Judges on the 7th it was read again and joyned to the other Bill about the Sacrament And on the 10th the whole Bill was agreed to by all the Peers except the Bishops of London Hereford Norwich Worcester and Chichester and sent down to the Commons On the 17th a Proviso was sent after it but was rejected by the Commons since the Lords had not agreed to it On the 20th it was sent up agreed to and had afterwards the Royal Assent By it first the value of the Holy Sacrament commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar and in the Scripture the Supper and Table of the Lord was set forth together with its first Institution but it having been of late marvellously abused some had been thereby brought to a contempt of it which they had expressed in Sermons Discourses and Songs in words not fit to be repeated therefore whosoever should so offend after the first of May next was to suffer Fine and Imprisonment at the Kings Pleasure and the Justices of the Peace were to take Information and make Presentments of Persons so offending within three Months after the offences so committed allowing them Witnesses for their own purgation And it being more agreeable to Christs first Institution And the practice of the Church for 500 years after Christ that the Sacrament should be given in both the kinds of Bread and Wine rather than in one kind only Therefore it was Enacted That it should be commonly given in both kinds except necessity did otherwise require it And it being also more agreeable to the first Institution and the primitive Practice that the People should receive with the Priest than that the Priest should receive it alone therefore the day before every Sacrament an Exhortation was to be made to the People to prepare themselves for it in which the benefits and danger of worthy and unworthy receiving were to be expressed and the Priests were not without a lawful cause to deny it to any who humbly askt it This was an Act of great consequence Communion appointed in both kinds since it reformed two abuses that had crept into the Church The one was the denying the Cup to the Laity the other was the Priests communicating alone In the first Institution it is plain that as Christ bad all drink of the Cup and his Disciples all drank of it so St. Paul directed every one to examine himself that he might eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. From thence the Church for many Ages continued this practice and the Superstition of some who received only in one kind was severely censured and such were appointed either to receive the whole Sacrament or to abstain wholly It continued thus till the belief of the Corporal Presence of Christ was set up and then the keeping and carrying about the Cup in Processions not being so easily done some began to lay it aside For a great while the Bread was given dipt in the Cup to represent a bleeding Christ as it is in the Greek Church to this day In other Places the Laity had the Cup given them but they were to suck it through Pipes that nothing of it should fall to the ground But since they believed that Christ was in every crumb of Bread it was thought needless to give the Sacrament in both kinds So in the Council of Constance the Cup was ordered to be denied the Laity though they acknowledged it to have been instituted and practised otherwise To this the Bohemians would never submit though to compel them to it much Blood was shed in this Quarrel And now in the Reformation this was every where one of the first things with which the People were possessed the opposition of the Roman Church herein to the Institution of Christ being so manifest And all private Masses put down At first this Sacrament was also understood to be a Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ of which many were to be partakers while the fervor of devotion lasted it was thought a scandalous and censurable thing if any had come unto the Christian Assemblies and had not stayed to receive these Holy Mysteries and the denying to give any one the Sacrament was accounted a very great punishment So sensible were the Christians of their ill condition when they were hindred to participate of it But afterwards the former Devotion slackening the good Bishops in the 4th and 5th Centuries complained oft of it that so few came to Receive yet the Custom being to make Oblations before the Sacrament out of which the Clergy had been maintained during the poverty of the Church the Priests had a great mind to keep up the constant use of these Oblations and so perswaded the Laity to continue them and to come to the Sacrament though they did not receive it and in process of time they were made to believe that the Priest received in behalf of the whole People And whereas this Sacrament was the Commemoration of Christs Sacrifice on the Cross and so by a Phrase of Speech was called a Sacrifice they came afterwards to fancy that the Priests consecrating and consuming the Sacrament was an Action of it self expiatory and that both for the Dead and the Living And there rose an infinite number of several sorts of Masses some were for commemorating the Saints and those were called the Masses of such Saints others for a particular Blessing for Rain Health c. and indeed for all the accidents of Humane Life where the addition or variation of a Collect made the difference So that all that Trade of Massing was now removed An Intimation was also made of Exhortations to be read in it which they intended next to set about These abuses in the Mass gave great advantages to those who intended to change it into a Communion But many in stead of managing them prudently made unseemly Jests about them and were carried by a lightness of temper to make Songs and Plays of the Mass for now the Press went quick and many Books were printed this year about matters of Religion the greatest number of them being concerning the Mass which were not written in so decent and grave a style as the matter required Against this Act only five Bishops protested Many of that Order were absent from the Parliament so the opposition made to it was not considerable The next Bill brought into the House of Lords An Act about the Admission of Bishops was concerning the admission of Bishops to their Sees by the Kings Letters Patents Which being read was committed to the Arch-bishop of Canterburies care on the fifth of November and was read the second time on the 10th and committed to some of the Judges and was read the third time on the 28th of November and sent down to the Commons on the 5th of December There was also another Bill brought in concerning the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Bishops Courts on the 17th of November and pass'd and sent
also labour to set forwards the Matter the best We may So doubt We not but if this Our good Purpose take effect both He and We and the rest of all Christendom shall have good cause to give God thanks and rejoice thereat Assuring him that if We had in our Conscience thought any other Person more fit for than Place that our said dearest Cousin We would not for any private Affection have preferred his Advancement before God's Glory and the Benefit of Christendom the furtherance whereof is We take God to Record the only thing We seek herein which moveth Us to be the more earnest in this Matter The overture whereof We have taken in hand as you may assure them on our Honour without Our said dearest Cousin's knowledg or consent And because We need not to remember the Wisdom Sincerity of Life and other godly Parts wherewith Almighty God hath endowed our said dearest Cousin the same being well enough known to Our said good Brother and his said Commissioners and the rest of the World We do refer the manner of the opening and handling of the rest of the Matter unto your own Wisdoms praying you We may understand from you as soon as ye may what answer ye shall have received herein at the said Commissioners hands Given under Our Signet at Our Honour of Hampton-Court the 30th of May the first and second Years of Our Reigns Number 19. An Order prescribed by the King and Queens Majesties unto the Justices of Peace of the County of Norfolk for the good Government of their Majesties loving Subjects within the same Shire March 26. 