of which they were lately driven and were now setled in Malta They were under a great Master who depended on the Pope and the Emperour But some they could not be brought to surrender of their own accord as others had done it was necessary to suppress them by Act of Parliament Another House which they had in Ireland was also suppressed and Pensions were reserved for the Priors and Knights On the 14th of May the Parliament was Prorogued to the 25th a Vote having past that the Bills should continue in the State they were in On the 12th of June Cromwel's Fall there was a sudden turn at Court for the Duke of Norfolk arrested Cromwel of High Treason and sent him Prisoner to the Tower He had many Enemies The meanness of his Birth made the Nobility take it ill to see the Son of a Black-Smith made an Earl and have the Garter given him besides his being Lord Privy Seal Lord Chamberlain of England Lord Vicegerent and a little while before he had also the Mastership of the Rolls All the Popish Clergy hated him violently They imputed the Suppression of Monasteries and the Injunctions that were laid on them chiefly to his Counsels And it was thought that it was mainly by his means that the King and the Emperour continued to be in such ill Terms The King did now understand that there was no agreement like to be made between the Emperour and Francis for it stuck at the matter of the Dutchy of Milan in which neither of them would yield to the other and the King was sure they would both court his Friendship in case of a War and this made him less concerned for the Favour of the German Princes So now Cromwel's Counsels became unacceptable With this a secret Reason concurred The King did not only hate the Queen but was now come to be in Love with Katherine Howard Neece to the Duke of Norfolk which both raised his Interest and deprest Cromwel who had made the former Match The King was also willing to cast upon him all the Errours that had been committed of late and by making him a Sacrifice he hoped he should regain the Affections of his People The King had also Informations brought him That he secretly encouraged those that opposed the six Articles and discouraged those who went about the Execution of it His Fall came so suddenly that he had not the least Apprehension of it before the Storm brake on him He had the common Fate of all disgraced Ministers his Friends forsook him and his Enemies insulted over him only Cranmer stuck to him and wrote earnestly to the King in his Favours He said he found that he had always loved the King above all things and had served him with such Fidelity and Success that he believed no King of England had ever a faithfuller Servant And he wished the King might find such a Councellour who both could and would serve him as he had done So great and generous a Soul had Cranmer that was not turned by changes in his Friends Fortunes and would venture on the displeasure of so Imperious a Prince rather than fail in the Duties of Friendship But the King was now resolved to ruine Crom wel and that unjust Practice of Attainting without hearing the Parties Answer for themselves which he had promoted too much before was now turned upon himself He had such Enemies in the House of Lords that the Bill of Attainder was dispatched in two days being read twice in one day Cranmer was absent and no other would venture to speak for him But he met with more Justice in the House of Commons for it stuck ten days there And in Conclusion a new Bill was drawn against him and sent up to the Lords to which they consented and it had the Royal Assent In it they set forth His Attainder That tho the King had raised him from a base State to great Dignities Yet it appeared by many Witnesses that were Persons of Honour that he had been the most Corrupt Traitor that ever was known That he had set many at Liberty that were condemned or suspected of Misprision of Treason That he had given Licences for transporting out of the Kingdom things prohibited by Proclamation And had granted many Passports without search made That he had said he was sure of the King That he had dispersed many Erroneous Books contrary to the Belief of the Sacrament And had said That every Man might Administer it as well as a Priest That he had licensed many Preachers suspected of Heresy And had ordered many to be discharged that were committed on that account and had discharged all Informers That he had many Hereticks about him That above a Year before he had said The preaching of Barns and others was good And that he would not turn tho the King did turn but if the King turned he would fight in Person against him and all that turned And drawing out his Dagger he wisht that might pierce him to the Heart if he should not do it he had also said If he lived a year or two longer it should not be in the King's Power to hinder it He had likewise been found guilty of great Oppression and Bribery And when he heard that some Lords were taking Counsel against him he had threatned that he would raise great stirrs in England For these things he was Attainted both of High Treason and Heresy A Proviso was added for securing the Church of Wells of which he had been Dean This was lookt on as very hard Measure It was believed Censures past upon it That he had at least Verbal Orders from the King for the Licences and Orders that were complained of and perhaps he could have shewed some in Writing if he had been heard to make his Answers Bribery seemed to be cast on him only to render him odious but no Particulars were mentioned Nor was it credible That he could have spoken such Words of the King as were alledged especially when he was in the height of his Favour and if he had spoken them above a Year before it is not to be imagined that they could have been so long kept secret and what was said of his drawing out a Dagger look'd like a design to affix an overt Act to them This being done The King's Marriage annulled The King went on to move for a Divorce An Address was moved to be made to him by the Lords that he would suffer his Marriage to be examined Cranmer and others were sent down to desire the Concurrence of the Commons and they ordered 20 of their number to go along with the Lords who went all in a body to the King He granted their desire the matter being concerted before So a Commission was sent to the Convocation to discuss it Gardiner opened it to them and they appointed a Committee for the Examination of Witnesses The Substance of the whole Evidence amounted to these Particulars
