Virgil and delighted much in those Returns which hungry Scholars use to make to liberal Princes for he loved Flattery out of measure His Learning and Vanity and particularly to be extolled for his Learning and great Understanding and he had enough of it to have surfeited a Man of any Modesty for all the World both at home and abroad contended who should exceed most indecently in setting out his Praises The Clergy carried it for as he had merited most at their hands both by his espousing the Interests of the Papacy and by his entering the Lists with Luther so those that hoped to be advanced by those Arts were as little ashamed in magnifying him out of measure as he was in receiving their gross Commendations The manner of promotion to Bishopricks and Abbies was then the same The manner of the promotion of Bishops that had taken place ever since the Investitures by the Ring and Staff were taken out of the hands of Princes Upon a Vacancy the King seized on all the Temporalities and granted a Licence for an Election with a special Recommendation of the Person which being returned the Royal Assent was given and it was sent to Rome that Bulls might be expeded and then the Bishop Elect was consecrated after that he came to the King and renounced every Clause in his Bulls that was contrary to the King's Prerogative or to the Law and swore Fealty and then were the Temporalities restored Nor could Bulls be sued out at Rome without a Licence under the Great Seal so that the Kings of Engl. had reserved the power to themselves of promoting to Ecclesiastical Benefices notwithstanding all the Invasions the Popes had made on the Temporal power of Princes A Contest concerning the Ecclesiastical Immunity The Immunity of Church-men for crimes committed by them till they were first degraded by the Spirituality occasioned the only Contest that was in the beginning of this Reign between the Secular and Ecclesiastical Courts King Henry the Seventh past a Law that Clerks convict should be burnt in the hand A temporary Law was also made in the beginning of this Reign That Murderers and Robbers not being Bishops Priests nor Deacons should be denied the benefit of Clergy but this was to last only till the next Parliament and so being not continued by it the Act determined The Abbot of Winchelcomb preached severely against it as being contrary to the Laws of God and the Liberties of the Holy Church and said that all who assented to it had faln under the Censures of the Church And afterwards he published a Book to prove that all Clerks even of the lower Orders were Sacred and could not be judged by the Temporal Courts This being done in Parliament-time the Temporal Lords with the Commons addressed to the King desiring him to repress the Insolence of the Clergy So a publick Hearing was appointed before the King and all the Judges Dr. Standish a Franciscan argued against the Immunity and proved that the judging Clerks had been in all times practised in England and that it was necessary for the peace and safety of Mankind that all Criminals should be punished The Abbot argued on the other side and said it was contrary to a Decree of the Church and was a Sin in it self Standish answered That all Decrees were not observed for notwithstanding the Decrees for Residence Bishops did not reside at their Cathedrals And since no Decree did bind till it was received this concerning Immunity which was never received in England did not bind After they had fully argued the matter the Laity were all of opinion that the Fryar was too hard for the Abbot and so moved the King that the Bishops might be ordered to make him preach a Recantation Sermon But they refused to do it and said they were bound by their Oaths to maintain his Opinion Standish was upon this much hated by the Clergy but the matter was let fall yet the Clergy carried the point for the Law was not continued Not long after this an Accident fell out that drew great Consequences after it One Richard Hun a Merchant in London was sued by his Parish-Priest for a Mortuary in the Legates Court so he was advised to sue the Priest in the temporal Court for a Premunire for bringing the King's Subjects before a forraign and illegal Court This incensed the Clergy so much that they contrived his Destruction So hearing that he had Wickclif's Bible he was upon that put in the Bishop's Prison for Heresy Hunn imprisoned for Heresy but being examined upon sundry Articles he confessed some things and submitted himself to Mercy upon which they ought according to Law to have injoyned him Penance and discharged him this being his first Crime but he could not be prevailed on by the terror of this to let his Suit fall in the Temporal Court Murdered so one Night his Neck was broken with an Iron Chain and he was wounded in other Parts of his Body and then knit up in his own Girdle and it was given out that he had hanged himself but the Coroners Inquest by examining the Body and by several other Evidences and particularly by the confession of the Sumner gave their Verdict that he was murdered by the Bishop's Chancellor Dr. Horsey and the Sumner and the Bel-ringer The Spiritual Court proceeded against the dead Body and charged Hun with all the Heresy in Wickliff's Preface to the Bible And condemned his Body burnt because that was found in his Possession so he was condemned as an Heretick and upon that his Body was burnt The Bishops of Duresm and Lincoln and many Doctors sitting with the Bishop of London when he gave Judgment so that it was looked upon as an Act of the whole Clergy but this produced very ill Effects for the Clergy lost the Affections of the City to such a degree that they could never recover them nor did any one thing dispose them more than this did to the entertaining the new Preachers and to every thing that tended to the reproach of the Church-men whom they esteemed no more their Pastors but accounted them barbarous Murderers The Rage went so high that the Bishop of London complained that he was not safe in his own House and there were many hearings before the Council for the Cardinal did all he could to stop the progress of the Matter but in vain for the Bishop's Chancellor and the Sumner were indicted as Principals in the Murder In Parliament an Act passed restoring Hun's Children but the Commons sent up a Bill concerning his Murder yet that was laid aside by the Lords where the Clergy were the Majority The Clergy look'd on the Opposition that Standish had made in the point of their Further Disputes about Immunity Immunities as that which gave the rise to Hun's first Suit so the Convocation cited him to answer for his Carriage in that Matter but he claimed the King's Protection since
to be favourable to the work he came for the Queen sent two Lords Paget and Hastings for him Both King and Queen rode in state to Westminster and each had a Sword of state carried before them The first Bill that past was a Repeal of Pool's Attainder it was read by the Commons three times in one Day and the Bill was passed without making a Session by a short Prorogation He came over and entred privately to London on the 24th of November for the Pope's authority not being yet acknowledged he could not be received as a Legate His Instructions were full besides the authority commonly lodged with Legates which consists chiefly in the many Graces and Dispensations that they are impowered to grant though it might be expected that they should come rather to see the Canons obeyed than broken only the more scandalous abuses were still reserved to the Popes themselves whose special Prerogative it has always been to be the most Eminent Transgressors of all Canons and Constitutions Pool made his first Speech to the King and Queen The Nation is reconciled to the See of Rome and then to the Parliament in the Name of the Common Pastor inviting them to Return to the Sheepfold of the Church The Queen felt a strange emotion of joy within her as he made his Speech which she thought was a Child quickned in her Belly and the flattering Court Ladies heightned her belief of it The Council ordered Bonner to sing Te Deum and there were Bonefires and all other publick demonstrations of joy upon it The Priests said that here was another John Baptist to come that leapt in his Mother's Belly upon the Salutation from Christ's Vicar Both Houses agreed on an Address to the King and Queen that they would intercede with the Legate to reconcile them to the See of Rome and they offered to repeal all the Laws they had made against the Pope's authority in sign of their repentance Upon this the Cardinal came to the Parliament He first thanked them for repealing his Attainder in recompence of which he was now to reconcile them to the Body of the Church He made a long Speech of the Conversion of the Britains and Saxons to the Faith and of the Obedience they had payed to the Apostolick See and of the many favours that See had granted the Crown of which none was more Eminent than the Title of Defender of the Faith The ruine of the Greek Church and the distractions of Germany and the Confusions themselves had been in since they departed from the Unity of the Church might convince them of the necessity of keeping that bond entire In Conclusion he gave them and the whole Nation a Plenary Absolution The rest of the Day was spent in singing Te Deum and the Night in Bonefires The Act repealing all Laws made against the Popes authority was quickly past only it stuck a little by reason of a Proviso which the House of Lords put in for some Lands which the Lord Wentworth had of the See of London w th the Commons opposed so much that after the Bill was offered to the Royal assent it was cut out of the Parchment by Gardiner They did enumerate and repeal all Acts made since the 20th of Hen. 8. against the Pope's authority but all foundations of Bishopricks and Cathedrals all Marriages tho' contrary to the Laws of the Church all Institutions all Judicial Processes and the settlements made either of Church or Abbey-Lands were confirmed The Convocation of Canterbury had joyned their Intercession with the Cardinal that he would confirm the right of the present Possessors of those Lands Upon which he did confirm them but he added a heavy charge requiring those that had any of the Goods of the Church to remember the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazzar for profaning the holy Vessels though they were not taken away by himself but by his Father and that at least they would take care that such as served the Cures should be sufficiently maintained all which was put in the Act and confirmed by it and it was declared that all Suits concerning those Lands were to be tried in the Civil Courts and that it should be a Praemunire if any went about to disturb the Possessors by the pretence of an Ecclesiastical power They also declared that the Title of Supream Head of the Church did never of right belong to the Crown enacted that it should be left out of Writs in all time coming All Exemptions granted to Monasteries and now continued in Lay-hands were taken away and all Churches were made subject to Episcopal Jurisdiction except Westminster Windsor and the Tower of London The statute of Mortmain was repealed for 20. years to come and all things were brought back to the state in which they were in the 20th year of King Henry's reign The Lower House of Convocation gave occasion to many clauses in this Act by a Petition which they made to the Upper-house consenting to the settlement made of Church and Abbey Lands and praying that the Statute of Mortmain might be repealed and that all the Tithes might be restored to the Church they proposed also some things in relation to Religion for the condemning and burning all Heretical Books and that great care should be had of the Printing and venting of Books that the Church should be restored to its former Jurisdiction that Pluralities and Non-residence might be effectually condemned and all Simoniacal pactions punished that the Clergy might be discharged of paying first-fruits and Tenths that Exemptions might be taken away that all the Clergy should go in their Habits and that they should not be sued in a Praemunire till a Prohibition were first served and disobeyed that so they might not be surprised and ruined a second time By another Bill all former Acts made against Lollards were revived The Commons offered another Bill for voiding all Leases made by married Priests but it was laid aside by the Lords Thus were the Pensioners and aspiring Men in the House of Commons either redeeming former faults or hoping to merit highly by the forwardness of their Zeal By another Bill several things were made Treason and it was declared that if the Queen died before the King and left any Children the King should have the Government in his hands till they were of Age and during that time the conspiring his Death was made Treason but none were to be tried for words but within six Months after they were spoken Another Act past declaring it Treason in any to pray for the Queens death unless they repented of it and in that case they were to suffer Corporal punishment at the Judges discretion A severe Act was also passed against all that spread lying Reports of the King the Queen the Peers Judges or great Officers Some were to lose their Hands others their Ears and others were to be fined according to the degree of their offence And thus all affairs were
of the Temporal Authority the World was then so over-mastered by Superstition and Credulity that not only the whole Spiritual Power but even the Temporal Power of Princes was likely to have fallen into the Pope's hands But the discontented Clergy supported the Secular Power as much as they had before advanced the Papal Tyranny Boniface the 8th had raised his Pretentions to that impudent pitch that he declared all Power both Ecclesiastical and Civil was derived from him and established that as an Article of Faith necessary to Salvation and he and his Successors took upon them to dispose of all Ecclesiastical Benefices by their Bulls and Provisions Upon which Laws were made in England restraining those Invasions on the Crown since those Endowments were made for informing the People of the Law of God and for Hospitality and Acts of Charity which were defeated 25. Ed. 1 as well as the Crown was disinherited by the Provisions which the Popes granted Therefore they condemned them for the future but no Punishment being declared for the Transgressors of that Fact the Courtiers at Rome were not frighted at so general a Law so these Abuses were still continued But in Edward the Third's time 25. Ed. 3 a more severe Law was made by which all that transgressed were to be imprisoned to be fined at pleasure and to forfeit all their Benefices By an other Act they were put out of the King's Protection Several other Confirmations of this were made both in that Reign and under Richard the Second and the former Punishments were extended not only to the Provisors themselves but to all that were imployed by them or took Farms of them and because Licences might be granted by the King for Aliens to hold Benefices in England he did bind himself to grant none Others took both Presentations in England and obtained Provisions from Rome which was likewise condemned The Right of Prefentations was tried only in the King's Courts but the Popes had a mind to take the Cognizance of that to their own Courts upon which the Parliament considering the great Prejudice the Nation was like to suffer and the Subjection that the Crown would fall under resolved to provide effectual Remedies so all the Commons declared they would live and die with the King 16. Ric. 2. and desired him to examine all the Lords whether they would uphold the Regality of the Crown The Temporal Lords declared they would do it But the Spiritual Lords made some difficulty yet in Conclusion they also promised they would adhere to the Crown So a Law passed that if any purchased Translations Excommunications or Bulls from Rome that were contrary to the King or his Crown they and all that brought them over or that received or executed them were declared to be out of the King's Protection and that their Goods and Chattels should be forfeited to the King and their Persons imprisoned And because the Proceedings upon this were by a Writ called from the most material Words of it Premunire facias this Statute carried the name of the Statute of Premunire There was also a Law passed in Henry the Fourth's Reign against some Bulls which the Cistertians had procured and against the high Rates set on Bulls in the Apostolick Chamber and whereas the King had been prevailed with to give Licences for some Bulls by which the Provisors put the Incumbents out of their Benefices these were all declared to be of no force when done in prejudice of the Subjects Rights The Invasions that both the Popes and Kings made upon Elections were by another Law condemned and the Liberty of Elections was again set up But those Kings being more concerned to preserve their own Prerogative than the Rights of their People were often prevailed with to grant Pardons and Licences to those who obtained Provisions at Rome so these were all again condemned in Henry the Fifth's time In all this time 4. Hen. 5. the weakness of the Papacy gave Princes some Advantages which they had not in former Ages for a great while the Popes sate at Avignion where they were much eclipsed of their former Greatness After that a Schism followed between the Popes that sate at Rome and those that still sate at Avignion and the Princes of Christendom being then at liberty to choose which of those they would acknowledg the Popes durst not thunder against those Laws as they had done in former times upon much less Provocation And indeed all the use that the Kings made of them was to oblige the Provisors to come and depend on them for their Licence to execute their Bulls and the King's Authority being joyned with the Popes it was hard for those who were oppressed to resist that double force Nor was there any vigorous Execution made of those Laws otherwayes than to draw Mony from the Provisors For it fell out in this case what is ordinary on all such occasions that Favourites make use of good Laws by which Power is trusted to the Prince for the Protection and Security of the Subjects only for their own ends It was a strange weakness in the Princes of Christendom to take such pains as was done at Constance for healing the Breach in the Papacy for while that continued they reigned in peace and the Clergy was less oppressed than formerly But that being once made up the Popes were beginning again to raise their old Pretentions And Pope Martin the 5th not being willing to engage with so high spirited a King as Henry the 5th was he took Advantage in the Minority of Henry the Sixth's Reign 6. Hen. 6. to propose a Repeal of those Laws and first wrote very severely to Chichely then Archbishop of Canterbury for not opposing the Statute of Provisors that had passed in the former Reign nor standing up for the Rights of St. Peter He therefore exhorted him to imitate his Predecessor Thomas Becket and required him to declare at the next Parliament the unlawfulness of it and that all who obeyed it were under Excommunication He also required him to order the Clergy to preach every where against it Yet Chichely did not proceed so zealously as the Pope expected and therefore he suspended his Legatine Power The Archbishop appealed upon this from the Pope to the next General Council or if none met to the Tribunal of God But the Pope wrote also to the Clergy requiring them to do what in them lay for the repeal of the Statute And in another Letter to the two Archbishops in which in spite to Chicheley York is first named he annulled the Statutes made by Edward the Third and Richard the Second and declared all to be excommunicated that executed them reserving the absolution of them to himself unless they were at the point of death And he required them to publish and affix this his Monitory Brief The Archbishop humbled himself to the Pope and got the other Bishops and the University of Oxford to write in his
