this she did frankly and freely moued thereunto by her owne conscience saying with a Christian and princely resolution I must confesse to certaine of her Counselâ—ourâ— that albeit they might obiect against her that the state of her kingdome the dignitie thereof and her Crowne imperiall could not bee honourably maintained and furnished without the possessions aforesaid yet she set more by the saluation of her soule then she did by ten kingdomes And whereas in the raigne of King Edward the sixth it was enacted that all the bookes called Antiphoners Missales Grailes Portuassis and Latine Primmers vsed for seruice in the Church in the time of Poperie should be clearely abolished All images grauen painted or carued taken out of any Church or Chappell with the foresaid bookes should bee defaced or openly burned She being now more forward then wise to obserue the rites and ceremonies of the Romanists caused the like bookes and images to be bought and brought againe into all the Churches within her dominions Holy water Pax and censers were commanded to be employed at the celebration of Masses and Mattens Oyle Creame and Spittle vsed in the Administration of the Sacrament of Baptisme Altars furnished with pictures costly couerings and the Crucifix thereon solemnly placed Vnto whom Lights Candles and Tapers were offered The restauration and dispose of these as also of all other matters concerning the Church shee committed to the Pope and Cardinall Poole his Legate by whose authoritie and meanes by all probabilitie all Statutes made in her father and brothers raigne against the See of Rome the Pope and his Supremacie were altogether repealed and the sixe bloudie Articles enacted by Henry the eighth tyrannically put in execution by force of which shee being ouerswayed by the authoritie of Church men for of her selfe she was of a more facile and better inclined disposition so many in lesse then foure yeares continuance were consumed with fire for the testimoniall of their consciences in that case In the heate of whose flames were burned to ashes fiue Bishops one and twentie Diuines eight Gentlemen eightie foure Artificers one hundred husbandmen seruants and labourers twentie sixe wiues twentie widowes nine Virgines two boyes and two Infants one of them whipped to death by Bonner alias Sauage Bishop of London and the other springing out of his mothers wombe from the stake as she burned was by the Sergeants throwne againe into the fire Sixtie foure more in those furious times were persecuted for their profession and faith whereof seuen were whipped sixteene perished in prison and twelue buried in dunghills many lay in captiuity condemned but were released and saued by the auspicious entrance of peaceable Elizabeth and many fled the Land in those dayes of distresse which by her vpon their returne home were honourably preferred and prouided for according to their worthes Queene Mary now dead and Elizabeth of famous memory proclaimed Queene possessed of her lawfull inheritance placed in her glorious Throne and crowned with the imperiall Diadem presently after followed a Parliament wherein the title of Supremacie and all ancient iurisdictions were againe restored all forraine power abolished and for the more augmentation and maintenance of her State royall it was ordained and established that the first-fruits and Tenths of all Ecclesiasticall liuings with the lands and Scites of Monasteries giuen away by Queene Mary should be vnited and annexed againe to the Crowne that all Statutes should bee repealed which were enacted by the said Queene Marie in fauour of the Romish Religion and that the booke of Common Prayer vsed in King Edwards time for an vniforme celebration of Gods diuine seruice in the English Churches should bee ratified and authorised againe by this present Parliament This Parliament ended vpon the eight of May vpon the fourteenth day of the same moneth next following being Whitsonday diuine Seruice was celebrated in the English tongue whereby Gods word might be heard in a perfect sound and the prayers of the Congregation vttered with an vnderstanding heart Soone after in the same yeare certaine Commissioners were appointed in seuerall places for the establishing of Religion throughout the whole Realme then all the religious houses which were reedified erected or restored by Queene Mary as the Priory of Saint Iohns Ierusalem the Nuns and Brethren of Sion and Sheene the blacke Friers in Smithfield the Friers of Greenwich with all other of the like foundation were vtterly suppressed All Roods and Images set vp in Churches whose sight had often captiuated the senses of the zealous beholder and heated the blinde zeale of many poore ignorant people were now themselues consumed in the fire and with them in some places the copes vestments altar-clothes Amises bookes banners and rood loâ—â—s were like wise burned in the open streets Vpon the walls pillars and other places of all Churches certaine Inscriptions were cut painted or engrauen which being holden to be superstitious were as then defaced erazed washt ouer or obliterated of which a few for example This Inscription was vsuall to the picture of the blessed Trinitie represented by the Effigies of an old man our Sauiour in his bosome and a Doue Ave Pater Rex Creator Ave fili lux Seruator Ave pax charitas Ave simplex Ave Trine Ave regnans siâ—e siâ—e Vna summa Triniâ—as Vnder the picture of the blessed Trinitie sometimes in the Abbey Church of Rufford in Nottinghamshire as it is in the booke of the said house Sede Pater summa disponit secula cuncta Patre Dâ—o genitus creat regit omnia natuâ— Omnia viâ—ificat procedens Spiritus almus Flamma calor pruna tria sunt hec res sed vnaâ— Sic ab igne calor non diuiditur neque fulgor Ast his vnitis vnus subsiâ—lit ignis Sic Pater natus Spiritus sed Deus vnus Huic laude munus qui regnat trinus vnus Huic laus et doxa nunc et per secula cuncta Vnder the picture of Christ crucified Nec Deus est nec Homo presens quam cerno figura Et Deus est et Homo que signat sacra figura Verus Homo verusque Deus tamen vnus vterque Probra crucis patitur mortem suâ—it et sepelitur Viuit item crucis hic per signa triumphat ab hoste Id notum nobis crucis huius litera reddit Scilicet ipsius nota sunt câ—ux et crucifixus Hec et ego veneror Iesum'quoque semper adore Againe vnder the Crucifix Quantum pro nobis Christus tulit ecce videmus Et tamen à lachrymis heu lumina sicca tenemus Vnder the picture of Christ vsually in all Abbey Churches Effigiem Christi dum transis semper honora Non tamen effigiem sed quem designat adora Nam Deus est quod imago docet sed non Deus ipsa Hanc videas et mente colas quod cernis in illa And this Sum Rex cunctorum caro factus
doth lie Another Lest Alexanders noble name my friend should thee beguile Away for here both treachery doth lurke and mischiefe vile Another Though Alexander after death did vomit matter blacke Yet maruell not he dranke the same and could not cause it packe Vpon the yeare of Iubelie aforesayd kept by this Pope Alexander The Romane Priest that promised both heauen and starres to sell By treacherie and murtherings hath made a gap to hell This Alexander before by deuillish meanes he obtained the Papacie was called Rodericus Borgia a Spaniard borne in Valentia But of him enough except it tended more to the matter Now may it please you reade certaine blanke verses taken out of my fore remembred Author Piers Plow man who speakes in his language of the Pope and Cardinals Pardons and pilgrimages effectually to this purpose Passus 19. God amend the Pope that pilleth holy Kirke And claymeth before the Kyng to be kept of Christen And counteth not though cristen be killed and robbed And fynd folke to fight and christen folk to spill Agayne the old law and new law as Paule therof wytnesseth Non occides mihi vindictam c. I ne knew neuer Cardinall that he ne come fro the Pope And we Clarks when they come for her Commens payen For her pelures and palfreis and pilors that hem folow The Commune clamat quotidie eche a man to other The contrey is the curseder that Cardinals commen in And there they lig and leng more lechery there raigneth Therfor quod this victory by very god I would That no Cardinals ne come among the commen peple But in her holines helden hem styl At Avion among the Iewes cum sancto sanctus eris Or in Rome as their rule wyl the relikes to kepe In the seuenth passage he deliuers his opinion of the Popes Pardons in these words The Prieste preued no pardon to do well And demed that Dowell Indulgence passed Biennales and Triennales and Byshops letters And how Dowell at the day of dome is dignely vndersongen And passed all the Pardon of S. Peters Church A little after in the same passage thus Soules that haue sinned seuen sythes deadly And to trust to these Trentals truely me thynketh Is not so siker for the soule as to do well Therfore I red you renkes that rich be on this erth Apon trust of treasure Trientales to have Be ye neuer the bolder to breake the ten hestes And namely ye Maisters Mayres and Iudges That haue the welth of this world and for wise men be holden To purchase you Pardons and the Popes Buls At the dreadfull dome whan the dead shall arise And commen all tofore Christ accounts for to yeue How thou leadest thy lyfe here and his lawes kepest And how thou didest day by day the dome wil reherse A poke full of Pardons there ne prouinciall letters Though ye be founden in the fraternitie of the iiii Orders And haue Indulgence an hundryd fold but if Dowell you helpe I beset your patents and your pardons at a pyes hele Therfore I counsell all christen to crye god mercy And make Christ our meane that hath made amends That God give vs grace here or we go hence Such workes to worke while we ben here That after our deathes day Dowell reherse At the day of Dome we did as he highte The same Author shewing what true pilgrimage is breathes forth these blanke verses following Nay by my soule health quoth Piers and gan for to sweare I nolde fang a ferthyng for Saynt Thomas shryne Truth wold loue me the lesse long tyme therfor after And if ye wyll to wend well this his the way thither Ye must go thorow mekenes both men and wyues Tyll ye come into conscience that Christ wit soch That ye louen our Lord God leuest of all thynges And that your neighbours next In no wyâ—e appeire Otherwise than thou woldist he wrought to thy selfe In the same passage Ye that seke S. Iames and Saintes at Rome Seke saint Truth for he may saue you all In another place Pass 12. He doth well withoute doute that doth as beuti techeth That is if thou be man maryed thy make thou loue And lyue forth as law wyll whyle ye lyuen both Right so if thou be religious ren thou neuerfurther To Rome nor Roch Madon but as thy rule techeth And hold the vnder obedience that high way is to heuen And yf thou be mayden to mary and myght well continewe Seke neuer no saint further for thy soules health Pilgrimage is called of the Latines Peregrinatio quasi peregre abitio a going into a strange countrey for a short pilgramage is not worth a pin neither is that Image in so much honour or respect in that countrey where it is as in farre countries For example the Italians yea those that dwell neare Rome will mocke and scoffe at our English and other pilgrims that go to Rome to see the Popes holinesse and Saint Peters chaire and yet they themselues will runne to see the Reliques of Saint Iames of Compostella in the kingdome of Galicia in Spaine which is aboue twelue hundred English miles And so the Spaniards hold Rome to be a very holy place and therefore spare no cost or labour to go thither And so of other pilgrimages Pilgrimage was also called Romeria quia Romam vt plurimum peregrinationes because pilgrimages forth most part were made to Rome Now hauing acquainted my Reader omitting many particulars I confesse which will more plainly appeare in the sequele by what deuises and meanes the Religious Votaries and others of the Clergie within this kingdome as also the Bishop of Rome who most commonly went away with the best share augmented their reuenues and deceiued the poore Commons I am here to speake of a yearely tribute paied onely to the See of Rome which many times I obuiously meete withall from the payment whereof neither the King nor the Clergie nor any housholder 〈◊〉 in England or Ireland were priuiledged and this was called 〈◊〉 which is a Saxon word compounded of Rome and Scot as you wouâ—d say the 〈◊〉 bute due to Rome or an Apostolicall custome or the see of 〈…〉 penning or Denarij Sancti Petri Peter pence From which payment 〈◊〉 Mathew the Monke of Westminster neither the King nor the Archbishop Bishop Abbot nor Prior were exempted I he first â—ounder of 〈◊〉 Tribute was Inas or Ina king of the West-saxons Of which the foresaid Mathew thus writes Ina the pious and potent king of the West Saxons leaâ—ing his temporall kingdome thereby to gaine an eternall to the gouernment of his kinsman Ethelard trauelâ—ed on pilgrimage to Rome where in the said Citie by the permission of Gregory the second hee built an house which he called The English Schoole vnto which the kings of England and the Regall Image as also Bishops Priests Clerkes and others might
Hospitale Partem Virgulti vulgo du verger inter Hospitale Canonicos attingentis A claustro quod est ante tanuam Ecclesie vsque ad extremitatâ—m muri et redditus ad sustentationem quatuor Canonicorum sacer dotum manentium in decimis de Triciaco Calliaco et de Braya Et centum solidos Parisiensis monete apud villam nouaÌ„ Sancti Georgij annuatim in festo Sancti Remigij persoluendos Vineam etiam et arpentum terre queiacent extra muros predicti loci Sancti Thome sicut corum scripto autentico continetur Ecclesie vestre auctoritate Apostolica confirmamus presertis scripti patrocinio communuimus Statuentes vt nulli omnino hominum liceat hanc paginam nostre confirmationis infringere vel ei ausu temerario contraire Si quis autem hoc attemptare presumpsâ—rit indignationem omnipoteâ—tis Dei et Beatorum Petri et Pauli Apostolorum eius se nouerit incursurum Datum Laterani septimo Kalendas Augusti Pontisicatus nostri anno secundo Annoque Domini Millesimo centesimo octuagesimo nono These donations were afterwards viz. Ann. 1428. augmented by Iohn Duke of Britaine Montefort and Richmund as appeares by his Charter which I haue read Many other religious structures Churches Chappels and Oratories in forraine parts were erected and endowed to the memory of this our English Martyr Neare to the Gallerie of the Louure and adioyning to the Collegiate Church is a prettie faire street which at this day is called La rue de S. Thomas du Louure the streete of S. Thomas at the Louure Richard the first King of England after the surprisall of Acrres instituted an order of Knights which he called The Order of Saint Thomas they held the rule of Saint Augustine and tooke for their Patron the foresaid Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury as you may reade in the Theater of Honour lib. 9. cap. 11. But I stand too long gazing and glossing vpon this imaginarie monument digressing from the breuitie of that method which I haue proposed to my selfe Let me view the sumptuous monument still remaining of Edward surnamed the blacke Prince so by-named not of his colour but of his dreaded acts in battell vpon which this Epitaph is inlayd with brasse Cy gist le noble Prince Mouss Edward aisnez filz du tresnoble Roy Edward tiers iadis Prince d'aquitaine et de Gales Due de Cornwaille et counte de Cesâ—â—e qi morust eâ— la feste de la Trinite qestoit le vni iour de iuyn l'an de grace mil troiscens septante sisine Lalme de qi Dieu eit mercy Amen Tu qi passez oue bouche close Par la ou ce corps repose Entent ce qe te diray Sycome te dire le say Come tu es au tiel fu Tu seras tiel come ie su De la mort ne pensai ie mie Tant come iauoy la vie En tre auoi grand richesse Sont icy sis grand noblesse Terre Mesons et grand tresor Draps chiuaux argent et or Mes ore su ieo poures et chetifs Perfond en la tre gis Ma grand beaute est tout alee Ma char est tout gastee Noult est estroit ma meson En moy na sy verite non Et si ore me veisses Ie ne quide pas qe vous deisses Qe ie eusse onges home este Sy su ie ore tant changee Pur dieu priez au celestien Poy Qe mercy ait de barme de moy Tour ceulx qi pur moy prieront On a dieu maccorderont Dieu les mette en son Paraydis Ou nul ne Poet estre chetifs Thus Englished Here lieth the noble Prince Monsieur Edward the eldest sonne of the thrice noble King Edward the third in former time Prince of Aquitaine and of Wales Duke of Cornwall and Earle of Chester who died on the feast of Trinitie which was the eight day of Iune in the yeare of Grace 1376. To the soule of whom God grant mercy Amen Who so thou be that passeth by Where these corps entombed lie Vnderstand what I shall say As at this time speake I may Such as thou art sometime was I Such as I am such shalt thou be I little thought on th' oure of death So long as I enioyed breath Great riches here I did possesse Whereof I made great noblenesse I had gold siluer wardrobes and Great treasure horses houses land But now a caitife poore am I Deepe in the ground lo here I lie My beautie great is all quite gone My flesh is wasted to the bone My house is narrow now and throng Nothing but Truth comes from my tongue And if ye should see me this day I do not thinke but ye would say That I had neuer beene a man So much altered now I am For Gods sake pray toth'heauenly King That he my soule to heauen would bring All they that pray and make accord For me vnto my God and Lord God place them in his Paradise Wherein no wretched caitife lies The death of this Prince which fortuned in the fourtie and sixth yeare of his age was a heauy losse to the state being a Prince of whom we neuer heard any ill neuer receiued other note then of goodnesse and the noblest performances that magnanimitie and wisedome could euer shew in so much as what praise can bee giuen to veâ—â—ue is due to him The compendious Chronicle of Canterbury written by one Thomas Haselwood a Canon of Leedes speakes more particularly of his militarie atchieuements in these words Edwardus filius Edw. 3. primogenitus Princeps Wallie fortunatissimus miles in bello audacissimus inter validissima bella gesta militaria magnisice ab eodem peracta Iohannem Regem Francie apud Poyteires debellauit pluribus tam nobilibus quam alijs de dicto regno captis interfectis eundem Regem captiuauit ipsum potenter in Augliam ductum Patri suo presentauit Henricum etiam intrusorem Hispanie potentissime in bello deuicit Petrum Hispanie Regem dudum à regno suo expulsum potenti virtute in regnum suum restituit Vnde propter ingentem sibi probitatem actus ipsius triumphales memoratum Principem inter regales Regum memorias dignum duximus commendandum Here lieth the body of Henry the fourth King of England whose Tombe is richly adorned and garnished about with the Armes of all the Christian Princes and most of the greatest Peeres of this kingdome then liuing vpon which I finde no Inscription who died 20. Mar. Anno Dom. 1412. aetat 46. Reg. 14. This King finished his politique and victorious raigne in peace and honour Howsoeuer the iniustice of his first entrance stepping into the seat Royall by the deposition and murder of his lawfull Soueraigne King Richard the second left a dishonourable staine vpon all his actions He aduised his Sonne Henry after him King vpon his death bed to punish the
his Master he entred into orders yet before he came to bee a Clergie man he serued in the warres which is not vnlikely saith mine Authour for after he was Bishop he was thrice in the field and did his Prince notable seruice He was first preferred to the Bishopricke of Wilshire whose See was then seated at Ramsbury by the speciall fauour of King Athelstan who being dead his brother Edmund who succeeded him in his kingdome louing him no lesse procured him to be chosen Archbishop In which pastorall charge hee continued many yeares in great fauour and authoritie vnder diuers Princes till towards the latter end of his time that Edwin a young King was sore exasperated against him for that this Bishop had caused him to be diuorced from his Queene for consanguinitie or some other reasons and excommunicated his Concubines causing one of them whom the king doted vpon to be fetcht out of the court by violence to bee burnt in the forehead with an hote iron and banished into Ireland But not long after he was taken away by death from the Kings displeasure in the yeare of our redemption 958. hauing sate Archbishop 25. yeares or thereabouts He writ diuers Tractates both in verse and prose mentioned by Bale and Capgraue will haue him in the Kalender of our English Saints and Confessours But to conclude such was his Epitaph Stemmate serenus iacet hic sacer Odo Seuerus Moribus excellens acriter peccata refellens Presul at indulgens omni pictate refulgens Ecclesie Christi Pugil inuictissimus isti O bone nunc Christe quia sic tibi seruijt iste Celi solamen sibi des te deprecor Amen The life and death of this Archbishop Lanfranck is set downe at large by William Malmsbury Io. Capgraue Nicholas Harpsfeild Archdeacon of Canterbury Mathew Parker Archbishop with others and out of them all by Francis Godwin now Bishop of Hereford Yet for method sake thus much because I find his body by a Table inscribed which hangs vpon his Tombe to be here interred He was borne in Italy at Pauia some twenty miles from Myllaine brought vp in the Monasterie of Becco in Normandie vnder Herlewin the learned Abbot of that house of which he became Prior from whence in regard of his singular wisedome and great knowledge in all good literature he was called by William the Duke of Normandie to be Abbot of Saint Stephens in Cane a Monasterie that the said Duke had founded And in the fifth yeare after his conquest of England he promoted him to this Archbishopricke which he laudablie gouerned the space of eighteene yeares It is said an action which much obscured all his former praises that he perswaded the Conquerour to leaue the kingdome of England to his younger sonne William Rufus which they said William thus requited the Bishop as the King thought being somewhat too busie in reprehending his manifold vices and exhorting him to godlinesse and vertue he so bitterly fell out with him that he banished him the Realme the poore old bishop trauelled to Rome and wandred vp and downe many countries till by intercession of friends hee was suffered to returne home and soone after died of an ague according to his owne desire Solebat enim Deum rogare vt velex dissenteria vel ex febri diem suum obiret propterea quod hi morbi nec memoriam nec loquelam auferant He would often desire God that he might take his end either by a fluxe or an ague for that in those kinde of infirmities men are wont to haue the vse both of speech and memorie to the last cast His death happened the 24. of May Ann. Dom. 1089. He bestowed much vpon the fabricke of this Church and the housing of the Monkes he built in a manner all the Archbishops pallace hee founded two Hospitals adioyning to this Citie hee gaue great summes of money and also a Mannor toward the building of the Cathedrall Church of Rochester and did much for the Abbey of Saint Albons Hee encreased the number of the Monkes of this Church from thirty to fourty restored the dignities and offices of old belonging to the Monasterie and recouered vnto the same 25. Manors that had beene taken from it wrongfully in times past by Odo Bishop of Bayon and Earle of Kent Hee was a profound Scholler for those times he writ the noble acts of the Conquerour he made learned Comments and Expositions of many parts of the Bible and tooke great paines in reforming the same the copies whereof were much corrupted throughout all England by the negligent ouer-sight of the writers To his memorie this Epitaph was composed Vixisti venerande Pater sapienter egens Vixisti vivens mors quoque vita tibi Inter diuitias pauper Lanfrance fuisti Diuitijs manans pauperum amator eras Per te florentes artes valuere latine Grecia sis nobis ecce triumphat ouans Tu Laios ortu Gallosque docendo leuasti Te sibi Primatem cardo Britannus habet In terra degens celestia regna petebas Exemptus terra sider a liber adis Sol geminos denis obsiderat igne diebus Promsit Luna diem nocte solutus abis Here is the Tombe of Archbishop Anselme borne in Augusta a Citie of Burgundie who followed his predecessours steps almost foot by foot First he came to Becco vpon the like errand as Lanfrank had done which was to obtaine knowledge in all good learning Lanfrancke being called away to Cane he was made Prior of Becco in his place and afterwards Abbot in which he continued 15. yeares vntill at the request of Hugh Earle of Chester he came ouer into England and had this Bishopricke bestowed vpon him some foure yeares after the decease of Lanfrancke for so long the king pursed vp the profits thereof by William Rufus who presently after his consecration fell out with his new Bishop and banished him the kingdome in which he trauelled vp and downe as an exile during the Kings life vntill by his brother King Henry the first he was called home and restored to all his former dignities But not long after he was likewise banished the Realme by the said Henry falling out with him concerning the disposing of Bishoprickes at the Kings pleasure giuing inuestiture and possession of them by the staffe and the ring within three yeares by the meanes and mediation of Adela or Alice Countesse of Blois the Kings sister he was restored not onely to his place but to all his goods and fruits gathered in the time of his absence Some two yeares after this his last returne falling sicke of a languishing disease hee died Aprill 21. Ann. Dom. 1109. in the sixteenth yeare of his gouernment Some 400. yeares after by the procurement of Iohn Morton one of his Successours he was canonized a Saint and one as worthy that honour as any that euer since his 〈◊〉 was canonized by the Pope for as his life