begged that he might be heard with his Accusers face to face He prayed that the King would take all his Lands and Goods and only restore him to his Favour and grant him such an Allowance to live on as he thought fit He went further and set his Hand to a Confession of several Crimes as 1. His revealing the Secrets of the King's Council 2. His concealing his Son's Treason in giving the Arms of Edward the Confessor 3. His own giving the Arms of England with the Labels of Silver which belonged only to the Prince which he acknowledged was High Treason and therefore he begged the King's Mercy But all this had no effect on the King tho his drawing so near his end ought to have begot in him a greater regard to the shedding of Innocent Blood When the Parliament met And the Duke attainted by Act of Parliament the King was not able to come to Westminster but he sent his Pleasure to them by a Commission He intended to have Prince Edward Crowned Prince of Wales and therefore desired they would make all possible hast in the Attainder of the Duke of Norfolk that so the Places which he held by Patent might be disposed of to others who should assist at the Coronation which tho it was a very slight Excuse for so high a piece of Injustice yet it had that effect that in seven Days both Houses past the Bill On the 27th of January the Royal Assent was given by those Commissioned by the King and the Execution was ordered to be next Morning There was no special Matter in the Act but that of the Coat of Arms which he and his Ancestors were used to give according to Records in the Herauld's Office so that this was condemned by all Persons as a most Inexcusable Act of Tyranny But the Night after this the King died and it was thought contrary to the Decencies of Government to begin a new Reign with so Unjustifiable an Act as the beheading of the old Duke and so he was preserved Yet both Sides made Inferences from this Calamity that fell on him The Papists said It was God's just Judgment on him for his Obsequiousness to King Henry But the Protestants said It was a just return on him for what he had done against Cromwel and many others on the account of the six Articles Cranmer would not meddle in this Matter but that he might be out of the way he retired to Croydon whereas Gardiner that had been his Friend all along continued still about the Court. The King's Distemper had been growing long upon him He was become so Corpulent that he could not go up and down Stairs but made use of an Ingine The King's Sickness when he intended to walk in his Garden by which he was let down and drawn up He had an old Sore in his Leg that pained him much the Humours of his Body discharging themselves that way till at last all setled in a Dropsy Those about him were afraid to let him know that his Death seemed near lest that might have been brought within the Statute of foretelling his Death which was made Treason His Will was made ready and as it was given out was signed by him on the 30th of December He had made one at his last going over to France All the Change that he made at this time was that he ordered Gardiner's Name to be struck out for in that formerly made he was named one of the Executors When Sir Anthony Brown endeavoured to perswade him not to put that Disgrace on an old Servant he continued positive in it for he said he knew his Temper and could govern him but it would not be in the Power of others to do it if he were put in so high a Trust The most material thing in the Will was the preferring the Children of his second Sister by Charles Brandon to the Children of his eldest Sister the Queen of Scotland in the Succession to the Crown Some Objections were made to the Validity and Truth of the Will It was not signed by the King's Hand as it was directed by the Act of Parliament but only stamped with his Name and it was said this was done when he was dying without any Order given for it by himself for proof of which the Scots that were most concerned appealed to many Witnesses and chiefly to a Deposition which the Lord Paget had made who was then Secretary of State On his Death-bed he finished the Foundation of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge and of Christ's-Church Hospital near Newgate yet this last was not so fully setled as was needful till his Son compleated what he had begun On the 27th of January And Death his Spirits sunk so that it was visible he had not long to live Sir Anthony Denny took the courage to tell him that Death was approaching and desired him to call on God for his Mercy The King exprest in general his Sorrow for his past Sins and his Trust in the Mercies of God in Christ Jesus He ordered Cranmer to be sent for but he was speechless before he could be brought from Croidon yet he gave a Sign that he understood what he said to him and soon after he died in the 57th Year of his Age after he had reigned 37 Years and nine Months His Death was concealed three days for the Parliament which was dissolved with his last Breath continued to do business till the 31st and then his Death was published It is probable the Seimours concealed it so long till they made a Party for the putting the Government into their own Hands The Severities he used against many of his Subjects in matters of Religion An account of his Severities against the Priests made both sides write with great Sharpness of him His Temper was Imperious and Cruel He was both sudden and violent in his Revenges and stuck at nothing by which he could either gratify his Lust or his Passion This was much provoked by the Sentence the Pope thundered against him by the virulent Books Cardinal Pool and others published by the Rebellions that were raised in England and the Apprehensions he was in of the Emperour's Greatness and of the Inclinations his People had to have joined with him together with what he had read in History of the Fates of those Princes against whom Popes had thundered in former times all which made him think it necessary to keep his People under the Terror of a severe Government and by some publick Examples to secure the Peace of the Nation and thereby to prevent a more profuse Effusion of Blood which might have otherwise followed if he had been more gentle And it was no wonder if after the Pope deposed him he proceeded to great Severities against all that which supported that Authority The first Instance of Capital Proceedings upon that account was in Easter-Term 1535 in which three Priors and a Monk of the Carthusian Order The Carthusians