day before the dissolution of the Parliament The Lords added a Proviso confirming the Duke of Somerset's Attainder but that was cast out by the Commons Some Writings had been sealed with relation to a Marriage between the Earl of Hartford the Dukes Son and the Earl of Oxford's Daughter and the Lords sent down a Bill voiding these but upon a division in the House of Commons 68. were for it and 69. were against it so it was cast out The House was now thin when we find but 137. Members in it but that is one of the effects of a long Parliament many grow infirm and many keep out of the way on design and those who at their first Election were the Representatives of the People after they have sat long become a Cabal of Men that pursue their own Interests Tonstall is imprisoned more than the Publick Service Tonstall Bishop of Durham upon some Informations was put in Prison in the former year The Duke of Northumberland intended to erect a great Principality for his Family in the North and the accession of the Jurisdiction of the County Palatine which is in that See seemed so considerable that he resolved to ruine Tonstall and so make way for that He complied in all the changes that were made though he had protested against them in Parliament he writ also for the Corporal Presence but with more Eloquence than Learning He was a candid and moderate Man and there was always a good correspondence between Cranmer and him and now when the Bill was put in against him he opposed it and protested against it by which he absolutely lost the Duke of Northumberland but all the Popish complying Bishops went along with it There were some Depositions read in the House of Lords to justifie it but when the Bill with these was sent down to the Commons they resolved to put a stop to that way of condemning Men without hearing them so they sent a Message to the Lords that he and his Accusers might be heard face to face and that not being done they let the Bill fall By these Indications it appeared that the House of Commons had little kindness for the Duke of Northumberland Many of them had been much obliged to the Duke of Somerset so it was resolved to have a new Parliament and this which had sat almost five years was on the 15th of April dissolved The Convocation did confirm the Articles of Religion A Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws prepared that had been prepared the former year and thus was the Reformation of Worship and Doctrine now brought to such perfection that since that time there has been very little alteration made in these But another Branch of it was yet unfinished and was now under consultation touching the Government of the Church and the rules of the Ecclesiastical Courts Two Acts had passed in the former reign and one in this impowering XXXII to revise all the Laws of the Church and digest them into a body King Henry issued out a Commission and the Persons were named who made some progress in it as appears by some of Cranmer's Letters to him In this Reign it had been begun several times but the Changes in the Government made it be laid aside Thirty two were found to be too many for preparing the first draught so Eight were appointed to make it ready for them These were Cranmer and Ridley Cox and Peter Martyr Traheron and Taylor and Lucas and Gosnold two Bishops two Divines two Civilians and two Common Lawyers but it was generally believed that Cranmer drew it all himself and the rest only corrected what he designed Haddon and Cheek were imployed to put it in Latine in which they succeeded so well and arrived at so true a purity in the Roman stile that it looks like a work of the best Ages of that State before their Language was corrupted with the mixture of barbarous terms and phrases with which all the later Writings were filled but none were more nauseously rude than the Books of the Canon-Law The Work was cast into fifty one Titles perhaps it was designed to bring it near the number of the Books into which Justinian digested the Roman Law The Eight finished it and offered it to the XXXII who divided themselves into Four Classes every one was to offer his Corrections and when it had past through them all it was to be offered to the King for his Confirmation but the King died before it was quite finished nor was it ever afterwards taken up yet I shall think it no useless part of this work to give an account of what was intended to be done in this matter as well as I relate what was done in other things The first Title of it was concerning the Catholick Faith The heads of it it was made Capital to deny the Christian Religion The Books of Scripture were reckoned up and the Apocrypha left out The four first General Councils were received but both Councils and Fathers were to be submitted to only as they agreed with the Scriptures The second enumerates and condemns many Heresies extracted out of the Opinions of the Church of Rome and the Tenets of the Anabaptists and among others those who excused their lives by the pretence of Predestination are reckoned up 3. The judgment of Heresie was to lye in the Bishops Court except in exempted places Persons suspected might be required to purge themselves and those who were convicted were to abjure and do Penance but such as were obstinate were declared Infamous and not to have the benefit of the Law or of making Testaments and so all Capital proceedings for Heresie were laid aside 4. Blasphemy against God was to be punished as obstinate Heresie 5. The Sacraments and other parts of the Pastoral Charge were to be decently performed 6. All Magick Idolatry or Conjuring was to be punished arbitrarily and in case of obstinacy with Excommunication 7. Bishops were appointed once a Year to call all their Clergy together to examine them concerning their Flocks and Itinerant Preachers were to be often imployed for visiting such Precincts as might be put under their care 8. All Marriages were to be after asking of Banes and to be annulled if not done according to the Book of Common Prayer Corrupters of Virgins were to marry them or if that could not be done to give them the third part of their Goods and suffer Corporal punishment Marriages made by force or without consent of Parents were declared null Polygamy was forbid and Mothers were required to suckle their Children 9. The degrees of Marriage were setled according to the Levitical Law but spiritual kindred was to be no barr 10. A Clergy-man guilty of Adultery was to forfeit his Goods and Estate to his Wife and Children or to some pious use and to be banished or Imprisoned during life a Layman guilty of it was to forfeit the half and be banished or Imprisoned during life Wives that were
they asserted her right and she promised to maintain the true Religion and the Laws of the Land This was not received with the shouts ordinary on such occasions A Vintners Boy expressed some scorn when he heard it for which he was next day set on a Pillory and his Ears were nailed to it to strike terror in the rest Many descanted variously on this Proclamation Censures past upon that Those who thought that the King had his power immediately from God said that then it must descend in the way of Inheritance and since the King 's two Sisters were both under sentences of illegitimation they said the next Heir in blood must succeed and that was the young Queen of Scotland but she being of the Church of Rome claimed nothing upon the sentence against Queen Mary esteeming it unlawful and null yet afterwards she made her claim against Queen Elizabeth Others said that though a Prince were named immediately by God yet upon great reasons he might alter the Succession from its natural course for so David preferred Solomon to Adonijah In England the Kings claimed the Crown by a long Prescription confirmed by many Laws and not from a divine designation and therefore they inferred that the Act of Parliament for the Succession ought to take place and that by vertue of it the two Sisters ought to succeed and it was said that as the King could limit the Prerogative so he could likewise limit the succession It was also said that Charles Brandon's Issue by the French Queen was unlawful because he was then married to one Mortimer yet this was not declared in any Court and so could not take place Others said if the Right of blood could not be cut off why was the Scotch Queen cut off and her being born out of the Kingdom could not exclude her as an Alien for though that held in other cases yet it was only a Provision of Law which could not take away a Divine right and by special Law the King's Children were excepted It was also urged that the Dutchess of Suffolk ought to be preferred to her Daughter who could only claim by her Right and though Maud the Empress and Margaret Countess of Richmond had not claimed the Crown but were satisfied that their Sons two Henries the second and seventh should reign in their right yet it was never heard that a Mother should quit her right to a Daughter that of the half blood was said to be only a rule in Law for private Families and that it did not extend to the Crown The power of limiting the succession by Patent or Testament was said to be only a Personal trust lodged in King Henry the Eighth and that it did not descend to his Heirs so that King Edward's Patents were thought to be of no force The severity against the Vintners Boy in the beginning of a Reign founded on so doubtful a Title Many turn to Queen Mary was thought a great errour in Policy and it seemed to be a well grounded Maxime that all Governments ought to begin with acts of Clemency and affect the love rather than the fear of the People Northumberland's proceeding against the Duke of Somerset upon so soul a Conspiracy and the suspicions that lay on him as the Author of the late Kings untimely death begat a great aversion in the People to him and that disposed them to set up Queen Mary She gathered all in the neighbouring Counties about her The Men of Suffolk were generally for the Reformation yet a great Body of them came to her and asked her if she would promise not to alter the Religion set up in King Edward's days she assured them she would make no changes but should be content with the private Exercise of her own Religion Upon that they all vowed that they would live and dye with her The Earl of Sussex and several others raised Forces for her and proclaimed her Queen When the Council heard this they sent the Earl of Huntington's Brother to raise Men in Buckinghamshire and meet the Forces that should be sent from London at Newmarket The Duke of Northumberland was ordered to Command the Army Northumberland marches against her He was now much distracted in his thoughts It was of equal Importance to keep London and the Privy Councellours steady and to conduct the Army well A misfortune in either of these was like to be fatal to him So he could not resolve what to do there was not a Man of spirit that was firm to him to be left behind and yet it was most necessary once to dissipate the Force that was daily growing about Queen Mary The Lady Jane and the Council were removed to the Tower not only for state but for security for here the Council were upon the matter Prisoners He could do no more but lay a strict charge on the Council to be firm to Lady Jane's Interests and so he marched out of London with 2000. Horse and 6000. Foot on the 14th of July but no acclamations or wishes of success were to be heard as he past through the Streets The Council gave the Emperor notice of the Lady Jane's succession and complained of the disturbance that was raised by Queen Mary and that his Ambassadour had officiously medled in their affairs But the Emperour would not receive their Letters Ridley was appointed to preach up Queen Jane's Title and to animate the People against Queen Mary which he too rashly obeyed But Queen Mary's Party encreased every day Hastings went over to her with 4000. Men out of Buckinghamshire and she was proclaimed Queen in many places And now did the Privy Council begin to see their danger and to think how to get out of it The Earl of Arundel hated Northumberland The Marquess of Winchester was dextrous in shifting sides for his advantage The Earl of Pembroke's Son had married the Lady Jane's Sister which made him think it necessary to redeem the danger he was in by a speedy turn To these many others were joyned They pretended it was necessary to give an Audience to the foreign Ambassadours who would not have it in the Tower And the Earl of Pembroke's House was pitched upon he being least suspected They also said it was necessary to treat with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for sending more Forces to Northumberland concerning which he had writ very earnestly When they got out they resolved to declare for Queen Mary The Council declares for her and rid themselves of Northumberland's uneasie Yoke which they knew they must bear if he were victorious They sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and easily perswaded them to concur with them and so they went immediately to Cheapside and proclaimed the Queen on the 19th of July and from thence they went to St. Paul's where Te Deum was sung They sent next to the Tower requiring the Duke of Suffolk to quit the Government of that place and the Lady Jane to lay down the
Crowned Gardiner with ten other Bishops performing that Ceremony with the ordinary solemnity Day being esteemed the best Preacher among them preached the Sermon There was a General Pardon proclaimed and with that the Queen discharged the Subjects of the two Tenths two Fifteenths and a Subsidy that had been granted by the last Parliament and she also declared that she would pay both her Fathers Debts and her Brothers and though her Treasure was much exhausted yet she esteeming the love of her People her best Treasure forgave those Taxes in lieu of which she desired only the hearts of her Subjects and that they would serve God sincerely and pray earnestly for her On the 20th A Parliament meets and repeals several Laws of October a Parliament met There had been great violences used in many Elections and many false Returns were made some that were known to be zealous for the Reformation were forcibly turned out of the House of Commons which was afterwards offered as a ground upon which that Parliament and all Acts made in it might have been annulled There came only two of the Reformed Bishops to the House of Lords The two Arch-bishops and three Bishops were in Prison Two others were turned out the rest stayed at home so only Taylor and Harley the Bishops of Lincoln and Hereford came When Mass began to be said they went out as some report it but were never suffered to come to their places again others say they refused to joyn in that Worship and so were violently thrust out In the House of Commons some of the more forward moved that King Edward's Laws might be reviewed but things were not ripe enough for that Nowell a Prebendary of Westminster was returned Burgess for a Town but the House voted That the Clergy being represented in the lower House of Convocation could not be admitted to sit among the Laity The Commons sent up a Bill of Tonnage and Poundage which the Lords sent down amended in two Proviso's and the Commons did not then insist on their Priviledge that the Lords could not alter a Bill of Money The only publick Bill that was finished this Session was a Repeal of all late Statutes making any Crime Treason that was not so by the 25. of Edward the Third or Felony that was not so before King Henry the Eighth excepting from the benefit of this Act all that were put in Prison before the end of September last who were also excepted out of the General Pardon The Marchioness of Exeter and the Earl of Devonshire her Son were restored in blood by two private Acts and then the Parliament was prorogued for three days that it might be said the first Session under the Queen was meerly for Acts of Mercy At their next Meeting The Qu.'s Mother's marriage confirm'd after the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage was past a Bill past through both Houses in Four days repealing the Divorce of the Queens Mother In which they declared the Marriage to have been lawful and that malicious Persons had possessed the King with scruples concerning it and had by Corruption procured the Seals of Foreign Universities condemning it and had by threatnings and sinistrous Arts obtained the like in England Upon which Cranmer had pronounced the Sentence of Divorce which had been confirmed in Parliament They therefore looking on the miseries that had fallen on the Nation since that time as Judgments from God for that sentence condemn it and repeal the Acts confirming it Gardiner in this performed his promise to the Queen of getting her to be declared Legitimate without taking notice of the Pope's authority but he shewed that he was past shame when he procured such a Repeal of a Sentence which he had so servilely promoted and he particularly knew the falshood of this pretence that the foreign Universities were corrupted He had also set it on long before Cranmer engaged in it and sat in Court with him when it was pronounced By this Act the Lady Elizabeth was upon the matter again illegitimated since the ground upon which her Mothers marriage subsisted was the Divorce of the first Marriage and it was either upon this pretence or on old scores that the Queen who had hitherto treated her as a Sister began now to use her more severely Others suggest that a secret rivalry was the true spring of it It was thought the Earl of Devonshire was much in the Queens favour but he either not presuming so high or liking Lady Elizabeth better who was both more beautiful and was XIX Years younger than the Queen made his addresses to her which provoked the Queen so much that it drew a great deal of trouble on them both The next Bill was a Repeal of all the Laws made in King Edward's reign King Edward's Laws about Religion repealed concerning Religion it was argued six days in the House of Commons and carried without a Division by this Religion was again put back into the state in which King Henry had left it and this was to take place after the 20th of December next but till then it was left free to all either to use the old or the new Service as they pleased Another Act past against all that should disquiet any Preacher for his Sermons or interrupt Divine Offices either such as had been in the last year of King Henry or such as the Queen should set out by which she was empowered to restore the service in all things as it had been before her Father made the breach with Rome Offenders were either to be punished by Ecclesiastical Censures or by an Imprisonment for three Months And the House of Commons was now so forward that they sent up a Bill for the Punishing of all such as would not come to Church or Sacraments after the Old Service should be again set up yet the Lords fearing this might alarm the Nation too much let it fall Another Law was made that if any to the number of Twelve should meet to alter any thing in Religion or for any Riot or should by any publick notice such as Bells or Beacons gather the People together and upon Proclamation made should not disperse themselves they and all that assisted them were declared guilty of Felony and if any more than two met for these ends they should lye a Year in Prison and all People were required under severe Penalties to assist the Justices for repressing such Assemblies So the favour of the former Act of Repeal appeared to be a mockery when so soon after it so severe a Law made by which disorders that might arise upon sudden heats were declared to be Felonies The Marquess of Northampton's second Marriage was also annulled but no Declaration was made against Divorces in general grounded on the Indissolubleness of the Marriage bond only that particular sentence was condemned as pronounced upon false surmises An Act also passed The Duke of Norfolks Attainder repealed annulling the Attainder of the Duke of
