Letter in defence of the Kings Proceedings in this matter to Reginald soon after Cardinal Pool from these writings and the Sermons preached by some Bishops at this time with other Authentick pieces I have Extracted the Substance of the Arguments upon which they grounded their Laws which I shall divide in two heads The one of the reasons for rejecting the Popes pretended Power The other for setting up the Kings Supremacy with the Explanations and Limitations of it First of the Popes Power they declared that they found no ground for it in the Scripture All the Apostles were made equal by Christ when he committed the Church to their care in Common And he did often declare there was no Superiority of one above another St. Paul claimed an equality with the chief Apostles both Peter Iames and Iohn and when he thought St. Peter blame-worthy he withstood him to his face But whatsoever Preheminence St. Peter might have that was only Personal and there was no reason to affix it to his Chair at Rome more than at Antioch But if any See be to be preferred before another it should be Ierusalem where Christ dyed and out of which the Faith was propagated over all Nations Christ commanding his Disciples to begin their Preaching in it so that it was truly the Mother Church and is so called by St. Paul whereas in the Scripture Rome is called Babylon according to Tertullian and St. Ierome For the places brought from Scripture in favor of the Papacy they judged that they did not prove any thing for it That Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church if it prove any thing in this matter would prove too much even that the Church was founded on St. Peter as he was a private person and so on the Popes in their Personal Capacity But both St. Ambrose St. Ierome and St. Austin think that by the Rock the Confession he had made was only to be meant Others of the Fathers thought by the Rock Christ himself was meant who is the only true Foundation of the Church though in another sense all the Apostles are also called Foundations by St. Paul That Tell the Church is thought by Gerson and Aeneas Silvius afterwards Pope Pius the 2d rather to make against the Pope and for a General Council And the Fathers have generally followed St. Chrysostome and St. Austin who thought that the giving of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Charge Feed my Sheep were addressed to St. Peter in behalf of all the rest of the Apostles And that I have prayed for thee that thy Faith sail not was only Personal and related to his Fall which was then Imminent It is also clear by St. Paul that every Apostle had his peculiar Province beyond which he was not to Stretch himself and St. Peters Province was the Circumcision and his the Uncircumcision in which he plainly declares his Equality with him This was also clear from the constant Tradition of the Church St. Cyprian was against Appeals to Rome and would not submit to P. Stephens definition in the point of Re-baptizing of Hereticks and expresly says That all the Apostles were equal in Power and that all the Bishops were also equal since the whole Office and Episcopate was one entire thing of which every Bishop had a compleat and equall share And though some places are brought out of him concerning the Unity of the Roman Church and of other Churches with it yet those places have no relation to any Authority that the Roman Church had over other Churches but were occasioned by a Schism that Novatian had made there at Rome being Elected in opposition to the Bishop that was rightly chosen and of that unity only St. Cyprian writes in those places But from all his Epistles to the Bishops of Rome it is visible he look't on himself as their Equal since he calls them Brother Collegue and Fellow-Bishop And whatsoever is said by any Ancient Writer of St. Peters Chair is to be understood of the pure Gospel which he delivered as St. Austin observes that by Moses Chair is to be understood The delivering of Moses Law But though St. Peter sate there the succeeding Popes have no more right to pretend to such Authority than the Kings of Spain to claim the Roman Empire because he that is now their King is Emperor When Constantine turned Christian the Dignity of the chief City of the Empire made Rome to be accounted the first See but by the General Council of Nice it was declared that the Patriarches of Alexandria and Antioch had the same Authority over the Countries round about them that he of Rome had over those that lay about that City It is true at thaâ— time the Arrian Heresie having spread Generally over the Eastern Churches from which the Western were free the oppressed Catholick Bishops of the East made Appeals to Rome and extolled that See by a natural Maxime in all men who magnifie that from which they have Protection But the Second general Council took care that that should not grow a President for they Decreed that every Province should be governed by its own Synod and that Bishops when they were accused must first be judged by the Bishops of their own Province and from them they might appeal to the Bishops of the Diocess but no higher appeal was allowed and by that Council it appears what was the Foundation