founding of Monasteries was the fittest Compensation for a King and he turned out all the married Priests and put Monks in their stead From that time the Credit and Wealth of Monastick Orders continued to encrease for several Ages till the Begging Orders succeeded in the esteem of the World to the place which the Monks formerly had for they decreased as much in true worth as the false appearances of it had now raised their Revenues They were not only ignorant themselves but very jealous of the progress Learning was making for Erasmus and the other Restorers of it treating them with much scorn they look'd on the encrease of it as that which would much lessen them and so not only did not contribute to it but rather detracted from it as that which would make way for Heresy The Cardinal designed two noble Foundations the one at Oxford Cardinal Wolsy suppresses many and the other at Ipswich the place of his Birth both for the encouragement of the Learned and the instruction of Youth and for that end he procured a Bull for suppressing divers Monasteries which being executed their Lands by Law fell to the King and thereupon the Cardinal took out Grants of them and endowed his Colledges with them But we shall next consider the state of Religion in England From the dayes of Wickliff there were many that differed from the Doctrines commonly received The growth of Wickliff's Doctrine He writ many Books that gave great Offence to the Clergy yet being powerfully supported by the Duke of Lancaster they could not have their revenge during his Life but he was after his Death condemned and his Body was raised and burnt The Bible which he translated into English with the Preface which he set before it produced the greatest Effects In it he reflected on the ill Lives of the Clergy and condemned the Worship of Saints and Images and the corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament but the most criminal part was the exhorting all People to read the Scriptures where the Testimonies against those Corruptions were such that there was no way to deal with them but to silence them His Followers were not Men of Letters but being wrought on by the easy Conviction of plain Sense were by them determined in their Persuasions They did not form themselves into Body but were contented to hold their Opinions secretly and did not spread them but to their particular Confidents The Clergy sought them out every where and did deliver them after Conviction to the Secular Arm that is to the Fire In the Primitive Church The Cruelty of the Clergy all cruel Proceedings upon the account of Heresy were condemned so that the Bishops who accused some Hereticks upon which they were put to death were excommunicated for it Banishment and Fines with some Incapacities were the highest Severities even upon the greatest Provocations But as the Church grew corrupted in other things so a cruel Spirit being generally the mark of all ill Priests of whatsoever Religion they are they fell under the Influences of it and from the days of the rise of the Albigenses the severities of the Inquisition and Burnings with many other Cruelties were by the means of the Dominicans set up first in France and then in the other parts of Europe A Decree was also made in the Council of the Lateran requiring all Magistrates under the pains of forfeiture and deposition to extirpate Hereticks Burning agreed best with their Cruelty as being the most terrible sort of Death and bearing some resemblance to everlasting Burnings in Hell so they damned the Souls of the Hereticks and burnt their Bodies but the Execution of the former part of the Sentence was not in their power as the latter part was The Canons of that Council being received in England the Proceedings against Hereticks grew to be a part of the Common Law and a Writ for burning them was issued out upon their Conviction But special Statutes were afterwards made The first under Richard the second Laws made in England against Hereticks was only agreed to by the Lords and without its being consented to by the Commons the King assented to it yet all the Severity in it was no more than that Writs should go out to the Sheriffs to hold Hereticks in Prison till they should be judged by the Laws of the Church The Preamble of the Law says They were very numerous that they had a peculiar Habit that they preached in many Churches other Places against the Faith and refused to submit to the Censures of the Church This was sent with the other Acts according to the custom of that Time to all the Sheriffs of England to be proclaimed by them but the Year following in the next Parliament the Commons complained that that Act was published to which they had never consented so an Act passed declaring the former null yet this was suppressed and the former was still esteemed a good Law When Henry the fourth came to the Crown he owing it in great measure to the help of the Clergy passed an Act against all that preached without the Bishop's Licence or against the Faith and it was enacted That all Transgressors of that sort should be imprisoned and within three Months be brought to a Trial If upon Conviction they offered to abjure and were not Relapses they were to be imprisoned and fined at pleasure and if they refused to abjure or were Relapses they were to be delivered to the secular Arm and the Magistrates were to burn them in some publick Place But tho by this Statute no mention is made of sending out a Writ for Execution yet that continued still to be practised And that same Year Sautre a Priest being condemned as a Relapse and degraded by Arundell Arch-bishop of Canterbury a Writ was issued out for it in which Burning is called the Common Punishment which related to the customs of other Nations For this was the first Instance of that kind in England In the beginning of Henry the fifth's Reign there was a Conspiracy against the King discovered tho others that lived not long after say it was only pretended and contrived by the Clergy of Old-Castle and some others of Wickliff's Followers then called Lollards upon which many were condemned both for Treason and Heresy who were first hanged and then burnt and a Law followed that the Lollards should forfeit all that they held in Fee-simple as well as their Goods and Chattels to the King and all Sheriffs and Magistrates were required to take an Oath to destroy all Heresies and Lollardies and to assist the Ordinaries in their proceedings against them Yet the Clergy making ill use of these Laws and vexing all People that gave them any Offence with long Imprisonments the Judges interposed and examined the Grounds of their Commitments and as they saw cause Bailed or Discharged the Prisoners and took upon them to declare what Opinions were Heresies by Law and what were
