accidents that struck terror in them In July Thunder broke near Nottingham with such violence that it beat down two little Towns with all the Houses and Churches in them the Bells were carried a good way from the Steeples and the Lead that covered the Churches was cast 400 Foot from them strangely wreathed The River of Trent as it is apt upon Deluges of Rain to swell and over-run the Country so it broke out this Year with extraordinary violence many Trees were plucked up by the Roots and with it there was such a Wind that carried several Men and Children a great way and dashed them against Trees or Houses so that they died Hail-stones fell that were fifteen Inches about in other Places and which was much more terrible a contagious intermitting Feaver not unlike the Plague raged every where so that three parts of four of the whole Nation were infected with it So many Priests died of it that in many Places there were none to be had for the performing of the Offices Many Bishops died also of it so that there were many vacancies made by the Hand of Heaven against Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and it spreading most violently in August there were not Men enough in many Counties to reap the Harvest so that much Corn was lost All these Symptoms concurred to encrease the aversion the People had to the Government which made the Queen very willing to consent to a Treaty of Peace that was opened at Cambray in October to which she sent the Earl of Arundel the Bishop of Ely and Dr. Wotton as her Plenipotentiaries A Treaty of Peace between England France and Spain The occasion of the Peace was from a meeting that the Bishop of Arras had with the Cardinal of Lorrain at Peronne in which he proposed to him how much Philip was troubled at the continuance of the War their Forces being so much engaged in it that they could make no resistance to the Turk and the mean while Heresie encreasing and spreading in their own Dominions while they were so taken up that they could not look carefully to their Affairs at home but must connive at many things therefore he pressed the Cardinal to perswade the King of France to an Accommodation The Cardinal was easily induced to this since besides his own zeal for Religion he saw that he might thereby bear down the Constables greatness whose Friends chiefly his two Nephews the Admiral and Dandelot who went then among the best Captains in France were both suspect of being Protestants upon which the latter was shortly after put in Prison so he used all his endeavours to draw the King to consent to it in which he had the less opposition since the Court was now filled with his Dependants and his four Brothers who had got all the great Officers of France into their Hands and the Constable and Admiral being Prisoners there was none to oppose their Councils The King thinking that by the recovery of Calais and the Places about it he had gained enough to ballance the loss of St. Quintin was very willing to hearken to a Treaty and he was in an ill state to continue the War being much weakned both by the loss he suffered last Year and the blow that he received in July last The Battel of Graveling the Marshal de Thermes being enclosed by the Count of Egmont near Graveling where the French Army being set on by the Count and galled with the English Ordnance from their Ships that lay near the Land was defeated 5000 killed the Marshal and the other chief Officers being taken Prisoners These losses made him sensible that his Affairs were in so ill a condition that he could not gain much by the War The Number of the Protestants growing in France The Cardinal was the more earnest to bring on a Peace because the Protestants did not only encrease in their Numbers but they came so openly to avow their Religion that in the publick Walks without the Suburbs of St. Germain they began to sing Davids Psalms in French Verse The newness of the thing amused many the devotion of it wrought on others the Musick drew in the rest so that the Multitudes that used to divert themselves in those Fields in stead of their ordinary sports did now nothing for many nights but go about singing Psalms and that which made it more remarkable was that the King and Queen of Navarre came and joyned with them That King besides the Honour of a Crowned Head with the small part of that Kingdom that was yet left in their Hands was the first Prince of the Blood He was a soft and weak Man but his Queen in whose right he had that Title was one of the most extraordinary Women that any Age hath produced both for knowledge far above her Sex for a great judgment in Affairs an Heroical Greatness of Mind and all other Vertues joyned to a high measure of Devotion and true Piety all which except the last she derived to her Son Henry the Great When the King of France heard of this Psalmody he made an Edict against it and ordered the doers of it to be punished but the Numbers of them and the respect to those Crowned Heads made the business to go no further On the 24th of April was the Dolphin married to the Queen of Scotland The Dolphin marries the Queen of Scotland Four Cardinals Bourbon Lorrain Chastilion and Bertrand with many of the Princes of the Blood and the other great Men of France and the Commissioners sent from Scotland were present But scarce any thing adorned it more than the Epithalamium written upon it by Buchanan which was accounted one of the perfectest Pieces of Latin Poetry After the Marriage was over the Scotch Commissioners were desired to offer the Dolphin the Ensigns of the Regality of Scotland and to acknowledge him their King but they excused themselves since that was beyond their Commission which only empow'red them to treat concerning the Articles of the Marriage and to carry an account back to those that sent them Then it was desired that they would promote the business at their return to their Country but some of them had expressed their aversion to those Propositions so plainly that it was believed they were poisoned by the Brethren of the House of Guise Four of them died in France the Bishop of Orkney and the Earls of Rothes and Cassils and the Lord Fleeming The Prior of St. Andrews was also very sick and though he recovered at that time yet he had never any perfect health after it When the other four returned into Scotland a Convention of the Estates was called to consult about the Propositions they brought This Assembly consists of all those Members that make up a Parliament who were then the Bishops and Abbots and Priors A Convention of Estates in Scotland who made the first Estate the Noblemen that were the second Estate and the
