to have it buried in any place accustomed for Christian â—olkes were it never so vile for it is but ashes and to ashes it shall returne Neverthelesse because we would be loath in the Reputation of the people to do injury to the Dignity which we are unworthily called unto we are content and also by these presents Our Last Will and Testament is to will and order that our body be buried and interred in the Quire of our Colledge of Windsor middle way between the stalls and the High Altar and there to be made and set as soon as conveniently may be done after our decease by our Executors at our costs and charges if it be not done by us in our life-time an Honourable Tomb for our bones to rest in which is well onward and almost made therefore already with a faire Grate about it in which we will also that the bones of our true and loving wife Queene Jane be put also And that there be provided ordained and set at the cost and charge of us or of our Executors if it be not done in our life time a convenient Altar Honourably prepared and apparrelled with all manner of things requisite and necessary for dayly Masse there to be said perpetually while the World shall endure Also we Will that the Tombs and Altars of King Henry the sixt and also of King Edward the fourth our great Vncle and Grandfather be made more Princely in the same place where they now be at our charge Which care being taken for his Tomb he gives order that all Divine Offices accustomed for the dead should be duly Celebrated for him that at the removall of his body to Windsor 1000. Marks should be distributed amongst the poore to the end that they might pray for the remission of his sins and the Wealth of his soule that a Revenue of 600 pound per Annum be setled on the Deane and Chapter of Windsor for performance of the uses in the Will expressed and more particularly for the maintainance of thirteen poore Gentlemen to be called the Poore Knights of Windsor at the rate of twelve pence by the day to each of them with a see of 3 l. 6 s. 8 d. yearly to be superadded unto him which should be chosen the Head and Goverâ—our over all the rest And that being done he proceeds to the entailing of the Crown in this manner following And as concerning the Order and disposition of the Imperiall Crown of this Realm of England and Ireland with our Title of France and all Dignities Honours and Preheminences Prerogatives Authorities and Jurisdictions to the same annexed or belonging and for the sâ—re Establishment of the Succession of the same And also for a full and plaine gift Disposition Assignement Declaration Limitation and appointment with what Conditions our Daughters Mary and Elizabeth shall severally have hold and enjoy the said imperiall Crowne and other the like Premises after our Decease and for default of issue and Heires of the severall bodyes of us and of our Son Prince Edward lawfully begotten And also for a full Gift Disposition Assignement Declaration
AFFAIRS OF CHURCH and STATE IN ENGLAND During the Life and Reign OF QUEEN MARY Heb. 11. 35 36 37. 35. Some of them were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection 36. And others had triall of cruell mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment 37. They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented c. Vell. Paterc Lib. 2. Hujus temporis fortunam ne deflere quidem quispiam satis dignè potuit nemo exprimere verbis potest Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum LONDON Printed for H. Twyford T. Dring J. Place and W. Palmer Anno 1660 The Parentage Birth and first Fortunes of the Princesse MARY The Eldest Daughter of K. Henry the Eighth before her comming to the CROWN With a brief Narrative of her Mother's Misfortunes from the first Agitating of the Divorce till the time of her Death and that which followed thereupon MARY the eldest Daughter of King Henry the Eighth and of Katherine his first wife daughter of Ferdinand and Issabella Kings of Spain was born at Greenwich on the 18 th day of February Anno 1516. Her Mother had before been married to Arthur Prince of Wales the elder Brother of King Henry but whether bedded by him or not more than as to some old Formalities of Court on the like occasions was not commonly known But he dying within few months after King Henry the Seventh the father of the deceased Prince was secretly dealt with by the Agents of the said Ferdinand and â—ssabella to proceed unto a second Marriage between Henry Duke of York his now onely son and their daughter Katherine To which King Henry readily condescendeth upon divers reasons partly to be assured of the assistance of the Kings of Spain against all practises of the French and partly that so great a Treasure as the Rents and Profits of the Princesse's Joynture might not be carried out of the Kingdom as needs must be if she should be married to a Prince of another Nation This being agreed on by the Parents of either side Pope Julius the 2 d. is sollicited for a Dispensation to the Grant whereof he willingly yielded knowing how necessary it was to the Peace of Christendom that those Kings should be united in the strictest Leagues of Love and Amity Which comming to the knowledge of the Princesse Katherine who understood her own condition better than her father or mother she caused those words vel forsan coâ—nitam to be inserted into the Bull or Dispensation and this she did for the preventing of all such disputes as might arise about the validity of the Marriage in case the consummation of it should be openly known though afterwards those words were used as the shrewdest Argument for the invalidating of the Marriage when it came in question And some such thing was thought to have prevailed with King Henry the seventh for deferring the advancement of Henry his second son to the Style Title and Dignity of Prince of Wales that he might first be well assued that no child was likely to be born of the former Marriage to whom that Title might more properly and of right belong The Dispensation being thus granted Prince Henry being then eleven years of age or thereabouts is solemnly contracted to the Princesse Katherine who must needs have a very great stock as well of Christian-Prudence as of Virgin-Modesty to wait the growing up of a Husband being then a child and one of whose affection to her when he should come to Man's estate she had no assurance and so it proved in the event For Henry had no sooner finished the fourteenth year of his age when either by the compunction of conscience the perswasion of some that wish'd him well or upon consideration of the disproportion of age which was then between them the Princesse being eight years the elder he resolved upon the breaking and annulling of the said Contract in which his Parents had engaged him To which end making his addresse to Doctor Richard Fox then Bishop of Winchester he openly renounceth the said Contract not by word onely but by the subscription of his name to a Legall Instrument containing the effect of that Renunciation his Resolution never to proceed any further in it and his Reasons for it Which Instrument he published in the presence of John Read a publick Notary the Bishop sitting then at Richmond as in Court or Consistory and witnessed unto by Miles Daâ—benâ—y Lord Chamberlain to King Henry the seventh and father of Henry Earl of Bridgwater Sir Charls Sommerset Banneret created afterwards Earl of Worcester Dr. Nicolas West after Bishop of Elâ— Dr. Thâ—mas Rowthall after Bishop of Durham and Sir Henry Mainiâ— The Instrument it self extant in the History of John Speed may be there consulted And in pursuance of this Act he waived the Consummation of the Marriage from one time to another till the death of his father which happened on the 22 of April An. 1509. he being then within two months of the age of eighteen years But being now come unto the Crown by the death of his father Reason of State prevailed so far beyond that of Conscience that he consented to the consummation of the Marriage which before he had solemnly renounced and did accordingly celebrate those unhappy Nuptialls the cause of so much trouble both to him and others on the second of June and caused her to be Crown'd with him on the 24 th of the same month This Marriage was blest within the year by the birth of a son whom the King caused to be Christned by the name of Henry and five years after with another who lived not long enough to receive his Baptism But Henry the first-born not living to be two months old the King remained childlesse till the birth of this daughter Mary the presumptive Heir of his Dominions committed in her Infancy to the care and charge of the Lady Margaret daughter of George Duke of Clarence and by the King in reference to her discent from the house of the Montacutes advanced unto the Style and Title of Countesse of Sarisbury An 1513. And herein it was thought that the Queen had a particular aim beyond that of the King and that she rather chose to commit her daughter to the care of that Lady than of any other in the Kingdom to the end that some affection growing to her by any of the Countesse's sons her daughter's Title to the Crown might be corroborated by the Interesse of the House of Clarence And so far her design succeeded that the Princesse Mary always carried such a dear affection to Reginald Pâ—le her second son best known by the name of Cardinal Pole in the following times that when she came unto the Crown she would have made choice of him for her husband before any other if the necessity of her affairs and
not to divâ—lge so great a secret for fear the Princesse Dowager on the hearing of it either before or on the day of passing Sentence should make her appearance in the Court For saith he if the noble Lady Katherine should upon the bruit of this matter either in the mouthes of the Inhabitants of the Country or by her Friends or Counsell hearing of this bruite be moved stirred counselled or perswaded to appear before me in the time or afore the time of Sentence I should be thereby greatly staid and let in the Processe and the King's Grace's Councell here present shall be much uncertain what shall be then further done therein For a great bruite and voice of the people in this behalf might perchance move her to do the thing which peradventure she would not if she hear little of it And therefore I pray you to speak as little of this matter as you may and to move the King's Highnesse so to do for consideration above recited But so it hapned to their wish that the Queen persisting constant in her Resolution of standing to the Judgment of no other Court than the Court of Rome vouchsafed not to take any notice of their proceeding in the Cause And thereupon at the day and time before designed she was pronounced to be Contâ—max for defect of Appearance and by the generall consent of all the Learned men then present the Sentence of the Divorce was passed and her Marriage with the King declared void and of none effect Of all these doings as the Divorced Queen would take no notice so by her Officers and Attendants she was served as in her former capacity Which comming to the King's knowledge he sends the Duke of Suffolk and some others in the month of July with certain Instructions given in Writing to perswade her to submit to the Determinations of the King and State to lay aside the Title of Queen to content her self with that of the Princesse Dowager and to remove her from the Bishop of Lincoln's house at Bayden where she then remained to a place called Someâ—sham belonging to the Bishop and Church of Eli. To none of which when she would hearken an Oath is tendred to her Officers and the rest of her Houshold to serve her onely in the capacity of Princesse Dowager and not as formerly in the noâ—ion of a Queen of England Which at the first was generally refused amongst them upon a Resolution which had been made in the Case by Abel and Berker her two Chaplains that is to say That having already took an Oath to serve her as Queen they could not with a good conscience take any other But in the end a fear of losing their said places but more of falling into the King's displeasure so prevailed upon them that the Oath was taken by most of them not suffered from thenceforth to come into the Queen's presence who looked upon them as the betrayers of her Cause or to perform any service about her Person Some Motives to induce her to a better conformity were ordered to be laid before her none like to be more prevalent than that which might concern the Interest of her daughter Mary And therefore it was offered to her consideration That chiefly and above all things she should have regard to the Honourable and her most dear Daughter the Lady Princesse from whom in case the King's Highnesse being thus enforced exagitated and moved by the unkindnesse of the Dowager might also withdraw his Princely estimation goodnesse zeal and affection it would be to her no little regret sorrow and extream calamity But the wise Queen knew well enough that if she stood her Daughter could not do amisse whereas there could be nothing gained by such submissions but the dishonour of the one the Bastardising of the other and the exâ—luding of them both from all possibility of being restored in time to come to their first condition Finding small hopes of any justice to be done her in the Realm of England and not well able to endure so many indignities as had been daily put upon her she makes her complaint unto the Pope whom she found willing to show his teeth though he could not bite For presently hereupon a Bull is issued for accursing both the King and the Realm the Beaâ—er hereof not daring to proclaim the same in England caused it to be set up in some publick places in the Town of Dunkirk one of the Haven Towns of Flanders that so the roaring of it might be heard on this side of the Sea to which it was not safe to bring it But neither the Pope nor the Queen Dowager got any thing by this rash adventure which onely served to exasperate the King against them as also against all which adheared unto them For in the following Parliament which began on the 25 th of January and ended on the 30 th of March an Act was pass'd inhibiting the payment of First-fruits to the Bishop of Rome and for the Electing Consecrating and Confirming of the Archbishops and Bishops in the Realm of England without recourse unto the Pope cap. 20. Another Act for the Attaindure of Elizabeth Barton commonly called the holy Maid of Kâ—nt with many other her adhearents for stickling in the cause of the Princesse Dowager cap. 12. and finally of Establishing the Succession in the Crown Imperiall of this Realm cap. 22. In which last Act the Sentence of the Divorce was confirmed and ratified the Princesse Mary deâ—lared to be illegitimate the Succession of the Crown entailed on the King's Issue by Queen Anne Bollen an Oath prescribed for all the Subjects in maintenance of the said Statute of Succession and taken by the Lords and Commons at the end of that Parliament as generally by all the Subjects of the Kingdom within few months after For the refusall whereof as also for denying the King's Supremacy and some suspition of confederacy with Elizabeth Barton Doctor John Fisher Bishop of Rochester not many days before created Cardinall by Pope Paul the 3 d. was on the 22 of June beheaded publickly on the Tower-hill and his head most disgracefully fixed upon a Pole and set on the top of the Gate on London-Bridge And on the 6 th of July then next following Sir Thomas Moor who had succeeded Wolsie in the place of Lord Chancellor was beheaded for the same cause also But I find him not accused as I do the other for having any hand in the Conspiracy of Elâ—zabeth Barton The Execution of which great persons and of so many others who wish'd well unto her added so much affliction to the desolate and disconsolate Queen that not being able longer to bear the burden of so many miseries she fell into a languishing sicknesse which more and more encreasing on her and finding the near approach of death the onely remedy now left for all her sorrows she dictated this ensuing Letter which she caused to be delivered to the King by one of her
enjoying all those Rights and Privileges which formerly he stood possessed of in this Kingdom For the passing of which Bill into Act the King and Queen vouchsafed their presence as soon as it was fitted and prepared for them not staying till the end of the Session as at other times because the businesse might not suffer such a long delay It was upon the 24 th of November that the Cardinal came first to London and had his Lodgings in or near the Court till Lambeth house could be made ready to receive him Having reposed himself for a day or two the Lords and Commons are required to attend their Majesties at the Court where the Cardinal in a very grave and eloquent speech first gave them thanks for being restored unto his Country in recompence whereof he told them that he was come to restore them to the Country and Court of Heaven from which by their departing from the Church they had been estranged He therefore earnestly exhorts them to acknowledge their errors and cheerfully to receive that benefit which Christ was ready by his Vicar to extend unto them His Speech is said to have been long and artificial but it concluded to this purpose That he had the Keys to open them a way into the Church which they had shut against themselves by making so many Laws to the dishonour and reproach of the See Apostolick on the revoking of which Laws they should â—ind him ready to make use of his Keys in opening the doors of the Church unto them It was concluded hereupon by both Houses of Parliament that a Petition should be made in the name of the Kingdom wherein should be declared how â—orry they were that they had withdrawn their obedience from the Apostolick See and consenting to the Statutes made against it promising to do their best endeavour hereafter that the said Laws and Statutes should be repealed and beseeching the King and Queen to intercede for them with his Holiness that they may be absolved from the Crimes and Censures and be received as penitent children into the bosom of the Church These things being thus resolved upon both Houses are called again to the Court on St. Andrews day where being assembled in the presence of the King and Queen they were asked by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner whether they were pleased that Pardon should be demanded of the Legat and whether they would return to the Unity of the Church and Obedience of the Pope Supream Head thereof To which when some cryed Yea and the rest said nothing their silence was taken for consent and so the Petition was presented to their Majesties in the name of the Parliament Which being publickly read they arose with a purpose to have moved the Cardinal in it who meeting their desires declared his readinesse in giving them that satisfaction which they would have craved And having caused the Authority given him by the Pope to be publickly read he showed how acceptable the repentance of a sâ—nner was in the sight of God and that the very Angels in Heaven rejoyced at the conversion of this Kingdom Which said they all kneeled upon their knees and imploring the mercy of God received absolution for themselves and the rest of the Kingdom which Absolution was pronounced in these following words Our Lord Jesus Christ which with his most precious blood hath redeemed and wash'd uâ— from all our sins and iniquities that he might purchase unto himself a glorious Spouse without spot or wrinckle and whom the Father hath appointed Head over all his Church He by his mercy absolve you And we by Apostolick Authority given unto us by the most holy Lord Pope Julius the 3 d his Vicegerent here on earth do absolve and deliver you and every of you with the whole Realm and the Dominions thereof from all Heresie and Schism and from all and every Judgment Censures and Pains for that cause incurred And also we do restore you again unto the unity of our Mother the holy Church as in our Letters more plainly it shall appear In the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Which words of his being seconded with a loud Amen by such as were present he concluded the days work with a solemn Procession to the Chapel for rendring Prayers and Thanks to Almighty God And because this great work was wrought on St. Andrews day the Cardinal procured a Decree or Canon to be made in the Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy that from thenceforth the Feast of St. Andrew should be kept in the Church of England for a Majus Duplex as the Rituals call it and celebrated with as much solemnity as any other in the year It was thought fit also that the actions of the day should be communicated on the Sunday following being the second of December at St. Paul's Crosse in the hearing of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the rest of the City According to which appointment the Cardinal went from Lambeth by water and landing at St. Paul's Wharf from thence proceeded to the Church with a Cross two Pillars and two Pole-axes of silver born before him Received by the Lord Chancellor with a solemn Procession they â—arried till the King came from Westminster Immediately upon whose comming the Lord Chancellor went into the Pulpit and preached upon on those words of St. Paul Rom. 13. Fratres scientes quia hora est jam nos de somno surgerâ— c. In which Sermon he declared what had been done on the Friday before in the submission which was made to the Pope by the Lords and Commons in the name of themselves and the whole Kingdom and the Absolution granted to them by the Cardinal in the name of the Pope Which done and Praiers being made for the whole Estate of the Catholick Church the company was for that time dismissed And on the Thursday after being the Feast of St. Nicholas day the Bishops and Clergy then assembled in their Convocation presented themselves before the Cardinal at Lamboth and kneeling reverently on their knees they obtained pardon for all their Perjuries Schisms and Heresies From which a formal Absolution was pronounced also that so all sorts of people might partake of the Pope's Benediction and thereby testifie their obedience and submission to him The news whereof being speedily posted over to the Pope he caused not onely many solemn Processions to be made in Rome and most parts of Italy but proclaimed a Jubile to be held on the 24th of December then next comming For the anticipating of which solemnity he alleged this reason That it became him to imitate the father of the Prodigal child and having received his lost son not onely to expresse a domestical joy but to invite all others to partake thereof During this Parliament was held a Convocation also as before was intimated Bonner continuing President of it and Henry Cole Archdeacon of Ely admitted to the office of Prolocutor They knew well how the Cards were
him mounting unto Heaven in a fiery Chariot than once Elisha was on the like translation of the Prophet Elijah I shall say nothing in this place of the death and martyrdom of Dr. Rowland Taylâ—r Rector of Hadâ—ey in the County of Hartford and there also burned Febr. 9. Or of John Cardmaker Chancellor of the Church of Wells who suffered the like death in London on the last of May Or of Laurence Sanders an excellent Preacher martyr'd at Coventry where he had spent the greatest part of his Ministry who suffered in the same month also but three weeks sooner than the other Or of John Bradford a right holy man and a diligent Preacher condemned by Bonner and brought unto the Stake in Sâ—ithfield on the first of July though he had deserved better of that bloody Butcher but that no courtesie can oblige a cruel and ungrateful person in saving the life of Doctor Bourâ— his Chaplain as before was showed Or finally of any of the rest of the noble Army of Martyrs who fought the Lords Battels in those times onely I shall insist on three of the principal Leaders and take a short view of the rest in the general Muster Anne Reg. Mar. 3. A. D. 1555 1556. BEing resolved to wave the writing of a Martyrâ—logy which is done already to my hand in the Acts and Monuments I shall insiâ—t only upon three of most 〈◊〉 ranck that is to say Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and Bishop Ridley men of renown never to be forgotten in the Church of England Of whom there hath so much been said in the course of this History that nothing need be added more than the course of their sufferings Committed to the Tower by several Warrants and at several times they were at once discharged from the Tower of London on the 10th of April Anno 1554. Removed from thence to Windsor and at last to Oxon. where they were to combare for their lives A combat not unlike to that of St Paul at Ephâ—â—us where he is said to fight 〈◊〉 beasts after the manner of men the disputation being managed so tumultuously with shouâ—s and out-cries and so disorderly without rule or modesty as might make it no unproper parallel to St Paâ—â—'s encounter The persons against whom they were to enter the lists were â—ulled out of the ablest men of both Universities commissionated to dispute and authorized to sit as Judges And then what was to be expected by the three Respondents but that their opposâ—tes must have the better of the day who could not be supposed to have so little care of their own reputation as to pass sentence on themselves Out of the University of Oxon were selected Dr Weston Prosocutor of the Convocation then in being Dr Tresham Dr Cole Dr Oylthâ—rp Dr Pie Mr 〈◊〉 and Mr Feckâ—am with whom were joined by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner who had the nomination of them Dr Young Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge Dr Gâ—yn Dr Seaton Dr Watson Dr Sedâ—â—wick and Dr Aikinson of the same University The Questions upon which the Disputants were to try their fortune related to the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist and were these that follow 1. Whether the naâ—ural body and blood of Christ be really in the Sacrament after the words spoken by the Priest or no 2. Whether in the Sacrament after the words of consâ—cration any other substâ—â—ce do remain than the substance of the body and bâ—ood of Christ 3. Whether the Mass be a sacrifice propitiatâ—ry for the sins of the quick and the dead Which having been propounded in the Convocation at Cambridge and there concluded in such manner as had been generally maintained in the Schools of Rome the Vice Chancellor and the rest of the Disputants which came from thence could have no power to determine otherwise in the points when they should come to sit as Judges Nor is it to be thought but that as well the Cambridge as the Oxon Disputants came well prepared studied and versed in those Arguments on which they intended to insist having withall the helps of books and of personal conference together with all other advantages which might flatter them with the hopes of an easie victory But on the other side the three Defendants had but two dayes of prepaâ—ation allotted to them debarred of all access unto one another not suffered to enjoy the use of their own books and papers and kept in such uncomfortable places as were but little different from the common dâ—ngeoâ—s But out they must to try their fortune there being no other choice left them but to fight or yield and which made most to the advantage of the other side they were to try their fortune single each of them destinated to a several day so that they could not contribute to the assistance of one another if their occasions had required it Cranmer begins on the 16th of April Ridley succeeds upon the next and Laâ—imer brings up the arreir on the morrow after each man an army in himself and to encounter with an army as the cause was managed At the first meeting when the questions were to be propounded and disputed op Weston by reason of his place enterâ—ains the Auditory with a short Oration wherein he was to lay before them the cause of their assembling at that place and time But such was his ill luck as to stumble at that very threshold and to conclude against himself in the very first opening of the disputation which he is said to have begun in these following words Convâ—nâ—stâ— hodie â—â—atres profligaâ—uri 〈…〉 Haeresin de veritate corporis Christiâ—n Sacramentâ— c. That is to say Ye are assembled hither brethren this day to confound that detestable Heresie of the veâ—ity of the body of Christ in the Sacrament c. Which gross mistake occasâ—oned no small shame in some but more laughter in many It was observed of him also that during the whole time of the disputation he had alwayes a cup of wine oâ— some other strong liquor standing by him and that having once the pot in his hand when an argument was urged by one of the Disputants which he very well liked of he cried aloud to him urge hoc 〈◊〉 hoc nam hoc â—acit pro nobis Which being applied by some of the spectators to his pot of drink occassoned more sport and â—eâ—iment than his first mistake But let them laugh that win as the Proverb hath it and Weston is resolved to win the race whosoever runs best The tumult and disorder of this dâ—â—putation hath been touched before and may be seen at large with all the Arguments and Answers of either side in the Acts and Moâ— Suffiâ—e it in this place to know that having severally made good their appointed dayes they were all called together on Fâ—iday the 20th of that month Weston then sitting with the â—eâ—t in the nature of Judges by whom they were demanded whether they would subscribe or not which when they had severally
English Chruch in each of their several congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arrow Zurick and Geneva and in the first the Cities of Embden Stralsburge and Franckfort In Franckfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in the greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and factions At their first coming to that place which was on the 27th of June Anno 1554. by the power and favour of John Glauberge one of the Senators of that City they were permitted to have the use of one of their Churches which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion yet so that the French were still to hold their right the English to have the use of it one day and the French another and on the Lords day so to divide the hours between them that the one might be no hinderance unto the other It hath been said also that there was another condition imposed upon them of being conform unto the French in Doctrine and Ceremonies Which condition if it were imposed by the Magistrates not sought by themselves must needs be very agreeable to the temper and complexion of their principal Leaders who being for the most part of the Zuinglian-Gospellers at their going hence became the great promoters of the Puritan faction at their comming home The names of Whittingham Williams Goodman Wood and Sutton who appeared in the head of this congregation declare sufficiently of what Principles and strain they were how willing they would be to lay aside the face of an English Church and frame themselves to any Liturgie but their own On July the 14th they first obtained a grant of their Church and on the 29th took possession of it The interval they spent in altering and disfiguring the English Lyturgie of which they left nothing but the reading of the Psalms and Chapters Those comfortable interlocutories between the Minister and the People were no longer used as savouring in their opinion of some disorder in the course of the ministration the Letany and the Surplice they cast aside as having too much in them of the Church of Rome the Confession they had altered so as they conceived most agreeable to their present condition and for the Hymns which intervened between the Chapters and the Creed they changed them for such Psalms in the English Meerer as had been made by Sternhold and Hopkins in the time of King Edward The Psalm being done the Preacher goes into the Pulpit in which the Minister prayed for the assistance of God's Spirit and so proceeded to the Sermon Which done an other Prayer was made for all orders and estates of men but more particularly for the welfare of the Church of England composed in imitation of the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth but ending as that did not with the Pater-noster After which most extreamly out of order followed the rehearsal of the Articles of the Christian Faith another Psalm and finally the dismission of the people with The Peace of God This was the form devised for that Congregation for the imposing whereof on all the rest of the English Churches they did then use their best endeavours and for obtruding which on the whole Church of England they raised such tumults and commotions in the following times Growing in love with this fair Babe of their own begetting they write their Letters of the second of August to such of the English as remained at Stralsburge and Zurick inviting them to repair to Franckfort and unite themselves unto that Church which had been there erected with the leave of the Magistrate But they had heard in both places of those Alterations which had been made at Franckfort in the form of Gods publick Service and thereupon refused to accept of the invitation though it seemed to promise them some advantages by the commodious situation of that City in respect of England the great resort of strangers thither at the yearly Marts plenty of Books and other helps in the way of study which were not to be found in the other two Cities From Stralsburge modestly from Zurick resolutely but from both it was plainly signified that they resolved to maintain the Order of the Church of England The like Letter had been writ to the English at Embden of which Congregation Doctor Scory the late Bishop of Chichester was the Super-intendent and we may readily believe that they received the like repulse from his Church at Embden as they had from Gryndal Sandys and Haddon or who had the constituting of the Church of Stralsburge or from Horn Chambers Parkhurst and other of the Students which remained at Zurick The noise of this new Church at Franckfort occasioned Knox who after proved the great incendiary of the Realm and Church of Scotland to leave his Sanctuary in Geneva in hope to make a better market for himself in that Congregation He had not long before published a seditious Pamphlet entituled The first blast of the Trumpet in which he bitterly inveighed against the Government of Women aiming there especially at the three Queen Maries that is to say Mary Queen of England Mary Queen of Scots and Mary of Lorrain Queen Regent of Scotland By which seditious Pamphlet he had made not onely his own Country too hot for him but could assure himself of no safety in France or England To Geneva therefore he retires and from thence removes to Franckfort as the â—itter Scene for his intendments hoping to get as great a name in this new Plantation as Calvin had gotten in the old It was about the end of September that he came to Franckfort where he took the charge of that Church upon him Whittingham and the rest submitting unto his Apostleship This gave a new dis-satisfaction to the English at Stralsburge and Zurick who knew the spirit of the man and feared the dangerous consequents and effects thereof Nor was the condition of affairs much bettered by the coming of Whitehead who afterwards refused the Archbishoprick of Canterbury though far the more moderate of the two New Letters are reciprocated between Franckfort and Zurick from Franckfort on the 15th of November in open defiance as it were to the English Liturgy from Zurick on the 28th in defence thereof and of their constancy and resolution for adhering to it The breach growing every day more wide than other Gryndal and Chambers came from Stralsburge to attone the difference by whom it was proposed unto them That the substance of the English Liturgy being retained there might be a forbearance of some ceremonies and offices in it But Knox and Whittingham were as much bent against the substance of the Book as against any of the circumstantials and extrinsicals which belonged unto it So that no good effect following on this interposition the Agents of the Church of Stralsburge return back to their brethren who by their Letters of the 13th of December expostulate in
also the Calvinian Doctrines to the discredit of the state of the Church of England in King Edwards time the great grief of the Martyrs and other godly men in the reign of Queen Marâ— and to the raising of most unquenchable combustions in all parts of the Church under Queen Elizabeth It was not long after the setling of the Liturgie before Whitehead left the Ministry of the English Congregation which Cox obtained for Mr. Horn whom he knew to be a man both of courage constancy And that being done he left the Congregation and so withdraws himself to â—ralsburge there to enjoy the company of Peter Martyr with whom he was intimately acquainted while he lived in Christ-Church By his departure a new gap is opened to another dissention Some words had passed at a supper intended rather for increase of charity than the breach of friendship betwixt Horn and Ashâ—ey Horn the chief Pastor of the flock and Ashâ—ey a Gentleman of good note in the Lay part of it Some three dayes after being the 16th of January Ashleyâ—is is cited to appear at the house of one of the Elders to answer for some words which he had spoken in contempt of the Ministry But from the Elders he appeals to the Congregation amongst whom he prevails so fat that they send a message by two of their company to the Pastor and Elders requiring them to proceed no further in the cause Horn being backed by Chambers the publick Treasurer excepts against this message as decreed at a private Conventicle not by the general suffrages of the Congregation and thereupon resolves to stand to that Authority which formerly had been conferred on him and the rest of the Elders by the Rules of their Discipline Ashley and his adhâ—rents on the other side declare their former private meeting not to be a â—onventicle protest against the Pastor and Elders as an adverse party and therefore not in a capacity to sit as Judges in the present case and set themselves upon the making of a Book of Discipline for the curbing the exorbitant power for such they thought it of the Pastor and Elders The Pastor and Elders thereupon forsake their Offices and on the 5th of February being the next day of publick meeting take place amongst the rest as private persons The Congregation full but the Pulpit empty which put the rest upon a humour of electing others to take the publick charge upon them The noise of these disorders awakes the Magistrates who command Horn and Chambers to forbear the congregation until further Order and afterwards restoring them to their former authority by publick Edict were contradicted in it by Ashley's party who having got some power into their hands were resolved to keep it In the mean time a Book of Discipline had been drawn and tendered to the Congregation on the â—4th of February According to the Rules whereof the supreme power in all Ecclesi astical causes was put into the hands of the Congregations and the disposing of the publick monies committed to the trust of certain Officers by the name of Deacons This makes the breach wider than before Horn and his party labouring to retain the old the other to establish the new Discipline of their own devising The Magistrates not able to agree the difference dispatch their Letters unto Sâ—ralsburge of the 3d. of April desiring Dr Cox and Dr. Sandys together with Robert Bertie Esq to undertake the closing of the present rupture To their arbitrement each party is content to submit the controversie but differ in conclusion in the terms of their Reference Much talk and no small scandal groweth upon these divisions not made the less by the Pen-combats between Horn and Whitehead In the end a form of reconciliation is drawn up by some of the English who more endeavoured the peace of the Church than the interess of either party But those who stood for the new Discipline being grown the stronger refused to submit themselves to any establishment by which the power of the diffusive body of the Congregation might be called in question Whereupon Horn and Chambâ—rs depart to Stralshurge from whence Chambers writ his Letters to them of the 20th of June and after of the 30th of July but to no effect They had before proceeded to the election of some new Ministers March the 22d Against which though Horn and his opposed yet they concluded it for the present on the 29th and now they mean to stand unto the conclusion let Horn and Chambers go or tarry as best pleased themselves Such were the troubles and disorders in the hurch of Franckfort occasioned first by a dislike of the publick Liturgy before which they preferred the nakedness and simplicity of the French and Genevian Churches and afterwards continued by the opposition made by the general body of the Congregation against such as were appointed to be Pastors and Rulers over them Hence the beginning of the Puritan faction against the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church that of the Presbyterians against the Bishops of Episcopal Government and finally that also of the Independents against the superintendency of the Pastors and Elders The terrible effects whereof will appear hereafter if God shall give me means and opportunity to carry on the History of those disturbances which have been raised by the Pâ—ritans or Presbyterians against the Orders of this Church and the peace of Christendome But sorrows seldome go alone the abberrations from the Government and Form and Worship established in the Church of England drew on and alteration also in point of Doctrine Such of the English as had retired into Geneva imploy themselves in setting out a new Translation of the Bible in the English Tongue which afterwards they published with certain marginal Notes upon it most of them profitable for the understanding of the Text but so that some were heâ—eâ—odox in point of Doctrine some dangerous and seditious in reference to the Civil Magistrate and some as scandalous in respect of Episcopal Government From this time the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination began to be dispersed in English Pamphlets as the only necessary Orthodox and saving truth Knox publisheth a book Against an adversary of God's predestination wherein it is declared That whatsoever the Ethnicks and ignorant did attribute to Fortune by Christians is to be â—ssigned to God's heavenly providence that we 〈◊〉 to judge nothing to come of Fortune but that all cometh by the determinate counsel of God and finally that it would be displeasing unto God if we should esteem any thing to proceed from any other and that we do not only behold him as the principal cause of all things but also the author appointing all things to the one or the other by his only counsel After comes out a Book first written in French and afterwards by some of them translated into English which they called A brief Declaration of the Table of predestination in which it is put down