expect Justice there so she went out of the Court and would never return to it any more Upon this the King gave her a great Character for her extraordinary Qualities and protested he was acted by no other Principle then that of Conscience He added that Wolsey did not set him on to this Suit but had opposed it long that he first moved the matter in Confession to the Bishop of Lincoln and had desired the Archbishop of Canterbury to procure him the Resolution of the Bishops of England in his Case and that they had all under their hands declared that his Marriage was unlawful The Bishop of Rochester denied he had signed it but Warham pretended he gave him leave to make another write his Name to it Fisher denied this and it was no way probable The Legates went on according to the forms of Law The Queen appeals to the Pope tho the Queen appealed from them to the Pope and excepted both to the Place to the Judges and her Lawyers Yet they pronounced her Contumax and went on to Examine Witnesses chiefly to that particular of the Consummation of her Marriage with Prince Arthur But now since the Process was thus going on the Emperours Agents prest the Pope vehemently for an Avocation and all possible endeavours were used by the King's Agents to hinder it they spared nothing that would work on the Pope either in the way of perswasion or threatning It was told him that there was a Treaty set on foot between the King and the Lutheran Princes of Germany and that upon the Pope's declaring himself so partial as to grant the Avocation he would certainly imbark in the same Interrests with them But the Pope thought the King was so far ingaged in Honour in the Points of Religion that he would not be prevailed with to unite with Luther's Followers So he did not imagine that the Effects of his granting the Avocation would be so dismal as the Cardinal's creatures represented them He thought it would probably ruine him which might make his Agents use such Threatnings and he did not much consider that for he hated him in his heart So in Conclusion after the Emperour had engaged to him to restore his Family to the Government of Florence he resolved to publish his Treaty with him But that the granting the Avocation might not look like what indeed it was a secret Article he resolved to begin with that and with great signs of sorrow he told the English Embassadours that he was forced to it both because all the Lawyers told him it could not be denied and that he could not resist the Emperours Forces which surrounded him on all hands Their endeavours to gain a little time by delayes were as fruitless as their other Arts had been for on the 15th of July The Pope grants an Avocation the Pope signed it and on the 19th he sent it by an express Messenger to England The Legates Campegio in particular drew out the matter by all the delayes they could contrive and gained much time At last it being brought to that that Sentence was to be pronounced Campegio instead of doing it adjourned the Court till October and said that they being a part of the Consistory must observe their times of Vacation This gave the King and all his Court great offence when they saw what was like to be the Issue of a Process on which the King was so much bent and in which he was so far engaged both in Honour and Interest Campegio had nothing to lose in England but the Bishoprick of Sailisbury for which the Pope or Emperour could easily recompence him but Wolsey was under all the Terrours that an Insolent Favorite is liable to upon a change in his Fortune None being more abject in misfortune than those that are lifted up with Success When the Avocation was brought to England the King was willing that the Legates should declare their Commission void but would not suffer the Letters Citatory to be served for he looked upon it as below his Dignity to be cited to appear at Rome The King governed himself upon this occasion with more temper than was expected He dismissed Campegio civily only his Officers searched his Coffers when he went beyond Sea with design as was thought to see if the Decretal Bull could be found Wolsey was now upon the point of being disgraced tho the King seemed to treat him with the same Confidence he had formerly put in him it being ordinary for many Princes to hide their designs of disgracing their Favourites with higher Expressions of kindnesses than ordinary till their Ruine breaks out the more violently because it is not foreseen At this time Cranmer's Rise Dr. Cranmer a Fellow of Jesus-Colledge in Cambridge meeting accidentally with Gardiner and Fox at Waltham and being put on the Discourse of the King's Marriage proposed a new Method which was That the King should engage the chief Universities and Divines of Europe to examine the lawfulness of his Marriage and if they gave their Resolutions against it then it being certain that the Pope's Dispensation could not derogate from the Law of God the Marriage must be declared null This was new and seemed reasonable so they proposed it to the King who was much taken with it and said he had the Sow by the right Ear He saw this way was both better in it self and would mortify the Pope extreamly so Cranmer was sent for and did so behave himself that the King conceived an high opinion both of his Learning and Prudence and of his Probity and Sincerity which took such root in the King's mind that no Artifices nor Calumnies were ever able to remove it But as he was thus in his Rise Wolsey it disgraced so Wolsey did now decline The Great Seal was taken from him and given to Sir Thomas Moor And he was sued in a Premunire for having held the Legatine Courts by a Forraign Authority contrary the Laws of England He confessed the Indictment and pleaded Ignorance and submitted himself to the King's Mercy so Judgment passed on him Then was his rich Palace now Whitehall and Royal Furniture seized on to the King's use Yet the King received him again into his Protection and restored to him the Temporalities of the Sees of York and Winchester and above 6000 l. in Plate and other Goods And there appeared still great and clear Prints in the King's mind of that entire Confidence to which he had received him of which as his Enemies were very apprehensive so he himself was so much transported with the Messages he had concerning it that once he fell down on his knees in a Kennel before them that brought them Articles were put in against him in the House of Lords it seems for a Bill of Attainder where he had but few Friends which all insolent Favourites may expect in their Disgrace In the House of Commons Cromwel that had been his Secretary did so