that could be obtained It was agreed that at the end of eight Years Calais should either be restored or 500000. Crowns should be payed the Queen yet if during that time she made War either on France or Scotland she was to forfeit her right to Calais Aymouth in Scotland was to be rased and all differences on the Borders there were to be determined by some deputed on both sides this being adjusted a General Peace between the Crowns of England France and Spain was concluded and thus the Queen being freed from the dangerous consultations that the continuance of a War might have involved her in was the more at liberty to settle matters at home The first Bill Acts past in Parliament that was brought to try the Temper of the Parliament was for the Restitution of the Tenths and First-fruits to the Crown against this all the Bishops protested but that was all the opposition made to it By it not only that Tax was of new laid on the Clergy but all the Impropriated Benefices which Queen Mary had surrendred were restored to the Crown After this The Commons pray the Queen to marry the Commons made an Address to the Queen desiring her to choose such a Husband as might make both her self and the Nation happy She received this very kindly since they had neither limited her to time nor Nation but declared that as hitherto she had lived with great satisfaction in a single state and had refused the Propositions that had been made her both in her Brothers and Sisters reign so she had no Inclination to change her course of life If ever she did it she would take care that it should be for the good and to the satisfaction of her People She thought she was married to the Nation at her Coronation and looked on her People as her Children and she would be well contented if her Tombstone might tell Posterity Here lies a Queen that reigned so long and lived and dyed a Virgin There was little more progress made in this matter save that a Committee was appointed by both Houses to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen might happen to marry but she sent them a Message to proceed to other affairs and let that alone A Bill for the Recognition of her Title to the Crown was put in Her Title to the Crown acknowledged It was not thought necessary to Repeal the Sentence of her Mothers Divorce for the Crown purged all defects and it was thought needless to look back unto a thing which could not be done without at least casting some reproach on her Father so it was in general words Enacted That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and the Realm she was their lawful Queen and was rightly and lineally descended This was thought a much wiser way than if they examined the Sentence of Divorce that past upon the Confession of a Precontract which must have revived the remembrance of things that were better left in silence Bills were put in for the English Service Acts concerning Religion for reviving King Edward's Laws and for annexing the Supremacy again to the Crown To that concerning the Supremacy two Temporal Lords and nine Bishops with the Abbot of Westminster dissented It was proposed to revive the Law for making the Bishops by Letters-Patents as was in King Edward's time but they choosed rather to revive the Act for Electing them made in the 25. Hen. 8. They revived all Acts made against the Pope's power in King Henry's time and repealed those made by Queen Mary They enacted an Oath for acknowledging the Queen Supream Governour in all causes and over all Persons Those that refused it were to forfeit all Offices that they held either in Church or State and to be under a disability during life If any should advance the authority of a Foreign Power for the first offence they were to be fined or imprisoned for the second to be in a Praemunire and the third was made Treason The Queen was also impowered to give Commissions for Judging and Reforming Ecclesiastical matters who were limited to judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so judged by the authority of the Scriptures or the first four General Councils All Points that were not decided either by express words of Scripture or by those Councils were to be referred to the Parliament and Convocation The Title of Supream Head was changed partly because the Queen had some scruples about it and partly to moderate the opposition which the Popish party might otherwise make to it and the refusing the Oath was made no other way Penal but that all Offices or Benefices were forfeited upon it which was a great mitigation of the severity in King Henry's time The Bishops are said to have made several Speeches against this in the House of Lords but that which goes under the name of Heath's Speech must be a forgery for in it the Supremacy is called a new and unheard of thing which could not have flowed from one that had sworn it so often both under King Henry and King Edward Tonstall came not to this Parliament and he was so offended with the Cruelties of the last Reign that he had withdrawn himself into his Diocess where he burnt none himself upon that it was now thought that he was so much alienated from those Methods that some had great hopes of his declaring for the Reformation Heath had been likewise very moderate nor were any burnt under him Upon the power given the Queen to appoint some to Reform and direct all Ecclesiastical matters was the Court called the High Commission Court founded which indeed was nothing but the sharing that authority which was in one Person in King Henry's time into many hands for that Court had no other authority but that which was lodged formerly in Cromwell as the King's Vicegerent and was now thought too great to be trusted to one Man Great complaints were made of seditious Sermons preached by the Popish Clergy Preaching without Licence forbidden upon which the Queen followed the Precedent that her Sister had made and forbid all Preaching excepting only by such as obtained a Licence under the Great Seal for it She likewise sent an Order to the Convocation requiring them under the pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet the lower House in an Address to the upper House declared for the Corporal Presence and that the Mass was a Propitiatory Sacrifice and for the Supremacy and that matters of Religion fell only under the Cognisance of the Pastors of the Church The greatest part of both Universities had also set their hands to all these Points except the last This it seems A publick Conference about Religion was the rather added by the Clerks of Convocation to hinder a publick Conference which the Queen had appointed between the Bishops and the Reformed Divines It was first
in the Sacrament Pag. 79 Arguments against the Corporal Presence Pag. 81 Anabaptists in England Pag. 85 Two were burnt Pag. 84 The Doctrine of Predestination abused Pag. 87 Tumults in several parts of England ibid The Rebellion in Devonshire Pag. 89 And in Norfolk Pag. 91 The French begin a War ibid The Rebels every where routed Pag. 92 A Visitation at Cambridge Pag. 94 Bonner's Process Pag. 95 And Deprivation Pag. 100 Ill Success of the English Pag. 101 Several Expedients proposed Pag. 105 The Emperour refuses his Assistance Pag. 106 A Faction against the Protector Pag. 108 Which turns to a Publick Breach Pag. 110 The Protector 's Fall Pag. 112 The Emperour will not assist them Pag. 114 A Session of Parliament ibid 1550. The Duke of Somerset fined but restored into Favour Pag. 116 A Progress of the Roformation ibid. The Book of Ordinations put out Pag. 117 Pool chosen Pope but lost it Pag. 120 A Treaty with France Pag. 122 Ridley made Bishop of London Pag. 123 Gardiner 's Process Pag. 124 Latimer preaches at Court Pag. 126 Hooper made Bishop of Glocester has some Scruple concerning the Vestments ibid A review of the Common-Prayer Book Pag. 128 Bucer offers some Advices to the King Pag. 130 The King 's great Knowledg ibid Altars put down Pag. 131 Affairs of Scotland Pag. 132 And Germany Pag. 133 1551. The Popish Party comply generally Pag. 134 Bucer 's Death Pag. 135 Gardiner 's Deprivation Pag. 136 The Articles of Religion agreed on Pag. 138 Changes made in the Com. Prayer Book Pag. 139 Lady Mary in trouble for having Mass said Pag. 142 The Earl of Warwick's Designs Pag. 147 A Treaty for a Marriage to the King Pag. 149 The Duke of Somerset 's Fall Pag. 150 His Tryal Pag. 151 Rich gives up the Great Seal and it was given to the Bishop of Ely Pag. 154 The Duke of Somerset 's Execution Pag. 156 The Affairs of Germany Pag. 158 1552. A Session of Parliament Pag. 161 An Act against Vsury Pag. 164 A Repeal of the Settlement of the Duke of Somerset 's Estate Pag. 165 Tonstall is imprisoned Pag. 166 A Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws Pag. 167 The Heads of it Pag. 169 The Poverty of the Clergy Pag. 174 Affairs in Ireland Pag. 175 A Change in the Garter Pag. 177 Northumberland's Severity Pag. 178 Trade flourishes much Pag. 179 Cardan in England Pag. 180 Affaires in Scotland Pag. 183 The Affairs in Germany Pag. 185 An Account of the Council of Trent Pag. 187 The Emperours Designs are blasted Pag. 189 1553. A Bill proposed that Laymen should not hold Church Dignities Pag. 191 An Act suppressing the Bishoprick of Durham ibid Another Visitation Pag. 192 Bishops made by the King's Patent Pag. 193 Affairs in Germany Pag. 194 The King's Sickness Pag. 196 The Patents for the Succes to the Crown Pag. 197 The King's Death and Character Pag. 199 BOOK III. The Life and Reign of Queen Mary QVeen Mary succeeds Pag. 203 But Lady Jane Gray is proclaimed Pag. 205 Censures past upon that Pag. 206 Many turn to Queen Mary Pag. 208 Northumberland marches against her Pag. 209 The Council declares for her Pag. 210 She comes to London Pag. 212 Her former Life ibid The Councils then laid down Pag. 214 Northumberland 's Trial Pag. 215 And Execution Pag. 216 King Edward 's Funeral Pag. 217 A Tumult at St. Pauls Pag. 218 Severe Proceedings against the Men of Suffolk and others Pag. 220 Particularly against Judge Hales Pag. 221 Cranmer 's Imprisonment Pag. 222 The Strangers driven out of England Pag. 224 The Popular Arts used by Gardiner Pag. 225 A Parliament meets and repeals several Laws Pag. 226 The Queen's Mother's Marriage confirmed Pag. 227 King Edward 's Laws about Religion repealed Pag. 229 The Duke of Norfolk's Attainder repealed Pag. 230 A Treaty for reconciling England to the Pope Pag. 232 And for a Match with the Prince of Spain Pag. 233 Pool 's Advices to the Queen Pag. 234 The Parliament opposes the Match and is dissolved Pag. 236 A Convocation meets and dispute about the Sacrament Pag. 237 1554. The Treaty of Marriage begun Pag. 241 Which provokes some to rebel Pag. 242 Lady Jane Gray's Execution Pag. 245 Several others suffered Pag. 247 The Imposture of the Spirit in the Wall Pag. 248 Iujunctions sent to the Bishops ibid. Many Bishops turned out Pag. 249 A new Parliament Pag. 251 A Proposition to make the Queen absolute Pag. 252 New Disputations at Oxford with Cranmer Pag. 254 The Prince of Spain lands and marries the Queen Pag. 258 The Bishops visit their Diocesses Pag. 261 Another Parliament Pag. 263 The Nation is reconciled to the See of Rome Pag. 264 Gardiner 's Policy in the steps of this Change Pag. 268 Consultations about the way of proceedings against Hereticks Pag. 269 1555. A Persecution is set on foot Pag. 271 Rogers and Hooper condemned and burnt Pag. 272 The Burnings much condemned Pag. 274 Arguments against them and for them Pag. 276 The Queen restores the Church-Lands Pag. 279 Marcellus chosen Pope Paul the 4th succeeds ibid. The English Ambassadors come to Rome Pag. 280 The English grow backward to Persecution Pag. 281 The Queen's Delivery in vain looked for Pag. 282 More Hereticks burnt ibid. Religious Houses set up Pag. 285 Sir Tho. More 's Works published ibid. Ridley and Latimer burnt Pag. 286 Gardiner 's Death Pag. 289 The Parliament ill pleas'd with the Queens conduct Pag. 290 Pool 's Decrees for the Reformation of the Clergie Pag. 293 He refuses to bring the Jesuits into England Pag. 295 More of the Reformed are burnt Pag. 296 Affairs in Germany ibid. Charles the 5th 's Resignation Pag. 297 1556. Cranmer 's Sufferings Pag. 298 He repents and is burnt Pag. 301 His Character Pag. 303 More Burnings Pag. 304 The Reformed encrease upon this Pag. 306 The Troubles at Frankford ibid. Pool made Arch-bishop of Canterbury Pag. 307 More Religious Houses ibid. The Pope sets on a War between France and Spain Pag. 309 1557. A Visitation of the Vniversities Pag. 311 A severe Inquisition of Hereticks Pag. 312 More Burnings Pag. 313 Lord Stourton hanged Pag. 315 The Queen joyns in a War against France Pag. 316 The Battel at St. Quintin Pag. 317 The Pope recals Pool Pag. 318 Affairs of Germany Pag. 320 1558. Calais and other Places taken by the French Pag. 322 Great Discontents in England Pag. 324 The Parliament meets Pag. 325 The Carriage and Vsage of L. Eliz. all this Reign ibid. Ill Success and strange Accidents Pag. 329 The Dauphin and the Q. of Scotland married Pag. 331 A Parliament in England Pag. 332 The Queens Death Pag. 333 Pool 's Death and Character ibid. The Queens Character Pag. 334 BOOK IV. QVeen Elizabeth proclaimed Pag. 337 The Queen came to London Pag. 338 Philip proposes Marriage to the Queen but in vain Pag. 339 The Counsels about changing Religion Pag. 340 A Scheme proposed Pag. 341 The Impatience of some Pag. 342 Parker
to the House of Commons and read there upon which Mony was granted for a War with France At this time Fox to support his Party against the Lord Treasurer endeavoured to bring Thomas Wolsey into favour Car. Wolfey's Rise he was of mean Extraction but had great Parts and a wonderful Dexterity in insinuating himself into Men's Favours so he being brought into Business did so manage the King that he became very quickly the Master of his Spirit and of all his Affairs and for fifteen Years continued to be the most absolute Favourite that had ever been seen in England He saw the King was much set on his Pleasures and had a great Aversion to business and the other Counsellours being unwilling to bear the load of Affairs were uneasy to him by pressing him to govern by his own Counsels but he knew the methods of Favourites better and so was not only easy but assistant to the King in his Pleasures and undertook to free him from the Trouble of Government and to give him leisure to follow his Appetites He was Master of all the Offices at home And Greatness and Treaties abroad so that all Affairs went as he directed them He it seems became soon obnoxious to Parliaments and therefore he tried but one during his Ministry where the Supply was granted so scantily that afterwards he chused rather to raise Mony by Loans and Benevolences than by the free gift of the People in Parliament He became so scandalous for his ill Life that he grew to be a Disgrace to his Profession for he not only served the King but also shared with him in his Pleasures which were unhappy to him for he was spoiled with Venerial Distempers He was first made Bishop of Tournay in Flanders then of Lincoln after that he was promoted to the See of York and had both the Abby of St. Albans and the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells in Commendam the last he afterwards exchanged for Duresm and upon Foxes death he quitted Duresm that he might take Winchester and besides all this the King by a special Grant gave him power to dispose of all the Ecclesiastical Preferments in England so that in effect he was the Pope of this other World as was said antiently of an Arch-bishop of Canterbury and no doubt but he copied skilfully enough after those Patterns that were set him at Rome Being made a Cardinal and setting up a Legatine Court he found it fit for his Ambition to have the Great Seal likewise that there might be no clashing between those two Jurisdictions He had in one word all the Qualities necessary for a Great Minister and all the Vices ordinary in a Great Favourite During this whole Raign the Duke 's of Norfolk Father and Son were Treasurers but that long and strange course of Favour in so ticklish a Time turn'd fatally upon the Son near the end of the King's Life But he that was the longest and greatest sharer in the King's Favour Charles Brandon's Advancément was Charles Brandon who from the degree of a private Gentleman was advanced to the highest Honors The strength of his Body and the gracefulness of his Person contributed more to his Rise than his Dexterity in Affairs or the Endowments of his Mind for the greatest Evidence he gave of his Understanding was that knowing he was not made for Business he did not pretend to it a Temper seldom observed by the Creatures of Favour The frame and strength of his Body made him a great Master in the Diversions of that Age Justs and Tiltings and a fit Match for the King or rather a Second to him who delighted mightily in them His Person was so acceptable to the Ladies that the King's Sister the Queen Dowager of France liked him and by a strange sort of making Love prefixed him a time for gaining her Consent to marry him and assured him if that he did not prevail within that time he might for ever despair She married him in France and the King after a shew of some Displeasure was pacified and continued his Favours to him not only during his Sister's Life but to the last and in all the Revolutions of the Court that followed in which every Minister fell by turns he still enjoyed his share in the King's Bounty and Affection so much happier it proved to be loved than trusted by him The King denied himself none of those Pleasures that are as much legitimated in Courts as they are condemned elsewhere but yet he declared no Mistriss but Elizabeth Blunt and owned no Issue but a Son he had by her whom he afterwards made Duke of Richmond The King's usage of his Parliaments He took great care never to imbroil himself with his Parliaments and he met with no Opposition in any except in that one which was during Cardinal Woolsey's Ministry in which 800000 l. being demanded for a War with France to be paid in four Years the debate about it rose very high and not above the half of it was offered so the Cardinal came into the House of Commons and desired to hear the Reasons of those who were against the Supply but he was told that it was against their Orders to speak to a Debate before any that was not of the House he was much disatisfied at this and cast the blame of it upon Sir Thomas Moor that was Speaker and after that he found out other means of supplying the King without Parliaments The King had been educated with more than ordinary Care The King's Education and Learning being then in its dawning after a night of long and gross Ignorance his Father had given Orders that both his elder Brother and he should be well instructed in matters of Knowledg not with any design to make him Arch-bishop of Canterbury for he had made small progress when his Brother Prince Arthur died being then but eleven Years old perhaps Henry the seventh felt the Prejudices of his own Education so much that he was more careful to have his Son better taught or may be he did it to amuze him and keep him from looking too early into matters of State The Learning then most in credit among the Clergy was the Scholastical Divinity which by a shew of Subtilty did recommend it self to curious Persons and being very sutable to a vain and contentious Temper was that which agreed best with his Disposition and it being likely to draw the most Flattery from Divines became the chief Subject of his Studies in which he grew not only to be Eminent for a Prince whose Knowledg tho ever so moderate will be admired by Flatterers as a Prodigy but he might really have past for a Learned Man had his Quality been ever so mean He delighted in the purity of the Latin Tongue and understood Philosophy and was so great a Master in Musick that he composed well He was a bountiful Patron to all Learned Men more particularly to Erasmus and Polidore
he had done nothing but only pleaded in the King's Name The Clergy pretended they did not prosecute him for his pleading but for some of his Divinity Lectures contrary to the Liberty of the Church which the King was bound to maintain by his Coronation-Oath but the Temporal Lords the Judges and the Commons prayed the King also to maintain the Laws according to his Coronation-Oath and to give Standish his Protection The King upon this being in great perplexity required Veysy afterwards Bishop of Exeter to declare upon his Conscience and Allegiance the truth in that matter His Opinion was against the Immunity so another publick Hearing being appointed Standish was accused for teaching That the Inferiour Orders were not sacred That their Exemption was not founded on a Divine Right but that the Laity might punish them That the Canons of the Church did not bind till they were received and that the study of the Canon Law was useless Of these he denied some and justified other particulars Veysy being required to give his Opinion alledged That the Laws of the Church did only oblige where they were received As the Law of the Celibate of the Clergy received in the West did not bind the Greek Churches that never received it So the exemption of the Clerks not being received did not bind in England The Judges gave their Opinion next which was That those who prosecuted Standish were all in a Premunire So the Court broke up But in another Hearing in the presence of the greatest part of both Houses of Parliament the Cardinal said in the name of the Clergy That tho they intended to do nothing against the King's Prerogative yet the trying of Clerks seemed to be contrary to the Liberty of the Church which they were bound by their Oaths to maintain So they prayed that the matter might be referred to the Pope The King answered that he thought Standish had answered them fully The Bishop of Winchester said he would not stand to his Opinion at his Peril Standish upon that said What can one poor Friar do against all the Clergy of England The Arch-bishop of Canterbury said Some of the Fathers of the Church had suffered Martyrdom upon that account but the Chief-Justice replied That many holy Kings had maintained that Law and many holy Bishops had obeyed it In conclusion the King declared that he would maintain his Rights and would not submit them to the Decrees of the Church otherwise than as his Ancestors had done Warham Arch-bishop of Canterbury desired so long time might be given that they might have an Answer returned from Rome but that was not granted yet a Temper was found Horsey was appointed to be brought to his Trial for Hun's Murder and upon his pleading not guilty no Evidence was to be brought and so he was to be discharged But upon this it was said The Judges were more concerned to maintain their Jurisdiction than to do Justice upon so horrid a Murder so the discontent given by it was raised so much higher and the Crime of a few Murderers was now transferred upon the whole Clergy who had concerned themselves so much in their Preservation and this did very much dispose the Laity to all that was done afterwards for pulling down the Ecclesiastical Tyranny This was the only uneasy stop in this King's Raign The King is much addicted to the Papacy till the suit for his Divorce was commenced In all other points he was constantly in the Pope's Interests who sent him the common Complements of Roses and such other Triffles by which that See had treated Princes so long as Children The King made the Defence of the Popedom an Article in his Leagues with other Princes and Pope Julius having called a General Council to the Lateran in opposition to that which by Lewis the Twelfth's means was held at Pisa The King sent the Bishops of Worcester and Rochester the Prior of St. John's and the Abbot of Winchelcomb to represent the Church of England thereby to give the greater Authority to a pack'd meeting of Italian Bishops and Abbots who assumed to themselves the Title of a Holy and Oecumenical Council But no Complement wrought so much on the King's Vanity as the Title of Defender of Faith sent him by Pope Leo upon the Book which he writ against Luther concerning the Sacraments The Cardinal drew upon himself the hatred of the Clergy Crrdinal Wolsey intends to reform the Clergy by a Bull which impowered him to visit all the Monasteries of England and to dispence with all the Laws of the Church for a Year He also gave out that he intended to reform the Clergy though he forgot that which ought to be the first step of all who pretend to reform others for none could be worse than himself was He lived in great Luxury and in an insolent Affectation of the highest Statepossible many of his Domesticks being men of the first Rank He intended to suppress many Monasteries and thought the best way for doing it with the least Scandal was first to visit them and so to expose their Corruptions But he was afterwards diverted from this yet the design which he laid being communicated to Cromwel that was then his Secretary it was put in Practice toward the end of this Reign when the Monasteries were all suppressed The Convocations were of two sorts The summoning of Convocations some were summoned by the King when Parliaments were called as is in use to this Day only the King did not then prefix a Day but left that to the Arch-bishops Others were called by the Archbishops and were Provincial Synods of which there were but few The Cardinal pretended that the summoning all Convocations belonged to him as Legate so that when Warham had called one he dissolved it after it was met and summoned it of new In that Convocation a great Supply was granted to the King of half a Years Rent of all Benefices payable in five Years for assisting him in his Wars with France and Scotland This was much opposed by the Cardinal's Enemies but it was agreed to at last a Proviso being made that such a heavy tax should never be made a Precedent for the future tho the Grant they made was more likely to become a Precedent than this Proviso to be a Security for the time to come This encreased the Aversion the Clergy had for the Cardinal the Monks were more particularly incensed for they saw he was resolved to suppress their Foundations and convert them to other uses In the days of King Edgar most of the Cathedrals of England were possessed by Secular Priests The State of the Monasteries who were generally married but Dunstan and some other Monks took advantage from the Vices of that Prince to perswade him to make Compensation for them and as he made Laws in which he declared what Compensations were to be made for Sins both by the Rich and Poor so it seems he thought the
