That the matter of the Precontract with the Prince of Lorrain was not fully cleared and it did not appear if it was made by the Queen or whether it was in the Words of the present time or not That the King had married her against her Will and had not given an inward and compleat Consent and that he had never consummated the Marriage so that they saw he could have no Issue by the Queen Upon these grounds the whole Convocation with one consent annulled the Marriage and declared both Parties free This was the grossest piece of Compliance that the King had from his Clergy in his whole Reign For as they knew that there was nothing in the pretended Precontract so by voiding the Marriage because the Consent was not internal and free they made a most pernicious Precedent for breaking all publick Treaties for none can know Men's Hearts it would be easy for every one to pretend that he had not given a perfect Consent and that being allowed there could be no Confidence nor safety among Men any more And in the Process for the King 's first Divorce they had laid it down as a Principle that a Marriage was compleat tho it were never consummated But in a Word the King was resolved to be rid of the Queen and the Clergy were resolved not to offend him And they rather sought out Reasons to give a colour to their Sentence then past it on the force of those Reasons Cromwel was required to send a Declaration of all he knew concerning the Marriage which he did but ended in these most abject Words Written with the heavy Heart and trembling Hand of your Highness's most heavy and most miserable Prisoner and poor Slave Tho. Cromwel and under his Subscription he wrote Most Sacred Prince I cry for Mercy Mercy Mercy The Judgment of the Convocation was reported to the House of Lords by Cranmer and the Reasons were opened by Gardiner They were sent down to the Commons to give them the same account and both Houses were satisfied with it Next day some Lords were sent to the Queen who had retired to Richmond They told her The King was resolved to declare her his adopted Sister and to setle 4000 l. a Year on her if she would consent to it which she cheerfully embraced and it being left to her choice either to live in England or to return to her Brother She preferred the former They prest her to write to her Brother that all this matter was done with her good Will that the King used her as a Father and that therefore he and the other Allies should not take this ill at his hands She was a little averse to this but was prevailed on to do it When things were thus prepared the Act confirming the Judgment of the Convocation past without any Opposition An Act past mitigating one Clause in the Act of the six Articles by which the pains of Death for the Marriage or Incontinence of the Clergy were changed into a Forfeiture of their Goods and Benefices Another Act past Authorizing those Committees of Bishops and Divines that had been named by the King both for the Doctrine and Ceremonies to go on in it and appointing that what should be agreed on by them and Published with the King's Approbation should bind the Subjects as much as if every Particular in it had been ennumerated in that Act any Law or Custome to the contrary notwithstanding But a Proviso was added That nothing might be done by them contrary to the Laws then in force Which Contradiction in the Provisos seems to have been put in on design to keep all Ecclesiastical Proceedings under the Inspection of the Secular Courts since they are the only Expounders of Acts of Parliament Another Act past That no Pretence of a Precontract should be made use of to annul a Marriage duly Solemnized and Consummated And that no Degrees of Kindred but those ennumerated in the Law of Moses might hinder a Marriage This last was added To enable the King to marry Katherine Howard that was Cousin German to Ann Boleyn which was one of the Degrees prohibited by the Canon Law but the reason of the former part is not known It directly condemns the King's Divorce of Ann Boleyn grounded on a pretended Precontract The Province of Canterbury gave the King a Subsidy of 4 s. in the Pound to be payed in two Years with a Preamble of high Acknowledgments of their Happiness under his Protection A Subsidy was also asked of the Laity but in the House of Commons it was much opposed Many said they had given the King the Abbey-Lands in hopes that no Subsidies should have been any more demanded and it shewed a strange Profuseness that now within a Year after that a Subsidy was demanded But it was answered That the King had been at great charge in fortifying his Coasts and in keeping up such Leagues beyond Sea as preserved the Nation in safety a Tenth and four 15ths were granted Several Bills of Attainder were past And in Conclusion the King sent a General Pardon out of which Cromwel and divers others were excepted and then the Parliament was dissolved Cromwel's mean Addresses could not preserve him So he was executed on the 28 of July Cromwels Death He thanked God for bringing him to die in that manner which was just on the account of his Sins against God and his Offences against his Prince He declared that he doubted of no Article of the Catholick Faith nor of any Sacrament of the Church He said He had been seduced but now he died in the Catholick Faith and denied he had supported the Preachers of ill Opinions He desired all their Prayers and prayed very fervently for himself and thus did he end his days He rose meerly by the strength of his Natural Parts for his Education was suitable to his mean Extraction Only he had all the New Testament in Latin by Heart He carried his Greatness with Extraordinary Moderation and fell rather under the weight of Popular Odium than Guilt At his Death he mixed none of the Superstitions of the Church of Rome with his Devotions So it was said that he used the Word Catholick Faith in its true sense and in Opposition to the Novelties of the Church of Rome Yet his Ambiguous way of expressing himself made the Papists say that he died repenting of his Heresy But the Protestants said that he died in the same Perswasions in which he lived With him fell the Office of the King's Vicegerent and none after him have aspired to that Character that proved so fatal to him who first carried it It was believed that the King lamented his Death when it was too late and the Miseries that fell on the new Queen and on the Duke of Norfolk and his Family were look'd on as Strokes from Heaven on them for their cruel prosecuting this unfortunate Minister With his Fall the Progress of the Reformation stopt for Cranmer
weaker and needed his Assistance most But tho hitherto Spain was an unequal Match to France yet all Spain being now united except Portugal and strengthned by the Accession of the Dominions of Burgundy and inriched by the discovery of the Indies and all this falling into the hands of so great a Prince as Charles afterwards the fifth Emperor of that Name the ballance between these Kingdoms grew as equal as the Qualities of the Princes themselves were which ingaged them in a Rivalry that made their Minds as divided as their Interests were opposite Charles being preferred to Francis in the Competition for the Empire that kindled the Animosity higher and seemed to encrease Charles's Party tho the extent and distance of his Dominion was such that one Soul tho his was one of the largest and most active in the World could not animate so vast a Body He is courted both by France and Spain Both these Princes saw how considerable an Ally or Enemy England might prove under a King so much esteemed and beloved so they spared no Arts that might engage him into their Interests they gained his Ministers by their Presents and himself by their Complements for it was soon found out that Vanity was his weak side May 1520 The Emperour came in Person to England without the distrustful Precaution of a Passport and did so prevail with him and his great Favourite Cardinal Wolsey by the promise of the Popedom that tho an Interview followed between Francis and him June yet he found the Scale of France was then the heavier so that upon the War which followed between those Princes he joyned with the Emperour Charles to assure himself of Cardinal Wolsey gave him hopes of the Popedom which perhaps he did the more easily because Pope Leo being so young a Man there was no great appearance of a Vacancy but the Pope dying sooner than perhaps was expected Adrian Decemb 1521 that had been the Emperour's Tutor was then chosen and Cardinal Wolsey had the promise of succeeding him But a second Vacancy following within two Years the Emperour broke his word the second time upon which the Cardnial was so offended that he resolved to take his Revenge so soon as a favourable Conjuncture should offer it self and tho he had laid the best Train he could at Rome for the Chair yet upon Clement the seventh's Advancement he dissembled the matter so with him as to protest that he was the very person whom he had wished to see raised to that Dignity The Battel of Pavia Francis the first is taken Prisoner in which Francis was taken Prisoner and his Army defeated turned the Scale mightily the Pope was nearest the danger and felt it soonest for he projected the Clementine League by which both He and the Republick of Venice and the Princes of Italy engaged in the Interests of France and the King of England was declared the Protector of it Both publick and private Interests wrought on the King and his own Resentments as well as the Cardinals animated him to it for the Emperour was so lifted up with his Success that he began to form the Project of an Universal Empire and tho he had come to England in Person a second time and had contracted a Marriage with the King's Daughter yet he preferred a Match with the Infanta of Portugal to it judging it to be of more Importance to him to keep all quiet in Spain Francis was now at liberty but had given his Sons as Hostages so he was slow in his Proceedings tho he was the Person most concerned in the League The Emperour was highly displeased with the Pope whom he look'd on as his own Creature but it was always observed that of what Faction soever a Cardinal might be yet upon the Advancement he became the Head of his own The Colonesi entred Rome with three thousand Men Septemb. and sack'd it the Pope retiring to the Castle of Saint Angelo and submitting to the Conditions that were offered but their Troops being drawn out of Rome the Pope gathered his together and fell on their Lands and by a Creation of fourteen Cardinals for Money which perhaps may be excused from Simony because they took no care of Souls he was enabled to prosecute the War but the Duke of Bourbon that upon a Discontent given him in France had gone over to the Emperour's Service came to Rome and took it by storm himself being killed in the Assault the Pope and seventeen Cardinals May And afterwards the Pope shut themselves in the Castle St. Angelo but he was forced to render and was kept Prisoner some Months This gave great Scandal to all Europe the Emperour himself seem'd ashamed of it for he would suffer no rejoycing to be in Spain for his Sons Birth but appointed publick Processions for the Pope's Liberty Wolsey had now the best opportunity he could wish to declare his Zeal for the Pope's Service and his Aversion to the Emperour so he went to France and made a new League for setting the Pope at liberty The Emperour prevented the Conjunction he saw like to follow and having brought the Pope to his own Terms he restored him again to his Freedom And thus both the Pope and the King of France that by very unususal Accidents had been taken Prisoners acknowledged that their Liberty was chiefly due to the Indeavours that King Henry had used for procuring it When he was thus firmly united to the Interests of France Scotland in disorder he had less to fear from Scotland which being a perpetual Ally to France gave him no Disturbance but as it was drawn into the War by that Court That Kingdom was also for many Years under a King not of Age and so was much distracted by Faction and those Broils at home being the surest way to keep them from making Inroads into England were kept up by the Mony which the King sent the Malecontents therefore both the Courts of France and England by the Pensions they gave kept the several Parties there in pay which Advantage that Kingdom lost when it was joyned to England As for Domestick Affairs in the Government of England the King left Matters much in the hands of his Council in which there were two different Parties Factions in the Council headed by the Bishop of Winchester and the Lord Treasurer that was Duke of Norfolk The former much complained of the Consumption of the Treasure the other justified himself that he only obeyed the King's Orders But the Treasurer's Party under a bountiful King must always be strongest both in the Court and Council In the first Parliament the Justice done upon Empson and Dudly gave so great Satisfaction that all things went as the Court desired In the second Parliament a Brief that Pope Julius writ complaining of Lewis the twelfth was first read in the House of Lords and then carried down by the L. Chancellor and some other Lords