contention hath arisen and daily ariseth and more and more increaseth about the execution of the same some Men being so superstitious or rather willful as they would by their good-wills retain all such Images still although they have been most manifestly abused and in some places also the Images which by the said Injunctions were taken down be now restored and set up again and almost in every place is contention for Images whether they have been abused or not And whiles these Men go about on both sides contentiously to obtain their Minds contending whether this or that Image hath been offered unto kissed censed or otherwise abused Parties have in some places been taken in such sort as further inconvenience is very like to ensue if Remedy be not provided in time Considering therefore that almost in no places of the Realm is any sure quietness but where all Images be wholly taken away and pulled down already to the intent that all Contention in every part of the Realm for this Matter may be clearly taken away and that the lively Images of Christ should not contend for the dead Images which be things not necessary and without which the Churches of Christ continued most Godly many Years We have thought good to signify unto you That his Highness Pleasure with advice and consent of us the Lord Protector and the rest of the Council is That immediately upon the sight hereof with as convenient diligence as you may you shall not only give order that all the Images remaining in any Church or Chappel within your Diocess be removed and taken away but also by your Letters signify unto the rest of the Bishops within your Province this his Highness Pleasure for the like Order to be given by them and every of them within their several Diocess and in the execution hereof We require both you and the rest of the said Bishops to use such foresight as the same may be quietly done with as good satisfaction of the People as may be Thus fare your good Lordship well From Somerset House the 21 of February 1547. Your Lordships assured Friends E. Somerset Jo. Russel Henricus Arundel T. Seymor Anthony Wingfield William Paget Number 24. The Copy of a Letter sent to all those Preachers which the King's Majesty hath licensed to Preach from the Lord Protector 's Grace and other of the King's Majesty's most honourable Council the 13th day of May in the Second Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth AFter our right hearty Commendations as well for the Conservation of the quietness and good order of the King's Majesty's Subjects as that they should not by evil and unlearned Preachers be brought unto Superstition Error or evil Doctrine or otherwise be made stubborn and disobedient to the King's Majesty's Godly Proceedings his Highness by our Advice hath thought good to inhibit all manner of Preachers who have not such License as in the same Proclamation is allowed to preach or stir the People in open and common preachings of Sermons by any means that the devout and godly Homilies might the better in the mean while sink into his Subjects Hearts and be learned the sooner the People not being tossed to and fro with seditious and contentious Preaching while every Man according to his Zeal some better some worse goeth about to set out his own Phantasie and to draw the People to his Opinion Nevertheless it is not his Majesty's Mind hereby clearly to extinct the lively Teaching of the Word of God by Sermons made after such sort as for the time the Holy Ghost shall put into the Preacher's Mind but that rash contentious hot and undiscreet Preachers should be stopped and that they only which be chosen and elect be discreet and sober Men should occupy that place which was made for Edification and not for Destruction for the Honour of God and Peace and Quietness of Conscience to be set forward not for private Glory to be advanced to appease to teach to instruct the People with Humility and Patience not to make them contentious and proud to instil into them their Duty to their Heads and Rulers Obedience to Laws and Orders appointed by the Superiors who have Rule of God not that every Man should run before their Heads hath appointed them what to do and that every Man should chuse his own way in Religion The which thing yet being done of some Men and they being rather provoked thereto by certain Preachers than dehorted from it it was necessary to set a stay therein And yet forasmuch as we have a great confidence and trust in you that you will not only Preach truly and sincerely the Word of God but also will use circumspection and moderation in your Preaching and such Godly Wisdom as shall be necessary and most convenient for the Time and Place We have sent unto you the King's Majesty's License to Preach but yet with this Exhortation and Admonishment That in no wise you do stir and provoke the People to any Alteration or Innovation other than is already set forth by the King's Majesty's Injunctions Homilies and Proclamations but contrariwise That you do in all your Sermons exhort Men to that which is at this time more necessary that is to the emendation of their own Lives to the observance of the Commandments of God to Humility Patience and Obedience to their Heads and Rulers comforting the Weak and teaching them the right way and to flee all old Erroneous Superstitions as the Confidence in Pardons Pilgrimages Beads Religious Images and other such of the Bishop of Rome's Traditions and Superstitions with his usurped Power the which things be here in this Realm most justly abolished and straitly rebuking those who of an arrogancy and proud hastiness will take upon them to run before they be sent to go before the Rulers to alter and change things in Religion without Authority teaching them to expect and tarry the time which God hath ordained to the revealing of all Truth and not to seek so long blindly and hidlings after it till they bring all Orders into contempt It is not a private Man's Duty to alter Ceremonies to innovate Orders in the Church nor yet it is not a Preachers part to bring that into contempt and hatred which the Prince doth either allow or is content to suffer The King's Highness by our Advice as a Prince most earnestly given to the true knowledg of God and to bring up his People therein doth not cease to labour and travel by all godly means that his Realm might be brought and kept in a most Godly and Christian Order who only may and ought to do it Why should a private Man or a Preacher take this Royal and Kingly Office upon him and not rather as his Duty is obediently follow himself and teach likewise others to follow and observe that which is commanded What is abolished taken away reformed and commanded it is easy to see by the Acts
