excommunicated the Earl who little regarded it The Earl so dieth the Bishop cometh into England and reneweth his Suit to Earl William his Son and Heir obtaining to have the King his Mediator but prevail'd not for Earl William and his Brethren answer'd That their Father did the Bishop no wrong having gotten the Mannors by right of War The Bishop in the agony of his Spirit reneweth the Curse against their Father and them and said That the Lord had cast it grievously upon Earl William as is written in the Psalm In a Generation his Name shall be put out and his Sons shall be Vagabonds as touching the Blessing promis'd by the Lord of Encrease and multiply Earl William the Father at the time of his Death and Burial which was in the New Temple at London 17. Kal. Apr. 1219. and 4 Hen. 3. left 5 Sons and as many Daughters Earl William the eldest Son first married Alice the Daughter and Heir of Baldwin Earl of Albermarle c. After Eleanor Daughter of King John and died without Issue 6. Apr. 1231. 15 Hen. 3. Earl Richard the second Brother succeeded he married the Lady Gervasia and was slain in Ireland 18 Hen. 3. leaving no Issue Earl Gilbert the 3d Brother succeeded He married Margaret Daughter of William King of Scots and was kill'd by his own Horse at a Tornement at Hartford 21 Hen. 3. 1241. leaving no Issue Earl Walter the fourth Brother succeeded He married Margaret Daughter and Co-heir of Robert Lord Quiney and died at London 6. Dec. 1245. 30 Hen. 3. or as others report the 24. Nov. and was buried at Tinterne leaving no Issue Earl Anselm the youngest was at the death of his Brother Walter Dean of Salisbury but admitted to be Earl of Pembroke and Marshal and in haste married Maud the Daughter of Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford that he yet at last might propagate the most noble Family But Non est consilium contra Dominum for he died within 18 or 24 days after his Brother before he was actually possess'd of his County Thus according to the Malediction of the Bishop the Name of those great Earls Marshal was utterly extinct all the five Brethren being married and dying Childless within 15 Years Matt. Par. An. 1219 1245. p. 292 665 alibi King Edw. 1. in the zeal of his Religion his Father yet living took the Cross upon him and went to assist the Christians in the Wars of Jerusalem The Pope in recompence of his Charges granted unto him in the second Year of his Reign he being return'd the tenth part of all Ecclesiastical Benefices of the Kingdom for one Year and the like to his Brother Edmond for another But afterwards the King forgetting his old Devotion in the 11th Year of his Reign seiz'd all the Treasure of the Tenths collected for that purpose and laid up in divers places of the Kingdom and breaking open the Locks caus'd it to be brought unto him and employ'd it to his own use Stow. This taste of things separate to God drew him on to a further Appetite In the 23d Year of his Reign he took into his hands all the Priories Aliens throughout the Kingdom committing them as Charles Martel of old had done in France to Officers under him and allowing every Monk 18d a Week retain'd the rest for the charge of his War as he did also the Pensions going out of those Houses to the greater Monasteries beyond the Seas Yet obtain'd he further in the same Parliament of the Clergy and Religious Persons a Subsidy of half their Goods to the value of 100000l whereof the Abby of Bury paid 655 l. 11d q. Stow ib. p. 316. King Ed. l. being in great want by his subduing Scotland about the end of the 23th Year of his Reign caused all the Monasteries of England to be search'd and the Money found in them to be brought to London Wals. pa. 65. Cax l. 7. c. 39. Shortly after in the 24th Year of his Reign at a Parliament at St. Edmundsbury he required a Subsidy which the Laity granted But the Clergy pretending that Pope Boniface at the same time had forbidden upon pain of Excommunication that either Secular Princes should impose Tallages upon the Church-men or that Church-men should pay any they refus'd to supply the King's Necessity and having day to advise better on the matter till the next Parliament at London shortly after they persisted in the same mind Whereupon the King put them out of his Protection so that being robb'd and spoil'd by lewd persons without remedy to redeem the King's Favour the Archbishop of York and many of the Bishops laid down a fifth part of all their Goods in their Churches and some by other courses satisfy'd the King's desire and so recover'd his Protection But all the Monasteries within the Province of Canterbury were seiz'd into the King's hands and Wardens appointed in them to minister to the Monks and Religious Persons therein only what must be had of necessity taking all other Monies and Surplusage to the King's use So that the Abbots and Priors were glad to follow the Court and to repair their Error with the fourth part of their Goods The Archbishop of Canterbury after all this fearing the Pope's Excommunication continu'd in his refusal lost all he had was forsaken of his Servants forbidden to be receiv'd either in any Monastery or without and rested in the House of a poor Man only with one Priest and one Clerk How these Courses were censur'd in foro coeli is not in me to judge nor will I pry into the Ark of God's Secrets But see what followeth in the Story King Edward having with great Triumph subdu'd Scotland and taken the King Prisoner did at this present peaceably enjoy that Kingdom and govern'd it by his own Officers But e're three Months came to an end Wil. Wallis began such a Rebellion there as put all in hazard and in fine it was so reviv'd by Robert le Bruce the King 's natural Subject that at length he overthrew the King's Armies slew and beat out his Officers and without all recovery gain'd the Kingdom to himself and his Posterity King Edward attempting the recovery died at the entrance of Scotland His Son Edward II. pursuing his Father's intent with one of the greatest Armies that ever was raised by the English was miserably beaten and put to flight hardly escaping in his own person All his Life after full of Tumult not only his Nobles but his very Wife his Enemy abandoned of his Subjects turn'd out of his Kingdom imprison'd and traiterously murther'd In all which the Curse which his Father upon his Death-bed laid upon him if he should break the Precepts he gave him had no doubt a cooperation for he observ'd none of them Touching the pulling of Lands from the Church all have not always been of one mind For tho' the makers of the Statute of Mortmaine did truly think that the
the Inhabitants about Conven Greg. Turo Hist. lib. 7. c. 35. This Author as Sigebertus saith was made Bishop of Tours in the Year 571. is much Honour'd generally for his Life Gravity and Fidelity yet must I note that he hath deliver'd this Story somewhat differingly in his Book De Gloriâ Mart. lib. 1. c. 105. though to the same effect Memory in all Men being sometime stronger sometime weaker There he saith that the Soldiers could not of long time and with much labour make the Church Doors take fire and that at last they were fain to use the help of Hatchets and to chop them in pieces that being entered they took both the things that were there and slew all the People that were fled thither for safety That this was not long unpunished for some were rapt away by the Devil some drowned in the River Garumna many lying in the cold got divers Diseases in divers parts that vexed them grievously For my self saith he did see in the Territory of Tours many of them that were Partners in his Wickedness grievously tormented even to the loss of this present Life with intolerable Pains Bar. 476. 4. Chilperic the greatest Man with Sigebert King of Mees or Austrasia claimeth wrongfully a Town from Franco Bishop of Aquis pretending that it belong'd to the publick Revenue and judicially before the King and other Judges doth recover it with Three hundred Crowns aureos Damages The Bishop in great anguish of Mind goeth to the Church and falling down at the Tomb of St. Metrias Patron of the Church prayeth for Vengeance and threatneth the Saint that there should be neither Lights nor Singing in that Church until he were revenged of his Enemy and the Things restored that were taken away from it so wrongfully And laying Thorns upon the Tomb he shut the Church Door laying others there also for that was a Type that the place was forsaken Presently hereupon Chilperic that had done this wrong to the Church falleth sick of a Fever and continueth so for a whole Year eating little and drinking little save Water in the heat of his Fit but perplexed in his Mind and Sighing much yet Relented not in that he had done In the mean time all the Hair both of his Beard and Head came wholly off and all his Head became bare and naked Then he bethinks him of the wrong he had done to the Church and restoreth the Town with Six hundred Crowns for the Three hundred he had received hoping so to recover his Health by the means of the Saint but dy'd notwithstanding Greg. Turon De Glor. confes ca. 71. Bar. An. 579. 15. This happened in the time of King Sigebert who was this Year murdered by the practice of his Brothers Wife Fredegundis Ruecolenus with a Power of the Cenomanians wasteth all about the City Tours so that the Houses and Hospital of the Church were without hope of Sustenance He demandeth also of the Church-men there that they should deliver unto him some that had taken Sanctuary in the Church and threatneth to fire all if they refused St. Gregory of Tours being then Bishop there and that writ this Relation with his own Hand goeth to the Church and praying for aid Beati auxilia flagitamus a Woman that had twelve Years been contracted with the Palsie was made streight But Ruecolenus himself being now come to the other side of the River was presently strucken with the King 's Evil and with the Disease of King Herod and the fiftieth Day after dy'd all swollen of the Dropsie This Greg. Turon himself as I find reporteth De Mirac S. Mart. lib. c. 17. Baron 579. 18. Certain Servants or Officers of Egbright the third King of Kent after Ethelbert had done great Injury to a Noble Woman called Domneva the Mother of St. Mildred in Recompence whereof the King promised upon his Honour to give her whatsoever she would ask of him She begged upon this so much Ground of him to build an Abbey on as a tame Deer that she had nourished would run over at a Breath The King had presently granted it but that one of his Council named Timor standing by blamed his inconsideration that would upon the uncertain Course of a Deer depart with any part of so good a Soil But presently saith the Author William Thorne a Monk of St. Augustin's the Earth open'd and swallowed him up alive in Memory whereof the place till this time was call'd Timor's Lease It may be the Monk hath aggravated the matter and that Mr. Lambard justly doth count it Fabulous but it seems some notable Misfortune followed upon Timor hindring in this manner the propagation of Religion in the beginning of our Church Yet no learned Man I think doubteth but that in the first Conversion of Heathen People God was pleased to shew some Miracles upon sacrilegious Impediments The Story goes on that the King moved with the Event granted Domneva's Petition and that the Hind being put forth run the space of Forty eight Plough-lands before it ceas'd In which Precinct this Lady by the King's help builded the Monastery for Nuns called minister-Minister-Abbey in Tenet Lambard Itin. in Tenet pag. 99. Egfrid King of Northumberland sendeth an Army into Ireland under the Conduct of Bert and wasting miserably that harmless Nation which then was Friend to the English spared neither Churches nor Monasteries The Inhabitants resisted as they could but rested not to call upon God with continual Curses for Revenge And tho' those that be accursed cannot inherit the Kingdom of God yet it is to be thought that those that are justly cursed for their Iniquity that the Vengeance of God doth therefore fall the sooner upon them For this same King this next Year after in a Voyage against the Picts was drawn into streights and both himself and most of his Army slain And in the eleventh Year of King Ino saith Huntington the Earl Berutus felt the Curses of the Irish People whose Church he had destroyed as his Master had done before For as King Egfrid entring into the Land of the Picts was there slain so he entring it also to revenge his Masters Death was likewise slain by them Osred King of Northumberland being but eight Years old when he began to reign and Reigning but eleven Years even thus young broke the Monasteries and deflower'd the Nuns with much other Wickedness for which the just Hand of God being upon him as Bonifacius Archbishop of Mentz and other Bishops assembled after in a German Council do testifie by their Epistle to Aethelbald he was murder'd by his Kinsmen Kenred and Osrick and his Kingdom Usurped by Osrick contrary to Osred's meaning who had Decreed it to Ceolwulfe Brother of his Father as Beda reporteth lib. 5. ca. 24. who saith farther that his whole Reign abounded with so many Crosses of Fortune that no Man knew either what to write of them or what end they would have Vid. Epis.