of the Court that for the better attaining of the Queens good grace they furnished the same at their own costs with new beds bedding and other necessary furniture in a very ample manner In which condition it continueth to this very day the Mastership of the Hospital being looked on as a good preferment for any well deserving man about the Court but for the most part given to some of their Majesties Chaplains for the encouragement of learning and the reward of their service How far the Queens example seconded by the Ladies about the Court countenanced by the King and earnestly insisted on by the Pope then being might have prevailed on the Nobility and Gentry for doing the like either in restoring their Church Lands or assigning some part of them to the like Foundations it is hard to say most probable it is that if the Queen had lived some few years longer either for love to her or for fear of gaining the Kings displeasure who was now grown too great to be disputed with if the point were questioned or otherwise out of an unwillingnesse to incur the Popes curse and the Churches censures there might have been very much done that way though not all at once For so it was that Philip having past over to Calais in the month of September Anno 1555. And the next day departing to the Emperors Court which was then at Brussels where he found his father in a resolution of resigning to him all his Dominions and Estates except the Empire or the bare title rather of it which was to be surrendred to his brother Ferdinand not that he had not a design to settle the Imperial Dignity on his Successors in the Realm of Spain for the better attaining of the Universal Monarchy which he was said to have aspired to over all the West but that he had been crossed in it by Maxiâ—ilian the eldest son of his brother Ferdinand who succeeded to his father in it and left the same hereditary in a manner to the Princes of the House of Austria of the German Rate For Charls grown weary of the world broken with warrs and desirous to apply himself to â—ivine meditations resolved to discharge himself of all civil employments and spend the remainder of his life in the Monastery of St. Justus situate among the Mountains of Extremadura a Province of the Realm of Castile In pursuance whereof having called before him the principal of the Nobility and great men of his several Kingdoms and Estates he made a Resignation of all his hereditary Dominions to King Philip his son on the 25th of October Anno 1555. having then scarce attained to the 55 year of his life to the great admiration of all the world After which act he found himself so abandoned by all his followers that sitting up laâ—e at night in conference with Seldiuâ— his brothers Embassador he had not a servant within call to light the Gentleman down stairs Which being observed by the Emperor he took the candle into his hands and would needs in his own person perform that offiâ—e and having brought him to the top of the stairs he said unto him Remember Seldius that thou hast known the Emperour Charls whom thou hast seen in the heâ—d of so many Armies reduced to such a low estate as to perform the office of an ordinary servant to his Brothers Minister Such was the greatness to which Philip had attained at the present time when the Queen was most intent on these new foundations As for the Pope he had published a Bull in print at the same time also in which he threatned Excommunication to all manner of persons without exception as kept any Church Lands unto themselves as also to all Princes Noblemen and Magistrates as did not forthwith put the same in execution Which though it did not much edifie at the present in the Realm of England yet it found more obedience and conformity in that of Ireland in which a Parliament being called toward the end of this year that is to say in the month of June Anno 1557. there past a Statute for repealing all Acts Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick since the 20th year of King Henry the 8th and for abolishing of several Eccelesiastical possessions conveyed to the Laity as also for the extinguishment of First-fruits and Twentieth parts no more than the yearly payment of the twentieth part having been laid by Act of Parliament on the Irish Clergy in the first and last clause whereof as they followed the example of the Realm of England so possibly they might have given a dangerous example to it in the other point if by the Queens death following shortly after as well K. Philip as the Pope had not lost all their power influence on the English Nation by means whereof there was no farther progresse in the restitution of the Abbey-Lands no more re-edifying of the old Religious Houses and no intention for the founding of any new Such as most cordially were affected to the interest of the Pope of Rome and otherwise were very perfect at their Ave Maria might love their Pater nâ—ster well but their Penny better Thus have we seen how zealously the Queen proceeded in her way towards the re-establishing of the Papal greatness Let us next look on the proceedings of the Cardinal Legat not as a Legat a latere from the Pope of Rome but as Legatus natus a Metropolitan or Archbishop of the Church of England As Cardinal-Legat he had been never forward in the shedding of blood declaring many ways his aversnesse from that severity which he saw divers of the English Bishops but especially the Butcher of London were so bent upon And when he came to act as Metropolitan he was very sparing in that kind as far as his own person was concerned therein though not to be excused from suffering the under Officers of his Diocess to be too prodigal of the blood of their Christian brethren He had been formerly suspected for a favourer of the Lutheran Doctrins when he lived at Rome and acted for the Pope as one of his Legats in the Council of â—rent Gardiner and Bonner and the rest of the sons of Thunder who called for nothing less than fire though not from heaven were willing to give out that he brought the same affections into England also and therefore somewhat must be done to keep up his authority and reputation both at home and abroad To which end he inserteth some particulars amongst the printed Articles of his Visitation to witnesse for him to the world that he had as great a care for suppressing the growth of Heresie as any Prelate in the Kingdom who would be thought more zealous because more tyrannical of which sort are the 14 15 and 17th Articles which concerned the Clergy that is to say Whether any of them do teach or preach erronious doctrine contrary to the Catholick faith and the Unity of the
Church and whether any of them do say the divine Service or dâ— minister the Sacraments in the English tongue contrary to the usual order of the Church Of which sort also were the first of those touching the Laity viz. Whether any manner of persons of what estate degree or condition soever they be do hold maintain and affirm any Heresies Errors and erronious Opinions contrary to the Laws Ecclesiastical and the unity of the Catholick Church Which general Article was after branched into such particulars as concerned the Carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament the reverent esteem thereof the despising of any of the Sacramentals and the decrying of Auricular Confession by the word or practice And somewhat also of this sort was the 17th Article by which it was enquired Whether any of the Priests or Clergy that having been married under the preâ—ence of Lawful Matrimony and since reconciled do privily resort to their pretended wives or that the said women do privily resort to them Nothing material or considerable in all the rest but what hath been in use and practice by all the Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Judges in the Church of England since the first and best times of Queen Elizabeâ—h all of them seeming to have took their pattern from this reverend Prelate 's and to have precedented themselves by the Articles of his Visitation In two points onely he appeared to be somewhat singular and therefore found no followers in the times succeeding the first whereof was The Registring of the names of the Godfathers and Godmothers as well as of the child Baptized which why it should be laid aside I can see no reason the Rubrick of the Church allowing none to perform that office before they have received the holy Communion The second was an Enquiry whether the Parsons Vicars and Curats were diligent in teaching the Midwifes how to Christen children in time of necessity according to the Canons of the Church which seemed sufficiently necessary to be put in practice as long as Baptism was permitted to Midwives or any other persons not in holy Orders But though he seemed more favouâ—able than any of the rest of the Bishops towards those which were living he was content to exercise the utmost of his power upon those that were dead nor was he without hope that by the punishment and disgrace of those which were not sensible of eiâ—her he might be thought to manifest his greatest zeal towards the maintenance of the Doctrins of the Church of Rome as if he had inflicted the like censures on them when they were alive This prompts him to a Visitation of the University of Cambridge partly to rectifie the Statutes of it which in many points were thought to stand in need of a Reformation but principally to exercise some more than ordinary rigour on the dead bodies of Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius Of these the first having been the publick Reader in Divinity in the time of King Edward was solemnly interred in the Church of St. Maries the other having been Hebrew-Reader at the same time also was buried in the Church of St. Michael In order to this Visitation he Delegates one Ormanete an Italian honored with the title of the Popes Daâ—ary Doctor Cuthbert Scot then newly consecrated Bishop of Chester Doctor Watson Mr. of St. John's College and Lord Elect of Lincoln and Doctor Christopherson Master of Trinity Colledge and Dean of Norwich Lord Elect of Chichester and Doctor Henry Cole Provost of Eaton College and Dean of St. Pauls With these were joyned as Commissioners Doctor Andrew Pern Master of Peterhouse and Vice-chancellor some Doctors of Divinity Sir James Dâ—er then the Recorder of the Town and certain others in the name of the King and Queen It must be some great business doubtlesse that must require so many hands and exercise the wits of so many persons Bishops Deans Doctors in Divinity Canonists common Lawyers Knights and Gentlemen But what the business was and how little it required such preparations we are next to see The Cardinals Commissioners came to Cambridge on the 9th of January where they found the rest ready to receive them and the next day they interdicted the two Churches above mentioned for daring to entertain the dead bodies of such desperate Hereticks I pretermit the eloquent speech made by Stoaks the University-Orator the Answer thereunto by Sâ—ot then Bishop of Chester the Latine Sermon preached by Peacock against Sects and Hereticks together with the Solemn Mass with which this weighty businesse was to take beginning Which preparations being past over a Petition is presented to the Cardinals Delegates in the name of the Vice-chancellor and Heads of the University for taking up the bodies of the said Martin Bucer and Panlus Faglus to the end that some legal proceedings might be had against them to the terrour of others in regard of those many dangerous and heretical Doctrines by them formerly taught The Petition being granted and the dead bodies condemned to be taken out of their graves a publick Citation is set up at St. Mary's Church the Market-place and the common Schools requiring the said Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius or any other in their names or in their behalf to appear before the Lords Commissioners on Monday the 18th of that Month to answer to such Articles as then and there should be objected against them But the dead bones not being able to come unless they were carried and no body daring to appear as their Proctor or Advocate they might have been taken pro confessis but that the Court was willing to proceed by Witnesses and to that end they took the Depositions of several persons touching the Doctrine taught by the said two Hereticks and then upon mature deliberation they condemned them of Heresie ordered them to be taken out of their graves degraded from all holy Orders and delivered to the secular Magistrate Of all this an account is given to the Cardinal-Legat who is desired to take some course that the ordinary Writ de comburendo Haereticâ— for the burning of Hereticks might be taken out and sent unto the Mayor of Cambridge without which nothing could be done in order to the execution of the rest of the Sentence The Writ accordingly comes down and Saturday the sixth day of February is appointed for the burning of the two dead bodies which being taken out of their graves and laid in their coffins on mens shoulders are carried to the marketâ— place with a guard of men well armeâ— and weaponed for fear of making an escape chained unto several posts as if still alive the wood and fire put to them and their bodies burned together with as many of their Books as could be gotten which were cast into the same flames also And because one University should not mock the other the like cruelty was also exercised upon the dead body of Martyr's wiâ—e at Oxford a godly grave and sober matron while she lived and to the
concurred not with them in the monstrous Doctrine of Ubiquity and their device of Consubstantiation Insomuch that Peter Martyr telleth us of a friend of his in the Dukedom of Saxony that he was generally hated by the rest of Country-men for being hospitable to some few of the English Nation who had been forced to abandon their native soil And it is further signified by b Ph. Melancthon with no small dislike in an Epistle of this year that many of those rigid Lutheâ—ans could find no other name but the Devils Martyrs for such as suffered death in England in defence of Religion so that they seemed to act the part of Diotrephes in St John not only prating against us with malicious words and refusing to receive the brethren in the day of their trouble but forbidding and condemning them that would But John Alasco and his company had been lately there where they spoke so reprochfully of Luther the Augustan Confession the Rites and Ceremonies of their Churches as rendred them uncapable of any better entertainment than they found amongst them And by the behaviour of these men coming then from England the rigid Lutherans passed their judgement on the Church it self and consequently on all those who suffered in defence thereof For stopping the course of which uncharitable censures it was thought fit by some of the Divines in Embden that Archbishop Cranmers book about the Sacrament should be translated into Latin and forthwith published in Print which was done accordingly Some of the Lutherans had given out on the former ground that the English had deservedly suffered the greatest hardships both at home and abroad because they writ and spake less reverently of the blessed Sacrament and it was hoped that by the publishing of this book they would find the contrary The like course taken also at Geneva by the English exiles by publishing in the Latin tongue a discourse writ by Bishop Ridley on the self same Argument to the end it might appear unto all the world how much their brethren had been wronged in these odious calumnies An. Reg. Mar. 6º An. Dom. 1558 1559. BUt in the middest of all these sorrowes I see some hope of comfort coming by the death of Queen Mary whose Reign polluted with the blood of so many Martyrs unfortunate by the frequent insurrections and made inglorious by the loss of the Town of Calais was only commendable in the brevity or shortnesse of it For now to bring it to an end a dangerous and contagious Feaver began to rage in most parts of the land insomuch that if the whole Realm had been divided into four parts three parts of the four would have been found infected with it so furiously it raged in the month of August that no former plague or pestilence was thought to have destroyed a greater number so that divers places were left void of Justices and men of worth to govern the Kingdom At which time died also so many Priests that a great number of Parish Churches in divers places were unserved and no â—urats could be gotten for mony Much corn was also lost in the field for want of labourers and workmen to get it in both which together seemed to threaten not onely a spiritual but a temporal famine though God so ordered it that by the death of so many of the present Clergy a door was opened for the preaching of sounder Doctrine with far less envy and displeasure from all sorts of people than it had been otherwise Nor were the heats of the disease abated by the coldness of the winter or the malignity of it mitigated by medicinal courses It took away the Physicians as well as the Patients two of the Queens Doctors dying of it not long before her and spared not more the Prelate than it did the Priest insomuch that within less than the space of a twelvemonth almost the one half of the English Bishops had made void their Sees which with the death of so many of the Priests in several places did much facilitate the way to that Reformation which soon after followed This terrible disease together with the said effects which followed on it and the Queens death which came along with it though not caused by it may seem to have been prognosticated or foretold by a dreadful tempest of thunder hapning on the 11th of July near the Town of Nottingham which Tempest as it came through two Towns beat down all the Houses and Churches the Bells were cast to the outside of the Church-yard and some sheets of Lead four hundred foot into the field wriâ—hen like a pair of gloves The River of Trent running between which two Towns the water with the mud in the bottom was carried a quarter of a mile and cast against the trees the trees plucked up by the roots and from thence cast twelve-score paces also a child was was taken forth of a mans hand and by the fury of it carried an hundred foot two spears length from the ground and so fell down broke its arm and dyed Five or six men thereabouts were slain and neither flesh nor skin perished at what time also there fell some Hailstones that were fifteen inches about c. But neither that terrible disease nor this terrible tempest nor any other publick signe of God's displeasure abated any thing of the fury of the Persecution till he was pleased to put an end unto it by the death of the Queen It was upon the tenth day of November that no fewer than five at once were burned at Canterbury The Cardinal and the Queen both lying on the bed of sickness and both dying within seven days after It had been prayed or prophesied by those five Martyrs when they were at the stake that they might be the last who should suffer death in that manner or on that occasion and by Gods mercy so it proved they being the last which suffered death under the severity of this persecution Which Persecution and the carriage of the Papists in it is thus described by Bishop Jewel You have saith he imprisoned your brethren you have stript them naked you have scourged them with rods you have burnt their hands and arms with flaming torches you have famished them you have drowned them you have summoned them being dead to appear before you out of their graves you have ripped up their buried carcases burnt them and thrown them out upon the Duâ—ghil you took a poor Babe falling from its mothers womb and in most cruel and barbarous manner threw it inâ—o the fire By all which several ways and means the Martyrs in all parts of the Kingdom amounted to the number of two hundred seventy seven persons of all sorts and sexes But more particularly there are said to have perished in these flames five Bishops twenty one Divines eight Gentlemen eighty four Artificers one hundred Husbandmen Servants and Labourers twenty six Wives twenty Widows nine Virgins two Boys and two Infants the one springing
been necessary in point of State that so great a Princess should not die without some of her Bishops going before and some comming after Her funeral solemnized at Westminster with a Mass of Reqâ—iem in the wonted form on the 13th of December then next following and her body interred on the North side of the Chapel of King Henry the seventh her beloved Grandfather I shall not trouble my self with giving any other character of this Queen than what may be gathered from her story much less in descanting on that which is made by others who have heaped upon her many gracious praise-worthy qualities of which whether she were Mistress or not I dispute not now She was indeed a great Benefactresse to the Clergy in releasing them of their Tenths and First-fruits but she lost nothing by the bargain the Clergy paid her back again in their Bills of Subsidies which growing into an annual payment for seven years together and every Subsidy amounting to a double Tenth conduced as visibly to the constant fillâ—ng of the Exchequer as the payment of the Tenths and First-fruits had done before That which went clearly out of her purse without retribution was the re-edifying and endowment of some few Religious Houses mentioned in their proper place she also built the publick Schools in the University of Oxon for which commemorated in the list of their Benefactors which being decayed in tract of time and of no beautiful structure when they were at the best were taken down about the year 1612. in place whereof but on a larger extent of ground was raised that goodly and magnificent Fabrick which we now behold And though she had no followers in her first foundations yet by the last she gave encouragement to two worthy Gentlement to add two new Colleges in Oxon to the former number Sir â—homas Pope one of the Visitors of Abeys and other Religious Houses in the time of King Henry had got into his hands a small College in Oxon long before founded by the Bishop and Prior of Durham to serve for a Nursery of Novices to that greater Monastery with some of the Lands thereunto belonging and some others of his own he erected it into a new Foundation consisting of a President twelve Fellows and as many Scholars and called it by the name of Trinity College A College sufficiently famous for the education of the learned and renowned Selden who needs no other Tâ—tles of honor than what may be gathered from his Books and the giving of eight thousand Volumes of all sorts to the Oxford Library Greater as to the number of Fellows and Scholars was the Foundation of Sir Thomas White Lord Mayor of London in the year 1553. being the first year of the Queen who in the place where formerly stood an old House or Hostel commonly called Barnards Inne erected a new College by the name of St. John Baptists College consisting of a President fifty Fellows and Scholars besides some Officers and Servants which belonged to the Chapel the vacant places to be filled for the most part out of the Merchant Taylors School in London of which Company he had been free before his Mayoralty A College founded as it seems in a lucky hour affording to the Church in less than the space of eighty years no fewer than two Archbishops and four Bishops that is to say Doctor William Laud the most renowned Archbishop of Canterbury of whom more else-where Doctor Tobiâ— Matthews the most reverend Archbishop of York Doctor William Juxon Bishop of London and Lord Treasurer Doctor John Bucheridge Bishop of Elie Doctor Rowâ—and Serchfield Bishop of Bristol Doctor Boyl Bishop of Cork in the Realm of Ireland Had it not been for these Foundations there had been nothing in this Reign to have made it memorable but onely the calamities and misfortunes of it ECCLESIA RESTAVRATA OR THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND CONTAINING The Beginning Progress and Successes of it the Counsels by which it was conducted the Rules of Piety and Prudence upon which it was Founded the several Steps by which it was promoted or retarded in the Change of Times FROM The first Preparations to it by King HENRY the Eight untill the Legal Settling and Establishment of it under Queen ELIZABETH TOGETHER With the Intermixture of such Civil Actions and Affairs of State as either were Co-incident with it or related to it BY PETER HEYLYN LONDON Printed for H. Twyford T. Dring J. Place W. Palmer to be sold in Vine-Court Middle-Temple the George in Fleet-street Furnival 's Inne-Gate in Holborn and the Palm-Tree in Fleet-street MDCLXI To the Most Sacred MAJESTY OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND Most Gracious Sovereign IT was an usual Saying of King JAMES Your Majestie 's most Learned Grand-Father of Blessed Memory that Of all the Churches in the World He knew not any which came nearer to the Primitive Pattern for Doctrine Government and Worship then the Reformed Church of England A Saying which He built not upon Fancy and Affection onely but on such Just and Solid Reasons as might sufficiently endear it to all Knowing Men. The Truth and Certainty whereof will be made apparent by the following History which here in all Humility is offered to Your Majestie 's View It is Dread Sir an History of the Reformation of the Church of ENGLAND with all the Various Fortunes and Successes of it from the first Agitations in Religion under HENRY the Eight which served for a Preamble thereunto until the Legal Settling and Establishment of it by the great Queen ELIZABETH of Happy Memory A Piece not to be Dedicated to any other then Your Sacred Majesty who being rais'd by God to be a Nursing-Father to this part of His Church may possibly discharge that Duty with the Greater Tenderness when You shall finde upon what Rules of Piety and Christian Prudence the Work was carryed on by the first Reformers Which being once found it will be no hard matter to determine of such Means and Counsels whereby the Church may be restored to her Peace and Purity from which She is most miserably fallen by our late Distractions It cannot be denyed but that some Tares grew up almost immediatly with the Wheat it self and seem'd so specious to the Eye in the Blade or Stalk that they were taken by some Credulous and Confiding Men for the better Grain But still they were no more then Tares distinguished easily in the Fruits the Fruits of Errour and False Doctrine of Faction Schism Disorder and perhaps Sedition from the LORD' 's good Seed And being of an aâ—ter sowing a Supersemination as the Vulgar reads it and sown on purpose by a Cunning and Industrious Enemy to raise an Harvest to himself they neither can pretend to the same Antiquity and much less to the Purity of that Sacred Seed with which the Field was sown at first by the Heavenly Husband-man I leave the Application of this Parable to the following History and shall
conclude with this Address to Almighty God That as He hath restored Your Majesty to the Throne of Your Father and done it in so strange a manner as makes it seem a Miracle in the Eyes of Christendom so He would settle You in the same on so sure a Bottom that no Design of Mischievous and Unquiet Men may disturb Your Peace or detract any thing from those Felicities which You have acquired So prayeth Dread Sovereign Your Majestie 's most obedient Servant and most Loyal Subject PETER HEYLYN To the Reader READER I Here present thee with a Piece of as great variety as can be easily comprehended in so narrow a compass the History of an Affair of such Weight and Consequence as had a powerful Influence on the rest of Christendome It is an History of the Reformation of the Church of England from the first Agitations in Religion under HENRY the Eight untill the final settling and establishing of it in Doctrine Government and Worship under the Fortunate and most Glorious Reign of Queen ELIZABETH Nor hast thou here a bare Relation onely of such Passages as those Times afforded but a discovery of those Counsels by which the Action was conducted the Rules of Piety and Prudence upon which it was carryed the several steps by which it was promoted or retarded in the Change of Times together with the Intercurrence of such civil Concernments both at home and abroad as either were co-incident with it or related to it So that We may affirm of this present History as Florus doth of his Compendium of the Roman Stories Ut non tam populi unius quam totius generis humani that is to say That it contains not onely the Affairs of one State or Nation but in a manner of the greatest part of all Civil Governments The Work first hinted by a Prince of an undanted Spirit the Master of as great a Courage as the World had any and to say truth the Work required it He durst not else have grapled with that mighty Adversary who claiming to be Successour to St. Peter in the See of Rome and Vicar-General to Christ over all the Church had gained unto himself an absolute Sovereignty over all Christian Kings and Princes in the Western Empire But this King being violently hurried with the transport of some private Affections and finding that the Pope appeared the greatest Obstacle to his desires he first divested him by degrees of that Supremacy which had been challenged and enjoyed by his Predecessours for some Ages past and finally extinguished His Authority in the Realm of England without noise or trouble to the great admiration and astonishment of the rest of the Christian World This opened the first way to the Reformation and gave encouragement to those who enclined unto it To which the King afforded no small Countenance out of Politick Ends by suffering them to have the Bible in the Englishâ—ongue â—ongue and to enjoy the benefit of such Godly Tractates as openly discovered the Corruptions of the Church of Rome But for his own part he adhered to his old Religion severely persecuted those who dissented from it and dyed though Excommunicated in that Faith and Doctrine which he had sucked in as it were with his Mother's Milk and of the wâ—ich he shewâ—d himself so stout a Champion against Martin Luther in his first Quarrels with the Pope Next comes a Minor on the Stage just mild and gracious whose Name was made a Property to serve turns withall and his Authority abused as commonly it happeneth on the like occâ—sions to his own undoing In his first year the Reformation was resolved on but on different ends endeavoured by some Godly Bâ—shops and other Learned and Religious Men of the lower Clergy out of Judgment Conscience who managed the Affair according to the Word of God the Practice of the Primitive Times the general current and consent of the old Catholick Doctours but not without an Eye to such Foreign Churches as seemed to have most consonancy to the antient Forms Promoted with like Zeal and Industry but not with like Integrity and Christian Candour by some great men about the Court who under colour of removing such Corruptions as remained in the Church had cast their â—yes upon the spoil of Shrines and Images though still preserved in the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches and the improving of their own Fortunes by the â—hantery-Lands All which most sacrilegiously they divided amongst themselves without admitting the poor King to his share therein though nothing but the filling of his Coffers by the spoil of the one and the encrease of his Revenue by the fall of the other was openly pretended in the Conduct of it But separating this â—bliquity from the main Intendment the Work was vigorously carryed on by the King and his Councellours as appears clearly by the Doctrinals in the Book of Homilies and by the Practical part of Christian Pâ—ety in the first Publick Liturgie confirmed by Act of Parliament in the second and third year of this King and in that Act and which is more by Fox himself affirmed to have been done by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost And here the business might have rested if Catvin's Pragmatical Spirit had not interposed He first began to quarrel at some passages in this Sacred Liturgâ—e and afterwards never left solliciting the Lord Protectour and practising by his Agents on the Court the Countrey and the Universities till he had laid the first Foundation of the Zuinglian Faction who laboured nothing more then Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline To which they were encouraged by nothing more then some improvident Indulgence granted unto John A-Lasco Who bringing with him a mixt multitude of Poles and Germans obtained the Privilege of a Church for himself and his distinct in Government and Forms of Worship from the Church of England This gave a powerful animation to the Zuinglian Gospellers as they are called by Bishop Hooper and some other Writers to practise first upon the Church who being countenanced if not headed by the Earl of Warwick who then began to undermine the Lord Protectour first quarrelled the Episcopal Habit and afterwards inveighed against Caps and Surplices against Gowns and Tippets but fell at last upon the Altars which were left standing in all Churches by the Rules of the Liturgie The touching on this String made excellent Musick to most of the Grandees of the Court who had before cast many an envious Eye on those costly Hangings thâ—t Massie Plate and other rich and preâ—ious Utensils which adorned those Altars And What need all this waste said Judas when one poor Chalice onely and perhaps not that might have served the turn Besides there was no small spoil to be made of Copes in which the Priest officiated at the Holy Sacrament some of them being made of Cloth of Tyssue of Cloth of Gold and Silver or embroidered Velvet the meanest being made of Silk or Sattin with