Blessing which otherwise attends on such Dedications And it had been happy for the Church if all those that are authorized to confer Orders had stood on this more critically and not been contented with a bare putting these Questions to those who come to be ordained but had used a due strictness before hand sutable to that grave admonition of St. Pauls to Timothy Lay Hands suddenly on no Man and be not partaker of other Mens sins In the Sponsions made by the Priests they bind themselves to teach the People committed to their charge to banish away all erroneous Doctrines and to use both publick and private Monitions and Exhortations as well to the Sick as the Whole within their Cures as need shall require and as occasion shall be given Such as remember that they have plighted their Faith for this to God will feel the Pastoral Care to be a Load indeed and so be far enough from relinquishing it or hiring it out perhaps to a loose or ignorant Mercenary These are the blemishes and scandals that lie on our Church brought on it partly by the corruption of some Simoniacal Patrons but chiefly by the negligence of some and the faultiness of other Clergy-men Which could never have lost so much ground in the Nation upon such trifling accounts as are the Contests since raised about Ceremonies if it were not that the People by such palpable faults in the Persons and behaviour of some Church-men have been possessed with prejudices first against them and then upon their account against the whole Church so that these corrupt Church-men are not only to answer to God for all those Souls within their charge that have perished through their neglect but in a great degree for all the mischief of the Schism among us to the nourishing whereof they have given so great and palpable occasion The importance of those things made me judge they deserved this digression from which I now turn to other Affairs The Business of Bulloigne lay heavy on the Council The French had stopt all communication between Calais and it so that it was not easie to supply it from thence The Council to rid the Nation of the Forreigners sent them all to Calais with 3000 English and resolved to force a way through if it came to extremities but at this time both the French and English were well disposed to a Peace The King of France knew the Emperor intended to go into Germany next Summer so he longed to be at liberty to wait on his Motions It is resolved to deliver Bulloigne to the French The English Council that opposed the delivery of Bulloigne chiefly to throw off the Duke of Somerset that being done were all convinced that it was not worth the cost and danger of a War only they stood on the indecency of yielding it especially they having raised such clamours against the Protector when he went about the delivering it up So they made great shews of preparations to defend it but at the same time were not unwilling to listen to Propositions of Peace One Guidotti a Florentine that lived in England was employed by the Constable of France Mountmorancy to set on a Treaty yet he was to do it without owning he had any orders from that King He went often to and again between Paris and London and at last it was resolved on both sides that there should be a Treaty Pope Paul the third dies But at this time there was a great change of Affairs in Italy Pope Paul the third having held that See fifteen years died the 10th of November in the 82d Year of his Age much broken in mind at the calamity of his Family the killing of his Son the loss of Placentia and the ingratitude of his Grand-child Upon his death all the Cardinals being gathered from Bollogna Trent and other neighbouring Places entred the Conclave where one that is to have such a share in the following part of this Work was so much concerned that it will be no impertinent digression to give an account of it There were great animosities between the Imperialists and the French Cardinal Farnese had also many Votes that followed him so that these three Factions were either of them strong enough to exclude any that was unacceptable to them Cardinal Pool was elected Pope Cardinal Pool was set up by Farnese as a moderate Imperialist who had carried it so well at Trent that they saw he would not blindly follow the Emperor He had lived many years at Viterbo where he was made Legate after he had given over his Practices against England There he gave himself wholy to the Study of Divinity not without some imputations of favouring Heresie For one Antonio Flaminio that was also suspect of Lutheranisme lived with him Tremellius that learned Jew who had been Baptized in his House was also known to incline that way and many who left their Monasteries and went to Germany used to stay some time with him on their way and were well received by him nor would he proceed against any suspected of Heresie There was causes enough to raise suspicion in a less jealous People than Italians Yet the vast zeal that he had shewn for the exaltation of the Papacy made all those things be over-looked He was sent one of the Popes Legates to Trent where he asserted the German Doctrine of Justification by Faith But upon the Emperors setting out the Interim he wrote freely against it He was indeed a Man of an easie and generous temper but much in the Power of those whom he loved and trusted Farnese therefore looking on him as one that would be governed by him and that was acceptable to the Imperialists and not much hated by the French the Cardinal of Guise being his Friend resolved to promote him and by the scrutiny they made it was found that they were within two of the number that was requisite But he seemed so little concerned at it himself that he desired them not to make too much hast in a thing of that nature for that dignity was rather to be undertaken with fear than to be ambitiously desired The Cardinals who had heard of such things among the Ancient Romans but had seen few such modern Instances and who valued Men by nothing more than their ambitious aspiring imputed this either to dullness or hypocrisie He himself seemed nothing affected with it and did not change his behaviour and carried it with an equality of mind that became one who had divided his time between Philosophy and Divinity Caraffa that hated him did all he could to alienate the Conclave from him he objected to him not only Heresie but also the suspition of incontinence since he bred up a Nun who was believed to be his Daughter Of these things he coldly purged himself he shew'd that he had suffered so much on the account of Religion in his own Country that he was beyond the suspition of Heresie and he proved that