terrible Fire broke out of an House and spreading suddenly over a great part of the Town the whole Company was disperst and only the Monks left to end the Office begun The Funeral notwithstanding proceeded afterwards in great Solemnity the Bishops and Abbots of Normandy attending it But when the Mass was done and that the Bishop of Ebroscen at the end of his Sermon had desired all that were present to pray for the dead Prince and charitably to forgive him if he had offended any of them one Anselm Fitz-Arthur rising up said aloud The Ground whereon ye stand was the floor of my Father's House and the Man for whom ye make Intercession took it violently from him while he was Duke of Normandy and founded this House upon it I now therefore claim my own and forbid him that took it away by violence to 〈◊〉 covered with my Earth or to be buried 〈◊〉 my Inheritance The Bishops and Nobility hearing this and understanding it to be true by the Testimony of others presently compounded with the Party in fair manner giving him 60 s. in Hand for the place of Burial and promising a just Satisfaction for the rest for which he received afterwards a 100 l. in Silver by consent of Henry the Conqueror's Son This Blur being thus wiped away they proceeded to put the Corps into the Tomb or Coffin prepared by the Mason whereupon another followed very loathsome for it being too short and strait as they strove violently to thrust the Corps into it the fat Belly not being Boweled burst in pieces and vapoured forth so horrible a savour as the smoak of Frankincense and other Aromaticks ascending plentifully from the Censers prevail'd not to suppress it but both Priest and Company were driven tumultuously to dispatch the Business and get them gone Thus much of the Disasters touching the Person of the Conqueror To which may be added that his very Death proceeded from a violent Accident happening unto him in the Sacking of Medant where the heat and heaviness of his Armour and the extream clamor upon his Soldiers wrought as was reported a Dissolution of his Entrails à ruina intestinorum ejus liquefacta saith Gemeticensis for tho' he liv'd a while after yet he languish'd till his Death But note by the way that he who had in his Life-time destroy'd so many Churches and Burying-places being dead although he were so great a King yet he wanted the Office of his Children Friends and Servants to carry him to Church or to take care of his Burial that being carried thither by others the very Fire wherewith he had devoured certain Churches interrupted his Passage that being come to the Church he that had put so many by their places of Burial was now put by his own And lastly that when the place of his Burial was obtain'd for Money it happened fatally that it was too strait to receive him as tho' the Earth of the Church which he had so grievously injured were unwilling to open her Mouth to entertain him But after all difficulties Did he not rest quiet at last Reason would he should for the Grave is Asilum Requiei the Sanctuary of Rest and he did enjoy it for many Ages Yet the Bishop of Bajeux in the Year 1542. opened his Tomb and brought to light his Epitaph hidden in it Graven upon a Gilded-plate of Brass But in the Year 1562. certain French Soldiers with some English that under the Conduct of the Chastillon took the City of Caen and fell to spoiling of Churches there did barbarously break down and deface the Monument of this great King and as tho' the Malus Genius of the Churches which himself had destroy'd still pursued him with Revenge did take out his Bones and cast them away Verst p. 184. What befel these Soldiers that thus rifled Churches appeareth not obscurity and oblivion do conceal them But the lamentable end of the Chastillon himself that suffered this Outrage is very notorious in the Massacre of Paris To come to his Posterity his Sons were four all of them at times in War amongst themselves Robert the eldest deprived of his Birth-right the Crown of England first by his Brother William then by his Brother Henry who also took from him his Dutchy of Normandy put out his Eyes and kept him cruelly in Prison till the Day of his Death His only Son Richard hunting in the New-Forest was slain in the Life of his Father by an Arrow shot casually as Florentius Wigorneinsis reporteth Others name him Henry and say he was hanged there like Absalom by the Hair of the Head Be it one or both the Death was violent and in the New-Forest But thus Robert died without Issue nothing prospering with him as Stow noteth after his Father Cursed him Richard second Son of the Conqueror Duke of Beorne as Stow saith died also in the same Forest in the fifteenth Year of his Father upon a pernicious Blast that happened on him but Gemeticensis lib. 11. c. 9. saith with a blow of a Tree William Rufus the third Son was contaminate as well with his own as his Fathers Sacrilege for he would part with no Bishoprick that came into his Hands without Money for it by reason whereof he had lying upon his Hand for want of Chapmen thirteen Bishopricks at the time of his Death He was also slain in the same Forest An. with an Arrow out of the Quiver of God shot casually by Sir Walter Tyrell and as Florentius reporteth in the very self-same place where a Church did stand till the Conqueror destroy'd it He also died without Issue Gemeticens lib. 7. cap. 9. Henry the fourth Son being King Hen. I. abstain'd as I imagine Hunting in the New-Forest but God met with him in another Corner for having but two Sons William legitimate and Richard natural they were in the fifteenth Year of his Reign both drowned with other of the Nobility coming out of France and himself dying afterward without Issue Male in the Year 1135. gave a period to this Norman Family Here I must observe as elsewhere I have done that about the very same point of time viz. 68 Years wherein God cut off the Issue of Nebuchadnezzar and gave his Kingdom to another Nation after he had invaded the holy Things of the Temple About the very same point of time I say after the Conqueror had made this Spoil of Churches did God cut off his Issue Male and gave his Kingdom to another Nation not of Normandy but Bloys Inter An. 1061. An. 1070. Vrsus Abbot was made Sheriff of Worcester by William the Conqueror and building a Castle in Worcester near the Monastery cut a part of the Church-yard into the Dike of his Castle which Aldred the Arch-Bishop of York seeing said to him Hatest thou Urse have thou God's curse unless thou takest down this Castle and know assuredly that thy Posterity shall not long inherit this Ground of St. Mary ' s. He foretold
but King James would not suffer Prince Charles to have it for the success The Earl of Bristol hath it Received from my Lord Keeper 9th of May 1626. Lodwick Grevil owner of Micletin a Mannor belonging to Ensham Abby in Oxfordshire had two Sons whereof Edward the younger shooting a piece by chance slew his elder Brother and thereby succeeded in the Inheritance Lodwick himself in the ... Year of Eliz. standing mute upon his Arraignment for Poisoning of ... whose Will he had Counterfeited was Press'd to Death Edward afterward Knighted Mortgag'd the Abby to ... Fisher a Skinner of London for a small Sum and growing farther in with him by borrowing and Use upon Use it came at length by Forfeiture and Entanglement to be Fishers absolutely and Sir Edward Grevil having wasted his whole Patrimony and sold some part thereof in Warwickshire to the Lord Treasurer Cranfeild became Bailiff to the Lord Treasurer of the same Land Old Fisher put over the Abby to his Son Sir Edward Fisher who with extreme Suites Bribery c. so consum'd his Estate that he was judged to be Eleven Thousand or Twelve Thousand Pound in Debt and driven to sell his great Lease of Wrongey Blackbury and Grandcourts in Norfolk and yet liveth in fear of Bailiffs c. 12th of Octob. 1644. Ex relat John Wrenham partim Rob. Mordant Mil. Sir Edward Grevil had a Son that breaking his Leg over a Style dy'd his Daughters are one Married to Sir Arthur Ingram to whom he sold the Reversion of his chief Seat Milcote c. and hath a Hundred Pound per Ann. during his Life and the House Circa Ann. Dom. 1142. Stephen and Geffrey Mandevil Earl of Essex being call'd among other of the Nobility to a Council at St. Albans he was there by the King in revenge of a former Injury unduly taken at St. Albans prisoned and could have no liberty till he had delivered the Tower of London and the Castles of Walden and Plessy being thus spoil'd of his Holds he turned his fury upon the Abby of Ramsey it being a place of Security and invading it by force drove out the Monks and placed his Soldiers in their room and Fortified the Church instead of his Castle The Abbot and Monks betook them to their Arms and with all the force they could shot their Curses and Imprecations against him and his Complices thus prepared to his destruction he besieg'd the Castle of Burwel where a Peasant shooting him lightly in the Head with an Arrow contemning the Wound he dy'd of it in Excommunication leaving three Sons Inheriters of that Malediction but of no Lands of their Father the King having seized them Nub. lib. 1. c. 11. Stow. An. 9 Steph. Matth. Westm. Ann. 1143. Hen. Hunting Hist. lib. 8. pag. 393. Arnulph his eldest Son who still maintain'd the Church of Ramsey as a Castle was taken Prisoner by King Stephen striped of all his Inheritance banish'd and dy'd without Issue Hov. in Ann. 1144. Catal. Com. Essex pag. 177. Mat. Par. Ann. 1143. pag. 77. lib. 6. Geffrey Mandevil second Son was restored by King Henry the II. and Married Eustachia the Kings Kinswoman but had no Issue by her William Mandevil the third Son succeeded his Brother and was twice Married but dy'd without Issue Thus the Name and Issue of this Sacrilegious Earl were all extinct and the Inheritance carried to Geffrey Fitz-Peter another Family by the Marriage of Beatrix Say his Sisters Grandchild Now we have related the Fortune of the Earl Mandevil and his Children we must not omit what Nubrigensis reporteth touching two of his Captains the one of his Horse-men the other of his Foot-men both of them cruel Executioners of his Impiety The first had his Brains dash'd out by a fall from his Horse and the other whose Name was Rayner the chief burner and breaker into Churches being passing over Sea with his Wife they were both of them turned out of the Ship into a Boat and so left to Fortune were there Drown'd More of the Story you may see in Nubrigensis lib. 1. c. 11. and Mat. Par. Ann. 1143. About the same time Rob. Marmion a Man of great power in like manner invaded the Church of Coventry and turning out the Monks placed his Soldiers in their room then going to Battle against the E. of Chester he shewed himself in a bravery before both the Armies and having forgotten privy Trenches which himself had made to entrap his Enemies or hinder their approach he fell as he pranced up and down before the Monastery into one of them and breaking his Thigh-Bone could not get out which a Peasant of his Enemies perceiving ran to him and cut of his Head Nub. lib. 1. c. 12. Mat. West Ann. 1143. Hunting lib. 8. p. 393. Mat. Par. 1143. William Albermarl whom I certainly take to be William le Gros Earl of Albermarl that dy'd 25th of Henry II. by the former examples thrust the Regular Priests out of the Church of Belingcon and Fortified it with his Soldiers But by example also of their grievous Punishment it pleased God to touch him with Repentance so that to expiate his Sin he did many Noble Works of Charity both in relieving the Poor abundantly and in Erecting of two if no more worthy Monasteries that of Melsa in the Year 1150. and the other of Torneton where he was Buried in Peace Yet God delighted rather in Obedience than Sacrifice cut off the Line of his Family and transposed his Inheritance by his only Daughter Hawis who was thrice Married to three several Families But in the two first it stuck not at all and but two Descents in the last of them Nub. l. 1. c. 12. Hov. An. 1179. Cat. E. Albermarl King Henry II. in the Year 1192. and the 16th of his Reign being in Normandy and hearing that Thomas of Becket Archbishop of Canterbury after a Peace lately made between them carried things so imperiously in England as there was no living under him growing into an extream Passion used as they say these words In what a miserable State am I that I cannot be quiet in my own Kingdom for one only Priest Is there no Man that will rid me of this Trouble Hereupon or upon what other Motives God knoweth four barbarous Knights Sir Hugh Murvill Sir Will. Tracy Sir Rich. Brittain and Sir Reynold Fitz-Vrs hasting into England slew the Archbishop at Even Song in his Cathedral Church at the very Altar embruing it with his Blood and Brains committing at once this horrible Murder and tripple Sacrilege First in respect of the Person secondly of the Place and thirdly of the Time and Business then in hand Yet Vengeance seized not presently on their Bodies but tormented their Souls upon the rack of Desperation so that neither trusting themselves one with another nor the solitary Woods nor the mantle of Night they fled into several Countries where they all within four Years after as 't is reported died
miserable Fugitives saith the Story pa. 79 80. Dom. Touching their Issue I find that Fitz-Vrs fled into Ireland and I heard there that the Wild-Irish and Rebellious Family of Mac-Mahunde in the North Parts is of that Lineage The Family of another of them is at this Day prosecuted with a Fable if it be so that continueth the Memory of this Impiety for in Gloucestershire it is yet reported that wheresoever any of them Travelleth the Wind is commonly in their Faces The Quadripartite History call'd Quadrilogus printed at Paris An. 1495. saith The Murderers after this Horrible Fact rode that Night to a Manour of the Archbishops named there corruptly Sumantingues forty Miles Leucas distant from Canterbury lib. 3. c. 20. and that being Men of great Possessions active Soldiers and in the strength of their Age yet now they became like Men beside themselves stupid amaz'd and distracted repenting entirely of what they had done and for Penance took their way to the Holy-Land But Sir Will. Tracy being come to the City of Cossantia in Sicily and lingring there fell into an horrible Disease so that the parts of his Body rotted whilst he lived and his Flesh being dissolved by the Putrefaction himself did by piece-meal pull it off and cast it away leaving the Sinews and Bones apparent In this misery this wretched Murderer as it was testified by the Bishop of that City who was then his Confessor ended his Days but very penitently His other Complices lived not long after for all the four Murderers were taken away within three Years after the Fact committed Dicti Libri lib. 4. c. 71. RICHARD I. IT appeareth by a MS. Copy of Mat. Paris which I have wanting much of that which is Published and having much which the Published wanteth that King Richard I. had spoiled some Church of the Chalice and Treasure and that it was thereupon conceived that the revengeful Hand of God pursued him to his Death First by tickling his covetous Mind with the report of hidden Treasure found by one Vidomer a Viscount of Britain in France which he the King claim'd to belong to him by his Prerogative And then in stirring him to raise War against the Viscount for it and to besiege him in the Castle and Town of Chalus in the Countrey of Limosin whither the Viscount was fled and had carried the Treasure as it were to train the King to that fatal place importing the name of a Chalice But here it so fell out that the King being repelled in his Assault and surveying the Ground for undermining the Town-Walls one Peter Basil struck him in the left Arm or about the Shoulder with a Quarrel from a Cross-Bow out of the Castle The King little regarding his Wound pursued the Siege so as within twelve Days he took the Town and found little Treasure in it But his Wound in the mean time â—estering deprived him of his Life April 9. in the tenth Year of his Reign being about 44 Years old Hereupon a Satyrist of that time wrote this tart Dystichon related in the MS. Mat. Par. Christe tui Chalicis praedo fit praeda Chalucis Aere brevi rejicis qui tulit aera Crucis i. e. He that did prey upon thy Chalices Is now a prey unto the Chaluces And thou O Christ rejectest him as Dross That robb'd thee of the Treasure of thy Cross. King Edward I. Anno Regni 23. took all the Priories Aliens and their Goods into his Hands allowing every Monk 18 d. a Week reserving the overplus to his Treasury and Wars And in Anno 1295. Regni ejusdem caused all the Monasteries in England to be search'd and the Money in them to be brought up to London He also seiz'd into his Hands all the Lay-Fees because they refused to pay to him such a Tax as he demanded Stow in dicto An. p. 317. Mat. Westm. in An. 1296. saith it was a fifth part of their Revenues And for that being prohibited by the Council of Lions upon pain of ... they refused he seiz'd all their