Brittish Monks were is not well known The State of the Monasteries in England whether they were governed according to the Rules of the Monks of Egypt or France is matter of Conjecture They were in all things obedient to their Bishops as all the Monks of the Primitive Times were But upon the Confusions which the Gothick Wars brought upon Italy Benedict set up a new Order with more Artificial Rules for its Government Not long after Gregory the Great raised the Credit of that Order much by his Books of Dialogues and Austin the Monk being sent by him to convert England did found a Monastery at Canterbury that carried his Name which both the King and Austin exempted from the Arch-bishop's Jurisdiction But there is great reason to suspect that most of those Antient Charters were forged After that many other Abbies were founded and exempted by the Kings of England if Credit is due to the Leiger Books or Chartularies of the Monasteries In the end of the eighth Century the Danes made Descents upon England and finding the most Wealth and the least Resistance in the Monasteries they generally plundered them in so much that the Monks were forced to quit their Seats and they left them to the Secular Clergy so that in King Edgar's time there was scarce a Monk left in all England He was a leud and cruel Prince and Dunstan and other Monks taking Advantage from some horrours of Conscience that he fell under perswaded him that the restoring the Monastick State would be matter of great Merit so he converted many of the Chapters into Monasteries and by the Foundation of the Priory of Worcester it appears he had then founded 47 and intended to raise them to 50 the number of Pardon tho the Invention of Jubilees being so much later gives occasion to believe this was also a Forgery He only exempted his Monasteries from all Payments to the Bishops but others were exempted from Episcopal Jurisdiction In some only the Precinct was exempted in others the Exemption was extended to all the Lands or Churches belonging to them The latest Exemption from Episcopal Jurisdiction granted by any King is that of Battel founded by William the Conquerour After this the Exemptions were granted by the Popes who pretending to an Universal Jurisdiction assumed this among other Usurpations Some Abbies had also the Priviledg of being Sanctuaries to all that fled to them The Foundation of all their Wealth was the belief of Purgatory and of the Virtue that was in Masses to redeem Souls out of it and that these eased the Torments of departed Souls and at last delivered them out of them so it past among all for a piece of Piety to Parents and of care for their own Souls and Families to endow those Houses with some Lands upon condition that they should have Masses said for them as it was agreed on more or less frequently according to the measure of the Gift This was like to have drawn in the whole Wealth of the Nation into those Houses if the Statute of Mortmain had not put some restraint to that Superstition They also perswaded the World that the Saints interceded for them and would take it kindly at their hands if they made great Offerings to their Shrines and would thereupon intercede the more earnestly for them The credulous Vulgar measuring the Court of Heaven by those on Earth believed Presents might be of great Efficacy there and thought the new Favourites would have the most Weight in their Intercessions So upon every new Canonization there was a new Fit of Devotion towards the last Saint which made the elder to grow almost out of request Some Images were believed to have an extraordinary Virtue in them and Pilgrimages to these were much extolled There was also great Rivalry among the several Orders and different Houses of the same Orders every one magnifying their own Saints their Images and Relicks most The Wealth of these Houses brought them under great Corruptions They were generally very dissolute and grosly ignorant Their Priviledges were become a publick Grievance and their Lives gave great Scandal to the World So that as they had found it easy to bear down the Secular Clergy when their own Vices were more secret the begging Friers found it as easy to carry the Esteem of the World from them These under the Appearance of Poverty and course Diet and Cloathing gained much Esteem and became almost the only Preachers and Confessors then in the World They had a General at Rome from whom they received such Directions as the Popes sent them so that they were more useful to the Papacy then the Monks had been They had also the School-Learning in their hands so that they were generally much cherished But they living much in the World could not conceal their Vices so artificially as the Monks had done and tho several Reformations had been made of their Orders yet they had all fallen under great Scandal and a general Disesteem The King intended to erect new Bishopricks and in order to that it was necessary to make use of some of their Revenues He also apprehended a War from the Emperour and for that end he intended to fortify his Harbours and to encourage Shipping and Trade upon which the Ballance of the World began then to turn And in order to that he resolved to make use of the Wealth of those Houses and thought the best way to bring that into his hands would be to expose their Vices that so they might quite lose the Esteem they might yet be in with some and so it might be less dangerous to suppress them Cranmer promoted this much both because these Houses were founded on gross Abuses and subsisted by them and these were necessary to be removed if a Reformation went on The Extent of many Diocesses was also such that one man could not oversee them so he intended to have more Bishopricks founded and to have Houses at every Cathedral for the Education of those who should be imploied in the Pastoral Charge The Visitors went over England and found in many places monstrous Disorders The Sin of Sodom was found in many Houses great Factions and Barbarous Cruelties were in others and in some they found Tools for Coining The Report contained many abominable things that are not fit to be mentioned Some of these were printed but the greatest part is lost only a Report of 144 Houses is yet extant The first House that was surrendered to the King Some Houses surrendered was Langden in Kent the Abbot was found a Bed with a Whore who went in the Habit of a Lay Brother This perhaps made him more willing to give an Example to the rest so he and ten of his Monks signed a Resignation of their House to the King Two other Houses in the same County Folkeston and Dover followed their Example And in the following Year four other Houses made the like Surrenders and these were all that I find
2. That Christ was entirely in each kind and so Communion in both was not necessary 3. That Priests by the Law of God ought not to marry 4. That Vows of Chastity taken after the Age of 21 ought to be kept 5. That Private Masses were lawful and useful 6. That Auricular Confession was necessary and ought to be retained Such as did speak or write agaist the first of these were to be burned without the benefit of Abjuration and it was made Felony to dispute against the other five and such as did speak against them were to be in a Premunire for the first Offence the second was made Felony Married Priests that did not put away their Wives were to be condemned of Fellony in those that lived incontinently the first Offence was a Premunire and the second Felony Women that offended were to be punished as the Priests were Those that contemned Confession and the Sacrament and abstained from it at the accustomed times were for the first Offence in a Premunire the second was Felony Proceedings were to be made in the Forms of Common Law by Presentments and a Jury and all Church-men were charged to read the Act in their Churches once a Quarter This Act was received with great Joy by all the Popish Party Censures past upon it they reckoned that now Heresy would be extirpated and that the King was as much engaged against it as he was when he writ against Luther this made the Suppression of the Monasteries pass much the easier The poor Reformers were now exposed to the Rage of their Enemies and had no Comfort from any part of it but one that they were not delivered up to the Cruelty of the Ecclesiastical Courts or the Trials ex Officio but were to be tried by Juries yet the denying the benefit of Abjuration was a Severity without a Precedent and was a forcing Martyrdom on them since they were not to be the better for their Apostacy It was some Satisfaction to the married Clergy that the incontinent Priests were to be so severely punished which Cromwell put in and the Clergy knew not how they could decently oppose it Upon the passing the Act the German Ambassadours being set on to it by those that favoured their Doctrine in England desired an Audience of the King and told him of the Grief with which their Masters would receive the News of this Act and therefore earnestly press'd him to stop the Execution of it The King answered that he found it necessary to have the Act made for repressing the Insolence of some People but assured them it should not be put in Execution except upon great Provocation When the Princes heard of the Act they writ to the King to the same purpose they warned him of many Bishops that were about him who in their Hearts loved Popery and all the old Abuses and took this method to force the King to return back to the former Yoke hoping that if they once made him cruel to all those they called Hereticks it would be easy to bring him back to submit to that Tyranny which he had shaken off and therefore they proposed a Conference between some Divines of both sides in order to an Agreement of Doctrine The King was only concerned upon State Maxims to keep up their League in Opposition to the Emperour but they still press'd a Religious as well as a Civil League After the Act of the six Articles An Act for suppressing the Monasteries the Act for suppressing the Monasteries was brought in and tho there were so many Abbots sitting in the House none of them protested against it By it no Monastery was suppressed but only the Resignations made or to be made were confirmed and the King 's Right founded either on their Surrenders Forfeitures or Attainders of Treason was declared good in Law Houses surrendred were to be managed by the Court of Augmentations but those seized on by Attainders were to come to the Exchequer All Persons except the Founders and Donors were to have the same Rights to the Lands belonging to these Houses that they had before this Act was made All Deeds and Leases made for a Year before this to the prejudice of these Houses were annulled and all the Churches belonging to them and formerly exempted were put under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop or of such as should be appointed by the King This last Proviso has produced a great Mischief in this Church for many that purchased Abby-Lands had this Clause put in their Grants that they should be the Visitors of the Churches and by this they continue still exempted from the Episcopal Jurisdiction and this has emboldened many to break out into great Scandals which have been made use of by prejudiced Men to cast an Obloquy on the Church tho this Disorder proceeds only from the want of Authority in the Bishops to censure them A Question was raised upon this Suppression whether the Lands should have reverted to the Donors or been escheated to the Crown By a Judgment of the Roman Senate in Theodosius's time all the Endowments of the Heathenish Temples were given to the Fisc and tho the Heirs of the Donors pretended to them yet it was said that by the Gifts that their Ancestors made they were totally alienated from them and their Heirs When the Order of the Templers was suppressed their Lands went to the Lord by an Escheat This might seem reasonable in Endowments that were simple Gifts without any Conditions But the Grants to Religious Houses were of the nature of Covenants given in consideration of the Masses that were to be said for them and their Families and therefore it was inferred that when the Cheat of redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was discovered and these Houses were suppress'd then the Lands ought to revert to the Heirs of the Donors and upon that account it was thought necessary to exclude them by a special Proviso Another Bill was brought in An Act for new Bishopricks empowering the King to erect new Bishopricks by his Letters Patents it was read three times in one day in the House of Lords The Preamble set forth that the ill Lives of those that were called Religious made it necessary to change thir Houses to better Uses for teaching the Word of God instructing of Children educating of Clerks relieving of old infirm People the endowing of Readers for Greek Latine and Hebrew mending of High-ways and the bettering the Condition of the Parish Priests and for this end the King was empowered to erect new Sees and to assign what Limits and Divisions and appoint them what Statutes he pleased I have seen the first Draught of this Preamble all written with the King 's own Hand and indeed he used extraordinary Care in corecting both Acts of Parliament and Proclamations with his own Hand All Papers in matters of Religion that were set out by publick Authority in this Reign were revised by him and in many places large
Author of it would certainly be hanged So when the Secretary came to ask for it and said it was the Arch-bishop's Book the other that was an obstinate Papist refused to give it and reckoned that now Cranmer would be certainly ruined but the Secretary acquainting Cromwell with it he called for him next day and chid him severely for presuming to keep a Privy-Counsellours Book and so he took it out of his Hands thus Cranmer was delivered out of this Danger Shaxton and Latimer not only resigned their Bishopricks but being presented for some Words spoken against the six Articles they were put in Prison where they lay till a recantation discharged the one and the King's Death set the other at liberty There were about 500 others presented on the same account but upon the Intercessions of Cranmer Cromwell and others they were set at liberty and there was a stop put to the further Execution of the Act till Cromwell fell The Bishops of the Popish Party took strange Methods to insinuate themselves into the King's Confidence Bishops hold their Sees at the King's Pleasure for they took out Commissions by which they acknowledged That all Jurisdiction Civil and Ecclesiastical flowed from the King and that they exercised it only at the King's Courtesy and as they had of his Bounty so they would be ready to deliver it up when he should be pleased to call for it and therefore the King did empower them in his stead to ordain give Institution and do all the other parts of the Episcopal Function which was to last during his Pleasure and a mighty charge was given them to ordain none but Persons of great Integrity good Life and well learned for since the Corruption of Religion flowed from ill Pastors so the Reformation of it was to be expected chiefly from good Pastors By this they were made indeed the King's Bishops in this Bonner set an Example to the rest but it does not appear that Cranmer took out any such Commission all this Reign Now came on the total Dissolution of the Abbies All the Monasteries supprest 57 surrenders were made this Year of which 30 are yet extant of these 37 were Monasteries and 20 were Nunneries and among them 12 were Parliamentary Abbies which were in all 28 Abington St. Albans St. Austin's Canterbury Battell St. Bennets in the Holm Bardeny Cirencester Colchester Coventry Croyland St. Edmundsbury Evesham Glassenbury Gloceste Hide Malmsbury St. Mary's in York Peterborough Ramsey Reading Selby Shrewsbury Tavestock Tewkesbury Thorney Waltham Westminster and Winchelcomb When all had thus resigned Commissioners were appointed by the Court of Augmentations to seize on the Revenues and Goods belonging to these Houses to establish the Pensions that were to be given to every one that had been in them and to pull down the Churches or such other parts of the Fabrick as they thought superfluous and to sell the Materials of them When this was done others began to get Hospitals to be surrendred to the King Thirleby being Master of St. Thomas Hospital in Southwark was the first that set an Example to the rest he was soon after made a Bishop and turned with every Change that followed till Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and then he refused to comply tho he had gone along with all the Changes that were made in King Edward's time The valued Rents of the Abby-Lands as they were then let was 132607 l. 6 s. 4 d. but they were worth above ten times so much in true value The King had now in his hand the greatest Advantage that ever King of England had both for enriching the Crown and making Royal Foundations But such was his Easiness to his Courtiers and his Lavishness that all this melted away in a few Years and his Designs were never accomplished he intended to have founded 18 new Bishopricks but he founded only six Other great Projects did also become abortive In particular one that was designed by Sir Nicholas Bacon which was a Seminary for States-men he proposed the crecting a House for Persons of Quality or of extraordinary Endowments for the study of the Civil Law and of the Latine and French Tongues of whom some were to be sent with every Ambassadour beyond Sea to be improved in the Knowledg of Forreign Assairs in which they should be imploied as they grew capable of them And others were to be set to work to write the History of the Trasactions abroad and of Assairs at home This was to supply one Loss that was like to follow on the Fall of Abbies for in most of them there was kept a Chronicle of the Times These were written by Men that were more credulous than judicious and so they are often more particular in the recital of Trifles than of important Affairs and an invincible Humour of lying when it might raise the Credit of their Order or House runs through all their Manuscripts All the Ground that Cranmer gained this Year in which there was so much lost was a Liberty that all private Persons might have Bibles in their House the managing of which was put in Cromwell's Hands by a special Patent Gardiner opposed it vehemently and built much on this that without Tradition it was impossible to understand the meaning of the Scriptures and one day before the King he challenged Cranmer to shew any Difference between the Scriptures and the Apostles Canons It is not known how Cranmer managed the Debate but the Issue of it was this The King judged in his Favours and said He was an old experienced Captain and ought not to be troubled by fresh Men and Novices The King was now resolved to marry again and both the Emperour and the King of France proposed Matches to him but they came to no Effect The Emperour endeavoured by all means possible to separate the King from the Princes of the Smalcaldick League and the Act of the six Articles had done that already in a great measure for they complained much of the King's Severity in those Points which were the principal Parts of their Doctrine such as Communion in both kinds Private Masses and the Marriage of the Clergy Gardiner studied to animate the King much against them he often told him it was below his Dignity to suffer dull Gâ—rrâ—ans to dictate to him and he suggested that they who would not acknowledg the Emperours Supremacy in the matters of Religion could not be hearty Friends to the Authority which the King had assumed in them But the Germans did not look on the Emperour as their Soveraign but only as the Head of the Empire and they did believe that every Prinee in his Dominions and the Diet for the whole Empire had sufficient Authority for making Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs but what other Considerations could not induce the King to was like to be more powerfully carried on by the Match with Anne of Cleve which was now set on foot There had been a Treaty between her Father and