was the same that Cranmer had formerly designed but never took effect Certainly Persons formed from their Childhood with others Notions and another method of living must be much better fitted for a holy Character than those that have lived in the pleasures and follies of the world who unless a very extraordinary change is wrought in them still keep some of their old Customs about them and so fall short of that gravity and decency that becomes so Spiritual a Function He shewed the weakness of his Spirit in one thing that being against Cruel Proceedings with Hereticks he did not more openly profess it but both suffered the other Bishops to go on and even in Canterbury now sequestred in his hands and soon after put under his care he left those poor men to the Cruelties of the brutal and fierce Popish Clergy In this he was to be pitied that he had not Courage enough to contend with so haughty a Pope as Paul the 4th was who thought of no other way of bearing down Heresie but by setting up the Inquisition every where so Pool it seems judged it sufficient for him not to act himself nor to set on any and thought he did enough when he discouraged it in private but yet he granted Commissions to the other Bishops and Arch-Deacons to proceed against those called Hereticks He was not only afraid of being discharged of his Legation and of losing the Archbishoprick of Canterbury which was now ready to fall upon him but he feared to be sent for to Rome and cruelly used by the Pope who remembred all the Quarrels he formerly had with any of the Cardinals and put Card. Merone that was Pool's great Friend in Prison upon suspicion of Heresie All these things prevailed with Pool to give way to the Persecution and it was thought that he himself hastned the Execution of Cranmer longing to be invested with that See which is the only personal blemish I find laid on him One remarkable thing of him was his not listening to the Proposition the Jesuits made him of bringing them into England That Order had been set up about twelve years before this and was in its first Institution chiefly designed for propagating the Doctrines of that Church in Heretical or Infidel Countries to which was afterwards added the Education of Children It was not easily allowed of at Rome because the Bishops did universally complain of the great numbers of exempted Regulars and therefore at first it was limited to a small number which Restriction was soon taken off They besides the Vows of other Orders took one for a blind and universal Obedience to the See of Rome And because they were much to be imployed they were dispensed with as to the hours of the Quire which made them be called a Mungrel Order between the Regulars and Seculars They have since that time by their care in educating Youth by their indefatigable Industry and chiefly by their Accommodating Pennances and all the other Rules of Religion to the Humours and Inclinations of those who confess their Sins to them drawn almost all the World after them and are raised now to that heighth both of Wealth and Power that they are become the Objects of the Envy and Hatred of all the rest of their own Church They suggested to Pool That whereas the Queen was restoring the Goods of the Church that were in her hands it was but to little purpose to raise up the old Foundations for the Benedictine Order was become rather a Clog than a Help to the Church they therefore desired that those Houses might be assigned to them for maintaining Schools and Seminaries which they should set on quickly and they did not doubt but by their dealing with the Consciences of those who were a dying they should soon recover the greatest part of the Goods of the Church The Jesuits were out of measure offended with him for not entertaining their Proposition which I gather from an Italian Manuscript which my most worthy Friend Mr. Crawford found in Venice when he was Chaplain there to Sir Thomas Higgins his Majesties Envoy to that Republick but how it came that this motion was laid aside I am not able to judge There passed nothing else remarkable this Year but that in the end of November John Web a Gentleman George Roper and Gregory Parke were burnt all at at one Stake in Canterbury And on the 18th of December Philpot Philpots Martyrdom that had disputed in the Convocation was burnt in Smithfield He was at the end of that meeting put in Prison for what he had said in it tho liberty of speech had been promised and the nature of the meeting did require it He was kept long in the Stocks in the Bishop of London's Coal-house and many conferences were had with him to perswade him to change By what Bonner said in one of them it appears that he hoped they should be better used upon Gardiners death for Bonner told him he thought because the Lord Chancelour was dead they would burn no more but he should soon find his Error if he did not recant He continued stedfast in his Perswasion and pleaded that he had never spoken nor written against their Laws since they were made being all the while a Prisoner except what he had said in Conference with them yet this prevailed not with Bonner who had as little Justice as Mercy in his temper On the 16th of December he was condemned and delivered to the Sheriffs He was at first laid in Irons because he was so poor that he could not fee the Jaylour but next day these were by the Sheriffs order taken off As he was led into Smithfield on the 18th he kneeled down and said I will pay my Vows in thee O Smithfield When he was brought to the Stake he said Shall I disdain to suffer at this Stake since my Redeemer did not refuse to suffer on the Cross for me He repeated the 106th 107th and 108th Psalms and then fitted himself for the Fire which consumed him to Ashes So this Year ended in which there were sixty seven burnt for Religion and of those four were Bishops and thirteen were Priests Forreign Affairs In Germany a Diet was held at Ausburg where the Peace of Germany was fully setled and it was decreed that the Princes of the Ausburg Confession should have the free liberty of their Religion and that every Prince might in his own State establish what Religion he pleased excepting only the Ecclesiastical Princes who were to forfeit their Benefices if they turned Those of Austria and Ferdinand's other Hereditary Dominions desired freedom for their Consciences but Ferdinand refused it yet he appointed the Chalice to be given in the Sacrament The Duke of Bavaria did the like in his Dominions At all this the Pope was highly offended and talked of deposing Ferdinand He had nothing so much in his mouth as the Authority former Popes had exercised in deposing Princes at