Lands and Goods as well of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Robert Winchelsea as other and put them out of his Protection c. Godwin p. 148. Presently after this the King's Forces were overthrown in Gascony Mat. Westm. p. 408. And tho' he prosper'd in his Wars against Scotland and wholly subdued it yet shortly after Rob. le Bruce recovered it from him and overthrew his Son Edward II. with a mighty Army at Burnocksbourne from whence escaping by flight he after suffer'd great Afflictions and Calamities by means of his own Wife and Barons and was at last Deposed Imprisoned and Murther'd Giraldus Cambrensis a good Author reporteth that one Hur Chaplain to William de Bruce a great Lord in Wales in the time of King John of his Chapel of St. Nicholas in the Castle of Aberhodni did Dream in a Night that one bid him tell his Lord that had taken away the Land given in Alms to that Chapel and presumed to detain it that Hoc aufert fiscus quod non accipit Christus Dabis impio Militi quod non vis dare Sacerdoti The King's Exchequer shall take that from thee that thou wilt not suffer Christ to enjoy and the impious Soldier that which thou wilt not permit unto the Priest The Words are St. Austin's in Serm. de Temp. spoken against them that invade Tithes and Church Rights and that which is there threatned against them saith Giraldus hapned most certainly in a very short time to this With-holder Vidimus quippe nostris diebus c. For we have seen saith he in our own Days and found certainly by undoubted verity that Princes and great Men Usurpers of Ecclesiastical Possessions and chiefly by name King H. II. Reigning in our time and tainted above others with this Vice a little Leven corrupting the whole Lump and new Evils falling thereby daily upon them to have consum'd all their whole Treasure giving that unto the hired Soldiers which they ought to have given unto the Priest He mentioneth not what it was particularly that hapned to Bruce but commiserating him as a singular good Man runneth out into a long Commendation both of him and his Wife The rest therefore of this Tragedy I must supply out of Mat. Par. who in An. 1209. reporteth thus That King John doubting the Fidelity of his Nobles sent a Troop of Soldiers to require of them their Sons or Nephews or near Kinsmen for Hostages Coming to Will Bruce's and demanding his Sons the Lady Maud his Wife in the humor of a Woman preventing her Husband said I will deliver no Sons of mine to your King John for that he beastly Murdered his Nephew Arthur whom he ought to have preserved Honourably Her Husband reproved her and offer'd to submit himself to the Tryal of his Peers if he had offended the King but that would not serve The King understanding it sent his Soldiers in all haste a privily as he could to
Clergy had so disproportionable a share by way of excess in the Lands of the Kingdom yet when in 17 Edw. II. it came to the point that the Order of the Templars for their wickedness was overthrown the Parliament then wherein many of those no doubt that made the Statute of Mortmain were present would not give the Lands and Possessions of the Templars to the King or the Lords of whom they were holden but ordain'd that they should go to the Order of the Hospital of St. John's of Jerusalem then lately erected for the defence of Christendom and the Christian Religion Edward le Bruce brother to Robert le Bruce King of Scots invadeth the North parts of Ireland with 6000 Men and accompanied with many great persons of the Nobility conquer'd the Earldom of Ulster gave the English many overthrows and prevail'd so victoriously that he caus'd himself to be crown'd King of Ireland His Soldiers in the mean time burn Churches and Abbies with the People whom they found in the same sparing neither Man Woman nor Child And most wickedly entring into other Churches spoil'd and defac'd the same of all such Tombs Monuments Plate Copies and other Ornaments as they found there He thus prevailing and the Irish much revolting to him the Archbishop of Armagh blesseth and encourageth the English Army against him Whereupon they joyn'd battle overthrew the whole Power of the Scots slew 2000 of their Men and amongst them this their King Edward le Bruce himself King Edw. III. to begin his Wars with France in An. 1337. taketh all the Treasure that was laid up in the Churches throughout England for the defence of the Holy Land Speed p. 190. And whereas there were anciently in England many Cells and Houses of Religion 110 they were counted and more belonging to greater Monasteries beyond the Seas fraught with Aliens and Strangers especially French-men and those of the Orders of Clunis and Cistertien King Edward III. at his entry into his French Wars An. 1337 Regni 12. partly fearing that they might hold intelligence with his Enemies but seeking chiefly to have their Wealth toward the payment of his Soldiers confiscated their Goods and Possessions letting their Priories and Lands to farm for Rent and selling some of them right out to others of his Subjects Yet like a Noble and Religious Prince touch'd with remorse when the Wars were ended viz. An. 1361 regni 35. he granted them all save those few that he had put away back again unto them by his Letters Patents as freely as they had formerly enjoy'd them And divers of those that were purchas'd by his Subjects were by them new-founded and given back to Religious Uses This act of the King 's was a precedent of singular Piety yet was it but a lame Offering not an Holocaust He gave back the Possessions but he retain'd the Profits which he had taken for 23 Years Speed p. 211. King John whom they so much condemn did more than this if he had done it as willingly He restor'd the Lands with the Damages But let not this good King want the charitable Commendation due unto his Piety though having dipt his Hands in this We be driven by the course of our Argument to observe what after befell to him and his Off-spring There be some things saith ... are sweet in the Mouth but bitter in the Belly pleasant at the beginning but woful in the end If these Priories and their Churches were of that nature the sequel verifies the Proverb The middle part of the King's Life was most fortunate and victorious yea all the while that these things were in his Hands even as if God had bless'd him as he did Obed-Edom 1 Sam. 6. 10. whilst the Ark was in his House and had the King then dy'd he had been a most glorious pattern of earthly Felicity But the Wheel turn'd and his Oriental Fortunes became Occidental The Peace he had concluded with France for the solace of his Age brake out again into an unfortunate War Many of his Subjects there rebell Gascony in effect is lost Afflictions at home fall upon him in sequence his Son Lionel Duke of Clarence dieth without Issue-male and when he had greatest need of his renowned Son the Prince of Wales miracle of Chivalry and the Anchor of his Kingdom him even then did God take from him his Court and Nobles discontented and in Faction himself and all things much misgovern'd by his Son the Duke of Lancaster and others of that part who by the Parliament are therefore remov'd from him and by him recall'd notwithstanding to the grief of all the Kingdom Thus he dieth leaving his unweildy Scepters to the feeble Arms of a Child of Eleven Years old King Richard II. whose lamentable History for the honour of Kings is best unspoken of But so unfortunate he was among his other Calamities that he was not only deposed by his unnatural Subjects but imprison'd and murther'd dying without Issue and leaving an Usurper possessor of his Kingdoms which kindled such Fuel of Dissention as consum'd almost all the Royal Line and Ancient Nobility of the Kingdom by the Civil War between the Houses of York and Lancaster To return to the Restitution made by King Edw. III. of the Priories-Alien An Historian termeth it A rare Example of a just King it being seldom seen that Princes let go any thing whereon they have once fasten'd But this King having made a Door in this manner into the freedom and possession of the Church all the Power he had either ordinarily or by Prerogative could not now so shut it up but that this Precedent would for ever after be a Key to open it at the pleasure of Posterity which was well seen not long after For in the Parliament An. 9. of King Richard II. The Knights and Burgesses with some of the Nobility being in a great rage as John Stow saith against the Clergy for that William Courtney the Archbishop would not suffer them to be charged in Subsidy by the Laity exhibited a Petition to the King that the Temporalities might be taken from them saying That they were grown to such Pride that it was Charity and Alms to take them from them to compell them thereby to be more meek and humble And so near the Parliament-men thought themselves the point of their desire that one promised himself thus much of this Monastery another so much of another Monastery And I heard saith Tho. Walsingham one of the Knights deeply swear that of the Abbey of St. Albans he would have a thousand Marks by the Year of the Temporalities But the King hearing the inordinate crying out on the one side and the just defence on the other deny'd his consent and commanded the Bill to be cancell'd Stow p. 479. Two valiant Esquires John Shakel and Robert Hauley having taken the Earl of Dene Prisoner at the Battel of Nazers in Spain and receiv'd his Son Hostage for performing Conditions between
the rest are which remain to us at this day together with the Monasteries and other Houses of Religion and intended Piety were by King Henry VIII in a temper of indignation against the Clergy of that time mingled with insatiable Avarice sacked and rased as by an Enemy It is true the Parliament did give them to him but so unwillingly as I have heard that when the Bill had stuck long in the lower House and could get no passage he commanded the Commons to attend him in the Forenoon in his Gallery where he let them wait till late in the Afternoon and then coming out of his Chamber walking a turn or two amongst them and looking angrily on them first on one side then on the other at last I hear saith he that my Bill will not pass but I will have it pass or I will have some of your Heads and without other Rhetorick or Perswasion returned to his Chamber Enough was said the Bill passed and all was given him as he desired First In the 27th Year of his Reign all Monasteries c. not having 200 l. per Annum in Revenue then in Anno 31 all the rest through the Kingdom in An. 32. cap. 24. the Hospitals and Hospital Churches of St. Johns of Jerusalem in England and Ireland with their Lands and Appurtenances and in Anno 37. cap. 4. all Colleges Free-Chapels Chauntries Hospitals Fraternities and Stipendiary-Priests made to have continuance for ever being contributary to the payment of First-fruits Tenths c. what should have been next God knows Bishopricks I suppose and Cathedral-Churches which had been long assailed in the time of R. II. H. IV. and H. V. but the next Year was the time of his account to Almighty God which as it is said he passed in great penitency for his Sins It is to be observed that the Parliament did give all these to the King yet did they not ordain them to be demolished or employed to any irreligious Uses leaving it more to the conscience and piety of the King who in a Speech to the Parliament promised to perform the Trust wherein he saith I cannot a little rejoyce when I consider the perfect truth and confidence which you have put in me in my good doings and just proceedings for you without my desire and request have committed to my order and disposition all Chauntries Colleges and Hospitals and other places specified in a certain Act firmly trusting that I will order them to the Glory of God and the Profit of the Common-wealth Surely if I contrary to your expectation should suffer the Ministers of the Churches to decay or Learning which is so great a Jewel to be minished or the poor and miserable to be unrelieved you might well say that I being put in such a special Trust as I am in this Case were no trusty Friend to you nor charitable to my Emne-Christen neither a lover of the publick Wealth nor yet one that feared God to whom account must be rendred of all our doings doubt not I pray you but your expectation shall be served more godly and goodly than you will wish or desire as hereafter you shall plainly perceive So that the King hereby doth not only confess the Trust committed to him by the Parliament in the same Manner that the Act assigns it viz. to be for the Glory of God and the Profit of the Common-wealth but he descendeth also into the particulars of the Truth as namely for the maintenance of the Ministers and Advancement of Learning and Provision for the Poor So likewise in the Statute 27. Henry VIII c. 28. the Preamble doth expresly ordain that the Lands Houses and Revenues should be converted to better Uses as appears fully in the Preamble which because it is omitted in the printed Edition of the Statutes shall here follow out of the Record For as much as manifest Sins c. vid. Monast. Angl. T. 1. p. But notwithstanding these fair Pretences and Projects little was performed for Desolation presently followed this Dissolution the Ax and the Mattock ruined almost all the Chief and most magnificent Ornaments of the Kingdom viz. 376 of the lesser Monasteries 645 of the greater sort 90 Colleges 110 Religious Hospitals 2374 Chantries and Free-Chapels All these Religious Houses Churches Colleges and Hospitals being about 3500 little and great in the whole did amount to an inestimable Summ especially if their Rents be accounted as they are now improved in these days Among this Multitude it is needless to speak of the great Church of St. Mary in Bulloign who upon the taking of that Town in Anno 1544 he caused to be pulled down and a Mount to be raised in the place thereof for planting of Ordinances to annoy a Siege I will not be so bold as to father that which followed upon this that preceded but the Analogy of my Discourse and the Course of this History do lead me to relate what happened after this 1 to the King himself 2 to his Children and Posterity 3 to them that were Agents in the business 4 to the Crown it self 5 to the whole Kingdom generally 6 to private Owners of these Monasteries particularly 1. First Then touching the King himself The Revenue that came to him in ten Years space was more if I mistake it not than Quadruple that of the Crown-lands besides a Magazine of Treasure raised out of the Money Place Jewels Ornaments and Implements of Churches Monasteries and Houses with their Goods State and Cattle First-fruits and Tenths given by the Parliament in the 26th of his Reign Together with a Subsidy Tenth and Fifteenth from the Laity at the same time To which I may add the incomparable Wealth of Cardinal Wolsey a little before confiscated also to the King and a large Summ raised by Knight-hood in the 25th of this Reign A Man may justly wonder how such an Ocean of Wealth should come to be exhausted in so short a time of Peace But God's blessing as it seemeth was not upon it for within four Years after he had received all this and had ruined and sacked 376 of the Monasteries and brought their Substance to his Treasury besides all the goodly Revenues of his Crown he was drawn so dry that the Parliament in the 31st was constrained by his importunity to supply his wants with the Residue of all the Monasteries of the Kingdom 645 great ones and illustrious with all their Wealth and Prince-like Possessions Yet even then was not this King so sufficiently furnished for building of a few Block-houses for defence of the Coast but the next year after he must have another Subsidy of 4 Fifteens to bear out his Charges And least it should be too little all the Houses Lands and Goods of the Knights of St. John at Jerusalem both in England and Ireland Had not Ireland come thus in my way I had forgotten it but to increase the Floods of this Sea all the Monasteries of Ireland likewise