and 〈…〉 was for integritie euen admirable and so was his learning as his works â—et exâ—ant do testifie Now because his Epitaph is either worne out or was euer wanting I will be so bold as borrow one for him from one of his owne name which I haue read vpon a Monument in Parma in Italie Hic iacet Anselmus post mortem viuere certus Cantuar. Archiepus que omni bonitate refertus Vir sobrius castus vir vitans vndique fastus Vir gremijs plenis largus largitor egenis Vir bene politus sagax doctus ernditus Dogmata maturusque inter contagia purus An Domini Mil. cent que nono que die quoque meâ—sis April vicesimo vno Mortis hunc enecat ensis In the south part of Saint Thomas Chappell in a marble Tombe ioyning to the wall lieth the body of Theobald Archbishop of this See Who was chosen to that Grace by the Suffragan Bishops of his owne Prouince in a Conuocation held at London he was a Benedictine Monke and Abbot of Becco a man of no great learning but of so gentle and sweet behauiour being very wise withall as hee was greatly esteemed of high and low Kings Nobles and Commons yet howsoeuer he was of an affable milde nature and faire demeanure his patience was so greatly moned vpon good occasion that he interposed the Popes authoritie with whom the King was made a partie so farre as that his goods and Temporalties were twice confiscate seised into the Kingâ— hands and himselfe once banished the kingdome which so netled him that like a tall fellow Nam laesa patientia fit furor he interdicted King Stephen and the whole Realme and taking aduantage of the time which was wondrous troublesome came home and liued in Norfolke till by the intercession of certaine Bishops hee was restored After which hee grew into great fauour with the said King and was the chiefe meanes of concluding that finall peace at Wallingford betweene him and Maud the Empresse Shortly after which King Stephen died and Henry surnamed Fitz empresse sonne of Geffrey Plantaginet and Maud the Empresse succeeded him in the Regalitie vnder whom this Bishop passed the rest of his dayes quietly in great fauour and estimation and died Ann. 1160. when he had sat Archbishop 22. yeares Perceiuing his end to approach he made his Will and gaue all his goods to the poore or other like good vses Of whom this Epitaph was made Hic iacet Theobaldus Cantuar. Archiepiscopus ob morum placabilitatem at que constantiam Hen. 2. valde gratiosus affabilis veridicus prudens amicus sirmus in omnes liberalis in pauperes munificus Qui sue tandem senectut is languide vite pertesus anteactam vitam morti persoluit Ann. Dom. 1160. cum 22. annis sedisset Anima eius requiescat in pace Amen I finde one Richard for I finde no further of his name Archbishop of this chaire to be here interred in our Ladies Chappell sometime a Benedictine Monkâ— Prior of the Monasterie of Saint Martins in Douer a man very liberaâ—l gentle and wise for hee so handled the matter that in all his time he neuer was at odds or out either with the Pope or King The Pope he entertained with often gifts and money the Kings fauour he retained by yeelding and conforming himselfe to his pleasure This man continued in his gouernment about the space of ten or eleuen yeares In all which time there happened not any thing of him worthie of memorie except the controuersie stirre and tumult betweene him and the Archbishop of Yorke for primacie and the ordaining of three Archdeacons for his Diocesse which euer before his time was content with one An ill husband hee was for his Church if wee may beleeue this my old Authour This Richard saith he was a man of great Religion and also of great wit in his temporall gouernance but in defending of his freedome of holy Church and punishment of excesse and misbeleeuers to simple and slow which is partly approued by the sequele if the report of his end and death may passe for current truth how that being a sleepe at his Manor of Wrotham there seemed to come vnto him a certaine terrible Personage demanding of him who he was whereunto when for feare the Archbishop answered nothing Thou art he said the other that hast destroyed the goods of the Church and I will destroy thee from off the face of the earth which hauing said he vanished away In the morning the Bishop taking his iourney toward Rochester related this fearfull vision unto a friend of his by the way which he had no sooner told then that hee was taken suddenly with a great cold and stiffenesse in his limbes so that they had much adoe to get him so farre as Halling a house belonging to the Bishop of Rochester where he tooke his bed and being horribly tormented with the Chollick and other griefes gaue vp the ghost the next night following saue one the 16. of Feb. Ann. 1184. obijs saith one 14. Kal. Martij feria sexta necte Ann. 11. ab electione sua cuius corpus in Ecclesia Christi Cant. in oratorio sancte Marie 22. Kal. Martij die Sabbati est honorifice Sepultus In the South wall of this Church lieth the body of Hubert Walter or Walter Hubert for such a transmutation of the name I finde to bee vsed who was borne at West-Derham in Norfolke and brought vp vnder Raynulph de Glanfeld chiefe Iustice of England The first preferment hee obtained was the Deanrie of Yorke thence hee was called by King Richard the first vnto the Bishopricke of Salisbury Whom he attended in all that long and dangerous voyage into the holy Land as a Commander or Colonell of some English forces by whose valour and his owne he performed admirable seruice at the siege and surrender of Acon and other fortified places for which and for his discreete handling the matter in procuring 250000. Markes of the Clergie for the ransome of his Master King Richard the said King knew not how to heape honours sufficient vpon him so that at one time he was Archbishop the Popes Legate Lord Chancelor Lord chiefe Iustice and high immediate Gouernour vnder him of all his Dominions both in Wales and England he was much blamed and peraduenture not vnworthily for vndertaking so many great offices For Pluribus intentus minor est ad singula sensus howsoeuer neuer any man vsed his authoritie and power more moderately faithfull and loyall he was euer to his Prince louing and very careâ—uâ—l of his countrey in which he caused many excellent Decrees and Lawes to be established His house keeping was such as the expence thereof was thought to be little inferiour to the Kings hee built a Monasterie at Durham the place of his birth began another at Wulferhampton encompâ—ssed the Tower of
London with a strong wall and a deepe Moat beene â—ased the reuenewes of his See adorned it with many sumptuous and staâ—ely buildings and procured diuers notable priuiledges for the same and to repaire the bookes and Library of this Church he gaue the Church of Halegast he finished a Collegiate Church at Lambeth of Canons regular begun by Baldwin his predecessour Which vpon the complaint of the Monkes of Canterbury to the Pope was pulled downe to the ground Maâ—ny oppositions were betwixt him and the Pope and many times he was discountenanced by King Iohn yet apparently he died in both their fauours at his Manor of Tenham Iuly 13. 1205. Hauing sat Archbishop twelue yeares sauing foure moneths Here lieth entombed the body of Stephen Langton Archbishop whose election to this See against the Kings will was the cause of many calamities within this kingdome the greatest part whereof fell vpon the Clergie Of which heare my Authour Bishop Hubert of Canterbury tho died Wherefore Kyng Iohn vnto the Couent sente To chose his Clarke whych they refused and denied Wherefore the kyng was wroth in his entente For they disobeyed the lettre whych he sente For they had chosen Mayster Stephan Langton An worthy Clarke of all disposicion Whom kyng Iohn then wold not admytte For Romayn Bull ne for the Prelates prayer But prisoned some and some to death commytte Some he exiled and theyr eyen clere And all persounes and Prelates in fere He then put out and seazed theyr benefice Through all the lande as his mortall enemyes The Romysh Byshoppe curssed hym openly And all the realme fully did enterdite That Sacraments none therin should occupie But howsoeuer these mischiefes happened vpon his admittance yet the man in regard of his many excellent gifts both of body and minde was no way to be misliked but much to be commended for his religious wise carriage liuing vnder so violent a King And in such troublesome vngodly times to whom this Distichon taken out of Martials Epigrams to Traian warfaring vnder Diocletian was applied Laudari debes quoniam sub principe duro Temporibusque malis ausus es esse bonus descended he was from an ancient familie in Lecestershire brought vp in the Vniuersitie of Paris greatly esteemed by the King and all the Nobility of France for his singular and rare learning made Chancellour of Paris and Cardinall of Rome 〈◊〉 S. Chrysogoni Hee writ many admirable profound workes and amongst the rest diuided the Bible into Chapters in such sort as we now account them he bestowed much vpon his palace here in Canterbury and vpon a faire Horologe in the South-crosse Isle Yet the solemnitie of the translation of Thomas Beckets bones was so chargeable vnto him as neither he nor foure of his successours were able to recouer the debt he cast his Church into He died Iuly 9. 1228. hauing sate Archbishop 22. yeares Here in this Church but in what particular place my Author knowes not Iohn Peckham sometime Bishop of this See lieth buried This Iohn was borne in Sussex spent his childhood in the Abbey of Lewes and was brought up in the Vniuersitie of Oxford from thence hee went to Paris to study Diuinitie and after that to Livus to get some knowledge in the Canon Law without the which Diuinitie was esteemed vnperfect in those dayes and to better his knowledge he visited all the Vniuersities of Italie came to Rome where his rare learning being soone perceiued hee was made by the Pope Auditor or chiefe Iudge of his pallace and so continued till his preferment to Canterbury for a man of so meane parentage he was thought to be very stately both in gesture gate words and all outward shew yet of an exceeding meeke facile inward disposition Vnto double Beneficed men and Non-residents he was very strict Adulterie he punished very seuerely he persecuted a Bishop terriblie for keeping of a Concubine and one Roger Ham a Priest he enioyned to three yeares penance for fornication a sinne predominant in former times among the Clergie Witnesse these rimes Greate Lechery and fornication Was in that house and also greate aduoutree Of Paramours was greate consolation Of eche degree well more of Prelacie Then of the Temporall or of the Chiualrie He excommunicated one Sir Osborne Gifford Knight for stealing two Nunnes out of the Nunnerie of Wilton and absolued him vpon these conditions First that he should neuer come within any Nunnerie or in the company of a Nunne that three Sondayes together he should be whipped in the Parish-Church of Wilton and as many times in the Market and Church of Shaftsbury that he should fast a certaine number of moneths That he should not weare a shirt of three yeares And lastly that he should not any more taken vpon him the habite or title of a Knight but weare apparell of a russet colour vntill he had spent three yeares in the holy Land He died Ann. 1294. very rich yet founded a Colledge of Canons at Wingham in Kent valued at 84. l. per annum and aduanced many of his friends to great possessions whose posteritie haue continued in the state of Knights and Esquires euen vntill our times He sat Archbishop thirteene yeares and an halfe His heart was buried at Christ-Church London retro magnum altare Here beside the altar of Saint Gregorie sometime stood a sumptuous Monument wherein the bones of Robert Winchelsey were entombed which vpon the reformation of Religion was pulled downe to the ground lest that the common people who would needs esteeme him a Saint might giue him diuine honours Hee sate Archbishop nineteene yeares during which time he endured much sorrow yet finished his dayes in quietnessâ— and great felicitie The King and the Pope concurring together in his time exacted many great payments and inflicted grieuous punishments vpon the Clergie Whereupon these Satyricall verses were framed Ecclesiae nauis titubat regni quia clauis Errat Rex Papa facti sunt vnica capa Hoc faciunt do des Pilatus hic alter Herodes Hee liued in banishment two yeares euen vntill the death of Edward the first who exiled him vpon surmised Treason from which hee was called home by Edward his sonne who restored him to his place to all his goods and to all the profits of his Temporalities receiued in his absence He was a stout Prelate and a seuere punisher of sinne hee boldly opposed himselfe against Piers Gaueston the Spensers and other corrupters of the young king and enforced Iohn Warren Earle of Surrey to forsweare the company of a certaine beautifull Wench with the loue of which he was greatly be witched Hee maintained many poore Schollers at the Vniuersities with liberall exhibition and such preferments as fell to his disposition he bestowed vpon men of excellent learning Vnto all kinde of poore people hee was exceeding bountifull his bookes apparell and other mouâ—ables such as they were for
of Offices vnder the said Duke Humphrey On the South side of the same Tombe is this Inscription in brasse Hic iacet Dominus Richardus de Piriton quondam Archidiaconus Colcestrie Canonicus et stagiarius huius Ecclesie qui obijt 26. Aug. Ann. Dom. 1387. Cuius anime propitietur Deus Amen Vpon the wall ouer the little doore that entreth out of Pauls into Saint Faiths Church is the image of Iesus curiously painted as also the pourtraiture of a Lady kneeling in her mantle of Armes with some of her progeny These words thereupon being most artificially pensild Iesus our God and Sauiour To vs and ours be gouernour Which imagerie or representation was made to the memory of Margaret Countesse of Shrewsbury who lieth buried in a Chappell within that doore dedicated to the name of Iesus with this Inscription which not long since was there to be read vpon a pillar Here before the Image of Iesu lieth the worshipfull and right noble Ladie Margaret Countesse of Shrewsbury late wife of the true and victorious knight and redoubtable warrior Iohn Talbot Earle of Shrewsbury which worshipfull man died in Guien for the right of this Land She was the first daughter and one of the heires of the right famous and renowned knight Richard Beauchamp late Earle of Warwicke which died in Roan and of Dame Elizabeth his wife The which Elizabeth was daughter and heire to Thomas late Lord Berkeley on his side and on her mothers side Ladie Lisle and Tyes Which Countesse passed from this world the foureteenth day of Iune in the yeare of our Lord 1468. On whose soule Iesu haue mercy Amen I haue seene a stone in the body of this Church thus inscribed without any name yet Armes were vpon the Monument Non hominem aspiciam vltra Obliuio This man yet willingly saith learned Camden would not haue beene forgotten when he adioyned his Armes to continue his memory not vnlike to Philosophers which prefixed their names before their Treatises of contemning glory Another in the North Cloister now ruinated without name had this Inscription vpon his Graue-stone Vixi peccaui penitui Nature cessi Which was as Christian saith the same Author as that was profane of the Romane Amici Dum viuimus Viuamus I haue read these rimes following engrauen in brasse vpon a marble-stone in the body of the Church now stolne away Istuc qui graderis paulum te sistere queso Et rogitans quid eris in me nunc vermibus eso Esto memor mortis meditare frequenter Ioua Mors latet in portis non est euitabilis hora. Effundens loculos pro Christo despice mundum Clarificans oculos vt cernas quo sit eundum Nam quod quisque serit presentis tempore vite Hoc sibi messis erit cum dicitur ite venite The sleight regard of the house of God was a maine cause of this kingdomes subuersion as I haue shewed before vpon the Epitaph of king Etheldred and it hath euer beene and more especiaâ—ly is in these our times an vse for beastly and vncleane persons to pollute and bedaâ—be the doores and walls of the place where God is to be worshipped with pisse or some other more nastie excrements against the like irreuerence to this goodly consecrated Edifice of Saint Paul diuers prohibitions vpon certaine penalties haue beene and are daily published in print and pasted vp in â—â—iuers places in and about the Church And anciently this Atheisticall vnclâ—â—nnesse if I may so call it was forbidden by a verse depicted at euery doore of this Church some part of which at the great South doore is yet reâ—â—â—ning which in my time might perfectly be read Thus it runnes Hic Locus his sacer est hic nulli mingere fas est This house is holy here vnlawfull ti 's For any one here on her walls to pisse And strict orders were likewise published against Beggers and bearers of burdens in and thorow the Church of the later sort these foure lines were sometimes fixed to a pillar ouer an iron boxe for the poore All those that shall enter within the Church doore With burden or basket must giue to the poore And if there be any aske what they must pay To this Box a penny ere they passe away It could be wished that walking in the middle Isle of Paules might be forborne in the time of Diuine seruice Richard the second king of England Ann. Reg. 8. made the pettie Canons here twelue in number a Colledge or fellowship daily to meete and diet together in one Hall whereas for a long time before they liued dispersedly and could not be so ready to serue the most Highest in their holy exercises Hee appointed one Iohn Linton for the first Warden of this Colledge and gaue vnto the said Warden and Canons of the foresaid Fellowship certaine lands here in London for their further endowment and the supporting of diuine seruice Charging them by his Charter to pray for his prosperous estate liuing and for his soules health when he should depart this world and for the soule of Anne his wife Queene of England and for the soules of his and her progenitors parents and ancestors and of all the faithfull people deceased Howsoeuer the Story of Brute be denied by some learned Authors or not permitted but by coniecture as Selden hath it in his Illustrations vpon this verse of Michaell Drayton which now the enuious world doth slander for a dreame Yet because I finde him in our Annals to haue beene buried here in this Citie of his owne foundation as both by reason and authority it is strongly argued by a most iudicious Antiquarie of the last age I think it not amisse to speake somewhat of him especially in this place as the truth of the storie is generally receiued Brute the sonne of Siluius the sonne of Ascanius who was the sonne of Aeneas the warlike Troian being deliuered from the long captiuitie vnder the Grecians with his wife Innogen and his people departed from the coasts of Greece and arriued in an Island where they consulted with an Oracle sacred to Diana Brute himselfe kneeling before the Idoll and holding in his right hand a boule prepared for sacrifice full of wine the bloud of a white Hinde made his imprecation to the Goddesse to this effect in English Thou Goddesse that doest rule the woods and forrests greene And chasest foaming boares that fly thine awfull sight Thou that mayest passe aloft in aerie skies so sheene And walke eke vnder earth in places voide of light Discouer earthly states direct our course aright And shew where we shall dwell according to thy will In seats of sure abode where Temples we may dight For Virgines that shall sound thy land with voices shrill After this prayer and ceremonie done according to the Pagan rite and custome Brute abiding his answer fell asleepe in which sleepe appeared to him the said Goddesse vttering this answer
Andrewes Scotland to the same effect and greatly in this kings commendation Iacobus 4. Rex 105. Anno mundi 5459. An. Christi 1489. Ã conditu Regni 1819. 1. Tristia fata gemens genitoris ferrea gestat Baltea haec luctus dat monimenta sui Margaris Angla datur thalamis Hinc Anglica sceptra Debentur fatis Sexte Iacobe tuis Pax regnis redit et pleno Bona copia cornu Et blandum adspirans aura secunda fauet Rursus ad arma vocat laetis sors invida rebus Tueda vbi finitimam gurgite sulcat humum Flos Procerum Patriaeque simul Pater optimus vna Sorte ruunt Heu sors semper acerba bonis Quod si animis orsisque tuis Sors aequa fuisset Imperij Fines vltima terra daret 2. Desine Pyramidum moles ac Mausolea Sollicitus vacuum surrigere ad tumulum Illum Fama vehens late circumsona Olympo Aequat Pro tumulo maximus orbis erit Much more might be said of this magnanimous and high-spirited king of Scotland which I shall further enlarge when I come to Richmond the place no doubt of his buriall Iohn Casy of this Parish whose dwelling was In the North corner house as to Lad-lane you pas For better knowledge the name it hath now Is called and knowne by the name of the Plow Out of that house yeerely did geeve Twenty shillings to the poore their neede to releeue Which money the Tenant must yeerelie pay To the Parson and Church wardens on Saint Thomas day The heire of that house Thomas Bowrman by name Hath since by his deed confirmed the same Whose loue to the poore doth thereby appeare And after his death shall liue many a yeare Therefore in your life do good while yee may That when meagre death shall take yee away You may liue like fam'd as Casy and Bowrman For he that doth well shall neuer be a poore man Saint Mary Aldermanbury In the Cloister about this Churchyard hanged and fastened to a post is the shanke-bone of a man wondrous great and large in length 28. inches and a halfe of assise with the pourtraiture of a Giant-like person vpon a Table with this Inscription In wise mens sight I seeme not strange Although some friends of Pan will scorne From time to time all shapes will change Full well appeares since the first-borne Deride not that which nought offends Let reason rule strong men haue beene As Sampson tall loe death all ends In Stories past may well be seene If you trust our Stories you must beleeue that Giants or men of vaste bodily composture inhabited this our Island in former times Of whom one Hauillan a Poet who flourished aboue foure hundred yeares since wrote pleasantly in this wise thus translated out of the Latine tongue There Gyants whilome dwelt whose clothes were skins of beasts Whose drinke was bloud whose cups to serue for vse at feasts Were made of hollow wood whose beds were bushie thornes And Lodgings rockie caues to shelter them from stormes Their chambers craggie rocks their hunting found them meat To rauish and to kill to them was pleasure great Their violence was rule with rage and furie led They rusht into the fight and fought hand ouer head Their bodies were interr'd behinde some bush or brake To beare such monstrous wights the earth did grone and quake These pesterd most the Westerne tract more feare made thee agast O Cornwall vtmost doore that art to let in Zephyrus blast And the vulgar receiued opinion is that Brute vpon his first arriuall in Kent was encountred with diuers strong and mightie Giants Of which an Author of reuerend good antiquitie thus writeth as also of the wrastling betwixt Corineus and Gogmagog Ther was a Geant het Gogmagog yat was gret and strong For aboute ane twenty fet men seiy yat he was long A good oke he wolde braye a doun as hit small yerde were And bere hit forth in his hond ye folke all to a fere He com wiy xx Geants and assayllede Brute faste Brut wiy his power hem slough echon atte laste Alle but Gogmagog for hym ne slough he nought For he sholde wiy Corneus wrastle by hys thought In a word my Author makes Corineus to get the vpper hand of Gogmagog and to cast him headlong from one of the rocks not farre from Douer which for a long time was called the fall or leape of Gogmagog and afterwards the fall of Douer And this Gogmagog saith he was the last of that monstrous generation Raph the Monke of Coggeshall who wrote aboue three hundred yeares ago saith that in king Richards time on the sea shore at a Village in Essex called Eadulphnesse were found two teeth of a certaine Giant of such an huge bignesse that two hundred such teeth as men haue now a dayes might be cut out of them These saw I at Goggeshall quoth he and not without wondring And such another Giant-like thing I wot not what saith Camden was in the beginning of Queene Elizabeths raigne digged vp by R. Candish a Gentleman neare to this place Vpon which thus he doth further comment I do not denie saith he but that there haue beene men that for their huge bodies and firme strength were wondrous to behold whom God as Saint Austin saith would haue to liue vpon the earth thereby to teach vs that neither beauty of bodie nor talenesse of stature are to bee accounted simplie good things seeing they be common as well to Infidels as to the godly Yet may we very well thinke that which Suetonius hath written namely that the huge limmes of monstrous Sea-creatures elsewhere and in this kingdome also were commonly said and taken to haue beene Giants bones Another iudicious Antiquarie of these times doth also thus illustrate this point I could thinke saith hee that there now are some as great statures as for the most part haue beene and that Giants were but of a somewhat more then vulgar excellence in body and martiall performance If you obiect the finding of great bones which measured by proportion largely exceed our times I first answer that in some singulars as Monsters rather then naturall such proofe hath beene but that now and of ancient time the eyes iudgement in such like hath beene and is subiect to much imposture mistaking bones of huge beasts for humane Claudius brought ouer his Elephants hither and perhaps Iulius Cesar some for I haue read that he terriblie frighted the Britons with sight of one at Coway Stakes when he passed ouer Thames and so may you bee deceiued But more of Giants hereafter Saint Olaues Iewrie Thomas Morsted gist ici Dieu de salme eit merci Amen This man was Chirurgian to three kings Henry the fourth the fifth and the sixth in the yeare 1436. He was Sheriffe of London he built a faire new Isle to the enlargement of this Church on the North side thereof wherein he