of the greatness of the Bishop of Rome for when Constantinople was made the Seat of the Empire and New Rome it had the same Privileges that Old Rome had and was set next to it in order and dignity In a Council at Milevi in which St. Austin sate they appointed that every Clerk that should appeal to any Bishop beyond the Sea should be excommunicated And when Faustianus was sent by the Pope to the African Churches to claim the Right of receiving appeals and pretended a Canon of the Council of Nice for it the Pretension was rejected by the Afâ—ican Fathers who acknowledged no such Right and had never heard of that Canon Upon which they sent to the Eastâ—rn Churches and search was every-where made for the Copies of the Canons of that Council but it was found that it was a Forgery From whence two things were observable The one that the Church in that Age had no Tradition of any Divine Institution for the Authority of that See since as the Popes who claimed it never pretended to any such thing so the African Bishops by their rejecting that Power shew that they knew nothing of any Divine Warrant all the Contest being only about a Canon of the Church It also appeared how early the Church of Rome aspired to Power and did not stick at making use of Forged writings to support it But Pope Agatho more modestly writing to the Emperor in his own name and in the name of all the Synods that were Subject to his See calls
the Proceedings in the Kings Bench since there was no justice done and all thought the King seemed more careful to maintain his Prerogative than to do Justice This I have related the more fully because it seems to have had great Influence on peoples minds and to have disposed them much to the Changes that followed afterwards How these things were entred in the Books of Convocation cannot be now known For among the other sad losses sustained in the late burning of London this was one that almost all the Registers of the Spiritual Courts were burnt some few of the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and Bishops of London's Registers being only preserved But having compared Fox his Account of this and some other matters and finding it exactly according to the Registers that are preserved I shall the more confidently build on what he published from those Records that are now lost This was the only thing in the first 18 years of the Kings Reign that seemed to lessen the Greatness of the Clergy but in all other matters he was a most faithful Son of the See of Rome Pope Iulius soon after his coming to the Crown sent him a Golden Rose with a Letter to Arch-Bishop Warham to deliver it and though such Presents might seem fitter for young Children than for men of discretion yet the King was much delighted with it and to shew his Gratitude there was a Treaty concluded the year following between the King and Ferdinand of Arragon for the Defence of the Papacy against the French King And when in opposition to the Council that the French King and some other Princes and Cardinals had called first to Pisa which was afterwards translated to Milan and then to Lions that summoned the Pope to appear before them and suspended his Authority Pope Iulius called another Council to be held in the Lateran the King sent the Bishops of Worcester and Rochester the Prior of St. Iohns and the Abbot of Winchelcomb to sit in that Council in which there was such a Representative of the Catholick Church as had been for several of the latter Ages in the Western Church in which a few Bishops packt out of several Kingdoms and many Italian Bishops with a vast number of Abbots Priors and other Inferiour Digniâ—â—ed Clergy-men were brought to Confirm together whatever the Popes had a mind to Enact which passing easily among them was sent over the world with a stamp of Sacred Authority as the Decrees and Decisions of the Holy Universal Church assembled in a General Council Nor was there a worse understanding between this King and Pope Leo the 10 th that succeeded Iulius who did also complement him with those Papal Presents of Roses and at his desire made Wolsey a Cardinal and above all other things obliged him by conferring on him the Title of Defender of the Faith upon the presenting to the Pope his Book against Luther in a pompous Letter Signed by the Pope and 27 Cardinals in which the King took great pleasure affecting it always beyond all his other Titles though several of the former Kings of England had carried the same Title as Spelman informs us So easie a thing it was for Popes to oblige Princes in those days when a Title or a Rose was thought a sufficient Recompence for the greatest Services The Cardinal Governing all Temporal Affairs as he did it is not to be doubted but his Authority was absolute in Ecclesiastical Matters which seemed naturally to lie within his Province yet Warham made some opposition to him and complained to the King of his encroaching too much in his Legantine Courts upon his Jurisdiction and the things being clearly made out the King chid the Cardinal sharply for it who ever after that hated Warham in his heart yet he proceeded more warily for the future But the Cardinal drew the hatred of the Clergy upon himself