flowed into it by Act of Parliament the next year following being the 33d of his Reign to the Number one and other of But as the Red-sea by the miraculous Hand of God was once dried up so was this Sea of Wealth by the wastfull Hand of this Prince immediately so dried up as the very next year viz. Regni 34. the Parliament was drawn again to grant him a great Subsidy for in the Statute-book it is so stiled and this not serving his turn he was yet driven not only to enhance his Gold and Silver-money in Anno 36 but against the Honour of a Prince to coin base Money and when all this served not his turn in the very same year to exact a Benevolence of his Subjects to their grievous Discontent Perceiving therefore that nothing could fill the gulf of his effusion and that there was now a just cause of great expence by reason of his Wars at Bulloign and in France they granted him in the 37th Year 2 Subsidies at once and four Fifteens and for a Corollary all the Colleges Free-Chapels Chantries Hospitals c. before-mentioned in Number 2374. upon confidence that he should dispose them as he promised solemnly in the Parliament to the Glory of God who in truth for ought that I can hear had little part thereof The next year was his fatal Period otherwise it was much to be feared that Deans and Chapters if not Bishopricks which have been long levelled at had been his next design for he took a very good Say of them by exchanging Lands with them before the Dissolution giving them rackt Lands and small things for goodly Manners and Lordships and also Impropriations for their solid Patrimony in finable Lands like the exchange that Palamedes made with Glaucus much thereby encreasing his own Revenues as he took 72 from York besides other Lands Tenements Advowsons Patronages c. in the 37th of his Reign which are mentioned particularly in the Statute 37. Henry VIII cap. 16. He took also 30 and above as I remember in the 27th Year from the Bishop of Norwich whom he left not that I can learn one Foot of the goodly Possessions of his Church save the Palace at Norwich and how many I know not in the 37th Year also from the Bishop of London I speak not of his prodigal Hand in the Blood of his Subjects which no doubt much alienated the Hearts of them from him But God in these eleven Years space visited him with 5 or 6 Rebellions In Lincolnshire Anno 28 and 3 one after another in Yorkshire Anno 33 one in Somersetshire Anno 29 and again in Yorkshire Anno 33. And though Rebellions and Insurrections are not to be defended yet they discover unto us what the displeasure and dislike was of the common People for spoiling the Revenues of the Church whereby they were great losers the Clergy being mercifull Landlords and bountifull Benefactors to all Men by their great Hospitality and Works of Charity Thus much touching his own Fortunes accompanying the Wealth and Treasure gotten by him as we have declared by confiscating the Monasteries wherein the prophetical Speech that the Archbishop of Canterbury used in the Parliament 6. Henry IV. seemeth performed That the King should not be one farthing the richer the next Year following II. What happened to the King's Children and Posterity Touching his Children and Posterity after the time that he entered into these Courses he had two Sons and three Daughters whereof one of each kind died Infants the other three succeeding in the Crown without Posterity His base Son the Duke of Richmond died also without Issue and as the Issue of Nebuchodonosor was extinct and his Kingdom given to another Nation the 68th Year after he had rifled the Temple of Jerusalem and taken away the holy Vessels so about the same period that King Henry VIII began to sack the Monasteries with their Churches and things dedicated to God was his whole Issue extinct Male and Female base and legitimate and his Kingdom transferred to another Nation and therein to another Royal Family which is now His Majesty's singular happiness that had no hand in the like depredation of the Monasteries and Churches of that Kingdom there committed by the tumultuous if not rebellious Subjects Contrary as it seems to the good liking of our late Sovereign King James who as is reported said that if he had found the Monasteries standing he would not have pulled them down not meaning to continue them in their superstitious Uses but to employ them as Chorah's censers to some godly purposes Wherein most piously he declared himself both in restoring as I hear some Bishopricks and divers Appropriations in Scotland and also by moving the Universities of England to do the like as by his gracious Letter doth appear which shall here following be expressed in the end So his Grandfather King James the 4th of Scotland when he was solicited by Sir Ralph Sadler then Embassador from King Henry to augment his Estate by taking into his Hands the Abbies James refus'd saying What need I take them into mine Hands when I may have any thing I require of them And if there be Abuses in them I will reform them for there be a great many good Which was a wise answer and if King Henry had done the like here he might have had an immense and ample Revenue out of the Monasteries and old Bishopricks while they enjoyed their Lands being a third part of the Kingdom as appears by Doomsday-Book by way of First-fruits Tenths Pensions and Corrodies yearly that he should never have needed at any time to ask one Subsidy of his Subjects To return where we left off having spoken of the extinguishment of the Issue of King Henry whereof the immortally renown'd Princess Queen Elizabeth was the golden period Let us cast our Eyes upon the principal Agents and Contrivers of this Business III. What happen'd to the Principal Agents The Lord Cromwel was conceived to be the principal mover and prosecutor thereof both before and in the Parliament of 27 and 37 Hen. VIII and for his good service impenso impendendo upon the 18th of April before the beginning of the Parliament of 31 which was on the last of the Month he was created Earl of Essex and his Son Gregory made Lord Cromwell yet e're the Year was past from the end of the Parliament of 31 he fell wholly into the King's Displeasure and in July 32 he was attainted and beheaded professing at his Death that he had been seduc'd and dy'd a Catholick His Son Gregory Lord Cromwell being as I said made a Baron in the life time of his Father and invested with divers great Possessions of the Church supported that new risen Family from utter ruine but his Grandchild Edward Lord Cromwell wasting the whole Inheritance sold the head of his Barony Oukham in Rutlandshire and exchanging some of the rest all that remained with the E. of Devonshire for
Lalale in Ireland left himself as little Land in England as his great Grandfather left to the Monasteries and was I think the first and only Peer of the Realm not having any Land within it by the feudal Law his Barony I doubt if it had been feudal had likewise gone but by the Mercy of God a Noble Gentleman now holds the Stile of it and long may he Having sailed thus far in this Ocean we will advance yet further if it please God to give us a favourable passage and take a view of the Parliament themselves that put the wrackful Sword in the King's Hands The chief whereof was as we have said before that of the 27 Year of his Reign touching smaller Houses and that of 31 touching the greater I have sought the Office of the Clerk of the Upper House of Parliament to see what Lords were present at the passing of the Acts of Dissolution but so ill have they been kept as that the Names of 27 H. 8. were not then to be found and farther since I have not search'd for them The other of 31 H. 8. I did find and doubt not but the most of them were the same which also sate in the Parliament of 27 tho' some of them of 27 were either dead or not present in 31. Those that were present at the passing of the Bill of 31 I have here under mention'd in such order as I therein did find them and will as faithfully as I can attain unto the knowledge of them relate what after hath befaln themselves and their Posterity The Names of the Lords Spiritual who were present in the Parliament upon Friday the 23d of May 31 Hen. VIII being the 15th day of the Parliament when the Bill for assuring the Monasteries c. to the King was pass'd 1. The Lord Cromwell Vicegerent for the King in the Spiritualties and having place thereby both in the Parliament and Convocation-house above the Archbishops was beheaded the 28th of July in the next Year being the 32 of the King Confessing at his death publickly That he had been seduced but died a Papist 2. The Archbishop of Canterbury Tho. Cranmer D. D. was burnt in the Castle-ditch at Oxford 21. March 1556 3 Mary 3. The Archbishop of York Dr. Edw. Lee died 13th of Septemb. 1544. 36 H. 8. 4. The Bishop of London John Stokesley died within 4 Months after viz. 3. Septemb 1539. 5. The Bishop of Durham Cuthbert Tonstal was imprisoned in the Tower all King Edwards time for Religion and depriv'd of his Bishoprick and the same inter alia Sacrilegia non pauca saith Godwin dissolv'd and given to the King by Parliament 7 Edw. VI. but the King being immediately taken away Queen Mary restor'd both it and him An. 1 o. Parl. 2. c. 3. and Queen Elizabeth again depriv'd him and committed him to the Archbishop of Canterbury where he died in July 1559. 6. The Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner was committed to the Tower 30 June 1548 in Edw. VI's time for that he had not declared in his Sermon the day before at Paul's-Cross certain Opinions appointed to him by the Council Two Years after because he approv'd not the Reformation he was depriv'd of his Bishoprick and kept in Prison all King Edward's days but restor'd by Queen Mary He died of the Gout 12. Nov. 1555 being the 3d of her Reign 7. The Bishop of Exeter John Voisey alias Horman had the Education of the King's Daughter the Lady Mary and discontented with the Reformation aliened the Lands of the Bishoprick to Courtiers or made long Leases of them at little Rent leaving scarcely 7 or 8 Mannors of 22 and them also of the least and leased or laden with Pensions Nefandum Sacrilegium saith Godwin Being suspected of the Rebellion of Devonshire about the change of Religion he was put from his Bishoprick but restor'd by Queen Mary and died 1555 Mar. 3. 8. The Bishop of Lincoln John Longland the King's Confessor died 1547 1 Edw. VI. 9. The Bishop of Bath and Wells John Clerk carried and commended in an Oration to the Cardinals the King's Book against Luther with much commendation But being afterwards sent in Ambassage to the Duke of Cleve to shew the reason why the King renounc'd his Marriage with the Lady Ann the Duke's Sister for the reward of his unwelcome Message was poison'd as they said in Germany and returning with much adoe died in England in Febr. 1540 i.e. 32 Hen. 8. 10. The Bishop of Ely Thomas Goodrick continu'd from and in 26 Hen. 8. till 1. Maii 1. Mariae 11. The Bishop of Bangor John Salcot alias Capen Abbot of Hide was consecrated 19. Apr. next before this Parliament and translated to Salisbury in August following where it seems he continu'd till Q. Mary's time 12. The Bishop of Salisbury Nic. Shaxton being consecrated 27 Hen 8. was put out July 1539 i. e. 31 Hen. 8. together with Latimer and for the same cause but recanted 13. The Bishop of Worcester Hugh Latimer made 27 Hen. 8. renounc'd his Bishoprick in July 31 of the King and was burnt with Dr. Ridley at Oxon. 16. October 1559. 14. The Bishop of Rochester Nich. Heath made 4. April before this Parliament in 31 Hen. 8. and about 4 Years after translated to Worcester was depos'd by Edw. 6. but made Archbishop of York 1 Mariae afterwards also Chancellor of England 15. The Bishop of Chichester Richard Sampson made June 5. 1536 and 28 Hen. 8. was translated to Lichfield 12. May 1543. To flatter the King he wrote an Apology for his Supremacy yet in the Year of this Parliament 31. he was committed to the Tower for relieving such as were imprison'd for denying it But it seems his Apology was written after this Commitment to recover Favour About 2 Ed. 6. he declared himself for the Pope whom he had written against and so after divers turnings and returnings he died 1554 2 Mar. 16. The Bishop of Norwich William Rugg alias Rupp made 1536 28 Hen. 8. and died 1550 about 4 or 5 Edw. 6. 17. The Bishop of St. David's William Barlow was translated hither from St. Asaph in April 1536 28 Hen. 8. and by King Edw. after to Bath and Wells fled into Germany in Qu. Mary's time and 2 Eliz was made Bishop of Chichester 18. The Bishop of St. Asaph Robert Porpey alias Werbington or Warton was made 2. July 28. Hen. 8. where having sate 18 Years and nequissimo Sacrilegio sold and spoil'd the Lands of the Bishoprick by long Leases he was by Qu. Mary An. 1. translated to Hereford where he sate almost till her death 19. The Bishop of Landaff Rob. Holgate 25. March 1537 28. Hen. S. and in the 36th of his Reign translated to the Archbishoprick of York and by Qu. Mary at her entrance committed to the Tower where within half a Year he was depriv'd 20. The Bishop of Carlisle Rob. Aldrich was elected 18. July 1537 29 Hen. 8. and died 5 Mar.
Barkenham a Miller who sold it to Mr. John Rivett now living The Augustine Friars came from Eyer to one Shavington a Bastard who died without Issue and by his Will gave it to one Waters other than the former and to the Heirs of his Body This Waters died without Issue whereupon the Augustine Friars was to revert to his Heir but having none because he was a Bastard great Suit ensued about it But John Ditefield being then in Possession of it left it by Descent as it seemeth to his Son John Ditefield who gave it in Marriage with Thomasin his sister to Christopher Pickering brother of the then Lord Keeper and he then recovered it in Chancery and sold it to John Lease John Lease pulling down the Buildings selleth first the Stones and then dividing the Ground into divers Garden-rooms sold the same to divers Persons The Cell of Priests was near the Guild-hall and the Prior's House was somewhat remote from it by St. Margaret's Church The College was sometime Mr. Houghton's after Parker's then Ball 's lately Sendall's and now Hargott's all of them save Hargott are extinct and gone and Mr. Hargott is on the declining Hand the Site of the Prior's House was lately consecrated and annexed to St. Margaret's Church-yard for a Burying-place shouldham-Shouldham-Abbey Sir Francis Gaudy of the Justices of the King's Bench was owner of it he married the Daughter and Heir of Christopher Cunningsby Lord of the Manour of Wallington and having this Manour and other Lands in right of his Wife induced her to acknowledge a Fine thereof which done she became a distracted Woman and continued so to the day of her Death and was to him for many Years a perpetual affliction He had by her his only Daughter and Heir Eliz. married to Sir William Hatton who died without Issue-Male leaving also a Daughter and Heir who being brought up with her Grandfather the Judge was secretly married against his Will to Sir Robert Rich now Earl of Warwick The Judge shortly after being made chief Justice of the Common-pleas at a dear Rate as was reported was suddenly stricken with an Apoplexy or double Palsie and so to his great loss died without Issue-Male e'er he had continued in his Place one whole Michaelmas Term and having made his appropriate Parish-Church a Hay-house or a Dog-kennel his dead Corps being brought from London unto Walling could for many days find no Place of Burial but in the mean time growing very offensive by the Contagious and ill Savours that issued through the Chinks of Lead not well soder'd he was at last carry'd to a poor Church of a little Village there by called Runcto and buried there without any Ceremony lieth yet uncovered if the Visitors have not reformed it with so small a Matter as a few paving Stones Sir Robert Rich now Earl of Warwick succeeded in the Inheritance by his Wife of this Abby with the Impropriation and his great Possessions amounting by Estimation to 5000 l. a Year and hath already sold the greatest part of them together with this Abbey and Impropriation unto the Family of Mr. Nich. Hare the Judge's Neighbour and chiefest Adversary For among divers other goodly Manours that Sir John Hare hath purchased of him or his Feoffees he hath also bought this Abbey of Shouldham and the Impropriation there with the Manour belonging to the Abbey valued together at 600 l. yearly Rent Binham-Priory Binham Priory a Cell of St. Albans was granted by King Henry 8. to Sir Thomas Paston he left it to Mr. Edward Paston his Son and Heir who living above 80 Years continued the Possession of it till Caroli R. and having buried ... his Son and Heir apparent left it then unto his Grandchild Mr. Paston the third Owner of it and thereby now in the Wardship to the King Mr. Edward Paston many Years since was desirous to build a Mansion-house upon or near the Priory and attempting for that purpose to clear some of that Ground a Piece of Wall fell upon a Workman and slew him perplexed with this Accident in the beginning of this Business he gave it wholly over and would by no means all his Life after be perswaded to re-attempt it but built his Mansion-house a very fair one at Appleton Castle-Acre-Abbey Sir Tho. Cecil Earl of Exeter was owner of it and of the impropriate Personage here he had Issue Sir William Cecil Earl Exeter who married Eliz. the Daughter and Heir of Edw. Earl of Rutland and had Issue by her dying as I take it in Child-bed his only Son William Lord Rosse This William Lord Rosse married Anne the Daughter of Sir Tho. Lake and they living together in extreme Discord many infamous Actions issued thereupon and finally a great Suit in the Star-Chamber to the high Dishonour of themselves and their Parents In this Affliction the Lord Rosse dyeth without Issue and the Eldest Male-line of his Grandfather's House is extinguished Sir Richard Cecil was second Son of Sir Thomas Cecil Earl of Exeter and had Issue David who married Eliz. the Daughter of John Earl of Bridgewater and is now in expectation to be Earl of Exeter His third Son was Sir Edw. Cecil Knight his 4th and 5th Tho. Cecil and Christopher drowned in Germany Sir Tho. the Grandfather Earl of Exeter made a Lease of this Monastery and Impropriation to one Paine as I take it by whose Widow the same came in Marriage to Mr. Humfrey Guibon Sheriff of Norfolk Anno 38. Eliz. whose Grand-child and Heir Tho. Guibon consumed his whole Inheritance and lying long in the Fleet either died there a Prisoner or shortly after Sir Edw. Coke Lord Chief Justice married for his second Wife the Lady Eliz. Hatton one of the Daughters of the said Earl Tho. and afterwards bought the Castle of Acre with this Monastery and Impropriation of his Brother-in-Law Earl William Son of Earl Thomas since which time he hath felt abundantly the Change of Fortune as we have partly touched in Flitcham-Abbey West-Acre-Abbey This also belonged to Sir Tho. Cecil of whom we have now spoken he sold both it and the Impropriation of West Acre to Sir Horatio Palvicini an Italian that before his coming into England had dipt his Fingers very deep in the Treasure of the Church Being in his Youth in the Low-countries as his Son Edward affirmed to me he there secretly married a very mean Woman and by her had Issue him this Edward but durst never discover it to his Father as long as they lived together his Father being dead he came into England and here married a second Wife by whom he had Issue his Son Toby and for his Wive's sake disinherited him his eldest Son Edward and conferred all his Lands with the Abbey and Impropriation of West Acre to Toby and his Heirs Edward after the Death of his Father grows into contention with his Brother Toby and in a Petition to King James accuseth both his Father and his Brother for