some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomly converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets for their Tables Coverlids to their Beds or Cushions to â—heir Chairs or Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Counciâ—-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places Followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seising on the Premises to the use of the King But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a Booty and the Commissioners to put a Cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the â—oâ—ds and Gentry of the Countrey who thought the Altar-Cloths together with the Copes and â—late of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others â—his Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgâ— reviewed by certain Godly Prelates reduced almost into the same Form in which now it stands and confirmed by Parliament in the 5th and 6th years of this King but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which Conjuncture of Affairs dyed King Edward the Sixth From the beginning of whose Reign the Church accounts the â—poche of a Reformation All that was done in oâ—der to it under Henrâ— the Eight seemed to be accidental onely and by the by rather designed on private Ends then out of any setled purpose to â—eform the Church and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the Work was carried on wiâ—h a constant Hand the Prelates of the Church co-operating with the King and his Council and each contriving with the other for the Honour of it Scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edwaâ—d dyed whose Death I cannot reckon for an Infelicity to the Church of England For being ill-principled in himself and easily inclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to Him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently empoverished muâ—t have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute of Lands and Ornaments as when she came into the World in Her Natural Nakedness Nor was it like to happen otherwise in the following Reign if it had lasted longer then a Nine Day 's Wonder For Dudley of Northumberland who then ruled the Roast and had before dissolved and in hope devoured the Wealthy Bishâ—prick of Durham might easily have possessed himself of the greatest part of the Revenues of York and Carlisle By means whereof He would have made himself more absolute on the North-side of the Trent then the poor Titular Queen a most virtuous Lady could have been suffered to continue on the South side of it To carry on whose Interess and maintain Her Title the poor remainder of the Church's Patrimony was in all probability to have been shared amongst those of that Party to make them sure unto the side But the Wisdom of this great Achitophel being turned to foolishness He fell into the Hands of the Publick Hang-man and thereby saved himself the labour of becoming his own Executioner Now MARY comes to Act Her Part and She drives on furiously Her Personal Interess had strongly byassed Her to the Church of Rome On which depended the Validity of Her Mother's Marriage and consequently Her own Legitimation and Succession to the Crown of this Realm And it was no hard matter for Her in a time unsettled to Repeal all the Acts of Her Brother's Reign and after to restore the Pope unto that Supremacy of which Her Father had deprived Him A Reign Calamitous and unfortunate to Her Self and Her Subjects Unfortunate to Her Self in the loss of Calais Calamitous to Her Subjects by many Insurrections and Executions but more by the effusion of the Bloud of so many Martyâ—s For though she gave a Check to the Rapacity of the former Times yet the Professours of the Reformation paid dearly for it whose Bloud she caused to be poured forth like Water in most parts of the Kingdom but no where more abundantly then in Bonner's Slaughter-House Which being within the view of the Court and under Her own Nose as the Saying is must needs entitle Her to a great part of those Horrid Cruelties which almost every day were acted by that bloudy Butcher The Schism at Frankâ—oâ—t took beginning in the same time also occasioned by some Zealots of the Zuinglian Faction who needs must lay aside the use of the Publick Liturgie retained by all the rest of the English Exiles the better to make way for such Forms of Worship as seemed more consonant to Calvin's Platform and the Rules of Geneva Which woful Schism so wretchedly begun in a Foreign Nation they laboured to promote by all sinister Practises in the Church of England when they returned from Exile in the following Reign The miserable Effects whereof we feel too sensibly and smartly to this very day But the great Business of this Reign related to the restitution of the Abbey-Lands end eavoured earnestly by the Queen and no less strenuously opposed by the then present Owners who had all the reason in the World to maintain that Right which by the known Laws of the Land had been vested in them For when the Monasteries and Religious Houses had been dissolved by several Acts of Parliament in the time of King Henry the Lands belonging to those Houses were by those Acts conferr'd upon the King and His Successours Kings and Queens of England Most of which Lands were either exchanged for others with the Lords and Gentry or sold for valuable Consideration to the rest of the Subjects All which Exchanges Grants and Sales were passed and Confirmed by the King's Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England in due Form of Law Which gave unto the Patentees as good a Title as the Law could make them This was well known unto the Pope and He knew well upon what ticklish Terms He stood with the Lords and â—ommons then Assembled in Parliament whom iâ— He did not gratifie with some Signal Favour He could not hope to be restored by them to His former Power for being deprived of His Supâ—emacy by Act of Parliament in the Time of King HENRY He could not be restored unto it but by Act of Parliamâ—nt in the time of Queen MARY and no such Ast could be obtained or compassed for Him without a Confirmation of Church-â—ands to the present Owners To which Necessity Pope Julius being forced to submit Himself He issueth a Decree accompanied with some Reasons which might seem to induce Him to it for confirming all such Lands on the present Occupants of which they stood possessed justo Titulo by a Lawful Title And this was onely reckoned by him for a Lawful Title First that they were possessed of the said Lands juxta Leges hujus Regni pro
tempore existentes according to the Laws of the Land which were thâ—n in force whether by Purchase or by Gift or in the way of Exchange which are the words of the Decree And secondly If the said Lands were warranted and confirmed unto them by Letters Patents from the two last Kings qui per literas Patentes easdem Terras Warâ—antizâ—runt as is declared in the Second of the following Reasons For which Consult the Book Entituled No Sacrilege nor Sin to purchase Cathedrâ—l-Lands c. page 52. Where still observe that nothing made a Lawful Title in the Pope's Opinion but the King's Letters Patents grounded on the Laws of the Land as is expressed more clearly in the former Passages But this can no way serve the Turn of some present Purchasers though much insisted on by one of that number to justifie his defacing of an Episcopal Palace and his pretensions to the Wealthy Borough which depended on it For certainly there must needs be a vast disproportion between such Contracts as were founded upon Acts of Parliament Legally passed by the King's Authority with the Consent and Approbation of the Three Estates and those which have no other Ground but the bare Votes and Orders of both Houses onely and perhaps not that And by this Logick he may as well justifie the late horrid Murther committed on the most incomparable Majesty of King CHARLES the First as stand upon the making good of such Grants and Sates as were Contracted for with some of those very Men who Voted to the setting up of the High Court of Justice as most ridiculously they were pleased to call it When I shall see him do the one I must bethink my self of some further Arguments to refute the other And so Queen MARY makes Her Exit and leaves the Stage to Queen ELIZABETH Her younger Sister A Princess which had long been trained up in the Schole of Experience and knew the Temper of the People whom She was to Govern who having generally embraced the Reformed Religion in the Time of Her Brother most passionately desired the Enjoyment of it under Her Protection And She accordingly resolved to satisfie the Piety of their Desire as soon as She had Power and Opportunity to go thorough with it In Prosecution of which Work She raised Her whole Fabrick on the same Foundation which had been lay'd by the Reformers in the Reign of King EDWARD that is to say the Word of God the Practise of the Primitive Times the General Current of the Fathers and the Example of such Churches as seemed to retain most in them of the Antient Forms But then She added thereunto such an equal mixture both of Strengâ—h and Beauty as gave great Lustre to the Church and drew along with it many rare Felicities on the Civil State both Extraordinary in themselves and of long Continuance as the most Excellent King IAMES hath right-well observed So that We may affirm of the Reformation of the Church of England as the Historian doth of the Power and Greatness of the Realm of Macedon that is to say that The same Arts by which the first Foundations of it were laid by PHILIP were practised in the Consummation and Accomplishment of it by the Care of ALEXANDER For in the first Year of Her Reign the Liturgie being first Reviewed and qualified in some Particulars was confirmed by PARLIAMENT in Her first Year the Articles of Religion were agreed upon the Convocation and in the Eight the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops and Bishops received as strong a Confirmation as the Laws could give it And for this last We are beholden unto BONNER the late Bishop of LONDON who being called upon to take the OATH of Supremacie by HORN of Winton refused to take the OATH upon this Account because HORNs Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land Which he insisted on because the Ordinal Established in the Reign of King EDWARD by which both HORN and all the rest of Queen ELIZABETH's Bishops received Consecrationâ— had been discharged by Queen MARY and not restored by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign Which being first declared by PARLIAMENT in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus omissus or rather that the Ordinal was looked upon as a part of the Liturgie which had been solemnly confirmed in the first of this Queen's Reign they next Enacted and Ordained That all such Bishops as were Consecrated by that Ordinal in the Times precedent or should be Consecrated by it in the time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Ordained and Consecrated to all Intents and Purposes in the Law whatever Which added as much Strength to the Episcopal Government as the Authority of Man and an Act of Parliament could possibly Conferr upon it This made the Queen more constant to Her former Principles of keeping up the Church in its Power and Purity without subjecting it to any but Her Self alone She looked upon Her Self as the Sole Fountain of both Jurisdictions which She resolved to keep in their proper Chanels neither permitting them to mingle Waters upon any occasion nor suffering either of them to invade and destroy the other And to this Rule She was so constant that when one Morrice being then Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster had offered a Bill ready drawn to the House of Commons in the Thirty Fifth of Her Reign for the Retrenching of the Ecclesiastical Courts in much Narrower Bounds She first commanded Coke then Speaker and afterwards successively Chief Justice of either Bench not to admit of any such Seditious Bills for the time to come And that being done She caused the person of the said Attorney to be seized upon deprived him of his Place in the Dutchy-Court disabled him from Practising as a Common-Lawyer and finally shut him up in Tutbury-Castle where he continued till his Death By which Severity and keeping the like Constant Hand in the Course of Her Government She held so great a Curb on the Puritan Faction that neither Her Parliaments nor Her Courts of Justice were from thenceforth much troubled with them in the rest of Her Reign This is the Sum and Method of the following History in the Particulars whereof thou wilt finde more to satisfie thy Curiosity and inform thy Judgment then can be possibly drawn up in this General View As for my Self and my performance in this Work in the first place I am to tell thee that towards the raising of this Fabrick I have not borrowed my Materials onely out of Vulgar Authors but searched into the Registers of the Convocation consulted all such Acts of Parliament as concerned my Purpose advised with many Foreign Writers of great Name and Credit exemplified some Records and Charters of no common Quality many rare Pieces in the famous Cottonian Library and not a few Debates and Orders of the Council-â—able which I have lai'd together in as good a Form and beautified it with a
him they sent him Prisoner to the Fleet where he remained from the twenty fifth of September till the seventh of January the King's Commissioners proceeding in the mean time without any disturbance With less aversness but with success not much unlike was the business entertained by Dr. Edmond Bonner then Bishop of London whom the Commissioners found far more tractable then could have been expected from a man of so rough a Nature and one so cordially affected to the Church of Rome The Commissioners Authorised for this Imployment were Sir Anthony Cook and Sir John Godsal Knights John Godsal Christopher Nevinson Doctours of the Laws and John Madew Doctour in Divinity who sitting in St. Paul's Church on the first day of September called before them the said Bishop Bonner John Royston the renowned Polydore Virgil and many other of the Dignitaries of the said Cathedral to whom the Sermon being done and their Commission openly read they ministred the Oath of the King's Supremacy according to the Statute of the thirty first of King Henry the Eighth requiring them withall to present such things as stood in need to be Reformed Which done they delivered to him a Copy of the said Injunctions together with the Homilies set forth by the King's Authority received by him with Protestation that he would observe them if they were not contrary to the Law of God and the Statutes and Ordinances of the Church Which Protestation he desired might be enrolled amongst the Acts of the Court But afterwards considering better with himself as well of his own Danger as of the Scandal and ill Consequents which might thence arise he addressed himself unto the King revoking his said Protestation and humbly submitting himself to His Majestie 's Pleasure in this manner following Whereas I Edmond Bishop of London at such time as I received the King's Majestie 's Injunctions and Homilies of my most Dread and Sovereign Lord at the Hands of His Highness Visitours did unadvisedly make such Protestation as now upon better consideration of my Duty of Obedience and of the evil Example that might ensue unto others thereof appeareth to me neither Reasonable nor such as might well stand with the Duty of a most humble Subject for so much as the same Protestation at my Request was then by the Register of the Visitation Enacted and put in Record I have thought it my Duty not onely to declare before your Lordships that I do now upon better consideration of my Duty renounce and revoke my said Protestation but also most humbly beseech your Lordships that this my Revocation of the same may be in like wise put in the same Records for a perpetual Memory of the Truth most humbly beseeching your Good Lordships both to take order that it may take effect and also that my former unadvised doings may be by your good Mediations pardoned of the King's Majesty Edmond London This humble carriage of the Bishop so wrought upon the King and the Lords of the Council that the edg of their displeasure was taken off though for a terrour unto others and for the preservation of their own Authority he was by them committed Prisoner to the Fleet. During the short time of whose Restraint that is to say on the Eighteenth day of the same Moneth of September the Letany was sung in the English Tongue in Saint Paul's Church between the Quire and the High Altar the Singers kneeling half on the one side and half on the other And the same day the Epistle and Gospel was also read at the High Mass in the English Tongue And about two Moneths after that is to say on the seventeenth day of November next following Bishop Bonner being then restored to his former Liberty the Image of Christ best known in those Times by the name of the Rood together with the Images of Mary and John and all other Images in that Church as also in all the other Churches of London were taken down as was commanded by the said Injunctions Concerning which we are to note That though the Parliament was then sitting whereof more anon yet the Commissioners proceeded onely by the King's Authority without relating any thing to that High Court in this weighty Business And in the speeding of this Work as Bishop Bonner together with the Dean and Chapter did perform their parts in the Cathedral of Saint Paul so Bellassere Arch-Deacon of Colchester and Doctour Gilbert Bourn being at that time Arch-Deacon both of London and Essex but afterwards preferred by Queen Mary to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells were no less Diligent and Officious in doing the like in all the Churches of their Respective Jurisdictions according to the Charge imposed upon them by his Majestie 's Visitours In the mean time whilst matters were thus calmly Acted on the Stage of England all things went no less fortunately forward with the Lord Protectour in his War with Scotland in which he carried himself with no less Courage and Success when it came to blows then he had done with Christian Prudence before he put himself on the Expedition For having taken Order for his Forces to be drawn together he thought it most expedient to his Affairs to gain the start in point of Reputation with his very Enemies by not ingaging in a War untill they had refused all Terms of Peace And to this end a Manifest is dispatched unto them declaring the Motives which induced him to put this Kingdom into a posture of Arms. In which he remembred them of the Promises Seals and Oaths which by publick Authority had passed for concluding this Marriage That These being Religious Bonds betwixt God and their Souls could not by any Politick Act of State be dissolved untill their Queen should attain unto years of Dissent Adding that The Providence of God did therein manifestly declare it self in that the Male-Princes of Scotland failing the Kingdom was left unto a Daughter and in that King Henry left onely one Son to succeed That These two Princes were agreeable both for Years and Princely Qualities to be joyned in Marriage and thereby to knit both Realms into One That This Vnion as it was like to be both easily done and of firm continuance so would it be both profitable and Honourable to both the Realms That Both the Easiness and Firmness might be conjectured for that both People are of the same Language of like Habit and Fashion of like Quality and Condition of Life of one Climate not onely annexed entirely together but severed from all the World besides That as these are sure Arguments that both discended from one Original so by Reason that Likeness is a great Cause of Liking and of Love they would be most forcible Means both to joyn and hold them in one Body again That Profit would rise by extinguishing Wars between the two Nations by Reason whereof in former times Victories abroad have been impeached Invasions and Seditions occasioned the Confines of both Realms lay'd wast
any other shuffling till the end of the Game this very Parliament without any sensible alteration of the Members of it being continued by Protogation from Session to Session untill at last it ended by the Death of the King For a Preparatory whereunto Richard Lord Rich was made Lord Chancellour on the twenty fourth of October and Sir John Baker Chancellour of the Court of First-Fruits and Tenths was nominated Speaker for the House of Commons And that all things might be carried with as little opposition and noise as might be it was thought fit that Bishop Gardiner should be kept in Prison till the end of the Session and that Bishop Tonstal of Duâ—ham a man of a most even and moderate Spirit should be made less in Reputation by being deprived of his Place at the Council-Table And though the Parliament consisted of such Members as disagreed amongst themselves in respect of Religion yet they agreed well enough together in one Common Principle which was to serve the present Time and preserve themselves For though a great part of the Nobility and not a few of the Chief Gentry in the House of Commons were cordially affected to the Church of Rome yet were they willing to give way to all such Acts and Statutes as were made against it out of a fear of losing such Church-Lands as they were possessed of if that Religion should prevail and get up again And for the rest who either were to make or improve their Fortunes there is no question to be made but that they came resolved to further such a Reformation as should most visibly conduce to the Advancement of their several Ends. Which appears plainly by the strange mixture of the Acts and Results thereof some tending simply to God's Glory and the Good of the Church some to the present Benefit and enriching of particular Persons and some again being devised of purpose to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto Spoil and Rapine Not to say any thing of those Acts which were merely Civil and tended to the Profit and Emolument of the Common-Wealth Of the first Sort was The Act for repealing several Statutes concerning Treason Under which head besides those many bloody Laws which concerned the Life of the Subject in Civil Matters and had been made in the distracted Times of the late King Henry there was a Repeal also of all such Statutes as seemed to touch the Subject in Life or Liberty for matter of Conscience some whereof had been made in the Times of King Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth against such as dissenting in Opinion from the Church of Rome were then called Lollards Of which Sort also was another made in the twenty fifth of the King Deceased together with that terrible Statute of the Six Articles commonly called The whip with six strings made in the thirty first year of the said King Henry Others were of a milder Nature but such as were thought inconsistent with that Freedom of Conscience which most men coveted to enjoy that is to say The Act for Qualification of the said Six Articles 35. H. 8. cap 9. The Act inhibiting the Reading of the Old and New Testament in the English Tongue and the Printing Selling Giving or Delivering of any such other Books or Writings as are there in mentioned and condemned 34. H. 3. cap. 1. But these were also Abrogated as the others were together with all and every Act or Acts of Parliament concerning Doctrine and Matters of Religion and all and every Article Branch Sentence and Matter Pains and Forfeitures in the same contained By which Repeal all men may seem to have been put into a Liberty of Reading Scripture and being in a manner their own Expositours of entertaining what Opinions in Religion best pleased their Fancies and promulgating those Opinions which they entertained So that the English for a time enjoyed that Liberty which the Romanes are affirmed by Tacitus to have enjoyed without comptrol in the Times of Nerva that is to say A liberty of Opining whatsoever they pleased and speaking freely their Opinions wheresoever they listed Which whether it were such a great Felicity as that Authour makes it may be more then questioned Of this Sort alâ—o was the Act. entituled An Act against such as speak against the Sacrament of the Altar and for the receipt thereof in both kinds cap. 1. In the first part whereof it is Provided with great Care and Piety That Whatsoever person or persons from and after the first day of May next coming shall deprave despise or contemn the most Blessed Sacrament by any contemptuous words or by any words of depraving despising or reviling c. that then he or they shall suffer Imprisonment and make Fine and Ransome at the King's pleasure And to say Truth it was but time that some provision should be made to suppress that Irreverence and Profaness with which this Blessed Sacrament was at that time handled by too many of those who seemed most ignorantly Zealous of a Reformation For whereas the Sacrament was in those Times delivered unto each Communicant in a small round Wafer called commonly by the name of Sacramentum Altaris or The blessed Sacrament of the Altar and that such parts thereof as were reserved from time to time were hanged up over the Altar in a Pix or Box those zealous ones in hatred to the Church of Rome reproached it by the odious Names of Jack-in-a-box Round-Robin Sacrament of the Halter and other Names so unbecoming the Mouths of Christians that they were never taken up by the Turks and Infidels And though Bishop Ridley a right Learned and Religious Prelate frequently in his Sermons had rebuked the irreverent behaviour of such light and ill-disposed Persons yet neither he nor any other of the Bishops were able to Reform the Abuse the Quality and Temper of the Times considered which therefore was thought fit to be committed to the power of the Civil Magistrate the Bishop being called in to assist at the Sentence In the last branch of the Act it is First declared According to the Truth of Scripture and the Tenour of approved Antiquity That it is most agreeable both to the Institution of the said Sacrament and more conformable to the common Vse and Practice both of the Apostles and of the Primitive Church by the space of five hundred years after Christ's Ascension that the said Blessed Sacrament should rather be ministred unto all Christian people under both the Kinds of Bread and Wine then under the form of Bread onely And thereupon it was Enacted That The said most Blessed Sacrament should be hereafter commonly delivered and ministred unto the People within the Church of England and Ireland and other the King's Dominions under both the Kinds that is to say of Bread and Wine With these Provisoes notwithstanding If necessity did not otherwise require as in the Case of suddain Sickness and other such like Extremities in
which it was not possible that Wine could be provided for the Use of the Sacrament nor the Sick-man depart this life in peace without it And Secondly That the permitting of this Liberty to the People of England and the Dominions of the same should not be construed to the condemning of any other Church or Churches or the Vsages of them in which the contrary was observed So far the Parliament Enacted in relation to the thing it self to the subject Matter that the Communion should be delivered in both Kinds to all the good People of the Kingdoms But for the Form in which it was to be administred that was left wholly to the King and by the King committed to the Care of the Bishops of which more hereafter the Parliament declaring onely That a Godly â—xhortation should be made by the Ministers therein expressing the great Benefit and Comfort promised to them Which worthily receive the same and the great Danger threatned by God to all such persons as should unworthily receive it Now That there is not any thing either in the Declaration of this Parliament or the Words by which it was Enacted which doth not every way agree with Christ 's Institution appears most plainly by this Passage of Bishop Jewel I would demand saith he of Master Harding what things he would require to Christ's Institution of Words Christs Words be plain If Example Christ Himself Ministred in both Kinds If Authority Christ commanded His Disciples and in them all other Ministers of His Church to do the like If Certainty of His Meaning the Apostles endued with the Holy Ghost so practised the same and understood He meant so If Continuance of Time He â—ad the same to be continued till His Coming again Jewel against Hâ—rding Art 2. Sect. 4. Which said he thus proceedeth in the eight Sect. that is to say Some say that the Priests in Russia for lack of Wine used to Consecrate in Metheglin Others That Innocent the Eight for the like want dispensed with the Priests of Norway to Consecrate without Wine It were no Reason to binde the Church to the Necessity or Imbecillity of a few For otherwise the same Want and Imbecillity which Master Harding hath here found for the one part of the Sacrament may be found for the other For Arrianus De Rebus Indicis and Strabo in his Geography have written That There be whole Nations and Countries that have no Bread Therefore it should seem necessary by this Conclusion that in Consideration of them the whole Church should abstain from the other Portion of the Sacrament also and so have no Sacrament at all But because he may be suspected to be over-partial in favour of the Church of England let us see next what is confessed by Doctour Harding the first who took up Arms against it in Queen Elizabeth 's Time who doth acknowledge in plain Terms That The Communion was delivered in both kinds at Corinth as appeareth by Saint Paul and in many other places also as may moâ—t evidently be found in the Writings of many Antient Fathers And finally that it was so used for the space of six Hundred years and after Art 2. Sect. 8 28. But because Harding leaves the point at 600 and after I doubt not but we may be able on an easie search to draw the Practice down to six hundred more and possibly somewhat after also For Haymo of Halbeâ—stadt who flourished in the year 850. informs us that The Cup is called the Cup of the Communion of the Blood of Christ because all Communicate thereof And we are certified in the History of Aâ—toniâ—us Arch-Bishop of Florence that William Duke of Normandy immediately before the Battail near Hastings Anno 966 caused His whole Army to communicate in both Kinds as the use then was And finally It is observed by Thomas Aquinas who lived in and after the year 1260. That In some Churches of his Time the Cup was not given unto the People Which though he reckoneth fâ—r a Provident and Prudent Vsage yet by restraining it onely to some few Churches he shews the General Usage of the Church to have been otherwise at that time as indeed it was So that the Parliament in this Case appointed nothing but what was consonant to the Institution of our Lord and Saviour and to the Practice of the Church for 1260 years and upwards which is sufficient to discharge it from the Scandal of an Innovation Nor probably had the Parliament appointed this but that it was advised by such Godly Bishops as were desirous to Reduce the Ministration of that most Blessed Sacrament to the first Institution of it and the Primitive Practice the Convocation of that year not being enpowered to act in any Publick business for ought appearing on Record The next great Business was the Retriving of a Statute made in the 27th year of King Henry the Eight by which all Chanteries Colleges Free-Chapels and Hospitals were permitted to the Disposing of the King for Term of His Life But the King dying before He had taken many of the said Colleges Hospitals Chantâ—ries and Free-Chapels into His Possession and the Great Ones of the Court not being willing to lose so Rich a Booty it was set on Foot again and carried in this present Parliament In and by which it was Enacted That All such Colleges Free-Chapels and Chanteries as were in Being within five years of the present Session which were not in the Actual Possession of the said late King c. other then such as by the King's Commissions should be altered transported and changed together with aâ—â—â—anâ—â—â—s Laxds Tenements Rents Tithes Pensions Portions and other Hereditaments to the sâ—me belonging after the Feast of Easter then next coming should be adjudged and deemed and also be in the Actual and Real Possâ—ssion anâ— Sâ—isin of the King His Heirs and Succâ—ssours for ever And though the Hospitals being at that time an hundred and ten were not included in this Grant as they had been in that to the King decealed yet the Revenue which by this Act was designed to the King His Heirs and Successours must needs have been a great Improvement to the Crown if it had been carefully kept together as it was first pretended there being accounted 90. Colleges within the Compass of that Grant those in the Universities not being reckoned in that Number and no fewer then 2374. Free-Chapels and Chanteries the Lands whereof were thus conferred upon the King by Name but not intended to be kept together for His Benefit onely In which Respect it was very stoutly insisted on by Arch-Bishop Cranmer that the dissolving of these Colleges Free-Chapels and Chanteries should be deferred untill the King should be of Age to the intent that they might serve the better to furnish and maintain His Royal Estate then that so great a Treasure should be consumed in His Nonage as it after was Of this we shall speak more in the following year when
not put the same in Execution Which being done by Pope Innocent the Fourth in Consecrating certain English Bishops at Lyons in France without the King's Knowledge Consent it was observed by Matthew Paris to be dishourable to the King and of great Dammage to the Kingdom So much the more by how much the Mischief grew more common and the Design concealed under that Disguise became more apparent which plainly was that being bound unto the Pope in the stricter Bonds and growing into a Contempt of their Natural King they might the more readily be inclined to worke any Mischief in the Kingdom The Danger whereof being considered by King Edward the First He came at last to this Conclusion with the Popes then being that is to say That the said Priors and Convents or the said Deans and Chapters as the Case might vary before they proceeded to any Election should demand the King 's Writ of Congâ—â— D'â—esliere and after the Election made to crave his Royal Assent unto it for Confirmation of the same And so much was avowed by the Letters of King Edward the Third to Pope Clement the Fifth In which it was declared That all the Cathedral Churches in England were Founded and Endowed by His Progenitours and that therefore as often as those Churches became void of a Bishop they were filled again with fit Persons by His said Progenitours as in their own Natural and proper Right The like done by the French Kings to this very day partly by virtue of the Pragmatical Sanction established at the Councel of Basil and partly by the Concordate between King Francis the First and Pope Leo the Tenth And the like also challenged by the State of Venice within the Verge and Territories of that Republick For which consult the English History of that State Decad. 5. lib. 9. fol. 229. So that upon the whole matter there was no Innovation made as to this particular but a Restoring to the Crown an antient Power which had been Naturally and Originally in the Crown before But howsoever having the appearance of an Alteration from the received manner of Electings in the Church of Rome and that which was Established by the late King for the Realm of England it was repealed by Queen Mary and put into the former Chanel by Queen Elizabeth But from this Alteration which was made in Parliament in reference to the manner of Making Bishops and the way of Exercising their Authority when they were so made let us proceed unto such Changes as we finde made amongst the Bishops themselves The first whereof was the Election of Doctor Nicholas Ridley to the See of Rochester to which he had been nominated by King Henry the Eighth when Holbeck who preceded him was designed for Lincoln But the King dying shortly after the Translation of Holbeck was deferred till the Time of King Edward which was no sooner done but Ridley was chosen to succeed him although not actually Consecrated till the fifth of September A man of great Learning as the Times then were and for his excellent way of Preaching highly esteemed by the late King whose Chaplain he had been for many years before His death and upon that onely designed to this Preferment as the reward of his Service Being well studyed in the Fathers it was no hard matter for him to observe That as the Church of Rome had erred in the Point of the Sacrament so as well the Lutheran as the Zuinglian Churches had run themselves into some errour by opposing the Papists the one being forced upon the Figment of Consubstantiation the other to fly to Signs and Figures as if there had been nothing else in the blessed Eucharist Which being observed he thought it most agreeable to the Rules of Piety to frame his Judgement to the Dictates of the Antient Fathers and so to hold a Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Holy Sacrament as to exclude that Corporal Eating of the same which made the Christian Faith a scorn both to the Turks and Moors Which Doctrine as he stoutly stood to in all his Examinations at Oxford when he was preparing for the Stake so he maintained it constantly in his Sermons also in which it was affirmed That In the Sacrament were truly and verily the Body and Blood of Christ made forth effectually by Grace and Spirit And being so perswaded in his own Opinion he so prevailed by Discourse and Argument with Arch-Bishop Cranmer as to bring him also to the same for which consult the Acts and Mâ—n fol. a man of a most even and constant spirit as he declared in all his Actions but in none more then in the opposition which he made against Bishop Hooper in Maintainance of the Rites and Ceremonies then by Law Established of which we shall have opportunity to speak more hereafter In the next place we are to look upon the Preferment of Doctor Barlow to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells succeeding in the place of Knight who dyed on the twenty ninth of the same September He had been once Prior of the Monastery of Bisham in the County of Berks from whence preferred to the See of Asaph in the end of February An. 1535. And in the April following Translated to the Church of St. David's During his sitting in which See he fell upon an honest and convenient Project for removing the Episcopal See from the decayed City of St. David's most incommodiously Scituate in the remotest Angle of all the Diocess to the rich Borough of Caer-marthen in the midst thereof in the Chief Church whereof being a Monastery of Grey-Friars the body of Edmond Earl of Richmond the Father of K. Henry the Seventh received Interment Which Project he presented to Cromwel being then Vicar General endearing it by these Motives and Propositions that is to say That being scituate in the midst of the Diocess it was very opportune for the profiting of the King's Subjects for the Preferment of God's Word for abolishing all Antichristian Superstition and settling in the Diocess the King's Supremacy That it was furnished with all things necessary for the conveniency of the Canons and might be done without any prejudice to the Friars for every one of which he offered to provide a sufficient Maintainance And to advance the work the more he offered to remove his Consistory thither to found therein a Grammar-Schole and settle a daily Lecture in Divinity there for the reducing of the Welsh from their ancient Rudeness to the Civility of the Time All which I finde in the Memorials of Sir Robert Cotton And unto these he might have added That he had a fair Episcopal House at Abberguilly very near that Town in which the Bishops of that Diocess have for the most part made their Dwelling So that all Parties seemed to have been provided for in the Proposition and therefore the more to be admired That in a Time so much addicted unto Alterations it should speed no better