a mistake in the way of it they fell in some disorder The Spaniards upon that falling on them did with the loss only of fifty of their Men gain an entire Victory 2500 were killed on the Place the whole Army was dispersed many of the first Quality were killed the Constable with many others were taken Prisoners The French King was in such a consternation upon it that he knew not which way to turn himself Now all the French cursed the Popes Counsels for he had perswaded their King to begin this War and that with a manifest breach of his Faith This Action lost the Constable that great reputation which he had acquired and preserved in a course of much success and raised the credit of the Duke of Guise who was now sent for in all hast to come with his Army out of Italy for the preservation of his own Country France indeed was never in greater danger than at that time For if King Philip had known how to have used his Success and marched on to Paris he could have met with no resistance But he sate down before St. Quintins which Coligny kept out so long till the first terror was over that so great a Victory had raised and then as the French took Heart again so the Spaniards grew less as well in strength as reputation and the English finding themselves not well used returned home into their Country As soon as the Pope heard that England had made War upon France he was not a little inflamed with it and his wrath was much heightned when he heard of the defeat at St. Quintins and that the Duke of Guise Army was recalled out of Italy by which he was exposed to the mercy of the Spaniards He now said openly they might see how little Cardinal Pool The Pope is offended with Cadrinal Pool regarded the Apostolick See when he suffered the Queen to assist their Enemies against their Friends The Pope being thus incens'd against Pool sought all ways to be revenged of him At first he made a Decree in May this Year for a General Revocation of all Legates and Nuntio's in the King of Spains Dominions and among these Cardinal Pool was mentioned with the rest But Carne understanding this went first to the Cardinals and informed them what a prejudice it would be to their Religion to recall the Cardinal while things were yet in so unsetled a state in England Of this they were all very sensible and desired him to speak to the Pope about it So in an Audience he had of him he desired a Suspension might be made of that Revocation The Pope pretended he did it in General in all the Spanish Dominions yet he promised Carne to propose it to the Congregation of the Inquisition but he was resolved not to recall it and said it did not consist with the Majesty of the Place he sate in to revoke any part of a Decree which he had solemnly given In the Congregation the Pope endeavoured to have got the Concurrence of the Cardinals but they were unwilling to joyn in it So he told Carne that though he would recall no part of his Decree yet he would give Orders that there should be no Intimation made of it to Cardinal Pool and that if the Queen writ to him to desire his Continuance in England it might be granted He also let fall some words to Carne of his willingness to make Peace with King Philip and indeed at that time he was much distasted with the French Of this Carne advertised the King though he was then so much better acquainted with the Popes dissimulation than formerly that he did not lay much weight on what he said to him as will appear by the dispatch he made upon this occasion which is in the Collection Whether the Queen did upon this write to the Pope or not Collection Number 35. I do not know It is probable she did for this matter lay asleep till September and then the Pope did not only recall Pool but intended to destroy him He did not know where to find a Person to set up against the Cardinal since Gardiner was dead and none of the other Bishops in England were great enough or sure enough to him to be raised to so high a Dignity Peito the Franciscan Friar seemed a Man of his own temper because he had railed against King Henry so boldly to his face and he being chosen by the Queen to be her Confessor was looked on as the fittest to be advanced So the Pope wrote for him into England and when he came to Rome made him a Cardinal and sent over his Bulls declaring that he recalled Pools Legatine Power And recalls his Legatine Power and required him to come to Rome to answer for some Accusations he had received of him as a favourer of Hereticks This might have perhaps been grounded on his discharging that Year so many delated of Heresie upon so ambiguous a submission as they had made The Pope also wrote to the Queen that he was to send over Cardinal Peito with full power requiring her to receive him as the Legate of the Apostolick See The Queen called for the Bulls and according to the way formerly practised in England and still continued in Spain when Bulls that were unacceptable were sent over she ordered them to be laid up without opening them It has been shewn in the former part how Arch-bishop Chicheley when he was so proceeded against by Pope Martin appealed to the next General Council and some that desired to see the Form of such Appeals in those Ages have thought it an Omission in me that I had not published his Appeal in the Collection of Records at the end of that Work therefore upon this occasion I shall refer the Reader to it which he will find in the Collection But now Collection Number 36. Cardinal Pool resolved to behave himself with more submission For though the Queen had ordered the Popes Breve to him not to be delivered yet of himself he laid down the Ensigns of his Legatine Power and sent Ormaneto who had the Title of the Popes Datary and was his Friend and Confident to give an account of his whole behaviour in England and to clear him of these Imputations of Heresie This he did with so much submission that he mollified the Pope only he said that Pool ought not to have consented to the Queens joyning in War with the Enemies of the Holy See The Queen refuses to admit of Cardinal Peito the new Legate Peito had begun his Journey to England but the Queen sent him word not to come over otherwise she would bring him and all that owned his Authority within the Praemunire So he stopt in his Journey and dying in April following enjoyed but a short while his new Dignity together with the Bishoprick of Salisbury to which the Pope had advanced him clearly contrary to the old Law then in force against Provisions