Colrane in Ireland Sir Ralph Hare to expiate this Sin of his Family gave the Parsonage impropriate of Marham worth 100 l. yearly to St. John's College in Cambridge Anno 16 and died leaving one only Child Sir John Hare who married Sir Thomas Coventry the now Lord Keeper's Daughter and hath by her she not being ... Years old ... Sons and Daughters with hope of a numerous Posterity God bless them Crab-House I have yet gotten little Intelligence of this Abbey but I hear that it was not long since John Wright's of Wigen-Hall in Marseland and that he had two Sons whereof ... his eldest Son consumed his Estate and sold the Abbey with the greatest part of the Land and died without Issue It came after to Mr. William Guybon of Watlington and is now in the hands of his Son and Heir Bromill Abbey Sir Thomas Woodhouse of Wapham 38 H. 8. purchased Bromill Abbey of the King he died without Issue and Sir Henry Woodhouse his Nephew succeeded who utterly consumed his whole Estate and selling the Abbey to John Smith Esq Suits arose thereupon which lasted many Years till the Death of Sir Henry in Nov. 1624. Mr. Smith hath only Daughters and no Son so that the Abbey is not like to continue in his Name Ex inform ipsius Jo. Smith 11 o. Nov. 1624. The Impropriation of Besthurst in Lancashire as I take it is worth 1600 l. per Annum being Sir Vrion Lea's Dereham Abbey Tho Dereham in the 33 H. 8. bought it of the King shortly after he was fetch'd out of it to the Tower about the Treason of his Brother Francis Dereham who was executed Thomas at length was delivered out of Prison he had Issue Thomas Robert John and Baldwin and a Daughter Thomas married ... and died without Issue Male Robert and John died without Issue Baldwin a decayed Merchant of London had Issue four Sons Thomas Dr. of Divinity John and Martha a Daughter non compos mentis Thomas succeeded his Uncle in the Inheritance and is now Knighted having Issue Thomas Thomas eldest Son of Sir Thomas married ... daughter of ... Scot Esque of ... in Kent she fell Lunatick in Child-Bed upon the Death of her Son ... 1623 and so continueth having yet only a Daughter Thetford Hitherto I have kept my self within my Circle let us see for our further satisfaction whether the like fortune haunted the Monasteries without it we will begin with Thetford The Monastery of the Black Nuns of St. Gregory in Thetford being the Benedictines was the Duke of Norfolk's whose Misfortunes are here before in other places too often mentioned He sold the same to Sir Richard Fulmarston Knight who died without Issue Male leaving it to his Daughter and her married to Sir Edward Clark Knight Sir Edward Clark had two Sons by her and a Son by his second Wife Sir Edward Clark Knight of St. Michael the eldest Son spent most of his Life in one Prison or other had Issue a Son Sir Henry Clark Baronet that died without Issue Male in the Life of his Father who consuming his whole Inheritance sold the chief Seat of his Blickling to the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Sir Henry Hobart and this Monastery upon Exchange and Money to Mr. Godsalve for Buckingham-Ferry which he ... Mr. Godsalve put over the Monastery among other Lands to Mr. John Smith and Owen Shepheard and having consumed all his Estate went beyond Sea Mr. Smith and Mr. Shepheard had a long and chargeable Suit about Mr. Godsalve's Estate and sold the Monastery to Sir William Campion who now hath it but with Suit and Trouble Sir Edw. ... the elders second Son Francis died without Issue This great and eminent Family is wholly extinct as those also of Fulmarston's Godsalve's and Smith's for Smith hath no Issue Male. I must here note that this Sir Edward ... the Elder was one of the greatest Hunters by way of Concealment after Church Goods and Lands that was in his time and that sowing these unfortunate Pieces of new gotten Cloth into the Garment of his old Inheritance the new hath not only rent away the old Garment but the Family it self to which it served Pentney Priory Pentney Priory was purchased of the Kâ—ng Anno 37 H. 8. by Thomas Mildmay the Auditor whose Son Sir Thomas sold it to Francis Windham one of the Justices of the King's-Bench he entailed it first upon his own Issue then to his Brother 's Roger and Thomas the Dr. after to his Sister Coningsby and after that to Edmund and Edmund's natural Brothers all which dying without Issue it came to Thomas Windham Esq Son of Sir Henry Windham who in Anno 1622 sold it to Sir Richard Ballache Knight and he in Anno 1631 to Judge Richardson The Abbey of Radegundis at Bradefalk in Kent by Dover is now Sir Tho. Edolph's Knight who did lately build a fair House upon the Site of the Monastery and it hath fallen down three times his two Brothers lunatique Ex relat Mrs. Meares qui duxit Vxorem Edw. Pegton Baronet St. Lawrence-Abbey by Canterbury now in the hands of Edolph lunatique whose Grandfather was also lunatique his Grandfather first purchased the Abbey Shirburn Shirburn-Abbey some time a Cathedral-Church yet belonging to the Bishop of Salisbury saith Cambden p. 214. impres 1610. Sir John Horsey having no Issue left for Name sake to Sir Ralph Horsey of Cambridgeshire the Monastery and Parsonage of Shirburn who wasting much his Estate sold them to Mr. Stikles and he to my Lord Digby about 1620. The Castle and the Manner was assigned from the Bishop of Salisbury to Queen Elizabeth and by her to Sir Walter Rawleigh after beheaded then it came to Prince Henry who died shortly after then it came to the Earl of Somerset who being attainted the King granted it to my Lord Digby The Bishoprick being void Toby Matthew should have had it but would not take it upon Sir Walter Rawleigh's conditions but Henry Cotton accepting and performing them his Son was born blind who notwithstanding was made a Minister had 3 or 4 Parsonages and was Canon in Salisbury yet died a Beggar hale's-Hale's-Abbey hale's-Hale's-Abbey and Manour for the most part viz. 500 Acres granted to the Lord Admiral Seymor in fee 19 Aug. 1. Edw. 6. He beheaded it returned to the King Edw. who 12 June reg 4. granted all with the 500 Acres to the Lord Marquiss who 16 June eodem Anno leased it to Hodgkins for 21 Years at 159 l. 16 s. but as it seems came again to the Crown for Q. Eliz 18 July reg 7. leased it again to Hodgkins for 21 Years at 159 l. 16 s. Woods Regalities c. excepted ut videtur Hodgkins had three Sons all died poorly but he gave his Estate to his Daughter married to Hobby St. Ousey given by King Edward to Thomas Lord Darcy and ... slain at St. Quintins John had Issue Thomas Lord Darcy whose
reigning after him taken Prisoner by Pharaoh Nechoh and dying in Egypt his second Son Jehoiakim succeeding taken also Prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar Jerusalem spoiled and he his Princes People Treasure and Golden Vessels of the Temple all carried to Babylon and all for Idolatry 2 King 24. 2. 25. 1. For Jehoram's Idolatry Jerusalem is taken he with his Wives and Treasure and all his Sons save the Youngest slain and himself after a long tormenting Disease hath his Guts fall out 2 Chron. 21. 17 18 19. So Amaziah seeth Jerusalem defaced the Temple spoiled his Treasure carried away and himself a Prisoner and being restored driven out by Treason and slain at last 2 Chr. 25. 14 c. I will wade no farther in this Kind of Sacrilege which is never pass'd over in Scripture but with some Remarkable Punishments Our Country I hope doth not at this Day know it SECT III. Of the other Sorts of Sacrilege commonly so called as of Time Persons Function Place and other things consecrated to the Worship of God And first of Time in profaning the Sabbath I Come now to the second Part which indeed is that which the Schoolmen and Canonists only call Sacrilege as tho' the former were of too high a Nature to be express'd in this Appellation so exorbitant a Sin as that no Name can properly comprehend it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Warring against God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a direful Violence upon Divine Majesty a superlative Sacrilege The other and common Kind of Sacrilege is as was said a violating mis-using or a putting away of things consecrated or appropriated to Divine Service or Worship of God It hath many Branches Time Persons Function Place and materially Omne illud saith Th. Aquinas quod ad irreverentiam rerum sacrarum pertinet ad injuriam Dei pertinet habet Sacrilegii rationem 2 a2 ae qu. 99. art 1. This Description of Sacrilege may well enough be extended further than Aquinas did perhaps intend it to the former or superlative Kind Sacrilege of Time is when the Sabbath or the Lord's Day is abused or profaned This God expresly punish'd in the Stick-gatherer Some Canonists seem not to reckon this under the common Kind of Sacrilege Soto de justitia jure lib. II. qu. 4. fol. 50. 6. So that in all that followeth we shall run the broken Way of the Schoolmen and Canonists SECT IV. Sacrilege of Persons that is Priests and Ministers consecrated to the Service of God and the Punishments thereof SAcrilege against the Person is when Priests or Ministers of God's Divine Service are either violated or abused Again Fear the Lord and honour his Priests Ecclus 7. 29 31. For he beareth the iniquity of the congregation to make an atonement for them before the Lord Deut. 8. 17. For the Levite is separate to the Lord to minister unto him to bless thee in his name Deut. 10. 8. therefore when Micah had got a Levite into his House he rejoiced and said I know that the Lord will be good unto me seeing I have a Levite to my priest Judg. 17. 13. Touch not mine anointed nor do my prophets no harm Psal. 105. 15. Mine anointed that is not my Kings nor my Priests and Deut. 12. 19. Beware that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth Beware saith God as intimating Danger and Punishment to hang over their head that offered otherwise and what not for wronging the Levite a thing too impious but for not loving and cherishing him all the days of thy Life I must here note as it cometh in my way the remarkable Justice and Piety of Pharaoh towards his Idol Priests that when by reason of the Famine he had got and bought unto himself all the Money Cattle Lands Wealth and Persons of the Egyptians yet stretched he not forth his Thoughts to the Lands or Persons of his Priests but commiserating their Necessity allowed them a ... at his own Charge that they might both live and keep their Lands Gen. 47. 22. Musculus hereupon infers Quantum sacrilegium est in nostris principibus negligi legitimos probosque sacrorum ministros How great a Sacrilege is it in our Princes that the good and lawful Ministers of Holy things are thus neglected It is to be noted That as Micah expected a Blessing from God for entertaining an Idolatrous Levite into his House so Pharaoh's Piety towards his Priests wanted not a Blessing from God upon his House though God hated both the Idolaters and Idolatry it self Let us see how Sacrilege in this Kind hath been punished The Benjamites of Gibeah wronging a Levite villainously in abusing his Wife Judg. 19. 25. Gibeah is therefore destroyed with Fire and Sword above 26000 valiant Men of the Benjamites slain and the whole Tribe almost wholly rased out of Israel with their Cities and Castles Ch. 20. Jeroboam making Golden Calves driveth the Priests of the Lord out of Israel and makes himself other Priests not of the Tribe of Levi for this he is overthrown by Abiah King of Judah and 500000 of his Men slain his Son taken from him and his Posterity threatned to be swept away like Dung and those of them that died in the city to be eaten of dogs those in the fields by the fowls of the air 2 Chron. 13. 9. 1 King 14. 10. Jeroboam also stretched but out his hand against the Prophet to have him apprehended and it is presently withered 1 Kings 13. 4. Joash commanded Zacharias Son of Jehoiada the Priest to be slain in the court of the Lord's house this done he is overcome the next Year following by the Aramites all his Princes are slain his Treasure and the Spoil is sent to Damascus himself left afflicted with great Diseases and at last murthered in his bed by his servants 2 Chron. 24. 21 c. Zedekiah King of Judah casteth Jeremy the Prophet first into Prison then for a season into the Dungeon and useth him harshly Jer. 32. 3. 37. 21. 38. 9. He and those that counselled him to it are overthrown by Nebuchadonosor Jerusalem taken his Sons slain before his Eyes and then his Eyes put out and the People carried captive to Babylon but Jeremiah himself is set at liberty and well intreated by his Enemies the Chaldaeans Jer. 39. 1 c. SECT V. Sacrilege of Function by usurping the Priests Office and the Punishment thereof SAcrilege of Function is when those that are not called to the Office of Priesthood or Ministry do usurp upon it So Gideon made an Ephod that is a Pontifical Ornament of the Tabernacle not at Shilo but in his own City Ophra whereby the Israelites fell to worship it or as others think that he made all the things of the Tabernacle whereby the People were drawn to worship there and not to go to Shilo where the Tabernacle was This saith the Text was the Destruction of Gideon and his House for his Son Abimelech rising against his Brethren