marry her and that being entertained by her shews she had then no aspirings to the Crown But the Cardinal having understood somewhat of the King 's secret Intentions did so threaten him that he made him tho not without great difficulty break off his addresses to her Knight then Secretary of State was sent to Rome to prepare the Pope in the matter And applies to the Pope and the Family of the Cassali having much of the Pope's Favour they were likewise imployed to promote it To Gregory Cassali did the Cardinal send a large Dispatch setting forth all the Reasons both in Conscience and Policy for obtaining a Commission to himself to judge the Affair Great Promises were made in the King's Name both for publick and private Services and nothing was forgot that was likely to work either on the Pope or those Cardinals that had the greatest Credit about him Knight made application to the Pope in the secretest manner he could and had a very favourable Answer for the Pope promised frankly to dissolve the Marriage but another Promise being exacted of him in the Emperour's Name not to proceed in that Affair he was reduced to great straits not so much out of regard to his Promises for he had so engaged himself that it was unavoidable for him to break one as to his Interests he was then at the Emperour's mercy so he was in fear of offending him yet he both hated him and was distrustful of him and had no mind to lose the King of England therefore he studied to gain time and promised that if the King would have a little patience he should not only have that which he asked but every thing that was in his power to grant The Cardinal Sanctorum quatuor made some Scruples concerning the Bull that was demanded till he had raised his price and got a great Present and then the Pope signed both a Commission for Wolsey to try the Cause Who was very favourable and judge in it and also a Dispensation and put them in Knights hands but with tears prayed him that there might be no proceedings upon them till the Emperour were put out of a capacity of executing his Revenge upon him and when ever that was done he would own this act of Justice which he did in the King's favour For tho the Pope on publick occasions used to talk in the language of one that pretended to be S. Peter's Successor yet in private Treaties he minded nothing but his own Security and the Interests of his Family And being a very crafty Man he proposed an Expedient which if the King had followed it had put a quicker and easier end to the Process He found his sending Bulls or a Legat to England would become publick and draw the Emperour upon him and must admit of delays and be full of danger therefore he proposed if the King was satisfied in his own Conscience in which he believed no Doctor could resolve him better than himself then he might without more noise make Judgment be given in England and upon that marry another Wife and send over to Rome for a Confirmation which would be the more easily granted if the thing were once done This the Pope desired might be represented to the King as the Advice of the Cardinals and not as his own But the King's Counsellers thought this more dangerous than the way of a Process for if upon the King 's second Marriage a Confirmation should be denyed then the Right Succession by it would be still very doubtful so they would not venture on it The Pope was at this time distasted with Cardinal Wolsey for he understood that during his Captivity he had been in an Intrigue to get himself chosen Vicar of the Papacy and was to have sate at Avignion which might have produced a new Schism Staphileus Dean of the Rota being then in England was wrought on by the promise of a Bishoprick and a Recommendation to a Cardinals Hat to promote the King's Affair and by him the Cardinal wrote to the Pope in a most earnest strain for a dispatch of this business and he desired that an indifferent and tractable Cardinal might be sent over with a full Commission to joyn with him and to judge the matter proposing to the King's Embassadours Campegio as the fittest Man when a Legate should be named he ordered Presents to be made him and that they would hasten his dispatch and take care that the Commission should be full But upon the Arrival of the Couriers that were sent from Rome Gardiner the Cardinals Secretary and Fox the Kings Almoner the one a Canonist and the other a Divine were sent thither with Letters both from the King and Cardinal to the Pope they carried orders that were like to be more effectual than any Arguments they could offer to make great Presents to the Cardinals They carried with them the draught of a Bull containing all the Clauses could be invented to make the matter sure one Clause was to declare the Issue of the Marriage good as being begotten bona fide which was perhaps put in to make the Queen more easy since by that it appeared that her Daughter should not suffer which way soever the matter went The Cardinal in his Letters to Cassali offered to take the blame on his own Soul if the Pope would grant this Bull and with an Earnestness as hearty and warm as can be expressed in Words he pressed the thing and added That he perceived that if the Pope continued Inexorable the King would proceed another way These Intreaties had such Effects Campegio sent over Legate That Campegio was declared Legate and ordered to go for England and joyn in Commission with Wolsey for judging this matter Campegio was Bishop of Saliebury and having a Son whom he intended to advance was no doubt a tractable Man but to raise his price the higher he moved many Scruples and seemed to enter upon this Employment with great fear and aversion Wolsey who knew his Temper prest him vehemently to make all the hast he could and gave him the Assurance of great Rewards from the King For whatever was to be made use of publickly for formes sake these were the effectual Arguments that were most likely to convince a Man of his Temper In which Wolsey was so sincere that in a Letter he wrote to him that of a good Conscience being put among other Motives to perswade him in the first Draught the Cardinal struck it out as knowing how little it would signify Campegio set out from Rome and carried with him a Decretal Bull for annulling the Marriage which was trusted to him and he was Authorized to shew it to the King and Wolsey but was required not to give it out of his Hands to either of them At this time Wolsey was taken with the sweating Sickness which then raged in England and by a Complement which both the King and Ann Boleyn writ him
Journey unless the Pope would promise to give the King Satisfaction The King of France said he was engaged in Honour to go on but assured them he would mind the King 's Concerns with as much Zeal as if they were his own In September the Queen brought forth a Daughter the renowned Queen Elizabeth and the King having before declared Lady Mary Princess of Wales Sept 7. Q. Elizabeth born did now the same for her Tho since a Son might put her from it she could not be Heir Apparent but only the Heir Presumptive to the Crown At Marseilles the Marriage was made up between the Duke of Orleans and the Pope's Neece to whom the Pope gave besides 100000 Crowns many Principalities which he pretended were either Fiefs of the Papacy or belonged to him in the Rights of the House of Medici The Pope's Historian with some Triumph boasted that the Marriage was Consummated that very Night tho it was thought not credible that P. Arthur that was Nine Months older than the new Duke of Orleans afterwards Henry the Second did Consummate his There was a secret Agreement made between the Pope and Francis that if King Henry would refer his Cause to the Consistory excepting only to the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction as partial and would in all other things return to his Obedience to the See of Rome The Pore promises to satisfy K. Henry then Sentence should be given in his Favours but this to be kept secret So Bonner not being trusted with it and sent thither with an Appeal from the Pope to the next General Council made it with great boldness and threatned the Pope upon it with so much Vehemence that the Pope talked of throwing him into a Cauldron of melted Lead or burning him alive And he apprehending some danger fled away privately But when Francis came back to Paris he sent over the Bishop of that City to the King to let him know what he had obtained of the Pope in his Favours and the Terms on which it was promised This wrought so much on the King that he presently consented to them And upon that the Bishop of Paris tho it was now in the middle of Winter took Journey to Rome being sure of the Scarlet if he could be the Instrument of regaining England which was then upon the point of being lost What these Assurances were which the Pope gave is not certain but the Archbishop of York and Tenstal of Duresm in a Letter which they wrote on that Occasion say that the Pope said at Marseilles That if the King would send a Proxy to Rome he would give Sentence for him against the Queen for he knew his Cause was good and just Upon the Bishop of Paris's coming to Rome the matter seemed agreed for it was promised that upon the King 's sending a Promise under his hand to put things in their former state and his ordering a Proxy to appear for him Judges should be sent to Cambray for making the Process and then Sentence should be given Upon the notice given of this and of a Day that was prefixt for the return of the Courier the King dispatched him with all possible hast and now the Business seemed at an end But the Courier had a Sea and the Alps to pass and in Winter it was not easy to observe a limited day so exactly This made that he came not to Rome on the prefixed day upon which the Imperialists gave out that the King was abusing the Pope's Easiness so they prest him vehemently to proceed to a Sentence The Bishop of Paris moved only for a delay of six days which was no unreasonable time in that Season and in favours of such a King who had a Suit depending six Days and since he had Patience so many Years the delay of a few days was no extraordinary Favour But the design of the Imperialists was to hinder a Reconciliation for if the King had been set right with the Pope there would have been so powerful a League formed against the Emperour as would have broke all his Measures And therefore it was necessary for his Designes to imbroil them It was also said That the King was seeking Delayes and Concessions meerly to delude the Pope and that he had proceeded so far in his Design against that See that it was necessary to go on to Censures And the angry Pope was so provoked by them and by the News that he heard out of England that without consulting his ordinary Prudence he brought in the matter to the Consistory and there the Imperialists being the greater number it was driven on with so much Precipitation that they did in on day that which according to Form should have been done in three They gave the final Sentence declaring the King's Marriage with Queen Katherine good and required him to live with her as his Wife 23. March But proceeds hastily to a Sentence otherwise they would proceed to Censures Two days after that the Courier came with the King's Submission in due form He also brought earnest Letters from Francis in the King's Favours This wrought on all the indifferent Cardinals as well as those of the French Faction So they praied the Pope to recall what was done A new Consistory was called but the Imperialists prest with greater Vehemence then ever that they would not give such Scandal to the World as to recall a definitive Sentence past of the validity of a Marriage and give the Hereticks such Advantages by their unsteadiness in matters of that nature And so it was carried that the former Sentence should take place and the Execution of it was committed to the Emperour When this was known in England it determined the King in his Resolutions of shaking off the Pope's Yoke in which he had made so great a Progress that the Parliament had past all the Acts concerning it before he had the News from Rome For he judged that the best way to Peace was to let them at Rome see with what vigour he could make War All the rest of the World lookt on astonished to see the Court of Rome throw off England with so much scorn as if they had been weary of the Obedience and Profits of so great a Kingdom and their Proceedings look'd as if they had been secretly directed by a Divine Providence that designed to draw great Consequences from this Rupture and did so far infatuate those that were most concerned to prevent it that they needlesly drew it on themselves In England they had been now examining the Foundations on which the Papal Authority was built The â—rguments used for rejecting the Pope's Power with extraordinary Care for some Years and several Books being then and soon after written on that Subject the Reader will be able to see better into the Reasons of their Proceedings by a short Abstract of these All the Apostles were made equal in the Powers that Christ gave them and he often condemned
guilty were to be punished in the same manner The Innocent Party might marry again after a Divorce Desertion or Mortal Enmity or the constant perversness of a Husband might induce a Divorce but little quarrels nor a perpetual Disease might not do it and the separation from Bed and Board except during a Trial was never to be allowed 11. Patrons were charged to give presentations without making bargains to choose the fittest persons and not to make promises till the Livings were vacant The Bishops were required to use great strictness in the Trial of those whom they ordained all Pluralities and Non-residence were condemned and all that were presented were to purge themselves of Simony by Oath The twelfth and thirteenth were concerning the changing of Benefices The fourteenth was concerning the manner of purgation upon common fame all superstitious Purgations were condemned Others followed about Dilapidations Elections and Collations The nineteenth was concerning Divine Offices The Communion was ordered to be every Sunday in Cathedrals and a Sermon was to be in them in the afternoon such as received the Sacrament were to give notice to the Minister the day before that he might examine their Consciences The Catechism was appointed to be explained for an Hour in the afternoon on Holy-days After the Evening Prayer the Poor were to be taken care of Penances were to be enjoyned to scandalous Persons and the Minister was to confer with some of the Ancients of the People concerning the state of the Parish That admonitions and censures might be applied as there was occasion given The twentieth was concerning other Church-Officers A Rural Dean was to be in every Precinct to watch over the Clergy according to the Bishops directions Archdeacons were to be over them and the Bishop over all who was to have yearly Synods and visit every third Year His Family was to consist of Clergymen in imitation of St. Austin and other ancient Bishops these he was to train up for the service of the Church When Bishops became infirm they were to have Co-adjutors Arch-bishops were to do the Episcopal duties in their Diocess and to visit their Province Every Synod was to begin with a Communion and after that the Ministers were to give an account of their Parishes and follow such directions as the Bishop should give them Other heads followed concerning Church-Wardens Tithes Universities Visitations and several sorts of Censures In the thirtieth a large Scheme was drawn of Excommunication which was intrusted to Church-men for keeping the Church pure and was not to be inflicted but for obstinacy in some gross fault all causes upon which it was pronounced were to be examined before the Minister of the Parish a Justice of Peace and some other Church-men It was to be pronounced and intimated with great seriousness and all were to be warned not to keep company with the person censured under the like pains except those of his own Family Upon his continuing forty days obstinate under it a Writ was to be issued out for Commitment till the Sentence should be taken off Such as had the King's Pardon for Capital offences were yet liable to Church censures Then followed the Office of absolving Penitents They were to come to the Church-door and crave admittance and the Minister having brought them in was to read a long discourse concerning Sin Repentance and the Mercies of God Then the Party was to confess his sin and to ask God and the Congregation pardon upon which the Minister was to lay his hands on his Head