1555. An Original Philip R. Mary the Queen FIrst The said Justices of the Peace assembling themselves together Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. and consulting by what good Means good Order and Quietness may be best continued shall after divide themselves into eight ten or twelve parts more or less as to their discretions having regard to the quantity of the Shire and number of themselves shall seem most convenient endeavouring themselves besides their general care that every particular number may give diligent heed within their Limits appointed to them for conservation of Quietness and good Order Item The said Justices of the Peace shall not only be aiding and assisting unto such Preachers as be and shall be sent unto the said County but shall also be themselves present at Sermons and use the Preachers reverently travelling soberly with such as by abstaining from coming to the Church or by any other open doings shall appear not persuaded to conform themselves and to use such as be wilful and obstinate more roundly either by rebuking them or binding them to good bearing or committing them to Prison as the Quality of the Persons and Circumstance of their Doings may seem to deserve Item Amongst all other things they must lay special weight upon those which be Preachers and Teachers of Heresy or Procurers of secret Meetings for that purpose Item The said Justices of Peace and every of them must by themselves their Wives Children and Servants shew good example and if they shall have any of their own Servants faulty they must first begin to reform them Item The said Justices of the Peace and every of them shall as much as in them lieth procure to search out all such as shall by any means spread false Tales or seditious Rumours causing them when they shall be known to be further apprehended and punished according to the Laws Item They shall procure to have in every Parish or part of the Shire as near as may be some one or more honest Men secretly instructed to give information of the behaviour of the Inhabitants amongst or about them Item They shall charge the Constables and four or more of the most Honest and Catholick of every Parish with the order of the same Parish unto whom idle Men Vagabonds and such as may be probably suspected shall be bound to give a reckoning how they live and where they shall be come from time to time Item They shall have earnest regard to the execution and keeping of the Statutes against rebellious Vagabonds and Reteinours Ale-houses and for keeping of the Statute of Huy-and-Cry and shall give order for keeping of good and substantial Watches in places convenient the same to begin the 20th day of April next Item As soon as any Offenders for Murder Felony or other Offences shall be taken the said Justices of the Peace shall cause the matter to be forthwith examined and ordered as to Justice shall appertain according to the Tenour of the Commission of Oyer and Terminer addressed presently unto them for that purpose Finally The said Justices of Peace shall meet and consult together at the Sessions every month and more-often as occasion may require conferring among themselves upon the state of all particular parts of the Shire and taking such order for all Misorders as to their Wisdoms may seem requisite Number 20. A Letter written by the King and Queen requiring the Bishop of London to go on in the prosecution of the Hereticks Philip R. Mary the Queen RIght Reverend Father in God right trusty and well-beloved Regist Bonn. Fol. 363. We greet you well And where of late We addressed our Letters unto the Justices of the Peace within every of the Counties of this our Realm whereby amongst other Instructions given therein for the good Order and quiet Government of the Country about therein they are willed to have a special regard unto such disordered Persons as forgetting their Duties towards Almighty God and Us do lean to any Erroneous and Heretical Opinions to shew themselves conformable to the Catholick Religion of Christ's Church whom if they cannot by good admonition and fair means reform they are willed to deliver unto the Ordinary to be by him charitably travelled withal and removed if it may be from their naughty Opinions or else if they continue obstinate to be ordered according to the Laws provided in that behalf Understanding now to our no little marvel that divers of the said disordered Persons being by the Justices of the Peace for their contempt and obstinacy brought to the Ordinaries to be used as is aforesaid are either refused to be received at their hands or if they be received are neither so travelled with as Christian Charity requireth nor yet proceeded withal according to the Order of Justice but are suffered to continue in their Errors to the dishonour of Almighty God and dangerous example of others Like-as We find this Matter very strange so have We thought convenient both to signify this Our knowledg and therewith also to admonish you to have in this behalf such regard henceforth to the Office of a good Pastor and Bishop as when any such Offenders shall be by the said Justices of Peace brought unto you ye do use your good wisdom and discretion in procuring to remove them from their Errors if it may be or else in proceeding against them
Melanchthon thought that the Ceremonies of Popery might be used since they were of their own nature indifferent Others as Amstorfius Illiricus with the greatest part of the Lutherans thought the receiving the Ceremonies would make way for all the errors of Popery and though they were of their own nature indifferent yet they ceased to be so when they were enjoyned as things necessary to Salvation But the Emperor going on resolutely many Divines were driven away some concealed themselves in Germany others fled into Switzerland and some came over into England When the news of the Changes that were made here in England were carried beyond Sea and after Peter Martyr's being with Cranmer were more copiously written by him to his friends Calvin and Mar. Bucer who began to think the Reformation almost opprest in Germany now turned their Eyes more upon England Calvin writ to the Protector Calvin writ to the Protector on the 29th of October encouraging him to go on notwithstanding the Wars as Hezekias had done in his Reformation He lamented the heats of some that professed the Gospel but complained that he heard there were few lively Sermons preached in England and that the Preachers recited their discourses coldly He much approves a set form of Prayers whereby the consent of all the Churches did more manifestly appear But he advises a more compleat Reformation he taxed the Prayers for the Dead the use of Chrisme and Extream Vnction since they were no where recommended in Scripture He had heard that the reason why they went no further was because the Times could not bear it but this was to do the Work of God by Political Maximes which though they ought to take place in other things yet should not be followed in Matters in which the Salvation of Souls was concerned But above all things he complained of the great impieties and vices that were so common in England as Swearing Drinking and Vncleanness and prayed him earnestly that these things might be looked after Bucer writ against Gardiner Martin Bucer writ also a Discourse congratulating the Changes then made in England which was translated into English by Sir Philip Hobbey's Brother In it he answered the Book that Gardiner had written against him which he had formerly delayed to do because King Henry had desired he would let it alone till the English and Germans had conferr'd about Religion That Book did chiefly relate to the Marriage of the Clergy Bucer shewed from many Fathers that they thought every Man had not the Gift of Chastity which Gardiner thought every one might have that pleased He taxed the open lewdness of the Romish Clergy who being much set against Marriage which was Gods Ordinance did gently pass over the impurities which the forbidding it had occasioned among themselves He particularly taxed Gardiner himself that he had his Rents payed him out of Stews He taxed him also for his state and pompous way of living and shewed how indecent it was for a Church-man to be sent in Ambassies and that St. Ambrose though sent to make Peace was ashamed of it and thought it unbecoming the Priesthood Both Fagius and he being forced to leave Germany upon the business of the Interim Cranmer invited them over to England and sent them to Cambridge as he had done Peter Martyr to Oxford But Fagius not agreeing with this Air died soon after a Man greatly learned in the Oriental Tongues and a good Expounder of the Scripture This being the state of Affairs both abroad and at home a Session of Parliament was held in England on the 24th of November Nov. 24. Parliament sits to which day it had been prorogued from the 15th of October by reason of the Plague then in London The first Bill that was finished was that about the Marriage of the Priests It was brought into the House of Commons the 3d of December read the second time on the 5th and the third time the 6th But this Bill being only that married Men might be made Priests a new Bill was framed that besides the former Provision Priests might marry This was read the first time the 7th the second time the 10th and was fully argued on the 11th and agreed on the 12th and sent up to the Lords on the 13th of December In that House it stuck as long as it had been soon dispatched by the Commons It lay on the Table till the 9th of February Then it was read the first time and the 11th the second time on the 16th it was committed to the Bishops of Ely and Westminster the Lord chief-Chief-Justice and the Attorney-General and on the 19th of Feb. it was agreed to the Bishops of London Duresme Norwich Carlisle Hereford Worcester Bristol Chichester and Landaff and the Lords Morley Dacres Windsor and Wharton dissenting It had the Royal Assent and so became a Law The Preamble sets forth An Act about the Marriage of the Clergy That it were better for Priests and other Ministers of the Church to live chast and without Marriage whereby they might better attend to the Ministry of the Gospel and be less distracted with secular cares so that it were much to be wished that they would of themselves abstain But great filthiness of living with other inconveniencies had followed on the Laws that compelled Chastity and prohibited Marriage so that it was better they should be