chiefly by a Bull which he obtained from Rome giving him Authority to visit all Monasteries and all the Clergy of England and to dispence with all the Laws of the Church for one whole year after the date of the Bull. The power that was lodged in him by this Bull was not more invidious than the words in which it was conceived were offensive for the Preamble of it was full of severe Reflections against the Manners and Ignorance of the Clergy who are said in it to have been delivered over to a Reprobate mind This as it was a publick Deâ—aming them so how true soever it might be all thought it did not become the Cardinal whose Vices were notorious and scandalous to tax others whose faults were neither so great nor so eminent as his were He did also affect a Magnificence and Greatness not only in his Habit being the first Clergy-man in England that wore Silks but in his Family his Train and other pieces of State equal to that of Kings And even in performing Divine Offices and saying Mass he did it with the same Ceremonies that the Popes use who judg themselves so nearly related to God that those humble acts of Adoration which are Devotions in other persons would abase them too much He had not only Bishops and Abbots to serve him but even Dukes and Earls to give him the Water and the Towel He had certainly a vast mind and he saw the corruptions of the Clergy gave so great Scandal and their Ignorance was so profound that unless some effectual ways were taken for correcting these they must needs fall into great disesteem with the People For though he took great liberties himself and perhaps according to the Maxime of the Canonists he judged Cardinals as Princes of the Church were not comprehended within ordinary Ecclesiastical Laws yet he seemed to have designed the Reformation of the Inferiour Clergy by all the means he could think of except the giving them a good Example Therefore he intended to visit all the Monasteries of England that so discovering their corruptions he might the better justifie the design he had to suppress most of them and convert them into Bishopricks Cathedrals Collegiate Churches and Colledges For which end he procured the Bull from Rome but he was diverted from making any use of it by some who advised him rather to suppress Monasteries by the Popes Authority than proceed in a Method which would raise great hatred against himself cast foul aspersions on Religious Orders and give the Enemies of the Church great advantages against it Yet he had communicated his design to the King and his Secretary Cromwell understanding it was thereby instructed how to proceed afterwards when they went about the total suppression of the Monasteries The Summoning of Convocations he assumed by vertue of his Legantine Power Of these there were two sorts the first were called by the King for with the Writs for a Parliament there went out always a Summons to the Two Arch-Bishops for calling a Convocation of
This as it was fatal to the Counts of Tholouse who were great Princes in the South of France and first fell under the Censures so it was terrible to all other Princes who thereupon to save themselves delivered up their Subjects to the Mercy of the Ecclesiastical Courts Burning was the death they made choice of because Witches Vizards and Sodomites had been so executed Therefore to make Heresie appear a terrible thing this was thought the most proper punishment of it It had also a resemblance of everlasting Burning to which they adjudged their Souls as well as their bodies were condemned to the â—ire but with this signal difference that they could find no such effectual way to oblige God to execute their sentence as they contrived against the Civil Magistrate But however they confidently gave it out that by vertue of that Promise of our Saviours Whose sins ye bind on Earth they are bound in Heaven their Decrees were ratified in Heaven And it not being easie to disprove what they said people believed the one as they saw the other Sentence executed So that whatever they condemned as Heresie was looked on as the worst thing in in the world There was no occasion for the execution of this Law in England till the days of Wickliffe And the favour he had from some great men stopt the Proceedings against him But in the 5th year of King Richard the Second a Bill passed in the House of Lords and was assented to by the King and published for an Act of Parliament though the Bill was never sent to the House of Commons By this pretended Law it appears Wickliff's followers were then very numerous that they had a certain habit and did Preach in many places both in Churches Church-yards and Markets without Licence from the Ordinary and did preach several Doctrines both against the Faith and the Laws of the Land as had been proved before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the other Bishops Prelats Doctors of Divinity and of the Civil and Canon-Law and others of the Clergy That they would not submit to the admonitions nor Censures of the Church but by their subtile ingenious words did draw the people to follow them and defend them by strong hand and in great routs Therefore it was Ordained that upon the Bishops certifying into