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
received the new Opinions Seaton a Dominican the King's Confessor preaching in Lent set out the Nature of true Repentance and the Method to it without mixing the Directions which the Friars commonly gave on that Subject and when another Friar shewed the defectiveness of what he had taught he defended himself in another Sermon and reflected on those Bishops that did not preach and called them dumb Dogs But the Clergy would not meddle with him till they found him in ill Terms with the King and the freedom he used in reproving him for his Vices quickly alienated the King from him upon which they resolved to fall on him but he withdrew into England and wrote to the King taxing the Clergy for their Cruelty and praying him to restrain it One Forrest an ignorant Benedictine was accused for having spoken Honourably of Patrick Hamilton and was put in Prison In Confession to a Friar he acknowledged he thought he was a good Man and that the Articles for which he was condemned might be defended The Friar discovered this and it was received as Evidence and upon it he was condemned and burnt Divers others were brought into the Bishop's Courts of whom the greatest part abjured but two were more resolute one Gourley denied Purgatory and the Pope's Authority another was David Smiton who being a Fisherman had refused to pay the Tithe of his Fish and when the Vicar came to take them he said the Tithe was taken where the Stock grew and therefore he threw the tenth Fish into the Sea For this and other Opinions he was condemned and they were both burnt at one Stake Several others were accused of whom some fled to England and others went over to Germany The Changes made in England raised in all the People a curiosity of searching into matters of Religion and that was always fatal to Superstition Pope Clement the 7th wrote earnestly to the King of Scotland to continue firm to the Catholick Faith Upon which he called a Parliament and made new Laws for maintaining the Pope's Authority and proceeding against Hereticks yet the Pope could not engage him to make War on England King Henry sent Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to him with some Books that were written in Defence of his Proceedings and desired him to examine them Impartially He also proposed the Enterview at York and a Match between him and Lady Mary the King 's eldest Daughter and promised that he should be made Duke of York and Lord Lieutenant of the whole Kingdom Yet the Clergy diverted him from this and perswaded him to go in Person to France and court the Daughter of that King Magdalene He married her in January 1537 but she died in May. She had been bred in the Queen of Navarre's Court and so was well disposed towards the Reformation Upon her Death the King married Mary of Guise she was a Branch of the Family of all Europe that was most zealously addicted to the old Superstition and her Interest joined with the Clergy's engaged the King to become a violent Persecuter of all that were of another mind The King was very expensive both in his Pleasures and Buildings and had a numerous Race of Bastards A Persecution set on foot in Scotland so that he came to want Mony much The Nobility proposed to him the seizing on the Abbey-Lands as his Uncle had done The Clergy on the other hand advised him to proceed severely against all suspected of Heresy By which means according to the Lists they shewed him he might raise 100000 Crowns a Year They also advised him to provide his Children to Abbies and Priories and represented to him That if he continued stedfast in the old Religion he would still have a great Party in England and might be made the Head of a League which was then in Project against King Henry This so far prevailed with him that as he made four of his Sons Abbots and Priors so he gave way to the persecuting Spirit of the Clergy Upon which many were cited to answer for Heresy of these many abjured and some were banisht A Canon Regular a Secular Priest two Friars and a Gentleman were burnt Forrest the Canon Regular had been reproved by his Ordinary the Bishop of Dunkell for meddling with the Scriptures too much He told him he had lived long and had never known what was in the Old or New Testament but contented himself with his Portoise and Pontifical and that he might come to repent it if he troubled himself with such Fancsies The Archbishop of Glasgow was a very moderate Man and disliked cruel Proceedings Russel a Friar and Kennedy a young Man of 18 Years of Age were brought before him they expressed wonderful Joy and a steady Resolution in their Sufferings And after a long dispute between Russel and the Bishop's Divines Russel concluded This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness go on and fill up the Measures of your Iniquities The Archbishop was unwilling to give Sentence he said he thought these Executions did the Church more Hurt than Good But those about him told him He must not take a Way different from the rest of the Bishops and threatned him so that he pronounced Sentence They were burned but they gave such Demonstrations of Patience and Joy as made no small Impression on all that saw it or heard of it Among those that were in trouble George Buchanan was one who at the King's Instigations had writ a very sharp Poem against the Franciscans but was now abandoned by him He made his Escape and lived 20 Years in Forraign Parts and at last returned to do his Country Honour and what by his Immortal Poems what by his History of Scotland he shewed both how great a Master he was in the Roman Tongue and how true a Judge he was both in Wit and in the Knowledge of Human Affairs if Passion had not corrupted him towards the end of his History that he is justly to be reckoned the greatest and best of the Modern Writers So much of the Affairs of Scotland the Author 's Native Country King Henry stayed not long at York The Queen 's ill Life is discovered since his Nephew came not to him He set out a Proclamation there inviting all that had been of late oppressed to come in and make their Complaints and he promised to repair them This was done to cast the Load of all past Errours upon Cromwel The King was mightily wrought on by the Charms of his Wife so that on the First of November he gave publick thanks to God for the happy Choice he had made But this did not last long for the next day Cranmer came and gave him an account of the Queen 's ill Life which one Lassells had revealed to him as having learnt it from his Sister She had been very lewd before her Marriage both with one Deirham and one Mannock Cranmer by the Advice of the other Privy Counsellors put this in Writing
Bishops and the Psalter and other Rudiments of Religion in English All Church-men that preached contrary to that Book for the first Offence were only required to recant for the second to abjure and carry a Faggot but were to be burnt for the third the Laity for the third Offence were only to forfeit their Goods and Chattels and to be liable to perpetual Imprisonment but they were to be proceeded against within a Year The Parties accused were not allowed Witnesses for their Purgation The Act of the six Articles was confirmed and it was left free to the King to change this Act or any Proviso in it There was also a new Act past giving Authority to the King's Proclamations and any nine Privy Counsellours were empowered to proceed against Offenders To this the Lord Mountjoy dissented and it is the only Instance of any Protestation against any of the publick Acts that past in this whole Reign By the Act about Religion as the Laity were delivered from the fear of Burning so the Clergy might not be burnt but upon the third Conviction The Act being also put entirely in the King's Power he had now the Reformers all at mercy for he could bind up the Act or execute it as he pleased and he affected this much to have his People depend entirely upon him The League offensive and defensive for England and Calais and for the Netherlands was sworn by the King and the Emperour and Assurances were given that tho the King would not declare Lady Mary legitimate upon which the Emperour insisted much yet she should be put in the Succession to the Crown next Prince Edward The Emperour was glad thus to engage the Kings of England and France in a War by which the Germans were left without Support and so he resolved to carry on his great design of making himself Master of Germany In Scotland the Earl of Arran Affairs in Scotland Hamilton next in Blood to the young Queen was established in the Government during the Queen's Minority he was a Man of great Vertue and much inclined to the Reformation but was soft and easie to be wrought on King Henry sent Sir Ralph Sadler to him to induce him to set forward the Match and to offer him Lady Elizabeth to his Son It was agreed and confirmed in Parliament that the Young Queen should be bred in Scotland till she was ten Years old the King of England sending a Nobleman and his Lady with others not exceeding twenty to wait on her and after that Age she was to be sent to England and in the mean while six Hostages were to be given but all the Clergy headed by Cardinal Beaton set themselves much against this The Queen-Mother opposed it much and it was also said a Match with the French would be more for the Interest of the Nation who being at so great a distance could not oppress them so easily as the English might for if the French opprest them the English would be ready to protect them but if they came under the Yoke of England they could expect no Protection from any other Prince This meeting with that Antipathy that was then formed between the two Nations and being inflamed by the Clergy turned the People generally to prefer a Match with France to that which was proposed for the Prince of Wales The French sent over the Earl of Lennox to make a Party against the Governour they sent also over the Governour 's Base-Brother afterwards made Arch-bishop of St. Andrews to take him out of the hands of the English and he made him apprehend great danger if he went on in his Opposition to the Interests of Rome that he would be declared illegitimate as being begotten in a second Marriage while the first that was annulled because of a Precontract did subsist for if the annulling the first should be reversed then the second could be of no force and if that were once done the Earl of Lennox who was next to him in blood would be preferred to him These threatnings joyned with his Brother 's Artifices had their full Effect on him for he turned off wholly from the Interests of England and gave himself up to the French Councils When it was thus resolved to break the Match with England the Lords that had left Hostages for their faithful performing the Promises they made to King Henry were little concerned either in their own Honour or in the safety of their Hostages only the Earl of Cassilis thought it was unworthy of him to break his Faith in such a manner so he came into England and put himself in King Henry's Hands who upon that called him another Regulus but used him better for he gave him his Liberty and a Noble Present and sent him back with his Hostages but resolved to take a severe Reparation of those who had failed him in that Kingdom At the same time he began the War with France one of the Reasons he gave for it was that Francis had failed in the matter of shaking off the Pope's Authority and advancing a Reformation in which he had promised to second him The King married Katherine Parre Some burnt at Windsor Widow to Nevill Lord Latimer She secretly favoured the Reformation but could not divert a Storm which fell then on a Society at Windsor Person a Priest Testwood and Marbeck two Singing-men and Filmer one of the Town were informed against by Dr. London who had insinuated himself much into Cromwel's Favour and was eminently zealous in the Suppression of the Monasteries But now he made his Court no less dextrously to the Popish Party Gardiner moved in Council That a Commission might be granted for searching all suspected Houses for Books written against the six Articles So the four before mentioned were found to have some of them and upon that account were seized on Sir Philip Hobbey and Dr. Hains Dean of Exeter were also put in Prison There was a Concordance of the Bible and some Notes upon it in English found written by Marbeck which was look'd on as the Work of some learned Man for it was known that he was illiterate Marbeck said the Notes were his own gathered by him out of such Books as he fell on And for the Concordance he said he compiled it by the help of a Latin Concordance and an English Bible tho he understood little Latin He had brought it to the Letter L. This seemed so incredible that it was look'd on only as a Pretence to conceal the true Author so to try him they gave him some Words of the Letter M and shut him up with a Latin Concordance and an English Bible and by his Performance in that they clearly saw that the whole Work was his own and were not a little astonished at the Ingeniousness and Diligence of so poor a Man When the King heard of it he said Marbeck was better imployed than they were that examined him So he was preserved tho the other
they did cruelly and treacherously murder him and laid out his Body in the same Window from which he had looked on Wisharts Execution Some few justified this Fact as the killing of a Robber and Murderer but it was more generally condemned by all sorts of People even by those who hated him most yet the Accomplishment of Wishart's Prediction made great Impressions on many On the other hand it was afterwards observed that scarce any of the Conspirators died an ordinary Death They kept out the Castle and about 140 came in to them and they held it near two Years being assisted both by Mony and Provisions that were sent from England They had also the Govenour at their Mercy for they kept his eldest Son whom the Cardinal had taken into his Care for his Education An Absolution was brought from Rome and a Pardon was offered them and at last being straitned both at Sea and Land they rendred the Place upon Assurance of Life This Infamous Action was a great Blemish upon the Reformers who tho they did not directly justify it yet extenuated it and gave it some Countenance for two of them went in and preached to the Garrison in the Castle In England a Parliament met Chantries given to the King in which as the Spiritualty gave a Subsidy of six Shillings in the Pound payable in two Years so the Temporalty not only gave a Subsidy for the War but confirmed all the Surrenders that had been made of Chantries Chappels Colledges Hospitals and other Foundations for saying Masses for departed Souls and they empowered the King during his Life to grant Commissions for seizing on the rest of them Yet the King found this was like to give new Discontent to the Gentry to whom these belonged so he made but a small Progress in it and many were reserved to his Sons Courtiers to feed on The King dismissed the Parliament with a long Speech In which after he had thanked them for their Bills he exhorted them to Charity and Concord in matters of Religion and to forbear all Terms of Reproach such as Papist and Heretick he complained much of the Stifness of some Church-men and of the Indiscretion of others who both gave ill Example and sowed the Seeds of Discord among the Laity He as God's Vicar thought himself bound to see these things corrected he reproved the Temporalty for the ill use they made of the Scripture for instead of being taught out of it to live better and to be more charitable to one another they only railed at one another and made Songs out of it to disgrace those that differed from them so he exhorted them to serve God and love one another which he would esteem the best Expression of their Duty and Obedience to him The King had appointed a Distribution of 550 l. a year in several Cathedrals for the Poor and about 400 l. for High-ways so this Year some Bishops were appointed to see whether those Payments were made as he had ordered or not The Universities were now in danger of having their Colledges supprest but upon their Applications to the King they were delivered from their Fears Now came on the last Year of this Reign A Peace with France the War with France was this Year unsuccesful but upon the Earl of Surrey's being recalled and the Earl of Hartford's being sent in his room things turned a little This raised such Animosity between those two Lords that they became fatal to the former The two Kings were at last brought to consent to a Peace the main Article of it was that within eight Years Bulloigne should be delivered up the taking and keeping of which cost England 1300000 l. Upon this Peace Annebault the French Admiral was sent over Ambassadour The Council of Trent was now sitting Pool was made a Legate to do the King the more Spite the Emperour and the Pope governed it as they pleased so the two Crowns resolved to unite more firmly particularly it was proposed that the Mass should be turned to a Communion and Cranmer was ordered to prepare the Office for it But this was too great a Design for two old Kings to accomplish There was at this time a new Prosecution of those that denied the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament Anne Aiscough and others burnt Shaxton was accused of some Words about it but he abjured and complied so entirely that soon after he preached the Sermon at the burning of Anne Aiscough he made no noise all King Edward's time yet in Queen Mary's Reign he was a Persecutor of Protestants but was so little esteemed that tho he had been Bishop of Salisbury he was raised no higher than to be Bishop Suffragan of Ely Several other Persons were at this time endicted upon the same Statute but most of them recanted Anne Aiscough stood firm she was descended from a good Family and had been well educated but was unhappily married for her Husband being a violent Papist drove her out of his House when he discovered her Inclinations to the Reformation she was put in Prison on the account of the Sacrament but signed a Recantation and so was set at Liberty yet not long after she was committed again upon a new Complaint and was examined before the Privy Council but answered with extraordinary Resolution yet it was thought by some that she was too forward in her manner of speaking she had been much at Court and it was believed she was supported by some Ladies there so in order to the Discovery of this she was carried to the Tower and rack'd yet she confess'd nothing Wriothesly was present and commanded the Lieutenant of the Tower to draw the Rack a little more but he refused to do it upon which the Chancellour laid aside his Gown and drew it himself with so much Force as if he had intended to rend her Body asunder and the Effects of this were so violent that she was not able to go to Smithfield but was carried thither in a Chair when she was burnt Two others were also condemned on the same account and Shaxton to compleat his Apostacy after he had in vain endeavoured to perswade them to abjure preached the Sermon at their Burning in which he inveighed severely against their Errors The Lord Chancellour came to Smithfield and offered them their Pardons if they would recant but they chose rather to glorify God by their Deaths than to dishonour him by so foul an Apostacy There were two burnt in Suffolk and one in Norfolk on the same account this Year But the Popish Party hoped to have greater Sacrifices offered up to their Revenge Designs against Cranmer They had laid a Train last Year for Cranmer and they had laid one now for the Queen They perswaded the King that Cranmer was the Source of all the Heresy that was in England but the King's Partiality to him was such that none would come in against him So they desired that he might be once