sorry Pittances were forced to put themselves into Gentlemens Houses and there to serve as Clerkâ— of the Kitching Surveyourâ— Receivers c. pag. 241. All which Enormities though tending so apparently to the Dâ—shonour of God the Disservice of the Church and the Disgrace of Religion were generally connived at by the Lords and others who onely had the power to Reform the same because they could not question those who had so miserably invaded the Churches Patrimony without condemning of themselves Thus leaving England for a while we are to take a short Survey of Affairs in Scotland into which the French had put ten thousand Souldiers three thousand of them being Almains under the Command of Mounsieur D' Essie who joyning with the Scots laid Siege before the Town of Haddington on Peter's-Eve For the Relief whereof a strength of one thousand three hundred Horse was sent from Berwick under the Conduct of Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Thomas Palmer who falling very unfortunately into the Hands of the Enemy were for the most part slain or taken The English notwithstanding made good the Town and held it out so long that in the end the Earl of Shrewsbury with a Power of sixteen thousand men of which there were four thousand Lansquenets or Germane Souldiers appeared in fight On whose approach the Enemy withdrew themselves and raised their Siege on or about the twentieth day of August giving great commendation to the English Garison for the notable service they had done in defence of the Town The Siege being raised the Earl of Shrewbury with his Forces returned for England leaving the Town well stored with Victuals and plentifully furnished with all manner of Ammunition which put the Souldiers of the Garison into so good heart that they made many Sallies out and frequently Skirmished with the French and Scots whom they found Quartered in the Villages and Towns adjoyning But the matter being taken into Debate by the Council of England it was Resolved especially by those who secretly envied at the Power and Greatness of the Lord Protectour That the keeping of the Town would not quit the Cost as being farthest from the Borders and not to be Relieved if it were distressed without the raising and imploying of a Royal Army And thereupon the Earl of Rutland was sent thither with three thousand of the Lansquenets and as many Borderers who coming to the Town on the twentieth of September sleighted the Works and having destroyed the Houses caused all the Ordnance and Carriages to be sent to Berwick and returned without Battail The voluntary quitting of which Town drew after it the loss of all the Peeces which we held in Scotland The English Forces being removed from the Town of Haddington the French immediately prepared for their going home-wards carrying a richer Lading with them then all the Arms and Ammunition which they brought at their coming For while the Army lay at the Siege at Haddington the Ministers of the French King were busied in Treaty with the Scots for putting the Young Queen into their Power transporting her into France and Marrying her unto the Daulphin But in this point they found the Council much divided Some thought That the Conditions offered by the Lord Protectour not till then generally known were to be embraced in regard it gave them an assurance of ten years Peace at the least and that if either of the Princes died within that time they should be left at Liberty to Order the Affairs of that Kingdom to the most Advantage But against this it was alledged by those of the opposite Party whom the French King had bought with ready Money and Anual Pensions That as long as the Queen remained amongst them they should never be Free from the Pretensions of the English From which there was no question but they would desist when they saw the Ground thereof to be taken away by the Queens Removal Of which Party besides those which were corrupted by the Gold of France were the Bishops and Clergy who being Zealous for the preservation of their Old Religion abominated nothing more then the Alliance with England And so the matter being carried in behalf of the French and there being now no further need of them for defence of the Countrey they gave Order to make ready their Shipping and nominated a set day for their Departure Which day being come they Coasted about Scotland by the Isles of Orkney took in the young Queen at Dunâ—britton-Castle and passing through St. George's Chanel arrived in Bretaigne whilest a strong Squadron of the English attended for their coming in the Narrow-Seas But this Departure of the French though it much weakened did not disanimate the Scots for making trial of their Fortune against the Hume-Castle and Fast-Castle remained amongst some others as Thorns in their Sides but they regained them both this year Hume-Castle they surprised by means of some of their own Nation who being reputed Friends and suffered to have free and frequent Access unto it had Opportunity both to discover the Weaknesses of it and by what Ways it might most easily be taken And being more cordially affected to their Old Country-men then their New Acquaintance they directed a select number of Souldiers to some secret Paâ—sages by which having fiâ—st climbed up a very steep Rock they found an Entrance into the Castle put the secure Garison to the Sword and possessed the Place leaving a fair warning unto all others Fast-Castle they surprised by a Warlike Stratageme For the Governour having Commanded the neighbouring Villages at a prefixed day to bring in their Contribution of Corn and other necessary Provision the Enemy makes Use of this Opportunity Souldiers habited like Peasants came at the day fraught with their Burthens whereof having eased their Horses they carry them on their shoulders over the Bridg which joyned two Rocks together and so gained Entrance the Watch-word being given they cast down their Burthens till the Sentinels open the Gates to their Fellows and become Masters of the Place The News of which Surprisals together with that of the Queens Removal being brought into the Court of England which then began to be divided into Sides and Factions there was no further Care taken for the Prosecution of the Scotish War which for the pâ—esent much refreshed that impoveâ—ished Kâ—ngdom Now while these Traverses of War were made in Scotland there was no solid Peace though no open Discord in the Church of England It hath been shewed that Bishop Gardiner having long lain Prisoner in the Fleet was on the Morrow after Twelâ—th-Day last restored to Liberty and permitted to return unto his Diocess Where contrary to the Promise made at his Enlargment he began to shew himself displeased with the King's Proceedings in the case of Images Concerning which he wrote a long Letter to the Lord Protectour on the twenty first of May and backed it with another of the sixth of June and otherwise appeared so cross to the
is that upon the very first Reports of a Reformation here intended Calvin had offered his Assistance to Arch-Bishop Craenmer as himself confesseth But the Arch-Bishop knew the Man and refused the Offer And it appears in one of Bishop Latimer's Sermons that there was report about this time of Melancthon's coming but it proved onely a Report And though it was thought necessary for the better seasoning of the Vniversities in the Protestant Reformed Religion that Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two eminent Divines of the Foreign Churches should be invited to come over yet the Arch-Bishop's Letter of Invitation sent to Martin Bucer was not written till the twelfth day of October At what time the Liturgie then in hand being the chief Key to the whole Work of Reformation was in very good forwardness and must needs be compleatly finished before he could so settle and dispose his Affairs in Germany as to come for England And though Peter Martyr being either more at Leasure or less engaged or otherwise more willing to accept of the Invitation came many Moneths before the other yet neither do we finde him here till the end of November when the Liturgie had been approved of by the King and Council if it had not also passed the Approbation of both Houses of Parliament Nor was it likely that they should make use of such a Man in composing a Liturgie wherein they were resolved to retain a great part of the Antient Ceremonies who being made Canon of Christ-Church in Oxford and frequently present at Divine Service in that Church could never be prevailed with to put on the Surplice Being left therefore to themselves they were at the more liberty for following the King 's most Godly and most Wise Directions having in the first place an eye and respect to the most sincere and Pure Religion taught by the Scripture and in the second to the Vsages of the Primitive Church and making out of both one convenient and meet Order Rite and Fashion of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments to be had and used in the Realm of Englâ—nd and the Principality of Wales Which being finished they all subscribed their Names unto it but Day of Chichester who would by no means have his Hand in the Subscription as is related in the Register-Book of the Parish of Petwoâ—th But being subscribed by all the rest it was by them with all due Reverence humbly presented to the King by whom it was received to His great Comfort and Quietness of mind as the Statute telleth us And being by him commended to the Lords and Commons then Assembled in Parliament which Parliament took beginning on the fourth day of November they did not onâ—ly give His Highness most hearty and lowly thanks for his Care therein but on peruâ—aâ— of the Book declared it to be done by the aid of the Holy Ghost And therâ—upoâ— considering the Godly Prayers Orders Rites and Ceremonies in the said Book mentioned and also the reasons of Altering of those things which be altered and the retaining those things which be retained together with the Hoâ—our of God and the great Quietâ—ess which by the Grace of God was likely to ensâ—e on suâ—h an Uâ—iform Order in Common Prayer Rites and External Ceremonies to be used in all England and Wales in Calice and the Marches of the â—ame it was Eâ—acâ—ed That all and singular Ministers in any Cathedral or 〈◊〉 Church or other Place within this Realm of England Wales Calce and the Marches of the same or other the King's Dominions should from and after the Feast of Pentecost next coming that Interval being given for the Printing of it be bounden to say and use the Mattens Even-song Celebration of the Lord's Supper â—â—mmonly caâ—â—ed The Mass and Administration of each of the Sacraments and all their Common and Open Prayer in such Order and Form as is mentioned in the same Book and no otherwise with several Penalties therein mentioned to be imposed on all such in their several places as either should willfully refuse to Officiate by it or hinder the Lawfull Exâ—cution oâ— it or speak any thing in Derogation of the said Book or any thing therein contained The passing of this Act gave great Offence to those of the Romish Paâ—ty not that they could except against it in regard either of the Manner or Matter of it which they acknowledged to be Consonant to the Antient Forms but bâ—cause it was communicated to the People in the Vulgar Tongue And this they charged as a gâ—eat Eâ—rour in those Men who had the chief Hand in the Conduct of that Affâ—iâ— becaâ—se that by the Rules thereof the Scriptures were to be read publâ—ckly in the 〈◊〉 Tongue Which what else was it as they said but the committing so much Heavenly Treasure unto Râ—tten Vessels the trusting so much Excellent 〈◊〉 to such Musty Bâ—ttles And being that there are many things in he Divine Offices of the Church quae secreta esse debent as the Cardinal telleth us which ought to have been kept as Secrets from all Vulgar knowledg it must needs be of very ill Conâ—equence to communicate them to all sorâ—s of People But certainly the Holy Ghost was able to direct the Church in â— betâ—er way then such as should be subject unto Man's Exceptions And he directs the Service of the Church to be Officiated in such a Language to which the ignorant and unlearned may say Amen 1 Cor. xiv 9 16. Upon which Words it is observed by Lyra and Aquinas two as great Clerks as any in the Church of Rome That The Publick Service of the Church in the Primitive Times was in the Common Vulgar Language The like affirmed by Doctour Haâ—aing as great a Stickler for that Church and the Doctrines of it as any other of his Time adding withall That it was necessary in the Primitive Times that it should be so and granting also That it were still better that the People had their Service in their own Vulgar Tongue for their better understanding of it So he in Answer to the Challenge made by Bishop Jewel Art 3. Sect. 28 and 33. And theâ—efore having the confession and acknowledgment of the very Adveâ—saâ—y not onely as to the Antiquity but the Fitness also of Celebrating Divine Offices in the Vulgar Language it may be thought a loss both of Time and Travail to press the Argument any further Which nâ—twithstanding for the more perfect clearing of the Point in question it wâ—ll be found upon a very easie seach that the Jews did Celebrate their Divine Offiâ—es Tractatus and Oblationes as the Father hath it most commonly in the Syriack and sometimes in the Hebrew Tongue the natural Languages of that People as is affirmed by St. Ambrose upon 1 Cor. cap. 14. and out of him by Durand in his Rationale Eckius a great Servant of the Popes affirmeth in his Common Places That the Indians have their Service in the Indian Tongue and
Shifts on his part and much patience on theirs he is taken pro confesso on the twenty third and in the beginning of October deprived of his Bishoprick To whom succeded Doctour Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rochester a Learned Stout and Resolute Prelate as by the Sequel will appear not actually translated till the twelâ—th of April in the year next following and added not long after to the Lords of the Council The necessary Execution of so many Rebels and this seasonable Severity against Bishop Bonner did much facilitate the King's Proceedings in the Reformation As certainly the Opposition to Aâ—thority when it is suppressed both makes the Subject and the Prince more absolute Howsoever to make sure Work of it there passed an act of Parliament in the following Session which also took beginning on the fourth of November for taking down such Images as were still remaining in the Churches as also for the bringing in of all Antiphonaries Missalls Breviaries Offices Horaries Primers and Processionals with other Books of False and Superstitious Worship The Tenour of which Act was signified to the Subject by the King's Proclamations and seconded by the Missives of Arch-Bishop Cranmer to the Suffragan Bishops requiring them to see it put in execution with all Care and Diligence Which so secured the Church on that side that there was no further Opposition against the Liturgie by the Romish Party during the rest of this King's Reign For what can any workman do when he wants his Tools or how could they Advance the Service of the Church of Rome when the Books by which they should officiate it were thus taken from them But then there started up another Faction as dangerous to the Church as opposite to the Publick Liturgie and as destructive of the Rules of the Reformation then by Law established as were those of Rome The Arch-Bishop and the rest of the Prelates which co-operated with him in the Work having so far proceeded in abolishing many Superstitions which before were used resolved in the next place to go forwards with a Reformation in a Point of Doctrine In Order whereunto Melancthon's coming was expected the year before but he came not then And therefore Letters were directed by the Archâ—Bishop of Canterbury to Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two Great and Eminent Divines but more addicted to the Zuinglian then the Lutheran Doctrines in the point of the Sacrament Martyr accordingly came over in the end of November and having spent some timewith the Arch-Bishop in his House at Lambeth was dispatched to Oxford where he was made the King's Professour for Divinity and about two years after made Canon of Christ-Church In his first Lectures he is said by Sanders if he may be credited to have declared himself so much a Zuinglian in that point as to give great offence to Cranmer and the rest of the Bishops but afterwards upon notice of it to have been more moderate and to conform his Judgment to the Sense of those Learned Prelates Which whether it be true or not certain it is that his Readings were so much disliked by some of that University that a publick Disputation was shortly had betwixt him and some of those who disliked his Doings in which he publickly maintained these two Propositions 1. That the Substance of the Bread and Wine was not changed and 2. That the Body and Blood of Christ was not Carnally and Bodily in the Bread and Wine but united to the same Sacramentally And for the better Governing of the Disputation it was appointed by the King that Doctour Cox Chancellour of that University assisted by one Mr. Morrison a right Learned man should preside as Judges or Moderatours as we call them by whom it was declâ—red in the open Scholes that Martyr had the upper hand and had sufficiently answered all Arguments which were brought against him But Chadsey the chief of the Opponents and the rest of those who disputed with him acknowledged no such Satisfaction to be given unto them their party noising it abroad according to the Fate of such Dispuâ—ations that they had the Victory But Bucer not coming over at the same time also he was more earnestly invited by Pet. Alexander the Arch-Bishop's Secretary whose Letters bear Date March 24. which so prevailed with him at the last that in June we finde him here at Canterbury from whence he writes to Peter Martyr who was then at Oxford And being here he receives Letters from Calvin by which he was advised to take heed of his old fault for a fault he thought it which was to run a moderate course in his Reformations The first thing that he did at his coming hither as he saith himself was to make himself acquainted with the English Liturgie translated for him into Latine by Alexander Alesius a Learned Scot and generally well approved of by him as to the main Frame and Body of it though not well satisfied perhaps in some of the particular Branches Of this he gives account to Calvin and desires some Letters from him to the Lord Protectour with whom Câ—lvin had already began to tamper that he might finde the greater favour when he came before him which was not till the Tumults of the time were composed and quieted Having received a courteous entertainment from the Lord Protectour and being right heartily welcomed by Arch-Bishop Cranmer he is sent to take the Chair at Cambridg Where his first Readings gave no such distast to the Learned Academicks as to put him to the necessity of challenging the Dissentients to a Disputation though in the Ordinary Form a Disputation was there held at his firstâ—coming thither concerning the Sufficiency of Holy Scripture the Fallibility of the Church and the true Nature of Justification But long he had not held the place when he left this life deceasing on the nineteenth of January 1550. according to the computation of the Church of England to the great loss and grief of that University By the chiefest Heads whereof and most of the Members of that Body he was attended to his Grave with all due Solemnity of which more hereafter But so it was that the Account which he had given to Calvin of the English Liturgie and his desiring of a Letter from him to the Lord Protectour proved the occasions of much trouble to the Church and the Orders of it For Calvin not forgetting the Repulse he found at the hands of Cranmer when he first offered his Assistance had screwed himself into the Favour of the Lord Protectour And thinking nothing to be well done which either was not done by him or by his Direction as appears by his Letters to all Princes which did but cast an eye towards a Reformation must needs be meddling in such Matters as belonged not to him He therefore writes a very long Letter to the Lord Protectour in which approving well enough of set Forms of Prayer he descends more particularly to the English Liturgy in canvasing whereof he
there excepteth against Commemoration of the Dead which he acknowledgeth however to be very Antient as also against Chrism and Extreme Vnction the last of which being rather allowed of then required by the Rules of that Book which said he maketh it his Advice that all these Ceremonies should be abrogated and that withall he should go forwards to Reform the Church without fear or wit without regard of Peace at home or Correspondency abroad such Considerations being onely to be had in Civil Matters but not in Matters of the Church wherein not any thing is to be Exacted which is not warranted by the Word and in the managing whereof there is not any thing more distastfull in the eyâ— of God then Worldly Wisdom either in moderating cutting off or going backwards but meerly as we are directed by his Will revealed In the next place he gives a touch on the Book of Homilies which Bucer as it appears by his Epistle to the Church of England had right-well approved of These very faintly he permits for a season onely but by no means allows of them for a long continuance or to be looked on as a Rule of the Church or constantly to serve for the instruction of the People and thereby gave the hint to the Zuinglian Gospellers who ever since almost have declaimed against them And whereas some Disputes had grown by his setting on or the Pragmatick Humour of some Agents which he had amongst us about the Ceremonies of the Church then by Law established he must needs trouble the Protectour in that business also To whom he writes to this effect That the Papists would grow insolenter every day then other unless the differences were composed about the Ceremonies But how not by reducing the Opponents to Conformity but by encouraging them rather in their Opposition which cannot but appear most plainly to be all he aimed at by soliciting the Duke of Sommerset in behalf of Hooper who was then fallen into some troubles upon that of which more hereafter Now in the Heat of these Imployments both in Church and State the French and Scots lay hold on the Opportunity for the Recovering of some Forts and Peeces of Consequence which had been taken from them by the English in the former War The last year Bulloign-Siege was attempted by some of the French in hope to take it by Surprize and were couragiously repulsed by the English Garison But now they are resolved to go more openly to work and therefore send an Herald to defy the King according to the Noble manner of those Times in proclaiming War before they entred into Action against one another The Herald did his Office on the eighth of August and preâ—ently the French with a considerable Army invade the Territory of Bulloign In less then three weeks they possess themselves of Blackness Hamiltue and New-Haven with all the Ordnance Ammunition and Victuals in them Few of the Souldiers escaped with Life but onely the Governour of New-Haven a Bastard Son of the Lord Sturton's who was believed to have betrayed that Fort unto them because he did put himself immediatly into the Service of the French But they sped worse in their Designs by Sea then they did by Land for giving themselves no small Hopes in those broken Times for taking in the Islands of Guerâ—sey and Jersey they made toward them with a great number of Gallies but they were so manfully encountred with the King's Navy which lay then hovering on those Coasts that with the loss of a Thousand men and great spoil of their Gallies they were forced to retire into France and desist from their purpose Nor were the Scotâ— in the mean time negligent in preparing for their own Defence against whom some considerable Forces had been prepared in the Beginning of this Summer but most unhappily diverted though very fortunately imployed for the Relief of Exeter and the taking of Norwich So that no Succours being sent for the Relief of those Garisons which then remained unto the English the Scots about the middle of November following couragiously assault the strong Fort of Bouticrage take it by Storm put all the Souldiers to the Sword except the Captain and him they spared not out of any Pity or Humane Compassion but because they would not lose the Hope of so great a Benefit as they expected for his Ransom Nothing now left unto the English of all their late Purchases and Acquists in Scotland but the strong Fort of Aymouth and the Town of Rox-borough The loss of so many Peeces in France one after another was very sad News to all the Court but the Earl of Warwick Who purposely had delayed the sending of such Forces as were prepared against the French that the Forts above-mentioned might be lost that upon the loss thereof he might project the Ruin of the Lord Protectour He had long cast an envious Eye at his Power and Greatness and looked upon himself as a man of other parts both for Camp and Counsel fitter in all Respects to Protect the Kingdom then he that did enjoy the Title He looked upon him also as a man exposed to the Blows of Fortune in being so fatally deprived of his greatest strength by the Death of his Brother after which he had little left unto him but the worst half of himself feared by the Lords and not so well beloved by the Common People as he had been formerly There goes a Story that Earl Godwine having treacherously slain Prince Alfred the Brother of Edward the Confessour was afterwards present with the King when his Cup-bearer stumbling with one foot recovered himself by the Help of the other One Brother helps another said Earl Godwine merrily And so replyed the King as tartly My Brother might have been useful unto me if you had pleased to spare his Life for my present Comfort The like might have been said to Earl Dudly of Warwick That if he had not lent an helping hand to the Death of the Admiral he could not so easily have tripp'd up the Heels of the Lord Protectour Having before so luckily taken in the Out-Works he now resolves to plant his Battery for the Fort it self To which end he begins to muster up his Strengths and make ready his Forces knowing which way to work upon the Lords of the Court many of which began to stagger in their good Affections and some openly to declare themselves the Protectour's Enemies And he so well applyed himself to their several Humours that in short time his Return from Norfolk with Success and Honour he had drawn unto his side the Lord Chancellour Rich the Lord Saint-John Lord Great Master the Marquess of North-hampton the Earl of Arundel Lord Chamberlain the Earl of South-hampton Sir Thomas Cheny Treasurer of the Houshould Sir John Gage Constable of the Tower Sir William Peter Secretary Sir Edward Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Sir Edward North Sir Ralph Sadlier Sir John Baker Sir
notwithstanding that they differed from the Government and Forms of Worship Established in the Church of England All which and more He grants by His Letters Patents bearing Date at Lâ—ez the Lord Chancellour's House on the twenty fourth of July and the fourth year of His Reâ—gn Which Grant though in it self an Act of most 〈◊〉 Compassion in respect of those Strangers yet proved the occasion of no small disturbance to the Proceedings of the Church and the quiet ordering oâ— the State for by suffering these men to live under another kind of Government and to Worship God after other Forms then those allowed of by the Laws proved in effect the 〈◊〉 up of one Altar against another in the midst of the Church and the erecting â—f a Common-Wealth in the midst of the Kingdom So much the more unfortunately peâ—â—itted in this present Conjuncture when such a Repâ—ure began to appear amongst our selves as was made wider by the coming in of these Dutch Reformerâ— and the Indulgence granted to them as will appear by the follâ—wing Story of John Hooper designed to the Bishoprick of Glocester which in brâ—ef was this John Hooper the designed Bishop of Glocester being bred in Oxford studious in the Holy Scriptures and well-affected unto those Beginnings of the Reformation whiâ—h had been countenanced by King Henry about the time of the Six Articles found himself so much in danger as put upon him the necessity of forsaking the Kingdom Settling himself at Zurich a Town of Switzerland he acquaints himself with Bulliâ—ger a Scholar in those Times of great Name and Note and having staiâ—d there till the Death of King Henry he returned into England bringing with him some very strong Affections to the Nakendness of the Zuinglian or Helvetian Churches though differing in Opinion from them in some Points of Doctrine and more especially in that of Predestination In England by his constant Preaching and learned Writings he grew into great Favour and Esteem with the Earl of Warwick by whose procurement the King most Graciously bestowed upon him without any seeking of his own the Bishoprick of Glocester which was then newly void by the Death of Wakeman the last Abbot of 〈◊〉 and the first Bishop of that See Having received the King's Letters Patents for his Preferment to that Place he applies himself to the Arch-Bishop for his Consecration concerning which there grew a difference between them For the Arch-Bishop would not Consecrate him but in such an Habit which Bishops were required to wear by the Rules of the Church and Hooper would not take it upon such Conditions Repairing to his Patron the Earl of Warwick he obtains from him a Letter to the Arch-Bishop desiring a forbearance of those things in which the Lord Elect of Glocester did crave to be forborne at his hands implying also that it was the King's desire as well as his that such forbearance should be used It was desired also that he would not charge him with any Oath which seemed to be burthenous to his Conscience For the Elâ—ct Bishop as it seems had boggled also at the Oath of paying Canâ—nical Obedience to his Metropolitan which by the Laws then and still in force he was bound to take But the Arch-Bishop still persisting in the Denyal and being well seconded by Bishop Ridley of London who would by no meanes yield unto it the King himself was put upon the business by the Earl of VVarwick who thereupon wrote to the Arch-Bishop this ensuing Letter RIght-Reverend Father and Right-Trusty and VVell-Beloved VVe Greet you well VVhereas VVe by the Advice of Our Council have Calaen and Chosen Our Right-VVell-Beloved and VVell-VVorthy Mr. John Hooper Professour of Divinity to be Our Bishop of Glocester as well for his Great Learning Deep Judgment and Long Study both in the Scriptures and other Profound Learning as also for his Good Discretion Ready Vtterance and Honest Life for that kind of Vocation c. From Consecrating of whom VVe understand you do stay because he would have you omit and let pass certain Rights and Ceremonies offensive to his Conscience whereby you think you should fall in Praemunire of Our Laws VVe have thought Good by Advice afore-said to dispence and discharge you of all manner of Dangers Penalties and Forfeitures you should run into and be in in any manner of way by omitting any of the same And this Our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge therefore Given under Our Signet at Our Castle of Windsore the fifth day of August in the fourth year of Our Reign This Gracious Letter notwithstanding the two Bishops wisely taking into consideration of what Danger and Ill Consequence the Example was humbly craved leave not to obey the King against his Laws and the Earl finding little hope of prevailing in that suit which would not be granted to the King leaves the new Bishop to himself who still persisting in his Obstinacy and wilfull Humour was finally for his Disobedience and Contempt committed Prisoner and from the Prison writes his Letters to Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr for their Opinion in the Case From the last of which who had declared himself no friend to the English Ceremonies he might presume of some Encouragement but that he had any from the first I have no where found The contrary whereunto will appear by his Answer unto John à Lasco in the present Case whereof more anon In which condition of Affairs Calvin addresseth his Letters to the Lord Protectâ—ur whom he desireth to lend the man an helping hand and extricate him out of those Perplexities into which he was cast So that at last the Differences were thus compromised that is to say That Hooper should receive his Consecration attired in his Episcopal Robes that he should be dispensed withall from wearing it at ordinary times as his dayly Habit but that he should be bound to use it when soever he Preached before the King in his own Cathedral or any other place of like Publick Nature According to which Agreement being appointed to Preach before the King he shewed himself apparelled in his Bishop's Robes namely a long Scarlet Chimere reaching down to the ground for his upper Garment changed in Queen Elizabeth's Time to one of Black Satten and under that a white Linen Rochet with a Square Cap upon his head which Fox reproacheth by the name of a Popish Attire and makes to be a great cause of Shame and Contumeliâ— to that Godly man And possibly it might be thought so at that time by Hooper himself who from thenceforth carried a strong Grudg against Bishop Ridley the principal man as he conceived and that not untruly who had held him up so closely to such hard Conditions not fully reconciled unto him till they were both ready for the Stake and then it was high time to lay aside those Animosities which they had hereupon conceived on against another But these thingâ— happened not I mean his Consecration
and his Preaching before the King till March next following and then we may hear further of him And thus we have the first beginning of that Opposition which hath continued ever since against the Liturgie it self the Cap and Surplice and other Rites and Vsages of the Anglican Church Which Differences being thus begun were both fomented and increased by the Pragmaticalness of John à Lasco Opposite both in Government and Forms of Worship if not perhaps in Doctrine also to the Church of England For John à Lasco not content to enjoy those Privileges which were intended for the use of those Strangers onely so far abused His Majestie 's goodness as to appear in favour of the Zuinglian or Calvinian Faction which then began more openly to shew it self against the Orders of the Church For first he publisheth a Book entituled Forma ratio totius Ecclesiastici Ministerii Wherein he maintains the Use of Sitting at the Holy Communion contrary to the Laudable Custome of the Church of England but much to the Encouragement of all those who impugned her Orders A Controversie unhappily moved by Bishop Hooper concerning the Episcopal Habit was presently propagated amongst the rest of the Clergy touching Caps and Surplices And in this 〈◊〉 John à Laâ—co must needs be one not onely countenancing those who refused to wear them but writing unto Martin Bucer to declare against them For which severely reprehended by that Moderate and Learned Man and all his Cavils and Objections very solidly Answered which being sent to him in the way of Letter was afterwards Printed and dispersed for keeping down that Opposite Humour which began then to overswell the Banks and threatned to bear all before it And by this Passage we may rectifie a Mistake or a Calumny rather in the Altare Damascenum The Authour whereof makes Martin Bucer Peremptory in refusing to wear the Square Cap when he lived in Cambridg and to give this simple Reason for it That he could not wear a Square Cap since his Head was Round But I note this onely by the way to shew the Honesty of those men which erected that Altar and return again to John à Lasco who being born in Poland where Sitting at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper had been used by the Arians who looking no otherwise on Christ then their Elder Brother might think it was no Robbery at all to be equal with Him and sit down with Him at His Table what he learned there he desired might be Practiced here the better to conform this Church to the Polish Conventicles As for the other Controversie about Caps and Surplices though it found no Encouragement from Martin Bucer yet it received no small countenance from Peter Martyr For in a Letter of his of the first of July inscribed Vnto a nameless Friend who had desired his Judgement in it he first declares according to the very Truth That being indifferent in themselves they could make no man of themselves to be either Godly or Vngodly by the use or forbearance of them but then he addeth That He thinks it most Expedient to the Good of the Church that they and all others of that kind should be taken away when the next convenient Opportunity should present it self And then he gives this Reason for it That Where such Ceremonies were so stifly contended for which were not warranted and supported by the Word of God there commonly men were less sollicitous of the Substance of Religion then they were of the Circumstances of it But he might well have spared his Judgement which had so visibly appeared in his dayly Practice For he hath told us of himself in one of his Epistles bearing Date at Zurick the fourth of November 1559. being more then five years after he had left this Kingdom That He had never used the Surplice when he lived in Oxford though he were then a Canon of Christ-Church and frequently present in the Quire So that between the Authority of Peter Martyr on the one side and the Pragmaticalness of John à Lasco on the other many were drawn from their Obedience to the Rules of the Church for the time then present and a ground laid for more Confusions and Disturbances in the time to come The Regular Clergy in those days appeared not commonly out of their own Houses but in their Priests Coats with the Square Cap upon their Heads and if they were of Note and Eminency in their Gowns and Tippets This Habit also is decryed for Superstitious affirmed to be a Popish Attire and altogether as unfit for Ministers of the Holy Gospel as the Chimere and Rochet were for those who claimed to be the Successours of the Lord's Apostles So Tyms replyed unto Bishop Gardiner when being asked Whether a Coat with Stockings of divers Colours the upper part White and the nether-stock Russet in which Habit he appeared before him were a fit Apparel for a Deacon which Office he had exercised in this Church he sawcily made Answer That his Vesture did not so much vary from a Deacon's as his Lordships did from that of an Apostle The less to be admired in Tyms in that I finde the like aversness from that Grave and Decent Habit in some other men who were in Parts and Place above him For while this Controversie was on Foot between the Bishops and Clergy about wearing Priests-Caps and other Attire belonging to their Holy Order Mr. John Rogers one of the Prebends of Saint Paul's and Divinity-Reader of that Church then newly returned from beyond the Seas could never be perswaded to wear any other then the Round Cap when he went abroad And being further pressed unto it he declared himself thus That he would never agree to the point of Conformity but on this Condition that if the Bishops did require the Cap and Tipper c. then it should also be decreed that all Popish Priests for a Distinction between them and others should be constrained to wear upon their Sleeves a Chalice with an Host upon it The like aversness is by some ascribed also to Mr. John Philpot Arch-Deacon of Winchester not long before returned from beyond the Seas as the other was and sâ—ffering for Religion in Queen Marie's Days as the other did Who being by his place a Member of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary and required by the Prolâ—cutour to come apparelled like the rest in his Gown and Tippet or otherwise to forbear the House chose rather to accept of the last Condition then to submit unto the former But there was some thing else in the first Condition which made him unwilling to accept it and that was That He must not speak but when he was commanded by the Prolocutour Which being so directly against the Customes of the House and the Privileges of each Member of it he had good reason rather to forbear his Presence then to submit himself and consequently all the rest of the Members to so