Deputies from the Towns one from every Town only Edenburgh sends two were the third Estate Anciently all that held Lands of the Crown were summoned to Parliaments as well the greater as the lesser Barons But in King James the first 's time the lesser Barons finding it a great charge to attend ou such Assemblies desired to be excused from it and procured an Act of Parliament exempting them and giving them power to send from every County two three four or more to represent them but they afterwards thought this rather a Charge than a Priviledge and did not use it so that now the second Estate consisted only of the Nobility But the Gentry finding the prejudice they suffered by this and that the Nobility grew too absolute procured by King James the sixth's favour an Act of Parliament restoring them to that Right of sending Deputies two from every County except some small Counties that send only one But according to the Ancient Law none has a Vote in the Elections but those who hold Lands immediately of the Crown of such a value The difference between a Parliament and a Convention of Estates is that the former must be summoned forty days before it sits and then it meets in State and makes Laws which are to be prepared by a Committee of all the Estates called the Lords of the Articles but a Convention may be called within as few days as are necessary for giving notice to all parts of the Nation to make their Elections They have no Power of making Laws being only called for one particular Emergent which during the division of the Island was chiefly upon the breaking out of War betwixt the two Nations and so their Power was confined to the giving of Money for the occasion which then brought them together In the Convention now held after much debate and opposition whether they should consent to the demand made by the Ambassador sent from France it was carried that the Dolphin should be acknowledged their King great assurances being given that this should be only a bare Title and that he should pretend to no Power over them So the Earl of Argile and the Prior of St. Andrews who had been the main sticklers for the French Interest upon the promises that the Queen Regent made them that they should enjoy the free exercise of their Religion were appointed to carry the Matrimonial Crown into France But as they were preparing for their Journey a great revolution of Affairs fell out in England A Session of Parliament in England The Parliament met on the fifth of November On the seventh the Queen sent for the Speaker of the House of Commons and ordered him to open to them the ill condition the Nation was in for though there was a Treaty begun at Cambray yet it was necessary to put the Kingdom in a posture of defence in case it should miscarry But the Commons were now so dissatisfied that they could come to no resolution So on the 14th day of November the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer the Duke of Norfolk the Earls of Shrewsbury and Pembroke the Bishops of London Winchester Lincoln and Carlisle the Viscount Mountacute the Lords Clinton and Howard came down to the House of Commons and sate in that place of the House where the Privy-Counsellors used to sit The Speaker left his Chair and he with the Privy-Counsellors that were of the House came and sate on low Benches before them The Lord Chancellor shewed the necessity of granting a Subsidy to defend the Nation both from the French and the Scots When he had done the Lords withdrew but though the Commons entred both that and the two following days into the debate they came to no issue in their Consultations The Queen had never enjoyed her health perfectly since the false conception that was formerly spoken of The Queens sickness upon which followed the neglect from her Husband and the despair of Issue that encreased her Melancholly and this receiving a great addition from the loss of Calais and the other misfortunes of this Year she by a long declination of Health and decay of her Spirits was now brought so low that it was visible she had not many days to live and a Dropsie coming on her put a conclusion to her unhappy Reign And death and unfortunate Life on the 17th of November in the 43d Year of her Age after she had reigned five Years four Months and eleven Days At the same time Cardinal Pool Cardinal Pool dies as if one Star had governed both their Nativities was also dying and his end being hastened by the Queens death he followed her within sixteen hours in the 59th Year of his Age. He left his whole estate to Aloisi Prioli a Noble Venetian with whom he had lived six and twenty years in so entire a friendship that as nothing could break it off so neither was any thing able to separate them from one anothers company Prioli being invited by Pope Julius to come and receive a Cardinals Hat preferred Pools company before it and as he had supplied him in his necessities in Italy so he left his Country now to live with him in England Pool made him his Executor But Prioli was of a more Noble temper than to enrich himself by his Friends Wealth for as he took care to pay all the Legacies he left so he gave away all that remained reserving nothing to himself but Pools Breviary and Diary And indeed the Cardinal was not a Man made to raise a Fortune being by the greatness of his Birth and his excellent Vertues carried far above such mean designs He was a Learned His Character Modest Humble and good natured Man and had indeed such Qualities and such a Temper that if he could have brought the other Bishops to follow his Measures or the Pope and Queen to approve of them he might have probably done much to have reduced this Nation to Popery again But God designed better things for it so he gave up the Queen to the Bloody Councils of Gardiner and the rest of the Clergy It was the only thing in which she was not led by the Cardinal But she imputed his Opinion in that Particular rather to the sweetness of his Temper than to his Wisdom and Experience and he seeing he could do nothing of what he projected in England fell into a languishing first of his mind that brought after it a decay of his Health of which he died I have dwelt the more copiously on his Character being willing to deny to none of whom I write the Praises that are due to them and he being the only Man of that whole Party of whom I found any reason to say much good I was the more willing to enlarge about him to let the World see how little I am biassed in the account I give by Interest or Opinion So that if I have written sharply of any others that have been mentioned in