it was commonly reported some of their Army dy'd daily so thick of the Bloody Flux as they feared that none of them should escape whereas all the Christians that were amongst them were free from it They hasted therefore into the Countrey but dy'd there as fast and infected others so grievously as Horich their Prince fearing that both himself and the Nobility and People should be consum'd commanded the rest of them to be Beheaded and tho some fled upon it yet it was thought they dy'd of the Disease Ragenarius their General and Author of all the Evil at his return bragg'd before Horich in the presence of Kobbe the Embassador of King Lodwick and many others what great things he had done at Paris and said That the Dead there had more power than the Living and that an old Man whom they call'd German most resisted him Speaking thus he began to tremble and falling down cry'd out That German was there and did beat him with his Staff Being presently taken up and carry'd out he continu'd three Days in grievous pains whereupon Repenting of what he had done he commanded that his Statue should be made of Gold and that Kobbe should carry it to the old Man German promising that if he recover'd he would become a Christian but his Guts passing from him as if he were burst in the midst he so dy'd And because he was not a Christian his Statue would not be received tho it were of Gold Kobbe the Embassador for Lodwick King of Bavaria to the Normans being yet Pagans was an Eye-witness of these things and related them to Aimoinus who living at the same time and seeing much of it himself did by the commandment of King Charles write a History of strange things then happening which he entitul'd De Translatione Miraculis S. Germani Episcopi whence this above mention'd is taken Bar. An. 845. nu 22. Seq The Danes with a great Army destroy the Monks and Monastery of Bradney kill the Abbot and Monks of Croyland and burn their Church make the like havock at Peterborough and murder the Nuns at Ely Shortly after their whole Army is overthrown in Battle at Chippenham by Aelfred Brother of King Aethelred and Hubba their King with five Earls and many Thousands of their Pagan Nation slain Stow p. 101. Flor. Wigor An. 871. Hunting lib. 5. p. 349. saith there were nine Earls slain this Year Aboila alias Agdila a Saracen Prince coming with a great Army out of Africa besieg'd Salerne and made the Church of St. Fortunatus Caius and Anches his Lodging placing his Bed upon the Altar and abusâ—â—g it with all Filthiness but it happen'd that having gotten a Maid and going about to Ravish her there as she resisted and strugl'd with him a piece of Timber falling down from the top of the Church slew him in his Wickedness and hurt not the Maid which seem'd apparently to be the very work of God for that the Timber fell not perpendicularly but aslope He being thus extinct the Saracens chose Abimelech an Eunuch King in his stead Baron An. 874. nu 2. out of Herempertus de Gestis Longobardorum Principum Beneventanorum Codice MS. In the Reign of Carolus Crassus who began 886 and dy'd 891. there happen'd a strange Accident memorable in France as well by common Fame as by writing to the later times that the Monks of Clunis going forth in their Habit to meet the Earl of Matiscon he not only slew them but with torture and cruelty and in that manner rag'd continually against the Church It fortun'd therefore that he being one day at a Feast with many of the Nobility an unknown Person coming to the Door required to speak with him and the Earl going out was never seen after Some write that he was carried away fearfully crying through the Air with a Black Horse pullo equo Paradinus de antiquo Statu Burgundiae pa. 62. Leofstane a noble Saxon and of great Authority in the heat of his Youth enter'd the Place where St. Edmund the King and glorious Martyr of our East-Angles was entomb'd and causing the Tomb or Coffin to be opened made the Body to be shewed forth to the Beholders many labouring to hinder it But in that instant whilst he stood looking on it he was struck with Madness which his Father a Religious Man hearing gave Thanks unto the Martyr for it and casting off his Son suffered him to live in great Penury wherein afterward by the Hand of God he was consumed with Worms and so ended his Life Jornalensis in S. Edm. vitâ fol. 29. a. 6. The same Author in the same place telleth also That divers lewd Persons robbing in the Night-time the Church where his Tomb was were all taken and by the Judgment of Theodoret the Archbishop of Canterbury in those days hanged together But addeth That the Archbishop repented the Deed all the days of his Life afterward remembring the Speech of the Prophet saying Eos qui ducuntur ad mortem eruere non cesses And that hereupon he put himself to great Penance and calling the People of the Diocess together perswaded them to fast and pray for him three whole Days that it might please God to turn the Wrath of his Divine Indignation from him for doing this deed Nicephorus Emperor of Constantinople had marvellous Success in all his Affairs and in a short time obtain'd so many and so famous Victories against the Saracens as are scarcely to be believed he falleth then to spoiling of Churches and sacred Houses taking from them that which usually was given unto them and pretended that the Bishops consumed the Money that was given to the use of the Poor whilst the Soldiers lived in Want and Poverty After he had thus laid his Hands upon the Goods of the Church he not only wasted all his own Goods but overwhelm'd with Evils found the Hand of God to be against him and to pursue him with Revenge as the Greek Historians are of Opinion For by and by his Army is beaten in Calabria an innumerable Multitude of his People slain many with their Noses cut off are sent back to Constantinople the Citizens there Murmur Mutiny and Rebel his own Wife conspireth with them and by the Hands of John Zomisces one of his Army do murder him and make the same John Emperor in his room Curopalates c. Bar. Ann. 964. nu 34. 968. nu 3 4 5. Upon the Rebellion of the Welshmen King Edgar entring with an Army into the Countrey of Glamorgan some of his Soldiers among other Spoil took away the Bell of St. Ellutus and hang'd it about an Horses Neck It then chanc'd as the report was that King Edgar sleeping in the Afternoon there appeared one unto him and smote him on the Breast with a Spear By reason of which Vision he caused all things that had been taken away to be restored again But were there any such Vision or
apprehend Will. de Bruce and his whole Family but he having Intelligence of it fled with his Wife Children and Kinsmen into Ireland whither the King coming afterward besieged his Wife and his Son William with his Wife in a Munition in Methe and having taken them they privily escaped to the Island of May where being again recovered and brought unto him he now bound them surely and sent them to Windsor-Castlâ— and there by his Commandment they all died miserably famished William himself the Father escaping into France died also shortly after and was buried at Paris leaving all according to St. Austin's Words to the King's Extortioners pag. 218 221. What Reax King John kept among Churches is generally well known Yet I find not that either he destroyed or profaned any of them otherwise than by rifling of their Wealth and persecuting the Clergy as his Enemies To say truth they were not his Friends But the last Riot that he committed among them was in Suffolk and Norfolk as he brought his Army that way to waste the Lands of the Barons his Enemies and to pass by the Town of Lyn which stood faithful to him when the most of England had forsaken him into the North parts Having lodg'd there to his great Content and taking his Journey Spoliis onustus opimis over the Washes when he came upon the Sands of Wellstream a great part of his Sacrilegious Army with the Spoils he had taken and his Treasure Plate Jewels Horses and Carriages were all drowned So that it was judg'd saith the History to be a punishment by God that the Spoil which had been gotten and taken out of Churches should perish and be lost by such means together with the Spoilers Stow reporteth That the Earth opened in the midst of the Waves on the Marsties and the Whirlpit of the deep so swallowed up both Men and Horses that none escaped to bring King John Tidings For he with his Army going before escap'd more happily than Pharaoh but very narrowly with his Life especially if it were any Happiness to live in that miserable Condition he was now brought to having lost his Treasure and Fortunes at the very time wherein above all other he had most need of them as flying from his Enemy Lewis the Dauphin of France call'd in by his Subjects to take the Crown and possessing peaceably the City and Tower of London the Cities of Canterbury and Winchester with all the Castles of Kent except Dover which could not hold out and all the Barons in a manner with the Citizens of London and Winchester having sworn him Fealty and done him Homage as also the King of Scots for the Lands he held of the King of England who likewise had subdued all Northumberland except Barnard-Castle to him If after all this I say it were any Happiness to live yet enjoy'd he that miserable Happiness but a very short time for whether by Poyson given him at Swinsted-Abbey as the common report is or by a Surfeit taken with eating Peaches accompany'd with an intolerable Grief for his Losses as others deliver it he died about five or six Days after at Newark-Castle and wanting all civil Lamentation was presently so spoil'd by his Servants who fled every Man his way as they left nothing worth the Carriage to cover his dead Carcass Discite O Reges sacratae parcere turbae Robert Fitz-Walter so great a Baron in the time of King John that Mat. Paris saith of him Cui vix aliquis Comes in Anglia tum temporis potuit comparari was a grievous Enemy to the Monastery of St. Alban and prosecuting it with many Injuries did among others besiege the Priory of Binham in Norfolk a Cell of St. Albans as if it were a Castle and constrain'd the Monks there to extream Famine for that John the Abbot of St. Albans had removed Thomas the Prior of Binham and put another in his room without the assent of the said Robert who was Patron of the Priory and a singular Friend of Thomas The Complaint hereof being brought to the King he presently sent Forces to remove and apprehend the Besiegers but they having notice thereof departed Mat. Paris wondreth at the Revengeful wrath of which thereupon fell on Robert Fitz-Walter From that time saith he he never wanted manifest pursuit of Enemies or the afflictions of Infirmities All that he had is Confiscate and during the Life of King John he liv'd in Exile and Vagrant suffering great Adversities and Misfortunes And tho'King Hen. III. granted Peace to all yet did he never recover fully his Favour but died Dishonourable and Infamous Thus Mat. Paris in Vita Joh. Abbat S. Albani xxi MS. Falcasius de Brent a Valiant and Powerful Baron that on the part of King John grievously afflicted the Barons his Adversaries and all England beside pulled down the Church of St. Paul at Bedford to have the Stones and Materials thereof for the Building and Fortifying his Castle of Bedford He fell afterward in the ... Year of Hen. III. to be Fined before the Justices Itinerant at Dunstable a 100 l. a-piece for thirty forcible Entries and Disseissins made by him upon divers Men in all at 3000 l. Upon this he attempted by his Brethren and Followers to have taken the Justices sitting in Court and to imprison them in his Castle at Bedford But they all save Henry de Braybrock escaped him they Imprison'd and his Wife complaining thereon to the King and Parliament then sitting at Northampton they all set all other Business a-part and with all the Power they could make went and besieged the Castle which was to the utmost admirably defended against them and to the extream loss of the Assailants Yet by raising a Wooden-Tower close by it which they call Malvicine it was at length taken the Justice delivered 24 hang'd and his Brethren Himself being escap'd lost all his Possessions and whatsoever else he had But for the great Service he had done King John his Life upon his submission was pardon'd and he banished yet Vengeance still pursued him for he died by Poyson I must not forget a memorable Relation which Matthew Paris further maketh touching this matter The Abbess of Helnestene hearing that Falcasius had pull'd down St. Paul's Church to build his Castle caus'd the Sword which was in the Hand of the Image of St. Paul to be taken out of it and would not suffer it to be restor'd till now that he had so worthily reveng'd himself Whereupon one writ thus Perdidit in mense Falco tam fervidus ense Omne sub saevo quicquid quaesivit ab aevo The fierce Sir Falco ere one Month was run Lost all the Wealth that in his Life he won William Earl of Pembroke sirnam'd The great Earl Marshal Tutor of King Henry 3. took by force of War two Mannors belonging to the Church and Bishoprick of Fernes in Ireland The Bishop a Godly Man requir'd Restitution and failing of it
them the Duke of Lancaster in the King's Name and the King himself by the Duke's procurement demanded their Hostage and for that they would not deliver him they were committed to the Tower from whence they escap'd and took Sanctuary at Westminster This highly offended the Duke of Lancaster who thought that the having the Earl's Son might be some help to his Enterprize for the Kingdom of Castile Whereupon Sir Ralph Ferreis and Sir Alan Boxhull Constable of the Tower consulting with the Lord Latimer the Duke's Friend resolv'd to fetch them back into the Tower and on the 11 of Aug. 1378. with certain of the King's Servants and other arm'd men about 50 in all enter'd St. Peter's Church and the Parties being then hearing of Mass they laid Hands upon Shakel drew him forth of it and sent him to the Tower But Hauley standing upon his defence they murther'd him in the Quire before the Stall of the Abbot together with a Monk that besought them to forbear him in that place The Archbishop of Canterbury with 5 of his Suffragans openly pronounced Sir Ralph Ferreis and Sir Alan Boxhull and all that were present with them at this Murther accursed and all them likewise that were aiding or counselling to it the King the Queen and the Duke of Lancaster nominately excepted This Excommunication for long after was denounc'd every Sunday Wednesday and Friday in Paul's Church by the Bishop of London And though the Duke was excepted in it yet did it trouble him very fore for his Friends it being commonly said that they had done what was done by his Commandment He causeth therefore the Bishop to be requir'd by Letters from the King to come to a Council holden at Windsor but the Bishop would neither come nor stay the Curse Whereupon the Duke said that the Bishop's froward dealings were not to be born with and that if the King would command him he would gladly go to London and fetch the disobedient Prelate in despite of those Ribaulds so he term'd them the Londiners Hol. 421. col 2. My method ties me to relate what follow'd Yet I dare not suggest this wicked Sacrilege to be any cause thereof For God's Judgments are secret and no Author doth so apply them The King himself seems excusable by reason of his tender Age if the omission of Justice upon the Offenders in his riper Years lay not against him His other Errors were many as those also of his Grandfather which perhaps were visited upon him God left him to follow evil Counsels he lost the Hearts of his Subjects was bereaved of his Kingdom thrown into Prison and there miserably murdered leaving no Issue to prosecute his Murtherers The Duke of Lancaster's Issue-male as well those born in lawfull Wedlock as Legitimate by Act of Parliament in the 3d or 4th Generation were all extinct And tho' the eldest Line obtain'd the Crown yet was it pull'd again from them by the Sword King Henry VI. being also depriv'd of it cast into Prison and himself and Son murther'd most unmercifully as in lege talionis for that of Richard II. An. 1379 Rich. II. 3 o. Sir John Arundel Brother to the Earl of Arundel with many noble Knights and Esquires and other Soldiers were sent to aid the Duke of Britain Lying at Portsmouth for a Wind he went to a Nunnery thereby and entreated the Governess that he might lodge his Soldiers in her Monastery She foreseeing the danger besought him on her Knees not to desire it Her Prayers availed not he turn'd in his Soldiers They quickly fell to Rapine brake into the Chambers of the Nuns and by report deflour'd many of them and many other Virgins that were among them for Education spoiling also the Country about Upon the day they went to Ship they took a Bride as she came from Church and many Widows Wives and Maids out of the Monastery to do them Villainy on Ship-board and a Chalice off of the Altar from the Priest having ended his Mass. Sir John Arundel having heard much complaint regarded it not but Sir Thomas Piercy Sir Hugh Calverley and others before they departed made Proclamation that those to whom their Soldiers had done wrong should come and have Recompence which they perform'd The People therefore pray'd for them and their Company but cursed bitterly Sir John Arundel and his Soldiers which was much aggravated by the Priest that lost the Chalice For he drawing other Priests unto him pursu'd them to the Sea-side and there after the manner of their Devotion curs'd them with Bell Book and Candle and throwing a light Taper into the Sea wish'd that they might be so extinguish'd Not many hours after there arose a storm which the Master of Sir John's Ship one Robert Rust of Blackeney mistrusted by some sore tokens and perswaded him to have staid till it were past but Sir John would not This grew so violent as all presently despair'd of Life First they threw out what they might to lighten the Ship When that serv'd not the Soldiers with the same Arms wherewith before they had amorously embrac'd the Women with the same now they tyrannously threw them over-board 60 in number as was reported and yet continu'd in the Jaws of Death for divers days together Toss'd thus with fears they at last espy'd an Island on the Coast of Ireland Sir John being glad thereof furiously compell'd the Mariners to make for it tho' they importunately for fear of Rocks desir'd to have kept the Deep Thrusting therefore between it and the Main and finding nothing but horrible Rocks their fear was multiply'd and their ship now began to take Water also Yet at last they perceiv'd where with difficulty they might climb up into the Island and therefore running the ship on Ground that being broken they might escape by the pieces of it they got so near the Island that Robert Rust the Master leap'd to the sands and many others following him Then Sir John Arundel leap'd also and being on the sands he stood as out of danger shaking the Water off him that he had taken in the ship when as the place being a Quick-sand began suddenly to swallow him up which the Master Robert Rust perceiving stepp'd to him and striving to help him out a Billow coming upon them wash'd them both into the Sea where thus they ended their Lives N. Musard a most valiant Esquire of Sir John's being also leap'd on the sands and having hold of a piece of the Ship was wash'd back and dash'd in pieces against the Rocks so also was one Derrick another Esquire Sir Tho. Banaster Sir N. Trompington Sir Thomas de Dale being leap'd on the sands and hinder'd by striving to out-run one another the Billows fetch'd them also back into the Deep Some escaping to the Island all wet and finding no Houses there it being the 16th of December died for Cold. The rest with running and wrastling sav'd their Lives but in great penury from Thursday till Sunday