and to pronounce the Absolution Then a thanksgiving was to be offered to God at the Communion Table for the reclaiming that sinner The other Heads of this work relate to the other parts of the Law of those Courts It is certain that the abounding of Vice and Impiety flows in a great measure from the want of that strictness of censure which was the glory of the Christian Church in the Primitive times and it is a publick connivance at sin that there have not been more effectual ways taken for making sinners ashamed and denying them the Priviledges of Christians till they have changed their ill course of life There were at this time also remedies under consideration The Poverty of the Clergy for the great misery and poverty the Clergy were generally in but the Laity were so much concerned to oppose all these that there was no hope of bringing them to any good effect till the King should come to be of Age himself and endeavour to recover again a competent maintenance for the Clergy out of their hands who had devoured their Revenues Both Heath and Day the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester were this Year deprived of their Bishopricks by a Court of Delegates that were all Lay-men But it does not appear for what offences they were so censured The Bishopricks of Gloucester and Worcester were both united and put under Hooper's care but soon after the former was made an exempted Archdeaconry and he was declared Bishop only of Worcester In every See as it fell vacant the best Mannors were laid hold on by such hungry Courtiers as had the Interest to procure the Grant of them It was thought that the Bishops Sees were so out of Measure enriched that they could never be made poor enough but such hast was made in spoiling them that they were reduced to so low a condition that it was hardly possible for a Bishop to subsist in them If what had been thus taken from them had been converted to good uses such as the supplying the Inferiour Clergy it had been some mitigation of so heinous a robbery But their Lands were snatched up by Laymen who thought of making no Compensation to the Church for the spoils thus made by them This Year the Reformation had some more footing in Ireland than formerly Affairs in Ireland Henry the VIII had assumed to himself by consent of the Parliament of that Kingdom the Title of King of Ireland the former Kings of England having only been called Lords of it The Popes and Emperours have pretended that such Titles could be given only by them The former said all power in Heaven and Earth was given to Christ and by consequence to his Vicar The latter as carrying the Title of Roman Emperour pretended that as they Anciently bestowed those Titles so that devolved on them who retained only the name and shadow of that Great Authority But Princes and States have thought that they may bring themselves under what Titles they please In Ireland though the Kings of England were well obeyed within the English Pale yet the Irish continued barbarous and uncivilised and depended on the heads of their Names or Tribes and were obedient or did rebel as they directed them In Vlster they had a great dependance on Scotland and there were some risings there during the War with Scotland which were quieted by giving the Leading-men Pensions and getting them to come and live within
that would execute the Sentence Nor would any do so much as sell a Cord to tye him to the Stake so that the Archbishop was forced to send for the Cords of his own Pavilion The old Man expressed great firmness of mind and such chearfulness in his sufferings that the People were much affected at it and this being every where looked on as a Prologue to greater severities that were to follow the Nobility and Gentry began to consider what was fit to be done They had offered a Petition to the Queen Regent the last year that the worship might be in the Vulgar Tongue that the Communion might be given in both kinds and that scandalous Priests might be turned out and worthy Men be put in their places The Queen Regent being unwilling to irritate so great a Party before the Dauphin was declared King of Scotland promised that they should not be punished for having their Prayers in the Vulgar Tongue In Parliament they moved for a Repeal of the Laws for the Bishops proceedings against Hereticks and that nothing might be judged Heresie but that which was condemned by the Word of God but the Queen Regent told them these things could not pass because of the Opposition which was made to them by the Spiritual Estate upon that they made a Protestation that whereas they had modestly moved for a redress of abuses they were not to be blamed for the ill effects of rejecting their Petition and the Violences that might follow But when the Queen had gained her end in relation to the Dauphin she ordered a Citation to be served on all the Reformed Preachers The Earl of Glencawn was upon that sent to put her in mind of her former promises she answered him roughly That maugre all that would take those Mens part they should be banished Scotland and added that Princes were bound only to observe their promises so far as they found it convenient for them to do it To this he replied that if she renounced her Promises they would renounce their obedience to her In St. Johnstown It is first set up in St. Johnstown that Party entred into the Churches and had Sermons publickly in them The Ministers were coming from all parts to appear on the 20th of May for to that day they had been cited and great numbers came along with them The Queen apprehending the ill effects of a great Confluence of People sent them word not to come and upon this many went home again yet upon their not appearance they were all declared Rebels This foul dealing made many leave her and go over to those that were met at St. Johnstown And the heat of the People was raised to that pitch that they broke in upon the Houses of the Monks and Friars and after they had distributed all that they found in them except that which the Monks conveyed away to the Poor they pulled them down to the ground This provoked the Queen so much that she resolved to punish that Town in a most exemplary manner so she gathered the French Souldiers together with such others as would joyn with her but the Earl of Glencairn gathered 2500. Men together and with incredible hast he marched to that place where there were now in all 7000. armed Men. This made the Queen afraid to engage with them so an agreement was made An oblivion was promised for all that was past Matters of Religion were referred to a Parliament and the Queen was to be received into St. Johnstown without carrying her Frenchmen with her But she carried them with her into the Town and as she put a Garrison in it so she punished many for what was past and when her promises were objected to her she answered Princes were not to be strictly charged with their Promises especially when they were made to Hereticks and that she thought it no sin to kill and destroy them all and then would excuse it as well as could be when it was done This turned the Hearts of the whole Nation from her and in many places they began to pull down Images and to rase Monasteries The Queen Regent represented this to the King of France as done on design to shake off the French yoke and desired a great Force to reduce the Countrey On the other hand some were sent over from the Lords to give a true representation of the matter and to let him know that an Oblivion for what was past and the free Exercise of their Religion for the time to come would give full satisfaction The French King began now to apprehend how great a charge the keeping that Kingdom in peace was like to come to and saw the danger of the Scots casting themselves into the Arms of the Queen of England therefore he sent one in whom the Constable put an entire confidence to Scotland to bring him a true report of the state of that matter that was so variously represented But before he could return the King of France was dead and the Constable was in disgrace and all affairs were put in the hands of the Brothers of the House of Guise so that all moderate Councils were now out of doors The people did so universally rise against the Queen Regent that she was forced to retire to Dunbar-Castle She was once willing to refer the whole matter to a Parliament But 2000. Men coming over from France and assurances being sent Her of a greater Force to follow she took heart and came and fortified Leith and again broke her last agreement upon which the Lords pretended that in their Queens Minority the Government was chiefly in the States and that the Regent was only the chief Administrator and accountable to them so they resolved to depose her from her Regency They objected many Maleadministrations to her The Queen Regent is deposed as her beginning a War in the Kingdom and bringing in strangers to subdue it her embasing the Coin governing without consent of the Nobility breaking her Faith and Promises to them upon which they declared that she had fallen from her Regency and suspended her Power till the next Parliament The Lords now called the Lords of the Congregation retired from Edenburgh to Sterlin upon which the French came to Edenburgh and set up the Masse again in the Churches then a new Supply came from France commanded by the Marquess of Elbeufe one of the Queen Regents Brothers so that there were in all 4000. French in Scotland But by her having this foreign Force the whole Nation came to be united against the Queen and to look on her as a common Enemy The Scots who had been hitherto animated and secretly supplied with Money and Ammunition from England were now forced to desire the Queen of England's aid more openly and France was now like to be so much divided within it self that the Queen did not much apprehend a War with that Crown so she was more easily determined to assist the Scots A Treaty was
Upon this he was again seized on and condemned for having said That Thomas Becket was a Murderer and was damned if he did not repent And that in the Sacrament Christ's Body was received by Faith and not chewed with the Teeth Sentence past upon him by Stokesly and he was burnt Soon after this More delivered up the Great Seal so the Preachers had some ease Crome and Latimer were accused but abjured Tracy Ancestor to the present Lord Tracy made a Will by which he left his Soul to God in hopes of Mercy through Christ without the help of any other Saint and therefore he declared that he would leave nothing for Soul-Masses This Will being brought to the Bishop of London's Court to be proved after his Death provoked them so much that he was condemned as an Heretick and an Order was sent to the Chancellour of Worcester to raise his Body but he went further and burnt it which could not be justified since he was not a Relapse Tracy's Heirs sued him for it and he was turned out of his place and fined in 400 l. The Clergy proclaimed an Indulgence of fourty days Pardon to any that carried a Faggot to the burning of an Heretick that so Cruelty might seem the more Meritorious And an aged Man Harding being condemned by Longland Bishop of Lincoln as he was tied to the Stake one flung a Faggot with such force at him that it dashed out his Brains After an Intermission of two Years Gardiner represented to the King That it would give him great Advantages against the Pope if he would take hold of some occasion to shew his hatred of Heresy So Frith seemed a fit Person to offer as a Sacrifice to demonstrate his Zeal He was a young Man much famed for Learning Frith's Sufferings and was the first that writ against the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament in England He followed Zuinglius's Doctrine on these Grounds Christ received in the Sacrament gave Eternal Life but this was only to those that believed from which he inferred that he was received only by Faith St Paul said that the Fathers before Christ eat the same Spiritual Food with Christians from which it appears that Christ is now no more corporally present to us then he was to them And he argued from the nature of Sacraments in general and the ends of the Lord's Supper that it was only a Commemoration Yet upon these Premises he built no other Conclusion but that Chist's presence was no Article of Faith Frith put these Reasons in Writing which falling into More 's hands was answered by him but Frith never saw that till he was put in Prison And then tho he was loaded with Irons and had no Books allowed him he replied He insisted much on that Argument That the Israelites did eat the same Food and drank of the same Rock that was Christ and since Christ was only mystically and by Faith received by them he concluded that he was now received only by Faith He shewed that Christ's Words This is my Body were accommodated to the Jewish Phrase of calling the Lamb the Lord 's Passover and confirmed his Opinion with many Passages out of the Fathers in which the Elements were called Signes and Figures of Christ's Body and they said that upon Consecration they did not cease to be Bread and Wine but remained still in their own proper Natures He also shewed That the Fathers were Strangers to all the Consequences of that Opinion as that a Body could be in more places than one at once or could be in a place after the manner of a Spirit Yet he concluded That if that Opinion were held only as a Speculation so that Adoration were not offered to the Elements it might be well tollerated but that he condemned as gross Idolatry This was intended by him to prevent such Heats in England as were raised in Germany between the Lutherans and Helvetians by reason of their different Opinions concerning the Sacrament He was seized on in May 1533 and brought before Stokesly Gardiner and Longland They objected to him his not believing Purgatory nor Transubstantiation He gave his Reasons that determined him to look on neither of these as Articles of Faith but he thought that neither the affirming nor denying them ought to be determined positively The Bishops seemed unwilling to proceed to Sentence but he continuing resolute Stokesly pronounced it and so delivered him to the Secular Arm obtesting that his Punishment might be moderated so that the Rigour might not be too extream nor yet the gentleness of it too much mitigated This Obtestation by the Bowels of Christ was thought a Mockery when all the World knew that it was intended that he should be burnt One Hewet a Prentice of London was also condemned with him on the same account When they were brought to Smithfield Frith expressed great Joy and hugged the Faggots with some Transport Cook a Priest that stood by called to the People not to pray for them more then they would do for a Dog Frith smiled at that and prayed God to forgive him The Fire was kindled which consumed them to ashes This was the last Instance of the Cruelty of the Clergy at this time for the Act formerly mentioned regulating their Proceedings followed soon after Philips at whose Complaint that Bill was begun was committed upon Suspicion of Heresy a Copy of Tracy's Will was found about him and Butter and Cheese being also found in his Chamber in Lent But he being required to abjure appealed to the King as Supream Head and upon that he was set at Liberty but whether he was tried by the King or not is not upon Record The Act that was past A stop put to further Cruelties gave the new Preachers and their Followers some Respite The King was also impowered to reform all Heresies and Idolatries And his Affairs did now oblige him to unite himself to the Princes of Germany that by their means he might so imbroil the Emperour's Affairs asnot to give him leisure to turn his Arms against England and this produced a slackning of all Severities against them For those Princes in that first fervour of the Reformation made it an Article in all their Treaties that none should be persecuted for favouring their Doctrine The Interests the Reformers had at Court The Queen did also openly protect them she took Latimer and Shaxton to be her Chaplains and promoted them to the Bishopricks of Worcester and Salisbury Cranmer was fully convinced of the necessity of a Reformation and that he might carry it on with true Judgment and justify it by good Authorities He made a great Collection of the Opininions of the Antient Fathers and later Doctors in all the Points of Religion of which I have seen two Volumes in Folio But by a Letter of the Lord Burghly's it appears there were then six Volumes of his Collections in his hands He was a Man of great Candor and much Patience