suffered to marry than be so restrained Therefore all Laws and Canons that had been made against it being only made by humane Authority are repealed So that all Spiritual Persons of what degree soever might lawfully marry providing they married according to the Order of the Church But a Proviso was added that because many Divorces of Priests had been made after the six Articles were enacted and that the Women might have thereupon married again all these Divorces with every thing that had followed on them should be confirmed There was no Law that passed in this Reign with more contradiction and censure than this and therefore the Reader may expect the larger account of this matter The unmarried state of the Clergy had so much to be said for it Which was much enquired into as being a course of life that was more disengaged from secular cares and pleasures that it was cast on the Reformers every where as a foul reproach that they could not restrain their appetites but engaged in a life that drew after it domestick cares with many other distractions This was an Objection so easie to be apprehended that the People had been more prejudiced against the Marriage of the Clergy if they had not felt greater inconveniencies by the debaucheries of Priests who being restrained from Marriage had defiled the Beds and deflow'red the Daughters of their Neighbours into whose Houses they had free and unsuspected access and whom under the Cloak of receiving Confessions they could more easily entice This made them that they were not so much wrought on by the noise of
Church received that Sacrament frequently and in both kinds To the sixth Baptism in Cases of necessity was to be administred at any time but out of these Cases it was fit to do it solemnly and in the Ancient Church it was chiefly done on the Eves of Easter and Whit-Sunday of which usage some Footsteps remained still in the old Offices To the seventh these were late superstitious devices Images were contrary to the Scriptures first set up for remembrance but soon after made Objects of Worship To the eight The old Service had many ludicrous things in it the new was simple and grave If it appeared ridiculous to them it was as the Gospel was long ago foolishness to the Greeks To the ninth The Scriptures say nothing of it it was a superstitious Invention derogatory to Christs death To the tenth The Scriptures are the Word of God and the readiest way to confound that which is Heresie indeed To the eleventh These were ignorant superstitious and deceitful Persons To the twelfth Pool had been attainted in Parliament for his spiteful Writings and Doings against the late King To the thirteenth It was foolish and unreasonable one Servant could not do a Man's business and by this many Servants would want employment To the fourteenth This was to rob the King and those who had these Lands of him and would be a means to make so foul a Rebellion be remembred in their Prayers To the fifteenth These were notorious Traitors to whom the Kings Council was not to submit themselves After this they grew more moderate and sent eight Articles They make new Demands 1. Concerning Baptism 2. About Confirmation 3. Of the Mass 4. For reserving the Host 5. For Holy Bread and Water 6. For the old Service 7. For the single Lives of Priests 8. For the Six Articles and concluded God save the King for they were His both Body and Goods To this there was an Answer sent in the Kings Name on the 8th of July so long did the Treaty with them hold in which Which were also rejected after Expressions of the Kings affection to his People he taxes their rising in Arms against him their King as contrary to the Laws of God He tells them That they are abused by their Priests as in the Instance of Baptism which according to the Book might necessity requiring it be done at all times that the Changes that had been set out were made after long and great consultation and the Worship of this Church by the advice of many Bishops and Learned Men was reformed as near to what Christ and his Apostles had taught and done as could be and all things had been setled in Parliament But the most specious thing that misled them being that of the Kings Age it was shewed them that his Blood and not his Years gave him the Crown and the state of Government requires that at all times there should be the same Authority in Princes and the same Obedience in the People It was all penned in a high threatning Style and concluded with an earnest Invitation of them to submit to the Kings Mercy as others that had risen had also done to whom he had not only shewed Mercy but granted Redress of their just grievances otherwise they might expect the utmost severity that Traitors deserved But nothing prevailed on this enraged Multitude whom the Priests inflamed with all the Artifices they could imagine and among whom the Host was carried about by a Priest on a Cart that all might see it But when this Commotion was thus grown to a Head The Rebellion in Norfolk headed by Ket a Tanner the Men of Norfolk rose the 6th of July being led by one Ket a Tanner These pretended nothing of Religion but only to suppress and destroy the Gentry and to raise the commons and to put new Councellors about the King They encreased mightily and became 20000 strong but had no Order nor Discipline and committed many horrid outrages The Sheriff of the County came boldly to them and required them in the Kings Name to disperse and go home but had he not been well mounted they had put him cruelly to death They came to Moushold Hill above Norwich and were much favoured by many in that City Parker afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury came among them and preached very freely to them of their ill Lives their Rebellion against the King and the Robberies they daily committed by which he was in great danger of his Life Ket assumed to himself the Power of Judicature and under an old Oak called from thence the Oak of Reformation did such Justice as might be expected from such a Judge and in such a Camp The Marquess of Northampton was sent against them but with Orders to keep at a distance from them and to cut off their Provisions for so it was hoped that without the shedding much Blood they might come to themselves again When the news of this Rising came into York-shire the Commons there rose also A Rising in York-shire being further encouraged by a Prophecy That there should be no King nor Nobility in England that the Kingdom should be ruled by four Governours chosen by the Commons who should hold a Parliament in commotion to begin at the South and North Seas This they applied to the Devon-shire Men on the South Seas and themselves on the North Seas They at their first rising fired Beacons and so gathered the Country as if it had been for the defence of the Coast and meeting two Gentlemen with two others with them they without any provocation murdered them and left their naked Bodies unburied The French fall into the Bullognese At the same time that England was in this Commotion the News came that the French King had sent a great Army into the Territory of Bulloigne so that the Government was put to most extraordinary straits A Fast at Court where Cranmer preached Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab. There was a Fast proclaimed in and about London Cranmer preached on the Fast-day at Court I have seen the greatest part of his Sermon under his own Hand and it is the only Sermon of his I ever saw It is a very plain unartificial Discourse no shews of Learning or conceits of Wit in it but he severely expostulated in the Name of God with his Hearers for their ill Lives their Blasphemies Adulteries mutual Hatred Oppression and Contempt of the Gospel and complained of the slackness in punishing these sins by which the Government became in some sort guilty of them He set many Passages of the Jewish Story before them of the Judgments such sins drew on and of Gods Mercy in the unexpected deliverances they met with upon their true Repentance But he chiefly lamented the scandal given by many who pretended a zeal for Religion but used that for a Cloak to disguise their other Vices He set before them the fresh Example of Germany where People generally