Citizen and Drapier And now thro goddys grace buryd am I here For mercy to abyd aftyr this lif present Trestyng by preyer celestiall Ioy to be my iudgment Wherfor o my Frendys dere my soul ye like assist And eke Elisabyth my wyf and chyldren on by on And I sall prey God fro peyne yowr souls to resist The sooner by mediation of blessyd Sant Albion On whos day in Iun on M. cccc.lx and thrice on Then being the yere of God as hit did him plese Out of this present world did I discese Here lieth Sir Iohn Brug or Bruges knight Lord Maior of this Citie the sonne of Thomas Brug or Bruges of Dimmock in Glocestershire Who executed that honourable and famous high office the yeare 1520. the tweluth of king Hen. the eight Saint Edmunds Lumbardstreet Richard Nordell lyeth buryd here Somtym of London Citizen and Drapier And Margerie his wyf of her progenie Returnyd to erth and so sall ye Of the erth we wer made and formed And to the erth we bin returned Haue yis in mynd and memory Ye yat liuen lerneth to dy And beholdyth here yowr destine Such as ye erne somtym weren we Ye sall be dyght in yis aray Be ye nere so stout and gay Therfor Frendys we yow prey Make yow redy for to dey Yat ye be not forr sinn atteynt At ye dey of Iudgment Man the behovyth oft to haue yis in mynd Yat thow geueth wyth yin hond yat sall thow fynd For wydowes be sloful and chyldren beth vnkynd Executors be covetos and kep al yat they fynd If eny body esk wher ye deddys goodys becam Yey ansqueare So god me help and halidam he died a pore man Yink on yis Saint Peters Cornhill Be hit known to al men that the yeerys of owr Lord God an clxxix Lucius the fyrst christen kyng of this lond then callyd Brytayne fowndyd the fyrst chyrch in London that is to sey the Chyrch of Sent Peter apon Cornhyl and he fowndyd ther an Archbishoppys See and made that Chirch the Metropolitant and cheef Chirch of this kingdom and so enduryd the space of cccc yeerys and more vnto the commyng of Sent Austen an Apostyl of Englond the whych was sent into the lond by Sent Gregory the Doctor of the Chirch in the tym of king Ethelbert and then was the Archbishoppys See and Pol removyd from the aforeseyd Chirch of S. Peters apon Cornhyl vnto Derebernaum that now ys callyd Canterbury and ther yt remeynyth to this dey And Millet Monk whych cam in to this lond wyth Sent Austen was made the fyrst Bishop of London and hys See was made in Powllys Chyrch And this Lucius kyng was the fyrst Fowndyr of Peters Chyrch apon Cornhyl And he regnyd kyng in thys Ilond aftyr Brut M. cc.xl.v yeerys And the yeerys of owr Lord god a cxxiiii Lucius was crownyd kyng and the yeerys of hys reygne lxxvii yeerys and he was beryd aftyr sum cronekil at London and aftyr sum cronekil he was beryd at Glowcester at that plase wher the ordyr of Sent Francys standyth The truth of this Inscription is questioned in diuers points by some of the learned Senate of our Ecclesiasticall Historians but I will adhere to the common receiued opinion that Lucius was the first Christian king of this Island and indeed of the world that he founded an Archbishops See here in London after which time Christianitie was alwayes profest in some part of this kingdome and especially in Wales Of which if it be not troublesome reade these old rimes Among ye Brutons in Walys was alway Christendom Sitthe hit furst thurghe Lucye Brutons king hit com And that was tofore Sent Austens tyme a cccc yer And about xxiiii as they writ of er Iocelin of Fournes seith that one Thean was the first Archbishop and the first builder of this Church by the helpe of one Cyran chiefe Butler vnto king Lucius Eluanus was the second who built a Librarie neare vnto his Church and conuerted many of the British Druides learned men in the Pagan law to Christianitie The rest vntill you come to Restitutus who was the 12. Archbishop are but onely named in my Author Restitutus saith Bishop Godwin was at the Councell of Arles in France the yeare 326. vnder Constantius the sonne of Constantine the great and subscribed vnto the Decrees of the same Councell which he brought ouer with him One Decree amongst the rest was that if a Deacon at the time of his ordering did protest he intended to marrie it should be lawfull for him so to doe Restitus himselfe was married One Kebius the sonne of Salomon a certaine Duke of Cornwall Bishop of Anglesey in Wales flourished in his dayes and trauelled with him into France and afterwards went himselfe into Ireland where by his good doctrine he conuerted many of that Nation to Christianitie Guitelnius the thirteenth Archbishop trauelled ouer Seas to the king of little Britaine to craue his aide against the Scots and Picts which mightily infested this kingdome insomuch that the Romanes rather chose to remit the Britaines their tribute then to afoard them any more aide Of which this Bishop made an oration to his countriemen a little before his departure who at that time like the Romanes were wearied out with their often incursions and altogether afraid to encounter with the enemie that fierce valiant Scot. Imagine his words were wondrous old from our times and that they were deliuered in this Dialect Alle ye grete of this lond to London ycome Therchbishop thus sede Gwithelin benome Our leue frendes of Rome her to speke to yough me bede But beter wille ich haue to wepe then to do eny othur dede For pite hit is of this londe and of our wretchede Aftur that Maximian our folk a wey gan lede Alle our knyghtes and our Swayn and much of our yong hede And othur londes storede therwyth alas the deolfull dede And ye beth men bet ytaught to shouele and to spade To cart eke and to plough and to a fishyng wade To hamer and to nedle and othur craftes also Than with sper or with swerd battaile for to do Whan your enemyes cometh you ne kunneth but fle As shep before UUolues hough myght more woo be And the See biset yow al abowte hough mowe ye than by thenche Othur ligge a don and be a slawe othur fle and a drenche Help is ther nan with yow but clenlich alle this londe Al the helpyng and lokyng is in othur mans honde And the Romaynes beth anoyed of hure traualle so sore Of perile of See and londe ek hii wole come here no more Hii wolleth hure truage rather leue that ye berith him a yere Be konne ye nought lerny thyng that ye dede neuer ere Applieth yowr hondes to the sper and to the swerd also For strongur men buth ther
Rotulorum et Recordorum in Turri London remanentium qui obijt vltimo die Feb. Anno 1523. cuius Clericus paruae Bagiae or Clarke of the Petit Bagge is an Officer in the Chancerie of which sort there be three and the Master of the Rolles is their chiefe Their Office is to record the returne of all Inquisitions out of euery Shire all Liueries granted in the Court of Wards all ouster les maines to make all Patents of Customers Gawgers Controllers and Aulnegers all Conge d'eslires for Bishops all Liberateis vpon extent of Statute Staples the recouery of Recognisances forfeited and all Elegits vpon them the summons of the Nobilitie Clergie and Burgesses of the Parliament Commissions directed to Knights and other of euery shire for seassing of the Subsidies Writs for the nomination of Collectors and all trauerses vpon any Office bill or otherwise and to receiue money duel to the King for the same This Officer is mentioned Anno 33. Hen. 8. cap. 22. and it is like hee had first this denomination and stile of Petie Bagges because hauing to doe with so many Records of diuers kindes as aboue mentioned they were put in sundry leather Bagges which were not so great as the Clarke of the Hamper now vseth and therefore might be called Petits Bagges small or little bagges This Iohn Gyles was also keeper or Clerke of the Rolles and Records in the Tower of London an Office generally well knowne throughout all England the master whereof at this day is that learned Gentleman Sir Iohn Borrowes Knight vnder whom my vnderstanding friend Will. Collet and my industrious country-man Will. Riley alias Rouge-Rose Pursiuant at Armes doe officiate the place Dona requiem miserecordissime Iesu anime famuli tui Laurentij Bartlâ—t nuper Registrarij Episcopi Lincol. qui obijt ... die octob An. 1470. Quisquis ades vultumque vides sta perlege plora Iuditij memor esto tui tua nam venit hora Sum quod eris fueramque quod es tua posteriora Commemorans miseris miserans pro me precor ora Te mediante tuus viuam post funera seruus Qui te dilexi Michael bene dummodo vixi Non Homo leteris tibi copia si fluat eris Hic non semper eris memor esto quod morieris Corpus putrebit quod habes alter habebit Es euanebit quod agis tecum remanebit The Temple Church The first Founder hereof is not certainely recorded some hold that it was built by Dunwallo Mulmutius about the yeare of the worlds creation 4748 the precincts whereof he made a Sanctuary or a place of refuge for any person therein to be assured of life liberty and limbs of which I haue spoken elsewhere Besides these priuiledges vnto Temples hee constituted diuers good lawes Of which he writ two bookes the one called Statuta municipalia the other Leges iudiciariae which is as much to say as the statute Law and the common Law Cooke Reports 3 part ad Lect. out of Bale cent 1. Hauing reduced his Realme into one Monarchie being before by ciuill warres and dissention seuered and brought into diuers dominions Hee raigned 40. yeares died the yeare of the worlds creation 4768. and was buried in this place with other of the British Kings But it appeareth by this inscription following ouer the Church doore in the stone worke that this holy Structure was newly founded of farre later times and dedicated to the honour of the blessed Virgine yet I thinke it is farre more ancient Anno ab incarnatione Domini M.C.lxxxv dedicata hec Ecclesia in honorem beate Marie a Domino Eraclio dei gratia Sancte Resurrectionis Ecclesie Patriarcha 11 Idus Februarij Qui eam annatim petentibus de iniuncta sibi Penitentia lx dies indulsit Knights Templers were the last Founders of this house which at the first were certaine noble Souldiers religiously bent who bound themselues by vow in the hands of the Patriarke of Ierusalem to serue Christ after the manner of Regular canons in chastitie and obedience and to defend Christian Religion the holy land and Pilgrimes going to visite the Lords Sepulchre they flourished for a time in high reputation for pietie and deuotion but as they increased in wealth so they fell to wickednesse insomuch that in the yeere 1308. all the Templers in England as also in other parts of Christendome were apprehended and committed to diuers Prisons and in the yeare 1312. all their lands were giuen to the Knights Hospitalers of the order of Saint Iohn Baptist called Saint Iohn of Ierusalem as I haue said elsewhere There are in this Temple many very ancient monuments of famous men for out of what respect I know not King Henry the third and many of the Nobility desired much to be buried in this Church shaped in marble armed their legges crosse whose names are not to be gathered by any inscriptions for that time hath worne them out vpon the vpper part of one of their portraitures Camden saith that hee hath read Comes Penbrochie and vpon the side this verse Miles eram Martis Mars multos vicerat armis Of Mars I was a doughty knight Mars vanquisht many a man in fight Vnder which monument lieth William Marshall the elder Earle of Penbroke a most powerfull man in his time being the Kings Marshall Generall of his Armie and Protector of the kingdome in the minority of King Henry the third vntill such time as he the said William died which was in the yeare 1219. 27 die Martij This Epitaph following goes also currant for this glorious and triumphant Earle as an Epitome of his noble vertues Sum quem Saturnum sibi sensit Hibernia Solem Anglia Mercurium Normannia Gallia Martem Irelands Saturne Englands Sunne am I The Mars of France and Normans Mercury or thus Whom Ireland once a Saturne found England a Sunne to be Whom Normandy a Mercury and France Mars I am he This William had fiue sonnes William Richard Gilbert Walter and Anselme all Earles of Penbroke and Marshals of England Here by his father vnder the like monument lieth William the eldest sonne Earle of Penbroke Lord of Strighull Chepstow Caerwent Leigh or Liege Weshford Kildare Ossorie and Carlogh who died the sixt of Aprill 1231. as it is in the booke of Wauerly wherein this Epitaph is made to his memory Militis istius mortem dolet Anglia ridet Wallia viuentis bella minasque timens England laments the death of this braue Knight Wales laughs he liuing did her so affright The Annales of Ireland will haue him to be buried by his brother Richard in the Quire of the Friers Predicants in Kilkennie of whom it was thus written Cuius sub fossa Kilkennia continet Ossa Whose bones bestowed in graue so deep Kilkenny Towne doth safely keep Wheresoeuer he was buried a Martiall braue Earle he was which hee worthily shewed when as he set vpon Lehwellin Prince of Wales
of Canterbury writing of the Antiquitie and famous renowne of this Monastery hath these words Vt Albanense propter protomartyris nostri Albani nobile eo loci martyrium sacrasque etiam ibi reconditas reliquias coenobium reliquorum semper princeps habitum est ita posterioribus seculis Westmonasteriense post illud maxime eminebat It is likewise of especiall note and reuerend regard by reason of the consecration the inauguration and vnction of our kings of England of which two riming Hexameters are wrought in the cloth of Arras which adorne the Quire Hanc Regum sedem sibi Petrus consecrat Edem Quam tu Papa regis insignit vnctio Regis This Church is also greatly honoured by the glorious Monuments of kings Queenes grand Peeres and others of eminent place and qualitie here interred And first of all Sebert the first founder the sonne of Sledda and Queene Ricula the sister of Ethelbert king of Kent with his wife Ethelgoda lie here entombed who died the last day of Iuly Ann. Dom. 616. hauing raigned 13. yeares Som 692. yeares after their bodies were translated from their first place of buriall to the South side of the Communion Table where they rest within a Tombe of lead with this Epitaph Labilitas breuitas mundane prosperitatis Celica premia gloria gaudia danda beatis Sebertum certum iure dedere satis Hic Rex Christicola verâ—x fuit hac regione Qui nunc celicola gaudet mercede corone Rex humilis docilis scius pius inclytus iste Sollicite nitide tacite placide bone christe Vult servire tibi perficiendo sibi Ornat mores spernit flores lucis auare Gliscens multum christi cultum letificare Ecclesiam nimiam nimio studio fabricauit Hec illesa manus que fundamenta locauit Hic septingentis annisterra cumulatus Christi clementis instinctibus inde leuatus Isto sub lapide nunc iacet ipse vide Atque domum Christo quia mundo fecit in isto Nunc pro mercede celi requiescit in ede Respice mortalis promissio sit tibi talis Accipies si des nil capies nisi des Es Christo qualis Christus erit tibi talis Dapsilis esto sibi largus eritque tibi Effectus non affectus si reddere possis Debet censeri si nihil reddere possis Tunc bonus affectus pro facto debet haberi Sicut de lignis per aquam depellitur ignis Sic malo commissa fiunt donando remissa Reddet ad vsuram quod quis dat nomine Christi Nam vitam puram pro parvo dat Deus isti His wife Aethelgoda died the 13. of September Ann. Dom. 615 Vpon the wall by this Tombe the image of Saint Peter is depicted speaking to king Sebert in these verses Hic Rex Seberte pausas mihi condita per te Hec loca lustraui demum lustrando dicaui Here lieth honourably interred in a marble Tombe checquered with variety of stones of beautifull colours the body of Edward king of England who for his singular pietie was numbred among the Confessors a principall Founder of this Church Thus commended by a late writer Religious chast wise fortunate stout franke and milde was hee And from all taxes wrongs and foes did set his kingdome free His Epitaph here inscribed consists of these three Hexameters Omnibus insignis virtutum landibus Heros Sanctus Edwardus Confessor Rex venerandus Quinto die Iani moriens super Ethera scandit Sursum corda Moritur Ann. Dom. 1065. Serlo of Paris hath another Epitaph to his memory in these words Edwardus probitate potens pietate verendus Seque suosque regens rexerat egregius Formosam faciem procerum corpus habebat Leticiam vultus moribus exuperans Hic bello sic pace suos exterruit hostes Presumpsit pacem rumpere nemo suam Quinque dies anui reserebat ianua Iani Cum Rex egrediens carnea templa finit My old Author Robert of Glocester goes more punctually to the period of his life the yeares moneths weekes and dayes of his raigne and time of his buriall When Seynt Edward hadde thus told he ganne to clos hys eyghe The iiii dey of Ianuar then gan he deye In the yer of owr Lord M.lxvi. ryght Aftur that owr swete Lord in hys moder alyght Kyng he was xxiiii yer and ii monyethes therto And three wekes and vi deyes â—r his lyf was ido Al the Franchyse of Engelond and al the ioy and blis Wyth hym faste i beryd was thulke tym I wis And that men fonde sone aftyrward wyth meny delful cas Atte Westmynster a twelfth dey this Godeman beryed was He was for his simplenesse saith the same Author i callyd Edward Simple yet sothe our Lord noryshede hys symplenes and yaf hym grete grase that men shold be adradde of hym that courhe natte be wrothe and though men trowed hym to be slow and simâ—le he hadde such subiects vndyr hym that atte his hesâ— dauntyd his enemyes as Syward Erle of Northumbyrlonde and Leofricus Erle of Hereforde that defendyd the kyng euer mor wyth ther manhode and fauor ayenst the mantenors of Duc Godwyâ—â—e Questionleâ—â—â— for sanctitie of life and sweete conuersation he did farre excell all other Princes and kings of that disposition are for the most part too soft and piiant an imperfection in supreme authoritie to command the turbulent spirits of an vnsetled kingdome and their vnderstanding too shallow to dâ—ue into the depth of their enemies designes This Edward was the seuenth sonne of King Etheldred by Emma his second wife daughter of Richard the second Duke of Normandy he was borne at Islip in the County of Oxford he was about fourty yeares of age when he was enthroned in the seat Imperiall He was the first king of England that healed the disease since called the kings Euill His wife Editha lieth buried at the North siâ—e of his Tombe who was the daughter of Godwin that treacherous Earle of Kent a virgine most chast whose breast was a schoolehouse of all liberall sciences milde modest faithfull innocent and vnfainedly holy no way sauouring of her fathers barbarousnesse being neuer hurtfull to any Whereupon this verse was applied vnto her and her father Sicut Spina Rosam genuit Godwinus Editham From pricked stalke as sweetest Rose So Edith faire from Godwin growes Of which another writeth thus Godwyne Erle a dawghtyr he hadde that was of grete fame And of clene lyf also Edithe was her name And as the Roos of a brere spryngeth that kene is Also sprunge this holy mayd of liche kynd I wis She died in December 1074. in the eight yeare of her widowhood and in the eight yeare of the Conquerours raigne Professing vpon her death-bed that notwithstanding she had beene king Edwards wife the space of eighteene yeares yet she died a pure Virgine For this king Edward not without reason is taxed in that he vnder a godly pretext of Religion
to three such potent Princes Ensigne or Penon-bearer to one and Master of the Horse to Ioane the second wife of King Henry the fourth giues me occasion to speake somewhat in particular of these his honours and offices And first in generall of the signification and Etymology of the name of Esquire Next in degree after knights saith Camden in his treatise of Degrees of States in England are Esquires termed in Latine Armigeri that is Costrels or Bearers of Armes the same that Scutiferi that is Shield-bearers and Homines ad arma Men at Armes the Gothes called them Schilpor all of carrying the Shield as in old time among the Romanes such as were named Scularij who tooke that name either of the Escutcheons of Armes which they bare as Ensignes of their descent or because they were Armour-bearers to Princes or to the better sort of Nobilitie Ranulph Earle of Chester giues Viello Armigero suo tenementum in Bruhello to Viell his Esquire a Tenement in Bruhell And so Archbishops Bishops Barons knights huiusmodi Magnates and such sort of Peeres of the kingdome had their Esquiers In times past euery knight had two of these waiting vpon him they carried his Morion and Shield as inseparable companions they stucke close vnto him because of the said knight their Lord they held certaine Lands in Escuage like as the knight himselfe of the king by Knights seruice The old Gaulish knights saith Selden sate at their round table attended by their Esquires The Germans called an Esquire Schild-knapa or Shield-knaue or knaue a denotation of no ill qualitie in those dayes For here note by the way that Iohannes de Temporibus Iohn of the Times so called for the sundrie times or ages he liued was Shield-knaue vnto the Emperour Charles the Great Of whom he also was made knight as Verstegan affirmes in his Treatise of Honor and Offices The Interpreter out of Hotoman saith that these which the French men call Escuiers wee Esquiers were a militarie kind of vassall hauing ius Scuti which is as much to say as that they bare a Shield and in it the Ensignes of their Familie in token of their gentility or dignitie But these Esquires of whom I haue already spoken be now no more in any request fiue distinct sorts are onely remaining of these at this day The principall Esquires are accounted those that are select Esquires for the Princes bodie and such a one was Perient here interred Inter Armigeros qui fâ—unt non nascuntur Primarij habentur quatuor illi Armigeri ad corpus Regis Amongst Esquires which are made so by their offices not so borne those foure Esquires to the kings bodie are chiefe and princiall saith Sir H. Spelman The next vnto them be knights eldest sonnes and such an Esquire was the knights sonne in Chaucer who attended his father on pilgrimage to Thomas Beckets Shrine as doth appeare by their characters in the Prologues to the Canterbury tales Of which so much as tends to this purpose A Knyght ther was and that a worthy man That fro the tyme that he first began To riden out he loued cheualrie Trouth honour freedome and courtesie he was late come fro his voyage And went for to done his pilgrimage With him there was his son a yong squire A louer and a lusty Bachelere With his locks crull as they were laid in presse Of twenty yere of age he was as I gesse Curteys he was lowly and servisable And kerste before his Fader at the table In a third place are reputed younger sonnes of the eldest sonnes of Barons and of other Nobles in higher estate and when such heires males faile together with them also the title faileth In a fourth ranke are reckoned those vnto whom the King himselfe together with a title giueth Armes or createth Esquires by putting about their necke a siluer collar of S S and in former times vpon their heeles a paire of white spurres siluered whereupon at this day in the West parts of the kingdome they be called White-spurres for distinction from knights who are wont to weare gilt spurres and to the first-begotten sonnes onely of these doth the title belong In the fifth and last place be those ranged and taken for Esquires whosoeuer haue any superiour publicke Office in the common weale or serue the Prince in any worshipfull calling But this name of Esquire which in ancient time was a name of charge and office onely crept first among other titles of dignitie and worship so farre as I could euer obserue saith Camden in the raigne of Richard the second In ancient deeds we finde little mention made of gentlemen or Esquires but since the time of Henry the fourth these additions to names haue beene vsually inserted in writings by reason of the Statute of the first of Henry the fifth cap. 5. that in all cases wherein Processe of Outlary lieth additions shall be made of the estate degree or Misterie of which the parties sued are This Perient is here stiled also Penerarius Ric. secundi because as I coniecture he had the carriage of the Kings Penon Which word signifieth a Banner or Ensigne carried in warre or a little Streamer worne on the top of a lawnce by a Horseman A word borrowed from France for Penon in French signifieth the same thing Master of the Horse which office this deceased Gentleman enioyed vnder the Queene as aforesaid is he that hath the rule and charge of the Kings or Queenes stable being an office of high account Hitching Here lyeth Willyam Polter Gentylman who dyed the xx day of May in the fyfth yere of kyng Henry the eygth Here adioyning to the Towne was a Priory of white Friers Carmelites founded by king Edward the second Iohn Blomvill Adam Rouse and Iohn Cobham and dedicated to the Honour of our alone Saviour and the blessed Virgine valued in the Kings books vpon the surrender thereof which was vpon the ninth of May Ann. 26. Hen. 8. but at 4. l. 9. s. 4. d. Kinesburne or Kinesbourgh Here lyeth the carkasse of an old Castle interred in her owne ruines which in former times gaue entertainment to certaine obnoxious persons which called themselues the kings loyall good Subiects and the chiefe preseruers of his peace throughout all the adiacent countries as it is in the golden Register of S. Albans as followeth Stephanus Rex ad petitionem Abbatis Roberti ob honorem Albani Martyr is permisit dirui castrum de Kynesbury vbi antiquis temporibus latebant quidam Regales nequam homines Abbathie nimis infesti damnosi dicentes se Regis esse fideles et custodes pacis patrie cum potius pacem patriam perturbarent King Stephen at the request of Robert Abbot of Saint Albans and for the honour he bore to the holy Martyr S. Alban gaue commission for the pulling downe of the Castle of Kinesbury wherein in ancient times certaine