begged that he might be heard with his Accusers face to face He prayed that the King would take all his Lands and Goods and only restore him to his Favour and grant him such an Allowance to live on as he thought fit He went further and set his Hand to a Confession of several Crimes as 1. His revealing the Secrets of the King's Council 2. His concealing his Son's Treason in giving the Arms of Edward the Confessor 3. His own giving the Arms of England with the Labels of Silver which belonged only to the Prince which he acknowledged was High Treason and therefore he begged the King's Mercy But all this had no effect on the King tho his drawing so near his end ought to have begot in him a greater regard to the shedding of Innocent Blood When the Parliament met And the Duke attainted by Act of Parliament the King was not able to come to Westminster but he sent his Pleasure to them by a Commission He intended to have Prince Edward Crowned Prince of Wales and therefore desired they would make all possible hast in the Attainder of the Duke of Norfolk that so the Places which he held by Patent might be disposed of to others who should assist at the Coronation which tho it was a very slight Excuse for so high a piece of Injustice yet it had that effect that in seven Days both Houses past the Bill On the 27th of January the Royal Assent was given by those Commissioned by the King and the Execution was ordered to be next Morning There was no special Matter in the Act but that of the Coat of Arms which he and his Ancestors were used to give according to Records in the Herauld's Office so that this was condemned by all Persons as a most Inexcusable Act of Tyranny But the Night after this the King died and it was thought contrary to the Decencies of Government to begin a new Reign with so Unjustifiable an Act as the beheading of the old Duke and so he was preserved Yet both Sides made Inferences from this Calamity that fell on him The Papists said It was God's just Judgment on him for his Obsequiousness to King Henry But the Protestants said It was a just return on him for what he had done against Cromwel and many others on the account of the six Articles Cranmer would not meddle in this Matter but that he might be out of the way he retired to Croydon whereas Gardiner that had been his Friend all along continued still about the Court. The King's Distemper had been growing long upon him He was become so Corpulent that he could not go up and down Stairs but made use of an Ingine The King's Sickness when he intended to walk in his Garden by which he was let down and drawn up He had an old Sore in his Leg that pained him much the Humours of his Body discharging themselves that way till at last all setled in a Dropsy Those about him were afraid to let him know that his Death seemed near lest that might have been brought within the Statute of foretelling his Death which was made Treason His Will was made ready and as it was given out was signed by him on the 30th of December He had made one at his last going over to France All the Change that he made at this time was that he ordered Gardiner's Name to be struck out for in that formerly made he was named one of the Executors When Sir Anthony Brown endeavoured to perswade him not to put that Disgrace on an old Servant he continued positive in it for he said he knew his Temper and could govern him but it would not be in the Power of others to do it if he were put in so high a Trust The most material thing in the Will was the preferring the Children of his second Sister by Charles Brandon to the Children of his eldest Sister the Queen of Scotland in the Succession to the Crown Some Objections were made to the Validity and Truth of the Will It was not signed by the King's Hand as it was directed by the Act of Parliament but only stamped with his Name and it was said this was done when he was dying without any Order given for it by himself for proof of which the Scots that were most concerned appealed to many Witnesses and chiefly to a Deposition which the Lord Paget had made who was then Secretary of State On his Death-bed he finished the Foundation of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge and of Christ's-Church Hospital near Newgate yet this last was not so fully setled as was needful till his Son compleated what he had begun On the 27th of January And Death his Spirits sunk so that it was visible he had not long to live Sir Anthony Denny took the courage to tell him that Death was approaching and desired him to call on God for his Mercy The King exprest in general his Sorrow for his past Sins and his Trust in the Mercies of God in Christ Jesus He ordered Cranmer to be sent for but he was speechless before he could be brought from Croidon yet he gave a Sign that he understood what he said to him and soon after he died in the 57th Year of his Age after he had reigned 37 Years and nine Months His Death was concealed three days for the Parliament which was dissolved with his last Breath continued to do business till the 31st and then his Death was published It is probable the Seimours concealed it so long till they made a Party for the putting the Government into their own Hands The Severities he used against many of his Subjects in matters of Religion An account of his Severities against the Priests made both sides write with great Sharpness of him His Temper was Imperious and Cruel He was both sudden and violent in his Revenges and stuck at nothing by which he could either gratify his Lust or his Passion This was much provoked by the Sentence the Pope thundered against him by the virulent Books Cardinal Pool and others published by the Rebellions that were raised in England and the Apprehensions he was in of the Emperour's Greatness and of the Inclinations his People had to have joined with him together with what he had read in History of the Fates of those Princes against whom Popes had thundered in former times all which made him think it necessary to keep his People under the Terror of a severe Government and by some publick Examples to secure the Peace of the Nation and thereby to prevent a more profuse Effusion of Blood which might have otherwise followed if he had been more gentle And it was no wonder if after the Pope deposed him he proceeded to great Severities against all that which supported that Authority The first Instance of Capital Proceedings upon that account was in Easter-Term 1535 in which three Priors and a Monk of the Carthusian Order The Carthusians
against those who had raised such a Storm in the Kingdom and in particular against those Abbots and Monks who had sworn to maintain his Supremacy and yet were the chief Incendiaries that had set the Kingdom on Fire One Forrest an Observant Friar Forrest was burnt had been Queen Katherin's Confessor but forsook her Interests and not only swore to the King's Supremacy but used such Insinuations that he had a large share of the King's Favour and Confidence He was look'd on as a Reproach to his Order and used great Cruelties in their House at Greenwich He shut up one that he believed gave Intelligence of all they did to the Court and used him so ill that he died in their hands It was also found that in secret Confession he had alienated many from the King's Supremacy and being questioned for it he said he had taken the Oath for it only with his outward Man but his inward Man had never consented to it But he offered to recant and abjure this Opinion yet being afterwards diverted from that he was condemned as an Heretick and was burnt in Smithfield A Pardon was offered him at the Stake if he would recant but he refused it A great Image that was brought out of Wales was hewed in pieces and served for Fewel to burn him The Writers of that time say he denied the Gospel and that he had little Knowledge of God in his Life and shewed less Trust in him at his Death The Winter after this a Correspondence was discovered between Cardinal Pool The Attainders of Cardinal Pool's Friends and Courtney Marquess of Exeter and Pool's Brother the Lord Mountacute and several others It was believed that Sir Geoffrey Pool another of the Brothers betrayed the rest They had expressed some Kindness for the Cardinal and his Proceedings and had said that they looked to see a Change in England and that they hoped the King would die ere long and then all would go well with several other Words to that purpose for which they were Attainted and Executed Others were also condemned for calling the King a Beast and worse than a Beast and that he would be certainly damned for plucking down the Abbies Cardinal Pool and several others that had fled out of the Kingdom and had Confederated themselves with the Pope against the King were also Attainted Sir Nicholas Carew Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garter was likewise condemned for having said that the Attainder of the Marquis of Exeter was cruel and unjust He renounced the Superstitions of Popery and embraced the Reformation before he suffered Attainders in Parliament without hearing the Parties After these Judgments and Executions were over a new and unheard of Precedent was made of Attainting some without bringing them to make their Answers which is a Blemish on this Reign that can never be washed off and was a Breach of the most sacred and unalterable Rules of Justice The first that were so condemned were the Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum Mother to Card. Pool The special Matter charged on the former was her Confederating her self with Sir Nicholas Carew and that against the other was the Confederating with her Son Cardinal Pool No Witnesses were examined to prove these things against them perhaps some Depositions might have been read in Parliament Cromwell shewed a Coat which was found among the Countess of Sarum's Cloaths on which the Standard used by the Yorkshire Rebels was wrought from which it was inferred that she approved of them Fourteen others were Attainted by the same Act six of them were Priests one was a Knight Hospitaller four were Gentlemen one was a Merchant and two were Yeomen all were condemned for Confederating with the Pope or Cardinal Pool or asserting the Pope's Supremacy or endeavouring to raise Rebellion But against four of them there is nothing but Treason in General Words alledged This Bill was past in two days by the Lords and in five by the Commons But of all these only three were executed these were the Countess of Sarum tho not till two Years after this and Sir Adrian Fortescue and Dingley the Knight of St. John of Jerusalem In the Countess of Sarum did the Name of Plantagenet end She was about 70 Years old but shewed that in that Age she had a Vigorous and Masculine Mind In the Parliament that sate in the Year 1540 several others were Attainted in the same manner without being heard and for the same Crimes Fetherston Abel and Powel and six more were so condemned but those three only suffered By another Act of the same Parliament the Lord Hungerford and his Chaplain Bird were Attainted His Chaplain had often Perswaded him to rebel and had said that the King was the greatest Heretick in the World Hungerford had also ordered some of his other Chaplains to use Conjuring that they might know how long the King would live and whether he would be Victorious over his Enemies He was also charged for having lived in Sodomy with several of his Servants three Years together He was soon after executed and died in great disorder In the Year 1541 Five Priests and ten Laymen were stirring up the People in the North to a new Rebellion but it was prevented and they suffered for it In the Year 1543 Gardiner that was the Bishop of Winchester's Secretary and three other Priests were condemned and executed for denying the King's Supremacy and this was the last Occasion that was given to the King to shew his Severity on that account In all these Executions it cannot be denied but the Laws were excessively severe and the Proceedings upon them were never tempered with that Mildness which ought to be often applied for the mitigating the rigour of Penal Laws But tho they are much aggravated by Popish Writers they were far short of the Cruelties used in Queen Mary's Reign To conclude We have now gone through the Reign of King Henry the Eighth who is rather to be reckoned among the Great than the Good Princes He exercised so much Severity on Men of both Perswasions that the Writers of both sides have laid open his Faults and taxed his Cruelty But as neither of them were much obliged to him so none have taken so much care to set forth his good Qualities as his Enemies have done to enlarge on his Vices I do not deny that he is to be numbered among the ill Princes yet I cannot rank him with the worst BOOK II. Book II. Of the Life and Reign of King EDWARD the VI. EDWARD was the only Son of King Henry K. Edwards Birth and education by his best beloved Wife Jane Seimour born the 12th of October 1537. His Mother died the day after he was born of a Distemper incident to Women in her condition and was not ripped up by Chirurgeons as some Writers have reported on design to represent King Henry as barbarous and cruel to all his Wives At six years
of Age he was put into the hands of Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheek the one was to form his mind and to teach him Philosophy and Divinity the other was to teach him the Tongues and Mathematicks other Masters were also appointed for the other parts of his Education He discovered very early a good disposition to Religion and Vertue and a particular Reverence for the Scriptures for he took it very ill when one about him laid a great Bible on the Floor to step up on it to somewhat which was out of his reach without such an advantage He profited well in Letters and wrote at eight Years old Latin Letters frequently both to the King to Q. Katherine Parre to the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Uncle the Earl of Hartford who had been first made Viscount Beauchamp being the Heir by his Mother of that Family and was after that advanced to be an Earl In the end of his Fathers life it had been designed to create him Prince of Wales for that was one of the reasons given to hasten the attainder of the D. of Norfolk because he held some places during life which the King intended to put in other hands in order to that Ceremony Upon his Fathers death the E. of Hartford and Sir Anth. Brown were sent to bring him up to the Tower of London and when King Henry's death was published he was proclaimed King At his coming to the Tower his Fathers Will was opened K. Hen. testament by which it was found that he had named 16. to be the Governors of the Kingdom and of his Sons person till he should be eighteen Years of Age. These were the Archbishops of Canterbury the Lord Wriothesly Lord Chancellor Lord St. John Great Master Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal Earl Hartford Lord Great Chamberlain Vis Lisle Lord Admiral Tonstall B. of Duresme Sir Anth. Brown Master of the Horse Sr Will. Paget Secretary of State Sr Ed. North Chancellour of the Augmentations Sir Ed. Mountague L d Chief Just of the Common Pleas Judge Bromley Sir Anth. Denny and Sir Will. Herbert Chief Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Sr Ed. Wotton Treasurer of Callis Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York They were also to give the Kings Sisters in Marriage and if they married without their consent they were to forfeit their right of succession for the King was Impowered by Act of Parliament to leave the Crown to them with what limitations he should think fit to appoint There was also a Privy Council named to be their Assistants in the Government if any of the 16. died the Survivers were to continue in the Administration without a power to substitute others in their rooms who should die It was now proposed that one should be chosen out of the 16. to whom Ambassadours should address themselves and who should have the chief direction of affairs but should be restrained to do nothing but by the consent of the greater part of the other Co-executors The Chancellor who thought the Precedence fell to him by his Office since the Archbishop did not meddle much in secular Affairs opposed this much and said it was a change of the Kings will who had made them all equal in power and dignity and if any were raised above the rest in Title it would not be possible to keep him within due bounds since great Titles make way for High Power but the Earl of Hartford had so prepared his Friends that it was carried that he should be declared the Governour of the Kings Person and the Protector of the Kingdom A Protector chosen with this restriction that he should do nothing but by the advice and consent of the rest Upon this advancement and the opposition made to it two Parties were formed the one headed by the Protector and the other by the Chancellour the favourers of the Reformation were of the former and those that opposed it were of the latter The Chancellor was ordered to renew the Commissions of the Judges and Justices of Peace and King Henry's great Seal was to be made use of till a new one should be made The day after this all the Executors took their Oaths to execute their trust faithfully the Privy Councellors were also brought into the Kings presence who did all express their satisfaction in the choice that was made of the Protector and it was ordered that all dispatches to foreign Princes should be signed only by him All that held Offices were required to come and renew their Commissions Bishops take out Commissions and to swear Allegiance to the King among the rest the Bishops came and took out such Commissions as were granted in the former Reign only by those they were subaltern to the Kings Vicegerent but there being none now in that Office they were immediately subaltern to the King and by them they were to hold their Bishopricks only during the Kings pleasure and were impowered in the Kings name as his Delegates to perform all the parts of the Episcopal function Cranmer set an Example to the rest in taking out one of those It was thought fit thus to keep the Bishops under the terror of such an Arbitrary power lodged in the King that so it might be more easie to turn them out if they should much oppose what might be done in points of Religion but the ill consequences of such an unlimited power being well foreseen the Bishops that were afterwards promoted were not so fettered but were provided to hold their Bishopricks during life The late King had in his Will required his Executors to perform all the promises he had made A Creation of Noblemen so Paget was required to give an account of the Promises the late King had made and he declared upon Oath that upon the prospect of the attainder of the D. of Norfolk the King intended a Creation of Peers and to divide his Lands among them the Persons to be raised were Hartford to be a Duke Essex a Marquess Lisle Russel St. John and Wriothesly to be Earls Sir Tho. Seimour Cheyney Rich Willoughby Arundell Sheffield St. Leger Wymbish Vernon and Danby to be Barons and a division was to be made of the Duke of Norfolks Estate among them some shares were also set off for others who were not to be advanced in Title as Denny and Herbert and they finding Paget had been mindful of them but had not mentioned himself had moved the King for a share to him The King appointed Paget to give notice of this to the Persons named but many excused themselves and desired no addition of honor since the Lands which the King intended to give them were not sufficient to support that dignity The Duke of Norfolk prevented all this for being apprehensive of the ruine of his Family if his Estate were once divided he sent a message to the King desiring him to convert it all to be a Revenue to the Prince of Wales This wrought so much on the
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