the Earl of Shrewsbury Sir Tho. Cheyney Sir John Gage Sir Ralph Sadler and the Lord chief-Chief-Justice Montague joyned with them Then they wrote to the King a Letter Collection Number 41. which is in the Collection full of expressions of their duty and care of his Person complaining of the Duke of Somerset's not listening to their Councils and of his gathering a Force about him for maintaining his wilful doings they owned that they had caused Secretary Petre to stay with them and in it they endeavoured to perswade the King that they were careful of nothing so much as of his preservation They also wrote to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and to Sir William Paget to see to the Kings Person and that his own Servants should attend on him and not those that belonged to the Duke of Somerset But the Protector hearing of this disorder had removed the King to Windsor in all hast and had taken down all the Armour that was either there or at Hampton-Court and had armed such as he could gather about him for his preservation The Council at London complained much of this that the King should be carried to a Place where there were no Provisions fit for him So they ordered all things that he might need to be sent to him from London And on the 8th of October they went to Guild-hall when they gave an account of their Proceedings to the Common-Council of the City and assured them they had no thoughts of altering the Religion as was given out by their Enemies but intended only the safety of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom and for these ends desired their assistance The City of London joyns with them The whole Common-Council with one Voice declared they thanked God for the good intentions they had expressed and assured them they would stand by them with their Lives and Goods At Windsor when the Protector understood that not only the City but the Lieutenant of the Tower of whom he had held himself assured had forsaken him he resolved to struggle no longer and though it is not improbable that he who was chiefly accused for his protecting the Commons might have easily gathered a great Body of Men for his own preservation yet he resolved rather to give way to the Tide that was now against him So he protested before the King and the few Councellors then about him that he had no design against any of the Lords and that the Force he had gathered was only to preserve himself from any violent attempt that might be made on his Person he declared that he was willing to submit himself The Protector offers to treat and submit and therefore proposed that two of those Lords should be sent from London and they with two of those that were yet about the King should consider what might be done in whose determination he would acquiesce and desired that whatsoever was agreed on should be confirmed in Parliament Hereupon there was sent to London a Warrant under the Kings Hand for any two of the Lords of the Council that were there to come to Windsor with twenty Servants a-piece who had the Kings Faith for their safety in coming and going and Cranmer Paget and Smith wrote to them to dispose them to end the matter peaceably and not follow cruel Councils nor to be misled by them who meant otherwise than they professed of which they knew more than they would then mention This seemed to point at the Earl of Southampton On the 9th of October the Council at London encreased by the accession of the Lord Russel the Lord Wentworth Sir Anthony Brown Sir Ant. Wingfield and Sir John Baker the Speaker of the House of Commons For now those who had stood off a while seeing the Protector was resolved to yield came and united themselves with the prevailing Party so that they were in all two and twenty They were informed that the Protector had said that if they intended to put him to death the King should die first and if they would famish him they should famish the King first and that he had armed his own Men and set them next to the Kings Person and was designing to carry him out of Windsor and as some reported out of the Kingdom upon which they concluded that he was no more fit to be Protector But of those words no proofs being mentioned in the Council-Books they look like the forgeries of his Enemies to make him odious to the People The Council ordered a Proclamation of their Proceedings to be printed and writ to the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth acquainting them with what they had done They also wrote to the King as will be found in the Collection acknowledging the many bonds that lay on them in gratitude both for his Fathers goodness to them and his own to take care of him Collection Number 4â— They desired he would consider they were his whole Council except one or two and were those whom his Father had trusted with the Government that the Protector was not raised to that Power by his Fathers Will but by their choice with that condition that he should do all things by their advice which he had not observed so that they now judged him most unworthy of these Honours therefore they earnestly desired they might be admitted to the Kings Presence to do their duties about him and that the Forces gathered about his Person might be sent away and the Duke of Somerset might submit himself to the Order of Council They also wrote to the Arch-bishop and Sir William Paget which is in the Collection charging them as they would answer it Collection Number 43. that the Kings Person might be well looked to that he should not be removed from Windsor and that he should be no longer guarded by the Duke of Somersets Men as they said he had been of which they complained severely but by his own sworn Servants and they required them to concur in advancing the desire they had signified by their Letter to the King protesting that they would do with the Duke of Somerset as they would desire to be done by and with as much moderation and favour as in honour they could so that there was no reason to apprehend from them such cruelty as they had mentioned in their Letters These were sent by Sir Philip Hobbey who was returned from Flanders and had been sent by the King to London on the day before Upon this Cranmer and Paget as is entred in the Council-Book perswaded both the King and the Protector to grant their desire The Protectors Servants were dismissed and the Kings were set about his Person And Cranmer Paget and Smith wrote to the Council at London that all they had proposed should be granted They desired to know whether the King should be brought to London or stay at Windsor and that three of the Lords might be sent thither who should see all things done according to their
business which himself had so violently and servilely promoted The falsehood of that pretence of corrupting Vniversities has been shewn in the former Volumn but it was all they had now to say The laying it all upon Cranmer was as high a pitch of malice and impudence as could be devised for as Gardiner had been setting it on long before Cranmer was known to King Henry so he had been joyned with him in the Commission and had given his assent to the Sentence which Cranmer gave Nor was the Divorce grounded meerly upon Cranmers understanding of the Scriptures but upon the fullest and most studied Arguments that had perhaps been in any Age brought together in one particular case and both Houses of Convocation had condemned the Mariage before his sentence But because in the right of his See he was Legate to the Pope therefore to make the Sentence stronger it went only in his name though he had but a small share in it compared to what Gardiner had By this Act there was also a second Illegittimation brought on the Lady Elizabeth The Queens carries severely to the Lady Elizabeth to whom hitherto the Queen had been very kind using her on all occasions with the tenderness of a Sister but from this time forwards she handled her more severely It was perhaps occasioned by this Act since before they stood both equally illegittimated but now the Act that legitimated the Queen making her most certainly a Bastard in Law the Queen might think it now too much to use her as she had done formerly Others suggest a more secret reason of this distast The new Earl of Devonshire was much in the Queens favour so that it was thought she had some inclinations to marry him but he either not presuming so high or really having an aversion to her and an inclination to her Sister who of that moderate share of beauty that was between them had much the better of her and was nineteen years younger made his Addresses with more than ordinary concern to the Lady Elizabeth and this did bring them both in trouble as shall be afterwards shewn The next Bill that was sent from the Lords to the Commons The Laws made by King Edward repealed was for the repealing King Edward's Laws about Religion It was sent down on the 31st of October and argued six days in the House of Commons but in the end it was carried and sent back to the Lords The Preamble of it sets forth the great disorders that had fallen out in the Nation by the changes that had been made in Religion from that which their Fore-fathers had left them by the Authority of the Catholick Church thereupon all the Laws that had been made in King Edwards time about Religion were now repealed and it was Enacted that from the 20th of December next there should be no other Form of Divine Service but what had been used in the last year King of Henry the 8th leaving it free to all till that day to use either the Books appointed by King Edward or the old ones at their pleasure Another Act was passed which the Commons sent up to the Lords An Act against the affronting Priests against all those who by any overt Act should molest or disquiet any Preacher because of his Office or for any Sermon that he might have Preached or should any way disturb them when they were in any part of the Divine Offices that either had been in the last year of King Henry or should be afterwards set forth by the Queen or should break or abuse the holy Sacrament or break Altars Crucifixes or Crosses those that did any of these things should be presented to the Justices of Peace and be by them put in Prison where they should lye three Months or till they were penitent for their Offences and if any rescued them they should be liable to the same punishment But to this a Proviso was added by the Lords that this Act should no way derogate from the Authority of the Ecclesiastiâ—â—l Laws and Courts who might likewise proceed