officious Courtiers are apt to do often without any good Grounds so that Silence was made an Argument of her Guilt and that she could not be defended But perhaps that was an effect of the Wisdom of the Ministers of that time who would not suffer so nice a Point upon which the Queen's Legitimation depended to be brought into dispute The day after Anne Boleyn's Death the King married Jane Scimour who gained more upon him than all his Wives ever did But she was happy that she did not out-live his Love to her Lady Mary was advised upon this turn of Affairs Lady Mary 's Submission oo the King to make her Submission to the King she offered to confess the Fault of her former Obstinacy and in General to give up her Understanding entirely to the King but that would not satisfy unless she would be more particular so at last she was prevailed with to do it in the fullest Terms that could be desired She acknowledged the King to be the Supream Head on Earth under Christ of the Church of England and did renounce the Bishop of Rome's Authority and promised in all things to be obedient to the Laws that were made which she said flowed from her inward Belief and Judgment and in which she would for ever continue and she did also acknowledg that the King's Marriage with her Mother was by God's Law and Man's Law unlawful and incestuous all this she writ with her own Hand and subscribed it upon which she was again received into Favour and an Establishment was made for a Family about her in which 40 l. a quarter was all the Allowance for her Privy Purse so great was the Frugality of that time Lady Elizabeth continued to be educated with great Care and was so forward that before she was four Years old she both wrote a good Hand and understood Italian for there are Letters extant written by her in that Language to Queen Jane when she was with child in which she subscribed Daughter On the 8th of June the Parliament met A Farliament meets which shews that it was summoned before the Justs at Greenwich The Chancellour told them that the King had called them to settle the Succession of the Crown in case he should dye without Children lawfully begotten and to repeal the Act made concerning his Marriage with Queen Anne It seems the Parliament was not at first easily brought to comply with these things and that it was necessary to take some pains to prepare them to it For the Bill of Succession was not put in till the 30th of June but then it was quickly dispatched without any Opposition by it the Attainder of Queen Anne and her Complices is confirmed both the Sentences of Divorces pass'd upon the King 's two former Marriages were also confirmed and the Issue by both was illegitimated and for ever excluded from claiming the Crown by Lineal Descent And the Succession was established on the King's Issue by his present Queen or any whom he might afterwards marry But it not being fit to declare who should succeed in default of that lest the Person so named might be thereby enabled to raise Commotions in Confidence of the King's Wisdom and Affection to his People they left it to him nominate his Successors either by Letters Patents or by his last Will signed by his Hand and promised to obey the Persons so nominated by him It was declared Treason to maintain the Lawfulness of his former Marriages or of his Issue by them and it was made not only Treason but a forfeiture of the Right of Succession if any of those whom the King should name in default of others should endeavour to get before them The Scots complained of this Act and said their Queen Dowager being King Henry's Eldest Sister could not be put by her Right after the King 's lawful Issue But by this the King was now made Master indeed and had the Crown put entirely in his Hands to be disposed of at his Pleasure and his Daughters were now to depend wholly on him He had it also in his Power in a great measure to pacify the Emperour by providing that his Kinswoman might succeed to the Crown Pope Clement the 7th Pope Paul the 3d proposes a Recoaciliation with the King was now dead and Farnese succeeded by the Name of Paul the 3d who after an unsuccesful Attempt which he made for reconciling himself with the King when that was rejected and Fisher was beheaded thundered out a most terrible Sentence of Deposition against him Yet now since both Queen Katherine and Queen Anne upon whose account the Breach was made were out of the way he thought it a fit time to try what might be done and ordered Cassali to let the King know that he had always favoured his Cause when he was a Cardinal that he was driven very much against his Mind to pass Sentence against him and that now it would be easy for him to recover the Favour of the Apostolick See But the King instead of hearkening to the Proposition Acts against the Pope's Power got two Acts to be pass'd The one was for the utter extinguishing the Pope's Authority and it was made a Premunire for any to acknowledg it or to perswade others to it And a strict Charge was given to all Magistrates under severe Penalties to enquire after all Offenders By another all Bulls and all Priviledges flowing from them were declared null and void only Marriages or Consecrations made by virtue of them were excepted All who enjoyed Priviledges by these Bulls were required to bring them into the Chancery upon which the Arch-bishop was to make them a new Grant of them and that being confirmed under the Great Seal was to be of full force in Law Another Act pass'd explaining an Exception that was in the Act for the Residence of all Incumbents by which those who were at the Universities were dispensed with upon which many went and lived idlely there It was therefore now declared that none above the Age of fourty except Heads and publick Readers should have the Benefit of that Proviso and that none under that Age should be comprehended in it except they performed their Exercises Another Act pass'd in Favour of the King's Heirs if they should Reign before they were of full Age that they might any time before they were 24 repeal by Letters Patents all Acts made during their Minority All these things being concluded the Parliament after it had sate six Weeks was dissolved The Convocation examines some points of Religion The Convocation sate at the same time and was much imployed for the House of Lords was oft adjourned because the Spiritual Lords were busy in the Convocation Latimer preached the Latine Sermon he was the most celebrated Preacher of that time the Simplicity of his matter and his Zeal in expressing it being preferred to more elaborate Composures They first confirmed the Sentence of the Divorce of
the Pope's Power and assert the King's Supremacy and to explain the Articles lately set forth by the Convocation and to publish the Abrogation of some Holy-days in Harvest time They were no more to extol Images Relicks or Pilgrimages but to exhort the People to do Works of Charity instead of them And they were required to teach the People the Lord's Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments in English and to explain these carefully and instruct the Children well in them They were to perform the Divine Offices reverently and to have good Curats to supply their rooms when they were absent They were charged not to go to Ale-houses or sit too long at Games but to study the Scriptures much and be exemplary in their Lives Those that did not reside were to give the fortieth part of their Income to the Poor and for every 100 l. a year that any had they were to maintain a Scholar at some Gramar-School or the University and if the Parsonage-house was in decay they were ordered to apply a fifth part of their Benefice for repairing it Such as did not obey these Injunctions were to be suspended and their mean Profits were to be sequestred The Clergy detested this Precedent of the King 's giving Injunctions without the Concurrence of a Convocation and by which they said they would be made Slaves to his Vicegerent they also complained of those heavy Taxes that were laid on them and that Images Relicks and Pilgrimages would be now brought under great Contempt Both the Secular and Regular Clergy were so sensibly concerned in these things that they inflamed the People all they could The great Abbots were not wanting for their share to set that on they were now opprest with the Crouds of those who were sent to them from the supprest Houses and they expected to fall next nor were their Fears removed by a Letter that was sent about in the King's Name for silencing all Reports that were given out of his Intentions to suppress them this rather encreased than lessened their Jealousie The People continued quiet till they had reaped their Harvest A Rebellion in Lincolnshire but in the beginning of October 20000 rose in Lincolnshire led by a Priest disguised into a Cobler They took an Oath to be true to God the King and the Common-wealth and sent a Paper of their Grievances to the King They complained of some Acts of Parliament of the suppressing of many Religious Houses of mean and ill Counsellours and bad Bishops and prayed the King to address their Grievances by the Advice of the Nobility but yet they acknowledged him to be their Supream Head and that the Tenths and first Fruits of Livings belonged to him of right The King sent the Duke of Suffolk to raise Forces against them and gave an Answer to their Petition He said it belonged not to the Rabble to direct Princes what Counsellours they should choose The Religious Houses were supprest by Law and the Heads of them had under their Hands confessed such horrid Scandals that they were a Reproach to the Nation and since in many of them there were not above four and that they wasted their Rents in riotous living it was much better to apply them to the common good of the Nation than leave them in such hands he required them to submit to his Mercy and to put two hundred of their Leaders into the hands of his Lieutenants The Clergy having brought so many together did all they could to put Heat and Spirit in them they perswaded them that if they did not maintain their Faith and their Liberties both would be lost Some of the Gentry were forced to joyn with them for their own Preservation and they sent Advices to the Duke of Suffolk to procure from the King the offer of a General Pardon which would effectually dissipate them At the same time there was a more formidable rising in York-shire Another in Yorkshire which being in the Neighbourhood of Scotland was like to draw Assistance from that Kingdom tho their King was then gone into France to marry Francis's Daughter this inclined the King to make more haste to settle matters in Lincolnshire he sent them secret Assurances of Mercy which wrought on the greatest part so they dispersed themselves and the most obstinate went to over them in Yorkshire The Cobler and some others were taken and executed The distance that those in the North were at from the Court gave them time to rise and form themselves into some Method One Ask commanded in chief and performed his part with great Dexterity their March was called The Pilgrimage of Grace they had in their Banners and on their Sleeves the five Wounds of Christ they took an Oath that they would restore the Church suppress Hereticks preserve the King and his Issue and drive base-born Men and ill Counsellours from him They became 40000 strong in a few days and met with no Opposition they forced the Arch-bishop of York and the Lord Darcy to swear their Covenant and to go along with them They besieged Skipton but the Earl of Cumberland made it good against them Sir Ralph Evers held out Scarborough Castle tho for twenty days he and his Men had no Provisions but Bread and Water There was also a rising in all the other Northern Counties against whom the Earl of Shrewsbury made Head and the King sent several of the Nobility to his Assistance and within a few days the Duke of Norfolk marched with some Troops and joyned him They possessed themselves of Doncaster and resolved to keep that pass till the rest of the Forces that the King had ordered to be summoned should come up to them for they were not in a Condition to engage with such numbers of desperate Men and it was very likely that if they met with any ill Accident the People might have risen about them every where so the Duke of Norfolk resolved to keep close at Doncaster and let the Provisions and Rage of the Rebels spend and then with the help of a little time they might probably fall into Factions and melt away They had now fallen to 30000 but the King's Army was not above 5000. The Duke of Norfolk proposed a Treaty and made some go among them as Desertors and spread Reports that their Leaders were making Terms for themselves They were perswaded to send their Petitions to the Court and the King to make them more secure discharged a Rendezvouz that he had appointed at Northampton and sent them a general Pardon excepting six by name and reserving four to be afterwards named but this put them all in such Apprehensions that it made them more resolved and desperate Yet the King to give his People some Content put out Injunctions requiring the Clergy to continue the use of all the Ceremonies of the Church 300 were imployed to carry the Rebels Demands to the King Which were a General Pardon a Parliament to be held at