the Bishop to be proceeded in by him only with the assistance of his Clergy and this fatal errour then committed has not yet met with an effectual regulation Another Act was made against idle Vagabonds An Act against Vagabonds that they should be made slaves for two years by any that should seize on them This was chiefly designed against some Vagrant Monks as appears by the Proviso's in the Act for they went about the Countrey infusing in the People a dislike of the Government The severity of this Act made that the English Nation which naturally abhors slavery did not care to execute it and this made that the other Proviso's for supplying those that were truly indigent and were willing to be imployed had no effect But as no Nation has better and more merciful Laws for the supply of the Poor so the fond pity that many shew to the common Beggars which no Laws have been able to restrain makes that a sort of dissolute and idle Beggars intercept much of that Charity which should go to the relief of those that are indeed the only proper objects of it An Act for dissolving the Changries After this came the Act for giving the King all those Chantries which the late King had not seized on by Vertue of the Grant made to him of them Cranmer opposed this much for the poverty of the Clergy was such that the State of Learning and Religion was like to suffer much if it should not be relieved and yet he saw no probable Fond for that but the preserving these till the King should come to be at Age and allow the selling them for buying in of at least such a share of the Impropriations as might afford some more comfortable subsistence to the Clergy yet though he and seven other Bishops dissented it was past After all other Acts a General Pardon but clogged with some Exceptions came last some Acts were proposed but not past one was for the free use of the Scriptures others were for a Court of Chancery in Ecclesiastical Causes for Residence and for a Reformation of the Courts of Common Law The Convocation fits The Convocation sat at the same time and moved that a Commission begun in the late Reign of thirty two Persons for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws might be revived and that the inferiour Clergy might be admitted to sit in the House of Commons for which they alledged a Clause in the Bishops Writ and Ancient Custome and since some Prelates had under the former Reign begun to alter the form of the Service of the Church they desired it might be brought to perfection and that some care might be had of supplying the poor Clergy and relieving them from the Taxes that lay on them This concerning the inferiour Clergy's sitting in the House of Commons was the subject of some debate and was again set on foot both under Queen Elizabeth and King James but to no effect Some pretended that they always sat in the House of Commons till the submission made in the former Reign upon the suit of the Praemunire but that cannot be true since in this Convocation 17. years after that in which many that had been in the former were present no such thing was alledged It is not clear who those Proctors of the Clergy that sat in Parliament were if they were the Bishops assistants it is more proper to think they sat in the House of Lords No mention is made of them as having a share in the Legislative Authority in our Records except in the 21. of Richard the 2d In which mention is made both of the Commons the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Proctors of the Clergy concurring to the Acts then made which makes it seem most probable that they were the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation When the Parliament met antiently all in one Body the inferiour Clergy had their Writs and came to it with the other Freeholders but when the two Houses were separated the Clergy became also a distinct body and gave their own Subsidies and medled in all the concerns and represented all the grievances of the Church But now by the Act made upon the submission of the Clergy in the last Reign their power was reduced almost to nothing so they thought it reasonable to desire that either they might have their Representatives in the House of Commons or at least that matters of Religion should not pass without the assent of the Clergy But the raising the Ecclesiastical authority too high in former times made this turn that it was now depressed as much below its just limits as it was before exalted above them as commonly one extreme produces another It was resolved that some Bishops and Divines should be sent to Windsor to finish some Reformations in the publick Offices for the whole lower House of Convocation without a contradictory Vote agreed to the Bill about the Sacrament But it is not known what opposition it met with in the Upper House A Proposition being also set on foot concerning the lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy thirty five subscribed to the affirmative and only fourteen held the Negative And thus ended this Session both of Parliament and Convocation And the Protector being now established in his power and received by a Parliament without contradiction took out a new Commission in which besides his former authority he was impowered to substitute one in his room during his absence In Germany the Princes of the Smalcaldick League were quite ruined The affairs of Germany the Duke of Saxe was defeated and taken Prisoner and used with great severity and scorn which he bare with an invincible greatness of mind The Landgrave was perswaded to submit and had assurances of liberty given him but by a trick unbecoming the greatness of the Emperour he was seized on and kept Prisoner contrary to faith given upon this all the Princes and Towns except Magdeburg and Brome submitted and purchased their pardon at what terms the Conquerour was pleased to impose The Bishop and Elector of Colen withdrew peaceably to a retirement in which after four years he died and now all Germany was at the Emperours mercy Some Cathedrals as that at Ausburg were again restored to the Bishops and Mass was said in them A Diet was also held in which the Emperor obtain'd a Decree to pass by which matters of Religion were referred wholly to his care The Pope instead of rejoycing at this blow given the Lutherans was much troubled at it for the Emperour had now in one Year made an end of a War which he hoped would have Imbroiled him his whole life so that Italy was now more at his mercy than ever and it seemed the Emperour intended to inlarge his Conquests there for the Pope's Natural Son being killed by a Conspiracy the Governour of Milan seized on Placentia which gave the Pope some jealousie as if the Emperour had been privy to
Aldernay and Sark two small Islands in the Channel which the French desired and at the delivering up of Roxburgh and Aymouth to the Scots then in the hands of the English The Council ordered their Commissioners to insist on these things and to offer to break up their Conference rather than yield to them but if that had no effect on the French then they were to let them go In Conclusion the English after a Protestation by which they reserved to the King all the rights that he had at the beginning of the War agreed to deliver up Bulloign and all the places about it and all the Ordnance in it except what the English had cast for which the French were to pay them four hundred thousand Crowns All the places which the English had in Scotland were to be delivered up and the Forts razed and six Hostages were to be given on both sides for the performance who were the Sons of the men of the greatest quality So was the Peace fully concluded and the Articles were duly performed on both hands The Council approved of the proceedings of their Plenipotentiaries only the Earl of Warwick who had declared himself much against the delivery of Bulloign pretended sickness and was absent At this time the Earl of Warwick ordered a review to be made of all accounts and brought in much money by the Fines of those who were accused for Malversation The Earl of Arundel was fined in 12000 l. Sir James Thynne in 6000 l. and many others of the Protectors creatures in 3000 l. In February Ridley made Bishop of London Ridley was made Bishop of London and Westminster 1000 l. a year of the Rents of the See were assigned him with licence to hold two Prebends Reps Bishop of Norwich resigned upon which Therleby Bishop of Westminster was removed to Norwich and it was intended to re-unite London and Westminster but though they still remained different Sees yet they were now put under one mans care His Patent was not during pleasure but during life It does not appear that there was any design in this Reign to put down Cathedrals for though Westminster Gloucester and Durham were suppressed the two former being united one to London and another to Worcester and the latter being to be divided in two yet in none of these were the Dean and Chapter Lands fallen on Gardiner continued still in prison During the Protectors Ministry some Privy Counsellors dealt with him Gardiners Process to sue to him for mercy and to declare whether he approved the new Service or not But he said he had done no fault and so would not ask Pardon nor would he declare his opinion while he continued a Prisoner lest his Enemies might say he did it only to be set at liberty Upon the Protectors fall he expected he should have been discharged of his Imprisonment and thought it so near that he made a farewel Feast to the Officers in the Tower Some Privy Counsellours were sent to him with Articles acknowledging former offences approving the Book of Common Prayer and asserting the Kings Power when he was under age and his authority to reform abuses in the Church and that the six Articles were justly abrogated He signed the Paper only he wrote on the Margin that he could not confess former offences for he was not convinced of any fault he had done Upon this it was believed that he was to be quickly let out but another Message was sent him that he must confess that he had been justly punished This he plainly refused to do and said he would never defame himself Ridley was sent to him with a new Paper in which the confession of his faults was more softly worded the rest related to the Popes power the suppressing the Abbies and Chantries Pilgrimages Masses Images the Adoration of the Sacrament Communion in both kinds the abolishing the old Books of Service and setting up the new with the Book of Ordinations and the lawfulness of a married Clergy But he said he would sign no more Articles while he continued in Prison and desired that he might be either tried or set at liberty for he asked not Mercy but Justice And being called before the Council and required to sign those Articles he gave them the same answer He said some of these points were already setled by Law others were not so and in these he was at liberty to do as he pleased Upon this his Bishoprick was sequestred and he was required to conform himself within three months under pain of deprivation and the freedome of the Tower was denied him All this was much censured as contrary to Law and the liberties of English men and it was said that it savoured more of a Court of Inquisition than of a legal way of proceeding The Canon Law was not yet rectified so the King being in the Popes room this way ex Officio was excused as grounded upon the forms of the Spiritual Courts There was a discourse on foot of a Marriage between the King and a Daughter of France which grieved the Reformers who rather wisht him to marry Maximilians Daughter who was believed to favour the Reformation and was esteemed one of the best men of the age Old Latimer preached at Court Latimer preaches at Court and warned the King of the ill effects of bad Marriages which were made up only as bargains without affection between the parties and that they occasioned so much Whoring and so many Divorces He also complained of the luxury and vanity of the Age and of many called Gospellers who were concerned for nothing but Abbey and Chantry Lands he also prest the setting up a Primitive Discipline in the Church He preached this as his last Sermon and so used great freedome He complained that the Kings debts were not paid and yet his Officers grew vastly rich He prayed the King not to seek his pleasures too much and charged all about him to be faithful to him The See of Gloucester fell vacant Hooper made Bishop of Gloucester has scruples concerning the Vestments and Hooper was named to it upon which the heats concerning things indifferent that have since that time so fatally rent the Church had their their first rise He had some scruples about the Episcopal Vestments and thought that all those Garments having been Consecrated with much superstition were to be reckoned among the Elements condemned by S. Paul But Ridley justified the use of them and said the Elements condemned by S. Paul were only the Jewish Ceremonies which though the Apostles condemned when they were imposed as necessary for that imported that the Mosaical Law was not yet abrogated and that the Messiah was not come Yet they themselves used them at other times to gain upon the Jews by that Compliance And if Apostles did such things to gain them Subjects ought much more to obey the Laws in matters indifferent And Superstitious Consecrations was as good an Argument for throwing
only as a Paper of News and so ordered their Ambassadours to communicate them to the Emperour But the King's death broke off this Negotiation He had contracted great Colds by Violent Exercises which in January setled in a deep Cough and all Medicines proved ineffectual The Kings sickness There was a suspicion taken up and spred over all Europe that he was poisoned but no certain grounds appear for justifying that During his sickness Ridley preached before him and among other things run out much on works of Charity and the duty of Men of high condition to be Eminent in good works The King was much touched with this so after Sermon he sent for the Bishop and treated him with such respect that he made him sit down and be covered then he told him what Impression his Exhortation had made on him and therefore he desired to be directed by him how to do his duty in that matter Ridley took a little time to consider of it and after some consultation with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London he brought the King a Scheme of several Foundations one for the sick and wounded another for such as were wilfully idle or were mad and a third for Orphans so he endowed St. Bartholomew's Hospital for the first Bridewell for the second and Christ's Church near Newgate for the third and he enlarged the Grant he made the former year for St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark The Statutes and Warrants relating to these were not finished before the 26. of June though he gave order to make all the hast that was possible and when he set his hand to them he blest God that had prolonged his life till he finished his designs concerning them These Houses have by the good Government and great Charities of the City of London continued to be so useful and grown to be so well-endowed that now they may be well reckoned among the Noblest in Europe The King bore his sickness with great submission to the will of God The Patents for the succession to the Crown and seemed concerned in nothing so much as the state that Religion and the Church would be in after his death The Duke of Suffolk had only three Daughters the eldest of these was now married to Lord Guilford Dudley the second to the Earl of Pembroke's eldest Son and the third that was crooked to one Keys The Duke of Northumberland for strengthning his Family married also his own two Daughters the one to Sir Henry Sidney and the other to the Earl of Huntington's eldest Son He grew to be much hated by the People and the jealousie of the King 's being poisoned was fastened on him But he regarded these things little and resolved to improve the fears the King was in concerning Religion to the advantage of Lady Jane The King was easily perswaded to order the Judges and his Learned Council to put some Articles which he had signed for the succession of the Crown in the common form of Law They answered that the Succession being setled by Act of Parliament could not be taken away except by Parliament yet the King required them to do what he commanded them But next time they came to the Council they declared that it was made Treason to change the Succession by an Act past in this Reign so they could not meddle with it Mountague was chief Justice and spake in the name of the rest Northumberland fell out in a great passion against him calling him Traitor for refusing to obey the King's commands for that is always the language of an Arbitrary Minister when he acts against Law But the Judges were not shaken by his threatnings so they were again brought before the King who sharply rebuked them for their delays but they said all that they could do would be of no force without a Parliament yet they were required to do it in the best manner they could At last Mountague desired they might have a Pardon for what they were to do that being granted all the Judges except Gosnald and Hales agreed to the Patent deliver'd their Opinions that the Lord Chancellor might put the Seal to it and that then it would be good in Law yet the former of these two was at last wrought on so Hales was the only Man that stood out to the last who though he was a zealous Protestant yet would not give his Opinion against his Conscience upon any consideration whatsoever The Privy Councellours were next required to set their hand to it Cecyl in a Relation he writ of this transaction says that hearing some of the Judges declare so positively that it was against Law he refused to set his hand to it as a Privy Councellour but signed it only as a Witness to the King's subscription Cranmer stood out long he came not to Council when it was past there and refused to consent to it when he was prest to it for he said he would never have a hand in disinheriting his late Master's Daughters The young dying King was at last set on him and by his Importunity prevailed with him to do it and so the Seal was put to the Patents The King's distemper continued to encrease so that the Physicians despaired of his Recovery A confident Woman undertook his Cure and he was put in her hands but she left him worse than she found him and this heightned the jealousie of the Duke of Northumberland that had introduced her and put the Physicians away At last to Crown his designs he got the King to write to his Sisters to come and divert him in his sickness and the matter of the Exclusion had been carried so secretly that they apprehending no danger had begun their Journey In the 6th of July The Kings death and Character the King felt death approaching and prepared himself for it in a most devout manner He was often heard offering up Prayers and Ejaculations to God Particularly a few Moments before he died he prayed earnestly that God would take him out of this wretched life and committed his Spirit to him he interceded very fervently for his Subjects that God would preserve England from Popery and maintain his true Religion among them soon after that he breathed out his Innocent Soul being in Sir Henry Sidney's arms Endeavours were used to conceal his death for some days on design to draw his Sisters into the snare before they should be aware of it but that could not be done Thus died Edward the VI. in the sixteenth Year of his Age. He was counted the wonder of that time he was not only Learned in the Tongues and the Liberal Sciences but knew well the state of his Kingdom He kept a Table-Book in which he had writ the Characters of all the eminent Men of the Nation he studied Fortification and understood the Mint well he knew the Harbours in all his Dominions with the depth of Water and way of coming into them He understood foreign
Europe in a Flame The next Year Pool sent Ormaneto with some English Divines to visit Cambridge A Visitation of the Universities They put the Churches in which the Bodies of Bucer and Fagius lay under an Interdict They made a Visitation of all the Colledges and Chappels in which Ormaneto shewed great Integrity and without respect of Persons he chid some Heads of Houses whom he found guilty of misapplying the Revenues of their Houses The two dead Bodies were burnt with great solemnity They were raised and cited to appear and answer for the Heresies they had taught and if any would answer for them they were required to come The Dead said nothing for themselves and the living were afraid to do it for fear of being sent after them so Witnesses were examined and in conclusion they were condemned as obstinate Hereticks and the dead Bodies with many Heretical Books were all burnt in one Fire Peru was Vice-Chancellour at this time and happened to be in some Office four years after when by Queen Elizabeth's Order publick honours were done to the Memory of these Learned Men and he obeyed both these Orders with so much zeal that it appeared how exactly he had learned the Lesson so much studied in that Age of serving the time After this there was a Visitation of all the Colledges in Oxford and there it was intended to act such Pageantry on the body of Peter Martyr's Wife as had been done at Cambridge But she that could speak no English had not declared her Opinions so that Witnesses could be found to convict her of Heresie yet since it was notoriously known that she had been a Nun and had broken her Vow of Chastity they raised her Body and buried it in a Dunghill but her Bones were afterwards mixed with Saint Frideswide's by Queen Elizabeth's Order The Justices of Peace were now every where so slack in the Prosecution of Hereticks A severe Inquisition of Hereticks that it seemed necessary to find out other Tools So the Courts of Inquisition were thought on These were set up first in France against the Albigenses and afterwards in Spain for discovering the Moors and were now turned upon the Hereticks Their power was uncontrolable they seised on any they pleased upon such Informations or Presumptions as lay before them They managed their Processes in secret and put their Prisoners to such sorts of Torture as they thought fit for extorting Confessions or Discoveries from them At this time both the Pope and King Philip though they differed in other things agreed in this that they were the only sure means for extirpating Heresie So as a step to the setting them up a Commission was given to Bonner and twenty more the greatest part Lay-men to search all over England for all suspected of Heresie that did not hear Masse go in Processions or did not take Holy bread or Holy water they were authorised three being a Quorum to proceed either by Presentments or other Politick ways they were to deliver all they discovered to their Ordinaries and were to use all such means as they could invent which was left to their discretions and Consciences for executing their Commission Many other Commissions subalterne to theirs were issued out for several Counties and Diocesses This was looked on as such an advance towards an Inquisition that all concluded it would follow ere long The burnings were carried on vigorously in some places and but coldly in most parts for the dislike of them grew to be almost Universal In January More burnings six were burnt in one Fire at Canterbury and four in other parts of Kent 22. were sent out of Colchester to Bonner but it seems Pool had chid him severely for the Fire he had made of thirteen the last Year so he writ to Pool for directions The Cardinal imployed some to deal with the Prisoners and they got them to sign a Paper in general words acknowledging that Christ's Body was in the Sacrament and declaring that they would be subject to the Church of Christ and to their lawful Superiours And upon this they were set at liberty by which it appeared that Pool was willing to have accepted any thing by which he might on the one hand preserve the Lives of those that were informed against and yet not be exposed to the rage of the Pope as a favourer of Hereticks In April three Men and one Woman were burnt in Smithfield In May three were burnt in Southwark condemned by White the new Bishop of Winchester and three at Bristoll Five Men and nine Women were burnt in Kent in June and in the same Month six Men and four Women were burnt at Lewis In July two were burnt at Norwich and in August ten were burnt in one day at Colchester They were some of those 22. that were by Pool's means discharged but the Cruel Priests informed against them and said the favour shewed to them had so encouraged all others that it was necessary to remove the scandal which that mercy of the Cardinals gave and to make Examples of some of them In August one was burnt at Norwich two at Rochester and one at Litchfield One Eagle that went much about from place to place from which he was called Trudge-over was condemned as a Traytor for some words spoken against the Queen But all this Cruelty did not satisfie the Clergy they complained that the Magistrates were backward and did their duty very negligently upon which severe Letters were written to several Towns from the Council-board and zealous Men were recommended to be chosen Mayors in sundry Towns In September three Men and one Woman were burnt at Islington and two at Colchester one at Northampton and one at Laxefield a Woman was burnt at Norwich a Priest with thirteen other Men and three Women were burnt at Chichester In November three were burnt in Smithfield Rough a Scotchman that had a Benefice in K. Edward's time kept a private Meeting at Istington but one of the Company being corrupted discovered the rest so they were apprehended as they were going to the Communion and he and a Woman were burnt in December so 79. were burnt in all this year This Year a horrid Murder of one Argol The Lord Stourton hanged and his Son was committed by the L. Stourton and some of his Servants who after they had butchered them in a most barbarous manner buried them fifteen Foot deep in the ground The Lord Stourton was a zealous Papist and had protested against all the Acts that had past in King Edward's time yet the Queen not only would not pardon him but would not so much as change the Infamous death of hanging into a beheading not because the Prerogative extends not so far as some have without reason asserted for both the Duke of Somerset condemned in the Reign of King Edward and the Lord Audley condemned under King Charles the First for Felony were beheaded but the Queen resolved in this case to