in particular were condemned of Treason for saying that the King was not Supream Head of the Church of England It was then only a Premunire not to swear to the Supremacy but it was made Treason to deny it or speak against it Hall a Secular Priest was at the same time condemned of Treason for calling the King a Tyrant an Heretick a Robber and an Adulterer and saying that he would die as King John or Richard the Third died and that it would never be well with the Church till the King was brought to Pot And that they looked when Ireland and Wales would rise and were assured that three parts of four in England would join with them All these pleaded not Guilty but being condemned they justified what they had said The Carthusians were hanged in their Habits Soon after that three Carthusians were condemned and executed at London two more at York upon the same account for opposing the King's Supremacy Ten other Monks were shut up in their Cells of whom nine died there and one was condemned and hanged These had been all Complices in the Business of the Maid of Kent and tho that was pardoned yet it gave the Government ground to have a watchful Eye over them and to proceed more severly against them upon the first Provocation After these Fisher's Sufferings Fisher and More were brought to their Trials Pope Clements officious Kindness to Fisher in declaring him a Cardinal did hasten his Ruine tho he was little concerned at that Honour that was done him He was tried by a Jury of Commoners and was found guilty of Treason for having spoken against the King's Supremacy but instead of the Common Death in Cases of Treason the King ordered him to be beheaded On the 22th of June he suffered He dressed himself with more then ordinary Care that day for he said it was to be his Wedding-Day As he was led out he opened the New Testament at a Venture and prayed that such a place might turn up as might comfort him in his last Moments The Words on which he cast his Eyes were This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So he shut the Book and continued meditating on these Words to the last On the Scaffold he repeated the Te Deum and so laid his Head on the Block which was severed from his Body He was a learned and devout Man but much addicted to Superstition and too cruel in his Temper against Hereticks He had been Confessor to the King's Grand-Mother and perswaded her to found two Colledges in Cambridge Christ's and St John's in Acknowledgment of which he was chosen Chancelof the University Henry the Seventh made him Bishop of Rochester He would never exchange that for any other He said his Church was his Wife and he would not part with his Wife because she was Poor He was much esteemed by this King till the Suit of the Divorce was set on foot and then he adhered stifly to the Marriage and the Popes Supremacy and that made him too favourable to the Nun of Kent But the Severities of his long Imprisonment together with this bloody Conclusion of it were universally condemned all the World over only Gardiner imploied his Servile Pen to write a Vindication of the King's Proceedings against him It was writ in Elegant Latin but the Stile was thought too Vehement More 's Death It was harder to find matter against Sir Thomas More for he was very cautious and satisfied his own Conscience by not swearing the Supremacy but would not not speak against it He said the Act had two Edges if he consented to it it would damne his Soul and if he spoke against it it would condemn his Body This was all the Message he sent to Fisher when he desired to know his Opinion about it he had also said the same to the Duke of Norfolk and some Counsellors that came to examine him And Rich then the King's Solicitor coming as a private Friend to perswade him to swear the Oath urged him with the Act of Parliament and asked him if he should be made King by Act of Parliament would not he Acknowledge him He answered he would because a King might be made or deprived by a Parliament But the Matter of the Supremacy was a point of Religion to which the Parliament's Authority did not extend it self All this Rich witnessed against him so these Particulars were laid together as amounting to a Denial of the King's Supremacy and upon this he was judged guilty of Treason He received his Sentence with that equal Temper of Mind which he had shewed in both Conditions of Life He expressed great Contempt of the World and much Weariness in living in it His ordinary Facetiousness remained with him to his last Moment on the Scaffold Some censured that as affected and indecent and as having more of the Stoick than the Christian in it But others said that way of Railery had been so Customary to him that Death did not discompose him nor put him out of his ordinary Humour He was beheaded on the 6th of July in the 52d or 53d Year of his Age. He had great Capacities and eminent Vertues In his Youth he had freer thoughts but he was afterwards much corrupted by Superstition and became fierce for all the Interests of the Clergy He wrote much in Defence of all the old Abuses His Learning in Divinity was but ordinary for he had read little more than some of St. Austin's Treatises and the Canon Law and the Master of the Sentences beyond whom his Quotations do seldom go His Stile was Natural and Pleasant and he could turn things very dextrously to make them look well or ill as it served his Purpose But tho he suffered for denying the Kings Supremacy yet he was at first no Zealot for the Pope For he says of himself That when the King shewed him his Book in Manuscript which he wrote against Luther he advised him to leave out that which he had put in it concerning the Pope's Power for he did not know what Quarrels he might have afterwards with the Pope's and then that would be turned against him But the King was perhaps fond of what he had written and so he would not follow that wise Advice which he gave him There were no Executions after this till the Rebellions of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire gave new Occasions to Severity Attainders after the Rebellion and then not only the Lords of Darcy and Hussy but six Abbots and many Gentlemen the chief of whom was Sir Thomas Piercy Brother to the Earl of Northumberland were attainted They had not only been in the Rebellion but had forfeited the General Pardon by their new Attempts after it was proclaimed Yet some said the King took Advantage on very slight Grounds to break his Indemnity But on the other hand it was no Wonder if he proceeded with the utmost Rigour