thought a vertue might be both in them and in Holy Water as well as there was in Christ's Garments Peter's Shadow or Elisha's Staffe And there might be a Vertue in Holy Water as well as in the Water of Baptism He also mentioned the Vertue that was in the Cramp-Rings blessed by the late King which he had known to be much esteemed and sought after and he hoped their young King would not neglect that gift But to these things which Gardiner wrote in several Letters the Protector perhaps by Cranmer's direction wrote answer that the Bishops had formerly argued much in another strain that because the Scriptures were abused by the vulgar Readers therefore they were not to be trusted to them and so made a pretended abuse the ground of taking away that which by Gods special appointment was to be delivered to all Christians This did hold much stronger against Images that were forbidden by God The Brazen Serpent set up by Moses by Gods own direction was broken when abused to Idolatry for that was the greatest corruption of Religion possible And the Civil respect payed to the Kings Image on a Seal or on the Coyn did not justifie the dotage upon Images But yet the Protector acknowledged he had reason to complain of the forwardness of the people that broke down Images without authority This was the first step that was made in this Reign towards a Reformation of which the sequel shall appear afterwards Orders were sent to the Justices of the Peace to look well to the Peace and Government of the Nation to meet often and every six weeks to advertise the Protector of the state of the County to which they belonged The Funerals of the deceased King were performed with the ordinary Ceremonies at Windsor The Kings Funeral One thing gave those that hated him some advantages his Body was carried the first day to Sheen which had been a Nunnery and there some of the moisture and fat dropt through the Coffin and to make it a compleat accomplishment of Peyto's denunciation that Dogs should lick his Blood it was said the Dogs next day licked it This in a Corpulent man was so far from a wonder that it had been a wonder if it had been otherwise and was a certain sign of nothing but the Plummers carelesness and their weakness and malice that made such Inferences from it The King left six hundred pounds a year to the Church of Windsor for Priests to say Mass for his Soul every day and for four Obits a year and Sermons and distribution of Alms at every one of them and for a Sermon every Sunday and a maintenance for thirteen poor Knights which was setled upon that Church by his Executors in due form of Law The Pomp of this Endowment now in a more Inquisitive Age led people to examine the usefulness of Soul Masses and Obits Soul Masses examined Christ appointed the Sacrament for a commemoration of his Death among the living but it was not easie to conceive how that was to be applied to departed Souls For all the good that they could receive seemed only applicable to the prayers for them but bare Prayers would not have wrought so much on the people nor would they have payed so dear for them It was a clear project for drawing in the wealth of the World into their hands In the Primitive Church there was a Commemoration of the Dead or an Honourable Remembrance of them made in the daily Offices and for some very small faults their names were not mentioned which would not have had done if they had looked upon that as a thing that was really a relief to them in another state But even this custome grew to be abused and some inferred from it that departed Souls unless they were signally pure passed through a Purgation in the next life before they were admitted to Heaven Of which St. Austin in whose time the opinion was beginning to be received says that it was taken up without any sure ground in Scripture But what was wanting in Scripture proof was supplied by Visions Dreams and Tales till it was generally received King Henry had acted like one that did not much believe it for he was to expect no good usage in Purgatory from those Souls whom he had deprived of the Masses that were said for them in Monasteries by destroying those Foundations Yet it seems he intended to make sure work for himself so that if Masses could avail the departed Souls he resolved to have his share of it and as he gratified the Priests by this part of his Endowment so he pleased the people by appointing Sermons and Alms to be given on such days Thus he died as he had lived swimming between both perswasions And it occasioned no small debate when men sought to find out what his opinions were in the controverted points of Religion For the esteem he was in made both sides study to justifie themselves by seeming to follow his sentiments the one party said he was resolved never to alter Religion but only to cut off some abuses and intended to go no further than he had gone They did therefore vehemently press the others to innovate nothing but to keep things in the state in which he left them till his Son should come of Age But the opposite party said that he had resolved to go a great way further and particularly to turn the Mass to a Communion and therefore Religion being of such consequence to the Salvation of Souls it was necessary to make all the haste in Reformation that was fitting and decent The Coronation But now the diversions of the Coronation took them off from more serious thoughts The Protector was made Duke of Somerset the Earl of Essex Marquess of Northampton the Lords Lisle and Wriothesley Earls of Warwick and Southampton Seimour Rich Willoughby and Sheffield were made Barons In order to the Kings Coronation the Office for that Ceremony was reviewed and much shortned One remarkable alteration was that formerly the King used to be presented to the people at the corners of the Scaffold and they were asked If they would have him to be their King Which looked like a rite of an Election rather than a Ceremony of Investing one that was already King This was now changed and the people were desired only to give their assents and good will to his Coronation as by the duty of Allegiance they were bound to do On the twentieth of February he was Crowned and a General Pardon was proclaimed out of which the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pool and some others were excepted The Chancellour The Chancellour turned out who was lookt on as the head of the Popish party gave now an advantage against himself which was very readily laid hold on He granted a Commission to the Master of the Rolls and three Masters of Chancery of whom two were Civilians to execute his Office in the Court of Chancery as if he were
all who gave Livings by Simoniacal bargains were declared to have forfeited their right of Patronage to the King A great charge was also given for the strict observation of the Lords Day which was appointed to be spent wholly in the service of GOD it not being enough to hear Mass or Mattins in the Morning and spend the rest of the Day in drunkenness and quarrelling as was commonly practised but it ought to be all imployed either in the duties of Religion or in acts of Charity only in time of Harvest they were allowed to work on that and other Festival days Direction was also given for the bidding of Prayers in which the King as Supreme head the Queen and the Kings Sisters the Protector and Council and all the Orders of the Kingdom were to be mentioned they were also to pray for departed souls that at the last day we with them might rest both body and soul There were also Injunctions given for the Bishops that they should preach four times a year in their Diocesses once in their Cathedral and thrice in any other Church unless they had a good excuse to the contrary that their Chaplains should preach often and that they should give Orders to none but those that were duly qualified These were variously censured The Clergy were only impowered to remove the abused Images Censures on ths Injunctions and the People were restrained from doing it but this authority being put in their hands it was thought they would be slow and backward in it It had been happy for this Church if all had agreed since that time to press the Religious observation of the Lords Day without starting needless questions about the Morality of it and the obligation of the fourth Commandment which has occasioned much dispute and heat and when one Party raised the obligation of that duty to a pitch that was not practicable it provoked others to slacken it too much and this produced many sharp reflections on both sides and has concluded in too common a neglect of that day which instead of being so great a bond and instrument of Religion as it ought to be is become generally a day of idleness and loosness The Corruptions of Lay Patrons and Simoniacal Priests have been often complained of but no Laws nor Provisions have ever been able to preserve the Church from this great mischief which can never be removed till Patrons look on their right to nominate one to the charge of Souls as a trust for which they are to render a severe account to God and till Priests are cured of their aspiring to that charge and look on it with dread and great caution The bidding of Prayers had been the custome in time of Popery for the Preacher after he had named his Text and shewed what was to be the method of his Sermon desired the People to joyn with him in a Prayer for a blessing upon it and told them likewise whom they were to pray for and then all the People said their Beads in silence and he kneeling down said his and from that this was called the bidding of the Beads In this new direction for them Order was given to repeat always the Kings Title of Supream Head that so the People hearing it often mentioned might grow better accustomed to it but when instead of a bidding Prayer an immediate one is come generally to be used that enumeration of Titles seems not so decent a thing nor is it now so necessary as it then was The prayer for departed souls was now moderated to be a prayer only for the consummation of their happiness at the last day whereas in King Henry's time they prayed that God would grant them the fruition of his presence which implied a Purgatory The Injunctions to the Bishops directing them to give Orders with great caution pointed out that by which only a Church can be preserved from Errors and Corruptions for when Bishops do easily upon recommendations or emendicated Titles confer Orders as a sort of favour that is at their disposal the ill effects of that must be fatal to the Church either by the Corruptions that those vicious Priests will be guilty of or by the Scandals which are given to some good minds by their means who are thereby disgusted at the Church for their sakes and so are disposed to be easily drawn into those Societies that separate from it The War with Scotland was now in consultation The War with Scotland but the Protector being apprehensive that France would engage in the quarrel sent over Sir Fr. Brian to congratulate with the new King to desire a confirmation of the last Peace and to complain of the Scots who had broken their Faith with the King in the matter of the Marriage of their Queen The French King refused to confirm the Treaty till some Articles should be first explained and so he disowned his Fathers Embassadour and for the Scots he said he could not forsake them if they were in distress The English alledged that Scotland was subject to England but the French had no regard to that and would not so much as look on the Records that were offer'd to prove it and said they would take things as they found them and not look back to a dispute of two hundred years old This made the English Council more fearful of engaging in a War which by all appearance would bring a War on them from France The Castle of St. Andrews was surrendred and all their Pensioners in Scotland were not able to do them great fervice The Scots were now much lifted up for as England was under an Infant King so the Court of France was governed by their Queen Dowagers Brothers The Scots began to make Inroads on England and Descents on Ireland Commissioners were sent to the Borders to treat on both sides and the Protector raised a great Army which he resolved to command in person But the meeting on the Borders was soon broke up for the Scots had no Instructions to treat concerning the Marriage and the English were ordered to treat of nothing else till that should be first agreed to And the Records that were shewed of the Homage done by the Scottish Kings to the English had no great effect for the Scots either said they were forged or forced from some weak Princes or were only Homages for their Lands in England as the Kings of England did Homage to the Crown of France for their Lands there They also shewed their Records by which their Ancestors had asserted that they were free and independent of England The Protector left Commissions of Lieutenancy to some of the Nobility August and devolved his own power during his absence on the Privy Council and came to the Borders by the end of August The Scots had abandoned the Passes so that he found no difficulty in his March and the small Forts that were in his way were surrendred upon Summons When the English advanced to