tempore Ed. 3. an honourable title as well in France as in England but afterward applied vnto Seruants and Groomes whereupon when the Gentrie reiected it by changing the name they began to be called Gentlemen of the Bedchamber Orate pro animabus Iohannis Barrington et l homasine vxoris eius qui quidem Iohannes obiit 8. die mens Nouemb. 1416. et Thomasina obiit 15. Septemb. 1420. Quorum animabus Ryding from Ralegh towards Rochford I happened to haue the good companie of a gentleman of this countrey who by the way shewed me a little hill which he called the Kings Hill and told me of a strange customarie Court of long continuance there yearely kept the next Wednesday after Michaelmas day in the night vpon the first cockcrowing without any kinde of light saue such as the heauens will affoard The Steward of the Court writes onely with coales and calleth all such as are bound to appeare with as low a voice as possiblie he may giuing no notice when he goeth to execute his office Howsoeuer he that giues not an answer is deeply amerced which seruile attendance said he was imposed at the first vpon certaine Tenants of diuers Mannors hereabouts for conspiring in this place at such an vnseasonable time to raise a commotion The title of the Entrie of the Court hee had in memory and writ it downe for me when we came to Rochford Thus it runnes in obscure barbarous rimes Curia de Domino Rege dicta sine Lege Tenta est ibidem per eiusdem consâ—etudinem Anteortum solis luceat nisi polus Seneschallus solus scribit nisi colis Clamat clam pro Rege in Curia sine lege Et qui non cito venerit citius penitebit Si venerit cum lumine errat in regimine Et dum sunt sine lumine capti sunt in crimine Curia sine cura iurata de iniuria Tenta die Mercurij prox post festum Sancti Michaelis Thus much haue I spoken of a Lawlesse Court for which I haue neither law nor reason For I am sure that this discourse is impertinent and quite from the subiect to which I haue tied my selfe to treat of Yet I hope these lines will not seeme much vnpleasing for my Reader to peruse when his minde is ouercharged with dull heauie and vncomfortable Epitaphs Rochford I am looking for some Monument or other in this Church to the memorie of some one of the Lords of ancient Nobilitie to which this Towne gaue the Surname of Rochford as now it giues the title of Viscount Rochford to that truly honourable and right worthie gentleman Henry Cary Lord Hunsden and Earle of Douer Pris pur Anne Snokeshall fille Iohn filol de Landmare qe gist ici Dieu de salme eit pite et mercy qe ob iour de Seynt Valentin â—an Iâ—su crist M. ccc.lxxxxvi Of your cherite prey for the sowl of Rose Crymvill wyf of Richard Crymvill Which Rose desesyd viii April M. cccccxxiiii on her sowl Iesu haue mercy Hic iacet Maria Dilcock que obiit xiiii die Decembris Ann. Dom. M. Vc. Cuius anime .... The Tower and the Steeple of this Church was built from the ground as the inhabitants by tradition affirme by Richard Lord Rich Baron of Leez and Chancellour of England A most prudent and iudicious Statesman a singular treasure and supporter of the kingdome who for his great good deserts receiued the office of Chancellour of England at the hands of King Edward the sixth Howsoeuer the Armes of the Butlers Earles of Ormond whose inheritance this Towne was in times past are cut in some places on the stone Robert Lord Rich and Earle of Warwicke lately deceased founded here sixe Almes houses for fiue poore impotent men and an aged woman But here let me conclude what I haue spoken of this towne with the words of Camden More inward saith he is Rochford placed that hath giuen name to this Hundred now it belongeth to the now Earles of Warwicke Barons Rich and in old time it had Lords of great nobility surnamed thereof whose inheritance came at length to Butler Earle of Ormond and Wiltshire and from them to Sir Thomas Bullen whom King Henry the eight created Viscount Rochford and afterward Earle of Wiltshire out of whose progenie sprung that most gratious Queene Elizabeth and the Barons of Hunsdon Pritlewell Swein de Essex before remembred built here a Priory for blacke Monkes which he dedicated to the blessed Virgine Mary Which was much augmented by others and holden to be a cell to the Priory of Lewes vntill the yeare 1518. when as a great contention arose betweene the two Houses insomuch that Iohn Prior de Pritlewel noluit soluere vnam Marcam Priori de Lewes nomine subiectionis This house was valued at the suppression to be worth 194 l. 14. s. 3. d. ob yearely Hic iacet Magister Iohannes Lucas Theologie Bacchalaureus quondam vicarius istius Ecclesie Parochialis qui ob 16. Ian. 1477. Cuius anime Prey for the sowl of Iohn Cock the younger and Margaret his wyff Whych Io. dyed ...... 1522. Her vndyr this Grauston lyth beryed Richard Bowrd ... Marchant of Callys .... dyed ... 1432. Vnder this inscription these words are engrauen in a trewe Loues knot Quod servaui perdidi quod expendi habui Quod donaui habui quod negaui perdidi Stangate Here sometime stood a small Priory built by the Predecessours of the Prior of Lewes about what time I cannot learne valued to bee yearely worth 43. l. 8. s. 6. d. Saint Osithes Whose ancient name was Chich now growne out of vse by reason of Osith the virgine of royall parentage who being wholly deuoted to the seruice of God was here stabbed to death by the Danish pyrates in the yeare 653 in the moneth of October And being by our Ancestours honoured for a Saint Richard de Beaveyes Bishop of London in her memoriall built here a religious house of Regular Chanons about the yeare 1120. in the raigne of King Henry the first His grant I haue read in the Records of the Tower beginning thus Richardus Dei gratia London Episcopus c. Salutem Sciatis quod ego dedi Ecclesie Sancte Osithe virginis de Ciz ecclesias de Sudemenestra et de Clachentona cum omnibus que ad illas pertinent c. King Henry confirmes and augments this donation by his Charter dated at Roan in the nineteenth yeare of his raigne And many others so added to the reuenues of this Monastery that at the time of the suppression it was valued at 758. pound fiue shillings eight pence This Bishop the founder was diuers times about to resigne his Bishopricke that he might become a regular Canon in this his owne new built Monasterie and that the rather because being taken with an irrecouerable Palsie he well knew his time to be
wherein they stood not onely vpon the words of their former crie but reading something out of a paper they went more particularly ouer the office and caâ—ling of Hacket how he represented Christ by partaking a part of his glorified bodie by his principall spirit and by the office of seuering the good from the bad And that they were two Prophets the one of mercy the other of iudgement called and sent of God to assist this their Christ Hacket in his great worke These men were apprehended the same day The 26 of Iuly Hacket was arraigned and found guiltie as to haue spoken diuers most false and traiterous words against her Maiestie to haue razed and defaced her Armes as also her picture thrusting an iron instrument into that part which did represent the breast and heart For the which he had iudgement and on the 28. of Iuly hee was brought from Newgate to a gibbet by the Croâ—e in Cheape where being moued to aske God and the Queene forgiuenesse be fell to railing and cursing of the Queene and began a most biasphemous prayer against the diuine Maiestie of God They had much ado to get him vp the ladder where hee was hanged and after bowelled and quartered His execrable speeches and demeanure as well at his arraignment as death vtterly distained and blemished all his former seeming sanctitie wherewith he had shroudly possessed the common people Thus you see how easily ignorant people are seduced by false new doctrines how suddenly they â—â—ll from true Religion into heresie frensie and blasphemie robbing the Church of all her due rites and as much as in them lies God of his Glory which abuse of these times I leaue to be reformed by our reuerend Clergie On the next day to make an end of the Story Edmund Coppinger hauing wilfully abstained from meat and otherwise tormented himselfe died in Bridewell And Henry Arthington lying in the Counter in Woodstreet submitting himselfe writ a booke of repentance and was deliuered such was the end of these men saith mine Authour of whom the â—ilâ—ie people had receiued a very reuerend opinion both for their sincere holinesse and sound doctrine And in the yeare 1612. Aprill 11. Edward Wightman another peruerse heretique was burned at Lichfield This Wightman would faine haue made the people beleeue that he himselfe was the holy Ghost and immortall with sundrie other most damnable opinions not fit to bee mentioned amongst Christians Yet for all this this heretique had his followers It is much to be wished that all backsliders from our Church should be well looked vnto at the first and not to runne on in their puritanicall opinions Of the Shcismatiques of those times and more especially of Martin Marprelate these Rythmicall numbers following were composed Hic racet vt pinus Nec Caesar nec Ninus Nec Petrus nec Linus Nec Coelestinus Nec magnus Godwinus Nec plus nec minus Quam Clandestinus Miser ille Martinus Videte singuli O vos Martinistae Et vos Brownistae Et vos Barowistae Et vos Atheistae Et Anabaptistae Et vos Haketistae Et Wiggintonistae Et omnes Sectistae Quorum dux fuit iste Lugete singuli At Gens Anglorum Presertim verorum Nec non qui morum Estis honorum Inimici horum Vt est decorum Per omne forum In secula seculorum Gaudete singuli A certaine Northern Rimer also made these following Couplets vpon him and his seditious Pamphlets The Welchman is hanged Who at our Kirke flanged And at her state banged And brened are his buks. And tho he be hanged Yet he is not wranged The de'ul has him fanged Is his kruked kluks His name was Iohn Penry a Welshman a penner and a publisher of books intituled Martin marre Prelate he was apprehended at Stepney by the Vicar there and committed to prison and in the moneth of May 1593. hee was arraigned at the Kings bench in Westminster condemned of Felonie and afterward suddenly in an afternoone conuaied from the Gaile of the Kings Bench to Saint Thomas Waterings and there hanged with a small audience of beholders saith Stow. CHAP. XI Of the conuersion of this our Nation from Paganisme to Christianity including generally the Foundations of religious houses in the same and the pietie in the Primitiue times both of religious and Lay persons OF the conuersion of this our Island from Paganisme to Christianity diuers authenticall Authors both ancient and moderne haue written at large a little then of so much will suffice for this present Discourse Christiana doctrina sexaginta octo plus minus annorum spacio post passionem Domini nostri Iesu Christi totum fere orbem peruagata est within the space of threescore and eight yeares or thereabouts after the death and passion of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ Christian Religion was spread almost ouer the face of the whole world And so fruitfull and famous was this spreading of the Gospell that Baptista Mantuan a Christian Poet compares the increase thereof with that of Noah thus alledging vnto it Sicutaquis quondam Noe sua misit in orbem Pignora sedatis vt Gens humana per omnes Debita caelituum Patri daret orgia terras Sic sua cum vellet Deus alta in regna reuerti Discipulos quosdam transmisit ad vltima mundi Littora docturos Gentes quo numina ritu Sint oranda quibus caelum placabile Sacris As Noah sent from the Arke his sonnes to teach The Lawes of God vnto the world aright So Christ his Seruants sent abroad to preach The word of life and Gospell to each wight No place lay shadowed from that glorious Light The farthest Isles and Earths remotest bounds Embrac'd their Faith and ioy'd at their sweet sounds Now to speake of the conuersion of this Island out of a namelesse Authour who writes a booke De regnis Gentibus ad Christi sidem conuersis thus Prima Prouinciarum omnium sicut antiquissimi Historiarum Scriptores memoriae prodidere quorum etiam authoritatem M. A. Sabellicus inter nostrae aetatis recentiores est sequutus Britannia Insula publico consensu Christi fidem accepit The first of all Prouinces or farre countries as ancient Historiographers haue deliuered to memory whose authority M. A. Sabellicus one amongst the late writers of our age doth principally follow this Island of Britaine by common consent receiued the Christian faith The glorious Gospell of Iesus Christ saith Gildas Albanius surnamed the wise the most ancient of our British Historians which first appeared to the world in the later time of Tyberius Caesar did euen then spread his bright beames vpon this frozen Island of Britaine And it is generally receiued for a truth that Ioseph of Arimathea who buried the body of our Sauiour Christ laid the foundation of our faith in the West parts of this kingdome at the place or little Island as then called Aualon now Glastenbury where he with twelue disciples his
should be deemed reputed accepted or taken to be Heresie It was also enacted that no manner of appeales should be had prouoked or made out of this Realme or any the Kings dominions to the Bishop of Rome or to the See of Rome in any causes or matters happening to be in contention and hauing their commensement and beginning in any of the Courts within this Realme or within any the Kings dominions of what nature condition or qualitie soeuer they were Vpon this followed another Act restraining the payment of Annates or first-fruits to the Bishop of Rome and of the electing and consecrating of Bishops within this Realme Another Act was made concerning the exoneration of the Kings Subiects from exactions and impositions theretofore paied to the See of Rome and for hauing licences and dispensations within this Realme without suing further for the same in which the Commons assembled complaine to his Maiestie that the subiects of this Realme and other his dominions were greatly decaied and impouerished by intollerable exactions of great summes of money claimed and taken by the Bishop of Rome and the See of Rome as well in pensions censes Peter-pense procurations fruits sutes for prouisions and expeditions of Bulls for Archbishoprickes and Bishopricks and for delegacies of rescripts in causes of contentions and appeales iurisdictions legatiue and also for dispensations licences faculties grants relaxations Writs called Perinde valere rehabitations abolitions and other infinite sorts of Bulls breeues and instruments of sundrie natures names and kindes in great numbers ouer long and tedious here particularly to be inserted It was affirmed in this Parliament that there had been paied to the Pope of Rome onely for Bulls by our English Bishops and other of the kingdome since the fourth of Henry the seuenth to that time threescore thousand pound sterling The next yeare following in a Parliament begun at Westminster the third of Nouember the Pope with all his authoritie was cleane banished this Realme and order taken that he should no more bee called Pope but Bishop of Rome and the King to be taken and reputed as supreme head in earth of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia And that hee their Soueraigne Lord his heires and successours kings of this Realme should haue full power and authoritie from time to time to visit represse redresse reforme order correct restraine and amend all such eâ—rours heresies abuses offences contempts and enormities whatsoeuer they were which by any manner spirituall authoritie or iurisdiction ought or might lawfully bee reformed repressed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended most to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue in Christs religion and for the conseruation of peace vnitie and tranquilitie of this Realme any vsage custome forraine lawes forraine authority prescription or any thing or things to the contrary thereof notwithstanding In this Parliament also were granted to the King and his heires the first-fruits and tenths of all spirituall dignities and promotions His stile of supremacie was further ratified and declared to bee set downe in this forme and manner following in the Latine tongue by these words Henricus octauus Dei gratia Angliae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei defensor in terra Ecclesiae Anglicanae Hibernicae supremum caput In the English tongue by these Henry the eight by the grace of God King of England France and Ireland defendour of the faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in earth the supreme head Which stile was enacted to bee vnited and annexed for euer to the imperiall Crowne of this his Highnesse Realme of England Vpon the first expulsion of the Popes authoritie and King Henries vndertaking of the Supremacie the Priests both religious and secular did openly in their Pulpits so farre extoll the Popes iurisdiction and authority that they preferred his lawes before the kings yea and before the holy precepts of God Almighty Whereupon the King sent his mandatory letters to certaine of his Nobilitie and others in especiall office thinking thereby to restraine their seditious false doctrine and exorbitancie And here let me tell you that amongst many letters of important affaires which I found in certaine Chandlers shops of our Parish allotted to light Tobacco pipes and wrap vp peniworths of their commodities all which I gaue to Sir Robert Cotton Knight and Baronet the onely repairer of ruined antiquirie whom I knew the contents therof shewing some passages of former times would preserue them for better vses I happened vpon certaine letters following tending to the same purpose of which I haue already spoken Henry R. By the King RIght trusty and right welbiloued Cousin we grete you well And wher it is commen to our knowlaige that sundry persons aswell religious as seculer Priests and curats in their peroches and dâ—ueâ—se places within this our Realme do dailly asmoche as in them is set foâ—the and extolle the iurisdiction and auctoritie of the Bishop of Rome ortherwyse called Pope sowing their sediciouse pestylent and false doctryne praying for him in the Pulpit and makyng hym a God to the greate deceyte illudyng and seducyng of our subgietts bryngyng them into errors sedicyon and euyll opynyons more preferryng the power lawes and Iurisdictyon of the said Bishop of Rome then the most holly lawes and precepts of almighty God We therfore myndyng not only to prouide for an vnitie and quietnes to be had and contynued among our said subgietts but also greatly couâ—tyng and desyryng them to be brought to a perfectyon and knawlege of the mere veritie and truth and no longer to be seduced nor blynded with any suche superstitiouse and false doctryne of any erthly vsurper of godds lawes will therfore and commaund you that wher and whensoeuer ye shall fynde apperceyve know or heretell of any such sedicious personnes that in suche wise do spreade teche and preache or otherwise set forth any suâ—he opynyons and perniciouse doctryne to the exaltatyon of the power of the bishop of Rome bryngyng therby our subgietts into error gruge and murmuracyon that ye indelaydly doo apprehend and take them or cause them to be apprehended and taken and so commytted to Ward ther to remayne without bayle or mayneprise vntill vpon your aduertisement therof vnto vs or our Councell ye shall know our further pleasure in that behalfe Ye uen vndre our Signet at our Manor of Grenwich the xvii day of Aprill This letter was thus endorsed To our right trusty and welbiloued cousin and Counsellor Th erle of Sussex In Iune or Iuly following these maiesticall commanding Epistles were seconded and made more strong by an Act of Parliament called An Act extinguishing the authoritie of the Bishop of Rome Of which I hold it not amisse to set downe so much as principally tends to the purpose To begin then at the beginning For as much as notwithstanding the good and wholesome lawes ordinances and statutes heretofore made enacted
and established by the kings Highnesse our most gratious souereigne Lord and by the whole consent of the high Court of Parliament for the extirpation abolition and extinguishment out of this Realme and other his graces dominions seigniories and countries of the pretended power and vsurped authoritie of the Bishop of Rome by some called the Pope vsed within the same or elsewhere concerning the same realme dominions segniories or countries whiâ—h did obfuscat and wrest Gods holy word and Testament a long season from the spirituall and true meaning thereof to his worldly and carnall affections as pompe glory auarice ambition and tyrannie couering and shadowing the same with his humane and politike deuises traditions and inuentions set forth to promote and stablish his onely dominion both vpon the soules and also the bodies and goods of all Christian people excluding Christ out of his kingdome and rule of mans soule as much as hee may and all other temporall Kings and Princes out of their dominions which they ought to haue by Gods law vpon the bodies and goods of their subiects whereby he did not onely rob the Kings Maiestie being onely the supreme head of this his Realme of England immediately vnder God of his honour right and preheminence due vnto him by the law of God but spoiled his Realme yearely of innumerable treasure and with the losse of the same deceiued the Kings louing and obedient subiects perswading to them by his lawes buls and other his deceiuable meanes such dreames vanities and fantasies as by the same many of them were seduced and conâ—ueied vnto superstitious and erroneous opinions So that the Kings Maiestie the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons in this Realme being ouer-wearied and fatigated with the experience of the infinite abhominations and mischiefes proceeding of his impostures and craftily colouring of his deceits to the great dammages of soules bodies and goods were forced of necessitie for the publike weale of this Realme to exclude that forraine pretended iurisdiction and authoritie vsed and vsurped within this Realme and to deuise such remedies for their reliefe in the same as doth not onely redound to the honour of God the high praise and aduancement of the Kings Maiestie and of his Realme but also to the great and inestimable vtilitie of the same And notwithstanding the said wholesome lawes so made and heretofore established yet it is common to the knowledge of the Kings highnesse and also to diuerse and many his loâ—uing faithfull and obedient subiects how that diuers seditious and contentious persons being imps of the said Bishop of Rome and his See and in heart members of his pretended Monarchie doe in corners and elsewhere as they dare whisper inculke preach and perswade and from time to time instill into the eares and heads of the poore simple and vnlettered people the aduancement and continuance of the said Bishops feined and pretended authoritie pretending the same to haue his ground and originall of Gods law whereby the opinions of many bee suspended their iudgements corrupted and deceiued and diuersitie in opinions augmented and increased to the great displeasure of almighty God the high discontentation of our said most dread soueraigne Lord and the interruption of the vnitie loue charitie concord and agreement that ought to bee in a Christian Region and congregation For auoiding whereof and repression of the follies of such seditious persons as be the meanes and authours of such inconueniences Be it enacted ordained and established by the King our soueraigne Lord and the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the authoritie of the same that if any person or persons dwelling demurring inhabiting or resiant within this Realme or within any other the Kings dominions seigniories or countries or the marches of the same or elsewhere within or vnder his obeizance and power of what estate dignitie preheminence order degree or condition soeuer hee or they bee after the last day of Iuly which shall bee in the yeare of our Lord God 1536. shall by writiâ—g ciâ—ering printing preachâ—ing or teaching deed or act obstinately or maliciously hold or stâ—nd with to extoll set foorth maintaine or defend the authoritie iurisdiction or power of the Bishop of Rome or of his See heretofore claimed vsed or vsurped within this Realme or in any dominion or countrey being or within or vnder the Kings power or obeisance or by any presence obstinately or maliciously inuent any thing for the extolling aduancement setting forth maintenance or defence of the same or any part thereof or by any pretence obstinately or maliciously attribute any manner of iurisdiction authoritie or preheminence to the said See of Rome or to any Bishop of the same See for the time being within this Realme or in any the Kings dominions and countries That then euery such person or persons so doing or offending their aiders assistants comfortors abettors procurers maintainers fautors counsellours conceilours and euery of them being thereof lawfully conuicted according to the Lawes of this Realme for euery such default and offence shall incurre and runne into the dangers penalties paines and forfeitures ordeined and prouided by the statute of Prouision and Premunire made in the sixteenth yeare of the reigne of the noble and valiant Prince King Richard the second against such as attempt procure or make prouision to the See of Rome or elsewhere for any thing or things to the derogation or contrarie to the Prerogatiue royall or iurisdiction of the Crowne and dignitie of this Realme King Henry still hearing of the murmuring of his Subiects vpon the enacting of this Statute writes againe to his principall magistrates in euery countrey in this manner following Henry R. By the King TRusty and welbeloued we grete yow well And wheras heretofore as ye know both vpon most iust and vertuouse fowndacions grownded vpon the lawes of Almighty God and holy Scripture And also by the deliberate aduice consultacion consent and agreement aswell of the Bishops and Clergie as by the Nobles and Commons temporall of this owr realme assembled in owr high Court of Parliament and by auctorite of the same the abuses of the Bisshop of Rome his auctorite and iurisdiction of long time vsurped against vs haue been not onely vtterly extirped abolished and secluded but also the same owr Nobles and Commons both of the Clergie and Temporalty by an other seuerall Acte and vpon like fundacion for the publike weale of this our realme haue vnited knytte and annexed to vs and the Crowne imperiall of this our realme the title dignitie and stile of Supreme hed in erthe immediatly vndre God of the Church of England as vndoubtedly euermore we haue ben which thing also the said Bisshops and Clergie particularly in their Conuocacions haue holly and entyrely consented recognised ratifyed confirmed and approued authentiquely in wryting both by their speciall othes profession and wryting vnder their Signes and Seales so vtterly reuouncyng all other othes