of Portugal's Brother but it was let fall soon after She refused to acknowledge the Laws made when the King was under age and carried herself very high for she knew well that the Protector was then afraid of a War with France and that made the Emperours Alliance more necessary to England Yet the Council sent for the Officers of her houshold and required them to let her know that the Kings Authority was the same when he was a child as at full age and that it was now lodged in them and though as they were single persons they were all inferiour to her yet as they were the Kings Council she was bound to obey them especially when they executed the Law which all Subjects of what rank soever were bound to obey Yet at present they durst go no further for fear of the Emperours displeasure So it was resolved to connive at her Mass The Reformation of the greatest Errours in Divine Worship being thus established Disputes concerning Christs presence in the Sacrament Cranmer proceeded next to establish a form of Doctrine the chief point that hitherto was untouched was the presence of Christ in the Sacrament which the Priests magnified as the greatest Mystery of the Christian Religion and the chief priviledge of Christians with which the simple and credulous vulgar were mightily affected The Lutherans received that which had been for some Ages the Doctrine of the Greek Church that in the Sacraments there was both Bread and Wine and also the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ The Helvetians lookt on it only as a Commemoration of the Death of Christ The Princes of Germany were at great pains to have these reconciled in which Bucer had laboured with great Industry But Luther being a man of a harsh temper did not easily bear contradiction and was too apt to assume in effect that Infallibility to himself which he condemned in the Pope Some took a middle way and asserted a Real Presence but it was not easie to understand what was meant by that expression unless it was a real application of Christs death so that the meaning of Really was Effectually But though Bucer followed this method Pet. Martyr did in his Lectures declare plainly for the Helvetians So Dr. Smith and some others intended publickly to oppose and affront him and challenged him to a dispute about it which he readily accepted on these conditions That the Kings Council should first approve of it and that it should be managed in Scripture terms For the strength of those Doctors lay in a nimble managing of those barbarous and unintelligible terms of the Schools which though they sounded high yet really they had no sense under that So all the Protestants resolved to dispute in Scripture terms which seemed more proper in matters of Divinity than the Metaphysical language of School men The Council having appointed Dr. Cox and some others to preside in the dispute Dr. Smith went out of the way and a little after fled out of England But before he went he wrote a very mean submission to Cranmer Other Doctors disputed with Peter Martyr concerning Transubstantiation but that had the common fate of all publick disputes for both sides gave out that they had the better At the same time there were also disputes at Cambridge which were moderated by Ridley that was sent down thither by the Council He had fallen on Bertrams Book of the Sacrament and wondred much to find so celebrated a Writer in the ninth Century engage so plainly against the Corporal Presence This disposed him to think that at that time it was not the received belief of the Church He communicated the matter to Cranmer and they together made great Collections out of the Fathers on this head and both wrote concerning it The substance of their Arguments was Arguments against the Corporal Presence That as Christ called the Cup the Fruit of the Vine so S. Paul called the other Element Bread after the Consecration which shews that their natures were not changed Christ speaking to Jews and substituting the Eucharist in the room of the Paschal Lamb used such expressions as had been customary among the Jews on that occasion who called the Lamb the Lords Passeover which could not be meant literally since the Passeover was the Angels passing by their Houses when the first born of the Egyptians were killed So it being a commemoration of that was called the Lords Passeover and in the same sense did Christ call the Bread his Body Figurative expressions being ordinary in Scripture and not improper in Sacraments which may be called Figurative actions It was also appointed for a Remembrance of Christ and that supposes absence The Elements were also called by Christ his Body broken and his Blood shed so it is plain they were his Body not as it is glorified in Heaven but as it suffered on the Cross And since the Scriptures speak of Christs continuance in Heaven till the last day from thence they inferred that he was not Corporally present And it was shewed that the eating Christs Flesh mentioned by S. John was not to be understood of the Sacrament since of every one that did eat it is said that he has Eternal life in him So that was to be understood only of receiving Christs doctrine and he himself shewed it was to be meant so when he said that the Flesh profited nothing but his words were Spirit and Life So that all this was according to Christs ordinary way of teaching in Parables Many other Arguments were brought from the nature of a body to prove that it could not be in more places than one at once and that it was not in a place after the manner of a Spirit but was always extended They found also that the Fathers had taught that the Elements were still Bread and Wine and were the Types the Signs and Figures of Christs Body not only according to Tertullian and S. Austin but to the Ancient Liturgies both in the Greek and Roman Churches But that on which they built most was that Chrysostome Gelasius and Theodoret arguing against those who said that the humane nature in Christ was swallowed up by its Union to his Godhead They illustrated the contrary thus as in the Sacrament the Elements are united to the Body of Christ and yet continue to be the same that they were formerly both in Substance Nature and Figure So the Humanity was not destroyed by its Union with the Word From which it appeared that it was then the received opinion that the Elements were not changed and therefore all those high expressions in Chrysostome or others were only strains and figures of Eloquence to raise the devotion of the people higher in that holy action But upon those expressions the following Ages built that opinion which agreeing so well with the Designs of the Priests for establishing the authority of that Order which by its Character was qualified for the greatest performance that