and Equity and said that all people even those who complained most of arbitrary power were apt to usurp it when they were in authority And some thought the delivering the doctrine of Justification in such nice terms was not sutable to the plain simplicity of the Christian Religion Lady Mary was so alarmed at these proceedings that she wrote to the Protector that such changes were contrary to the honour due to her Fathers Memory and it was against their duty to the King to enter upon such points and endanger the publick Peace before he was of Age. To which he wrote answer That her Father had died before he could finish the good things he had intended concerning Religion and had expressed his regret both before himself and many others that he left things in so unsetled a state and assured her that nothing should be done but what would turn to the Glory of God and the Kings Honour He imputed her Writing to the importunity of others rather than to her self and desired her to consider the matter better with an humble Spirit and the assistance of the Grace of God The Parliament was opened the fourth of November A Parliament meets and the Protector was by Patent authorized to sit under the Cloath of State on the Right hand of the Throne and to have all the Honours and Priviledges that any Unkle of the Crown either by Father or Mothers side ever had Rich was made Lord Chancellour The first Act that past five Bishops only dissenting An Act of Repeal was A Repeal of all Statutes that had made any thing Treason or Felony in the late Reign which was not so before and of the six Articles and the authority given to the Kings Proclamations as also of the Acts against Lollards All who deni'd the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes for the first offence were to forfeit their goods for the second were to be in a Pramunire and were to be attainted of Treason for the third But if any intended to deprive the King of his Estate or Title that was made Treason none were to be accused of Words but within a month after they were spoken they also repealed the power that the King had of annulling all Laws made till he was twenty four years of age and restrained it only to an annulling them for the time to come but that it should not be of force for the declaring them null from the beginning Another Act past with the same dissent An Act about the Sacrament for the Communion in both kinds and that the people should always communicate with the Priest and by it irreverence to the Sacrament was condemned under severe penalties Christ had instituted the Sacrament in both kinds and S. Paul mentions both In the Primitive Church that custome was universally observed but upon the belief of Transubstantiation the reserving and carrying about the Sacrament were brought in this made them first endeavour to perswade the World that the Cup was not necessary for Wine could neither keep nor be carried about conveniently but it was done by degrees the Bread was for some time given dipt as it is yet in the Greek Church but it being believed that Christ was entirely under either kind and in every crumb the Council of Constance took the Cup from the Laity yet the Bohemians could not be brought to submit to it so every where the use of the Cup was one of the first things that was insisted on by those who demanded a Reformation At first all that were present did communicate and censures past on such as did it not And none were denied the Sacrament but Penitents who were made to withdraw during the Action But as the devotion of the World slackned the people were still exhorted to continue their Oblations and come to the Sacrament though they did not receive it and were made believe that the Priest received it in their stead The name Sacrifice given to it as being a holy Oblation was so far improved that the World came to look on the Priests officiating as a Sacrifice for the dead and living From hence followed an infinite variety of Masses for all the accidents of humane life and that was the chief part of the Priests trade but it occasioned many unseemly jests concerning it which were restrained by the same Act that put these down Another Act past without any dissent An Act concerning the nomination of Bishops That the Conge d'elire and the Election pursuant to it being but a shadow since the person was named by the King should cease for the future and that Bishops should be named by the Kings Letters Patents and thereupon be consecrated and should hold their Courts in the Kings name and not in their own excepting only the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Court And they were to use the Kings Seal in all their Writings except in Presentations Collations and Letters of Orders in which they might use their own Seals The Apostles chose Bishops and Pastors by an extraordinary gift of discerning Spirits and proposed them to the approbation of the people yet they left no rules to make that necessary In the times of Persecution the Clergy being maintained by the Oblations of the people they were chosen by them But when the Emperours became Christians the Town Councils and eminent men took the Elections out of the hands of the Rabble And the Tumults in popular Elections were such that it was necessary to regulate them In some places the Clergy and in others the Bishops of the Province made the choice The Emperours reserved the Confirmation of the Elections in the great Sees to themselves But when Charles the Great annexed great Territories and Regalities to Bishopricks a great change followed thereupon Church-men were corrupted by this undue greatness and came to depend on the humours of those Princes to whom they owed this great encrease of their wealth Princes named them and invested them in their Sees But the Popes intended to separate the Ecclesiastical State from all subjection to Secular Princes and to make themselves the heads of that State at first they pretended to restore the freedom of Elections but these were now ingrossed in a few hands for only the Chapters chose The Popes had granted thirty years before this to the King of France the nomination to all the Bishopricks in that Kingdome so the King of Englands assuming it was no new thing and the way of Elections as King Henry had setled it seemed to be but a Mockery so this change was not much condemned The Ecclesiastical Courts were the Concessions of Princes in which Trials concerning Marriages Wills and Tithes depended so the holding those Courts in the Kings name was no Invasion on the Spiritual Function since all that concerned Orders was to be done still in the Bishops name only Excommunication was still left as the Censure of those Courts which being a Spiritual Censure ought to have been reserved to
Duke of Somerset's administration and was set on by the Duke of Northumberland's Party to let the King see how well pleased the Representative of the Nation was with his fall The Sons of the Nobility and Gentry had ordinarily Prebends given them A Bill proposed that Lay-men should not hold Church-dignities under this pretence that they intended to follow their studies and make themselves capable of entring into Orders and this was like to become a great prejudice to the Clergy when so many of the dignities of the Church were in lay-Lay-hands Upon this the Bishops procured a Bill to be past in the House of Lords that none might hold these that was not either Priest or Deacon but at the third reading the Commons threw it out Another Bill past for suppressing the Bishoprick of Durham An Act suppressing the Bishop of Durham and erecting two new Sees the one at Durham and the other at Newcastle the former was to have 2000. and the latter 1000. Marks Revenue there was also a Dean and a Chapter to be endowed at Newcastle Ridley was designed to be made Bishop of Durham But though the secular Jurisdiction of that See was given to the Duke of Northumberland yet the King's death stopt the further progress of this affair Tonstall was deprived as Heath and Day were by a Court of Lay-delegates upon the Informations that had been brought against him of Misprision of Treason and was kept in the Tower till Queen Mary set him at liberty The King granted a General Pardon in which the Commons moved the Lords that some words might be put though that is not usual to be done for Acts of Pardon are commonly past without any Changes made in them After the passing these Acts the Parliament was dissolved on the last of March. For it seems either the Duke of Northumberland was not pleased with the proceedings in the House of Commons or he was resolved to call frequent Parliaments and not continue the same as the Duke of Somerset had done Visitors were sent after this to examine what Plate was in every Church Another Visitation and to leave them one or two Chalices of Silver with Linnen for the Communion-Table and for Surplices and to bring in all other things of value to the Treasurer of the King's Houshold and to sell the rest and give it to the Poor This was a new rifling of Churches by which it seemed some resolved not to cease till they had brought them to a Primitive Poverty as well as the Reformers intended to bring them to a Primitive purity The King set his hand to these Instructions from which some have inferred that he was ill principled in himself when at such an Age he joyned his Authority to such proceedings But he was now so ill that it is probable he set his hand to every thing that the Council sent him without examining anxiously what it might import Skip Bishop of Hereford dying Harley succeeded him and was the last that was promoted by the Kings Letters Patents as Barlow was the first Bishops made by the Kings Patent being removed by them from St. Davids to Bath and Wells The form of the Patent was That the King appointed such a one to be Bishop during his Natural life or as long as he behaved himself well and gave him power to ordain or deprive Ministers to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and perform all the other parts of the Episcopal Function that by the Word of God were committed to Bishops and this they were to do in the King's Name and by his Authority Ferrar was put in St. Davids upon Barlow's removal he was an indiscreet Man and drew upon himself the dislike of his Prebendaries and many complaints were made of him which if true discovered great weakness in him at last he was sued in a Premunire for acting in his own name and not in the King 's in his Courts and was put in Prison where he continued till Morgan that was his chief Accuser being put in his place by Queen Mary condemned him to the Fire which turned all former Censures that he had given occasion for by his simplicity into esteem and compassion By these Patents the Episcopal Power was still declared to flow from Christ they were only presentations to Bishopricks such as other Patrons gave to inferiour Benefices and such as Christian Princes in France and other Kingdoms gave in elder times for Bishopricks Their Courts were ordered to be held in the King's Name but all this was repealed by Queen Mary and when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown instead of reviving this she revived that made in the 25 Hen. 8. by which Bishops were authorised to hold their Courts as they had done formerly and though Queen Mary's repeal of the Statute of this King was afterwards taken away so that this Act seemed thereby to be again in force yet Queen Flizabeth's reviving that made by her Father was understood to be in effect a Repeal of it so that in King James's time when some scruples were started about it the Judges did not think it necessary to make an Explanatory Act to clear the matter for the thing did not seem to admit of any debate A new and fuller Catechism was this Year composed by Poinet and was published with the Kings approbation The state of affairs beyond Sea Affairs in Germany was now quite turned so that the Progress the French had made set the English Council on mediating a Peace The Emperour represented to them the danger the Netherlands were in since the French were Masters of Metz and so could in a great measure divide them from the assistance that they might receive from the Empire therefore he desired that according to the Ancient Leagues between England and the House of Burgundy they would now engage against the French The Council sent over Ambassadours both to the Emperour and the French King to mediate The Emperour was then indisposed but his Ministers complained much that the French had broken with them perfidiously when they were making solemn protestations that they intended to observe the Peace religiously The Germans proposed a League between the Emperour the King of the Romans the King of England and the Princes of the Empire The Emperour moved that the Netherlands might be comprehended within the perpetual League of the Empire but the Princes refused that since those Provinces were like to be the perpetual Seat of War when ever it should break out between France and Spain unless they might have reciprocal advantages for exposing themselves to so much danger and charge The French made extravagant Propositions by which it appeared that their King had a mind to carry on the War They askt the restitution of Millan Sicily Naples and Navarre and the Soveraignty of the Netherlands and that Metz Toul and Verdun should continue under the Protection of France The English would not receive these as Mediators but took them
such as Gardiner pleased to send among them They differed in their opinions how far they were bound to obey this Prohibition Some thought they might forbear publick Preaching when they were so required But they made that up by private Conferences and Instructions Others thought that if this had been only a particular hardship upon a few the regard to Peace and Order should have obliged them to submit to it but since it was general and done on design to extinguish the light of the Gospel that they ought to go on and preach at their peril of this last sort several were put in Prison for their disobedience and among others Hooper and Coverdale The people that loved the old Superstition began now to set up Images and the old Rites again in many places And though this was plainly against Law yet the Government encouraged it all they could Particularly against Judge Hales Judge Hales thought his refusing to concur with the rest in excluding the Queen gave him a more than ordinary priviledge So when he went the Circuit he gave the charge in Kent requiring the Justices to see to the execution of King Edward's Laws that continued still in force But upon his return he was committed for this and removed from Prison to Prison which with the threatnings that were made him terrified him so much that he cut his Throat but not mortally As he recovered he made his submission and obtained his liberty Yet the disorder he was in never left him till he drowned himself This shewed that former merit was not so much confidered as a readiness to comply in matters of Religion Judge Bromley though he made no difficulty in declaring his opinion for the Queens exclusion yet since he profest himself a Papist was made Lord Chief Justice and Montague who had proceeded in it with great aversion yet because he was for the Reformation was put in Prison and severely Fined though he had this merit to pretend that he had sent his Son and twenty men with him to declare for the Queen and had this also to recommend him to pity that he had six Sons and ten Daughters Peter Martyr was forced to retire from Oxford He came to Lambeth but was not like to find long shelter there Cranmer kept himself quiet for some time Cranmers Imprisonment which gave the other party occasion to publish that he was resolved to turn with the Tyde Bonner writ upon that to a friend of his that Mr. Canterbury so he called him in derision was become very humble but that would not serve his turn for he would be sent to the Tower within a very little while Some advised him to fly beyond Sea he answered That though he could not disswade others to fly from the persecution they saw coming on yet that was unbecoming a man in his station that had such a hand in the changes formerly made He prepared a Writing which he intended to have published The substance of it was That he found the Devil was more than ordinary busie in defaming the Servants of God and that whereas the corruptions in the Mass had been cast out and that the Lords Supper was again set up according to its first Institution the Devil now to promote