the Chancery the names of such Preachers and their Abettors the Chancellour should issue forth Commissions to the Sheriffs and others the Kings Ministers to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison till they should justify them according to the Law and reason of Holy Church From the gentleness of which law it may appear that England was not then so tame as to bear the severity of those cruel laws which were setled and put in execution in other Kingdoms The Custome at that time was to engross Copies of all the Acts of Parliament and to send them with a Writ under the great Seal to the Sheriffs to make them be proclaimed within their jurisdictions And Iohn Braibrook Bishop of London then Lord Chancellour sent this with the other Acts of that Parliament to be proclaimed The Writ bears date the 26th of May 5 to Reg. But in the next Parliament that was held in the 6th year of that Kings Reign the Commons preferred a Bill reciting the former Act and constantly affirmed that they had never assented to it and therefore desired it might be declared to be void for they Protested it was never their intent to be Iustified and to bind themselves and their Successors to the Prelats more than their Ancestors had done in times past To which the King gave the Royal Assent as it is in the Records of Parliament But in the Proclamation of the Acts of that Parliament this Act was suppressed so that the former Act was still looked on as a good law and is Printed in the Book of Statutes Such pious frauds were always practised by the Popish Clergy and were indeed necessary for the supporting the Credit of that Church When Richard the 2d was deposed and the Crown usurped by Henry the 4th then he in gratitude to the Clergy that assisted him in his coming to the Crown granted them a law to their hearts content in the 2 d. year of his Reign The Preamble bears That some had a new Faith about the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same and did Preach without Authority gathered Conventicles taught Schools wrote Books against the Catholick Faith with many other heinous aggravations Upon which the Prelats and Clergy and the Commons of the Realm prayed the King to provide a sufficient remedy to so great an evil Therefore the King by the assent of the States and other discreet men of the Realm being in the said Parliament did Ordain That none should Preach without Licence except persons Priviledged That none should Preach any Doctrine contrary to the Catholick Faith or the Determination of the Holy Church and that none should favour and abett them nor keep their Books but deliver them to the Diocesan of the place within 40 days after the Proclamation of that Statute And that if any Persons were defamed or suspected of doing against that Ordinance then the Ordinary might Arrest them and keep them in his Prison till they were Canonically purged of the Articles laid against them or did abjure them according to the Laws of the Church Provided always that the proceedings against them were publickly and judicially done and ended within three Months after they had been so Arrested and if they were Convict the Diocesan or his Commissaries might keep them in Prison as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and might Fine them as should seem competent to him certifying the Fine into the Kings Exchequer and if any being Convict did refuse to abjure or after Abjuration did fall into Relapse then he was to be left to the Secular Court according to the Holy Canons And the Majors Sheriffs or Bayliffs were to be personally present at the passing the Sentence when they should be required by the Diocesan or his Commissaries and after the Sentence they were to receive them and them before the People in a high place do to be Brent By this Statute the Sheriffs or other Officers were immediatly to proceed to the Burning of Hereticks without any Writ or Warrant from the King But it seems the Kings Learned Council advised him to issue out a Writ De Haeretico comburendo upon what grounds of Law I cannot tell For in the same year when William Sartre who was the first that was put to death upon the account of Heresie was judged Relapse by Thomas Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in a Convocation of his Province and thereupon was degraded from Priesthood and left to Secular Power a Writ was issued out to Burn him which in the Writ is called The Customary Punishment relating it as like to the Customs that were beyond