great a Servitude Such were the Effects of Calvin's Interposings in behalf of Hooper and such the Effects of his Exceptions against some Antient Usages in the Publick Liturgie and such the Consequents of the Indulgence granted to John a Lasco and his Church of Strangers opposite both in Practice and point of Judgment to the established Rules and Orders of the Church of England For what did follow hereupon but a continual multiplying of Disorders in all Parts of this Church What from the Sitting at the Sacrament used and maintained by John a Lasco but first Irreverence in receiving and afterwards a Contempt and depâ—aving of it What from the crying down of the Sacred Vestments and the Grave Habit of the Clergy but first a Disesteem of the men themselves and by Degrees a Vilifying and Contempt of their Holy Ministery Nay such a pâ—ccancy of Humour began then manifestly to break out that it was Preached at Paul's Cross by one Sir Steven for so they commonly called such of the Clergy as were under the Degree of Doctour the Curate of Saint Katharine-Christ Church That it was fit the Names of Churches should be altered and the Names of the Days in the Week changed That Fâ—sh-days should be kept on any other days then on Fridays and Saturdays and the Lent at any other time except onely between Shroveâ—tide and Easter We are told also by John Stow that he had seen the said Sir Steven to leave the Pulpit and Preach to the People out of an high Elm which stood in the middest of the Church-Yard and that being done to return into the Church again and leaving the High Altar to sing the Câ—mmunion-Service upon a Tomb of the Dead with â—is Face toward the North. Which is to be Observed the rather because Sir Stephâ—n hath found so many Followers in these later Times For as some of the 〈◊〉 sort have left the Church to Preach in Woods and Barns c. and instead of the Names of the Old Days and Moneths can finde no other sâ—itle for them then the First Second or Third Moneth of the Year and the First Second or Third Day of the Week c. so was it propounded not long since by some State-Reformâ—rs That the Lentenâ—Fast should be kept no longer between Shrovetide and Ealster but rather by some Act or Ordinance to be made for that purpose bâ—â—wixt Easter and Whitsuntide To such wild Fancies do men grow when once they break those Bonds and neglect those Rules which wise Antiquity ordainâ—d for the preservation of Peace and Order If it be asked What in the mean time was become of the Bishops and Why no Care wâ—s tâ—ken for the purging of these Peccant Humours It may be Answered That the Wings of their Authority had bâ—en so clipped that it was scarce able to fly abâ—oad the Seâ—tâ—nce of Excommunication wherewith they formerly kept in Aw both Priest and People noâ— having been in Use and Practice since the first of this King Whether it were that any Command was lay'd upon the Bishops by which they were restrained from the Exercise of it Or that some other Course was in Agitation for drawing the Cognizance of all Ecclesiastical Causes to the Courts at Westminster Or that it was thought inconsistent with that Dreadful Sâ—ntence to be issued in the King's Name as it had lately been appointed by Act of Parliament it is not easie to determine Certain it is that at this Time it was in an Abeyaâ—ce as our Lawyers Phrase it either Abolishâ—d for the present or of none Effect not onely to the cherishing of these Disorders amongst the Ministers of the Church but to the great encrease of Vicâ—ousness in all sorts of Men. So that it was not without cause that it was called for so earnestly by Bishop Latimer in a Sermon Preached before the King where he thus presseth for the Restitution of the Antient Discipline Lechery saith he is used in England and such Lechery as is used in no other Part of the World And yet it is made a matter of Sport a matter of Nothing a Laughing matter a Trifle not to be Passed-on nor Reformed Well I trust it will be amended one day and I hope to see it mended as old as I am Ana here I will make a Suit to your Highness to restore unto the Church the Dâ—scipline of Christ in Excommunicating such as be notable Offenders Nor never devise any other Way for no man is able to devise any better then that God hath done with Excommunication to put them from the Congregation till they be conâ—ounded Therefore Restore Christ's Discipline for Excommunication and that shall be a mean both to pacifie Goâ—'s Wrath and Indignation and also that less Abomination shall be used then in Times past hath been or is at this day I speak this of a Conscience and I mean to move it of a Will to Your Grace and Your Realm Bring into the Church of England the Open Discipline of Excommunication that open Sinners may be striken with all Noâ— were these all the Mischiefs which the Church suffered at this Time Many of 〈◊〉 Nobility and Gentry whâ—ch held Abbey-Lands and were charged with Pensions to the Monks out of a covetous Design to be freed of those Pensions oâ— to discharge their Lands from those Incumbrances which by that means were laâ—'d upon them had placed them in such Benefices as were in their Gifts This fiâ—led the Church with ignorant and illiterate Priestâ— few of the Monks being Learned beyond their Mass-Book utterly unacquainted with the Art of Preaching and otherwise not well-affected to the Reformation Of which Abuse Complaint is made by Calvin to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Pâ—ter Martyr much bemoaneth the miserable Condition of the Church for want of Preachers though he touch not at the Reasons and Causes of it For the remâ—dy whereof as Time and Leasure would permit it was Ordained by the Advice of the Loâ—ds of the Council That of the King's 〈◊〉 Chaâ—lains which attended in Ordinary two of them shâ—uld be always aboâ—t the Court and the other four should Travail in Preaching abroad The first year two in Wales and two in Lincolnshire the second year two in the Marches of Scotland and two in Yorkshire the third year two in Devonshire and two in Hampshire the fourth year two in Norfolk and two in Essex the fiâ—th year two in Kent and two in Sussex and so throughout all the Shires in England By which means it was hoped that the People might in time be well instructed in their Duty to God and their Obedience to the Laws in which they had not shewed themselves so forward as of right they ought But this Course being like to be long in running and subject to more Heats and Coâ—ds then the nature of the Business could well comport with the next caâ—e was to fiâ—l the Church with Abler and more Orthodox Clarks as the Cures fell void And for an Example to
1282. that they had a Synodal Authority unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as to them seemed to be nâ—câ—ssary or convenient for the use of the Church Had it been otherwise King Edward a most Pious and Religious Prince must needs be looked on as a Wicked and most Lewd Impostour in putting such an horrible Cheat upon all His Subjects by Fathering these Articles on the Convocation which begat them not nor ever gave consent unto them And yet it is not altogether improbable but that these Articles being debated and agreed upon by the said Commitee might also pass the Vote of the whole Convocation though we finde nothing to that purpose in the Acts thereof which either have been lost or were never Registred Besides it is to be observed that the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publick Tenents of the Church in point of Doctrine which certainly She had not done had they been commended to Her by a less Authority then a Convocation Such hand the Convocation had in canvasing the Articles prepared for them and in concluding and agreeing to so much or so many of them as afterwards were published by the King's Authority in the name thereof But whether they had any such hand in Reviewing the Liturgie and passing their Consent to such Alterations as were made therein is another Question That some necessity appeared both for the Reveiwing of the whole and the altering of some Parts thereof hath been shew'd before And it was shewed before by whose Procurement and Sollicitation the Church was brought to that necessity of doing somewhat to that Purpose But being not sufficiently Authorised to proceed upon it because the King 's sole Authority did not seem sufficient they were to stay the Leasure and Consent of the present Parliament For being the Liturgie then in force had been confirmed and imposed by the King in Parliament with the Consent and Assent of the Lords and Commons it stood with Reason that they should not venture actually on the Alteration but by their permission first declared And therefore it is said expresly in the Act of Parliament made this present year That The said Order of Common Service Entituled The Book of Common-Prayer had been Perused Explained and made fully perfect not single by the King's Authority but by the King with the Assent of the Lords and Commons More then the giving of their Assent was neither required by the King nor desired by the Prelats and less then this could not be fought as the Case then stood The signifying of which Assent enabled the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy whom they had taken for their Assistants to proceed to the Digesting of such Alterations as were before considered and resolved on amongst themselves and possibly might receive the like Authority from the Convocation as the Articles had though no such thing remaining upon Record in the Registers of it But whether it were so or not certain it is that it received as much Authority and Countenance as could be given unto it by an Act of Parliament by which imposed upon the Subject under certain Penalties Imprisonments Pecuniarie Mulcts c. which could not be inflicted on them by Synodical Acts. The Liturgie being thus Settled and Confirmed in Parliament was by the King's Command translated into French for the Use of the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and such as lived within the Marches and Command of Calais But no such Care was taken for Wales till the fifth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth nor of the Realm of Ireland from that time to this King Henry had so far prepared the Way to a Reformation as His own Power and Profit was concerned in it to which Ends he excluded the Pope's Authority and caused Himself to be declared Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland by Act of Parliament And by like Acts he had annexed to the Crown the Lands of all Monasteries and Religious Orders together with thetwentieth Part of all the Ecclesiastical Promotions within that Kingdom and caused the like Course to be settled for the Electing and Consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops as had been done before in England Beyond which as he did not go so as it seems King Edward's Council thought not fit to adventure further They held it not agreeable to the Rules of Prudence to have too many Irons in the Fire at once nor safe in Point of Policy to try Conclusions on a People in the King's Minority which were so far tenacionsly addicted to the Superstitions of the Church of Rome and of a Nature not so tractable as the English were And yet that Realm was quiet even to Admiration notwithstanding the frequent Embroilments and Commotions which so miserably disturbed the Peace of England which may be reckoned for one of the greatest Felicities of this King's Reign and a strong Argument of the Care and Vigilancy of such of His Ministers as had the chief Direction of the Irish Affairs At the first Payment of the Money for the Sale rather then the Surrendry of Bulloign eight thousand pounds was set apart for the Service of Ireland and shortly after out of the Profits which were raised from the Mint four hundred men were Levied and sent over thither also with a Charge given to the Governours that the Laws of England should be Carefully and Duly administred and all such as did oppose suppressed by Means whereof great Countenance was given to those who embraced the Reformed Religion there especially within those Counties which are called commonly by the name of the English Pale The Common-Prayer-Book of England being brought over thither and used in most of the Churches of the English Plantation without any Law in their own Parliaments to impose it on them But nothing more conduced to the Peace of that Kingdom then that the Governours for the most part were men of such Choice that neither the Nobility disdained to endure their Commands nor the inferiour sort were oppressed to supply their Wants Besides which as the King drew many men from thence to serve him in his Wars against France and Scotland which otherwise might have disturbed the common Peace so upon notice of some great Preparations which were made in France for the Assistance of the Scots he sent over to guard the Coast of Ireland four Ships four Barks four Pinnaces and twelve Victuallers By the Advantage of which Strength He made good three Havens two on the South-side toward France and one toward Scotland which afterwards made themselves good Booties out of such of the French as were either cast away on the Coast of Ireland or forced to save themselves in the Havens of it For the French making choice rather of their Passage by Saint George's Chanel then by the ordinary Course of Navigation from France to Edenborough fell from one Danger to another and for fear of being
intercepted or molested by the Ships of England were Shipwracked as before was said on the Coast of Ireland Nothing else Memorable in this King's Reign which concerned that Kingdom and therefore I have lai'd it altogether in this Place and on this Occasion But we return again to England where we have seen a Reformation made in Point of Doctrine and settled in the Forms of Worship the Superstitions and corruptions of the Church of Rome entirely abrogated and all things rectified according to the Word of God and the Primitive Practice nothing defective in the Managing of so great a Work which could have been required by equal and impartial Men but that it was not done as they conceived it ought to have been done in a General Council But first we finde not any such Necessity of a General Council but that many Heresies had been suppressed and many Corruptions removed out of the Church without any such Trouble Saint Augustine in his fourth Book against the two Epistles of the Pelagians cap. 12. speaks very plainly to this Purpose and yet the Learned Cardinal though a great Stickler in behalf of General Councils speaks more plain then he By whom it is affirrmed that for seven Heresies condemned in seven General Councils though by his leave the seventh did not so much suppress as advance an Heresie an huudred had been quashed in National and Provincial Councils The Practice of the Church in the several Councils of Aquilia Carthage Gangra Milevis c. make this plain enough all of them being Provincial or at least but National and doing their own Work without Help from others The Church had been in an ill Condition had it been otherwise especially under the Power of the Heathen Emperours when such a Confluence of the Prelats from all Parts of the World would have been construed a Conspiracy against the State and drawn Destruction on the Church and the Persons both Or granting that they might assemble without any such Danger yet being great Bodies moving slowly and not without long time and many Difficulties and Disputes to be rightly Constituted the Church would suffer more under such Delay by the spreading of Heresie then receive Benefit by this Care to suppress the same So that there neither is or can be any such Necessity either in Order to the Reformation of a National Church or the Suppressing of particular Heresies as by the Objectours is supposed Howsoever taking it for granted that a General Council is the best and safest Physick that the Church can take on all Occasions of Epidemical Distempers yet must it be granted at such times and in such Cases onely when it may conveniently be had For where it is not to be had or not had conveniently it will either prove to be no Physick or not worth the taking But so it was at the time of the Reformation that a General Council could not conveniently be assembled and more then so it was impossible that any such Council should assemble I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted according to the Rules lai'd down by our Controversers For first they say It must be called by such as have Power to do it Secondly That it must be intimated to all Christian Churches that so no Church nor People may plead Ignorance of it Thirdly That the Pope and the four chief Patriarchs must be present at it either in person or by Proxie And lastly That no Bishop be excluded if he be known to be a Bishop and not Eâ—xcommunicated According to which Rules it was impossible I say that any General Council should be assembled at the time of the Reformation oâ— the Church of England It was not then as when the chief four Patriarchs together with their Metropolitan and Suffragan Bishops were under the Protection of the Christian Emperours and might without Danger to themselves or to their Churches obey the Intimation and attend the Service the Patriarchs with their Metropolitans and Suffragans both then and now languishing under the Power and Tyranny of the Turk to whom so general a Confluence of Christian Bishops must needs give matter of Suspicion of just Fears and Jealousies and therefore not to be permitted as far as he can possibly hinder it on good Reason of State And then besides it would be known by whom such a General Council was to be assembled if by the Pope as generally the Papists say He and his Court were looked on as the greatest Grievance of the Christian Church and it was not probable that he should call a Council against himself unless he might have leave to pack it to govern it by His own Legats fill it with Titular Bishops of His own creating or send the Holy Ghost to them in Cloak-Bag as he did to Trent If joyntly by all Christian Princes which is the Common Tenent of the Protestant Scholes what Hopes could any man conceive as the Times then were that they should lay aside their particular Interesses to enter all together upon one design Or if they had agreed about it what Power had they to call the Prelats of the East to attend the Business and to protect them for so doing at their going home So that I look upon the hopes of a General Council I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted as an empty Dream The most that was to be expected was but a meeting of some Bishops of the West of Europe and those but of one Party onely as such were excommunicated and that might be as many as the Pope should please being to be excluded by the Cardinal's Rule Which how it may be called an Oecumenical or General Council unless it be a Topical-Oecâ—menical a Particular-General as great an Absurdity in Grammar as a Romaeu-Catholick I can hardly see Which being so and so no question but it was either the Church must have continâ—ed without Reformation or else it must be lawfull for National particular Churches to Reform themselves And in that case the Church may be Reformed per partes part after part Province after Province as is said by Gerson Further then which I shall not enter into this Dispute this being enough to Justifie the Church of England from doing any thing Unadvisedly Unwarrantably or without Example That which remains in Reference to the Progress of the Reformation concerns as well the Nature as the Number of such Feasts and Fastâ— as were thought fit to be retained Determined and Concluded on by an Act of Parliament to which the Bishops gave their Vote but whether Predetermined in the Convocation must be left as doubtfull In the Preamble to which Act it is Declared That At all times men are not so mindfull of performing those Publick Christian Duties which the true Religion doth require as they ought to be and therefore it hath been wholesomly provided that for calling them to their Duties and for helping their Infirmities that some certain Times and Days should be appointed wherein
Christians should cease from all other kinde of Labours and apply themselves onely and wholely unto such Holy Works as properly pertain to True Religion that the said Holy Works to be performed upon those Days are more particularly to hear to learn and to remember Almighty God's great Benefits his manifold Mercies his inestimable Gracious Goodness so plentifully poured upon all his Creatures rendring unto him for the same our most hearty thanks That the said Days and Times are neither to be called or accounted Holy neither in the Nature of the time or day nor for any of the Saints sakes whose Memories are preserved by them but for the Nature and Condition of those Godly and Holy Works with which onely God is to be Honoured and the Congregation to be Edified That the Sanctifying of the said Days consisteth in separating them apart from all prophane uses and Dedicated not to any Saint or Creature but onely to the Worship of God That there is no certain time nor definite number of days appointed by Holy Scripture but that the appointment of the time as also of the days is left to the Liberty of Christ His Church by the Word of God That the days which from thenceforth were to be kept as Holy days in the Church of England should be all Sundays in the Year the Feast of the Circumcision the Epiphany the Purification of the Blessed Virgin c. with all the rest recited at the end of the Calender in the publick Liturgy That the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. shall have Authority to punish the Offenders in all or any of the Premisses by the usual censures of the Church and to impose such penance on them as to them or any of them shall seem expedient and finally that notwithstanding any thing before declared it shall and may be lawfull for any Husbandman Labourer Fisherman c. to labour ride fish or work any kind of work on the foresaid Holy days not onely in the time of Harvest but at any other time of the year when need shall require with a Proviso for the Celebrating of St. Georg's Feast on the two and twenty three and twenty and four and twentieth Days of April yearly by the Knights of the Right Honourable Order of the Garter or by any of them Which Declaration as it is agreeable in all points to the Tenour of approved Antiquity so can there nothing be more contrary to the Doctrine of the Sabbatarians Which of late time hath been Obtruded on the Church Then for the number of the Fasts It is Declared that from that time forwards every Even or Day going before any of the aforesaid Days of the Feasts of the Nativity of Our Lord of Easter of the Ascension of our Lord Pentecost of the Purification and the Annunciation of the aforesaid Blessed Virgin of All-Saints of all the said Feasts of the Apostles other then of St. John the Evangelist and of St. Philip and Jacob shall be fasted and Commanded to be kept and observed and that none other Even or Day shall be Commanded to be Fasted For Explication of which last Clause it is after added that the said Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend to abrogate or take away the Abstinence from Flesh in Lent or on Fridays and Saturdays or any other appointed pointed to be kept for a Fasting-Day but onely on the Evens of such other Days as formerly had been kept and observed for Holy and were now abrogated by this Act. And for the better suppressing or preventing of any such Fasts as might be kept upon the Sunday it was Enacted in the same according to the Practice of the Elder Times that when it shall chance any the said Feasts the Eves whereof are by this Statute to be kept for Fasting-Days to fall upon the Munday that then the Saturday next before shall be Fasted as the Eve thereof and not the Sunday Which Statute though repealed in the first of Queen Mary and not revived till the first year of the Reign of King James yet in Effect it stood in Force and was more punctually observed in the whole time of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign then after the Reviver of it Such course being taken for the due observing of Days and Times the next care was that Consecrated Places should not be Prophaned by Fighting and Quarrelling as they had been lately since the Episcopal Jurisdiction and the Ancient Censures of the Church were lessened in Authority and Reputation And to that end it was Enacted in this present Parliament that if any Persons whatsoever after the first day of May then next following should quarrel chide or brawl in any Church or Church-yard he should be suspended ab ingressu Ecclesiae if he were a Lay-man and from his Ministration if he were a Priest that if any Person after the said time should smite or lay violent hands upon another he should be deemed to be Excommunicate ipso facto and be excluded from the Fellowship and Company of Christ's Congregation and finally that if any Person should strike another with any weapon in the Church or Church-yard or draw his sword with an intent to strike another with the same and thereof be lawfull convicted he should be punished with the loss of one of his Ears c. A seasonable severity and much conducing to the Honour both of Church and State There were some Statutes also made for taking away the benefit of Clergy in some certain Cases for making such as formerly had been of any Religious Order to be Heritable to the Lands of their Ancestours or next of Kindred to whom they were to have been Heirs by the Common Law for Confirming the Marriages of Priests and giving them their â—ives and Children the like Capacities as other Subjects did enjoy whereof we have already spoke in another place There also passed another Act that no Person by any means should lend or forbear any Sum of Mony for any manner of Vsury or encrease to be received or hoped for above the sum lent upon pain to forâ—eit the sum so lent and the encrease and to suffer imprisonment and make fine at the King's pleasure But this Act being found to be prejudicial to the â—rade of the Kingdom first discontinued of it self and was afterwards repealed in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth This Parliament ending on the fifteenth of April gave time enough for Printing and Publishing the Book of Common-Prayer which had been therein Authorised the time for the Officiating of it being fixed on the Feast of All-Saints then next ensuing Which time being come there appeared no small Alteration in the outward Solemnities of Divine Service to which the people had been formerly so long accustomed For by the Râ—brick of that Book no Copes or other Vestures were required but the Surplice onely whereby the Bishops were necessitated to forbear their Crosses and the Prebends of St. Paul's and other Churches occasioned to leave off their
Injunctions Anno 1559. Not giving such a general satisfaction to that groundless cavil as was expected and intended the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation of the year 1562. by the Queens authority and consent declared more plainly that is to say That they gave not to their Princess by vertue of the said Act or otherwise either the ministring of Gods word or Sacraments but that only Prerogâ—tive which they saw to have been given alwaies to all godly Princes in holy Scripture by God himself that is to say that they should 〈◊〉 all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborne and evil doers By all which if the cavils of the Adversary be not fully answered it would be known upon what reason they should question that in a soverain Queen which they allow in many cases to a Lady Abbess For that an Abbess may be capable of all and all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction even to the dâ—nouncing of that dreadful sentence of Excommunication and that thâ—y may lawfully exercise the same upon all such as live within the verge of their authority is commonly acknowledged by their greatest Canonists First for suspension it is affirmed by their Glosse that an Abbess may suspend such Clerks as are subject to her both from their Benefice and Office And questionless either to suspend a Clerk or to bring his Church under the sentence of an Interdict is one of the chief parts of Ecclesiastical or spiritual Censures Nor have they this authority only by way of delegation from the Pope in some certain cases as is affirmed by Aquinas Durandus ' Sylvâ—ster Dominicus Soto and many other of their Schoolmen but in an ordinary way as properly and personally invested them which is the general opinion of their greatest Canonists Next for the Sacraments it is sufficiently known that the ministration of Baptism is performed by Midwives and many other women as of common course not only as a thing connived at in extreme necessity but as a necessary duty in which they are to be instructed against all emergencies by their Parish Priests for which we have the testimony of the late Lord Legate in the Articles published by him for his visitation And finally for excommunication it is affirmed by Palladanus and Navarre none of the meanest in the Pack that the Pope may grant that power to a woman also higher than which there can be none exercised in the Church by the sons of men And if a Pope may grant these powers unto a woman as to a Prioress or Abbess or to any other there can be then no incapacity in the Sex for exersing any part of that jurisdiction which was restored unto the Crown by this Act of Parliament And if perhaps it be objected that a Lady Abbess is an Ecclesiastical or spiritual person in regard of her office which cannot be affirmed of Queens Pope Gregory himself will come in to help us by whom it was not thought unfit to commit the cognisance of a cause concerning the purgation of a Bishop who stood charged with some grievous crime to Brunichildis or Brunholi Queen of France of which although the Gloss upon the Decretals be pleased to say That the Pope stretched his power too far in this particular yet Gregory did no more therein but what the Popes may do and have done of late times by their own confession so little ground there is for so great a clamour as hath been made by Bellarmine and other of the Popish Jesuites upon this occasion Now for the better exercising and enjoying of the jurisdiction thus recognised unto the Crown there are two Clauses in the Act of great importance the first whereof contains an Oath for the acknowledgment and defence of this Supremacy not onely in the Queen but her heirs and successors the said Oath to be taken by all Archbishops Bishops and all other Ecclesiastical persons and also by all temporal Judges Justiciaries Mayors or any other temporal Officers c. For the refusal whereof when lawfully tendred to them by such as were thereto commissionated under the great Seal of England every such person so refusing was actually to stand deprived of his or their Eâ—clesiastical Preferments or other temporal office of what sort soever onely it was provided that the Oath should not be imposed on any of the temporal Peers of whose fidelity the Queen seemed willing to assure her self without any such tye though this exemption was esteemed by others but a piece of cunning the better to facilitate the passing of that Act amongst them which otherwise they might have hindred But this provision was not made till the following Parliament though for the reason before mentioned it was promised now By the last Clause it was enacted That it should and might be lawful to the Queen her heirs and Successors by Letters Patents under the great Seal of England to assigne name and authorise when and as often as her Highness her Heirs or Successors should think convenient such persons being natural born Subjects to them to exercise use and occupie under her Highness her Heirs and Successors all manner of Jurisdictions Privileges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within the Realms of England and Ireland or any other her Highness Dominions or Countries and to visit reform repress order correct and amend all such errors heresies schisms abuses offences contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction or can or may lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and conservation of the peace and unity of this Realm With a Proviso notwithstanding that nothing should from thenceforth be accounted for Heresie but what was so adjudged in the holy Scripture or in one of the four first General Councils or in any other National or Provincial Council determining according to the word of God or finally which should be so adjudged in the time to come by the Court of Parliament first having the assent of the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation This was the first foundation of that famous Court of High Commission the principal Bulwark and Preservative of the Church of England against the practices and assaults of all her Adversaries whether Popish or Puritan And from hence issued that Commission by which the Queens Ministers proceeded in their Visitation in the first year of her Reign for rectifying all such things as they found amiss and could not be redressed by any ordinary Episcopal power without the spending of more time than the exigencies of the Church could then admit of There also past another Act for recommending and imposing the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments according to such alterations and corrections as were made therein by those
we find the Queens Professor in Oxford to pass amongst the Non-Conformists though somewhat more moderate than the rest and Cartwright the Lady Margarets in Cambridge to prove an unextinguished firebrand to the Church of England Whittington the chief Ringleader of the Franckfort Schismaticks preferred unto the Deanry of Durham from thence encouraging Knox and Goodman in setting up Presbytery and Sedition in the Kirk of Scotland Sampson advanced unto the Deanry of Christ-Church and within few years after turned out again for an incorrigible Non-Conformist Hardiman one of the first twelve Prebends of the Church of Westminster deprived soon after for throwing down the Altar and defacing the vestments of the Church Which things I only touch at now leaving the further prosecution of them to another place Of all these traverses the Pope received advertisement from the first to the last But being of a rugged humouâ— he fell most infinitely short of that dexterity which the case required for finding out a fit expedient to prevent the rupture When his first sullen fits had left him he began to treat more seriously with the English Agent not that the Queen should sue unto him for the Crown which she was possessed of but that no alteration of Religion might be driven at by her To whiâ—h Karn answered according to such instructions as he had received That he could give him no assurance in that point unless the Pope would first declare that the mariage of King Henry with Queen Anne Bollen had been good and lawful Which cross request so stumbled both the Pope and the Conclave that they made choise rather of doing nothing than to do that of which they could not promise to themselves any fortunate issue Roused at the last by the continual alarums which came from England he entertains some secret practices with the French and on the sudden signifies his commands to Karn that he should not depart out of Râ—me without his leave and that in the mean time he should take upon him the government of the English Hospital in the City In which command each of them is affirmed to have had his own proper ends For Karn affected that restraint which he was thought to have procured under hand because he had no mind to return into England where he wâ—s like to find a different Religion from that which he embraced in his own particular And the Pope had his own ends also in hindering as he thought â—he discovering of that secret intelligence which he maintained with the French King to the Queens destruction if his designs had took effect But his design was carried with so little cunning that presently it discovered it self without the help of a revelation from the English Agent For whether it were by his instigation or by the solicitation of the French King or the ambition of the Daulphin who had then maried the Queen of Scots as before was said the Queen of Scots assumes unto her self the stile and title of Queen of England quartereth the Arms thereof upon all her Plate and in all Armories and Escoutcheons as she had occasion And this she did as Cosen and next heir to the Queen deceased which could not be without imputing bastardy to the Queen then living A folly which occasioned such displeasure in the heart of Elizabeth that it could neither be forgotten nor so much as forgiven till that unfortunate Lady was driven out of her Kingdom hunted into a close imprisonment and finally brought out to the fatal block This as it somewhat startled the new Queen of England so it engaged her the more resolutely in that Reformation which was so happily begun And to that end she sets out by Advice of her Council a certain Body of Injunctions the same in purpose and effect with those which had been published in the first of King Edward but more accommodated to the temper of the present time Nothing more singular in the same than the severe course taken about Ministers Mariages the use of singing and the Reverences in Divine Worship to be kept in Church the posture of the Communion Table and the form of bidding Prayers in the Congregation This last almost the same verbaâ—im with that which is prescribed Can. 55. Anno 1603. and therefore not so necessary to be here repeated The first worne long since out â—f use and not much observed neither when it first came out as if it had been published in the way of caution to make the Clergy men more wary in the choice of their wives than with a purpose of persuing it to an execution But as for that concerning the use of singing and the accustomed Reverences to be kept in Churches they are these that follow Touching the last it is enjoyed That whensoever the name of Jesus should be in any Lesson Sermon or otherwise in the Church pronounced that due reverence be made of all persons young and old with lowliness of courtesie and uncovering of the heads of the men kind as thereunto did necessarily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed For the encouragement of the Art and the continuance of the use of Singing in the Church of Engâ—and it was thus enjoyned that is to say That because in divers Collegiat as also in some Parish Câ—urches heretofore there hath been Livings appointed for the maintenance of men and children for singing in the Church by means whereof the laudable exercise of Musick hath been had in estimation and preserved in knowledge The Queens Majesty neither meaning in any wiâ—e the decay of any thing that might conveniently tend to the use and continuance of the said Science neither to have the same so abused in any part of the Church that thereby the Common-Prayer should be the worse understood by the Hearers willeth and commandeth that first no alterations be made of such assignments of Living as heretofore hath been appointed to the use of Singing or Musick in the Church but that the same so remain And that there be a modest and distinct Song so used in all parts of the Common-Prayers in the Church that the same may be as plainly understood as if it were read without singing And yet nevertheless for the comforting of such as delight in Musick it may be permitted that in the beginning or in the end of common-Prayer either at morning or evening there may be sung an Hymn or such like Song to the praise of Almighty God in the best Melody and Musick that may be conveniently devised having respect that the sentence of the Hymn may be understood and perceived According to which order as Plain-song was retained in most Parish-Churches for the daily Psalms so in her own Chapels and in the Quire of all Cathedrals and some Colleges the Hymns were sung after a more melodious manner with Organs commonly and sometimes with other musical Instruments as the solemnity required No mention here of singing David's Psalms in Meeter though afterwards they first thrust out the Hymns