the Mass which was his invention set his Instruments on work who gave it out that it was now said in Canterbury by his order Therefore he protested that was false and that a dissembling Monk this was Thornton Bishop Suffragan of Dover had done it without his knowledge He also offered that he and Peter Martyr with such other four or five as he should name would be ready to prove the errours of the Mass and to defend the whole Doctrine and Service set forth by the late King as most conform to the word of God and to the practice of the Ancient Church for many Ages Before he had finished this Scory that had been Bishop of Chichester coming to him he shewed it him and desired his opinion in it He being a hot man liked it so well that he gave Copies of it and one of these was read publickly in Cheapside So three days after that he was cited to the Star-Chamber to answer for it he confessed it was his and that he had intended to have enlarged it in some things and to have affixed it with his Hand and Seal to it at Saint Pauls and many other Churches He was at this time dismist Gardiner saw the Queen intended to put Cardinal Pool in his room and that made him endeavour to preserve him Some moved that a small Pension might be assigned him and that he should be suffered to live private for the sweetness of his Temper had procured him so Universal a love from all People that it was thought too hardy a step to proceed to extremities with him Others said he had been the chief Author of all the Heresie that was in the Nation and that it was not decent for the Queen to shew any favour to him that had pronounced the Sentence of her Mothers divorce Within a Week after this both Latimer and he and several other Preachers were put in Prison Peter Martyr that had come over upon the publick faith The strangers driven out of England had leave given him to go beyond Sea so had also à Lasco and the Germans and about two hundred of them went away in December but both in Denmark where they first landed and in Lubeck Wismar and Hamburgh to which they removed they were denied admittance because they were of the Helvetian Confession and in all these places the fierce Lutherans prevailed who did so far put off all bowels that they would not so much as suffer these Refuges to stay among them till the rigours of the Winter were over but at last they found shelter in Friseland Many of the English foreseeing the storm resolved to withdraw in time so the strangers being required to be gone they went under that Cover in great numbers But the Council understanding that about a thousand had so conveyed themselves away gave order that none should be suffered to go as strangers but those that had a Certificate from the Ambassadour of the Princes to whom they belonged With those that fled beyond Sea divers Eminent Preachers went among whom were Cox Sandys Grindall and Horn all afterwards highly advanced by Queen Elizabeth These things began to alienate the People from the Government Popular arts used by Gardiner therefore on the other hand great care was taken to sweeten them The Queen bestowed the chief Offices of the Houshold on those that had assisted her in her extremity there being no way more effectual to engage all to adhere to the Crown than the grateful acknowledgment of past services An unusual honour was done to Ratcliffe Earl of Sussex he had a Licence granted him under the Great Seal to cover his Head in her Presence On the 10th of October the Queen was
Norfolk those who had purchased some parts of his Estate from the Crown opposed it much in the House of Commons but the Duke came down to the House and desired them earnestly to pass it and assured them that he would refer all differences between him and the Patentees either to Arbiters or to the Queen and so it was agreed to It set forth the pretences that were made use of to Attaint him as that he used Coats of Arms which he and his Ancestors had lawfully used There was a Commission given to some to declare the Royal assent to it but that was not signed but only stamped by the King's mark and that not at the upper end as was usual but beneath nor did it appear that the Royal Assent was ever given to it and they declared that in all time coming the Royal assent should be given either by the King in Person or by a Commission under the Great Seal signed by the King's hand and publickly declared to both Houses Cranmer Guilford Dudley and his Wife the Lady Jane and two of his Brothers were tryed for Treason they all confessed their Indictments only Cranmer appealed to the Judges who knew how unwillingly he had consented to the Exclusion of the Queen and that he did it not till they whose profession it was to know the Law had signed it They were all Attainted of Treason for levying War against the Queen and their Attainders were confirmed in Parliament so was Cranmer legally divested of his Archbishoprick but since he was put in it by the Pope's authority it was resolved to degrade him by the forms of the Canon-Law and the Queen was willing to pardon his Treason that it might appear she did not act upon revenge but Zeal she was often prevailed with to pardon Injuries against her self but was always inexorable in matters of Religion But now her Treaty with the Pope began to take vent which put the Parliament in some disorder When she came first to the Crown A Treaty for reconciling England to the Pope the Popes Legate at Brussels sent over Commendone to see if he could speak with her and to perswade her to reconcile her Kingdom to the Apostolick See The management of the matter was left to his discretion for the Legate would not trust this secret to Gardiner nor any of the other Bishops Commendone came over in the disguise of a Merchant and by accident met with one of the Queens Servants who had lived some years beyond Sea and was known to him and by his means he procured access to the Queen She assured him of her firm resolution to return to the obedience of that See but charged him to manage the matter with great prudence for if it were too early discovered it might disturb her affairs and obstruct the design By him she wrote both to the Pope and to Cardinal Pool and instructed Commendone in order to the sending over Pool with a Legatine power She also asked him whether the Pope might not dispence with Pool to marry since he was only in Deacons Orders This was a welcome Message to the Court of Rome and proved the foundation of Commendone's advancement There was a publick rejoicing for three days and the Pope said Mass himself upon it and gave a largess of Indulgences in which he might be the more liberal because they were like to come into credit again and to go off at the old rates Yet all that Commendone said in the Consistory was That he understood from good hands that the Queen was well disposed to a re-union Some of the stiffer Cardinals thought it was below the Popes dignity to send a Legate till an Embassie should come first from the Queen desiring it Yet the secret was so whispered among them that it was generally known It was said they ought to imitate the Shepherd in the Parable who went to seek the stray Sheep And therefore Pool was appointed to go Legate with ample powers Gardiner was in fear of him and so advised the Emperour to stop him in his journey and to touch the Emperour in a tender part it is said that he let him know that the Queen had some Inclinations for the Cardinal And for a Match with the Prince of Spain The Emperour had now proposed a Match with her for his Son though he was nine years younger than she was yet she being but thirty seven there was reason enough to hope for Children and the uniting England to the Spanish Monarchy seem'd to be all that was wanting to strengthen it on all hands so as to ruine the French Kingdom The Queen saw reasons enough to determine her to entertain it She found it would be hard to bring the Nation about in matters of Religion without the assistance of a soreign power Yet it is more reasonable to think that Gardiner who was always governed by his Interests would have rather promoted the match with Pool for then he had been Infallibly made Arch-bishop of Canterbury and had got Pool's Hat and the Government would have been much easier if the Queen had married a Subject than it could be under a Stranger especially one whose greatness made all people very apprehensive of him The restoring the Papal power Pool's advices to the Queen and the Match with the Prince of Spain were things of such uneasie digestion that it was not fit to adventure on both at once therefore the Emperour prest the Queen to begin with her Marriage and by that she would be powerfully assisted to carry on her other designs and at last the Queen her self was perswaded to send to Pool to advise him to stop his Journey for some time She sent over the Acts of this Parliament to let him see what progress she was making and to assure him she would make all convenient haste in the Re-union But the Parliament had expressed so great an aversion to the restoring the Popes power and were so apprehensive of losing the Abbey-Lands that it would prejudice her affairs much if he should come over before the peoples minds were better prepared She also desired him to send her a List of those that were fit to be made Bishops in the room of those that were turned out To this he writ a long and tedious answer he rejoiced at the Acts that were passed but observed great defects in them In that concerning her Mothers Marriage there was no mention made of the Popes Bull of Dispensation by which only it could be a lawful Marriage The other for setting up the Worship as it was in the end of her Fathers reign he censured more for they were then in a state of Schism and so this established Schism by a Law And he said that while the Interdict lay on the Nation it was a sin to perform Divine Offices He had been very frankly dispatched by the Pope and the Consistory with many favourable Instructions but if these were so despised and he still
but magnified his Conversion much and ascribed it wholly to the workings of God's Spirit he gave him great hopes of Heaven and promised him all the relief that Diriges and Masses could give him in another state All this while Cranmer was observed to be in great Confusion and Floods of Tears run from his Eyes at last when he was called on to speak he began with a Prayer in which he expressed much inward remorse and horrour then after he had exhorted the People to good Life Obedience and Charity he in most pathetick expressions confessed his sin that the hopes of Life had made him sign a Paper contrary to the Truth and against his Conscience and he had therefore resolved that the hand that signed it should be burnt first he also declared that he had the same belief concerning the Sacrament which he had published in the Book he writ about it Upon this there was a great Consternation on the whole Assembly but they resolved to make an end of him suddenly so without suffering him to go further they hurried him away to the Stake and gave him all the disturbance they could by their reproaches and clamours But he made them no answer having now turned his thoughts wholly towards God When the Fire was kindled he held his right Hand towards the Flame till it was consumed and often said that unworthy hand he was soon after quite burnt only his heart was found entire among the ashes from which his Friends made this Inference that though his Hand had erred yet it appeared his Heart had continued true They did not make a Miracle of it though they said the Papists would have made a great matter of it if such a thing had fallen out in any that had dyed for their Religion Thus did Thomas Cranmer end his days His Character in the LXVII Year of his Age He was a Man of great Candor and a firm Friend which appeared signally in the misfortunes of Anne Boleyn Cromwell and the Duke of Somerset He rather excelled in great Industry and good Judgment than in a quickness of apprehension or a closeness of stile He employed his Revenues on pious and charitable uses and in his Table he was truly hospitable for he entertained great numbers of his poor Neighbours often at it The Gentleness and Humility of his deportment were very singular His last fall was the greatest blemish of his Life yet that was expiated by a sincere repentance and a patient Martyrdom and those that compared Ancient and Modern times did not stick to compare him not only to the Chrysostomes the Ambroses and the Austins that were the chief Glories of the Church in the fourth and fifth Centuries but to those of the first Ages that immediately followed the Apostles and came nearest to the Patterns which they had left the World to the Ignatius's the Policarps and the Cyprians And it seemed necessary that the Reformation of the Church being the restoring of the Primitive and Apostolical Doctrine should have been chiefly carried on by a Man thus Eminent for Primitive and Apostolical Vertues More burnings In January five Men and two Women were burnt at one Stake in Smithfield and one Man and four Women were burnt at Canterbury In March two Women were burnt at Ipswich and three Men at Salisbury In April six Men of Essex were burnt in Smithfield a Man and a Woman were burnt at Rochester and another at Canterbury and six who were sent from Colchester were condemned by Bonner without giving them longer time to consider whether they would recant than till the Afternoon for he was now so hardned in his Cruelty that he grew weary of keeping his Prisoners some time and of taking pains on them to make them recant he sent them back to Colchester where they were burnt He condemned also both a blind Man and an aged Criple and they were both burnt in the same Fire at Stratford In May three Women were burnt in Smithfield the day after that two were burnt at Glocester one of them being blind Three were burnt at Beckles in Suffolk five were burnt at Lewis and one at Leicester But on the 27th of June Bonner gave the signallest Instance of his Cruelty that England ever saw for 11. Men and two Women were burnt in the same Fire at Stratford The horror of this Action it seems had some Operation on himself for he burnt none till April next year In June three were burnt at Saint Edmondsbury and three were afterwards burnt at Newbury This cruelty was not kept within England but it extended as far as to the adjacent Islands In Guernsey a Mother and her two Daughters were burnt at the same stake one of them was a married Woman and big with Child The violence of the Fire bursting her Belly the Child that proved to be a Boy fell out into the Flame He was snatched out of it by one that was more merciful than the rest but the other barbarous Spectators after a little Consultation threw it back again into the Fire This was Murder without question for no Sentence against the Mother could excuse this Inhumane piece of Butchery which was thought the more odious because the Dean of Guernsey was a Complice in it yet so merciful was the Government under Queen Elizabeth that he and Nine others that were accused for it had their Pardons Two were after this burnt at Greenstead and a blind Woman at Darby Four were burnt at Bristoll and as many at Mayfield in Sussex and one at Nottingham so that in all LXXXV were this Year burnt without any regard had either to Age or Sex to young or old or the Lame and the Blind which raised so extream an aversion in this Nation to that Religion that it is no wonder if the apprehensions of being again brought under so Tyrannical a Yoke break out into most Violent and Convulsive Symptoms By these means the Reformation was so far from being extinguished that it spread daily more and more and the Zeal of those that professed it grew quicker The Reformed increase upon this They had frequent Meetings and several Teachers that instructed them and their Friends that went beyond Sea and setled in Strasburg Frankfort Embden and some other places in Germany took care to send over many Books for their Instruction and Comfort An unhappy difference was begun at Frankford The troubles at Frankford which has had since that time great and fatal Consequences some of the English thought it was better to use a Liturgy agreeing with the Geneva forms whereas the rest thought that since they were a part of the Church of England that fled thither they ought to adhere to the English Liturgy and that the rather since those who had compiled it were now sealing it with their Blood This raised much heat but Doctor Cox that lived in Strasburg being held in great esteem went thither and procured an Order from the Senate that