freedome of Speech but being much cried down he said they were a company of men who had dissembled with God and the World in the late Reign and were now met together to set forth false devices which they were not able to maintain Theodoret's words were much and often insisted on so Weston answered if Theodoret should be yielded to them they had an hundred Fathers on the other side Cheyney shewed out of Hesychius that the custome of Jerusalem was to burn so much of the Elements as was not consumed And he asked what it was that was burnt One answered it was either the Body of Christ or the substance of Bread put there by Miracle at which he smiled and said a reply was needless When much discourse had past Weston asked if the House were not fully satisfied to which the Clergy answered Yes but the Spectators cried out No No for the doors were opened then Weston asked the five Disputants if they would answer the Arguments that should be put to them Ailmer said they would not enter into such a Disputation where matters were so indecently carried They proposed only the Reasons why they could not joyn with the Vote that had been put concerning the Sacrament but unless they had fairer Judges they would go no further Weston broke up all by saying You have the Word but we have the Sword rightly pointing out that wherein the strength of both fides consisted It is not to be doubted but that the Popish party pretended they had the Victory for that always the stronger side does upon such occasions Yet it was visible that this dispute was not so fairly carried as those were in King Edward's days in which for near a year before any change was made there were publick disputes in the Universities which were more proper places for them than a Town full of noise and business The question was also here determined first and then disputed And the presence and favour of the Privy Council did as much raise the one party as it depressed the other In the end of this year Veysey was again repossessed of the See of Exeter Coverdale being now a Prisoner in the Tower In the beginning of the next year a great Embassy came from the Emperour The Treaty of Marriage begun to agree the conditions of the Marriage between his Son and the Queen Gardiner took care to have extraordinary ones granted both to induce the Parliament more easily to consent to it and to keep the Spaniards from being admitted to any share in the Government that so he might keep it in his own hands But the Emperour was resolved to grant every thing that should be asked It was agreed that the Government should be entirely in the Queen and that though Pr. Philip was to be named in all Writs and his Image was to be on the Coin and Seals yet the Queens hand alone was to give authority to every thing without his No Spaniard was to be capable of any Office No change was to be made in the Law nor was the Queen to be required to go out of England against her will Nor might their issue go out of England but by the consent of the Nobility The Queen was to have of Jointure 40000 l. out of Spain and 20000 l. out of the Netherlands If the Queen had a Son he was to inherit Burgundy and the Netherlands as well as England if Daughters only they were to succeed to her Crowns and to have such portions from Spain as was ordinary to be given to Kings Daughters The Prince was to have no share in the Government after her death And the Queen might keep up her League with France notwithstanding this Match But this did not satisfie the Nation Which provokes some to rebel which lookt on these offers only as baits to hook them into slavery The severities of the Spanish Government in all the Provinces that were united to that Crown and the monstrous Cruelties exercised in the West Indies were much talkt of and it was said England must now preserve it self or be for ever inflaved Carew and Wiat undertook to raise the Countrey the one in Cornwall and the other in Kent and the Duke of Suffolk promised to raise the Midland Counties for the disposition to rise was general and might have been fatal to the Queen if there had been good heads to have led the people But before it grew ripe the design was discovered and upon that Sir Peter Carew fled to France Wiat gathered some men about him Wiat's Rebellion and on the twenty fifth of January he made Proclamation at Maidstone that he intended nothing but to preserve the Nation from the yoke of strangers and assured the people that all England would rise The Sheriff of Kent required him under pain of Treason to disperse his Company but he did not obey his Summons One Knevet raised a body of men about Tunbridge and marched towards him but was intercepted and routed by a force commanded by the Duke of Norfolk who was sent with two hundred Horse and six hundred Londoners to dissipate this Insurrection but some that came over from Wiat as deserters perswaded the Londoners that it was a common cause in which they were engaged to maintain the liberty of the Nation So they all went over to Wiat. Upon this the Duke of Norfolk retired back to London and Wiat who had kept himself under the defence of Rochester-Bridge advanced towards it The Duke of Suffolk made a faint attempt to raise the Country but it did not succeed and he was taken and brought to the Tower The Queen sent the offer of a Pardon to Wiat and his men but that not being received by them she sent some of her Council to treat with him He was blown up with his small success and moved that the Queen would come to the Tower of London and put the command of it into his hands till a new Council were setled about her So it appeared there was no Treaty to be thought on The Queen went into London and made great protestations of her love to her people and that she would not dispose of herself in Marriage but for the good of the Nation Wiat was now four thousand strong and came to Southwark but could not force the Bridge of London He was informed the City would all rise if he should come to their aid but he could not find Boats for passing over to Essex so he was forced to go to the Bridge of Kingston On the fourth of February he came thither but found it cut yet his men mended it and he got to Hide Park next morning His men were weary and disheartned and now not above 500 so that though the Queens forces could have easily dispersed them yet they let them go forward that they might cast themselves into their hands He marched through the Strand and got to Ludgate where he hoped to have found the Gate opened but