at Rome to see it fall on him So in Easter-week he was ordered to go North though he had a great mind to have stayed at Richmond which the King had given him in Exchange for Hampton-Court that he had also built But that was too near the Court and his enemies had a mind to send him further from it Accordingly he went to Cawood in York-shire in which journey it appears that the ruins of his state were considerable for he travelled thither with an 160 horse in his train and 72 Carts following him with his houshold stuff To Conclude his story all at once he was in November the next year seized on by the Earl of Northumberland who attached him for high Treason and committed him to the keeping of the Lieutenant of the Tower who was ordered to bring him up to London And even â—hen he had gracious messages from the King but these did not work much on him for whether it was that he knew himself guilty of some secret Practises with the Pope or with the Emperor which yet he denyed to the last or whether he could no longer stand under the Kings displeasure and that change of condition he was so cast down that on his way to London he sickened at Sheffield Park in the Earl of Shrewsburies house from whence by slow journeys he went as far as Leicester where after some days languishing he dyed and at the last made great Protestations of his having served the King faithfully and that he had little regarded the service of God to do him pleasure but if he had served God as he had done him he would not have given him over so as he did in his gray hairs And he desired the King to reflect on all his past services and in particular in his weighty matter for by that phrase they usually spoke of the Kings Divorce and then he would find in his Conscience whether he had offended him or not He dyed the 28 of November 1530. and was the greatest Instance that several Ages had shown of the Variety and Inconstancy of Humane things both in his rise and fall and by his temper in both it appears he was unworthy of his greatness and deserved what he suffered But to conclude all that is to be said of him I shall add what the writer of his life ends it with Here is the end and fall of Pride and Arrogance for I assure you in his time he was the haughtiest man in all his proceedings alive having more respect to the honour of his Person than he had to his Spiritual Profession wherein should be shewed all meekness and charity But now with the change of this great Minister there followed a change of Counsels and therefore the King resolved to hold a Parliament that he might meet his people and establish such a good understanding between himself and them that he might have all secured at home and then he resolved to proceed more confidently abroad There had been no Parliament for seven years but the blame of that and of every other miscarriage falling naturally on the disgraced Minister he did not doubt that he should be able to give his people full satisfaction in that and in every thing else So a Parliament was summoned to meet the 3d of November And there among several other Laws that were made for the publick good of the Kingdom there were Bills sent up by the House of Commons against some of the most exorbitant abuses of the Clergy one was against the Exactions for the Probates of Wills another was for the Regulating of Mortuaries a third was about the Plurality of Benefices and non-residence and Churchmens being Farmers of Lands In the passing of these Bills there were severe reflections made on the vices and corruptions of the Clergy of that time which were believed to flow from men that favoured Luthers Doctrine in their hearts When these Bills were brought up to the House of Lords the Bishop of Rochester speaking to them did reflect on the House of Commons saying that they were resolved to bring down the Church and he desired they would consider the miserable state of the Kingdom of Bohemia to which it was reduced by Heresie and ended that all this was for lack of Faith But this being afterwards known to the House of Commons they sent their speaker Sr. Thomas Audley with 30 of their members to complain to the King of the Bishop of Rochester for saying that their Acts flowed from the want of Faith which was an high Imputation on the whole Nation when the Representative of the Commons was so charged as if they had been Infidels and Heathens This was set on by the Court to mortifie that Bishop who was unacceptable to them for his adhering so firmly to the Queens cause The King sent for the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and six other Bishops and before them told the complaint of the Commons But the Bishop of Rochester excused himself and said he only meant of the Kingdom of Bohemia when he said all flowed from the want of Faith and did not at all intend the House of Commons This Explanation the King sent by the Treasurer of his houshold Sr. Will. Fitz-Williams But though the matter was passed over yet they were not at all satisfied with it so that they went on laying open the abuses of the Clergy In the House of Peers great opposition was made to the Bills and the Clergy both within and without doors did defame them and said these were the ordinary beginnings of Heresie to complain of Abuses and pretend Reformation on purpose to disgrace the Clergy from which Heresie took it's chief strength And the Spiritual Lords did generally oppose them the Temporal Lords being no less earnest to have them passed The Cardinal was admitted to sit in the House where he showed himself as submissive in his fauning as he had formerly done in his scorn and contempt of all who durst oppose him But the King set the Bills forward and in the end they were agreed to by the Lords and had the Royal Assent The King intended by this to let the Pope see what he could do if he went on to offend him and how willingly his Parliament would concur with him if it went to extremities He did also endear himself much to the People by relieving them from the oppressions of the Clergy But the Clergy lost much by this means for these Acts did not only lessen their present profits but did open the way for other things that were more to their detriment afterward Their opposing of this and all other motions for Reformation did very much encrease the prejudices that were conceived against them whereas if such motions had either risen from themselves or had at least been cherished by them their Adversaries had not perhaps been so favourably heard so fatally did they mistake their true Interest when they thought they were concerned