1555. Concerning the Bishops it doth not appear how they gave their Voices but it may well be suppos'd that divers of them were against a total suppression and seeing in other Acts it is recorded after that when a Bill was granted with an unanimous consent of all parties none dissenting that then it was past Nemine dissentiente yet it is not so recorded upon this but although many might dissent and that publickly yet there was a major part of Temporal Lords present and so carried it by Voices It is testify'd of Bishop Latimer that he much desir'd that two or three Abbies of the greater sort might be preserv'd in every Shire for pious and charitable Uses Which was a wise and godly motion and perhaps the occasion that the King did convert some in part to good purposes Yet the Desolation was so universal that Jo. Bale doth much lament the loss and spoil of Books and Libraries in his Epistle upon Leland's Journal Leland being imploy'd by the King to survey and preserve the choicest Books in their Libraries If there had been in every Shire of England saith Bale but one solemn Library to the preservation of those Noble Works and Preferment of good Learning in our Posterity it had been yet somewhat but to destroy all without consideration it is and will be unto England for ever a most horrible Infamy amongst the grave Seniors of other Nations Adding further that they who got and purchased the Religious Houses at the Dissolution of them took the Libraries as part of the Bargain and Booty reserving of those Library Books some to serve their Jakes some to scour their Candlesticks and some to rub their Boots some they sold to the Grocers and Soap-sellers and some they sent over Sea to the Book-binders not in small numbers but at times whole Ship-fulls to the wondering of foreign Nations And after he also addeth I know a Merchant-man which all this time shall be nameless that bought the Contents of two noble Libraries for 40s a piece a shame it is to be spoken this stuff hath he occasioned instead of Grey Paper by the space of more than these ten Years and yet he hath enough for many Years to come a prodigious Example is this and to be abhorred of all men who love their Nation as they should do And well he might exclaim a prodigious Example it being a most wicked and detestable injury to Religion and Learning Yet thus are Men often transported with Passion in the heat of Reformation and fiery Zeal without Wisdom The Temporal Lords present in Parliament 23 Maii 31 Hen. VIII 1. Thomas Lord Audley of Walden Lord Chancellour died without Issue-male 30. Apr. 1544 3 â…š Hen. 8. Margaret his sole Daughter and Heir being first marry'd to Henry Dudley Son of John Duke of Northumberland slain at St. Quintins without Issue Anno 1557. After a second Wife to Thomas Duke of Norfolk who was beheaded in June 1572. By him she had Issue Thomas created by King James Lord Howard of Walden and after Earl of Suffolk and made Lord Treasurer but put out of his place and fined in the Star-Chamber termino ... Anno ... for miscarriage thereof and grievously afflicted by the wicked and odious practices of his Daughter Frances first marry'd to the Earl of Essex then divorc'd and marry'd to the Earl of Somerset and they both attainted and adjudg'd to death for the murther of Sir Thomas Overbury 2. The Duke of Norfolk at that time viz. in both Parliaments of 31 and 27 was Thomas Howard the third Duke of that renowned Family who suffering the spight of Fortune was upon the 12th of December in the 28th of the King committed to the Tower with his magnanimous Son and Heir apparent Henry Earl of Surrey Upon being first arraign'd and attainted the King lying on his Death-bed caused him to be beheaded 19. Jan. and deceasing himself on the 28th of the same Month left the sorrowfull Duke in Prison where he remained as I take it till Queen Mary set him at liberty to go against Wyat and being nothing fortunate in that imployment the Earl of Pembroke was put in his room and had the glory of the Service Thomas Howard Son of Henry Earl of Surrey beheaded and Grandchild of the last Duke was restor'd by Q. Mary and made the 4th Duke of Norfolk but affecting Marriage with the Qu. of Scots was heretofore attainted and beheaded in June 1572. Philip his eldest Son was in right of his Mother and by conveyance of the Castle and Honour of Arundel unto him Earl of Arundel and after restor'd in Blood 23d of Eliz. yet byfate of his Noble Family after long imprisonment and Attainder died in the Tower where his most honourable Son after restitution to his Earldom and other Dignities with a reinvesting of the great Office of Earl Marshal of England but now by God's Blessing and his own singular Wisdom hath gotten the upper hand of Fortune and is likely to leave it to a temperate and virtuous Son 3. The Duke of Suffolk both in this Parliament and in that of 27 was Charles Brandon and tho' he was not present at the passing of the Bill yet being a principal Parliament-man the King's Brother by Marriage and his minion in Affection it is very credible that he was a very great advancer of the business He had four Wives no Issue by the first a base Daughter and another by a second born in Wedlock A Son Henry that was Earl of Lincoln by his 3d Wife the King's Sister and Qu. of France and two Daughters and two Sons Henry and Charles by his fourth Wife His Son Henry Earl of Lincoln died without Issue in the life time of his Father the Duke His other Son Henry was Duke of Suffolk after his Father but both he and his Brother Charles died together of the Sweating Sickness the 14th of July 1551 without Issue Frances his eldest Daughter by the Qu. of France was married to Henry Grey Marquess of Dorset who in her Father's Title was created Duke of Suffolk and was beheaded the 23d of Febr. 1 Mariae leaving no Issue by a former Wife but three Daughters by this Frances whereof Jane marry'd to the Lord Guilford Dudley together with her Husband were beheaded without Issue 1 Mar. Catharine his second Daughter was marry'd to the Lord Herbert and divorced Mary the 3d Daughter was marry'd to Martin Reyes a Groom-porter as I have heard and died without Issue 4. The Marquess of Dorset in this Parliament of 31 H. 8. was Henry Grey that married Frances the eldest Daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk by the Qu. of France King Henry's Sister he had Issue by her a Son and 3 Daughters His Son Henry Lord Harrington died before him without Issue The Lady Jane eldest Daughter as we said before was married to the Lord Guilford Dudley and together with her Husband was beheaded Catharine his second Daughter ... Mary the
issue Robert restor'd 1. Jacobi 10. Powis Edward Grey of Northumberland Lord Powis Son of John Grey Lord Powis married Anne the base Daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and died without issue and his Family extinct 11. Clinton Edw. Lord Clinton whose Father died 9 Hen. 8. was made Earl of Lincoln 14 Eliz. and died 27th Eliz. and had Issue Henry Earl of Lincoln who had Issue Thomas Earl of Lincoln Father of Theophilus now Earl 12. Scroope John Lord Scroope of Bolton Son of Henry Lord Scroope of Bolton which John in Henry 8's time married the Daughter of the Earl of Cumberland had Issue Henry Lord Scroope who died 1592 and had Issue Thomas Lord Scroope who died 1609 who had Issue Emanuel Lord Scroope Earl of Sunderland that died without lawful Issue and both Barony and Earldom extinct 13. William Sturton had Issue Charles Lord Sturton who for murthering Mr. Argile and his Son was hang'd at Salâ—sbury 6. March 1565. He had Issue John Lord Sturton S. P. and Edw. now Lord Sturton 14. Latimer John Nevil Lord Latimer lived 23 Hen. 8. and had Issue John Nevil Lord Latimer who died 1577 19 Eliz. without Issue Male and his Family and Barony extinct notwithstanding his four Daughters 15. Montjoy Charles Blunt Lord Montjoy who succeed his Father William Blunt Lord Montjoy and died 38 Henry 8. had Issue James Lord Montjoy who died 1581 had Issue William Lord Montjoy S. P. 1594 and Charles made Earl of Devon 1603 and died 1606 without lawful Issue so the Family and Barony was extinct but for a base Son of his Montjoy Blunt was created Lord Montjoy 3 Jacobi and afterwards Earl of Newport Anno 4. 16. Lumley John Lord Lumley marry'd Jane the eldest Daughter and Co-heir of Henry Fitz-Alam the last Earl of Arundel of that name and had by her Charles Thomas and Mary who died all without Issue so his line was extinct 17. Montegle Sir Edward Stanley created Lord Montegle 6 Henry 8. had Issue Thomas Stanley Lord Montegle who married Mary Daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and had issue William Stanley Lord Montegle who died without issue Male and his Barony extinct till King James Anno 1. conferr'd it on William Parker after Lord Morley for revealing the Gunpowder-Treason having married Elizabeth Daughter and sole Heir of the aforesaid William 18. Windsor Andrew Windsor made 21 Henry 8. and died 33 and had issue William Lord Windsor q. ob 1558 who had issue Edward Lord Windsor who died 1575 who had Fredrick Lord Windsor who died Sept. 28 Eliz. and Henry Lord Windsor who died 1605 who had issue Thomas now Lord Windsor yet without issue 19. Wentworth Thomas Lord Wentworth made 21 Henry 8. had issue Thomas Lord Wentworth who died 1590 who had issue William Wentworth who died 1582 S. P. and Henry Lord Wentworth who died 1593 who had issue Thomas Lord Wentworth created Earl of Cleveland 1 Caroli and had issue Thomas his Son and Heir apparent 20. Burrough Thomas Lord Burrough had issue Edward that married Qu. Catherine now S. P. William who had issue Henry eldest Son slain by Sir Tho. Holcroft near Kingston Anno 1578 and Thomas Lord Burrough Deputy of Ireland and Sir John Burrough slain by Sir John Gilbert 1594. Thomas Lord Burrough had Issue Robert Lord Burrough that died a Child without issue 1601 and the Barony extinct The first Thomas had issue besides Edward and William Sir Thomas Burrough S. P. and Henry Father of Nicholas who had issue Sir John Burrough ut creditur slain at Rees 21. Bray Sir Edmund made Baron 21 Hen. 8. and had issue John Lord Bray died without issue and so the Barony and Line extinct but he had six Sisters 22. Walter Hungerford made Baron of Hatsbury 28 Hen. 8. was beheaded for Buggery and his Barony extinct yet he had issue Sir Walter Hungerford Knight who died without issue Male and so this Family extinct 23. St. John William Paulet was created Lord St. John of Basing 30 Hen. 8. and made Earl of Wiltshire 3 Edward 6. and 5 Edward 6. Marquess of Winchester who had issue John Marquess who had issue William Marquess who had issue William Marquess Father of William Lord St. John that died S. P. and of John now Marquess 24. Sir John Russel was made Baron 30 Hen. 8. and Earl of Bedford 3 Edw. 6. he had Woburn Abby for his Dwelling-house with the Church turned to a strange use even the Stable he had Francis the second Earl of Bedford his sole issue who had four Sons and three Daughters 1. Edmund Lord Russel died without issue 2. John Lord Russel died without issue Male. 3. Francis Lord Russel treacherously slain by the Scots in time of Truce but left two Sons who died without issue Edward the 4th Earl of Bedford and then Sir William 4th Son of the first Francis was by King James made Lord Russel of Thornhaugh whose Son Francis is now the 5th Earl and long may he live and prosper 25. William Parr made Baron Parr of Kendall 9. March 30 H. 8. after Earl of Essex and lastly Marquess Nortston had three Wives was divorced from his first and died without issue York 186. Leonard Lord Gray Lord Lieutenant of Ireland holdeth a Parliament in Ireland 1. Maii 28 Hen. 8. at Dublin wherein he passeth an Act for the suppressing of Abbies Chron. of Ireland pag. 100. In the 32 of the King he is called home and sent to the Tower and in the 25th of June 33 he was to be arraigned in the King's Bench at Westminster and to be try'd by a Jury of Knights being no Lord of Parliament but confessing the Indictment had his Judgment and was beheaded at Tower-Hill the third Day following a Man of singular Valour that had formerly serv'd his Prince and Country most honourably in France and Ireland Stow 32 Hen. 8. and 33. Now I labour in observing the Particulars seeing the whole body of the Baronage is since that fallen so much from their ancient lustre magnitude and estimation I that about 50 Years agoe did behold with what great respect observance and distance principal Men of Countries apply'd themselves to some of the meanest Barons and so with what familiarity inferiour Gentlemen often do accost many of these of our times cannot but wonder either at the Declination of the one or at the Arrogance of the other but I remember what an eminent Divine once said in a Sermon he compared Honour among Dignities to Gold the heaviest and most precious Metal but Gold saith he may be beaten so thin as the very Breath will blow it away so Honour may be dispers'd so popularly that the Reputation of it will be pretermitted To say what I observe herein as the Nobility spoiled God of his Honour by putting those things from him and communicating them to lazy and vulgar Persons so God to requite them hath taken the ancient Honours of Nobility and communicating them to
Man's Inheritance very few not having their Tenure certain from the King by Patent can assure themselves to be free from this Calamity The truth is that originally none held in Capite but Peers of the Realm who were therefore called the King's Barons and such as by this their Tenure as appears by the Council of Clarendon 10 Hen. 2. had the privilege to sit in the King's House and to hear and judge all Causes brought before the King and to be of his great Council And tho' afterwards the meaner of them were neglected yet King John was tied by his great Charter to call them all to Parliament where the Knights of the Shires in that respect have their place at this day I am too prone you see to run out of my way into this Discourse but to hold me nearer to my Center I cannot but admire what mov'd the Parliament in 27 Henry 8. cap. 27. to enact that a Tenure in Capite by Knights Service should be reserv'd to the King upon their granting out of their Abbies and their Lands as tho' it were some singular benefit to the Commonwealth It may be they conceiv'd that according to the Project of the Parliament at Leicester in 2 Hen. 5. that the King should thereby have a perpetual means to support a standing Army or to have it ready whensoever need required and so ease the Subject of all Military Contribution O how far was that great School of Wisdom deceived or what hath that Art of theirs produc'd other than as if some Scholars had bound their Masters for to whip them soundly and I suppose they have had their fill of it long e're this time But these Tenures by being by this means multiply'd in such excessive manner the Kings former Officers that before could span their Business with their Hand could not now fathom this with both their Arms. The greater Harvest must have greater Barns and more Labourers and therefore in 32 Hen. 8. cap. 46. and 33 Hen. 8. cap. 22. and 39. the Court now called of Wards and Liveries with the Orders Officers and Ministers thereto belonging was erected What is thereby fallen upon the Subject I need not relate heavy Experience makes it generally known and generally felt one while by Wardship and Marriage another while by suing out Livery and Ouster se main by Pardons of Alienation Concealments Intrusions respite of Homage and other Calamities accompanying this Tenure almost innumerable consuming the Fruit of the Wards Lands for many Years and as sometimes I have seen for many Ages the Grandfathers Fathers and Sons Inheritance militant together in this Court the Mother equally lamenting the Death of her Husband and the Captivity of her Child the Confiscation of his Lands for the 3d part of his Age and the Ransom of his Person before he can enter into the World the Family oftentimes so ruin'd and impoverish'd as if at last it recover yet it stands tottering and lame for a long time after Marriage is honourable and instituted by