you shall find any Person stubborn or disobedient in not bringing in the said Books according to the tenour of these our Letters that then ye commit the said Person to Ward unto such time as you have certified us of his misbehaviour And we will and command you that you also search or cause search to be made from time to time whether any Book be withdrawn or hid contrary to the tenour of these our Letters and the same Book to receive into your Hands and to use all in these our Letters we have appointed And further whereas it is come unto our knowledg that divers froward and obstinate Persons do refuse to pay towards the finding of Bread and Wine for the Holy Communion according to the Order prescribed in the said Book by reason whereof the Holy Communion is many times omitted upon the Sunday These are to will and command you to convent such obstinate Persons before you and then to admonish and command to keep the Order prescribed in the said Book and if any shall refuse so to do to punish them by Suspension Excommunication or other Censures of the Church Fail you not thus to do as you will avoid our Displeasure Westminst Decemb. 25. Regni tertio Thom. Cantuarien Rich. Chanc. Will. St. John J. Russel H. Dorset W. Northampton Number 48. Cardinal Woolsey's Letters to Rome for procuring the Popedom to himself upon Pope Adrian's death Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. MY Lord of Bath Mr. Secretary and Mr. Hannibal I commend me unto you in my right hearty manner letting you wit That by Letters lately sent unto me from you my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal dated at Rome the 14th day of September Which Letters I incontinently shewed unto the King's Grace his Highness And I have been advertised to our great discomfort That the said 14th day it pleased Almighty God to call the Pope's Holiness unto his Infinite Mercy whose Soul Jesu pardon News certainly unto the King's Grace and to me right heavy and for the universal weal or quiet of Christendom whereunto his Holiness like a devout and virtuous Father of Holy Church was very studious much displeasant and contrarious Nevertheless conforming our selves to the Pleasure of Almighty God to whose Calling we all must be obedient the Mind and Intention of the King's Highness and of me both is to put some helps and furtherances as much as conveniently may be that such a Successor unto him may now by the Holy College of Cardinals be named and elected as may with God's Grace perform atchieve and fulfil the good and vertuous Purposes and Intents concerning the Pacification of Christendom whereunto our said late Holy Father as much as the brevity of the time did suffer was as it should seem minded and inclined which thing how necessary it is to the state of Christs Religion now daily more and more declining it is facil and easie to be consider'd and surely amongst other Christian Princes there is none which as ye heretofore have perfectly understood that to this purpose more dedicated themselves to give Furtherance Advice and Counsel than the Emperor and the King's Grace who as well before the time of the last Vacation as sithence by Mouth and by Letters with Report of Ambassadors and otherwise had many sundry Conferences Communications and Devices in that behalf In which it hath pleased them far above my merits or deserts of their goodness to think judg and esteem me to be meet and able for to aspire unto that Dignity persuading exhorting and desiring me that whensoever opportunity should be given I should hearken to their Advice Counsel and Opinion in that behalf and offering unto me to interpone their Authorities Helps and Furtherances therein to the uttermost In comprobation whereof albeit the Emperor now being far distant from these Parts could not nor might in so brief time give unto the King's Grace new or fresh confirmation of his Purpose Desire and Intent herein Yet nevertheless my Lady Margaret knowing the inclination of his mind in this same hath by a long discourse made unto me semblable Exhortation offering as well on the Emperor's behalf as on her own that as much shall by them be done to the furtherance thereof as may be possible Besides this both by your Letters and also by particular most loving Letters of the Cardinal 's de Medicis Sanctorum Quatuor Campegius with credence show'd unto me on their behalf by their Folks here resident I perceive their good and fast minds which they and divers other their Friends owe unto me in that matter And finally the King's Highness doth not cease by all the gracious and comfortable means possible to insist that I for manifold notable urgent and great respects in any wise shall consent that his Grace and the Emperor do set forth the thing with their best manner The Circumstances of whose most entire and most firm mind thereunto with their bounteous godly and beneficial Offers for the Weal of Christendom which his Grace maketh to me herein is too long to rehearse For which Causes albeit I know my self far unmeet and unable to so high a Dignity minding rather to live and die with his Grace in this his Realm doing Honour Service Good or Pleasure to the same than now mine old days approaching to enter into new things yet nevertheless for the great zeal and perfect mind which I have to the exaltation of the Christian Faith the honour weal and surety of the King's Grace and the Emperor and to do my Duty both to Almighty God and to the World I referring every thing to God's disposition and pleasure shall not pretermit to declare unto you such things as the King's Highness hath specially willed me to signify unto you on his Grace's behalf who most effectually willeth and desireth you to set forth the same omitting nothing that may be to the furtherance thereof as his special trust is in you First Ye shall understand that the mind and entire desire of his Highness above all earthly things is That I should attain to the said Dignity having his perfect and firm hope that of the same shall ensue and that in brief time a general and universal Repose Tranquillity and Quietness in Christendom and as great Renown Honour Profit and Reputation to this Realm as ever was besides the singular comfort and rejoice that the King's Grace with all his Friends and Subjects should take thereof who might be well assured thereby to compone and order their great Causes and Affairs to their high Benefit Commodity and most Advantage For this and other great and urgent Causes the Pleasure of his Highness is That like-as ye my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal have right prudently and discreetly begun so ye all or as many of you as be present in the Court of Rome and continue your Practices Overtures Motions and Labours to bring and conduce this the King 's inward Desire to perfect end