upon such Offences and a Certificate from the Ordinaries that such Offenders were punished by them being brought to the Justices of Peace they were to proceed no further or if the Justices made a Certificate that they had punished them according to Law the Ordinary might not punish them a second time But the Commons were now so heated that they sent up another Bill to the Lords against those who came not to Church nor to Sacraments after the old Service should be again set up the inflicting of the Punishments in these cases being left to the Ecclesiastical Courts This fell in the House of Lords not so much from any opposition that was made as that they were afraid of allarming the Nation too much by many severe Laws at once An Act against unlawful Assemblies Another Law was made for securing the publick Peace against unlawful and rebellious Assemblies that if any to the number of twelve or above should meet to alter any thing of Religion established by Law and being required by any having the Queens Authority to disperse themselves should continue after that an hour together it should be Felony or if that number met to break Hedges or Parks to destroy Deer or Fish c. and did not disperse upon Proclamation it should be Felony or if any by ringing of Bells Drums or firing of Beacons gathered the People together and did the things before mentioned it was Felony if the Wives or Servants of Persons so gathered caried Meat Money or Weapons to them it should be Felony and if any above the number of two and within twelve should meet for these ends they should suffer a years imprisonment empowering the Sheriffs or Justices to gather the Country for the resistance of Persons so offending with Penalties on all between eighteen and sixty that being required to come out against them should refuse to do it When this Act was known the People then saw clearly how they had been deceived by the former Act that seemed so favourable repealing all Acts of new Treasons and Felonies since there was so soon after it an Act passed that renewed one of the severest Laws of the last Reign in which so many things that might flow from sudden heats were made Felonies and a great many new and severe Proviso's were added to it The Queens discharge of the Subsidy was confirmed by another Act. The Marquess of Northampton's 2d Marriage is annulled There followed two private Acts which occasioned more Debate than the publick ones had done The one was the repeal of the Act that had confirmed the Marquess of Northamptons Marriage It was much argued in the House of Commons and on the 28th of November it was agreed to It contains that the Act of confirming the Divorce and the second Marriage was procured more upon untrue surmises and private respects than for any publick good and increase
ad tuam sive alicujus Comissariorum per te vigore hujus Commissionis jure deputandorum cognitione devolvi aut deduci valeant possunt examinand decidend Caeteraque omnia singula in Praemissis seu circa ea necessaria seu quomodolibet opportuna per ultra ea quae tibi ex sacris Literis divinitus Commissa esse dignoscuntur vice nomine Autoritate nostris exequend Tibi de cujus sana Doctrina Conscientiae puritate vitaeque morum integritate ac in rebus gerundis fide industria plurimum confidimus vices nostras cum potestate alium vel alios Commissarium vel Commissarios ad praemissa vel eorum aliqua surrogand substituend eosdemque ad placitum revocand tenore praesentium Committimus ac liberam facultatem concedimus teque licentiamus per praesentes ac nostrum beneplacitum duntaxat duraturatum cum cujuslibet congrue Ecclesiast coercionis potestate quacunque inhibitione ante dat praesentium emanata in aliquo non obstante tuam Conscientiam coram Deo strictissime onerantes ut summo omnium judici aliquando rationem reddere coram nobis tuo sub periculo corporali respondere intendis te admonentes ut interim tuum officium juxta Evangelii normam pie sancte exercere studeas ne quem ullo tempore unquam ad sacros Ordines promoveas vel ad curam animarum gerendam quovismodo admittas nisi eos duntaxat quos tanti tam venerabilis officii functionem vitae morum Integritas notissimis testimoniis approbata literarum scientia aliae qualitates requisitae ad hoc habiles idoneos clare luculenter ostenderint declaraverint Nam ut maxime compertum cognitumque habemus morum omnium maxime Christianae Religionis corruptelam a malis pastoribus in populum emanasse sic veram Christi Religionem vitaeque morum emendationem a bonis pastoribus iterum delectis assumptis in integrum restitutum iri haud dubie speramus In cujus rei testimonium praesentes Literas nostras inde fieri sigilli nostri quo ad causas Ecclesiasticas utimur appensione jussimus communiri Datum septimo die mensis Februarii Anno Dom. millesimo quingentesimo quadragesimo sexto Regni nostri Anno primo Number 3. The Councils Letter to the Justices of Peace An Original Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. AFter our right hearty Commendations where the most Noble King of famous memory our late Soveraign Lord and Master King Henry the 8th whom God pardon upon the great Trust which his Majesty had in your virtous Wisdoms and good Dispositions to the Common-Wealth of this Realm did specially name and appoint you among others by his Commissions under his Great Seal of England to be Conservatours and Justices of his Peace within that his County of Norfolk Forasmuch as the same Commissions were dissolved by his decease it hath pleased the King's Majesty our Soveraign Lord that now is by the Advice and Consent of us the Lord Protector and others Executors to our said late Soveraign Lord whose Names be under-written to whom with others the Government of his most Royal Person and the Order of his Affairs is by his last Will and Testament committed till he shall be of full Age of eighteen Years to cause new Commissions again to be made for the conservation of his Peace throughout this Realm whereof you shall by this Bearer receive one for that County And for that the good and diligent execution of the Charge committed to you and others by the same shall be a notable Surety to the King our Soveraign Lord's Person that now is to whom God give increase of Vertue Honour and many Years a most certain Stay to the Common-Wealth which must needs prosper where Justice hath place and reigneth We shall desire you and in his Majesty's Name charge and command you upon the receit hereof with all diligence to assemble your selves together and calling unto you all such others as be named in the said Commission You shall first cry and call to God to give you Grace to execute this Charge committed unto you with all truth and uprightness according to your Oaths which you shall endeavour your selves to do in all things appertaining to your Office accordingly in such sort as all private Malice Sloth Negligence Displeasure Disdain Corruption and sinister Affections set apart it may appear you have God and the preservation of your Soveraign Lord and natural Country before your Eyes and that you forget not that by the same your Selves your Wives and your Children shall surely prosper and be also preserved For the better doing whereof you shall at this your first Assembly make a division of your selves into Hundreds or Wapentakes that is to say Two at the least to have especial eye and regard to the good Rule and Order of that or those Hundreds to see the Peace duly kept to see Vagabonds and Perturbers of the Peace punished and that every Man apply himself to do as his Calling doth require and in all things to keep good Order without alteration innovation or contempt of any thing that by the Laws of our late Soveraign Lord is prescribed and set forth unto us for the better direction and framing of our selves towards God and honest Policy And if any Person or Persons whom ye shall think you cannot Rule and Order without trouble to this Country shall presume to do the contrary upon your Information to us thereof we shall so aid and assist you in the execution of Justice and the punishment of all such contemptuous Offenders as the same shall be example to others And further his Majesty's Pleasure by the Advice and Consent aforesaid is That you shall take such Orders amongst you as you fail not once every six weeks till you shall be otherwise commanded to write unto the said Lord Protector and others of the Privy-Council in what state that Shire standeth and whether any notable things have happened or were like to happen in those Parts that you cannot redress which would be speedily met withal and looked unto or whether you shall need any advice or counsel to the intent we may put our hands to the stay and reformation of it in the beginning as appertains Praying you also to take order That every Commissioner in the Shire may have a Double or a Copy of this Letter both for his own better Instruction and to shew to the Gentlemen and such others as inhabit in the Hundreds specially appointed to them that every Man may the better conform himself to do Truth and help to the advancement of Justice according to their most bounden Duties and as they will answer for the contrary Thus fare you well From the Tower of London the 12th of February Your loving Friends E. Hertford T. Cantuarien Thomas Wriothelsey Cancel W. St. John J. Russell Anthony Brown Anthony Denny Cuth Duresme William Paget W.