mores que sacta norma Quid dâ—ceat quid non instrue sancte pater Respunsio ipsius Bernardi Que â—eci primâ— vâ—bis facienda relinquo Nulium â—uâ—auâ— discordes pacificaui Lefus â—ustinui nec mihi complacui Within one hundred yeares after the first spreading abroad of these Cistercian and Bernardin Monkes the Benedictines wanted another reformation which was attempted by Peter one of the same Order surnamed â—â—â—oron of a Mountaine so called at the foote of which he liued in a caue for the space of three yeares doing daily penance Vpon this mountaine he built a little Church which he called of the holy Ghost be ware aâ—wayes a â—lâ—aine of Iron vpon his bare flesh vpon it a shirt of haire being in continuall prayer and reforming the rule of Saint Benet which was then much degenerated Hee obtained of the Pope a confirmation of his rule vpon which hee celebrated the first generall Chapter of his Order After which in the seuentie ninth yeare of his age he was chosen Pope about the yeare of our redemption 1â—94 by the name of Celestin the fifth where vpon this reformed order were called Celestins the number of which increased so fast that he himselfe consecraced for them fixe and â—hirtie clâ—â—sters in Italy wherein were sixe hundred Monkes amongst others this was one of Celestin the Popes caueats for his new reformadoes Tunc Celestinus cris si celestia mediteris If heau'nly things thou lt meditate Then shalt thou liue in heuenly state Their first comming into England was much what about the yeare 1414. The sanctitie of the Francischan Minorite Friers growne cold one Berâ—ard of Sienna a gentleman of a noble extraction moued with an holy and 〈◊〉 deuotion laboured much for the reformation of that Order which 〈◊〉 some assistants effected taking away the abuses which were crept 〈◊〉 causing the Friers to liue in common and to haue nothing proper to 〈◊〉 following simplie the institution of their father Saint Francis 〈◊〉 called Obseruant Minorite Friers because they were obseruan 〈…〉 S. Francisci propterea meliores more obseruant to keepe the 〈◊〉 and orders of Saint Francis and therefore the better This Order 〈…〉 the yeare of Iubile 1400. or thereabouts it was first confirmed by 〈◊〉 Couâ—â—ell of Câ—â—sâ—â—nce afterwards by Eugenins the fourth and other 〈…〉 the fourth brought them into England and Henry the seuenth auhmented their numbers in whose time they had six famouâ— Cloisters here in this kingdome Many other reformations haue been◠〈◊〉 time to time of the Franciscans as by the Minims Recoâ—lects Pen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ries Capuchins c. and by many others which happened sinced 〈◊〉 lution here in England or much what thereabouts One Norbert Archbishop of Magdebourgh leauing the world retired himselfe with certaine companions into a certaine place called 〈…〉 of which this order tooke denomination where hee squared 〈…〉 himselfe his fellowes and successours to obserue much what after the order of Saint Augustine which was approued and confirmed by Calixtus the second Honorius the second made them regular Charions Their Abbots were perpetuall and euer consecrated by Bishops They had power to conferre their lesser Orders to their Monkes and to blesse all thâ— ornaments of the Church and to do all other ceremonies but where as conseâ—ration is required in the blessing yet they might celebrate soâ—emne and 〈◊〉 Masse with the myter crosier staffe cappe and other ornaments which belong to the Episcopall order and dignitie The first institution of this order was about the yeare 1120. their first house here in England was at Newhouse in Lincolnshire These Votaries pretend to haue had their first institution at mount Carmel in Syria where Elias and other heretofore liued solitarily and that the place being inhabited by many Hermites Almericke Bishop of 〈◊〉 drew them together liuing dispersed about the mountaine and 〈…〉 them a Monasterie in that mount neare vnto a fountaine They say a fâ—thâ—â—r one Albert Patriarch of Ierusalem a very famous man set downea rule from the life of Elias out of a certaine Greeke booke of the institution of the first Monke and from the rule of Saint Basill the Great giuing it to keepe to one Brocard who was Prior of Mount Carmell and to his Hermits which rule of Albert they vowed to obserue which was afterwards confirmed by Pope Honorius the third They affirme that the Virgine Mary appeared vnto one of their order and presented vnto him a Scapularie saying Receiue my beloued this Scapularie which I giue vnto thy order in signe of my fellowship Whereupon they vsurpe the title of 〈◊〉 tres Ordinis beatae Mariae Virginis de monte Carmelo Friers of the Order of the blessed Virgine Mary of mount Carmell Their first apparition 〈◊〉 the world was about the yeare 1170. Their entrance into England and seating themselues at Newenden in Kent of which hereafter was about the midst of the raigne of King Henry the third These like as other Orders haue beene diuers times reformed euer as they did degenerate from their primitiue sincerity at this day they are called Carmes discalced or bare footed Friers by a certaine constitution confirmed by the Apostolique authoritie in a generall Chapter held at Alcara de Henares in the yeare of our redemption 1581. There were likewise Carmelin or Carnie 〈◊〉 Nunnes here in England Iohn Bale who writ of the writers and the best learned men of great Britaine writ also a large Treatise of this Order of Carmes or Carmelites whose antiquitie institution and progresse he sets downe in one of 〈…〉 sages as followeth De Antiquitate Fratrum Carmelitarum Tanta est Carmeli Fratrum de monte vetustas Quim mentâ—m superet cunctorum pene virorum Namque per Hâ—liam datur Ordo fuisse Prophetam Hie primo inceptus sacro quoque iure statutus Qui postquam curru raptus fuit in Paradisum Flammato successit et vates Heliseus Condita quinque virum ter claustra fuere per illum Quem post affirmant Ionam fuisse Prophetam Cui successerunt Abdias atque Micheas Et plerique alij quos non memorare necesse est Tempore non Christi Montem Baptista Iohannes Carmeli Andreas et Apâ—stolus incoluerunt Nathaniel Ioseph Vir Virginis atque Marie Sanctus Iheronimus et quidam nomine dictus Nilas Marcellus quorum Pauli fuit alter Petri Discipulus fuit alter deinde beati Tunc in honore pia fuit Ara sancta Marie Monte in Carmeli prenescentum que virorum Tunc in Hierusalem Claustrum fuit aurea porta Quondam nempe loco qui vulgo sertur ab omni Ac in monte Syon claustrum primo Muliâ—rum Multe denote quod percoluere Sorores Sincletica Euprepia Polycrasia item Melania Combustum primo verum fuit à Mahumeto Postque per Eraclum destructum post quoque Paulo Euersum rursus Danorum et ..... Regio .... Per .... Karoli reparatum tempore magni Ast vbi
precor horum He was a very seuere corrector of sinne depriuing many Clergie-men of their liuings in the first visitation of his owne Diocesse He repaired his pallace with 1101. l. and odde money which he recouered of Andrew Vfford Archdeacon of Midlesex adminâ—stratour of Iohn Vfford his predecessour for dilapidations hee built and endowed with good possessions a Colledge in this Citie which is now become a parcell of Christ-church in Oxford He bequeathed to his Church a thousand sheepe his vestments which were all cloth of gold a very sumptuous Coape and much plate he was a very â—â—ugall and sparing man neuer esteeming pompe nor outward brauery which he shewed at his end desiring to be buried obscurely to auoid superfluous expence William Wittlesey succeeded the said Simon and was brought vp at Oxford at the charges of Simon Islip who was his Vnkle where hee proceeded Doctor of the Canon Law and by him sent to Rome to sollicite his causes and also to get experience by seeing the practise of that Court who after he had stayed there a time was called home and preferred by his Vnkles meanes vnto the place of Vicar generall then to the Deanrie of the Arches the Archdeaconrie of Huntington the Parsonages of Croydon and Cliff to the Bishopricke of Rochester from thence to Worcester and lastly after the decease of his said Vncle to this Archbishopricke of Canterbury in which he continued almost seuen yeares being the most of his time troubled with a tedious lingring disease whereof he died Iuly 5. 1374. He lieth buried ouer against his Vncle betweene two pillars vnder a marble Tombe inlaid with brasse which with his Epitaph is altogether defaced the brasse worne torne or stolne away these few words onely remaining ............ tumulatus Wittelesey natus gemmata luce ..... Sudburie natus Simon iacet hic tumulatus Martirizatus nece pro republica stratus Heu scelus infernum trux exitiale nefandum Presulis eximij corpus venerabile dandum In rabiem Vulgi ......... This is a fragment of an Epitaph composed to the memory of Simon Tibold the sonne of one Nigellus Tibold surnamed Sudbury of a Towne in Suffolke where he was borne a Doctor of the Canon Law who by degrees came to this Metropolitan Grace of Canterbury A man very wise learned eloquent liberall mercifull and wondrous reuerend all which could not deliuer him from vntimely death For he together with Sir Robert Hales Lord Prior of Saint Iohns Ierusalem and Chancellour or England were haled to the Tower-hill by the Rebels of Kent and Essex with infernall shouts and yells and there vniustly Nam ius calcatur violâ—â—tia cum dominatur and horriblie hackâ— hewed and in that barbarous manner beheaded by these arch Trayâ—ours Iune the fourteenth the yeare of our Lord 1381. and of the raigne of that vnfortunate King Richard the second the fourth hauing sate Bishop about six yeares Which lamentable storie the Chronicles at large declare When these hurlie burlies were at an end the body of this good Archbishop was conueyed to his owne Church and there honourablie inteâ—â—ed vpon the South side of the Altar of Saint Dunstan This Bishop built the West-gate of this Citie and the wall from that gate vnto the North-gate commonly called by the name of the long wall and would haue done likewise about all the Towne if hee had liued The Maior and the Aldermen once a yeare vsed to come solemnly to his Tombe to pray for his soule in memory of this his good deed to their Citie saith Leland in his Commentaries It was the custome of old and so it is in these dayes for men of eminent ranke and qualitie to haue Tombes erected in more places then one for example and proofe of my speech I finde here in this Church a Monument of Alabaster at the feete of the blacke Prince wherein both by tradition and writing it is affirmed that the bones of William Courtney the sonne of Hugh Courtney the third of that Christian name Earle of Deuonshire Archbishop of this See lies entombed And I finde another to the memory of the same man at Maidstone here in Kent wherein because of the Epitaph I rather beleeue that his body lieth buried Of which hereafter when I come to that Towne Here lieth interred vnder a faire Monument Thomas Fitz-Alan or Arundell the third sonne of Richard Fitz-Alan Earle of Arundell Warren and Surrey by Eleanor his wife daughter of Henry Plantaginet Earle of Lancaster as I haue it in the Catalogue of Honour Who at the age of two and twenty yeares was consecrated Bishop of Ely which hee laudablie gouerned considering the greennesse of his age the space of fourteene yeares three moneths and eighteene dayes In which time hee was Lord Chancellour of England from Ely he was translated to Yorke leauing for an implement at his house of Ely a wonderfull sumptuous and costly Table adorned with gold and precious stones which belonged first to the King of Spaine and was sold to this Bishop by the blacke Prince for three hundred Markes Hee also bestowed the building of the great Gate-house of Ely house in Houlborne during his abode at Yorke which was about eight years he bestowed much in building vpon diuers of his houses and vnto the Church Besides many rich ornaments he gaue two great Basons of siluer and gilt two great Censers two other Basons of siluer and two Creuetts he gaue to the Vicars a siluer cup of great waight and a massie bowle of siluer to the Canons From Yorke he was remoued hither to Canterbury and here he sate one moneth aboue seuenteene yeares In which time at the West end of his Church hee built a faire spiâ—e steeple called to this day Arundell steeple and bestowed a tunable ring of fiue bels vpon the same which he dedicated to the holy Trinity to the blessed Virgine Mary to the Angell Gabriel to Saint Blase and the fifth to S. Iohn Euangelist Thus much he effected howsoeuer hee was no sooner warme in his seate then that he with his brother the Earle of Arundell were condemned of high Treason his brother executed and he banished the kingdome and so liued in exilement the space of neare two yeares vntill the first of the raigne of Henry the fourth This worthy Prelate died of a swelling in his tongue which made him vnable to eate drinke or speake for a time before his death Which happened Februar 20. Ann. 1413. An Author contemporarie with this Archbishop writes as followeth of the passages in those times as also much in the grace and commendation of this worthy Metropolitan Heu mea penna madet lachrimis dum scribere suadet Infortunata sceleris quibus horreo fata Non satis est Regem mundi deflectere legem Vt pereant gentes sub eo sine lege manentes Sed magis in Christum seuit qua propter ad istum Casum deslendum
that place he conuerted vnto the faith of Christ Sebert king of the East Saxons Of which this Stanza out of Harding Then Austin made Peter a clerke deuoute Of Saynt Austines th'abbot religious And made Mellito as Bede clerly hath note Of London then byshoppe full vertuous A Clerke that was then beneuolous Who then conuerted of Essex the king Sebert And all his land baptised with holy herte But the wicked sonnes of this good King Sebert expelled Mellitus out of their dominions from whence he trauelled into France and there stayed for a time vntill he was commanded by Archbishop Laureâ—ce to retâ—â—ne and looke to his flocke He was a man noble by birth but much more noble for the excellencie of his minde an eloquent speaker and therefore aâ—â—siuely called of some Mellifluous exceeding carefull of his charge despising the world and neuer caring for any thing but heauen and heauenly things hauing beene sicke a long time of the Gowt hee died Aprill 24. ann 624. and was buried beside his predecessour Vpon whose Tombe this Epitaph was engrauen Summus Pontificum flos tertius et mel apricum Hac titulis clara redoles Mellite sub arca Laudibus eternis te predicat vrbs Dorouernis Cui simul ardenti restas virtute potenti Presently vpon the death of Mellitus Iustus then Bishop of Rochester was preferred to this Archbishopricke He was a Romane borne the disciple of Gregory the great by whom he was sent ouer into England to preach the Gospell He was a Monke after the order of Saint Benet Vir tantae integritatis vi iusti nomine non tam gentilicio quam propter virtatem honorandus censeretur Which his vertue as also his learning are both highly commended by Pope Boniface the fourth to whom as to his deared beloued Brother he sendeth greeting He died Nouemb. 10. ann 634. was buried by his predecessour and canonized a Saint and Confessor But heare his Epitaph Istud habet bustum meritis cognomine Iustum Quarto iure datus cui cessit Pontificatus Pro meritis Iusti sancta grauitate venusti Gratia diuinam diuina dat his medicinam Honorius a reuerend learned man borne in the same Citie brought vp vnder the same Master and one of the same order with Iustus succeeded him in his pontificall Gouernment During the time he sate which was somewhat aboue twentie yeares amongst other things hee appointed diuers Bishops to diuers countries and diuided his Prouince into Parishes of which I haue spoken before that so he might appoint particular Ministers or Priests to particular congregations In his time the Pelagian heresie began to spring vp againe in Scotland but by his exhortatorie diuine Epistles to the Clergie of that kingdome he so dealt that the poysonous infection of that contagious heresie spread not farre neither continued any long time He died Februar 28. Ann. 653. and was laid with his predecessours This was his Epitaph Quintus honor memori versu memoraris Honori Digna sepultura quam non teret vlla Litura Ardet in obscuro tua lux vibramine puro Hec scelus omne premit fugat vmbras nubila demit One Frithona famous for his learning and vertuous life being elected Archbishop vpon the day of his consecration changed his name for Deus dedit or Adeodatus He was the first Englishman that gouerned this See which charge he attended carefully the space of sixe yeares and dyed Iuly â—4 Ann. 664. being the very same day that Ercombert the king of Kent dyed he was the last Bishop buried in the Church-porch Such was his Epitaph Alme Deus Dedit cui sexta vâ—catio cedit Signas hunc lipidem lapidi 〈…〉 eâ—dem Prodit ab hac vrna 〈…〉 aâ—urna Quâ— melioratur quic 〈…〉 graâ—atur Theodore a Grecian Saint Pauls 〈…〉 borne in Tharsus succeeded Deus deâ—it He was sixtâ—e sixe yearâ—â— of age before he vndertooke the charge of this Archbishopricke in 〈◊〉 hee continued two yeares three moneths twenty seuâ—n dayes vntill 〈…〉 which happened Sept. 29. anno 690 A man hee was to omit particulars worthy of perpetuall remembrance for his singular vertues vnder whom the Church of England receiued much comfort and encrease in spirituall matters Hee was exceeâ—dingly well learned both in profane and holy literature hee would often visit the countrey of the Englishmen all ouer and teach them the wayeâ— and pathes of good life Hee was the first Archbishop vnto whom all the whole Church of the English Nation did yeeld and consent to submit themselues Hee writ many learned bookes mentioned by Bâ—â—e hee was the seuenth Archbishop of whom these verses were written vpon the wall in Latine now translated thus into English Seuen Patriarchs of England Primates seuen Seuen Rectors and seuen Babaurers in heven Seuen Cesterns pure of life seuen Lamps of light Seuen Palmes and of this Realme seuen Crownes full bright Seuen Starres are here interr'd in vault below These verses were common to aâ—l these seuen pillars of the English Church for so they are called yet euery one as you haue read had his particular Epitaph and this following went curiant for Theodore thus Englished by the Translatour of venerable Bede A worthie Prelate lyeth here fast closed in this graue To whom the name of Theodore the Greekes most iustly gaue With title right the soueraigntie hauing of each degree Christs flock he fed with true doctrine as all men do well see His soule was set at libertie that lumpish lumpe of clay Dissolued when September had put nineteene dayes away And coueting their fellowship that liue a godly life Is companied with Angels high voyd of all care and strife Brithwald called like others allusiuely Bright world Abbot of Reculuer some two yeares after the decease of Theodore was elected and consecrated Archbishop by one Godwin Metropolitan of France He was a man very well learned both in Diuinitie and humanitie and very skilfull both in Ecclesiasticall and Monasticall orders censures and disciplines but farre inferiour in all vnto his predecessour He continued Archbishop in this fâ—â—med seuen and thirtie yeares sixe moneths fourteene dayes a longer time then euer any did either before or since and dyed Ianuar. 9. ann 731. and was buried in this Abbey Church because the Porch was already filled with the dead bodies of his predecessours for whom this Epitaph was 〈◊〉 and engrauen vpon his Monument Stat sua laus feretro Brithwaldus stat sua metro Sed minor est metri laus omnis laude feretri Laude frequentandus pater hic glorificandus Si prâ—ce slectatur dat ei qui danda precatur Tatwin a man very religious and no lesse learned succeeded Brithwald soone after whose consecration great controuersie arose betweene him and the Archbishop of Yorke about the Primacie wherein Tatwin preuailed Who hauing sate onely three yeares died Iuly the last day An. Dom. 735. and