till the end of that Parliament the interval between the end of the Parliament the deprivation of the old Bishops and the consecration of the new was to be taken up in the executing of such surveys and making such advantages of them as most redoâ—nded to the profit of the Queen and her Courtiers Upon whiâ—h ground as all the Bishops Sees were so long kept vacant before any one of them was filled so in the following times they were kept void one after another as occasion served till the best Flowers in the whole Garden of the Church had been câ—lled out of it There was another Clause in the said Statutes by which the patrimony of the Church was as much dilapidaâ—ed sede plena as it was pulled by this in the times of vacancy for by that Clause all Bishops were restrained from making any Grants of their Farms and Mannors for more than twenty one years or three lives at the most except it were unto the Queen her Heirs and Successors But either to the Queen or to any of her Heirs and Successors and under that pretence to any her hungry Courtiers they might be granted in Fee farm or for a Lease of fourscore and nineteen years as it pleased the Parties By which means Credinton was dismembered from the See of Exon the goodly mannor of Sherborn from that of Salâ—sbury many fair mannors alienated for ever from the rich Sees of Winchester Elie and indeed what not But to proceed unto the Consecration of the new Archbishop the first thing to be done after the passing of the Royal Assent for ratifying of the election of the Dean and Chapter was the confirming of it in the Court of the Arches according to the usual form in that behalf Which being accordingly performed the Vicar General the Dean of the Arches the Proctors and Officers of the Court whose presence was required at this Solemnity were enteâ—tained at a dinner provided for them at the Nags head Tavern in Cheapside for which though Parker paid the shot yet shall the Church be called to an after reâ—koning Nothing remains to expedite the Consecration but the Royal Mandat which I find dated on the sixth of December directed to Anthony Ktâ—ching Bishop of Landaff William Barlow late Bishop of Bath and Wells Lord Elect of Chichester John Scory late Bishop of Chichester Lord Elect of Hereford Miles Coverdale late Bishop of Exeter John Hodgskins Suffragan of Bedford John Suffragan of Thetford and John Bale Bishop of Osserâ—â— in the Realm of Ireland requiring them or any of them at the least to proceed unto the consecration of the right reverend Matthew Parker lately elected to the Metropolitical See of Canterbury The first and the two last either hindred by sickness or by some other lawfull impediment were not in a condition to attend the service whiâ—h notwithstanding was performed by the other four on Sunday the seventeenth of that Month according to the Ordinal of King Edward the sixth then newly printed for that purpose the Ceremony performed in the Chapel at Lambeth house the East end whereof was hanged with rich Tapestry and the floor covered with red cloth the Morning Service read by Pearson the Archbishops Chaplain the Sermon preached by Doctor Scâ—â—y Lord Elect of Hereford on those words of St. Peter The Elders which are among you â— exhort c. 1 Pet. 5. 1. The Letters Parents for proceeding to the Consecration publickly read by Doctor Dale the Act of Consecration legally performed by the imposition of the hands of the said four Bishops according to the antient Canons and King Edward's Ordinal and after all a plentiful dinner for the entertainment of the company which resorted thither amongst whom Charls Howard eldest son of William Lord Effingham created afterwards Lord Admiral and Earl of Notingham hapned to be one and after testified to the truth of all these particulars when the reality and form of this Consecration was called in question by some captious sticklers for the Church of Rome For so it was that some sticklers for the Church of Rome having been told of the dinner which was made at the Nags head Tavern at such time as the election of the new Archbishop was confirmed in the Arches raised a report that the Nags head Tavern was the place of the Consecration And this report was countenanced by another slander causing it to be noised abroad and published in some seditious Pamphlets that the persons designed by the Queen for the several Bishopricks being met at a Tavern did then and there lay hands upon one another without Form or Order The first calumny fathered on one Keale once Hebrew Reader in the University of Oxford and Chaplain unto Bishop Bonner which last relation were sufficient to discredit the whole tale if there were no other evidence to disprove the same And yet the silence of all Popish Writers concerning this Nags head-Consecration during the whole Reign of Queen Elizabeth when it had been most material for them to insist upon it as much discrediteth the whole figment as the Author of it The other published by Dr. Nicholas Sanders never more truly Dr. Sâ—anders than in that particular in his pestilent and seditious Book Entituled De Schismate Anglicano whose frequent falshoods make him no fit Author to be built upon in any matter of importance Yet on the credit of these two but on the first especially thâ— Tale of the Nags-head-Consecration being once taken up was generally exposed to sale as one of the most vendible commodities in the writings of some Romish Pâ—iests and Jesuits as Champney's Fitzsimons Parson Kellison c. They knew right well that nothing did more justifie the Church of England in the eye of the world than that it did preserve a succession of Bishops and consequently of all other sacred Orders in the ministration Without which as they would not grant it to be a Church so could they prove it to be none by no stronger Argument than that the Bishops or the pretended Bishops rather in their opinion were either not consecrate at all or not canonically consecrated as they ought to be And for the gaining of this point they stood most pertinaâ—iously on the fiction of the Nags-head Tavern which if it could be proved or at least believed there was an end of the Episcopal succession in the Church of England and consequently also of the Church it self For the decrying of this clamour and satisfying all opponents in the truth of the matter it was thought fit by Dr. George Abbot then Archbishop of Canterbury to call before him some of the Priests and Jesuits that is to say Fairecloth Leake Laithwaite and Collins being then prisoners in the Clinck Who being brought to Lambeth on the 12th of May 1613. were suffered in the presence of divers Bishops to peruse the publick Registers and thereby to satisfie themselves in all particulars concerning the Confirmation and Consecration of Archbishop Parker according to the
circumstances and Punctillioes before laid down This stilled the clamour for the present though it brake out again forty years after and was again stilled by the care and industry of the right Reverend Dr. Bâ—amhall Lord Bishop of Derry in a Book Entituled The Church of England defended against some scandalous and fabulous â—â—pâ—tations cast upon her c. Which cavil for it is no better being thus refelled the other objections of the Adversaries will be easily answered though Barlow and Scory were deprived of their Episcopal Sees yet first the justice and legality of their deprivation was not clear in Law and secondly they neither were nor could be deprived of their Episcopal character which remained in them undefaced as before it was And whilst the character remained they were in a capacity of performing all Episcopal Offices to which they should be called by their Metropolitan or any higher Power directing and commanding in all such matters as concerned the Church And as for Suffragans by which title Hodgskins is Commissionated for the Consecration they were no other than the Chore-Epâ—scopi of the Primitive times Subsidiary Bishops ordained for easing the Diocesan of some part of his burthen By means whereof they were enabled to perform such offices belonging to that sacred function not limited to time and place by the ancient Canons by which a Bishop was restrained in some certain acts of Jurisdiction to his proper Diocess Of this sort there were twenty six in the Realm of England distinguished by the names of such principal Towns as were appointed for their title and denomination The names and number whereof together with the jurisdiction and preheminences proportioned to them the Reader may peruse in the Act of Parliament made in the â—6th year of King Henry the 8th No sooner was this solemnity ended but a new mandate comes for the Confirmation of Dr. Barlow in the See of Chichester and Dr Scory to the See of Hereford to which they had been severally elected in August last And though the not restoring of them to their former Sees might seem to juâ—â—ifie the late Queen Mary in their deprivation yet the Queen wanted not good reasons for their present removal not that she did consult therein her own power and profit as is thought by some but studied rather their content and satisfaction than her own concernments For Baâ—low having wasted the revenue of the Church of Wells could not with any comfort behold a place which he had so spoiled and Scory having been deprived of the See of Chichester under pretence of wanting a just title to it desired not to be put upon the hazard of a second ejction But as for Coverdale he did not only wave the acceptation of Oxon but of any other Church then vacant He was now 72 years old and desired rather to enjoy the pleasure of a private life than be disquieted in his old age with the cares of Government And somewhat might be also in it of a disaffection not to the Calling but the Habit which is to be believed the rather because he attended not at the Consecration in his Cope and Rocher as the others did but in a plain black Coat reaching down to his Ankles And now the rest of the Episcopal Sees begin to fill for on the 21 of the same December Dâ— Edmond Gâ—indall was consecrated to the See of London Dr. Râ—chard Cox to that of Ely Dr. Edwin Sandys to the Church of Worcester Dr. Rowland Merick unto that of Bangor On the 21 of January then next following Dr. Nicholas Bullingham was by the like consecration made Bishop of Lincoln the right learned Mr. John Jewel who afterwards accepted the degree of Doctor Bishop of Sarisbury Dr. Thomas Young Bishop of St. Davids and Mr. Râ—chard Davis Bishop of St. Asaph The 24th of March was honoured with the Consecration of three other Bishops that is to say of Mr. Thomas Bentham to the See of Coventry and Lichfield of Mr. Gilbert Barclay to the See of Wâ—lls and of Dr. Edmund Guest to that of Rochester On the 14th of July comes the consecration of Dr. William Alley to the Church of Exon and that of Mr John Parkhurst to the Church of Norwich on the first of September By which account we find no â—ewer than sixteen Sees to be filled with new Bishops within the compass of the year men of ability in matter of learning and suâ—h as had a good report for the integrity of their lives and conversations Nor was it long before the rest of the Episcopal Sees were supplied with new Pastors as shall be shewn hereafter in due time and place The Queens commission of sarvey had not crossed the Trent which possibly may be the reason why we find no new Bishops in the Province of York and Wâ—nchâ—ster must afford one Michaelmas rent more to the Queens Exchequer before the Lord Treasurer could give way to a new incumbent And now we may behold the face of the Church of England as it was first setled and established under Queen Elizabeth The Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops according to the practice of the best and happiest times of Christianity These Bishops nominated and elected according to the Statute in the 26th of King Henry the 8th and consecrated by the Ordinal confirmed by Parliament in the 5th and 6th years of King Edward the 6th never appearing publickly but in their Rochets nor officiating otherwise than in Copes at the Holy Altar The Priests not stirring out of doors but in their square Caps Gowns or Canonical Coats nor executing any divine Office but in their Surplice avestment set apart for Religious services in the Primitive times as may be gathered from St Chrysostome for the Eastern Churches and from St Hierom for the Western The Doctrine of the Church reduced unto its ancient purity according to the Articles agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1552. The Liturgy conform to the Primitive patterns and all the Rites and Ceremonies therein prescribed accommodated to the honour of God and increase of piety The Festivals preserved in their former dignity observed with their distinct Offices peculiar to them and celebrated with a Religious couâ—cuâ—â—â— of all sorts of people the weekly Fasts the holy time of Lent the Embrâ—â—◠〈◊〉 together with the Fast of the Rogation severely kept by a forbearance of all â—ind of flesh not now by vertue of the Statute as in the time oâ— King Edward but as appointed by the Church in her publick Calender before the Book of Common Prayer The Sacrament of the Lords Supper celebrated in most reverend manner the Holy Table seated in the place of the Altar the people making their due reverence at their first entrance into the Church kneeling at the Communion the Confession and the publick Prayers standing up at the Creed the Gospels and the Gloria Patri and using the accustomed reverence at the name of Jesus Musick retained in all such Churches
in which provision had been made for the maintenance of it or where the people could be trained up at the least to plain-song All which particulars were either established by the Lawes or commanded by the Queens Injunctions or otherwise retained by vertue of some anâ—ient usages not by Law prohibited Nor is it much to be admired that such a general conformity to those antient usages was constantly observed in all Cathedral and the most part of the Parish Churâ—hes considering how well they were presidented by the Court it self in which the Liturgy was officiated every day both morning and evening not only in the publick Chapel but the private Closet celebrated in the Chapel with Organs and other musical instâ—uments and the most excellent voices both of men and children that could be got in all the Kingdom The Gentlemen and children in their Surplices and the Priests in Copes as oâ—t as they attended the Divine Service at the Holy Altar The Altar furnished with rich Plate two fair gilt Candlesticks with Tapers in them and a massie Crucifix of silver in the midst thereof Which last remained there for some years till it was broke in pieces by Pach the Fool no wiser man daring to undertake such a desperate service at the solicitation of Sir Francis Knolles the Queens neer Kinsman by the Caries and one who openly appeared in favour of the Schism at Franckfort The antient Ceremonies accustomably observed by the Knights of the Garter in their adoration toward the Altar abolished by King Edward the 6th and revived by Queen Mary were by this Queen retained as formerly in her Fathers time which made that Order so esteemed amongst forein Princes that the Emperors Maximilian and Rodolphus the French Kings Charls the 9th and Henry the 3d. together with Francis Duke of Mont Morency though of a contrary Religion to her not to say any any thing of divers Lutheran Kings and Pâ—inces did thankfully accept of their elections into that society The solemn Sermons upon each Wednesday Friday and Sunday in the time of Lent preached by the choicest of the Clergy she devoutly heard attired in black according to the commendable custome of her Predecessors in which if any thing escaped them contrary to the Doctrine and approved Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England they were sure to hear of it for which she received both thanks and honour from her very enemies as appears by Dr. Harding's Epistle Dedicatory before his Answer to the Apology writ by Bishop Jewel Particularly when one of her Chaplains Mr. Alexander Nowel Dean of St. Pauls had spoke less reverently in a Sermon preached before her of the sign of the Cross she called aloud to him from her closet window commanding him to retire from that ungodly digression and to return unto his Text. And on the other side when one of her Divines had preached a Sermon in defence of the Real Presence on the day commonly called Good Friday Anno 1565. she openly gave him thanks for his pains and piety The Bishops and the Clergy had been but ill proficients in the school of conformity under so excellent a Mistriss if they had not kept the Church in the highest splendor to which they were invited by that great example And in this glorious posture still had lasted longer had not her Order been confounded and her Peace disturbed by some factious spirits who having had their wils at Franckfort or otherwise ruling the Preâ—byâ—ery when they were at Geneva thought to have carried all before them with the like facility when they were in England But leaving them and their designes to some other time we must next look upon the aid which the Queen sent to those of the reformed Religion in the Realm of Scotland but carried under the pretence of dislodging such French Forces as were Garrisoned there and might have proved bad neighbours to the Kingdom of England Such of the Scots as desired a Reformation of Religion taking advantage by the Queens absence the easiness of the Earl of Arran and want of power in the Queen Regent to suppress their practices had put themselves into a Body Headed by some of the Nobility they take unto themselves the name of the Congregation managing their own affairs apart from the rest of the Kingdom and in assurance of their own strength petition to the Queen Regent and the Lords of the Council that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper might be administred in both kinds that Divine Offices might be celebrated in the Vulgar tongue and that they might have the choice of their own Ministers according to the practice as it was pretended of the Primitive times The Answer hereunto was fair and gratious but rather for the gaining of time than with a purpose to grant any of the points demanded The principal Leaders of the party well followed by the common people put themselves into Perth and there begin to stand on higher terms than before they did The news whereof occasioneth Knox to leave his Sanctuary in Geneva and joyn himself unto the Lords of the Congregation At Perth he goes into the Pulpit and falls so bitterly on Images Idolatry and other superstitions of the Church of Rome that the people in a popular fury deface all the Images in that Church and presently demolish all Religious Houses within that City This hapned about the end of May Anno 1559. and gave a dangerous example to them of Couper who forthwith on the hearing of it destroyed all the Images and pulled down the Altars in that Church also Preaching at Craile he inveighed sharply against the Queen Regent and vehemently stirred up the people to joyn together for the expulsion of the French which drew after it the like destruction of all Altars and Images as was made before at Perth and Couper The like followed on his preaching at St. Andrews also the Religious Houses being pulled down as well as the Images and laid so flat that there was nothing left in the form of a building Inflamed by the same firebrand they burned down the rich Monastery of Scone and ruined that of Cambâ—skenneth demolished all the Altars Images and Covents of Religious persons in Sterling Lithgoâ— Glascough Edenburgh make themselves Masters of the last and put up their own Preachers into all the Pulpits of that City not suffering the Queen Regent to have the use of one Church onely for her own devotions Nor staid they there but being carried on by the same ill spirit they pass an Act among themselves for depriving the Queen Regent of all place and power in the publick Government concerning which the Oracle being first consulted returned this Answer sufficiently ambiguous as all Oracles are that is to say That the iniquity of the Queen Regent ought not to withdraw their hearts from the obedience due to their Soveraigns nor did he wish any such sentence to be pronounced against her but when she should change her course and submit
both Religions and finally amongst many other particulars that neither the Queen of Scots nor the French King should from thenceforth assume the Titles and Arms of England Which Articles being signed and confirmed for both Kingdoms the French about the middle of July take their leave of Scotland and the English Army at the same time set forward for Barwick being there disbanded and dismissed to their several dwellings Followed not long after by the Earls of Morton and Glencarn in the name of the rest of the Congregation sent purposely to render to the Queen their most humble thanks for her speedy prosperous assistance and to desire the continuance of her Majesties favours if the French should any more attempt to invade their Country Assured whereof and being liberally rewarded with gifts and presents they returned with joy and glad tydings to the Congregation whom as the Queen had put upon a present confidence of going vigorously on in their Reformation so it concerned them to proceed so carefully in pursuance of it as might comply with the dependence which they had upon her First therefore that she might more cordially espoâ—se their quarrel they bound themselves by their subscription to embrace the Liturgy with all the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England which for a time remained the onely form of Worship for the Kirk of Scotland when and by whose means they receded from it may be shown hereafter In the next place they cause a Parliament to be called in the month of August according to the Articles of the Pacification from which no person was excluded who either had the right of Suffrage in his own capacity or in relation to their Churches or as returned from their Shrevalties or particular Burroughs of which last there appeared the accustomed number but of the Lords Spiritual no more than six Bishops of thirteen with thirteen Abbots and Priors or thereabouts and of the Temporal Lords to the number of ten Earls and as many Barons By whose Authority and consent they passed three Acts conducing wholly to the advantage of the Reformation the first whereof was for abolishing the Popes Jurisdiction and Authority within the Realm the second for annulling all Statutes made in former times for maintenance of Idolatry and Superstition and the third for the punishment of the Sayers and Hearers of the Masse To this Parliament also some of the Ministers presented A Confession of the Faith and Doctrine to be believed and professed by the Protestants of the Kirk of Scotland modelled in many places by the Principles of Calvin's Doctrine which Knox had brought with him from Geneva but being put unto the Vote it was opposed by no more than three of the Temporal Lords that is to say the Earl of Atholl and the Lords Somervil and Borthwick who gave no other reason for it but that they would believe as their fathers did The Popish Prelates were silent in it neither assenting nor opposing Which being observed by the Earl-Marshal he is said to have broke out into these words following Seeing saith he that my Lords the Bishops who by their learning can and for the zeal they should have to the truth ought as I suppose to gainsay any thing repugnant to it say nothing against the Confession we have heard I cannot think but that it is the very truth of God and that the contrary of it false and deceivable Doctrine Let us now cross over into Ireland where we shall find the Queen as active in advancing the reformed Religion as she had been in either of the other Kingdoms King Henry had first broke the ice by taking to himself the Title of Supream Head on earth of the Church of Ireland exterminating the Popes authority and suppressing all the Monasteries and Religious Houses In matters doctrinal and forms of Worship as there was nothing done by him so neither was there much endeavoured in the time of King Edward it being thought perhaps unsafe to provoke that people in the Kings minority considering with how many troubles he was elsewhere exercised If any thing were done therein it was rather done by tolleration than command And whatsoever was so done was presently undone again in the Reign of Queen Mary But Queen Elizabeth having setled her affairs in England and undertaken the protection of the Scots conceived her self obliged in point of piety that Ireland also should be made partaker of so great a benefit A Parliament is therefore held on the 12th of January where past an Act restoring to the Crown the antient jurisdiction over all Ecclesiastical and Spiritual persons By which Statute were established both the Oath of Supremacy and the High Commission as before in England There also past an Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer c. with a permission for saying the same in Latine in such Church or place where the Minister had not the knowledge of the English Tongue But for translating it into Irish as afterwards into Welsh in the 5th year of this Queen there was no care taken either in this Parliament or in any following For want whereof as also by not having the Scriptures in their native language most of the natural Irish have retained hitherto there old barbarous customes or pertinaciously adhere to the corruptions of the Church of Rome The people by that Statute are required under several penalties to frequent their Churches and to be frequent at the reading of the English Liturgy which they understand no more than they do the Mass. By which means the Iâ—ish was not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrines and Devotions of the Church of England but we have furnished the Papists with an excellent Argument against our selves for having the Divine Service celebrated in such a language as the people do not understand There also past another Statute for restoring to the Crown the first fruits and twenty parts of all Ecclesiastical promotions within that Kingdom as also of all impropriat Parsonages which there are more in number than those Rectories which have cure of souls King Henry had before united the first fruits c. to the Crown Imperial but Queen Mary out of her affection to the Church of Rome had given them back unto the Clergy as before was said The like Act passed for the restitution of all such lands belonging to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem as by that Queen had been regranted to the Order with the avoidance of all Leases and other grants which had been made by Sir Oswald Massingberd the lâ—te Lord Prior of the same Who fearing what was like to follow had voluntarily forsook the Kingdome in the August foregoing and thereby saved the Queen the charge of an yearly pension which otherwise he might have had as his Predecessors had before him in the time of King Henry During the Reign of which King a Statute had been made in Ireland as in England also for the electing and consecrating of
Archbishops and Bishops repealed in the year first of Queen Mary and now revived by her sister in which there is nothing more memorable than that amongst many other Ceremonies therein directed there is mention of giving the Pall to a new Archbishop that being an Ornament or Habit peculiar only unto those of the highest ranck in the holy Hierarchy And that she might not only take care for the good of the Church without consulting her own safety she caused an Act to pass for the recognition of her own just title to the Crown as before in England All which being done she left the prosecution of the work to her Bishops and Clergy not so well countenanced by power as they were by Law and yet more countenanced by Law than they made good use of For many of them finding how things went in England and knowing that the like alterations would ensue amongst themselves resolved to make such use of the present times as to inrich their friends and kindred by the spoil of their Churches To which end they so dissipated the revenues of their several Bishopricks by long Leases see Farms and plain alienations that to some of their Sees they left no more than a Rent of five Marks per annum to others a bare yearly Rent of 40 shillings to the high displeasure of Almighty God the reproach of Religion the great disservice of the Church and the perpetual ignominy of themselves for that horrible sacrilege It is now time that we hoise sail again for England where we shall find an entertainment made ready for us in a Sermon preached by Reverend Jewel then newly Consecrated Bishop of the Church of Sarisbury The Sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross on the 30th of March being Passion-Sunday or the Sunday fortnight before Easter the Text or Theam of his discourse being taken out of St Paul's 1 Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 11. Ver 23. That which I delivered to you â— received of the Lord c. Which Text being opened and accommodated to the present times he published that memorable Challenge which so much exercised the pens and studies of the Romish Clergy By whom the Church had been injuriously upbraided with the imputation of novelty and charged with teaching such opinions as were not to be found in any of the ancient Fathers or approved Councils or any other Monument of true Antiquity before Luther's time For the stopping of whose moâ—ths for ever this learned Prelate made this stout and gallant challenge in these following words Bishop Jewel's Challenge If any Learned man of our Adversaries or all the Learned men that be alive be able to bring any one sufficient sentence out of any old Catholick Doctor or Father or General Council or Holy Scripture or any one example in the Primitive Church whereby it may clearly and plainly be proved during the first six hundred years 1. That there was at that time any private Masse in the world 2. Or that there was then any communion ministred unto the people under one kind 3. Or that the people had their Common Prayer in a strange tongue that the people understood not 4. Or that the Bishop of Rome was then called an universal Bishop or the head of the universal Church 5. Or that the people were then taught to beleeve that Christs body is really substantially corporally carnally or naturally in the Sacrament 6. Or that his body is or may be in a thousand places or more at one time 7. Or that the Priest did then hold up the Sacrament over his head 8. Or that the people did then fall down and worship it with godly honour 9. Or that the Sacrament was then or now ought to be hanged up under a Canopy 10. Or that in the Sacrament after the words of Consecration there remain only the accidents and shewes without the substance of Bread and Wine 11. Or that then the Priâ—sts divided the Sacrament into three parts and afterwards received himself all alone 12. Or that whosoever had said the Sacrament is a figure a pledge a token or a remembrance of Christs body had therefore been iudg'd for an Heretick 13. Or that it was lawful then to have thirty twenty fifteen ten or five Masses said in one day 14. Or that images were then set up in the Churches to the intent the people might worship them 15. Or that the lay people were then forbidden to read the word of God in their own tongue 16. Or that it was then lawful for the Priest to pronounce the words of Consecration closely or in private to himself 17. Or that the Priest had then authority to offer up Christ unto his Father 18. Or to communicate and receive the Sacrament for another as they do 19. Or to apply the vertue of Christs death and passion to any man by the means of the Masse 20. Or that it was then thought a sound doctrine to teach the people that Mass ex opere operato that is even for that it is said and done is able to remove any part of our sin 21. Or that any Christian man called the Sacrament the Lord his God 22. Or that the people were then taught to believe that the body of Christ remaineth in the Sacrament as long as the accidents of Bread and Wine remain there without corruption 23. Or that a mouse or any other worm or beast may eat the body of Christ for so some of our Adversaries have said and taught 24. Or that when Christ said hoc est corpus meum the word hoc pointed not the Bread but individuum vagum as some of them say 25. Or that the Accidents or Forms or Shews of Bread and Wine be the Sacraments of Christs body and blood and not rather the very Bread and Wine it self 26. Or that the Sacrament is a sign or token of the body of Christ that lyeth hidden underneath it 27. Or that ignorance is the mother and cause of true Devotion the conclusion is that I shall be then content to yield and subscribe This Challenge being thus published in so great an auditory startled the English Papists both at home and abroad none more than such of the fugitives as had retired to Lovain Doway or St Odomars in the Low Country Provinces belonging to the King of Spain The business first agitated by the exchange of friendly Letters betwixt the said Reverend Prelate and Dr Henry Cole the late Dean of St Pauls more violently followed in a book of Rastal's who first appeared in the lists against the Challenger Followed therein by Dorman and Marshal who severally took up the cudgels to as little purpose the first being well beaten by Nowel and the last by Calfhil in their discourses writ against them But they were only velilations or preparatory skirmishes in reference to the main encounter which was reserved for the Reverend Challenger himself and Dr. John Harding one of the Divines of Lovain and the most learned of the College The
and specious overtures he was designed to encourage a Rebellion amongst the Papists as was thought by some or rather that the Queen was grown so confident of her own just Title and the affections of her people as not to be beholden to the Pope for a confirmation remains a matter undetermined by our best Historians How it succeeded with this Pope in another project for the reducing of this Kingdom under his command we shall see hereafter But all this while there was no care taken to suppress the practice of another Faction who secretly did as much endeavour the subverâ—ion of the English Lituâ—gy as the Pope seemed willing to confirm it For whilst the Prelates oâ— the Church and the other learned men before remembred bent all their forces toward the confuting of some Popish Errors another enemy appeared whâ—ch seemed not openly to aim at the Church's Doctrines but quarrelled rather at some Rites and Extrinsecalls of it Their purpose was to shew themselves so expert in the Art of War as to take in the Out-works of Religion first before they levelled there Artillery at the Fort it self The Schismaticks at Franckfort had no sooner heard of Queen Mary's death but they made what haste they could for England in hope of fishing better for themselves in a troubled water than a composed and quiet Current Followed not long after by the brethren of the Separation which retired from thence unto Geneva who having left some few behind to compleat their Notes upon the Bible and make up so many of the Psalms in English Meeter as had been left unfinished by Sâ—ernhold and Hopkins hastned as fast homewards as the others But notwithstanding all their haste they came not time enough to effect their purposes either in reference to the Liturgy or Episcopal Government on which the Queen had so resolved according to her own most excellent judgment that they were not able to prevail in either project It grieved them at the heart that their own Prayers might not be made the rule of Worship in their Congregations and that they might not Lord it here in their several Parishe as Calvin did in the Presbytery of the Church of Geneva Some friends they had abouâ— the Queen and Calvin was resolved to make use of all his power and credit both with her and Cecil as appears by his Letters unto both to advance their ends and he was seconded therein by Peter Martyr who thought his interest in England to be greater than Calvin's though his name was not so eminent in other places But the Queen had fixed her self on her resolution of keeping up the Church in such outward splendor as might make it every way considerable in the eye of the world so that they must have faith enough to remove a mountain before they could have hope enough to draw her to them When therefore they saw the Liturgy imposed by Act of Parliament and so many Episcopal Sees supplyed with able Pastors nothing seemed more expedieâ—t to them than to revive the quarrels raised in King Edward's time against Capps and Surplices and such particulars as had then been questioned in the publick Liturgy And herein they were seconded as before in King Edward's time by the same Peter Martyr as appears by his Letters to a nameless friend bearing date at Zarick on the 4th of November 1560. to which he added his dislike in another of his Letters to the same friend also touching the same and other points proposed unto him that is to say the Cap the Episcopal Habit the Patrimony of the Church the manner of proceeding to be held against Papists the Perambulation used in the Rogation weeks with many other points of the like condition in which his judgment was desired But these helps being too far off and not to be consulted with upon all inconveniencies without a greater loss of time than could consist with the impatiency of their desires they fell upon another project which promised them more hopes of setting up their Discipline and decrying the Liturgy their quarrells about Caps and Vestments Some friends they had about the Court as before was said and Gryâ—dal the new Bishop of London was known to have a great respect to the name of Calvin the business therefore is so ordered that by Calvin's Letters unto Gryndal and the friends they had about the Queen way should be given to such of the French Nation as had repaired hitâ— her to enjoy the freedom of their own Religion to have a Church unto themselves and in that Church not onely to erect the Genevian discipline but to set up a form of Prayer which should hold no conformity with the English Liturgy They could not but remember those many advantages which John Alasco and his Church of Strangers afforded to the Zuingiian Gospellers in the Reign of King Edward and they despaired not of the like nor of greater neither if a French Church were setled upon Caâ—vin's Principles in some part of London A Synagogue had been built for the use of the Jews Anno 1231. not far from the place in which now stands the Hall of the Merchant Taylors near the Royal Exchange But the Jews having removed themselves to some other place the Christians obtained that it should be dedicated to the blessed Virgin and by that name was given unto the Brotherhood of St. Anthony of Vienna by King Henry the 3d. After which time an Hospital was there founded by the name of St. Anthony consisting of a Master two Priests one School-master and twelve poor men Inlarged in the succeeding times by the addition of a fair Grammar-School and other publick Buildings for the use of the Brethren It was privileged by King Edward the 4th to have Priests Clerks Scholars poor men and Brethren of the same or Lay-men Quiristers Proctors Messengers Servants in houshold and other things whatsoever like unto the Prior and Covent of St. Anthonie of Vâ—enna c. and being so privileged it was annexed to the Collegiat Chapel of St. George in Windsor under whose Patronage it remained but muâ—h impoverished by the fraud and folly of one of its School-masters till the final dissolution of it amongst other Hospitals and Brotherhoods by King Edward the sixth so that being vested in the Crown and of no present use to the City it was no hard matter to obtain it for the use of the French as it still continueth And now again we have another Church in London as different from the Church of England in Government and forms of Worship and some Doctrinals also as that of John Alasco was in the Augustine Friers Not must we marvail if we find the like dangerous consequents to ensue upon it for what else is the setting up of a Presbytery in a Church founded and established by the Rules of Episcopacy than the erecting of a Commonwealth or popular Estate in the midst of a Monarchy Which Calvin well enough perceived and thereupon gave Gryndal thanks