God in Paradise do you think that a Man by the Word of God may be compelled to pay for a Licence to marry I doubt the Schoolmen would not so determine it nor did any civil or moral Nation of old admit it the Custom rose from the barbarous Goths and Loâ—gobards and yet I confess not without reason as the Genius of their Nation did then lead them and by their Example all others where they conquered It was an impious manner of those times to hold Malice and Enmity one Family against another and against their Friends and Alliances from one Generation to another our Ancestors called it deadly feude the Feudists feudam and Tacitus in his time noteth it of Germans saying Inimicitias mutuo ponunt suscipiunt It was therefore of urgent necessity that the Lord should be well assur'd that his Tenant married not unto any Family that might be either in feud with him or in alliance with them that were and to prevent that danger as appears by the Charter of Hen. 1. cap. 4. the Lord would have him bound not to marry without his consent for which in the beginning the Tenant gave his Lord some small matter as munus honorarium but from thence it grew afterwards to Nundinaria gratissima And as Bondmen used to pay to their Lords Chiefage for their Marriage so the Tenants by Knights Service which in the Feudal Law is called Feudum nobile is likewise subject to this brand of Servitude and more grievously in some respect But I reverence the Law I live under and hath been so long receiv'd and practis'd all I aim at is only to shew in the course of my Argument the Evils that have either fallen newly upon us or been encreased since the Confiscation of the Churches and Church-patrimony which if it be not offensive I may say doth seem to be foretold 800 Years since by one Egelzedus an Hermit who assigned three Causes of those Evils viz. First Effusion of Blood 2ly Drunkenness and 3ly Contempt of the House of God telling us farther That we should know the time of the fulfilling this Prophecy by the various fashions and mutability of Apparel that should be in use the very ear-mark of the Age we live in How this Contempt of the House of God worketh upon the Sacrilegious Instruments thereof is to be seen in the Particulars before recited to which if I should run higher into former Ages or further from home in other Countries I might tire you with thousands of Examples But for a Conclusion mark this by the way that as England hath not been faulty alone in this kind of Transgression so other Nations offending in like manner have likewise tasted of the same Corrections or others like them Scotland after the rasing of their Monasteries hath had the Royal Throne removed from them and placed in another Kingdom The Low-Countries harrassed with a continued War of 60 Years and more The Palsgrave beaten out of his own Dominions and living now with his Royal Wife and Children in lamentable Exile to which may be added as concurring with the usual Infelicity of meddling with Church Lands that the Palsgrave having attained the Crown of Bohemia and seizing the Ecclesiastical Livings there for maintenance of his Wars as the Report goes he was presently cast out both of that Kingdom and of his other Inheritance Having mentioned this unfortunate Prince I must add also another accident that befell him in this kind The State of the Low Countries while he lived in Exile among them gave unto him as a place of Recreation the Abby of Regutian near Vtrecht where intending a sumptuous Building he drew out thereof such Materials of Stone and Timber as might be usefull to his new Designs and making a Store-house of the Abby-Church laid them up there to be in readiness It chanc'd that the truly noble Lord Craven returning out of Italy where my Son was very happily fallen into his Company
Mr. Gossald bought the Abby of Mr. Benson and lest it to his Wife in Jointure Mr. Henry Gossald of Ireland his Son and Heir sold the Reversion to Sir Thomas Holland and goeth into Ireland Mr. Nicholas Timperley bought it of Sir Tho. Holland Malsingham-Abby not in the Tax It was Sir Tho. Gresham's who died as was said suddenly in his Kitchin without Issue-male His Daughter and Heir was married to Sir William Read who had this Abby Sir Tho. Read his eldest Son married Mildred Daughter of Sir Tho. Cecil after Earl of Exeter and died without Issue Sir Francis Read his 2d Son an unthrift lived much in the Gaol if he died not there The Daughter of Sir William was married to Sir Michael Stanhope who died without Issue-male Jane the eldest Daughter of Sir Michael married to Sir William is out of her Wits and Sir William her Husband in sore danger of his life about the slaughter of 6 or 7 Men tumultuously kill'd at Elizabeth the younger of his Daughters and Heirs married to the Lord Barkley is out of her Wits Flitcham-Abby Sir Tho. Hollis had it and was by report at Dinner taken out of it in Execution for Debt by the Sheriff and his Goods sold whereof my Father bought some Much suit there was about it between one Payne and him or his Heir but the matter being at length reserr'd to the Duke of Norfolk he bought both their Titles He the Duke had it and was attainted and beheaded and it then came to the Crown King James gave it in Fee Farm to my Lord of Suffolk who was fined in the Star-Chamber and put out of Treasure-ship and suffer'd much Affliction by the Attainder of the Lady Francis Countess of Somerset his Daughter and of her Husband the Earl My Lord Cooke bought it of the Earl of Suffolk and bought out the Fee-Farm from King James He was put out of the place of Ch. Justice of the King's Bench fell into great Displeasure of the King and hath been laded with Afflictions proceeding chiefly from his own Wife who liveth from him in Separation His eldest Son Sir Robert having been married many Years hath yet no Issue His Daughter the Lady Vicountess of Purbeck the Fable of the Time and her Husband a Lunatick Wendling Wendling-Abby differ'd from all the rest of this Circuit for it was not dissolv'd by the Statute or by the Act of Hen. 8. but before that time by Cardinal Wolsey and was one of the 40 small Monasteries that Pope Clement the 7th gave him licence to suppress for the Erection of his 2 Colleges Christ-Church in Oxon and another at Ipswich The Cardinal employed 5 Persons especially in this business whereof one was slain by another of those his Companions that other was hanged for the Fact the third drowned himself in a Well the fourth being a Man of good Wealth in those days fell within three years after so poor that he begg'd till his Death the fifth Dr. Allen promoted to a Bishoprick in Ireland was there cruelly maimed The Cardinal himself fell out of favour with the King and Kingdom and condemned in a praemunire lost all his Offices Honours Goods and Estate and being called into further danger died for grief by the way not without suspicion of poisoning himself The Pope who gave the Licence was by the Duke of Bourbon's Army driven out of his City of Rome it cruelly sack'd and himself besieg'd in the Castle of St. Angelo taken Prisoner scorned and put to Ransom And after all this was at last as some affirm poison'd with certain of his Cardinals and Friends by the Fume of a Torch prepared for that purpose Stow in Anno Dom. Bale 18. 6. Besides all these Mr. Tho. Cromwell who then was but Servant to the Cardinal having a principal hand in the Destruction of these Monasteries given to his Master had also a principal share in this Tragedy for tho' he were after promoted to great Honours yet in the end he was thrown out of them all convicted of Treason attainted and beheaded as in other places heretofore we have more fully related Now we come nearer to and particularly to this Abbey wherein as also in others of that Nature in Corporations and Bodies Politick that are the Seminaries of the Church little attention is to be expected yet see what happened to their Tenants and Farmers profanely abusing the consecrate places thereof The Cardinal did grant it to his Coll. at Christ-Church in Oxon and to whom they first leased it I do not yet find but Mr. Tho. Hogan of Bradenham that was Sheriff of Norfolk Eliz. died in his Sheriffship and not long after him his Son Mr. Hen. Hogan leaving his Son and Heir very young who attaining near to his full Age and falling sick acknowledged a fine upon his Death-Bed to the use of his Mother the Lady Caesar that now is and his half Sisters and dying without reversing it did by that means cut off his Heirs at common Law and was the last of his Father's House in that Inheritance This begat great Suits in the Star-Chamber Chancery and Parliament it self The Lease is since come to Mr. Hamon Nor did the Colleges for which these Monasteries were suppressed by the Cardinal and which he meant to make so glorious come to good effect for that of Ipswich was pulled down and the other of Christ-Church was never finished as also neither that of King's College in Cambridge rising out of the Ruins of the Priory's Aliens Coxford Abbey al Ratha Abbey Coxford Abbey after the Dissolution came to the Duke of Norfolk who was beheaded 2d June 1572 Eliz. 14. The Queen then granted it to Edw. Earl of Oxon who wasted all his Patrimony Sir Roger Townsend then bought it who had Issue Sir Jo. Townsend and Sir Robert Townsend Sir Robert died without Issue Sir Jo. had Issue Sir Robert the Bar. and Stanhope and Ann married to Joh. Spelman he falling into a Quarrel with Sir Matthew Brown of Beach-North Castle in Surrey each of them slew other in a Duel 1 Jac. Stanhope Townsend wounded mortally by in a Duel in the Low Countries came into England and died at London Sir Roger the Bar. intending to build a goodly House at Rainham and to fetch Stone for the same from Coxford Abbey by advice of Sir Nathanael Bacon his Grandfather began to demolish the Church there which till then was standing and beginning with the Steeple the first Stone as 't is said in the fall brake a Man's Leg which somewhat amazed them yet contemning such Advertisement they proceeded in the Work and overthrowing the Steeple it fell upon a House by and breaking it down slew in it one Mr. Seller that lay lame in it of a broken Leg gotten at Foot-ball others having saved themselves by Fright and Flight Sir Roger having digged the Cellering of his new House and raised the Walls with some of the
the meanest of the People to Shop-keepers Taverners Taylors Tradesmen Burghers Brewers Grasiers and it may be supposed that as Constantine the Great seeing the inconvenience of the multitude of Comites of his time distinguished them as Eusebius reporteth into three degrees making the latter far inferior to the former so may it one day come to pass among these of our times and it shall not want some precedent of our own to the like purpose Vide Glossarium in voc Comes pag. 109. IV. What hath happened to the Crown it self It now remaineth to shew how the Lands themselves thus pulled from the Church have thriven with the Crown and in the Hands of the King his Heirs and Successors truly no otherwise than the Archbishop I spake of so long since foretold For they have melted and dropt away from the Crown like Snow yet herein that Snow leaves moisture to enrich the Ground but those nothing save dry and fruitless Coffers for now they are all gone in a manner and little to speak of remaining for them to the Treasury for my own part I think the Crown the happier that they are gone but very unhappy in their manner of going for as Sampson going out of Gaza carried with him the Gates the Bars and Posts of the City leaving it thereby exposed to Enemies weak and undefenced so those Lands going from the Crown have carried away with them the very Crown-Lands themselves which were in former times the glorious Gates of Regal Magnificence the present and ready Bars of Security at all Necessities and like immoveable Posts or Hercules Pillars in all the transmigrations of Crown and Kingdom had to our Time 1000 Years and upward remained fixed and amor ... to the Scepter These I say are in effect all gone since the Dissolution the new Piece hath rent away the old Garment and the Title of terra Regis within Dooms-day Book was generally the Targett in every County is now a Blank I fear in most of them But his Majesty hath a great Fee-farm reserved out of the greatest part of both of them 40000 l. a Year they say out of the Crown Lands and 60000 l. out of the Church Lands I confess it makes a goodly sound yet is it but froth in respect of the solid Land which is deemed to be more than ten times if not twenty times as much and this being but succus redditus a sick and languishing Rent will grow daily as our Rents of Assess have already done to be of lesser worth as the price of Lands and Commodities increase and rise higher but I hear there is ... thousand pounds a Year of the Crown-lands gone without any Reservation at all and above ... thousand likewise of the Church Lands and to tell the truth which my self do well know a great proportion of the Fee-farm Rents themselves are likewise aliened already but mihi Cynthius aurem vellit I must launch no further V. What happened to the whole Kingdom generally What the whole Body of the Kingdom hath suffered since these Acts of Confiscation of the Monasteries and their Churches is very remarkable let the Monks and Friers shift as they deserv'd the good if you will and the bad together my purpose is not to defend their Iniquities the thing I lament is that the Wheat perish'd with the Darnel things of good and pious Institution with those that abused and perverted them by reason whereof the Service of God was not only grievously wounded and bleedeth at this day but infinite Works of Charity whereby the Poor were universally reliev'd thro' the Kingdon were utterly cut off and extinguish'd many thousand masterless Servants turn'd loose into the World and many thousand of poor People which were constantly fed clad and nourished by the Monasteries now like young Ravens seek their Meat at God Every Monastery according to their Ability had an Ambery greater or little for the daily relief of the Poor about them Every principal Monastery an Hospital commonly for Travellers and an Infirmary which we now call a Spittle for the sick and diseased Persons with Officers and Attendants to take care of them Gentlmen and others having Children without means of Maintenance had them here brought up and provided for which course in some Countries and namely in Pomerland as I hear is still observed tho' Monks and Friers be abandoned These and such other Miseries falling upon the meaner sort of People drove them into so many Rebellions as we spake of and rung such loud peals in the King's Ears that on his Death-bed he gave back the Spittle of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield lately valued saith Stow at 308 l. 6 s. 7 d. and the Church of the Gray-Friers valued at 32 l. 19 s. 7 d. with other Churches and 500 Marks a Year added to it to be united and called Christ Church founded by King Henry 8. and to be Hospitals for relieving the Poor the Bishop of Rochester declaring his Bounty at Paul's Cross on the 3d of Jan. and on the 28th day following the King died viz the 28 Jan. This touching the Poor VI. What happened to private Owners of the Monasteries particularly I turn now to the richer sort and shall not need to speak of the Clergy whose irreparable Misery Piers Ploughman foresaw so many Ages before saying That a King should come that should give the Abbat of Abingdon such a blow as incurable should be the Wound thereof Their Misery and Wrack is so notorious as it needs no Pen to decypher it nor will I speak of the loss that the Lay-men our Grandfathers had by this means in their right of Founders and Patronage Meantenures Rents-services Pensions Corrodies and many other Duties and Privileges whereof some were saved by the Statutes yet by little and little all in effect worn out and gone Those I say I speak not of for that they are Wounds grown up and forgotten but of one instead of all that immortal and incurable Wound which every day bleedeth more than other given to us and our Posterity by the infinite number of Tenures by Knights service in capite either newly created upon granting out of these Monasteries and Lands or daily raised by double Ignoramus in every Town almost of the Kingdom For as the Abbies had Lands commonly scattered abroad in every of them in some greater or lesser quantity according to the Ability of their Benefactors so the Leprosie of this Tenure comes thereby as generally to be scatter'd thro' the Kingdom And whereas before that time very few did hold on that manner besides the Nobility and principal Gentlemen that were owners of great Lordships and Possessions which from time to time descended intirely to their Heirs and were not broken out into small parcels amongst inferiour Tenents and mean Purchasers Now by reason that those Abby Lands are minced into such infinite numbers of little Quillets and thereby privily sown like the Tares in the Parable almost in every