Friers and Nunnes in such veneration and liking that they thought no Citie in case to flourish no house likely to haue long continuance no Castle sufficiently defended where was not an Abbey Priory or Nunnery either placed within the walls or situate at hand and neare adioyning And surely omitting the residue of the Realme hereof onely it came to passe that Douer had Saint Martins Canterbury Christ-Church Rochester Saint Andrews Tunbridge the Friers Maidstone the Chanons Greenwich the Obseruants and this our Leedes her Priory of Chanons at hand About two hundred yeares since the Prior of this House with three of his Chanons and others layed violent hands vpon the body of a Monke of Saint Albans whereupon many more quarrels would haue ensued if that Boniface the ninth Pope of Rome hearing thereof had not by his Bull authorised the Abbot of Saint Edmundsbury to heare examine and determine all controuersies betwixt the two Houses and to absolute the delinquents after competent satisfaction made to the wronged parties Thus goes the Bull. Bonifacius Episcopus seruus seruorum Dei Dilecto filio Abbati Monasterij de Sancto Edmundo Norwicen dioc Salutem et Apostolic ben Conquesti sunt nobis Abbas et Conuentus de Sancto Albano Ordinis Sancti Benedicti Lincoln Dioc. Quod Wilhelmus de verduno Prior Monasterij de Ledes ordinis Sancti Augustini Thomas de Maydenston Nicholaas Shirton Iohannes de Reuham dicti Monasterij de Ledes Canonici Magistrum Hugo de Forsham clericus Antonius Messager Iohannes Frere et Iohannes Linne laici Cantuar. Dioc. in Fratrem Iohannem de Stopeleya Monachum dicti Monasterii de Sancto Albano manus iniecerunt Dei timore postposito temere violentas Ideoque discretioni tue per Apostolica scripta mandamus quatenus si est ita dictos sacrilegos tandiu appellatione remota excōmunicatos publice nunties et facias ab omnibus arctius euitari donec super hiis satisfecerint competenter et iidem Clericus et Laici cum tuarum testimonio litterarum ad sedem venerint Apostolicam absoluendi Canonici vero debite absolutionis beneficium assequantur Dat. Lateran xii Kalend. Nouemb. Pontificatur nostri Anno octauo I haue the rather inserted this Bull for that it may bee the more plainly vnderstood how the most of all causes in those times concerning the Clergie were arbitrated not alwayes by the authority of the learned Bishops of this land but by Commissions purchased from the Bishops of Rome This Priory was valued in the Records of the late suppression at three hundred fourescore and two pounds of yearely reuenue Mottenden or Motindene Lambard speaking of Motindene which name hee deriues from two Saxon words Moo and Dene which is the proud valley a name imposed as he thinkes for the fertilitie thereof saith That hee hath not heard nor hitherto found any thing touching the Religious House of Motindene in Hetcorne saue onely that the head thereof was called Minister and that the House it selfe was of the yearely value of sixty pounds Neither would I saith he haue affoorded it so much as paper or place here but onely that you might vnderstand with what number of buildings variety of sects and plenty of possessions Popery was in old time prouided for and furnished No corner almost without some Religious house or other Their sects and orders were hardly to be numbred and as for their lands and reuenues it was a world to behold them I finde that the yearely extent of the cleare value of the Religious liuings within this Shire amounted to fiue thousand pounds Bishoprickes Benefices Friaries Chaunteries and Saints-offerings not accounted Which thing also I do the rather note to the end that you may see how iust cause is giuen vs both to wonder at the hote zeale of our ancestours in their spirituall fornication and to lament the coldnesse of our owne charity towards the maintenance of the true Spouse of Iesus Christ. For if euer now most truly is that verified which the Poet long since said Probitas laudatur et alget Boxley William de Ipre a Towne in Flanders the base sonne of Philip Viscount de Ipre Lieutenant to king Stephen in the warres against Maud the Empresse for which seruice the king created him Earle of Kent founded this Abbey Ann. 1146. which he consecrated to the blessed Virgine Mary and planted it with a Couent of white Monkes of Saint Barnards order which he translated hither from Claravall in Burgundie which as good children were to follow and obey the rules and ordinances of the Abbey of Claravall in all things These are the words in the institution Anno 1146. fundata est Boxleia in Cancia filia Claravallis propria And further Quod ipsa Abbathia sit subdita Abbathie de Claravalle c. It was ordinarie both beyond Sea and here in England for one religious house to beget another as will appeare by the sequele for not many yeares after her first foundation this Abbey it selfe was the mother of Robertsbridge in Sussex The yearely value of this house was esteemed at the suppression to be worth 218. l. 19. s. 10. d. This Monastery in former times was famous for a woodden Roode by which the Priests for a long while deluded the common people vntill their fraud and Legierdemain was detected Bocton Malherb At Bocton Malherb saith learned Clarentieux hath dwelt a long time the familie of the Wottons out of which in our remembrance flourished both Nicholas Wotton Doctor of the Lawes who being of the priuie Councell to king Henry the eighth King Edward the sixth Queene Mary and Queene Elizabeth sent in Embassage nine times to forraine Princes and thrice chosen Committee about Peace betweene the English French and Scottish liued a goodly time and ranne a long race in this life with great commendation of pietie and wisedome and also Sir Edward Wotton whom for his approued wisedome in weightie affaires Queene Elizabeth made Controller of her house and King Iames created Baron Wotton of Merley If you would know any more reade Hollinshead who hath written a Treatise of this family from Richard Wotton who flourished in the raigne of King Edward the first vnto these Wottons who yet do liue in our memory This Church is honoured with the sepulture of many of this noble progenie but I haue no inscription nor Epitaph for any saue onely for him who was twice Lord Maior of London The first time in the third yeare of king Henry the fifth the second in the ninth of king Henry the sixth Here lyeth Nicholas Wotton Esquire ... twice Lord Maior of London .... who was borne the 26. of October 1372. and dyed Septem 14. 1448. .... being 76. yeares of age Newenden This Towne harboured the first Carmelite Friars that euer were in this kingdome for about the midst of the raigne of king Henry the third this order came ouer the Sea arriued in this land
sticke these words following are very faire written Per hoc lignum oblata est terra Roberti filij Gousberti super altare Sancti Pauli in festo omnium Sanctorum Testibus c. But to make an end of this discourse Primitiua Ecclosie Sancti Pauli London fundatio saith the Lieger booke consistit in Episcopo triginta maioribus Canonicis duodecim minoribus et triginta vicarijs which differs from her present state hauing at this time for her gouernours a Bishop a Deane a Precentor a Chancellour a Treasurer and fiue Archdeacons viz of London Middlesex Essex Colchester and S. Albons and thirty Prebendaries and besides to furnish the Quire in diuine seruice Pety-Canons twelue Vicars Chorall six and ten Queristers c. This Bishopricke comprehends the Citie of London with the counties of Middlesex and Essex and the Deanries of Saint Albans and Braughing in Hertfordshire And is valued in the kings bookes at 1119. l. 8. s. 4. d. and yeelded the Pope from euery Bishop at his first entrance 3000. Florins besides sixteene pounds ten shillings for Rome-scot or Peter-pence But now to the Monuments Hic iacet Sebba Rex Orientalium Saxonum qui conuersus fuit ad fidem per S. Erkenwaldum Londinens Episcopum anno Christi 677. Vir multum Deo deuotus actibus religiosis crebris precibus pijs eleemosynarum fructibus plurimum intentus vitam priuatam et monasticam cunctis regni diuitijs honoribus preferens Qui cùm regnasset annis 30. habitum religiosum accepit per benedictionem Waltheri Londinens Antistitis qui prefato Erkenwaldo successit de quo venerabilis Beda in Historia gentis Anglorum The same Author further affirmes that he not onely relinquished his Princely robes and put on the habite of a Monke a thing vsuall as you haue heard before with the Saxon kings in the infancie of Christian Religion but also instigated his wife to leaue the momentanie pleasures of Courtly estate and to follow him in his vertuous deuotions which with much ado he obtained Here he continued a Monke in this Monastery for in his time saith Radulphus de Diceto were Monkes in this Church vntill the day of his death which happened in the yeare 693. Of this king Sebba thus much out of a late writer Mich. Draiton Polyol Cant. 11. Then Sebba of his seed that did them all surpasse Who fitter for a Shrine then for a Scepter was Aboue the power of flesh his appetite to sterue That his desired Christ he strictly might obserue Euen in the height of life in health and body strong Perswaded with his Queene a Lady faire and young To separate themselues and in a sole estate After religious sort themselues to dedicate Hic iacet Etheldredus Anglorum Rex filius Edgari Regis cui in die consecrationis post impositam Coronam fertur S. Dunstanus Cantuar. Archiepiscopus dira predixisse his verbis Quoniam aspirasti ad Regnum per mortem fratris tui in cuius sanguine conspirauerunt Angli cum ignominiosa matre tua non deficiet gladius de domo tua seuiens in te omnibus diebus vite tue interficiens de semine tuo quousque regnum tuam transferatur in regnum alienum cuius ritum et linguam gens cui presides non nouit nec expiabitur nisi longa vindicta peccatum tuum et peccatum matris tue peccata virorum qui interfuere concilio illius nequam Que sicut à viro sancto predicta erant euenerunt Nam Etheldredus varijs prelijs per Swanum Danorum Regem filium que suum Canutum fatigatus fugatus ac tandem Londini arcta obsidione conclusus misere diem obijt anno dominice incarnationis 1017. postquam annis 36. in magna tribulatione regnasset This Etheldred being neither forward in action nor fortunate in his proceedings was commonly called The vnready an oppressour rather then a ruler of this kingdome cruell in the beginning wretched in the middle and shamefull in the end Of the calamities of these times by the Danish inuasion will it please you heare my old Author Swan with his power to Engelond com In the xxv yer of Etheldreds kingdom And in the yer of grace a thowsand and thre He cam and dude sorrow inogh no mor myght be So thilke hii come that this londe they gan ouerfulle As hit wer Emettes creeping fro hur hulle Hii ne sparyd Prest ne Clerk that hii ne slaw to grounde Ne wemen wyth child wher so hii hem found Besides the prophesie of Dunstan here set downe in this Inscription and thus ratified by the euent the transferring of this kingdome to other Nations was further likewise prophetically foretold by an holy Anchorite saith Hen. Hunting Englished in these words by the Translatour of Ranulph Monke of Chester But among all Englyshemen medled togydres is so grete changyng and diuersyte of clothyng and array and so many manner of diuerse shappes that well nigh is ther ony man knowen by his clothyng and his array of whatsoeuer degre that he be Therof prophezyed an holy Anker in K. Egelfreds time in this manner Englyshmen for as much as they vse to dronkelewnes to Treason and to rechlesnes of Goddes hous first by Danes and then by Normans and atte thirde time by Scottes they shall be ouercome Suauis victoria Amor populi The loue of the people was a pleasant sweet Conquest a Motto which I saw depicted vnder the Armes of our late Soueraigne Lord King Iames ouer one of the gates at Yorke vpon his first auspicious entrance into that ancient Citie Ann. 1603. die Aprilis 16. Thus for a king to ouercome was but to come and to be welcome to bee receiued of his Subiects in all places with shouts and acclamations of ioy demonstrations of truest loyaltie loue and obedience and to be conducted and guarded with an admirable confluence of his Nobilitie Gentrie and Commons vnto the Throne of his lawfull inheritance Hoc in loco requiescit in domino Erconwaldus tertius post Anglosaxonum in Britannia ingressam Episcopus Londinensis cuius in Episcopatu ante Episcopatum vita fuit sanctissima ex nobili prosapia oriundus Offe orientalium Saxonum Regis erat filius ad fidem Christianam à Mellito primo Londini Episcopo An. Dom. 642. conuersus Is priusquam Episcopus factus esset duo preclara construxit Monasteria sumptibus suis de bonis que ture hereditario sibi obuenerunt Vnum sibi in finibus Australium Saxonum loco qui Certesey vocatur alterum Edelburge sorori sue femine laudatissime ad Berching in ditione Orientalium Saxonum In Episcopatum vero anno salutis 675. à Theodoro Dâ—robernensium siue Cantuarie Archiepiscopo sacratus est Sebbam Orientalium Saxonum Regem ad Christi sidem conuertit et salutari Baptismatis vnda suis manibus per fudit qui statim mundo renuncians se totum Deo addixit
Brute farre by West beyond the Gallike land is found An Isle which with the ocean seas inclosed is about Where Giants dwelt sometime but now is desart ground Most meet where thou maiest plant thy selfe with all thy rout Make thitherwards with speed for there thou shalt finde out An euer-during seat and Troy shall rise anew Vnto thy race of whom shall kings be borne no doubt That with their mighty power the world shall whole subdew Brute was no sooner awaked then that he related this his dreame or vision to such of his companie as he thought requisite to be acquainted with such a matter of importance after great reioycing and ceremonious thanksgiuing they ioyntly resolued to seeke out this fortunate Island and so returned to their ships with great ioy and gladnesse as men put in comfort to finde out the wished seats for their firme and sure habitations prophesied and promised vnto them by the Oracle not long after Per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum Passing through many dangers by sea by land 'mongst strangers They landed at Totnes in Deuonshire about the yeare of the world 2855. and before Christs natiuitie 1108. Of which M. Drayton Polyol Song 1. Mye Britaine-sounding Brute when with his puissant fleete At Totnesse first he toucht Brute hauing taken a view of this Island and destroyed all such as stood against him commanded that the Isle should be called Brutaine which before was called Albion peopled with gyants and the inhabitants thereof Britaines or Brutaines allusiuely after his owne name Within a short time after his arriuall he laid the foundation of a Citie which he named Troynouant or new Troy now London vpon a plot of ground lying on the North side of the riuer of Thames which he built in remembrance of that noble City of Troy from whence hee and his people were descended as also to bee the seat Royall and chiefe Chamber of his imperiall kingdome He also built a Temple to the honour of his Pagan Gods and Goddesses Which stood by coniecture in the same place where now this Cathedrall Church of Saint Paul is erected in which idolatrous Archflamen he bequeathed his body to be buried Here in his new Citie when he had established certaine lawes teaching his people to liue after a ciuill order and fashion also to build townes and villages to worship the Gods to till and plow the earth to weare apparrell to anoint and trimme their bodies and to be short to liue after an humane manner and had holden the regiment of this kingdome right nobly the space of twenty and foure yeares hee departed the world Hauing parted his dominions into three parts amongst his three sonnes Locrine Camber and Albanact with condition that the two younger brethren should hold of the eldest and to him doe homage and fealtie Brute tooke shippe and arriued in Albion Where Diane said should been his habitation And when he came the coasts of it vpon He was full glad and made great exultacion And afterwards vpon the alteration of the name of Albion the building of London the establishing of his lawes the diuision of his Empire as also of his death and buriall the same Author hath these verses This Brutus thus was king in regalite And after his name he called this Ile Briteyn And all his menne by that same egalite He called Briteynes as croniclers all saine So was the name of this ilke Albion All sette on side in Kalandes of a change And putte awaye with great confusion And Briteyn hight so furth by new exchange After Brutus The citee great of Troynouaunt so faire He buylded then on Thamys for his delite Vnto the North for his dwellyng and for his most repaire Whiche is to saie in our language perfite New Troy In whiche throughout his peace and law he sette Whiche been the floures of all regalite With out whiche but if thei twoo be mette There may no Prince hold principalite Ne endure long in worthy dignite For if those twoo be nought vpholden than What is a kyng more worth then his liege man This kyng Brute kepte well this Isle in peace And sette his lawes of Troye with orders rites And consuetudes that might the land encreace Such as in Troye was most profittes Vnto the folke and the common profettes He made theim wryten for long rememory To rule the Isle by theim perpetually His menne he did rewarde full royally With lands and rentes that with hym suffred pain And Troynouaunt he made full specially An Archflaume his sea Cathedrall certain A Temple thereof Apolyne to opteyne By Troyane lawe of all such dignite As Archbyshop hath now in his degre This kyng Brutus made people faste to tylle The land aboute in places both farre and nere And sowe with sede and get them corne full wele To liue vpon and haue the sustenaunce clere And so in fields both farre and nere By his wysdome and his sapience He sette the lande in all suffycience And as the fate of death doth assigne That nedes he muste his ghoost awaye relees To his goddas Dyane he did resigne His corps to be buryed withouten lees In the Temple of Apolline to encreace His soule amonge the goddes euerychone After his merites tronized high in trone It is said saith Sir Edward Coke to the Reader of the third part of his Reports that Brutus the first king of this land as soone as hee had setled himselfe in his kingdome for the safe and peaceable gouernment of his people wrote a booke in the Greeke tongue calling it The Lawes of the Britanes and he collected the same out of the Lawes of the Troianes Brute died after the Creation 2806. yeares before the Incarnation 1103. Samuel then Iudge of Israel Robert of Glocester my old Mss. hath these rimes touching some passages in this History of Brute Brute wende fory in ye lond and espied vp and doun For to seche a fair plas to mak an heued toun He com and fond vpe Temese a place fair ynough A good contre and plenteuous and yuder his herte drough Yat shippes out of eche londe myght bryng good ywys Yer he rerd hys chefe toun yat London cleped ys Yet so ne cleped he it nought but for honour and ioye Yat he from Troie comen was he cleped it new Troye Bruit yis ilke noble Prince Sones had thre By his wyff Ignogent noble men and fre Locryn and Camber and Albanack also Atte last diede Brut. Yo thys was ydo Aftur yat he com into Engelond ye xxiiii yere I buryed he was at London yat he lette furst arere Thus much of king Brute as the brute of him goes and as the vulgar receiued opinion is the maine points of his story being brought into queâ—stion by many of our learned authenticall writers The Conquerour William brought with him from Roane in Normandy certaine Iewes whose posterity here inhabiting within the prime Cities of the kingdome
and vowed virginitie cast off all care of hauing issue and exposed the kingdome to the prey of ambitious humours Yet some that would excuse him in this affirme that this holy king was not willing to beget any heires that should succeed him out of a treacherous race Here lieth without any Tombe Maude daughter to Malcolm Camoir king of Scots and wife to king Henry the first who brought vnto him children William Richard and Mary which perished by shipwracke and Maud Empresse who was wise to Henry the fift Emperour She died the first day of May Maij prima dies nostrorum nocte dierum raptam perpetua fecit inesse die 1118. She had an excellent Epigram made to her commendation whereof these foure verses onely remaine Prospera non laetam fecere nec aspera tristem Aspera risus erant prospera terror erant Non decor effecit fragilem non sceptra superbam Sola potens humilis sola pudica decens Thus paraphrastically translated No prosperous state did make her glad Nor aduerse chances made her sad If Fortune frown'd she then did smile If Fortune smil'd she fear'd the while If Beauty tempted she said nay No pride she tooke in Scepters sway She onely high her selfe debast A Lady onely faire and chast She went euery day in the Lent time to this Church bare-foot and bare-legd wearing a garment of haire she would wash and kisse the feet of the poorest people and giue them bountifull Almes For which being reprehended by a Courtier shee gaue him a short answer which I haue out of Robert of Glocester Madame for Goddes love is this wel i doo To handle sich vnclene â—ymmes and to kisse so Foule wolde the kyng thynk if that hit he wiste And ryght wel abyse hym er he your mouth kiste Sur sur qd the Quene be stille why sayste thow so Owr Lord hymself ensample yaf so for to do She founded as I haue said before the Priory of Christ-church within Aldgate and the Hospitall of S. Giles in the Fields She builded the Bridges ouer the Riuer of Lea at Stratford Bow and ouer the little Brooke called Chanelsebridge shee gaue much likewise to the repairing of high-wayes But I will take my leaue of her with these words of Paris Obijt eodem anno Matildis Regina Anglorum cuius corpus apud Westmonasterium quietem sepulturae accepit anima eius se coelum possidere evidentibus signis et miraculis crebris ostendit Here lieth vnder a rich Monument of Porphery adorned with precious stones the body of Henry the third king of England In the fifth yeare of whose raigne and the Saturday next before his second time of Coronation the New worke the old being ruinous and pulled downe of this Church of Westminster was begun To which sacred Edifice this king was a perswader he was the Founder and laid the first stone in the ground-worke of the building The Newerke atte Westmynstre ye kyng tho ganne anone Aftyr hys coronyng and leyde the fyrst stone As if he meant the world should know his intention was to consecrate his future actions to the glory of God He gaue to this Church royall gifts of Copes Iewels and rich vessels and for the holy Reliques of Edward the Confessor he caused a coffin to be made of pure gold and pretious stones and so artificially by the most cunning Goldsmiths that could be gotten that although the matter it was made of was of an inestimable valew tamen Materiam superabat opus yet the workmanship excelled the matter saith Mathew Paris A Prince he was as our histories affirme of greater deuotion then discretion in permitting the depredation of himselfe and his subiects by papall ouerswayings This King saith Robert of Glocester as in worldlich doyng was not hald ful wyse but mor deuout to spiritual things he was euery dey woned to here thre Masses by note Quante innocentie quante patientie quanteque deuotionis et quanti meriti in vita sua erat apud Deum testantur post ipsius mortem miracula subsecuta Of how much integrity of how much patience of how much deuotion and of how much merite he was in his life time before God the miracles which followed after his death doe testifie saith the compendious chronicle of Canterbury He died the 16 of Nouember 1273. when he liued sixty fiue yeares and raigned fiftie sixe yeares and eighteene daies this Epitaph following is annexed to his Tombe Tertius Henricus iacet hic pietatis amicus Ecclesiam strauit istam quam post renouauit Reddet ei munus qui regnat trinus et vnus Tertius Henricus est Templi conditor huius Dulce bellum inexpertis Which is thus Englished by Robert Fabian The frende of pyte and of almesse dede Henry the thyrde whylome of Englande Kyng Who thys Church brake and after hys mede Agayn renewed into this fayre buylding Now resteth in here whiche did so great a thinge He yelde his mede that Lord in Deyite That as one God reygneth in persones thre Henry the thyrde is the buylder of thys Temple War is pleasant to those that haue not tryed it In the additions to Robert of Glocester a Manuscript in the Heralds Office these rimes are written to his remembrance Aftur hym regnyd the thurd Harry A good man and eke an hely In hys tym werrys were full strong And eke mickle stryf in Englond The Batayl of Lewys was than And alsoo the Batayl of Euesham And that tym alsoo ther was The Translacyon of Sent Thomas In hys tym as I vndyrstond Come Freres Menores into thys lond He regnyd Kyng lvi yere And to Westmynstre men hym bere At the head of the foresaid King Henry his sonne Edward surnamed Long-Shanks lieth entombed King of England the first of that Christian name since the Conquest and as he was the first of his name so was he the first that setled the law and state deseruing the stile of Englands Iustinian and freed this kingdome from the wardship of the Peeres shewing himselfe in all his actions after capable to command not the Realme onely but the whole world At the time of his Fathers death he was abroad in Palestine pursuing his high desires for the Holy Warres and after sixe yeares from his first setting out he returnes into England receiues the Crowne without which he had beene a King almost three yeares at the hands of Robert Archbishop of Canterbury and with him is Eleanor his vertuous Queene likewise crowned at Westminster To the which their magnificent pompous Coronations the presence of Alexander King of Scotland who had married Margaret his eldest sister was required as appeares by this Record following Rex dilectis et fidelibus suis Iohanni Louetot et Galfrido de Newbald Custodibus Episcopatus Deunelm Salutem Mandamus vobis quod de primis denarijs prouenientibus de exitibus Episcopatus predicti habere faciatis Alexandro