be inflamed so was the mischief more incapable of a present remedy The terror being over most men began to cast about for the first occasion of such a miserable misfortune the generality of the Zuinglian or Genevian party affirmed it for a just judgment of God upon an old idolatrous Fabrick not throughly reformed and purged from its Superstitions and would have been content that all other Cathedrals in the Kingdom had been so destroyed The Papists on the other side ascribe it to some practice of the Zuinglian faction out of their hatred unto all solemnity and decency in the service of God performed more punctually in that Church for examples sake than in any other of the Kingdom But generally it was ascribed by the common people to a flash of lightning or some such suddain fire from heaven though neither any lightning had been seen or any clap of thunder had been heard that day Which fiction notwithstanding got such credit amongst the vulgar and amongst wiser persons too that the burning of St. Paul's Steeple by lightning was reckoned amongst the ordinary Epoches or accounts of time in our common Almanacks and so it stood till within these thirty years now last past when an old Plumber at his death confessed that wofull accident to have hapned through his negligence onely in leaving carelesly a pan of coals and other fewel in the Steeple when he went to dinner which catching hold of the dry timber in the Spire before his return was grown so dangerous that it was not possible to be quenched and therefore to no purpose as he conceived to make any words of it Since which discovery that ridiculous Epoche hath no more been heard of But the Queen quickly hearing what a great misfortune had befallen the City regarded not the various reports of either party but bent her thoughts upon the speedy reparation of those fearful ruines And knowing right well without the help of an Informer that the Patrimony of that Church had been so wasted in these latter times that neither the Bishop nor the Dean and Chapter were able to contribute any thing proportionable to so vast a charge She directed her Letters to the Lord Mayor and city of London to take care therein as most concerned in the preservation of their Mother-Church and in the honor of their City In obedience to whose Royal pleasure the citizens granted a Benevolence and three Fifteens to be speedily paid besides the extraordinary bounty of particular persons or was to be issued from the chamber And that they might proceed therein with the greater zeal the Queen sent in a thousand Marks in ready money and warrants for one thousand load of timber to be served out of her Majesties woods Incouraged by which brave example the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury contributed towards the furtherance of the work the fortieth part of their Benefices which stood charged with first fruits and the thirtieth part of those which had paid the same The Clergy of the Diocess of London bestowing the thirtieth part of such of their Livings as were under the burthen of that payment and the twentieth part of those which were not To which the Bishop added at several times the sum of 900 l 1 s. 11 d. the Dean and Chapter 136 l. 13 s. 4 d. By which and some other little helps the benevolence the three fifteens and the contributions of the Bishop and Clergy with the aid aforesaid amounting to no more than 6702 l. 13 s. 4 d. the work was carried on so fast that before the end of April 1566. the timber work of the roof was not only fitted but compleatly covered The raising of a new spire was taken also into consideration but conceived unnecessary but whether because it was too chargeable or that some feared it might prove a temptation is not yet determined And now the season of the year invites the Popes Nuncio into England advanced already in his way as far as Flanders and there expecting the Queens pleasure touching his admittance For the Pope always constant to his resolutions could not be taken off from sending his Nuncio to the Queen with whom he conceived himself to stand upon tearms of amity It had been much laboured by the Guisiards and Spanish faction to divert him from it by telling him that it would be an undervaluing of his power and person to send a Nuncâ—o into England or to any other Princes of the same perswasions who openly professed a separation from the See of Rome To which he made this prudent and pious answer that he would humble himself even to Heresie it self in regard that whatsoever was done to gain souls to Christ did beseem that See And to this resolution he adher'd the rather because he had been told and assured by Karn the old English Agent that his Nuncio would be received by one half of the Kingdom with the Queens consent But as it proved they reckoned both without their Host and Hostess too who desired not to give entertainment unto any such guests For having designed the Abbot Martiningo to this imployment and the Abbot being advanced as far as Flanders as before was said he there received the Queens command not to cross the seas Upon advertisement whereof as well the King of Spain himself as Ferdinand of Toledo Duke of Alva the most powerful Minister of that King did earnestly intreat that he might be heard commending the cause of his Legation as visibly conducing to the union of all the Christian Church in a general Council But the Queen persevered in her first intent affirming she could not treat with the Bishop of Rome whose authority was excluded out of England by consent of Parliament Nor had the Popes Nuncio in France any better fortune in treating with Throgmorton the English Agent in that Court to advance the business who though he did solicit by his Letters both the Queen and the Council to give some satisfaction in that point to the French and Spaniards though not unto the Pope himself could get no other answer from them but the same denyal For so it was that on the first noise of the Nuncio's coming the business had been taken into consideration at the Council Table and strongly pleaded on both sides as mens judgements varied By some it was alleged in favour of the Nuncio's coming that Pope Pius was nothing of so rugged a nature as his Predessor that he had made a fair address unto the Queen by his last years Letters that his designs did most apparently tend to the peace of Christendome that the admitting of the Nuncio was a matter which 〈◊〉 nothing it being â—â—ill left in her Majesties power whether she would embrace or reject his Overtures but that the refusing to admit him to a publick audience was the most ready way to disoblige all Catholick Princes with whom she stood at that time in terms of amity On the other side it was alleged that King Henry
her in short time not only to protect her Merchants but command the Ocean Of which the Spaniard found good proof to his great loss and almost to his total ruine in the last 20 years of her glorious government And knowing right well that mony was the â—inew of war she fell upon a prudent and present course to fill her coffers Most of the monies in the Kingdom were of forein coynage brought hither for the most part by the Easterling and Flemish Merchants These she called in by Proclamation â—â—ted the 15th of November being but two dayes before the end of this 3d. year commanding them to be brought to her Majesties Mint there to be coyned and take the stamp of her Royal authority or otherwise not to pass for current within this Realm which counsel took such good effect that monies came flowing into the Mint insomuch that there was weekly brought into the Tower of London for the space of half a year together 8000. 10000. 12000. 16000. 20000. 22000 l. of silver plate and as much more in Pistols and other gold of Spanish coins which were great sums according to the standard of those early dayes and therefore no small profit to be growing to her by the coynage of them The Genevians slept not all this while but were as busily imployed in practising upon the Church as were the Romanists in plotting against the Queen Nothing would satisfie them but the nakedness and simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Franckfort and the Presbyteries of Geneva According to the pattern which they saw in those mounts the Church of England is to be modell'd nor would the Temple of Jerusalem have served their turn if a new Altar fashioned by that which they found at Damascus might not have been erected in it And they drove on so fast upon it that in some places they had taken down the steps where the Aâ—tar stood and brought the Holy Table into the midst of the Church in others they had laid aside the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers in the administration of Baptism and left the answering for the child to the charge of the father The weekly Fasts the time of Lent and all other dayes of abstinence by the Church commanded were looked upon as superstitious observations No fast by them allowed of but occasional only and then too of their own appointing And the like course they took with the Festivals also neglecting those which had been instituted by the Church as humane inventions not fit to be retained in a Church reformed And finally that they might wind in there outlandish Doctrines with such forein usages they had procured some of the inferiour Ordinaries to impose upon their several Parishes certain new books of Sermons and Expositions of the holy Scripture which neither were required by the Queens Injunctions nor by Act of Parliament Some abuses also were discovered in the Regular Clergy who served in Churches of peculiar or exempt jurisdiction Amongst whom it began to grow too ordinary to marry all such as came unto them without Bains or Licence and many times not only without the privity but against the express pleasure and command of their Parents For which those Churches past by the name of Lawlesse Churches in the voice of the people For remedy whereof it was found necessary by the Archbishop of Canterbury to have recourse unto the power which was given unto him by the Queens Commission and by a clause or passage of the Act of Parliament for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church c. As one of the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical he was authorized with the rest of his associates according to the Statute made in that behalf To reform redresse order correct and amend all such Errours Heresies Schisms abuses offences conâ—empts and enormities whatsoever as might from time to time arise in the Church of England and did require to be redressed and reformed to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and conservation of the peace and unity of the Kingdom And in the passage of the Act before remembred it was especially provided That all such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof should be retained and be in use as were in the Church of England by authority of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th until further Order should be therein taken by authority of the Queens Majesty with the advice of her Commissioners Appointed Ordered under the Great Seal of England for Causes Ecclesiastical or of the Metropolitan of this Realm And also if there shall happen any contempt or irreverence to be used in the Ceremonies or Rites of the Church by the misusing of the Orders of the said Book of Common Prayer the Queens Majesty might by the like advice of the said Commissioners or Metropolitan Ordain or publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as should be most for the advance of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Fortified and assured by which double power the Archbishop by the Queens consent and the advice of some of the Bishops Commissionated and instructed to the same intent sets forth a certain book of Orders to be diligently observed and executed by all and singular persons whom it might concern In which it was provided That no Parson Vicar or Curate of any exempt Church commonly called Lawless Churches should from thenceforth attempt to conjoin by solemnization of Matrimony any not being of his or their Parish Church without sufficient testimony of the Bains being ask'd in the several Churches where they dwel or otherwise were sufficiently licenced That there should be no other dayes observed for Holy days or Fasting dayes as of duty and commandment but only such Holy dayes as be expressed for Holy dayes in the Calendar lately set forth by the Queens authority and none other Fasting dayes to be so commanded but as the Lawes and Proclamations of the Queens Majesty should appoint that it should not be lawful to any Ordinary to assign or enjoyn the Parishes to buy any Books of Sermons or Expositions in any sort than is already or shall be hereafter appointed by publick Authority that neither the Curates or Parents of the children which are brought to Baptism should answer for them at the Font but that the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers should be still retained and finally that in all such Churches in which the steps to the Altar were not taken down the said steps should remain as before they did that the Communion Table should be set in the said place where the steps then were or had formerly stood and that the Table of Gods Precepts should be fixed upon the wall over the said Communion Board Which passage compared with that in the Advertisements published in the year 1565. of which more hereafter make up this construction that
should be given to all of every Nation Province City and Place where any thing was preached taught believed contrary to that which was believed in the Church of Rome But the Legats might have spared themselves the trouble of these considerations the Protestant Bishops of England not being so forward to venture themselves into that Council on such weak assurance considering how ill the safe conduct had been formerly kept to John Hus and Jerom of Prague at the Council of Constance And as for those of the Papal party though they might have a good will to be gadding thither yet the Queen kept them safe enough from going abroad So that there was no hopes for any English Bishops of either party to attend that service The Queen had absolutely refused to admit the Nunciâ— when he was sent on purpose to invite them to it And some of the most learned of that sacred Order had shown sufficient reasons in their printed Manifest why no such service or attendance could be looked for from them One Scipio a Gentleman of Venice who formerly had some acquaintance with Bishop Jewel when he was a student in Padua had heard of Martiningo's ill success in his Negotiation which notwithstanding he resolved to spend some eloquence in labouring to obtain that point by his private Letters which the Nuncio could not gain as a public Minister And to this end he writes his Letters of expostulation to his old friend Mr. Jewel preferred not long before to the See of Salisbury in which he seemed to admire exceedingly that England should send no Ambassador nor Message or Letter to excuse their Nations absence from the general Appearance of Christianity in that Sacred Council In the next place he highly extolled the antiquity and use of General Councils as the onely means to decide controversies in Religion and compose the distractions in the Church concluding it a superlative sin for any to decline the authority of it But this Letter did not long remain unanswered that learned Prelate was not so unstudied in the nature of â—ouncils as not to know how little of a General Council could be found at Trent And therefore he returns an Answer to the Proposition so eloquently penned and so elaborately digested that neither Scipio himself nor any other of that party durst reply upon him the Answer to be found at large in the end of the history of this Council translated into English by Sir Nathaniel Brent late Warden of Merton College in Oxon c. which though it were no other than the Answer of one single Prelate and writ on a particular occasion to â— private friend yet since it speaks the sense of all the rest of the 〈◊〉 â—nd to justifie the result of the Council-Table on the debate about 〈◊〉 or refusing the Popes invitation it will not be amiss to present the sum and substance of it in a short Epitome In the first place he signifies to the said Scipâ—o that a great part of the world professing the name of Christ as Greeks Armenians Abâ—ssines c. with all the Eastern Church were neither sent â—o nor summoned to this Council Secondly That England's absence was not so great a wonder seeing many other Kingdoms and Free states as Denmark Sweden Scotland Princes of Germany and Hanse-towns were not represented in this Council by any of their Ambassadors Thirdly That this pretended Council was not called according to the antient custom of the Church by the Imperial Authority but by the Papal Usurpation Fourthly That Trent was a petty place not of sufficient receit for such multitudes as necessarily should repair to a General Council Fifthly That Pope Pius the 4th by whose command the Council was re-assembled purchaâ—â—d his place by the unjust practices of Simonie and Briberie and managed it with murder and cruelty Sixthly That repairing to Councils was a free act and none ought to be condemned of Contumacy if it stood more with their conveniency to stay at home Seventhly That antiently it was accepted as a reasonable excuse of holy Pisâ—ops absenting or withdrawing themselves from any Council if they vehemently suspected ought would be acted therein prejudicial to the truth lest their though not actual included concurrence might be interpreted a countenancing thereof Eighthly That our Bishops were employed in feeding their Flocks and governing their Churches and could not be spared from their charge without prejudice to their consciences Ninthly That the Members of that Council of Trent both Bishops and Abbots were by Oath pregaged to the Pope To defend and maintain his authority against all the world And lastly He desired to know in what capacity the English Clergy should appear in this Council not as free persons to debate matters therein in regard they had been pre-condemned as Hereticks by Pope Julius the 3d. nor as offenders to receive the sentence of condemnation to which they had no reason to submit themselves Of these refusals and the reasons of them neither the Pope at Rome nor the Cardinal Legâ—ts in the Council could pretend to be ignorant yet still the expectation of the comming of some English Bishops must be kept on foot partly for the encouragement of such as were there already and partly for the drawing on of others who came slowly forwards and sometimes also it was used for an artifice to divert the Prelates when any business was in agitation which seemed dangerous to them For so it hapned that some of the Prelates being earnest in the point of Residence none of the Legats could devise a better expedient to put off that Question than to propose that some means should be used to set at liberty the English Bishops which were imprisoned by their Queen that comming to the Council it might be said that that noble Nation was present also and not wholly alienated from the Church This pleased all but the common opinion was that it might sooner be desired than hoped for They concluded that the Queen having refused to receive a Nuncio expresly sent from the Pope it could not be hoped that she would hearken to the Council therefore all they could do was to perswade the Catholick Princes to mediate for them And mediate though they did as before was said both for the admitting of the Nuncio and the restoring of those Bishops to their former liberty they were not able to prevail especially as to the licensing of any of them to attend the Council which if the Queen had yielded to she must have armed so many of her enemies to disturb her peace who questionless would have practised with the Ambassadors of all Princes and with the Prelates of all Nations whom they found there present to work some notable alteration in the Government and affairs of England Of all the Bishops which were left in England at the end of the Parliament I find none but Pates of Worcester and Goldnel of St. Asaph who forsook the Kingdom though possibly many of the rest
end whereof he was restored to liberty by the death of the Lady who died a prisoner in the Tower And though the Lady Francis Dutchess of Suffolk might hope to have preserved her self from the like Court-thunder-claps by her obscure marriage with Adrian Stokes who had bin Gentleman of the Horse to the Duke her husband yet neither could that save her from abiding a great part of the tempest which fell so heavily upon her and all that family that William the nephew of this Earl by Edward Viscount Beauchamp his eldest son was prudently advised by some of his friends to procure a confirmation of his grand-fathers honors from the hand of King James which without much difficulty was obtained and granted by his Majesties Letters Patents bearing date the 14th of May in the 6th year of his Reign But such was the fortune of this House that as this Earl being newly restored unto the Title of Hertford by the great goodness of the Queen incurred her high displeasure and was thereupon committed prisoner for his marriage with the Lady Katherine Gray the onely heir then living of Mary the youngest daughter of King Henry the 7th so William above mentioned being confirmed in the expectancy of his grand-fathers honors by the like goodness of King James was committed prisoner by that King for marrying with the Lady Arabella daughter and heir of Charls Earl of Lennox descended from the eldest daughter of the said King Henry Such were the principal occurrences of this present year relating to the joynt concernments of Church and State In reference to the Church alone nothing appears more memorable than the publishing of an elegant and acute Discourse entituled The Apology of the Church of England first wait in Latin by the right reverend Bishop Jewel translated presently into English French Italian Dutch and at last also into Greek highly approved of by all pious and judicious men stomached by none excepting our own English fugitives and yet not undertook by any of them but by Harding only who had his hands full enough before in beating out an answer to the Bishopâ— challenge By him we are informed if we may believe him that two Tractats or Discourses had been writ against it the one by an Italian in the Tongue of that Country the other in Latine by a Spanish Bishop of the Realm of Naples both finished and both stopped as they went to the Press out of a due regard â—orsooth to the Church of England whose honour had been deeply touched by being thought to have approved such a lying unreasonable slanderous and ungodly Pamphlet which were it true the Church was more beholden to the modesty of those Spaniards and Italians than to our own natural English But whether it were true or not or rather how untrue it is in all particulars the exchange of writings on both sides doth most plainly manifest In general it was objected That the Apology was published in the name of the Church of England before any mean part of the Church were privy to it as if the Author either were ashamed of it or afraid to stand to it that the Inscription of it neither was directed to Pope nor Emperor nor to any Prince not to the Church nor to the General Council then in being as it should have been that there was no mans name seâ— to it that it was printed without the privilege of the Prince contrary to the Law in that behalf that it was allowed neither by Parliament nor Proâ—lamation nor agreed upon by the Clergy in a publick and lawful Synod and therefore that the Book was to be accounted a famous Libel and a scandalâ—us Writing To which it was answered in like Generals by that learned Prelate That the profession of the Doctrine contained in it was offered unto the whole Church of God and so unto the Pope and the Council too if they were any part or member of the Church that if names be so necessary he had the names of the whole Clergy of England to confirm that Doctrine and Harding's too amongst the rest in the time of King Edward that for not having the Princes privilege it might easily be disproved by the Printer that it was not conceived in such a dark corner as was objected being afterwards imprinted at Paris in Latine and having since been translated into the French Italian Dutch and Spanish Toungs that being sent afterwards into France Flanders Germany Spain Poland Hungary Denmark Sweden Scotland Italy Naples and Rome it self it was tendred to the judgment of the whole Church of God that it was read and seriously considered of in the convent of Trent and great threats made that it should be answered and the matter taken in hand by two notable learned Bishops the one a Spaniard and the other an Italian though in fine neither of them did any thing in it and finally that certain of the English Papists had been nibling at it but such as cared neither what they writ nor was cared by others And so much may suffice in general for this excellent Piece to the publishing whereof that learned Prelate was most encouraged by Peter Martyr as appears by Martyr's Letter of the 24th of August with whom he had spent the greatest part of his time when he lived in Exile And happy had it been for the Church of England if he had never done worse offices to it than by dealing with that reverend Bishop to so good a purpose But Martyr onely lived to see the Book which he so much longed for dying at Zurick on the 12th day of November following and laid into his grave by the Magistrates and People of that Town with a solemn Funeral Nothing remains for the concluding of this year but to declare how the three vacant Bishopricks were disposed of if those may say to be disposed of which were still kept vacant Glocester was onely filled this year by the preferment of Mr. Râ—chaâ—d Cheny Archdeacon of Hereford and one of the Prebendaries of the Collâ—giat Church of St. Peter in Westminster who received hâ—s Episcopal consecration on the 19th of April Together with the See of Glocester he held that of Bristol in commendam as did also Bullingham his Successor that is to say the Jurisdiction with the Profits and Fees thereof to be exercised and enjoyed by them but the temporal Revenue of it to continue in the hands of some hungry Courtiers who gnawed it to the very bone in which condition it remained under the two Bishops till the year 1589. when the Queen was pleased to bestow the remainders of it together with the title of Bishop on Doctor Richard Flesher Dean of Peterborough whom afterwards she preferred to the See of London And as for Oxon it was kept vacant from the death of King the first Bishop of it who died on the 4th of December 1557. till the 14th of October 1567. at which time it was conferred on Dr. Hugh Curwyn Archbishop of Dublin
excommunication of the Queen of England The Emperour had his aims upon her being at that time solicitous for effecting a mariage betwixt her and Charles of Inspruch his second son of which his Ministers entertained him with no doubtful hopes In contemplation of which mariage on the first notice which was given him of this secret purpose he writ Letters both to the Pope and to the Legates in which he signified unto them that if the Council would not yield that fruit which was desired that they might see an union of all Catholicks to reform the Church at least they should not give occasion to the Hereticks to unite themselves more which certainly they would do in case they proceeded so against the Queen of England by means whereof they would undoubtedly make a league against the Catholicks which must needs bring forth many great inconveniences Nor did this Admonition coming from a person of so great authority and built on such prudential reasons want its good effect Insomuch that both the Pope desisted at Rome and revoked the Commission sent before to the Legates in Trent But the Ministers of the King of Spain would not so give over the Archbishop of Otranto in the Realm of Naples keeping the game on foot when the rest had left it And because he thought the proposition would not take if it were made only in relation to the Queen of England he proposed a general anaâ—heâ—atizing of the Hereticks as well dead as living Luther and Zuinglius and the rest which he affirmed to be the practice of all Councils in the Primitive times and that otherwise it might be said that the Council had laboured all this while in vain To which it was replyed by one of the Legates that diveâ—s times required different Counsels that the differences about religion in those elder times were between the Bishops and the Priests that the people were but as an accessory that the Grandees either did not meddle or if they did adhere to any Heresie they did not make themselves Heads and Leaders But now all was quite contrary for now the Hereticks Ministers and Preachers could not be said to be heads of the Sects but the Princes rather to whose interess their Ministers and Preachers did accommodate themselves that he that would name the true Heads of Hereticks must name the Queens of England and Navarr the Prince of Conde the Elector Palatine of the Reine the Elector of Saxonie and many other Dukes and Princes of Germany that this would make them unite and shew they were sensible of it and that the condemnation of Luther and Zuinglius only would so provoke them that some great confusion would certainly arise and therefore they must not do what they would but what they could seeing that the more moderate resolution was the better After which grave and prudent Answer it was not long before the conclusion of the Council which ended on the 3d. of December had put an end to all those practices or designs which otherwise might have much distracted the peace of Christendom and more particularly the tranquillity of the Realm of England And so I take my leave of the Council of Trent without making any other character or censure of it than that which is given by the Historian that is to say That being desired and procured by godly men to reunite the Church which then began to be divided it so established the schism and made the party so obstinate that the discords are become irreconcilable that being managed by Princes for the Reformation of Ecclesiastical Discipline it caused the greatest deformation that ever was since Christianity began that being hoped for by the Bishops to regain the Episcopal authority usurped for the most part by the Pope it made them lose it altogether and brought them into a greater servitude and on the contrary that being feared and avoided by the See of Rome as a â—otent means to moderate the exorbitant power of the Pope mounted from small beginnings by divers degrees unto an unlimited excess it hath so established and confirmed the same over that part which remaineth subject to it that it never was so great nor so soundly rooted Anno Reg. Eliz. 6. A. D. 1563 1564. HAving dispatched our businesse in France and Trent we shall confine our selves for so much of our Story as is to come to the Isles of Britâ—ain In the fouth part thereof the plague brought out of France by the Garison souldiers of Newhaven had so dispersed it self and made such desolation in many parts of the Realm that it swept away above 20000 in the City of London Which though it seemed lesse than some great plagues which have hapned since yet was it the greatest at that time which any man living could remember In which regard as Michaelmas Term was not kept at all so Canâ—lemas Term then following was kept at Hartford the houses in London being not well cleansed nor the air sufficiently corrected for so great a concourse Under pretence whereof the Council of the King of Spain residing in Brussels commanded Proclamation to be made in Antwerp and other places that no English ship with cloths should come into any parts of the Low Countries Besides which they alleged some other causes as namely the raising of Impost upon goods as well inwards as outwards as well upon English men as upon strangers c. But the true reason of it was because a Statute had been passed in the first year of the Queen by which divers Wares and Commodities were forbidden to be brought into this Realm out of Flanders and other places being the Manufactures of those Countries to the end that our own people might be set on work as also that no English or stranger might ship out any white cloths undrest being of price above 4 l. without special licence But at the earnest sute of the Merchant Adventurers the Queen prohibited the transporting of Wool unwrought and the Cloth-Fleet was sent to Embden the principal City in East Fruzland about Easter following where it was joyfully received and where the English kept their Factory for some years after And though the Hanse Towns made such friends in the Court of the Emperour that the English trade was interdicted under the pretence of being a Monopoly yet by the constancy of the Queen the courage of the Merchants and the dexterity of their Agents they prevailed at last and caried on the trade themselves without any Competitours The apprehension of this dealing from the Council of Spain induced the Queen to hearken the more willingly to a peace with France Which she concluded upon terms of as good advantage as the times would bear the demand for Calais being waved till the eight years end at which it was to be restored unto her by the Treaty of Cambray Which peace was first Proclaimed before her Majesty in the Castle of Windsor the French Ambassador being present and afterwards at London on the
13th of April And for creating the greater confidence and amity between both Princes it was not long before she sent the Lord Henry Hunsâ—on accompanied with the Lord Strange and divers Knights and Gentlemen to the Court of France to present that King with the Collar and Habit of the Garter into which Noble Order he had been elected at a General Chapter Garter the King at Arms was also sent along with them to invest him in it with all the Ceremonies and Solemnities thereunto belonging to make it the more acceptable in the sight of that people But notwithstanding these courses on the one side and the indignities put upon her by the Hugonot Princes on the other Reason of State prevailed with her not to lay aside the care of their safety and affairs For wel she knew that if the Hugonots were not incouraged under hand and the Guisian faction kept in breath by their frequent stirrings they would be either hammering some design against her in her own Dominions or animate the Queen of Scots to stand to her Title and pretensions for the Crown of England Upon which general ground of self-preservation as she first aided those of Scotland for the expelling of the French and the French Protestants from being ruined and oppressed by the House of Guise so on the same she afterwards undertook the Patronage of the Belgick Neatherlands against the tyranny and ambition of the Duke of Alva who otherwise might have brought the war to her own dores and hazarded the peace and safety of her whole Estate Having secured her self by this peace with France and being at no open enmity with the King of Spain she resolves to give her self some pleasure and thereupon prepareth for her Summers progress In the course whereof she bestowed a visit upon Cambridge on the 5th of August where she was honorably received by Mr. Secretary Cecil being then Chancellor of that University together with all the Heads of Houses and other Students attired in their Academical Habits according to their several and distinct degrees Her lodging was provided in Kings College the dayes of her abode there spent in Scholastical exercises of Philosophy Physick and Divinity the nights in Comedies and Tragedies and other pleasing entertainments On Wednesday the 7th of the same month she rode through the Town and took a view of all the Colleges and Halls the goodly Monuments of the piety of her predecessors and of so many men and women famous in their generations Which done she took her leave of Cambridge in a Latine Oration in which she gave them great encouragement to persue their studies not without giving them somes hopes that if God spared her life and opportunity she would erect some Monument amongst them of her love to Learning which should not be inferiour unto any of her Royal Ancestors In which diversion she received such high contentment that nothing could have seemed to be equal to it but the like at Oxon where she was entertained about two years after for seven days together with the same variety of Speeches Enteâ—ludes Disputations and other Academical expressions of a publick joy In one point that of Oxford seemed to have the preheminence all things being there both given and taken with so even an hand that there could be no ground for any emulation strife or discord to ensue upon it But in the midst of those contentments which she had at Cambridge were sown the seeds of those divisions and combustions with which the Church hath been continually distracted to this very day For so it hapned that Mr. Thomas Preston of Kings College and Mr. Thomas Cartwright of Trinity College were appointed for two of the Opponents in a Disputation In which the first by reason of his comely gesture pleasing pronunciation and graceful personage was both liked and rewarded by her the other receiving neither reward or commendation Which so incensed the proud man too much opinionated of himself and his own abilities that he retired unto Geneva where having throughly informed himself in all particulars both of Doctrine and Discipline wherein the Churches of that platform differed from the Church of England he returned home with an intent to repair his credit or rather to get himself a name as did Erastrotus in the burning of Diana's Temple by raising such a fire such combustions in her as never were to be extinguished like the fire of Taberah but by the immediate hand of Heaven The Genevians had already began to blow the coals and brought fewel to them but it was onely for the burning of Caps and Rochets The Common-Prayer book was so fortified by Act of Parliament that there was no assaulting of it without greater danger than they durst draw upon themselves And as for the Episcopal Government it was so interwoven and incorporated with the Laws of the land so twisted in with the Preâ—ogative of the Crown and the Regal Interess that they must first be in a capacity of trampling on the Laws and the Crown together before they could attempt the destruction of it But Caps and Typpets Rochets and Lawn sleeves and Canonical Coats seemed to be built upon no better foundation than superstitious custom some old Popish Canon or at the best some temporary Injunction of the Queens devising which could not have the power and effect of Law This Game they had in chase in King Edward's time which now they are resolved to follow both with horn and hound and hunt it to the very last But as good Huntsmen as they were they came off with loss they that sped best in it being torn by the briers and bushes through which the fury of their passion carried them in pursute of the sport Amongst which none sped worse than Sampson because none had so much to lose in the prosecution for resting obstinate in refusing to wear that habit which of right belonged unto his place he was deprived of that place by the High Commissioners to which the habit did belong So eminent a Preferment as the Deanry of Christ-church deserved a man of a better temper and of a more exemplary conformity to the rules of the Church Both which were found in Dr. Thomas Godwin Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen advanced unto this Deanry first and after to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells more fortunate in being father to Dr. Francis Godwin a late Bishop of Hereford never to be forgotten for his Commentaries of the English Bishops digested with such infinite pains and no less ingenuity The obstinacy of these men in matter of Ceremony prompted the Bishops to make trial of their Orthodoxie in points of Doctrine The Articles of Religion lately agreed upon in Convocation had been subscribed by all the Clergy who had voted to them subscribed not onely for themselves but in the name of all those in the several Diocesses and Cathedral Churches whom they represented But the Bishops not thinking that sufficient to secure the Church