Saturdays and Ember days should be Fish days under several penalties excepting the weak or those that had the Kings Licence Christ had told his Disciples that when he was taken from them they should fast So in the Primitive Church they fasted before Easter but the same number of days was not observed in all places afterwards other rules and days were set up but S. Austin complained that many in his time placed all their Religion in observing them Fast-days were turned to a mockery in the Church of Rome in which they both dined and did eat Fish drest exquisitely and drank Wine This made many run to another extream against all Fasts or distinction of days which certainly if rightly managed and without superstition is a great means for keeping up a seriousness of mind which is necessary for maintaining the power of Religion Other Bills were proposed but not past one for making it Treason to marry the Kings Sisters without the consent of the King and Council But the forfeiture of Succession in that case was thought sufficient The Bishops did also complain of their want of power to repress vice which so much abounded But the Laity were so apprehensive of coming again under an Ecclesiastical Tyranny that they would not consent to it A Proposition was also made for bringing the Common Law into a body in imitation of Justinians Digests But it fell being too great a design to be finished under an Infant King In this Parliament the Admiral was Attainted The Admirals Attainder The Queen Dowager died in September last not without suspicion of Poison upon that he renewed his Addresses to Lady Elizabeth but finding it in vain to expect that his Brother and the Council would consent to it and that her right to the Succession would be cut off if he married her without their consent he resolved to make sure of the Kings Person till he made a change in the Government He fortified his House he laid up a Magazine and made a party among the Nobility The Protector imployed many to divert him from those desperate designs but his Ambition being incurable he was forced to proceed to extremities against him He sent him Prisoner to the Tower in January with his Confederate Sharington who being Vice-Treasurer of the Mint at Bristol had supplied him with Money and had coined much base Money for his use Many were sent to perswade him to a better mind and his Brother was willing to be again reconciled to him if he would retire from the Court and business but he was intractable So many Articles were objected to him both of his designs against the State and of his Malversation in his Office several Pyrates having been entertained by him Many Witnesses and Letters under his own hand were brought against him Almost the whole Council went to the Tower and examined him but he refused to make any Answers and said he expected an open Tryal The whole Council upon this acquainted the King with it and desired him to refer the matter to the Parliament which he granted Upon that some Counsellors were again sent to see what they could draw from him but he was sullen and after he had answered to three of the Articles denying some particulars and excusing others he refused to go any further The business was next brought into the House of Lords The Judges and the Kings Council delivered their opinions That the Articles objected to him were Treason Then the Evidence was given upon which the whole House past the Bill the Protector only withdrawing They dispatched it in two days In the House of Commons many argued against Attainders without a Trial or bringing the party to make his Answers But a Message was sent from the King desiring them to proceed as the Lords had begun So the Lords that had given Evidence against him in their own House were sent down to the Commons Upon which they past the Bill and the Royal Assent was given the fifth of March And afterwards the King being prest to it by the Council gave order for the Execution which was done the twentieth of March. This was the only cure that his Ambition seemed capable of Yet it was thought against nature that one Brother should fall by the hand of another And the Attainting a man without hearing him was condemned as contrary to Natural Justice so that the Protector suffered almost as much by his death as he could have done by his life The Laity and Clergy both gave the King Subsidies and so the Parliament was Prorogued The first thing taken into care was the receiving the Act of Uniformity A new Visitation Some Complaints were made of the Priests way of officiating that they did it with such a tone of voice that the people did not understand what was said no more than when the Prayers were said in Latine so this Temper was found Prayers were ordered to be said in Parish Churches in a plain voice but in Cathedrals the old way was still kept up as agreeing better with the Musick used in them Though this seemed not very decent in the Confession of sins nor in the Litany where a simple voice gravely uttered agreed better with those devotions than those Cadences and unmusical notes do Others continued to use all the Gesticulations Crossings and Kneelings that they had formerly been accustomed to The people did also continue the use of their Beads which were brought in by Peter Hermit in the eleventh Century by which the repeating the Angels Salutation to the Virgin was made a great part of their devotion and was ten times said for one Pater Noster Instructions were given to the Visitors to put all these down in a new Visitation and to enquire if any Priests continued to drive a trade by Trentals or Masses for departed Souls Order was also given that there should be no Private Masses at Altars in the corners of Churches and that there should be but one Communion in a day unless it were in great Churches and at high Festivals in which they were allowed to have one Communion in the morning and another at noon The Visitors made their Report That they found the Book of Common Prayer received universally over all the Kingdom only Lady Mary continued to have Mass said according to the abrogated forms Upon this the Council wrote to her to conform to the Laws for the nearer she was to the King in blood she was so much the more obliged to give a good Example to the rest of the Subjects She refused to comply with their desires and sent one to the Emperour for his Protection upon which the Emperour pressed the English Embassadours and they promised that for some time she should be dispensed with The Emperour pretended afterwards that they made him an absolute Promise that she should never be more troubled about it but they said it was only a Temporary Promise A Match was also proposed for her with the King