said Alms whereby they may buy some kind of Stuff by the working sale and gains whereof they may repay the Sum borrowed and also well relieve themselves or else the said Church-Wardens to buy the Stuff themselves and pay the Poor for their working thereof and after sale of the same to return the Sum with the Gain to the said Chest there to remain to such-like use Item Forasmuch as heretofore you have not by any means diligence or study advanced your selves unto knowledg in God's Word and his Scriptures condignly as appertaineth to Priests and Dispensators of God's Testament to the intent you may hereafter be of better ability to discharge your selves towards God and your Offices to the World you shall daily for your own study and knowledg read over diligently and weigh with judgment two Chapters of the New Testament and one of the Old in English and the same shall put in ure and practice as well in living as preaching at times convenient when occasion is given Item Forasmuch as Drunkenness Idleness Brawls Dissention and many other Inconveniences do chance between Neighbour and Neighbour by the assembly of People together at Wakes and on the Plough Mundays it is therefore ordered and enjoined That hereafter the People shall use make or observe no more such Wakes Plough Mundays or drawing of the same with any such Assembly or Rout of People or otherwise as hath been accustomed upon pain of forfeiting to the King's Highness 40 s. for every Default to be paid by the Owner of the Plough and Housholder whereunto the said Plough is drawn or Wakes are kept The Names of the Visitors Sir John Markham John Hearn Thomas Gragrave Roger Tongue William Moreton Edmund Farley Number 22. A Proclamation against those that do innovate alter or leave down any Rite or Ceremony in the Church of their private Authority and against them which Preach without License Set forth the 6th day of February in the Second Year of the King's Majesty's most gracious Reign Ex Reg. Cranmer Fol. 111. THe King's Majesty by the advice of his most entirely beloved Vncle the Duke of Somerset Governor of his most Royal Person and Protector of all his Realms Dominions and Subjects and others of his Counsel Considering nothing so much to tend to the disquieting of this Realm as diversity of Opinions and variety of Rites and Ceremonies concerning Religion and worshipping of Almighty God and therefore studying all the ways and means which can be to direct this Church and the Cure committed to his Highness in one and most true Doctrine Rite and Vsage yet is advertised That certain private Curats Preachers and other Lay-men contrary to their bounden Duties of Obedience do rashly attempt of their own and singular Wit and Mind in some Parish-Churches and otherwise not only to perswade the People from the old and accustomed Rites and Ceremonies but also themselves bringeth in new Orders every one in their Church according to their Phantasies the which as it is an evident token of Pride and Arrogance so it tendeth both to Confusion and Disorder and also to the high displeasure of Almighty God who loveth nothing so much as Order and Obedience Wherefore his Majesty straitly chargeth and commandeth That no manner of Person of what Estate Order or Degree soever he be of his private Mind Will or Phantasie do omit leave done change alter or innovate any Order Rite or Ceremony commonly used and frequented in the Church of England and not commanded to be left undone at any time in the Reign of Our late Soveraign Lord his Highness Father other than such as his Highness by the Advice aforesaid by his Majesty's Visitors Injunctions Statutes or Proclamations hath already or hereafter shall command to be omitted left innovated or changed but that they be observed after that sort as before they were accustomed or else now sith prescribed by the Authority of his Majesty or by the means aforesaid upon pain That whosoever shall offend contrary to this Proclamation shall injure his Highness Indignation and suffer Imprisonment and other gxievous Punishments at his Majesty's Will and Pleasure Provided always that for not bearing a Candle upon Candlemass-day not taking Ashes upon Ash-wednesday not bearing Palm upon Palm-Sunday not creeping to the Cross not taking Holy Bread or Holy Water or for omitting other such Rites and Ceremonies concerning Religion and the Vse of the Church which the most Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by his Majesty's Will and Commandment with the Advice aforesaid hath declared or hereafter shall declare to the other Bishops by his Writing under Seal as heretofore hath been accustomed to be omitted or changed no Man hereafter be imprisoned nor otherwise punished but all such things to be reputed for the observation and following of the same as though they were commanded by his Majesty's Injunctions And to the intent that rash and seditious Preachers should not abuse his Highness People it is his Majesty's Pleasure That whosoever shall take upon him to Preach openly in any Parish-Church Chappel or any other open place other than those which he licensed by the King's Majesty or his Highness Visitors the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury or the Bishops of the Diocess where he doth preach except it be Bishop Parson Vicar Dean Warden or Provost in his or their own Cure shall be forthwith upon such attempt and preaching contrary to this Proclamation be committed to Prison and there remain until such time as his Majesty by the advice aforesaid hath taken order for the further punishment of the same and that the Premises should be more speedily and diligently done and performed his Highness giveth straitly in Commandment to all Iustices of Peace Mayors Sheriffs Constables Headborroughs Church-wardens and all other his Majesty's Officers and Ministers and Rulers of Towns Parishes and Hamlets that they be diligent and attendent to the true and faithful execution of this Proclamation and every part thereof according to the intent purport and effect of the same And that they of their proceedings herein or if any Offender be after they have committed the same to Prison do certifie his Highness the Lord Protector or his Majesty's Council with all speed thereof accordingly as they tender his Majesty's Pleasure the Wealth of the Realm and will answer to the contrary at their uttermost perils God save the King Number 23. An Order of Council for the Removing of Images AFter our right hearty Commendations to your good Lordship Regist Cranmer Fol. 32. where now of late in the King's Majesty's Visitation among other Godly Injunctions commanded to be generally observed throughout all Parts of this his Highness Realm one was set forth for the taking down all such Images as had at any time been abused with Pilgrimages Offerings or Censings Albeit that this said Injunction hath in many parts of the Realm been well and quietly obeyed and executed yet in many other places much strife and
Duke refuse to agree hereunto we must think him to remain in his naughty and detestable determination The Protectorship and Governance of your most Royal Person was not granted him by your Father's Will but only by agreement first amongst us the Executors and after of others Those Titles and special Trust was committed to him during Your Majesty's Pleasure and upon condition he should do all things by advice of Your Council Which condition because he hath so many times broken and notwithstanding the often speaking to without all hope of amendment we think him most unworthy those Honours or Trust Other particular things too many and too long to be written to Your Majesty at this time may at our next access to Your Royal Presence be more particularly opened consulted upon and moderated for the conservation of Your Majesty's Honour Surety and good Quiet of Your Realms and Dominions as may be thought most expedient Number 44. Letters from the Lords at London to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Sir William Paget c. MY Lords after our most hearty Commendations Ex Libro Concilii we have received your Letters by Mr. Hobbey and heard such Credence as he declared on the King's Majesty's and your behalfs unto us The Answers whereunto because they may at more length appear to you both by our Letters to the King's Majesty and by report also of the said Mr. Hobbey we forbear to repeat here again most heartily praying and requiring your Lordships and every of you and nevertheless charging and commanding you in the King's Majesty's Name to have a continual earnest watch respect and care to the surety of the King's Majesty our natural and most gracious Soveraign Lord's Person and that he be not removed from his Majesty's Castle of Windsor as you tender your Duties to Almighty God and his Majesty and as you will answer for the contrary at your uttermost perils We are moved to call earnestly upon you herein not without great cause and