septimi nec non Thesaurarius Hospitij reuerendissimi Patris domini huius regni Cancellarij titulo Sancte Cecilie trans Tiberim sacro sancte Romane Ecclesie Presbyteri Cardinalis ordinati Qui quidem Willelmus ob 3. Iulij 1518. Here is an Epitaph cut in Brasse vpon a marble stone now almost worne out which was made to the memory of one Robert Haule Esquire murdered in this Church the manner whereof our Chronicles doe thus briefely relate In the battell of Nazers in Spaine this Robert Haule or Hawley and Iohn Schakell Esquires tooke the Earle of Dene prisoner who deliuered vnto them his sonne and heire as a pledge for assurance of performances Not long after this their Hostage was demanded by Iohn Duke of Lancaster in the Kings name whom they denyed to deliuer for which they were clapt in the Tower from whence escaping here they tooke Sanctuary to whom Sir Raph Ferreis and Sir Alan Buxhull with fifty armed men were secretly sent to doe this mischiefe who finding them at high Masse first drew Schakell by a wile out of the priuiledge of the Church then offering to lay hands on Hawley he manfully resisting with his short sword made them all flie off But in the end he was slaine in the Chancell commending himselfe in his last words to God the reuenger of such iniuries and to the liberty of our holy mother the Church With him was slaine a seruant of his thrust into the backe with a Iauelin and a Monke who intreated for him in respect of the holinesse of the place This wicked act was perpetrated the 11. of August 1378. the second of Richard the second These words following now onely remaining vpon his Monument Me dolus ira furor multorum militis atque ................... ..... in hoc gladijs celebri pietatis asylo Dum leuita Dei sermonis legit ad aram Proh dolor ipse meo Monachorum sanguine vultus Aspersi moriens chorus est mihi testis in evum Et me nunc retinet sacer is locus Haule Robertum Hic quia pestiferos male sensi primitus enses .................. Hic iacet Thomas Ruthal Episcopus Dunelmensis Regis Henrici septimi Secretarius qui obijt 1524. To this short Inscription Godwin in his Catalogue addeth a long story of the life and death of this Bishop Who was borne in Cicester saith he in the County of Glocester and brought vp in Cambridge where he proceeded Doctor of Law He was preferred to the Bishopricke of Durham by King Henry the seuenth after whose death hee was made one of the priuie Councell vnto the young King Henry the eight who esteemed greatly of him for his wisedome and learning and imployed him often in ambassages and other businesses of importance Amongst the rest it pleased the king one time to require him to set downe his iudgement in writing concerning the estate of his kingdome in generall and particularly to enforme him in certaine things by him specified This discourse the Bishop writ very carefully and caused it to be bound in Velime gilt and otherwise adorned in the best manner Now you shall vnderstand that it chanced himselfe about the same time to set downe a note of his owne priuate estate which in goods and ready money amounted to the summe of one hundred thousand pounds This account was written in a paper booke of the same fashion and binding that the other was which was prouided for the king Whereby it happened that the king sending Cardinall Wolsey for the other draught which he had so long before required of him the Bishop mistaking deliuered that which contained an estimate of his owne infinite Treasure This the Cardinall soone espying and willing to doe the Bishop a displeasure deliuered it as he had receiued it vnto the King shewing withall how the Bishop had very happily mistaken himselfe for now quoth he you see where you may at any time command a great masse of money if you need it As soone as the Bishop vnderstood his errour the conceit thereof touched him so neare that within a short spaâ—â— after hee died at his house here in the Strand His intention was to haue repaired the Church of Cicester to haue built Bridges as he had begun that ouer the Riuer of Tyne and to haue done many other deeds of charitie if hee had not beene preuented by death Here lieth the body of Sir William Trussell knight and speaker of that Parliament wherein Edward the second king of England resigned his Diadâ—me and all ensignes of Maiestie to Edward his eldest Sonne This Trussell saith an ancient Author was a Iudge who could fit the house with quirks of Law to colour so lawlesse and treasonable an act as the deposing of a lawfull king And thereupon was chosen in the behalfe of the whole Realme to renounce all homage and obedience to the Lord Edward of Carnarvon his Soueraigne Lord and King The forme of which renunciation was by him the said Trussell pronounced at Kenelworth Castle the 20. of Ianuary 1326. in these disgracefull words which you may finde in Polychronicon I William Trussel in the name of al men of the lond of Engelond and of the Parliament Prolocutor resigne to the Edward the homage that was made to the somtym and from this tym forward now folowyng I defye the and priue the of al royal Powyr and shal neuer be tendant to the as for Kyng aftyr this tyme. The time of this Trussels death I cannot learne Here lieth interred before the Communion Table the body of Richard de Ware or Warren Abbot of this Monastery and sometime Lord Treasurer of England Who going to Rome for his consecration brought from thence certaine workmen and rich Porphery stones whereof and by whom hee made that curious singular rare pauement before the high Altar in which are circulary written in letters of brasse these ten verses following containing a discourse as one saith of the worlds continuance Si Lector posita prudenter cuncta reuoluat Hic finem primi mobilis inveniet Sepes trina canes equos homines super addas Ceruos coruos aquilas immania cete Mundi quodque sequens pereuntis triplicat annos Sphericus Archetypum globus hic monstrat Macrocosmum Christi milleno bis centeno duodeno Cum sexageno subductis quatuor anno Tertius Henricus Rex vrbs Odoricus Abbas Hos compegere Porphyreos lapides With these stones and workmen he did also frame the Shrine of Edward the Confessor with these verses Anno milleno Domini cum septuageno Et bis centeno cum completo quasi deno Hoc opus est factum quod Petrus duxit in actum Romanus ciuis Homo causam noscere si vis Rex fuit Henricus Sancti presentis amicus This Abbot died the second day of December 1283. after he had gouerned this Monastery three and twenty yeares and more Vpon whose grauestone this briefe
short But he so long deferred the execution of this intent that he was surprised by death before he could performe it the sixteenth day of Ianuarie 1127. He was Warden of the marches of Wales and gouernour of the County of Salop he sate Bishop twenty yeares in which time beside the building of this Monastery he purchased diuers whole streets and much housing neere to his Cathedrall Church of Saint Pauls All which he pulled downe and leauing the ground vnbuilt for a Cemitery or Churchyard enclosed the same with a wall which for the most part remaineth but at this day so couered with houses as it can hardly be seene The Canons of this house desired his body to be here buried which they entombed vnder a marble Monument with this inscription Hic iacet Richardus Beauueis cognomine Rufus London Episcopus vir probus et grandeuus per totam vitam laboriosus Fundator noster religiosus et qui multa bona nobis et Ministris Ecclesie sue sancti pauli contulit obijt xvi Iaenuarij M. c.xx.vii cuius anime propitietur altissimus Woodham waters In this Church I finde no monument of any great antiquity howsoeuer here was the ancient seate of the Lords Fitz-waters who being nobly descended saith Camden were of a most ancient race deriued from Robert the yonger sonne of Richard sonne to Gislebert of Clare accounted Earle of Hertford but in the age lately foregoing translated by a daughter into the stocke of the Radcliffes the predecessors of the Earles of Sussex Woodham Mortimer Prey for the sowlys of Iron Cokar and Christian his wyf which Ion dyed the viii of Octobre on thowsand fowr hundryd seuenty and eight and the seyd Ion for the helth of his sowl gaue by his Testament and last Will to God and to his Church a yeerely rent of xx pens and iii. schillyngs iiii pens for kepyng his obit in this Chirch to bee takyn out of his croft callyd Windets yerly for euer Maldon In this towne stood the pallace royall of Cunobeline or Kimbaline King of great Britaine a Prince that spent his yonger yeares in the warres vnder Augustus Caesar of whom he receiued the order of Knighthood by whom he was so fauoured that by his alone request the peace of this kingdome was continued without the payment of Romane Tribute who hauing for a long time enioyed peace in the vniuersall peace of the world for in the xiii yeare of his raigne the God of peace our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ was borne of the blessed Virgin He trained vp his people in a more ciuill and peaceable kinde of gouernement then that to which they had beene formerly accustomed and departed this world in peace within this his Citie of Maldon then the chamber of his kingdome in the one and twentieth yeare of our redemption when he had raigned thirty and fiue yeares of whom thus writeth my Author Io Harding ca. xlv Kymbaline so was his sonne and heyre Noryshed at Rome instruct with Cheualre That knyght was made wyth honor greate and â—ayer By Octauian reigning then enterly Emperor then of Romes great Monarchy In whose time was both peace and all concord Through all the worlde and borne was Christ our Lorde He was buried in this his chiefe citie some say at London Hic iacet Henricus Coggeshale filius et heres Thome Coggeshale filij Thome Coggeshale Armigeri qui obijt 9. Ian. 1427. cuius Quisquis eris quitransieris sta perlege plora Sum quod eris fueramque quod es pro me precor ora Orate pro anima Thome Darcy Ar. corporis Regum Edwardi quarti et Henrici sexti et nuper vnius Iusticiar ad pacem in com Essex ac filij et heredis Roberti Darcy militis nec non pro anima Margarete consortis sue vnius filiarum et heredis Iohannis Harleton in com Suffolk Ar. qui quidem Tho. obijt 25. Mens Septemb. 1485. Hic iacet Rogerus Darcy Ar. filius et heres Tho. Darcy Ar. pro corpore illustrissimi Principis Henrici septimi Regis Anglie et Elizabetha vxor eius filia Henrici Wentworth militis qui obijt vltimo die Septemb. 1508. Diuers other faire monuments but shamefully defaced are here erected to the memory of the Darcies a numerous familie and for antiquity and noblenesse of birth of great respect in many places of this kingdome Sir Robert Darcy Knight remembred in the former inscription by his last will and testament bequeathed his body to be buried in this Church the substance whereof I haue read in an old Manuscript as followeth Robert Darcy Knight made his Testament the 5 of October Anno Domini 1469. his body he willed to be buried in all Hallowes Church of Maldon before the Altar in the Isle where his father lieth in a Tombe of marble Also he willed l markes to be disposed for two thousand masses for him to be said within sixe weekes next after his deceyse iiii d. for euery masse and that they be charged for to prey for his soule his wifs soul his fathers and his mothers and for all his sisters soules and for all their husbands soules and for all the soules that he is bound to prey for Of which said l. markes hee willed to haue somewhat euery Prist that dwelled in Penbroke hall in Cambridge Also he willed that euery Fryer that was a Prist in Colchester haue xx d. and euery little Fryer vi d. to say three dirgees considering that he was a brother of that Order And the house of Chennesford xl s. the house of Clare xx s. and each yong Frier vi d. considering that hee was a brother of their Order And he made his Executors Elizabeth his wife Io. Clopton Esquire Nicolas Saxton and Richard Astley Clerkes And the superuisors of this his Testament my Lord of Essex my Lord Dinham Thomas Mountgomery and Thomas Tirrill Knights lowly beseeching the said Lord of Essex the Lord Dinham Sir Thomas Mountgomery and Sir Thomas Tirrill to helpe his sonne Thomas and all his children Also hee willed that my Lord of Essex and the Lord Dinham should each of them haue a But of Malmesey and that Sir Thomas Mountgomery and Sir Thomas Tirrill should each of them haue a pipe of red wine Also he willed that his brother Iohn Clopton one of his Executors should haue for his labour xx.l. Also he willed mistresse Anne Darcy his brothers wife to haue xx markes Yeuen at Danbury the day and yeare aboue said This his will was proued quarto diâ— mensis Maij coram reuerendo in Christo Patre Domino Thoma Episcopo London infra manerium suum de Wekeham Anno Domini 1470. One King a Butcher with his two wiues Alice and Anne lie here interred vnder a goodly marble richly inlayd with brasse his Axe for his Armes with this Epitaph who died 1415 Subiacet hic pictus diues durus
reuenues Richard Cordelion his sonne confirmes the gift and exchange of the Canons made by his father by his Charter to be read in the Tower in these words Richardus Dei gratia c. Inde est quod sicut Pater noster mutationem Canonicorum secularium institutionem Canonicorum regularium fecit in Ecclesia de Waltham eis quasdam non as possessiones et veteres concessit confirmauit Sic nos laudabiliter virorum commutationem in prefata Ecclesia factam nostra autem approbamus Et pro salute predicti Patris nostri et Matris nostre et Fratrum nostrorum et pro salute omnium fidelium constitutionem Canonicorum Regularium in eadem Ecclesia factam donationes possessiones nouas que a Patre nostro eis facte sunt presenti carta nostra confirmamus Dat. c. Henry the third encreased much their reuenues with Faires and Markets a Faire here for seuen dayes and at Epping a Market euery Monday and a Faire for three dayes So by the munificence of these Kings their Successours and Subiects this Abbey at the generall suruey and surrender was valued at Robin Hoods pennieworths to dispend yearely 900. pounds foure shillings and foure pence The Catalogue of religious houses saith 1079. l. 12. s. and a pennie The Church of this Monastery hath escaped the hammers of destruction and with a venerable aspect sheweth vnto vs the magnitude of the rest of this religious Structure Herein Harold made his vowes and prayers for victorie when hee marched against the Norman Conquerour In which battell by the shot of an arrow through the left eye into his braines he was slaine the 14. of October being Saturday 1066. hauing raigned nine moneths and odde dayes whose body by the mediation of his mother Githa and two religious men of this Abbey being obtained of the Conquerour howsoeuer at the first by him denyed affirming that buriall was not fit for him whose ambition had beene the cause of so many funeralls was conueyed with great lamentation by his said mother Githa and a small deiected remainder of the English Nobilitie to this his owne Church and herein solemnly interred vpon whose Monument this Epitaph was engrauen Heu cadis hosle sero Rex a Duce Rege sutaro Par paris gladio milite valido Firmini iusti lux est tibi luce Calixti Pronior hinc superas hinc superatus eras Ergo tibi requiem deposcat vtrumque perennem Sicque precetur eum quod colit omne Deum A fierce foe thee slew thou a King he king in view Both Peeres both Peerelesse both fear'd and both fearlesse That sad day was mixt by Firmin and Calixt Th' one helpt thee to vanquish t'other made thee languish Both now for thee pray and thy Requiem say So let good men all to God for the call Girth and Leofwin his two brethren lost their liues likewise vnder Harolds Banner which was brondet saith Robert of Glocester with sygur of a man fyghtyng biset al about wyth gold and preciosse stons which Baner aftur the Bataile Duc William sent to the Pope in tokne of the victory Whose bodyes were in like manner brought to this Church and here entombed It is said that Girthe not holding it best to hazard the Kindome of England at one cast signified to the King that the successe of warre was doubtfull that victory was rather swayed by fortune then by valour that aduised delay was most important in martiall affaires and if so bee brother said hee you haue plighted your faith to the Duke retire your selfe for no force can serue against a mans owne conscience God will reuenge the violation of an oath you may reserue your selfe to giue them a new encounter which will be more to their terrour As for me if you will commit the charge to me I will performe both the part of a kinde brother and a couragious Leader For being cleare in conscience I shall sell my life or discomfit your enemy with more felicitie But the King not liking his speech answered I will neuer turne my back with dishonour to the Norman neither can I in any sort digest the reproach of a base minde well then be it so said some discontented of the company let him beare the brunt that hath giuen the occasion This Harold is much commended for his courteous affabilitie gentle deportment Iustice and warlike prowesse in nothing blame worthy saue that in the opinion of his owne valour he addicted himselfe wholly to his owne resolutions neglecting the wise deliberations of his best friends and Councellors And that his courage could neuer stoope to be lower then a King For which he is taxed to be an impious man falsely aspiring to the Crowne by vsurpation Of which my old Author with whom I will conclude hath these rimes Harold the falls Erle tho Sent Edward ded ley Hym selue let corone King thulk self dey Falsliche Richard the first king of England for his matchlesse valour surnamed Cordelion or Lions-heart is by some of our old English writers said to haue slaine a Lion and by the pulling out of his heart to haue gained that attribute or denomination the truth is that Hugh Nevill a gentleman of noble linage one of King Richards speciall familiars is recorded to haue slaine a Lion in the holy Land driuing first an arrow into his breast and then running him thorow with his sword whereupon this Hexameter was made Viribus Hugonis vires periere Leonis The strength of Hugh a Lion slue Which atchiuement belike was transferred from the man to the master and the story applied to the by-name of K. Richard This Hugh was high Iustice Gardian or Prothoforester of England He died about the sixt of King Henry the third being full of yeeres corpus eius saith Paris in Ecclesia de Waltam nobili Sarchophago marmoreo et in sculpto traditur sepulturae and his body was buried in this Church of Waltham vnder a noble engrauen marble Sepulchre Iohn Nevill his sonne non ultimus inter Angliae nobiles patris sui pedetentim sequens vestigia and the sonne and heire as well of his vertues as reuenues and offices being accused by one Robert Passelew a man of eminent authoritie vnder King Henry the third of diuers transgressions or omissions in the Forrest Lawes committed by him by his conniuencie or sufferance in this Forrest of Waltham and other the Kings Forrests Parks and Chaces was adiudged to pay a Fine of two thousand markes and ignominiouslie to be cast out of his offices which he tooke so to heart that not long after languishing away with sorrow he breathed out his afflicted spirit in Iuly 1245. at his Mannor of Whelperfield from whence he was conueyed to this Abbey and here honourably entombed by his father I finde in Registro Cartarum Abbatie de Waltam that these two Nevils were great benefactors to
endowed the Colledge of these Feciales or Heralds with the seuenth part of this his sacred constitution Their Colledge at Rome was composed of twenty Heraulds chosen out of ancient and eminent families the chiefe whereof for excellence was called Pater Patratus because by being chiefe of that companie he ought to haue children and his owne Father yet liuing Their chiefe office was To take care that the Romanes did not commence and make vniust warre against any confederate Citie and that if any such a city had committed any thing against the conditions of the confederacie truce and entercourse then they were to go as Embassadours first to challenge their right in milde words which if denyed then to proclaime warre Neque iustum aliquod bellum fore censebatur nisi id per Feciales esset indictum Neither was any warre thought to be iust and lawfull but that which was denounced by these Feciales or Heralds In France saith Andrew Favine Heralds haue euer beene in high esteeme and not onely the King of Armes Mont-ioy S. Denis but also the other Heralds and Pursuiuants were of noble extraction and Mont-ioy could not be admitted without making proofe of his Noblenesse by three races as well of his Fathers stocke as by his mothers side There was two thousand pounds of rents in Lands and free tenure allowed for the said Mont-ioy particularly and a thousand pounds of annuall pension besides other rights As for the other Heralds they haue a thousand pounds in pension with other rights and priuiledges Now for such rights and priuiledges as were granted to kings of Armes and Heralds some doe ascribe them to the King and Emperour Charlemaigne others to Alexander the Great of Macedon and others to the Emperour of Germany Charles king of Bohemia fourth of that name nourished from his youth in the Court of the Father of Cheualrie Philip de Valoys king of France sixth and last of that name as here followeth the tenure in these words The Priuiledges granted to Kings and Heralds of Armes translated out of the French in the Theater of Honour My Souldiers you are and shall bee called Heralds Companions for kings and Iudges of crimes committed by Noblemen and arbitratours of their quarrels and differences You must liue hereafter exempted from going any more to warre or militarie factions Councell kings for the best the benefit of the weale publique and for their Honour and Royall dignitie Correct all matters vile and dishonest fauour widowes succour orphanes and defend them from all violence Assist with your counsell such Princes and Lords in whose Courts you shall abide and freely and without feare demand of them whatsoeuer is needfull for you as food rayment and defrayings If any one of them shall deny you let him bee infamous without glory or honour and reputed as criminall of high treason In like manner also haue you an especiall care to keepe your selues from vilifying your noble exercise and the Honour wherewith you ought to come neare vs at all times See there be no entrance into Princes Courts either of drunkennesse ill speaking flattery babling indiscreetly ianglery buffonnerie and such other vices which soyle and shame the reputation of men Giue good example euery where maintaine equitie and repaire the wrongs done by great men to their inferiours Remember what priuiledges we haue granted you in recompence of the painfull trauells in warre which you endured with vs. And let not the Honours which we haue bestowed on you bee conuerted to blame and infamie by dishonest liuing the punishment whereof we reserue to our selfe and to the Kings of France our Successours Seuen Danish Kings besides some of Norway and Sweden haue had for their proper appellation the name of Herald or Harold which is all one with Heralt saith Verstegan So honourable was it accounted of in old time that so many Kings thereby were called in regard as it appeareth that themselues might be honoured and respected as the most couragious of the armie Heralds saith Stow out of an old History written aboue sixe hundred yeares since which he found in the Reuestrie or Treasurie of Saint Pauls Church be they which our Elders were wont to call Heroes that is to say those which were greater or surpassing all men in Maiestie and yet inferiour to the Gods For whom the people of antiquitie did perceiue to be notable and surmounting all others in his acts and feates renowned in vertues and friendly or gracious vnto them him would they magnifie and exalt in the highest degree and as it were with their good words make him cosin to Iove the omnipotent Placing such amongst the Gods if it so were that they had wrought some miraculous feate aboue the common course of Nature But if there were no such miraculous or wonderfull deeds but that through their vertues they seemed wonderfull and honourable then thought they to call such persons not altogether Gods nor yet simplie men but inuented out a meane word and name for them calling them Heroes as it were halfe-gods and of this word Heroes or Heros groweth by corruption of vse this name Herald In the same place he proues that Heralds here in England were as ancient as the dayes of Brute who flourished aboue eleuen hundred yeares before the birth of Christ who bare saith hee Gules two Lions rampant endorsed Or according to this peece out of Hardings Chronicle He bare of Goulis twoo liones of golde Countre Rampant with golde only crouned Which kings of Troy in bataill barefull bold Neither can it be iustly said for all this that Heralds were not knowne nor in request in this kingdome but since the time of Brute For euen from the instant that the descendants of Adam were distinguished into Nobles and Yeomen there haue beene combats battells and encounters and consequently Heralds deriued from the body of Nobilitie Now at the length let me turne backe to the foresaid defunct Sir Iohn Wriothesley to whom and to the rest of the Kings Heralds and Pursuiuants of Armes king Richard the third in the first yeare of his raigne granted and gaue by his letters Patents all that messuage with the appurtenances called Cold-Harber in the Parish of All Saints the little in London freeing them à Subsidijs theolonijs omnibus Reipub. muneribus Dated at Westminster the second of March without fine or fee. How the said Heralds departed therewith saith Stow I haue not read but in the raigne of Henry the eight the Bishop of Durhams house neare Charing Crosse being taken into the Kings hand Cuthbert Tunstall Bishop of Durham was lodged in this Cold-Harber But in my iudgement I still digresse or at leastwise driue off my Reader ouer long from the knowledge of the time of this mans death which I cannot set downe neither certainly yet I gather by circumstances that it should be about the latter end of the raigne of king Hen. the seuenth Here lyeth buried by her