excessively and did much mischief Hail-stones of a huge bigness fell in some places Intermitting Fevers were so Universal and Contagious that they raged like a Plague so that in many Places there were not People enough to reap the Harvest all which tended to encrease the aversion to the Government and that disposed the Queen to hearken to overtures of Peace This was projected between the Bishop of Arras and the Cardinal of Lorrain who were the chief Favourites to the two Kings and were both much set on extirpating Heresie which could not be done during the continuance of the War the Cardinal of Lorrain was more earnest in it because the Constable who was the Head of the Faction against the House of Guise was suspected to favour it and his three Nephews the Coligny's were known to encline to it The King of France had also lost another Battel this Year at Gravelin which made him desire a Peace for he thought the driving the English out of France did compensate both that and his loss at St. Quintin So both those Princes reckoned they had such advantages that they might make Peace with honour and they being thus disposed to it a Treaty was opened at Cambray Philip in his own disposition was much inclined to extirpate Heresie and the Brothers of Guise possessed the King of France with the same Maximes which seemed more necessary because Heresie had then spread so much in that Court that both the King and Queen of Navarre declared themselves for the Reformation and great numbers in the Publick Walks about Paris used to assemble at Nights and sing David's Psalms in Verse The King of Navarre was the first Prince of the Blood and so was in great consideration for his rank but was a weak Man His Queen was the wonder of her Age both for great Parts Eminent Vertues and a most Extraordinary sense of Religion There was an Edict set out forbiding this Psalmody but the dignity of these crowned Heads and the Numbers of those that were engaged in it made it seem not advisable to punish any for it at least till a general Peace had been first made In April was the Dauphin married to the Queen of Scotland The Dauphin and Queen of Scotland married which was honoured by an Epithalamium writ by Buchanan reckoned to be one of the rarest Pieces of Latine Poetry The Deputies sent from Scotland were desired to offer the Dauphin the Crown of Scotland in the Right of his Wife But they said that exceeded the bounds of their Commission so they only promised to represent the matter to the States of Scotland but could not conceal the aversion they had to it Soon after Four of the Seven that were sent over died and the Fifth escaped narrowly It was generally suspected that they were poisoned when the rest returned to Scotland an Assembly of the States was called in which it was agreed to allow the Dauphin the Title of King but with this Proviso that he should have no power over them and that it was only a bare Title which they offered him This was appointed to be carried to him by the Earl of Argile and the Prior of St. Andrews who had been the chief Sticklers for the French Interest in hopes of the Queen Regents Protection against the rage of the Bishops in matters of Religion In England A Parliament in England a Parliament was called the 5th of November the Queen being ill sent for the Speaker of the House of Commons and laid before him the ill condition of the Nation and the necessity of putting it in a posture of defence But the Commons were so ill satisfied with the Conduct of affairs that they could come to no resolution so on the 14th of that Month twelve of the chief Lords of both Estates came down to the House of Commons and desired them to grant a Subsidy to defend the Nation both against the French and Scots but the Commons came to no conclusion till the Queen's death on the 17th put an end to the Parliament Her false Conception and the Melancholy that followed it The Queens Death which received a surcharge from the loss of Calais brought her into an ill habit of body and that turned to a Dropsie which put an end to her unhappy Reign in the forty-third year of her Age after she had reigned five Years four Months and eleven Days Sixteen hours after her Cardinal Pool died in the fifty ninth year of his Age. He left Priuli a Noble Venetian that had lived twenty six years in an entire friendship with him his Executor but as Pool had not studied to heap up much Wealth so Priuli who had refused a Cardinal's Hat rather than be obliged thereby to lose his Company gave it all away and reserved nothing to himself but his Breviary and Diary Pool was a learned humble Pool's Death and Character prudent and moderate Man and had certainly the best notions of any of his Party then in England but he was almost alone in them so that the Queen whose temper and principles were fierce and severe preferred the bloody Counsels of Gardiner and Bonner to the wiser and better methods which he proposed And though his superstition for the See of Rome continued still with him yet his Eyes were opened in many things his being Legate at Trent and his retirement at Viterbo had both enlightned and composed his mind and that joyned to the Probity and sweetness of his Temper produced great effects in him his Character deserves the more to be enlarged on because there were no others of the Clergy at that time concerning whom even a partial Historian can find much good to relate for their temporising and dissimulation in the changes that were made and their Cruelty when power was put in their hands were so scandalous that it is scarce possible to write of them with that softness of stile that becomes an Historian The Queen had been bred to some more than ordinary knowledge The Queens Character A froward sort of Vertue and a Melancholy Piety are the best things that can be said of her she left the Conduct of Affairs wholly in the hands of her Council and gave her self up to follow all the dictates and humours of the Clergy and though she esteemed Pool beyond them all yet she imputed the moderateness of his Counsels rather to his Temper than to his Judgment and perhaps thought that the Pope who pressed all Princes to set up Courts of Inquisition for extirpating of Heresie was more likely to be Infallible than the Cardinal and as Princes were required by the fourth Council in the Lateran to extirpate Hereticks under the pain of forfeiting their Dominions so the Pope had set out a Decree this Year by the advice of all his Cardinals confirming all Canons against Hereticks declaring that such Princes as fell into Heresie did thereby forfeit all their Rights without any special sentence and that
were fit to be made and by what steps they should proceed It was thought fit to begin with the Communion in both kinds Now did the Exiles The Impatience of some that had fled beyond Sea return again and some zealous People began in many places to break Images and set up King Edward's Service again Upon this the Queen ordered that the Litany and other parts of the Service should be said in English and that no Elevation should be used in the Mass but required her Subjects by Proclamation 27 Decemb. to avoid all Innovations and use no other forms but those that she kept up in her Chappel till it should be otherwise appointed in Parliament She ordered her Sister's Funeral to be performed with the ordinary Magnificence White Bishop of Winchester that Preached the Sermon not only extolled her Government much but made severe Reflections on the present state of affairs for which he was confined to his House for some time Many Sees were now vacant So one of the first things that came under Consultation was the finding out fit Men for them Dr. Parker was pitched on as the fittest for the See of Canterbury He had been Chaplain to Anne Boleyn Parker refuses the See of Canterbury long and had been imployed in instructing the Queen in the Points of Religion when she was young He was well known to Sir Nicolas Bacon and both he and Cecyl gave so high a Character of him that it meeting with the Queen 's particular esteem made them resolve on advancing him but as soon as he knew it he used all the Arguments he possibly could against it both from the weakness of his Body and his unfitness for so great a charge He desired that he might be put in some small Benefice of 20. Nobles a Year So far was he from aspirings to great Wealth or high Dignities and as Cranmer had done before him he continued for many Months so averse to it that it was very hard to overcome him Such Promotions are generally if not greedily sought after yet at least willingly enough undertaken but this looked liker the practises in Ancient than Modern times In the best Ages of the Church instead of that Ambitus which has given such scandal to the World in later times it was ordinary for Men to flye from the offer of great Preferments and to retire to a Wilderness or a Monastery rather than undertake a charge which they thought above their Merit or Capacity to discharge And this will still shew it self in all such as have a just sense of the Pastoral care and consider the discharging that more than the raising or enriching themselves or their Families And it was thought no small honour to the Reformation that the two chief Instruments that promoted it Cranmer and Parker gave such evidences of a Primitive Spirit in being so unwillingly advanced The Seals were taken from Heath and put in Bacon's hands Bacon made Lord Keeper who was declared Lord Keeper and had all the Dignity and Authority of the Chancellors Office without the Title which was perhaps an effect of his great Modesty that adorned his other great qualities As he was Eminent in himself so he was happy in being Father to the Great Sir Francis Bacon one of the chief Glories of the English Nation On the 13th The Queen is Crowned of January the Queen was Crowned When she entred into her Chariot at the Tower she offered up an humble acknowledgment to God for delivering her out of that Lions Den and preserving her to that Joyful Day She passed through London in great Triumph and received all the expressions of Joy from her People with so much sweetness as gained as much on their Hearts as her Sisters sowrness had alienated them from her Under one of the Triumphal Arches a Child came down as from Heaven representing Truth with a Bible in his hand which she received on her Knees and kissed it and said she preferred that above all the other Presents that were that Day made her She was Crowned by Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle for all the other Bishops refused to assist at it and he only could be prevailed on to do it They perceived that she intended to make changes in Religion and though many of them had changed often before yet they resolved now to stick firmer to that which they had so lately professed and for which they had shed so much Blood The Parliament was opened on the 25th A Parliament is called of January Bacon made a long Speech both concerning matters of Religion and the State of the Nation He desired they would examine the former Religion without heat or partial affection and that all reproaches might be forborn and extreams avoided and that things might be so setled that all might agree in an Uniformity in Divine Worship He laid open the errours of the former Reign and aggravated the loss of Calais but shewed that it could not be easily recovered He made a high Panegyrick of the Queen but when he shewed the necessities she was in he said she would desire no supply but what they should freely and chearfully offer The House of Commons began at a Debate Whether the want of the Title of Supream Head in the enumeration of the Queen's Titles made a Nullity in the Writs by which this and some former Parliaments had been summoned but they concluded in the Negative The Treaty at Cambray stuck chiefly at the restitution of Calais and King Philip for a great while insisted so positively on it that he refused to make Peace on other terms The Peace at Cambray England had lost it by a War in which they engaged on his account so in honour he was bound to see to it But when the hopes of his marrying the Queen vanished and when he saw she was going to make changes in Religion he grew more careless of her Interests and told the English Ambassadours that unless they would enter into a League for keeping up the War six Years longer he must submit to the necessity of his affairs and make Peace So the Queen listned to Propositions sent her from France She complained of the Queen of Scotland's assuming the Title and Arms of England It was answered that since she carried the Title and Arms of France she had no reason to quarrel much on that account She saw she could not make War with France alone and knew that Philip had made a separated Peace She had no mind to begin her Reign with a War that would probably be unsuccessful or demand Subsidies that would be so grievous as that thereby she might lose the affections of her People The loss of Calais was no reproach on her but fell wholly on her Sister's Memory and since she intended to make some changes in matters of Religion it was necessary to be at quiet with her Neighbours Upon this she resolved to make Peace with France on the best terms