amongst many others we cannot but remember unto you That it appeareth very strange unto us and a great wonder unto all true Subjects that you will either assist or suffer his Majesty's most Royal Person to remain in the Guard of the Duke of Somerset's Men sequestred from his own old sworn Servants It seemeth strange that in his Majesty's own House Strangers should be armed with his Majesty's own Armour and be nearest about his Highness Person and those to whom the ordinary Charge is committed sequestred away so as they may not attend according to their sworn Duties If any ill come hereof you can consider to whom it must be imputed once the Example is very strange and perilous And now my Lords if you tender the preservation of his Majesty and the State join with us to that end we have written to the King's Majesty by which way things may soon be quietly and moderately compounded In the doing whereof we mind to do none otherwise than we would be done to and that with as much moderation and favour as honourably we may We trust none of you have just cause to note any one of us and much less all of such cruelty as you so many times make mention of One thing in your Letters we marvel much at which is that you write that you know more than we know If the Matters come to your knowledg and hidden from us be of such weight as you seem to pretend or if they touch or may touch his Majesty or the State we think you do not as you ought in that you have not disclosed the same unto us being the whole State of the Council And thus praying God to send you the Grace to do that may tend to the surety of the King's Majesty's Person and tranquility of the Realm we bid you heartily farewel c. Number 45. An Answer to the former Letter An Original Ex Libro Concilii IT may like your good Lordships with our most hearty Commendations to understand That this morning Sir Philip Hobbey hath according to the Charge given him by your Lordships presented your Letters to the King's Majesty in the presence of us and all the rest of his Majesty's good Servants here which was there read openly and also the others to them of the Chamber and of the Houshold much to their Comforts and ours also and according to the Tenours of the same we will not fail to endeavour our selves accordingly Now touching the marvel of your Lordships both of that we would suffer the Duke of Somerset's Men to guard the King's Majesty's Person and also of our often repeating this word Cruelty although we doubt not but that your Lordships have been throughly informed of our Estates here and upon what occasion the one hath been suffered and the other proceeded yet at our convening together which may be when and where pleaseth you we will and are able to make your Lordships such an account as wherewith we doubt not you will be satisfied if you think good to require it of us And for because this Bearer Master Hobbey can particularly inform your Lordships of the whole discourse of all things here we remit the report of all other things to him saving that we desire to be advertised with as much speed as you shall think good whether the King's Majesty shall come forthwith thither or remain still here and that some of your Lordships would take pains to come hither forthwith For the which purpose I the Comptroller will cause three of the best Chambers in the great Court to be hanged and made ready Thus thanking God that all things be so well acquieted we commit your Lordships to his tuition From Windsor the 10th of Octob. 1549. Your Lordships assured loving Friends T. Cant. William Paget T. Smith Number 46. Articles objected to the Duke of Somerset 1. THat he took upon him the Office of Protector upon express condition That he should do nothing in the King's Affairs but by assent of the late King's Executors or the greatest part of them 2. That contrary to this condition he did hinder Justice and subvert Laws of his own Authority as well by Letters as by other Command 3. That he caused divers Persons Arrested and Imprisoned for Treason Murder Man-slaughter and Felony to be discharged against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm 4. That he appointed Lieutenants for Armies and other Officers for the weighty Affairs of the King under his own Writing and Seal 5. That he communed with Ambassadors of other Realms alone of the weighty Matters of the Realm 6. That he would taunt and reprove divers of the King 's most honourable Councellors for declaring their Advice in the King 's weighty Affairs against his Opinion sometimes telling them that they were not worthy to sit in Council and sometimes that he â—eed not to open weighty Matters to them and that if they were not agreeable to his Opinion he would discharge them 7.
now be and remain to us in our Actual and Royal Possession by Authority of the said Letters Patents We do therefore by these Presents signify unto all our most loving faithful and obedient Subjects That like-as we for our part shall by God's Grace shew our Self a most gracious and benign Soveraign Queen and Lady to all our good Subjects in all their just and lawful Suits and Causes and to the uttermost of our Power shall preserve and maintain God's most Holy Word Christian Policy and the good Laws Customs and Liberties of these our Realms and Dominions so we mistrust not but they and every of them will again for their parts at all Times and in all Cases shew themselves unto Us their natural Liege Queen and Lady most faithful loving and obedient Subjects according to their bounden Duties and Allegiance whereby they shall please God and do the things that shall tend to their own preservation and sureties willing and commanding all Men of all Estates Degrees and Conditions to see our Peace and accord kept and to be obedient to our Laws as they tender our Favour and will answer for the contrary at their extream Perils In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patents Witness our Self at our Tower of London the tenth day of July in the first Year of our Reign God save the Queen Number 2. A Letter sent by Queen Katherine to the Lady Mary her Daughter Ex MS. Norfolcianis in Col. Cresham DAughter I heard such tidings this day that I do perceive if it be true the time is near that Almighty God will provide for you and I am very glad of it for I trust that he doth handle you with a good Love I beseech you agree to his Pleasure with a merry Heart and be you sure that without fail he will not suffer you to perish if you beware to offend him I pray God you good Daughter to offer your self to him if any pangs come to you shrive your self first make your self clean take heed of his Commandments and keep them as near as he will give you Grace to do for then are you sure armed And if this Lady do come to you as it is spoken if she do bring you a Letter from the King I am sure in the self-same Letter you shall be commanded what you shall do Answer you with few words obeying the King your Father in every thing save only that you will not offend God and lose your Soul and go no further with Learning and Disputation in the Matter and wheresoever and in whatsoever Company you shall come obey the King's Commandments speak few words and meddle nothing I will send you two Books in Latin one shall be de Vita Christi with the Declaration of the Gospels and the other the Epistles of St. Hierome that he did write always to Paula and Eustochium and in them trust you shall see good things And sometimes for your Recreation use your Virginals or Lute if you have any But one thing specially I desire you for the love that you owe unto God and unto me to keep your Heart with a chaste Mind and your Body from all ill and wanton Company not thinking nor desiring any Husband for Christ's Passion neither determine your self to any manner of living until this troublesome time be past for I dare make you sure that you shall see a very good end and better than you can desire I would God good Daughter that you did know with how good a Heart I do write this Letter unto you I never did one with a better for I perceive very well that God loveth you I beseech him of his goodness to continue it And if it shall fortune that you shall have no Body to be with you of your Acquaintance I think it best you keep your Keys your self for whosoever it is so shall be done as shall please them And now you shall begin and by likelihood I shall follow I set not a rush by it for when they have done the uttermost they can then I am sure of the amendment I pray you recommend me unto my good Lady of Salisbury and pray her to have a good Heart for we never come to the Kingdom of Heaven but by Troubles Daughter wheresoever you become take no pain to send to me for if I may I will send to you By your loving Mother Katherine the Queen Number 3. A humble Submission made by Queen Mary to her Father Anno 1536. An Original MOst humbly prostrate before the Feet of your most excellent Majesty your