made between the Duke of Norfolk and the Scots they promised to be the Queen 's perpetual Allies and that after the French were driven out of Scotland The Queen of England assists the Scots they should continue their Obedience to their own Queen upon which 2000. Horse and 6000. Foot were sent to assist the Scots These besieged Lieth during which there were considerable losses on both sides but the losses on the side of the English were more easily made up supplies being nearer at hand The French offered to put Calais again in the Queen of England's hands if she would recall her Forces out of Scotland She answered on the sudden that she did not value that Fish-Town so much as she did the quiet of the Isle of Brittain But she offered to Mediate a Peace between them and the Scots Before this could be effected 〈◊〉 June The Queen Regent dies the Queen Regent of Scotland died she sent for some of the Scottish Lords in her sickness and asked them pardon for the Injuries she had done them She advised them to send both the French and English out of Scotland and prayed them to continue in their Obedience to their Queen She also discoursed with one of their Preachers and declared that she hoped to be saved only by the Merits of Christ She had governed the Nation before the last year of her life with such Justice and Prudence and was so great an Example both in her own Person and in the Order of her Court that if she had died before her Brother's bloody Counsels had involved her in these last passages of her life she had been the most lamented and esteemed Queen that had been in that Nation for many Ages Her own Inclinations were Just and Moderate and she often said that if her Counsels might take place she did not doubt but she should bring all things again to perfect Tranquillity and Peace Soon after a Peace was concluded between England France and Scotland An Oblivion was granted for all that was past The French and English were to be sent out of Scotland and all other things were referred to a Parliament During the Queen's absence the Kingdom was to be governed by a Council of 12. all Natives of these the Queen was to name 7. and the States were to choose 5. So both the English and French were sent out of Scotland and the Parliament met in August In it A Parliament meets and settles the Reformation all Acts for the former way of Religion were repealed and a confession of Faith penned by Knox afterwards inserted among the Acts of Parliament 1567. was confirmed These Acts were opposed only by three Temporal Lords who said they would believe as their Fathers had done but all the Spiritual Lords both Bishops and Abbots consented to them and they did dilapidate the Lands and Revenues of the Church in the strangest manner that was ever known the Abbots converted their Abbies into Temporal Estates and the Bishops though they continued Papists still divided all their Lands among their Bastards or Kindred and procured confirmations of many of the Grants they gave from Rome by which that Church was so impoverished that if King James and King Charles the First had not with much zeal and great endeavours retrieved some part of the Ancient Revenues and provided a considerable maintenance for the Inferiour Clergy all the encouragements to Religion and Learning had been to such a degree withdrawn that Barbarism must have again over-run that Kingdom When these Acts thus agreed on in the Parliament of Scotland were sent over to France they were rejected with great scorn so that the Scots began to apprehend a new War but Francis the second 's death soon after delivered them from all their fears for their Queen having no more the support of so great a Crown was forced to return home and govern in such a manner as that Nation was pleased to submit to Thus had the Queen of England divided Scotland from its ancient dependance on France The Queen of England the Head of all the Protestants and had tied it so to her own Interests that she was not only secure on that side of her Dominions but came to have so great an interest in Scotland that affairs there were for most part governed according to the Directions she sent thither Other Accidents did also concur to give her a great share in all the most Important affairs of Europe In France upon Henry the second 's fatal end great Divisions arose between the Princes of the Blood and the Brothers of the House of Guise Both in France into whose hands the administration of affairs was put during Francis the second 's short Reign It was pretended on the one hand that the King was not of Age till he was 22. and that during his Minority the Princes of the Blood were to Govern by the Advice of the Courts of Parliaments and the Assembly of Estates On the other hand it was said that the King might assume the Government and Imploy whom he pleased at 14. A design was laid in which many of both Religions concurred for taking the Government out of the hands of the strangers and seising on the King's Person but a Protestant moved by a Principle of Conscience discovered it Upon this the Prince of Conde and many others were seised on and if the King had not died soon after they had suffered for it Charles the Ninth succeeding who was under Age the King of Navarre was declared Regent but he though before a Protestant was drawn into the Papist Interest and joyned himself with the Queen Mother and the Constable A severe Edict was made against the Protestants but the Execution of it was like to raise great disorders so another was made in a great Assembly of many Princes of the Blood Privy Councellours and 8. Courts of Parliament allowing the free exercise of that Religion yet after this the Duke of Guise reconciled himself to the Queen Mother and they resolved to break the Edict so the Duke of Guise happening to pass by a Meeting of Protestants his Servants offered violence to them from reproachful words it went to the throwing of stones by one of which the Duke was hurt upon which his Servants killed 60. of the Protestants and wounded 200. and upon this the Edict was every where broken It was said that the Regent's power did not extend so far as that he could break so Publick an Edict and that therefore it was lawful for the Protestants to defend themselves The Prince of Conde set himself at the Head of them and the King of Navarre being killed soon after the breaking out of the War he as the first Prince of the Blood that was of Age ought to have been declared Regent so that the Protestants said their defending themselves was not Rebellion since they had both the Law and the first Prince of the Blood on their side The
he was prevailed with by a Pension of 500 Marks to resign The Inferiour Governours had some 30 20 or 10 l. Pensions and the Monks had generally 6 l. or 8 Marks a piece If any Abbot died the new Abbot they being chosen as the Bishops were upon a Conge delire and a Missive Letter was named for that purpose only to resigne the House And all were made to hope for Advancement that should give good Example to others by a quick and cheerful Surrender by these means 121 of those Houses were this Year resigned to the King In most Houses the Visitor made the Monks sign a Confession of their former Vices and Disorders of which there is only one Original Extant that escaped a general Rasure of all such Papers in Queen Mary's time in which they acknowledged in a long Narrative their former Idleness Gluttony and Sensuaality for which the pit of Hell was ready to swallow them up Others acknowledged that they were sensible that the manner of their former pretended Religion consisted in some dumb Ceremonies by which they were blindly led having no true Knowledg of God's Laws but that they had procured Exemption from their Diocesans and had subjected themselves wholly to a Forreign Power that took no care to reform their Abuses and therefore since the most perfect way of Life was revealed by Christ and his Apostles and that it was fit they should be governed by the King their Supream Head they resigned to him Of this sort I have seen six Some resigned in hopes that the King would found them of new these favoured the Reformation and intended to convert their Houses to better Uses for preaching study and Prayer and Latimer prest Cromwell earnestly that two or three Houses might be reserved for such purposes in every County But it was resolved to suppress all and therefore neither could the Intercessions of the Gentry of Oxfordshire nor of the Visitors preserve the Nunnery at Godstow tho they found great Strictness of Life in it and it was the common place of the Education of young Women of Quality in that County The common Preamble to most Surrenders was That upon full Deliberation and of their own proper Motion for just and reasonable Causes moving their Consciences they did freely give up their Houses to the King Some surrendred without any Preamble to the Visitors as Feofees in trust for the King In short they went on at such a rate that 159 Resignations were obtained before the Parliament met and of these the Originals of 154 are yet extant Some thought that these Resignations could not be valid since the Incumbents had not the Property but only the Trust for life of those Houses But the Parliament did afterwards declare them good in Law It was also said that they being of the Nature of Corporations all Deeds under their Seals were valid and that at least by their Resignation and quitting their Houses they forfeited them to the King But this was thought to subsist rather on a Nicety in Law than natural Equity Others were more roughly handled Some Abbots attainted The Prior of Wooburn was suspected of a Correspondence with the Rebels and of favouring the Pope he was dealt with to submit to the King and he was prevailed on to do it but was not easie in it once nor fixed to it He complained that the new Preachers detracted from the Honour due to the Virgin and Saints he thought the Religion was changed and wondered that the Judgments of God on Q. Anne had not terrified others from going on to subvert the Faith When the Rebellion broke out he joined in it as did also the Abbots of Whaley Garvaux and Sawley and the Prior of Burlington all these were all taken and attainted of Treason and executed The Abbots of Glassenbury and Reading had also sent a great deal of their Plate to the Rebels the former to disguise it the better had made one break into the House where the Plate was kept So he was convicted both of Burglary and Treason and at his Execution he confessed his Crime and begged both God's and the King's Pardon for it The Abbot of Colchester was also attainted and executed but the Grounds of it are not known for the Records of their Attaindors are lost These had over and over again taken the Oaths in which they acknowledged the King to be Supream Head of the Church and were present in those Parliaments in which the several Acts about it were pass'd and did not dissent to them and since they made no Opposition when they might safely and legally do it there is no Reason to think they would have done it afterwards when it was more dangerous and criminal So that all those who have represented them as having suffered for denying the King's Supremacy have therein shewed their Unacquaintedness with the Journals of Parliament The Abbot of Reading had complied so far that he was grown into Favour with Cromwell so that in some Contests between Shaxton Bishop of Salisbury and him the Bishop who was a proud ill-natured Man complained that Cromwell supported the Abbot against him and writ upon that a very Insolent Expostulatory Letter to him which Cromwell answered with great strength of Reason and Decency of Stile by which it appears that heighth of his Condition had no other Effect on him but to make him know himself and others better Upon the Attainders of those Abbots their Abbies were seized on and this was thought a great stretch both in Law and Equity for it seemed not reasonable if an Incumbent was faulty for that to seize on his Benefice which upon his Attainder ought to continue entire and pass to the next Successor as if he were really dead But a Clause was put in the Act of Treason 26 Hen. 8 That whatsoever Lands of Estate of Inheritance any that should be convicted of Treason had in Vse or Possession by any Right or manner should be forfeited to the King By which as intailed Estates were certainly comprehended so it seems they applied it likewise to Church-Benefices yet when the Bishop of Rochester was attainted this was not thought on The words Estate of Inheritance seemed to exclude Church-Lands but the mention that was made of Traitors Successors that were cut off as well as their Heirs seemed on the other hand to include Estates to which Successors might come in a Traitor's room as well as those which descended by Inheritance The Words were ambiguous and were stretched to justify those Seizures and therefore in an Act of Treasons made in the next Reign this was more cautiously worded for it was provided that Traitors should forfeit the Estates which they possessed in their own Right But whatsoever Illegality there might be in these Proceedings they were confirmed by the following Parliament in a special Proviso made concerning those Abbies that were seized on by any Attainders of Treason Many of the Carthusians were executed for denying the
King's Supremacy Others were also suspected of favouring them and of receiving Books sent from beyond Sea against the King's Proceedings and were shut up in their Cells in which most of them died The Prior was a Man of extraordinary Charity and Good-Works as the Visitor reported But he was made resign with this Preamble That many of the House had offended the King and deserved that their Lives should be taken and their Goods confiscated and therefore to avoid that they surrendered their Houses Great Complaints were made of the Visitors as if they had used undue Practices to make the Abbots and Monks surrender and it was said that they had in many Places embezell'd much of the Plate to their own Uses and in particular it was complained that Dr. London had corrupted many Nuns They on the other hand published many of the vile Practices that they found in those Houses so that several Books very indecently writ were printed upon this Occasion but on so foul a Subject it is not fit to stand long No Story became so publick as that of the Prior of the crossed Friers in London who was found in bed with a Whore at Noon-day He fell down on his Knees and beg'd that they who surprised him would not discover his shame They made him give them 30 l. which he protested was all he had and he promised them as much more But he not keeping his word to them a Suit followed upon it Yet all these personal Blemishes did not work much on the People It seemed unreasonable to extinguish Noble Foundations for the fault of some Individuals Therefore another way was taken which had a better effect They discovered many Impostures about Relicks The Impostures of Images discovered and wonderful Images to which Pilgrimages had been wont to be made At Reading they had an Angel's Wing which brought over the Spear's Point that pierced our Saviour's Side As many pieces of the Cross were found as joined together would have made a big Cross The Rood of Grace at Boxley in Kent had been much esteemed and drawn many Pilgrims to it It was observed to bow and roul its Eyes and look at times well pleased or angry which the credulous Multitude imputed to a Divine Power But all this was discovered to be a Cheat and it was brought up to St. Paul's Cross and all the Springs were openly shewed that governed its several Motions At Hales in Glocestershire the Blood of Christ was shewed in a Vial and it was believed that none could see it who were in mortal Sin And so after good Presents were made the deluded Pilgrims went way well satisfied if they had seen it This was the Blood of a Duck renewed every Week put in a Vial very thick of one side as thin on the other and either side turned towards the Pilgrim as the Priests were satisfied with their Oblations Several other such like Impostures were discovered which contributed much to the undeceiving the People The richest Shrine in England was Thomac Beckets at Canterbury Becket's Shrine broken whose Story is well known After he had long imbroiled England and shewed that he had a Spirit so turned to Faction that he could not be at quiet some of Henry the Second's Officious Servants killed him in the Church of Canterbury He was presently Canonized and held in greater esteem than any other Saint whatsoever so much more was a Martyr for the Papacy valued than any that suffered for the Christian Religion And his Altar drew far greater Oblations than those that were dedicated to Christ or the blessed Virgin as appears by the accounts of two of their Years In one 3 l. 2 s. 6 d. And in another not a Penny was offered at Christ's Altar There was in the one 63 l. 5 s. 6 d. and in the other 4 l. 1 s. 8 d. offered at the Blessed Virgin 's Altar But in these very Years there was 832 l. 12 s. 3 d. and 964 l. 6 s. 3 d. offered at St. Thomas's Altar The Shrine grew to be of inestimable Value Lewis the Seventh of France came over in Pilgrimage to visit it and offered a Stone valued to be the richest in Europe He had not only one Holy Day the 29th of December called his Martyrdom but also the Day of his Translation the 7th of July was also a Holy Day and every 50th Year there was a Jubily and an Indulgence granted to all that came and visited his Tomb And sometimes there were believed to be 100000 Pilgrims there on that Occasion It is hard to tell whether the Hatred to his seditious Practices or the Love of his Shrine set on King Henry more to Unsaint him His Shrine was broken and the Gold of it was so heavy that it filled two Chests which took Eight men a piece to carry them out of the Church and his Skull which had been so much worshipped was proved to be an Imposture for the true Skull was with the rest of his Bones in his Coffin his Bones were either burnt as it was given out at Rome or so mixed with other Bones as our Writers say that it had been a Miracle indeed to have distinguished them afterwards The King called at this time a Meeting of the Clergy of 10 Bishops 8 Archdeacons and 17 Divines and Canonists and made them finish an Explanation of the Christian Religion But this was afterwards digested into a better form as shall be told in its proper place When all these things were known at Rome all the Eloquent Pens there were imploied to represent King Henry as the most Sacrilegious Tyrant that ever was The Pope thunders against the King that made War with Christs Vicar on Earth and his Saints in Heaven and he was compared to the worst Princes that ever reigned to Pharaoh Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar Nero and Diocletian but the Parallel with Julian the Apostate was most insisted on It was said He copied after him in all things save only that his Maners were worse In many of these Cardinal Pool's Stile was pretended to be known and they were all at least much encouraged by him which provoked the King to hate him most Implacably The Pope went further for now he published all those Thunders with which he had threatned him three Years before He pretended That as God's Vicar he had power to root out and to destroy and had Authority over all the Kings in the World And therefore after he had enumerated all the King's Crimes he required himself to appear within 90 days at Rome either in Person or by Proxy and all his Complices within 60 Days and if he and they did not appear he declared him to have fallen from his Crown and them from their Estates He put the Kingdom under an Interdict and absolved his Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance He declared him and his Complices Infamous and put their Children under Incapacities He required all the Clergy to go out of England within