collectis per sequestros hujusmodi tempore sequestri de administratione per eosdem exigenda recipienda ac bene fideliter computantes quietando liberando deque statu dictarum Ecclesiarum Locorum tempore visitationis hujusmodi annotationem necnon de bonis rebus localibus eorundem inventaria facienda exigenda Statuta insuper Ordinationes Injunctiones particulares generales pro bona laudabili conservatione seu reformatione personarum locorum ordinum praedictorum juxta rei exigentiam Auctoritate nostra faciendo imponendo paenasque convenientes in earum violatores infligendas irrogandas Synodosque Capitula Convocationes tam speciales quam generales pro praemissis vel aliis causis rationibus quibuscunque quoties quando ubicunque vobis visum fuerit magis expedire nomine auctoritate nostris concedendos convocandos ac eas ea celebranda continuanda proroganda Clerumque Populum ad Synodos capitula hujusmodi convocando congregando ac Synodis capituli congregationibus hujusmodi interessendo praesidendo eaque inibi statuendo ordinando quae pro reformatione vel emendatione locorum personarum ordinum praedictorum visa fuerint quomodolibet expedire Dictasque Ecclesias loca personas modis omnibus quibus melius efficacius valeatis ad statum honestiorem probatioresque vivendi mores reducendo reponendo Crimina quoque excessus delicta quorumcunque subditorum nostrorum juxta comperta detecta quaecunque debite reformando corrigendo puniendo Quoscunque insuper subditos nostros pro praemissis vel quibuscunque aliis causis ad forum Ecclesiasticum quomodolibet spectantibus pertinentibus undecunque quacunque infra hoc nostrum Angliae Regnum vobis videbitur melius expedire ad vos coram vobis citando evocando contumacesque rebelles tam per censuras paenas Ecclesiasticas quam per mulctarum impositionem ac alia juris hujus Regni nostri remedia coercendo puniendo Causasque negotia Ecclesiastica hujusmodi cognoscendo examinando ac sine debito terminando subditos hujusmodi rei per vos judicatae stare acquiescere cogendo compellendo Resignationes insuper sive cessiones Ecclesiarum seu locorum quascunque quorumcunque praedictorum factas sive faciendas recipiendo admittendo Ecclesiasque loca resignata Vacantia pro vacantibus habenda fore pronunciando declarando Licentiasque ad tractandū communicandū concludendū super pensionibus fructibus emolumentis necnon dictarum Ecclesiarum locorum commissorum assignando necnon de super quacunque permutatione fienda quibuscunque personis idoneis id petentibus concedendo Pensionesque annuas congruas moderatas resignantibus hujusmodi assignando limitando Ecclesiasque loca praedicta de super pensionum hujusmodi solutione praestatione onerando obligando ac decreta summas in ea parte necessarias seu requisitas ferendas promulgandas Electionibus quoque Praelatorum qui per electionem hujusmodi assumi soleant quorumcunque interessendi praesidendi eligendumque in eisdem dirigendo informando Electiones insuper quascunque rite factas celebratas personas electas sive eligendas confirmando ac aliter factas celebratas cassando annullando ac rite electos confirmatos installando seu installari faciendo Institutiones quoque investituras in quibuscunque Ecclesiis locis praedictis pendente visitatione nostra hujusmodi personis idoneis rite presentatis quibuscunque conferendo concedendo ac eos in realem actualem corporalem possessionem Ecclesiarum locorum praedictorum indicendo seu sic induci faciendo atque mandando cum suis juribus pertinentibus universis Quaecunque insuper instrumenta literasque tam testimoniales quam mandatores rescripta alia quaecunque in ea parte necessaria oportuna c. Desunt caetera Number 30. A Letter written by the Monks of Glassenbury for the new Founding of that Abbey An Original To the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlain to the Queen's Majesty Ex M S. Nob. Illustr Com. de Huntington RIght Honourable in our most humble wise your Lordships daily Beadsman sometimes at the House of Glassenbury now here Monks in Westminster with all due submission we desire your Honour to extend your accustomed Vertue as it hath been always heretofore propense to the Honour of Almighty God to the honourable Service of the King and Queens Majesty So it may please your good Lordship again for the honour of them both of God and their Majesties to put the Queen's Highness in remembrance of her gracious Promise concerning the Erection of the late Monastery of Glassenbury which Promise of her Grace hath been so by her Majesty declared That upon the same we your Lordships daily Beadsmen understanding my Lord Cardinals Grace's Pleasure to the same by the procurement hereof our Reverend Father Abbot hath gotten out the Particulars and through a Warrant from my Lord Treasurer our Friends there hath builded and bestowed much upon Reparation Notwithstanding all now standeth at a stay we think the cause to be want of remembrance which cannot so well be brought unto her Majesty's understanding as by your Honourable Lordships favour and help And considering your Lordships most Godly disposition we have a confidence thereof to sollicite the same assuring your Lordship of our daily Prayers while we live and of our Successors during the World if it may so please your good Lordship to take it in hand We ask nothing in Gift to the Foundation but only the House and Scite the residue for the accustomed rent So that with our Labour and Husbandry we may live here a few of us in our Religious Habits till the Charity of good People may suffice a greater number and the Country there being so affected to our Religion we believe we should find more help amongst them towards the Reparations and Furniture of the same whereby we would happily prevent the ruin of much and repair no little part of the whole to God's Honour and for the better prosperity of the King and Queen's Majesties with the whole Realm for doubtless if it shall please your good Lordship if there hath ever been any flagitious Deed since the Creation of the World punished of God in our Opinion the overthrow of Glassenbury may be compared to the same not surrendred as other but extorted the Abbot preposterously put to death with two innocent vertuous Monks with him that if the thing were to be skanned by any University or some learned Councel in Divinity they would find it more dangerous than it is commonly taken which might move the Queen's Majesty to the more speedy Erection namely that being an House of such Antiquity and of Fame through all Christendom first begun by St. Joseph of Arimathea