required subscription of the rest in their several places threatning no less than deprivation to such as wilfully refused and obstinately persisted in that refusal Many there were whoâ— bogled at it as they all did but did it not so perversely nor in such great numbers as when their faction was grown strong and improved to multitudes Some stumbled at it in regard of the first clause added to the 20th Article about the Authority of the Church others in reference to the 36th touching the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops some thought they attributed more authority to the Supream Magistrate over all persons and causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil than could consist with that Autocratie and Independency which Calvin arrogated unto his Presbyteries and other Churches of that platform And others looked upon the Homil es as beggarly rudiments scarce milk for Babes but by no means to be served in for a stronger stomach In general thought by the Genevians and Zuinglian Gospellers to have too much in them of the Pope or too little of Calvin and therefore not to be subscribed by any who desired the reputation of keeping a good conscience with faith unfeigned Of which number none so much remarkable as father John Fox the Marâ—yrologist who had before appeared in the Schism at Franckfort and left that Church when Cox had got the better in it to retire to Geneva being now called on to subscribe that the opinion which was had of his parts and piety might advance the service he is said to have appeared before the Bishop but whether before the Archbishop or his own Diocesan is not much material with the New-Testament in Greek To this said he I will subscribe and it this will not serve take my Prebend of Salisbury the onely preferment which I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you This refractory answer for it was no better might well have moved the Bishop to proceed against him as he did against some others who had stood on the same refusal but kissing goes by kindness as the saying is and so much kindness was shewed to him that he both kept his resolution and his place together which whether it might not do more hurt to the Church than that preferment in the Church did advantage him I think no wise man will make a question for commonly the exemption or indemnity of some few particulars confirms the obstinacy of the rest in hope of being privileged with the like indemnity And therefore it was well observed by Bishop Bancroft when King James proposed the writing of a Letter to the Bishop of Chester for respiting some Ministers of his Diocess from a present conformity That if this purpose should proceed the copy of those Letters would fly over the Kingdom and then others would make the same request for some friends of theirs and so no fruit would follow of the present Conference but that all things would be worse than before they were But Queen Elizabeth was not drawn so easily to the like indulgencies for which she received her own just praises from the Pen of an Adversary Harding by name in his Epistle Dedicatory prefixed before his Answer to the Bishops Apology commends her earnest zeal and travail in bringing those disordered Ministers into some order of decent apparel which yet some of them wanted reason to apply themselves to And Sanders who seldom speaks well of her first informs his Reader What bickerings there were in England about the Rochet and other Vestments of the Clergy that many of the opposite party regarded not the Queens judgment in it but sent for counsel and advice to Germany France Savoy and Switzerland but specially to Theodore Beza and Peter Martyr but finally that notwithstanding the advice of the one and the addresses of the other the Queen proceeded vigorously to the deprivation of all such persons as wilfully opposed her order made in that behalf It seems by this that our Genevians for the greater countenancing of their inconformity had stirred up the most eminent Divines of the Gallick and Helvetian Churches to declare in favour of their doings And it appears also by remembrances in some Authors that Calvin apprehending some neglect from Mr. Secretary Cecil in making either no return or a return which signified nothing to his first addresses had laid aside his care of the Church of England for which he could expect no thanks from the Bishops or had received so little from the greaâ— men of the Court But Peter Martyr while he lived conceived himself to have some interess in this Church in which he had enjoyed such a good preferment but more in some particular persons and members of it who seemed to depend upon his judgment and to ask counsel of him as their surest Oracle In which how much he countenanced that faction in King Edward's time both by his practice and his pen and what encouragement he gave them in this present Reign hath been shewn before how much out-gone by Theodore Beza who next usurped a super-intendency over all the Churches of this Island may be seen hereafter All that shall now be said of either of them or of all together shall be briefly this that this poor Church might better have counted their best helps in points of Doctrine than have been troubled with their intermedlings in matter of Discipline More modestly then so dealt Bullinger and Gualter two Divines of Suitzerland as eminent in all points of learning as the best amongst them who being sollicited by some some zealous brethren to signifie their judgment in the present controversie about the Aparel of the Clergy return an approbation of it but send the same inclosed in several Letters to Sandys Horn and Gryndal that they might see that neither of them would engage in the affairs of this Church without the privity of the Governors and Rulers of it To bring this quarel to an end or otherwise to render all opponents the more inexcusable the Queen thought fit to make a further signification of her Royall pleasure not grounded onely on the Soveraign Power and Prerogative Royal by which she published her Injunctions in the first year of her Reign but legally declared by her Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical according to the Acts and Statutes made in that behalf for then it was to be presumed that such as had denyed obedience to her sole commands would at least give it to the Laws The Archbishop is thereupon required to consult together with such Bishops and Commissioners as were next at hand upon the making of such Rules and Orders as they thought necessary for the peace of the Church with reference to the present condition and estate thereof Which being accordingly performed presented to the Queen and by her approved the said Rules and Orders were set forth and published in a certain book entituled Advertisements partly for due order in the publick Administration of the Common-Prayers and using the
holy Sacraments and partly for the Apparel of all persons Ecclesiastical by vertue of the Queens Majesties Letters commanding the same the 15th day of January c. And that they might be known to have the stamp of Royal Authority a Preface was prefixed before them in which it was expressed That the Queen had called to her remembrance how necessary it was for the advancement of God's glory c. for all her loving subjects of the state Ecclesiastical not onely to be knit together in the bonds of Uniformity touching the ministration of Gods Word and Sacraments but also to be of one decent behaviour of outward aparel that by their distinct habits they might be known to be of that holy vocation whereby the greater reverence might beâ— given unto them in their several Offices that thereupon she had required the Metropolitan by her special Letters that upon conference had with such other Bishops as were authorised by her Commission for causes Ecclesiastical some order might be took whereby all diversities and varieties in the premises might be taken away And finally that in obedience unto her commands the said Metropolitan and the rest there named had agreed upon the Rules and Orders ensuing which were by her thought meet to be used and followed Now in these Articles or Advertisements it was particularly enjoyned amongst other things That all Archbishops and Bishops should continue their accustomed Aparel that all Deans of Cathedral Churches Masters of Colleges all Archdeacons and other dignitaries in Cathedral Churches Doctors Batchelors of Divinity and Law having any Ecclesiastical Living should wear in their common apparel abroad a side Gown with sleeves streight at the hand without any cuts in the same and that also without any falling cape and to wear tippets of â—arsnet as was lawful for them by Act of Parliament 24 Hen. 8. That all Doctors of Physick or any other faculty having any Living Ecclesiastical or any other that may dispend by the Church 100 Marks he to be esteemed by the fruits or tenths of their Promotions or all Prebendaries whose promotions are vallued at 20 l. and upward to wear the like habit that they or all Ecclesiastical persons or other having any Ecclesiastical Living do wear the cap appointed by the Injunctions and no hats but in their journeyings that they in their journeys do wear the cloaks with sleeves put on and like in fashion to their Gowns without gards welts or cuts that in their private houses or studies they use their own liberty of comely apparel that all inferiour Ecclesiastical persons shall wear long gowns of the fashion aforesaid and caps as before is described that all poor Parsons Vicars and Curaâ—s do endeavour themselves to conform their aparel in like sort so soon and as conveniently as their abilities will serve for the same provided that their ability be judged by the Bishop of the Diocess and if their ability will not suffer them to buy them long gowns of the form aforesaid prescribed that then they shall wear their short gowns as before expressed that all such peâ—â—ons as have been or be Ecclesiastical and serve not the Ministry or have not accepted or shall refuse to accept the Oath of obedience to the Queens Majesty do from henceforth wear none of the said aparel but to go as meer lay-men till they be reconciled to obedience and who shall obstinately refuse to do the same be presented by the Ordinary to the Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical and by them to be reformed accordingly But this belongs more properly to the year next following To return therefore where we left the next considerable action which followed on the Queens reception at Cambridge but more considerable in the consequents than in the act it self was the preferring of Sir Robert Dudley the second son then living to the Duke of Northumberland to the Titles of Lord Denbigh and Earl of Leicester which honour she conferred on him on Michaelmas day with all the Pomps and ceremonies thereunto accustomed She had before elected him into the Order of the Garter made him the Master of her Horse and Chancellor of the University of Oxon suffered him to carry a great sway in all affairs both of Court and Council and given unto him the fair Mannor of Denbigh being conceived to be one of the goodliest Territories in England as having more Gentlemen of quality which owes sure and service thereunto than any other whatsoever in the hands of a subject And now she adds unto these honors the goodly Castle and Mannor of Kenelworth part of the patrimony and possession of the Dutchy of Lancaster Advanced unto which heighth he ingrossed unto himself the disposings of all Offices in Court and State and of all preferments in the Church proving in fine so unappeasable in his malice and unsatiable in his lusts so sacrilegious in his rapines so false in promises and trecheâ—ous in point of trust and finally so destructive of the rights and properties of particular persons that his little finger lay far heavier on the English subjects than the loins of all the Favorites of the two last Kings And that his monstrous vices most insupportable in any other than himself might either be connived at or not complained of he cloaks them with a seeming zeal to the true Religion and made himself the head of the Pâ—ritan faction who spared no pains in setting forth his praises upon all occasions making themselves the Tromparts to this Bragadocio Nor was he wanting to caresse them after such a manner as he found most agreeable to those holy hypocrites using no other language in his speech and letters than pure-scripture phrase in which he was become as dextrous as if he had received the same inspirations with the sacred Pen-men Of whom I had not spoke so much but that he seemed to have been born for the destruction of the Church of England as may appear further in the prosecution of the Presbyterian or Puritan History whensoever any able Pen shall be exercised in it But leaving this Court-Meteor to be gazed on by unknowing men let us aâ—tend the Obsequies of the Emperor Ferdinand who died on the 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 in the year now being leaving the Empire and the rest of his Dominions to Mâ—xâ—milian his eldest son whom he had before made King of the Râ—mans A Pâ—ince he was who had deserved exceeding well of the Queen of England and she resolved not to be wanting to the due acknowledgment of so great a merit the after-noon of the second day of October and the fore-noon of the third are set apart by her command for this great solemnity for which there was erected in the upper part of the Quire of the said Church a goodly Heâ—se richly garnished and set forth all the Quire being hanged with black cloth adorned with rich Scutcheons of his Arms of sundry sorts At the solemnization of which Funeral there were twelve Mourners and one that presented the Queens
person which was the Marquis of Winchester Lord Treasurer of England the other twelve being two Earls six Lords and four Knights the sacred part thereof performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury assisted by the Bishops of London and Rochester the funeral Sermon being pâ—eached by the Bishop of London which tended much unto the praise and commendation of that famous Emperor By which solemnity as she did no small honor to the dead so she gave great contentment to the living also the people being generally much delighted with such glorious pomps and the Church of England thereby held in estimation with all forein Princes Nothing else memorable in this year but the comming out of certain books and the death of Caâ—vin Dorman an English fugitive first publisheth a book for proof of certain of the Articles denyed in Bishop Jewel's challenge encountred first by Alexander Nowel Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul who first appeared in print against those of Lovain and is replyed upon by Dorman in a book entituled A Discovery of Mr. Nowel's untruths not published till the year next following But of more consequence to this Church was the death of Calvin by whose authority so much disorder and confusion was to be brought upon it in the times succeeding a name much reverenced not onely by those of his own party and perswasions but by many grave and moderate men who did not look at first into the dangers which ensued upon it His platform at Geneva made the onely pattern by which all reformed Churches were to frame their Government his Writings made the onely rule by which all Students in Divinity were to square their Judgments What Peter Lombart was esteemed to be in the Schools of Rome the same was Calvin reckoned in all those Churches which were reformed according to the Zuinglian doctrine in the point of the Sacrament But Hic Magister non tenetur as the saying was he was not so esteemed in England nor was there any reason why it should be so for though some zealous brethren of the Presbyteterian or Puritan faction appeared exceeding ambitious to wear his Livery and thought no name so honorable as that of Calvinist yet the sounder members of the Church the Royal and Prelatical Divines as the others called them conceived otherwise of him And the right learned Adrian Sararia though by birth a Dutch-man yet being once preferred in the Church of England he stomached nothing more than to be called Calvinian Anno Reg. Eliz. 7. A. D. 1564 1565. WE shall begin this year with the concernments of the Kirk of Scotland where Queen Eâ—izabeth kept a Stock still going the Returns whereof redounded more to her own security than to the profit and advantage of the Church of England The Queen of Scots was young poffessed of that Kingdom and next Heir to this first married to the Daulphin of France and sued to after his decease in behalf of Charls the younger son of the Emperor Maximilian as also of the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Bavaria But Queen Elizabeth had found so much trouble and danger from her first alliance with the French that she was against all Marriages which might breed the like or any way advance the power of that Competitor But on the contrary she commended to her the Earl of Leicester whom she pretended to have raised to those eminent honors to make him in some fort capable of a Queens affection Which proposition proved agreeable to neither party the Queen of Scots disdaining that unequal offer and Leicester dealing underhand with Randolph the English Resident to keep her still in that averseness He had foolishly given himself some hopes of marrying with Elizabeth his own dread Mistress interpreting all her favours to him to proceed from affection and was not willing that any Proposition for that purpose with the Queen of Scots should be entertained During these various thoughts on both sides the English began to be divided in opinion concerning the next heir to the Crown Imperial of this Realm One Hales had writ a discourse in favour of the House of Suffolk but more particularly in defence of the late marriage between the Earl of Hertford and the Lady Katherine for which he was apprehended and committed prisoner The Romish party were at the same time sub-divided some standing for the Queen of Scots as the next heir apparent though an alien born others for Henry Lord Darnlie eldest son to the Earl of Lenox born in the Realm and lineally descended from the eldest daughter of King Henry the 7th from whom the Queen of Scots also did derive her claim The Queen of Scots also at the same time grown jealous of the practices of the Lord James her bastard-brother whom she had not long before made Earl of Murrey and being over-powered by those of the Congregation was at some loss within her self for finding a fit person upon whose integrity she might depend in point of counsel and on whose power she might rely in point of safety After a long deliberation nothing seemed more conducible to her ends and purposes than the recalling of Matthew Earl of Lenox to his native Country from whence he had been forced by the Hamiltonians in the time of King Henry Being of great power in the West of Scotland from the Kings whereof he was extracted Henry conceived that some good use might be made of him for advancing the so much desired marriage between his onely son Prince Edward and the Infant-Queen The more to gain him to his side he bestowes upon him in marriage the Lady Margaret Dowglas daughter of Queen Margaret his eldest sister by Archibald Dowglas Earl of Angus her second husband of which marriage were born Henry Lord Darnly of whom more anone and Charls the second son whom King James created Earl of Lenox father of Arabella before remembred And that they might support themselves in the nobler equipage he bestowes upon him also the Mannor of Setrington with other good Lands adjoyning in the County of Yoâ—k passing since by the name of Lenox his Lands in the style of the people In England he remained above twenty years but keptâ— himself constant in all changes to the Church of Rome which made him the more estimable both with his own Queen and the English Papists Being returned into his Country he found that Queen so gracious to him and such a handsome correspondence with the chief Nobility that he sends for his two sons to come thither to him but leaves his wife behind in the Court of England lest otherwise Queen Elizabeth might take some umbrage or displeasure at it if they should all remove at once It was about the middle of February that the Lord Darnly came to the Court of Scotland Who being not full twenty years old of lovely person sweet behaviour and a most ingenuous disposition exceedingly prevailed in short time on the Queens affection She had now met with such a
following they were dismist with many rich Presents and an annual pension from the Queen conducted honourably by the Lord Aburgavenny to the Port of Dover and there shipped for Calais filling all places in the way betwixt that and Baden with the report of the magnificence of their entertainment in the Court of England And that the Glories of their entertainment might appear the greater it hapned that Rambouillet a French Ambassador came hither at that time upon two solemnities that is to say to be installed Knight of the Garter in the place and person of that King and to present the Order of St Michael the principal Order of that Kingdom to Thomas Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Leicester The one performed with the accustomed Pomps and Ceremonies in the Chapel of St George at Windsor the other with like State and splendour in the Royal Chapel at Whitehall Such a well tempered piety did at that time appear in the Devotions of the Church of England that generally the English Papists and the Ambassadors of forein Princes still resorted to them But true it is that at that time some zealots of the Church of Rome had begun to slacken their attendance not out of any new dislike which they took at the service but in regard of a Decree set forth in the Council of â—rent prohibiting all resort to the Churches of Hereticks Which notwithstanding the far greater part continued in their first obedience till the coming over of that Roaring Bull from Pope Pius the 5th by which the Queen was excommunicated the subjects discharged from their obedience to the Laws and the going or not going to the Church made a sign distinctive to difference a Roman Catholick from an English Protestant And it is possible enough that they might have stood much longer to their first conformity if the discords brought into the Church by the Zuinglian faction together with their many innovations both in Doctrine and Discipline had not afforded them some further ground for the desertion For in this year it was that the Zuinglian or Calvinian faction began to be first known by the name of Puritans if Genebrard Gualier and Spondanus being all of them right good Chronologers be not mistaken in the time Which name hath ever since been appropriate to them because of their pretending to a greater Purity in the service of God than was held forth unto them as they gave it out in the Common Prayer Book and to a greater opposition to the Rites and Usages of the Church of Rome than was agreeable to the constitution of the Church of England But this Purity was accompanied with such irreverence this opposition drew along with it so much licenciousnesse as gave great scandal and offence to all sober men so that it was high time for those which had the care of the Church to look narrowly unto them to give a check to those disorders and confusions which by their practices and their preachings they had brought into it and thereby laid the ground of that woful schism which soon after followed And for a check to those disorders they published the Advertisement before remembred subscribed by the Archbishop of Canâ—erbury the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Lincoln Rochester and other of her Majesties Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical according to the Statute made in that behalf This was the only present remedy which could then be thought of And to prevent the like confusions for the time to come a Protestation was devised to be taken by all Parsons Vicars and Curates in their several stations by which they were required to declare and promise That they would not preach not publickly interpret but only read that which is appointed by publick authority without special Licence of the Bishop under his Seal that they would read the Service plainly distinctly and audibly that all the people might hear and understand that they would keep the Register book according to the Queens Majesties Injunctions that they would use sobriety in apparel and especially in the Church at Common Prayers according to Order appointed that they would move the Parishioners to quiet and concord and not give them cause of offence and help to reconcile them that be at variance to their utmost power that they would read dayly at the least one Chapter of the Old Testament and another of the New with good advisement to the increase of their knowledge that they would in their own persons use and exercise their Office and Place to the honour of God and the quiet of the Queens subjects within their charge in truth concord and unity as also observe keep and maintain such Order and Uniformity in all external Policy Rites and Ceremonies of the Church as by the Lawes good usages and Orders are already well provided and established and finally that they would not openly meddle with any Artificers occupations as covetously to seek a gain thereby having in Ecclesiastical Livings twenty Nobles or above by the year Which protestation if it either had been generally pressed upon all the Clergy as perhaps it was not or better kept by them that took it the Church might questionlesse have been saved from those distractions which by the Puritan Innovators were occasioned in it Anno Reg. Eliz. 8. A. D. 1565 1566. THus have we seen the publick Liturgy confirmed in Parliament with divers penalties on all those who either did reproach it or neglect to use it or wilfully withdrew their attendance from it the Doctrine of the Church declared in the Book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation and ratified in due form of Law by the Queens authority external matters in officiating Gods publick service and the apparel of the Clergy regulated and reduced to their first condition by the Books of Orders and Advertisements Nothing remaineth but that we settle the Episcopal Government and then it will be time to conclude this History And for the setling of this Government by as good authority as could be given unto it by the Lawes of the Land we aâ—e beholden to the obstinacy of Dr Edmond Bonner the late great slaughter-man of London By a Statute made in the last Parliament for keeping her Majesties Subjects in their due obedience a power was given unto the Bishops to tender and receive the oath of Supremacy of all manner of persons dwelling and residing in their several Diocesses Bonner was then prisoner in the Clink or Marshalsea which being in the Burrough of Southwark brought him within the Jurisdiction of Horn Bishop of Winchester by whose Chancellor the Oath was tender'd to him On the refusal of which Oath he is endicted at the Kings Bench upon the Statute to which he appeared in some Term of the year foregoing and desires that counsel be assigned to plead his cause according to the course of the Court The Court assigns him no worse men than Christopher Wâ—ay afterwards chief Justice of the Common Pleas that famous Lawyer Edmond
they saâ—e in sides or lay on the ground or fell prostrate or sung Te Deum or looked toward the South or did wear Copes of Tissâ—e or Velvet with a thousand more such questions p. 446. Whereas the Church of God so well ordered with excellent men of learning and godlinesse is constrained to suffer Coblers Weavers Tinkers Tanners Cardmakers â—apsters Fidlers Gaolers and other of like profession not only to enter into disputing with her but also to climb up into Pulpits and to keep the place of Priests and Ministers c. p. 2. Or that any Bagpipers Horse coursers Jaylers or Ale basters were admitted then into the Clergy without good and long tryal of their conversation p. 162. Or that any Bishop then did swear by his honour when in his visitation abroad in the Country he would warrant his promise to some poor prisoner Priest under him or not satisfied with the prisoning of his adversary did cry out and call upon the Prince not disposed that way to put them to most cruel deaths or refused to wear a white Rochet or to be distinguished from the Laity by some honest Priests apparel p. 162. or gathered a Benevolence of his Clergy to set him up in his houshold p. 163. Or that the Communion Table if any then were was removable up and down hither and thither and brought at any time to the lower parts of the Church there to execute the Lords Supper or that any Communion was said on Good Friday or that the Sacrament was ministred then sometimes in loaf Bread sometimes in Wafers and those rather without the name of Jesus or the sign of the Crosse than with it or that at the Communion time the Minister should wear a Cope and at all other Service a Surplice only or as at some places it is used nothing at all besides his common apparel or that they used a common and prophane cup at the Communion and not a consecrated and hallowed vessel p. 162 163. Or that a solemn curse should be used on Aâ—h Wednesday or that a Procession about the fields was used in the Rogation week rather thereby to know the bounds and borders of every Parish than to move God to mercy and shew mens hearts to devotion or that the man should put the Wedding ring upon the fourth finger of the left hand of the Women and not on the right as hath been many hundred years continued p. 163. Or that the resiâ—ue of the Sacrament unreceived was taken of the Priest or of the Parish Clerk to spread their young childrens butter thereupon or to serve their own tooth with it at their homely table or that it was lawful then to have but one Communion in one Church in one day p. 164. or that the Lent or Friday was to be fasted for civil policy not for any devotion p. 165. or that the Lay people communicating did take the cup at one another hands and not at the Priests p. 166. Or that any Bishop then threw down the Images of Christ and his Saints and set up their own their wives and their childrens pictures in their Chambers and Parlours p. 164. or that being a virgin at the taking of his Office did afterwards yet commendably take a wife unto him p. 165. or that was married on Ash Wednesday or that preached it to be all one to pray on a dunghil and in a Church or that any Fryer of 60 years obteining afterwards the room of a Bishop married a young woman of nineteen years c p. 166. Thus have we seen the Church established on a sure foundation the Doctrine built upon the Prophers and Apostles according to the explication of the ancient Fathers the Government truly Apostolical and in all essential parts thereof of Divine institution the Liturgy an extract of the Primitive forms the Ceremonies few but necessary and such as tended only to the preservation of decency and increase of piety And we have seen the first Essays of the Puritan faction beginning low at Caps and Surplices and Episcopal habits but aiming at the highest points the alteration of the Government both in Church and State the adulterating of the Doctrine and the subversion of the Liturgy and form of worship here by Law established But the discovery of those dangerous Doctrines and those secret Plots and open practises by which they did not onely break down the roofe and walls of this goodly building but digged up the foundation of it will better fall within the compasse of a Presbyterian or Acrian History for carring on of whose designes since the dayes of Calvin they have most miserably imbroyled all the Estates and Kingdomes of these parts of Christendome the Realmes and Churches of Great Brittaine more than all the rest Let it suffice me for the present if I have set the Church on its proper bottom and shewed her to the world in her Primative lustre that we may see how strangely she hath been unsetled how monstruously disfigured by unquiet men whose interess is as incompatible with the rights of Monarchy as with distinction of apparrell the Government of Bishops all set formes of Prayer and whatsoever also they contend against And therefore heare I will conclude my History of the Reformation as not being willing to look further into those disturbances the lamentable effects whereof wee feele to this very day AN APPENDIX To the former BOOK CONTAINING 1. The Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1562. compared with those which had been made and published in the Reign of King Edward the 6 th Anno 1552. 2. Notes on the former Articles concerning the Particulars in which they differed and the reasons of it A PREFACE to the following ARTICLES THe Lutherans having published that famous Confession of their faith which takes name from Ausbâ—rge at which City it was tendered to the consideration of Charls the 5th and the Estates of the Empire there assembled Anno 1530. In tract of time all other Protestant and Reformed Churches followed that example And this they did partly to have a constant Rule a mongst themselves by which all private persons were to frame their judgments and pâ—rtly to declare that consent and harmony which was betwixt them and the rest of those National Churches which had made an open separation from the Popes of Rome Upon which grounds the Prelates of the Church of England having concurred with the godly desires of King Edward the sixth for framing one uniform Order to be used in God's publick Worship and publish ing certain pious and profitable Sermons in the English Toung for the instruction of the people found a necessity of holding forth some publick Rule to testifie as well their Orthodoxie in some points of Doctrine as their abhorrency from the corruptions of the Church of Rome and the extravagancies of the Anabaptists and other Sectaries This gave the first occasion to the Articles of Religion published in the Reign of King Edward the sixth
vain about it In these distractions some of the Franckfort Schismaticks desire that all divine Offices might be executed according to the order of the Church of Geneva which Knox would by no means yield unto thinking himself as able to make a Rule for his own Congregation as any Calvin of them all But that the mouths of those of Stralsburge and Zuriâ—k might be stopped for ever he is content to make so much use of him as by the authority of his judgment to disgrace that Liturgy which those of Zurick did contend for He knew well how he had bestirred himself in quarrelling the first Liturgy of King Edward the 6th and nothing doubteth but that the second though reviewed on his importunity would give him as little satisfaction as the other did To this intent the Order of the English Liturgy is drawn up in Latine transmitted to him by Knox and Whittingham by this infallible judgment to stand or fall The Oracle returns this answer on the 31 of January In Liturgia Anglâ—cana qualem mihi describitis multas vidâ—o tolerabiles ineptias That in the Book of England as by them described he had observed many tolerable fooleries Whiâ—h last words being somewhat ambiguous as all Oracles are he explicates himself by telling them That there wanted much of that purity which was to be desired in it that it contained many relicks of the dregs of Popery that being there was no manifest impiety in it it had been tolerated for a season because at first it could not otherwise be admitted But howsoever though it was lawful to begin with such beggarly rudiments yet it behoved the learned grave and godly Ministers of Christ to endeavour farther and set forth something more refined from filth and rustinesse This being sent for his determinate sentence unto Knox and Whittingham was of such prevalency with all the rest of that party that such who â—ormerly did approve did afterwards as much dislike the English Liturgy and those who at the first had conceived onely a dislike grew afterwards into an open detestation of it Those who before had been desirous that the Order of Geneva should be entertained had now drawn Knox and Whittingham unto them Mr. John Fox the Author of the Acts and Monuments contributing his approbation amongst the rest But in the end to give content to such as remained affected to the former Liturgy it was agreed upon That a mixt Form consisting partly of the Order of Geneva and partly of the Book of England should be digested and received till the first of April consideration in the mean time to be had of some other course which should be permanent and obliging for the time to come In this condition of affairs Doctor Richard Cox the late Dean of Christ-Church and Westminster first Schoolmaster and after Almoner to King Edward the sixth putteth himself into Franckfort March 13. accompanied with many English Exiles whom the cause of Religion had necessitated to forsake their Country Being a man of great learning of great authority in the Church and one that had a principal hand in drawing up the Liturgy by Law established he could with no patience endure those innovations in it or rather that rejection of it which he found amongst them He thereupon first begins to answer the Minister contrary to the Order there agreed on and the next Sunday after causeth one of his company to go into the Pulpit and read the Letany Against which doings of his Knox in a Sermon the same day inveigheth most bitterly affirming many things in the Book of England not onely to be imperfect but superstitious For the which he is not onely rebuked by Cox but forbidden to preach Wherewith Whittingham being much offended deals with some of the Magistrates from whom he procureth an Order of the 22 of March requiring That the English should conform themselves to the Rules of the French Knox had not long before published a seditious Pamphlet entituled An Admonition to Christians containing the substance of some Sermons by him preached in Engâ—and in one of which he affirmed the Emperor to be no lesse an enemy to Christ that the â—yrant Nero. For this and several other passages of the like dangerous nature he is accused by Cox for Treason against the Emperor the Senate made acquainted with it and Knox commanded thereupon to depart the City who makes hâ—s Farewel-Sermon on the 25th of March and retires himself unto Geneva Following his blow Cox gets an order of the Senate by the means of another of the Glaâ—berges by which Whittingham and the rest of his faction were commanded to receive the Book of England Against which order Whiâ—tingham for a time opposeth encouraged therein by Goodman who for the love of Knox with whom afterwards he associated in all his practices had left the grave soâ—iety of those of Stralsbâ—rge to joyn himself unto the Sectaries of 〈…〉 But finding Cox to be too strong for them in the Senate both they and all the rest who refused conformity resolved to betake themselves to some other place as they shortly did Cox thus made Master of the field begins to put the Congregation into such order as might preserve the face and reputation of an English Church He procures Whitehead to be chosen for the principal Paâ—â—or appoints two Ministers for Elders and four Deacons for aâ—â—istants to him recommends Mr. Robert Horn whom he had drawn from Zurick thither to be Hebrew-Reader Mullings to read the Greek Lecture Trahern the Lecture in Divinity and Chambers to be Treasurer for the Contributions which were sent in from time to time by many godly and wellâ—affected persons both Dutch and English for the use of that Church Having thus setled all things answerable to his own desires he gives an account thereof to Calvin subscribed by fourteen of the chief men in that Congregation partly excusing themselves that they had proceeded so far without his consent and partly rejoycing that they had drawn the greatest part of that Church to their own opinions Calvin returns his Answer on the last of May which puts his party there on another project that is to say to have the whole business referred to some Arbitrators equally chosen on both sides But Cox was already in possession great in esteem with the chief Magistrates of the City and would by no means yield to refer that point which had already been determined to his advantage With these debates the time is taken up till the end of August at what time Whiâ—tingham and the rest of the faction take their leave of Franckfort Fox with some few others go to Basil but the main body to Geneva as their Mâ—ther-City where they make choice of Knox and Goodman for their constant Preachers under which Ministry they reject the whole frame and fabrick of the Reformation made in England conformed themselves wholly to the fashions of the Church of Geneva and therewith entertain