sent for soone after by Laurence it happened the same yeare that the same Laurence died and hee was appointed to succeed him where he sate about fiue yeares euen vntill the day of his exspiration Of which an old Anonimall Manuscript thus To whome Melite than playnly gan succede That fyve yere so rulyd the Chirche in ryght And than this erthe forsoke for heuens mede And went to blyss wher God wolde of his myght The yere of Crystes nativite by ryght Six hundryd full twenty and fowre accountyd Whan erthe hys corps had hyd and surmowntyd Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome writ to Mellitus concerning the purifying but not the pulling downe of Idolatrous Churches within these kingdomes An Epistle well worthy the obseruation which I haue read in Gotcelinus the Monke who writes of the life and actions of Saint Austin of other Bishops of the See of Canterbury as also of diuers Saints in those primitiue times and dedicates his workes to Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury Such was the letter of Gregory as followeth Dilectissimo silio Mellito Abbati Gregorius servus seruorum Dei Post discessionem Congregationis nostre que tecum est valde sumus suspensi redditi quia nichil de prosperitate vestri itineris audisse nos contigit Cum ergo Deus omnipotens vos ad reuerendissimum fratrem nostrum Augustinum Episcopum perduxerit dicite ei quid diu mecum de causa Anglorum cogitans tractaui videlicet quia Fana Idolorum destrui in eadem gente minime debeant sed ipsa que in eis sunt Idola destruantur Aqua benedicta in eisdem Fanis aspergatur Altaria construantur Reliquie componantur quia si Fana eadem bene constructa sunt necesse est vt a cultu Demonum in obsequium veri Dei debeant commutari vt dum gens ipsa eadem Fana sua novidet destrui de corde errorenâ— deponat Dominum verum cognoscens et adorans ad loca que consuevit familiarius concurrat Et quia Boues solent in sacrificio Demonum multos occidere debet eis eciam de re hac aliqua solemnitas iramutari vt die dedicationis vel natalicijs sanctorum Martyrum quorum illic reliquie ponuntur tabernacula sibi circa easdem Ecclesias que ex Fanis commutate sunt de ramis arborum faciant religiosis conuiuijs solemnitatem celebrent Nec animalia immolent sed ad laudem Dei in vsum suum animalia occidant et Donatori omnium de sacietate sua gracias referent vt dum eis aliqua externis gaudia res exuantur ad interiora gaudia consentire facilius valeant Nam duris mentibus simul omnia abscidere impossibile esse non dubiam est quia et is qui summum locum ascendere nititur gradibus vel passibus non autem saltibus eleuatur Sic Israheletico populo in Egypto Dominus siquidem innotuit sed tamen eis sacrificiorum vsum quem Diabolo solebat exibere in cultu proprio reseruauit vt eis in suo sacrificio animalia immolare preciperet quatinus cor mutantes aliud de sacrificio ammitterent aliud retinerens Vt et si ipsa essent â—nimalia que offerre consueuerant vero tamen Deo hec et non ydolis immolantes iam sacrificia ipsa non essent Hec igitur dilectionem tuam predicto Fratri necesse est dicere vt ipse in presenti iâ—â—ic positus perpendat qualiter omnia debeat dispensare Deus te incolumem custodiat dilectissime fili Data die quinto decimo Kalendarum Augustarum imperante nostro Mauritio Tyberio pijssimo Augusto anno nono decimo post Consulatus eiusdem Domini anno octauo decimo Indictione quarta Hereby we may see the pious aduise and great pollicie of this learned Father of the Church for the conuerting of the misbeleeuing Pagans or heathen people of this kingdome from Idolatrie to the true worship of the euerliuing God My forenamed Author Gotceline in the 53. Chapter of his first Booke tells me that the names of the prime pillars of the English Church and the especiall propagators of the Gospell in these times were engrauen vpon the Tarpeyan Rocke at Rome of which number this my Mellitus is one of the principall As appeares by these Latine Rimes following sometime likewise engrauen or cut in the foresaid Rocke vnder each seuerall name to their further glory Dux Augustinus precellit in ordine primus Lauâ—iger mundus Laurenti sede secundus Tertius est gratus Mellitus melligeratus Quartus adest Iustus dulces dans nomine gustus Quintus Honorius Eccle vigor extat honorque Deus dedit est sextus cui dat sua munera Christus Theodorus iuxta fert sabbata septimus alma His septem ducibus viget Anglia totque diebus Additur octauus Monachorum Dux Adrianus Anglorum stella Mildretha refert sua mella Octo Patres Rome reliqui comitantur honore Ex Anglis nati meritis horum sociati Hinc manat diuis Euangelii via riuis Hi sunt Brithpaldus Tatynnus vosque Nothelme Et Iamberte patres primos proceres imitantes Tot simul Ecclesie cingunt frontem pictate It is written of Mellitus that when vpon a certaine time the Citie of Canterbury was by negligence set on fire and began to waste and consume away by much increasing of the flames so that no helpe of man nor casting of water thereon was able to quench or stay the same the greatest part of the citie being at length almost burnt and the furious flashes extending themselues euen vnto the Bishops place this good Bishop seeing mans helpe now to faile and trusting onely in the aide and succour of almighty God commanded that he might be carried out of his house and set against these fierce flames of fire piercing and flying all round about Now where the greatest rage of this burning was there was the place of Martyrdome of the foure holy crowned Saints Whan then the Bishop by his seruants was brought forth and set in this place here he began with prayer sicke as he was for he was often troubled with infirmities of body and much grieued with the Gowte notwithstanding euer whole and sound of minde to driue away the perill of the fire which the stout strength of strong men with much labour could not before bring to passe And behold the winde that blew from the South whereby this fire was first kindled and blasted abroad now suddenly bent against the South first tempered his blasts for feare of hurting the places right ouer in the other side and after quite quenching the flames ceasing and extinguishing the fire made all calme and well againe And truly this good man of God which did feruently alway burne with the fire of inward charity and was wont with his often prayers and holy exhortations to driue from himselfe and all his the danger of ghostly temptations and trouble by spirits of the aire might now
he that is sufficiently mine Of two I haue the one is common to all my race yea and also to others There is a family at Paris and another at Montpellier called Montaigne another in Brittany and one in Zantoigne surnamed de la Montaigne The remouing of one only sillable may so confound our webbe as I shall haue a share in their glory and they perhaps a part of my shame And my Ancestors haue heretofore beene surnamed Heigham or Hyquem a surname which also belongs to a house well knowne in England Here is another Tombe on the South side of the Chancell vpon which is the pourtraiture of Sir VVilliam Butts in his complete armour kneeling his sword by his side his spurres his helmet at his feet His Lady by him kneeling hauing her coat-armour Here are the coats of Butts and Bacon quartered vpon the Tombe Arwerton saith Camden in Suffolke the house long since of the Family of the Bacoâ—s who held this Mannor and Brome by conducting all the footmen of Suffolke and Norfolke from S. Edmunds-dike in the warres of Wales These Bacons haue at this day their residence at Culfurth in Suffolke a goodly house erected by Sir Nicholas Bacon knight the first Baronet sonne vnto that Sir Nicholas Bacon Knight Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England who for his singular wisedome and most sound iudgement was right worthily esteemed one of the two supporters of this kingdome in his time Who lieth entombed in S. Pauls with his two wiues Who died An. 1578. You may reade this Inscription vpon the said Monument Hic Nicolaum ne Baconem conditum Existima illum tam diu Britannici Regni secundum columen exitium Malis Bonis Asylum caeca quem non extulit Ad hunc honorem sors sed aequitas fides Doctrina pietas vnica prudentia Neu morte raptum crede quia vnica breui Vita perennes emerit duas agit Vitam secundam caelites inter animus Fama implet orbem vita quae illi tertia est Hac positum in Ara est corpus olim animi domus Ara dicata sempiternae Memoriae No lesse worthie of praise for his many excellent good parts was his sonne who followed the fathers steps I meane Sir Francis Bacon knight Lord Verulam Viscount Saint Alban and Lord Chancellour of England lately deceased Snoring Here vnder a faire Tombe lieth the daughter of Sir Iohn Heydon who married one of the Heninghams These Heydons are an ancient race of Knights degree Orate pro animabus Radulphi Shelton militis Domine Alicie vxoris eius filie Thome de Vnedal Militis qui quidem Radulphus obiit xxv die Aprilis Anno M. ccccxxiiii Blackney A famous religious house of Carmelite Friers in this late age aforegoing built and endowed by Sir Robert de Roos or Rosse Sir Robert Bacon and Sir Iohn Bret Knights about the yeare 1321. out of which came Iohn Baconthorpe of whom I haue spoken somewhat before And now here giue me leaue to speake a little more which I had omitted our of Camden A man saith he in that age of such varietie and depth withall of excellent learning that he was had in exceeding great admiration among the Italians and commonly called the Resolute Doctor Whence it is that Paulus Pansa thus writeth of him If thy minde stand to enter into the secret power of the Almighty and most mercifull God no man hath written of his Essence more exactly If any man desireth to learne the causes of things or the effects of Nature if he wish to know the sundrie motions of heauen and the contrary qualities of the Elements this man offereth himselfe as a storehouse to furnish him The armour of Christian Religion of better proofe and defence then those of Vulcans making against the Iewes this resolute Doctor alone hath deliuered Sculthorpe Orate pro anima Henrici Vnton qui obijt Anno Millesimo cccxx Statton Saint Michaels Orate pro anima Iohannis Cowal quondam Rectoris istius Ecclesie quiistam Cancellam de nouo fieri fecit Anno Domini M. cccclxxxvii pro quibus tenetur orare .... Stratton Saint Mary Orate pro animabus Iohannis Bocher Margarete vxoris eius quorum animabus propitietur Deus Amen Orate pro anima Thome Drake qui obijt Anno Domini 1490. Orate pro animabus Iohannis Waith Margerie vxoris eius qui Iohannes obijt xviii die mensis Februar Anno Domini M. cccclxxxx Quorum animabus propitietur Deus Amen Bunwell Of your charity pray for the soul of Iohn Darosse and Margaret his wyffe on whos souls Ihesu haue mercy Amen Tybenham Orate pro anima Iohannis Avelyn quondam vicarij istius Ecclesie qui obijt xxviii die Decembris anno M. cccccvii Cuius ..... Orate pro anima Iacobi Glouer quondam Vicarii istius Ecclesie Cuius anime propitietur Deus Amen Orate pro animabus Roberti Buxton Cristiane Agnetis vxorum eius qui quidem Robertus obiit anno Domini M. cccccxxviii Quorum animabus propitietur altissimus Here lieth likewise vnder a faire Grauestone Iohn Buxton sonne and heire of Robert aforesaid who married Margaret Warner by whom he had issue two sonnes and two daughters Annos spirauit octoginta quatuor euen to our times Of whom more hereafter North Walsham Orate pro anima Willelmi Roys qui obiit x. die Kalend. Martii M. cccc Ashwelthorp Hic iacet Isabella que fuit vxor Philippi Tylney Armigeri vna filiarum heredum Edmundi Thorp Militis Domine Iohanne quondam Domine de Scales consortis sue que obiit decimo die mensis Nouembris anno Domini M. ccccxxxvi Cuius anime propitietur Deus Amen Iane Knyvet resteth here the only heire by right Of the Lord Berners that Sir Iohn Bourcher hight Twenty yeres and thre a wydoos life she ledd Alwayes keping howse where rich and pore were fedd Gentell iust quyet voyd of debate and stryfe Euer doying good Lo thus she ledd her life Euen to the Graue where Erth on Erth doth ly On whos soul God graunt of his abundant mercy The xvii of February M.D.lxi. Spikesworth or Spixford Orate pro animabus Iohannis Styward et Margarete vxoris eius Orate pro anima Georgii Linsted qui obiit in festo Assumptionis beate Marie anno Domini M.D.xvii Orate pro anima Willelmi Davy quondam Ciuis Norwic. Vinter et huins Ecclesie spiritualis benefactor Orate pro anima Margarete Thorne nuper vxoris Thome Thorne que obiit tertio die Septembris 1544. South-acre In the Chancell vnder the South wall lieth entombed Sir Roger Harsicke Knight the sonne and heire of Iohn who liued in the eight yeare of King Henry the fifth and in the twenty ninth of Henry the sixth in whom the issue male ended leauing his inheritance to his two daughters Sir Alexander Harsick
it into nine parts according to the nine Orders of the Angels of one part thereof which was most besprinckled with Christs bloud his hands and feete being thereto nailed she made a little crosse which she inclosed in a boxe of gold beset with precious stones and gaue it to her sonne Constantine the Emperour which went successiuely from one Emperour to another vntill it came to Baldwin who kept a Chaplaine to say daily masse before this sacred Relique the said Chaplaine being dead one Hugh a Priest borne here in Norfolke was preferred to his place Baldwin so long as he carried this Crosse with him to battaile had euer the vpper hand of his enemies but forgetting it hee was forthwith slaine vpon which his Chaplaine Hugh stole secretly away with the said Boxe and Crosse came to this Monastery of Bromholme and bestowed them both here vpon the Monkes for which so inestimable a gift he with his two sonnes which he had by his wife before he entred into holy orders were kept of the Monkes with all things necessary vntill the death of Hugh the father and the preferment of both his sonnes By the vertue of this holy Crosse Cooperante Domino God assisting thirty and nine persons were raised from death to life and ninteene which were blinde receiued their sight besides many other miracles which it wrought if you will beleeue my Author Hic apparuit multa superstitio circa crucem quae vocatur the holy Crosse of Bromholme et dicunt illic se habere Zonam beate marie et lac eiusdem et fragmenta crucis sancti petri et sancte Andree saith a booke in the treasury of the Exchequer of the visitation of Abbeys Here appeareth great superstition about a Crosse which is called the Holy Crosse of Bromholme and here they say they haue the girdle and milke of the blessed Virgin and a fragment of the Crosse of Saint Peter and of Saint Andrew I finde that the Founder G. Glanuill was here buried A name as you may reade in that which I haue already written of great account for many ages in diuers parts of this kingdome There be of the later writer saith Camden speaking of the Earles of Suffolke who report that the Glanuils in times past were honoured with this title But seeing they ground vpon no certaine authoritie where as men may easily mistake and I haue found nothing of them in the publike records of the kingdome they must pardon me if I beleeue them not vntill they produce more certainty yet the meane while I confesse that the Familie of the Glanuils in this tract was of right good note and high reputation Antingham Vnder a faire marble lie buried Richard Calthorpe Esquire and Anne his wife daughter of Edmund Hastings by whom he had issue xix sonnes and daughters as appeares in that which remaines of the brasse Here lieth Iohn Cudden the sonne of George Cudden Esquire who maried Anne Berney Here lieth Rafe Berney who married Sir William Fromers sister This is a name of exemplarie note and Baronets degree in this tract Ringland On a flat Grauestone in the said Church is this Inscription Hic iacet Robertus Neue filius et heres Iohannis tertio geniti Roberti le Neue de Tytetishal generosi qui quidem Robertus le Neue obijt anno Domini M. ccccc.lviii Beston A faire Tombe whereon is engrauen in brasse the names of Iohn Deynes and Katherine his wife and these two words Respice Respice Here was a Priory of Nuns yerely worth seuenty sixe pounds three shillings nine pence halfe penny Kinningall Here lieth Iohn Shildgate Prior sometime of Windam who built the Chancell of this Church as appeares by his Tombe Here is a faire Tombe for George Lord Awdley and his wife the daughter of the E. of Bath as I haue it out of master Howldiche his collection Orate pro anima Rogery Dennys Seneschalli castal ... Walsingham One Richold a Widdow dwelling in the Towne of Walsingsame was the first founder of the Chappell there in the yeare of our Lord God 1061. which she dedicated to our blessed Lady and founded the same in all points like to the Chappell of our Lady at Nazareth in that place where she was saluted by the Angell Gabriel It was made a Priory of blacke Canons by Edmond Earle of March and Elisabeth de Burgo in the raigne of Edward the Third and valued at the suppression thereof which happened the fourth of August in the thirtieth yeare of the raign of K. Henry the Eight after the rate of those times to haue of yearely reuenues foure hundred forty sixe pounds fourteene shillings foure pence halfe penny qua This village was much renowned throughout all England for a Pilgrimage to our Lady the Virgin Mary whom he who had not in that former age visited and presented with offerings was reputed irreligious But this shall Erasmus an eye witnesse describe in his owne very words Not farre from the Sea saith he about foure miles there standeth a Town liuing almost of nothing else but vpon the resort of Pilgrimes There is a Colledge of Canons yet such as vnto whom the Latinists haue giuen the addition of Regulares a middle kinde betwixt Monkes and those Canons whom they terme Secular This Colledge hath scarse any other reuenues than from the liberality of the said Virgin For certaine of the greater Presents and Oblations are laid vp and preserued But if there be any money offered or ought else of small value that goeth vnto maintenance of the Couent and their Head or President whom they call Prior. The Church is faire and neat yet in it the Virgin dwelleth not that honour forsooth shee hath done vnto her Sonne she hath her Church by her selfe but so as that she may be on the right hand of her Sonne Neither doth she dwell here for all this for why the building is not yet finished and the place hath a through light and ayre on all sides with open dores and wide open windowes the Ocean Sea withall the father and foster of all winds is hard by In that Church which I said was vnfinished there is a small Chappell but all of wood whereunto on either side at a narrow and little dore are such admitted as come with their deuotions and offerings Small light there is in it and none other in manner but by Tapers or waxe Candles yeelding a most deynty and pleasant smell Nay if you looke into it you would say it were the habitation of heauenly Saints indeed so bright shining it is all ouer with precious stones with gold and siluer But within the memory of our fathers saith Camden in the same place when King Henry the eight had set his minde and eye both vpon the riches and possessions of Churches all this vanished quite away Rising Castle So denominated of a Castle sometime there standing the seat anciently of the Albineys
and made their nest here at Newenden which was at that time a wooddy and solitarie place and therefore in common opinion the more fit for religious persons to inhabite they were called Carmelites of a hill in Siria named Carmelus where at the first a sort of them liued solitarily vntill by Iohn Patriarch of Ierusalem they were drawne into companies Now to giue these sanctimonious white Brethren such meere strangers the better entertainment one Sir Thomas Albuger knight about the yeare 1241. built for them here a faire house calling it the Friery which he caused to bee hallowed to the honour of the Virgin Mary for that by Honorius Quartus the Pope they were appointed to a rule and order by the name of the Brothers of Mary which title liked themselues so well that they procured of Pope Vrban the sixth three yeares pardon for all such as would so call them But certaine merry fellows saith mine Author seeing their vanity and knowing how little they were of kinne to Mary the blessed Virgine called them the Brothers of Mary Aegiptiaca the harlot Whereat the Pope was so offended that hee plainly pronounced them Heretickes for their labour He that was the Prouost or principall of this Fraternitie was called the Prior of the house One of which namely William Starnefeld writ a Treatise of the originall or beginning of this Order What the value of this Priorie was at the suppression I cannot learned Combewell In this village was a Monastery of blacke Canons dedicated to S. Mary Magdelene and valued to be worth 80. l. 17. s. 5. d. Romden One of the great family of the Guilfords here in this Church founded a Chappell Anno 1444. Ossham Hic â—acet Iohannes Elys Armiger qui obijt 18. die mensis Septemb. An. 1467. cuius anime propitietur Deus Amen Hic iacet Dominus Nich. de Sandwich qui quondam fuit Rector istius Ecclesie de Ossham .... ob ... 1370. This man was Lord of the Mannor and a younger sonne of the family of Sandwiches of Sandwich Kennington Orate pro animabus Willelmi Brent Ar. Elisabethe vxoris eius filie Rise Madris Orate pro anima Willelmi Walkesley militis Willisborough In the East window of the South Isle of this Church you may finde by an inscription that one Tho. Elys Esquire and Thomazin his wife were here buried And also one William Barre the sonne of George Barre or Barry of Mote in Seuington Parish who dyed Ann. 1463. An ancient familie euer since the raigne of king Richard the first in whose time as also in the raignes of King Iohn and Henry the third Sir Iohn Barre knight flourished in great reputation here in this County Bradgare Here was a Colledge founded by Robert de Bradgare Tho. Iocelin Clerk and Robert de Vise Narden Vpon the Tombe of Lady Elisabeth Nevill here interred wife to Sir Thomas Nevill and daughter to the Lord Dakers and Dame Anne Graistocke this old rime is engrauen O Lord my Sauiour and hevenly Maker Haue mercy on Elisabeth Graistock and Daker In what kings dayes this Lady might flourish I haue not made much search the character of the Inscription seemes to be ancient and so are the families of the Nevils Dacres and Greystocks as also of signall note and exemplarie noblenesse in many parts of this kingdome with the two first Surnames I do often meet Thus much here then of Greystocke out of Camden as followeth By Peterill beside Petrianae saith hee standeth Greystock a Castle belonging not long since to an honourable house which deriued their first descent from one Ranulph Fitz-walter of which line William called de Greystock wedded Mary a daughter and one of the coheires of Sir Merley Lord of Morpath and hee had a sonne named Iohn who being childlesse by licence of king Edward the first conueyed his inheritance to Raph Granthorpe the sonne of William and his Aunts sonne by the fathers side whose male progenie flourished a long time in honour with the title of Lord Greistock but about king Henry the seuenth his dayes expired and came to an end and so the inheritance came by marriage vnto the Barons of Dacree and the female heires generall of the last Baron Dacre were married vnto Philip Earle of Arundell and Lord William Howard sonnes of Thomas Howard late Duke of Norfolke Pluckley anciently written Plokele This Towneship or Parish was by Archbishop Lanfrancke in the time of William the Conquerour giuen vnto one Iohn de Cobham whose posterity assuming a Surname from the place did flourish here by the space of two hundred yeares vntill the daughters of Sir William of Pluckley knight became the coheires of this Mannor Amongst whom shee that onely is knowne to haue had issue was married vnto Iohn de Surenden alias Sarenden who vpon the old seate new founded the Mannor house a faire one at this day and by the antiquitie thereof seemes to haue beene the like or much fairer at her first building which stands vpon the very forehead of that hill which from this place doth reach Westward into Surrey A situation so elegant that it compares with most that are in rich pastures healthfull aire and plenty both of fewell and timber but aboue all in a very delicate and various prospect From the owner it then receiued and still retaines the name of Surenden although from that family it did immediatly by a daughter passe to the Noble and spreading house of Haute whose first childe being daughter and coheire Christian was married vnto Iohn Dering sonne of Richard sonne of Sir Iohn Dering of Westbroke knight In the possession of which family the name of Surenden hath by continuance gotten its Masters Surname to distinguish it from another of the same appellation within two miles and so is knowne by the name of Surenden Dering And through many descents hauing beene at no time bought nor sold the gift of Lanfranke now resteth in person of Sir Edward Dering knight and Baronet Lieutenant of his Maiesties Castle of Douer and of his Cinque ports the third of that name and family of Dering which haue enioyed this Office being a place of especiall trust of honour and command In this Church dedicated to S. Nicholas and in our Ladies Chappell there now belonging to Sir Antony Dering of Surenden Dering knight and founded by Richard Dering Esquire in the raigne of king Henry the sixth as appeares by his Armes carued on the bottome of the Arches which are Or a Salter sables and Dering and Haute quartered Or a Salter sables and Or a crosse engraled gules thereon a cressant Argent are seuerall graue-stones very fairely figured with pourtraitures in armour to the length first one for Iohn Dering of Surenden Esquire who liued in the dayes of King Richard the second Henry the fourth and Henry the fifth some of the brasse is torne away that which remaines is accordingly as