most humble faithful and obedient Subject Cotton Libr. Otho C. 20. which hath so extreamly offended your most gracious Highness that mine heavy and fearful Heart dare not presume to call you Father nor your Majesty hath any cause by my deserts saving the benignity of your most blessed Nature doth surmount all Evils Offences and Trespasses and is ever merciful and ready to accept the Penitent calling for Grace in any convenient time Having received this Thursday at Night certain Letters from Mr. Secretary as well advising me to make my humble submission immediately to your Self which because I durst not without your gracious License presume to do before I lately sent unto him as signifying that your most merciful Heart and fatherly Pity had granted me your Blessing with condition that I should persevere in that I had commenced and begun and that I should not eft-soons offend your Majesty by the denial or refusal of any such Articles and Commandments as it may please your Highness to address unto me for the perfect trial of my Heart and inward Affection For the perfect declaration of the bottom of my Heart and Stomach First I acknowledg my self to have most unkindly and unnaturally offended your most excellent Highness in that I have not submitted my self to your most just and vertuous Laws And for mine Offences therein which I must confess were in me a thousand fold more grievous than they could be in any other living Creature I put my self wholly and entirely to your gracious Mercy at whose hand I cannot receive that punishment for the same that I have deserved Secondly To open mine Heart to your Grace in these things which I have heretofore refused to condescend unto and have now written with mine own hand sending the same to your Highness herewith I shall never beseech your Grace to have pity and compassion of me if ever you shall perceive that I shall privily or apertly vary or alter from one piece of that I have written and subscribed or refuse to confirm ratify or declare the same where your Majesty shall appoint me Thirdly As I have and shall knowing your excellent Learning Vertue Wisdom and Knowledg put my Soul into your direction and by the same hath and will in all things from henceforth direct my Conscience so my Body I do wholly commit to your Mercy and fatherly Pity
desiring no State no Condition nor no meaner degree of living but such as your Grace shall appoint me knowledging and confessing That my State cannot be so vile as either the extremity of Justice would appoint unto me or as mine Offences have required or deserved And whatsoever your Grace shall command me to do touching any of these Points either for things past present or to come I shall as gladly do the same as your Majesty shall command me Most humbly therefore beseeching your Mercy most gracious Soveraign Lord and Benign Father to have pity and compassion of your miserable and sorrowful Child and with the abundance of your inestimable Goodness so to overcome mine Iniquity towards God Your Grace and Your whole Realm as I may feel some sensible Token of Reconciliation which God is my Judg I only desire without other respect To whom I shall daily pray for the preservation of Your Highness with the Queens Grace and that it may please him to send You Issue From Hunsdon this Thursday at eleven of the Clock at Night Your Graces most humble and obedient Daughter and Handmaid MARY Number 4. Another of the same strain confirming the former An Original MOst humbly obediently and gladly Cotton Libr. Otho C. 20. lying at the Feet of Your most Excellent Majesty my most dear and benign Father and Soveraign Lord I have this day perceived Your gracious Clemency and merciful Pity to have overcome my most unkind and unnatural Proceedings towards You and Your most Just and Vertuous Laws The great and inestimable Joy whereof I cannot express nor have any thing worthy to be again presented to Your Majesty for the same Your fatherly Pity extended towards me most ingrately on my part abandoned as much as in me lie but my poor Heart which I send unto Your Highness to remain in Your Hand to be for ever used directed and framed whiles God shall suffer life to remain in it at Your only pleasure most humbly beseeching Your Grace to accept and receive the same being all that I have to offer which shall never alter vary or change from that Confession and Submission which I have made unto Your Highness in the presence of Your Council and other attending upon the same for whose preservation with my most gracious Mother the Queen I shall daily pray to God whom eft-soons I beseech to send You Issue to his Honour and the Comfort of Your whole Realm From Hounsdon the 26th day of June Your Grace's most humble and obedient Daughter and Handmaid MARY Number 5. Another Letter written to her Father to the same purpose An Original Cotton Libr. Otho C. 20. MY bounden Duty most humbly remembred to Your most Excellent Majesty Whereas I am unable and insufficient to render and express to Your Highness those most hearty and humble thanks for Your gracious Mercy and fatherly Pity surmounting mine Offences at this time extended towards me I shall prostrate at Your most noble Feet humbly and with the very bottom of my Stomach beseech your Grace to repute that in me which in my poor Heart remaining in Your most noble Hand I have conceived and professed towards Your Grace whiles the Breath shall remain in my Body that is that as I am now in such merciful sort recovered being more than almost lost with mine own Folly that Your Majesty may as well accept me justly Your bounden Slave by Redemption as Your most humble faithful and obedient Child and Subject by the course of Nature planted in this Your most noble Realm so shall I for ever persevere and continue towards Your Highness in such uniformity and due obedience as I doubt not but with the help of God Your Grace shall see and perceive a will and intent in me to redouble again that hath been amiss on my behalf conformably to such Words and Writings as I have spoken and sent unto Your Highness from the which I will never vary during my Life trusting that Your Grace hath conceived that Opinion of me which to remember is mine only comfort And thus I beseech our Lord to preserve Your Grace in Health with my very natural Mother the Queen and to send you shortly Issue which I shall as gladly and willingly serve with my Hands under their Feet as ever did poor Subject their most Gracious Soveraign From Hunsdon the 8th day of July Your Grace's most humble and obedient Daughter and Handmaid MARY Number 6. A Letter written by her to Cromwell containing a full Submission to the King's Pleasure in all the Points of Religion An Original GOod Mr. Secretary how much am I bound unto you Cotton Libr. Otho C. 10. which have not only travelled when I was almost drowned in folly to recover me before I sunk and was utterly past recovery and so to present me to the face of Grace and Mercy but also desisteth not sithence with your good and wholesome Counsels so to arm me from any relapse that I cannot unless I were too wilful and obstinate whereof now there is no spark in me fall again into any danger But leaving the recital of your Goodness apart which I cannot recount For answer to the Particularities of your Credence sent by my Friend Mr. Wriothsley First Concerning the Princess so I think I must call her yet for I would be loth to offend I offered at her entry to that Name and Honour to call her Sister but it was refused unless I would also add the other Title unto it which I denied not then more obstinately than I am now sorry for it for that I did therein offend my most gracious Father and his just Laws And now that you think it meet I shall never call her by other Name than Sister Touching the nomination of such Women as I would have about me surely Mr. Secretary what Men or Women soever the King's Highness shall appoint to wait on me without exception shall be to me right-heartily and without respect welcome albeit to express my mind to you whom I think worthy to be accepted for their faithful Service done to the King's Majesty and to me sithence they came into my Company I promise you on my Faith Margaret Baynton and Susanna Clarencieux have in every condition used themselves as faithfully painfully and diligently as ever did Women in such a case as sorry when I was not so conformable as became me as glad when I enclined any thing to my Duty as could be devised One other there is that was sometime my Maid whom for her Vertue I love and could be glad to have in my Company that is Mary Brown and here be all that I will recommend and yet my estimation of this shall be measured at the King's Highness my most merciful Father's pleasure and appointment as Reason is For mine Opinion touching Pilgrimages Purgatory Reliques and such-like I assure you I have none at all but such as I shall receive from him that hath mine whole Heart