the Father Son Uncle and other such Relations there is no ground to disjoynt this so much from the rest as to make it only extend to a Marriage before the Husbands death And for any Presidents that were brought they were all in the latter Ages and were never Confirmed by any publick Authority Nor must the Practices of later Popes be laid in the Ballance against the Decisions of former Popes and the Doctrine of the whole Church and as to the Power that was ascribed to the Pope that began now to be enquired into with great Freedom as shall appear afterwards These Reasons on both sides being thus opened the Censures of them it is like will be as different now as they were then for they prevailed very little on the Queen who still persisted to justifie her Marriage and to stand to her Appeal And though the King carryed it very kindly to her in all outward appearance and employed every body that had credit with her to bring her to submit to him and to pass from her Appeal remitting the Decision of the matter to any Four Prelates and Four Secular men in England she was still unmovable and would hearken to no Proposition In the judgments that people passed the Sexes were divided the Men generally approved the Kings cause and the Women favoured the Queen But now the Session of Parliament came on the Sixteenth of Ianuary and there the King first brought in to the House of Lords the Determination of the Universities and the Books that were written for his cause by Forreigners After they were read and Considered there the Lord Chancellor did on the 20th of March with Twelve Lords both of the Spiritualty and Temporalty goe down to the House of Commons and shewed them what the Universities and Learned men beyond Sea had written for the Divorce and produced Twelve Original Papers with the Seals of the Universities to them which Sr. Brian Tuke took out of his hand and read openly in the House Translating the Latine into English Then about an Hundred Books written by Forreign Divines for the Divorce were also showed them none of which were read but put off to another time it being late When that was done the Lord Chancellor desired they would report in their Countries what they had heard and seen and then all men should clearly perceive that the King hath not attempted this matter of Will and Pleasure as strangers say but only for the Discharge of his Conscience and the Security of the Succession to the Crown Having said that he left the House The matter was also brought before the Convocation and they having weighed all that was said on both sides seemed satisfied that the Marriage was unlawful and that the Bull was of no force more not being required at that time But it is not strange that this matter went so easily in the Convocation when another of far greater consequence passed there which will require a â—ull and distinct account Cardinal Wolsey by exercising his Legantine Authority had fallen into a Premunire as hath been already shewn and now those who had appeared in his Courts and had sutes there were found to be likewise in the same guilt by the Law and this matter being excepted out of the Pardon that was granted in the former Parliament was at this time set on foot Therefore an Indictment was brought into the Kings Bench against all the Clergy of England for breaking the Statutes against Provisions or Provisors But to open this more clearly It is to be Considered that the Kings of England having claimed in all Ages a Power in Ecclesiastical Matters equal to what the Roman Emperors had in that Empire they exercised this Authority both over the Clergy and Laity and did at first erect Bishopricks grant Investitures in them call Synods make Laws about Sacred as well as Civil Concerns and in a word they Governed their whole Kingdom Yet when the Bishops of Rome did stretch their Power beyond either the limits of it in the Primitive Church or what was afterward granted them by the Roman Emperors and came to assume an Authority in all the Churches of Europe as they found some Resistance every where so they met with a great deal in this Kingdom and it was with much Difficulty that they gained the Power of giving Investitures Receiving Appeals to Rome and of sending Legates to England with several other things which were long contested but were delivered up at length either by feeble Princes or when Kings were so engaged at home or abroad that it was not safe for them to offend the Clergy For in the first Contest between the Kings and the Popes the Clergy were generally on the Popes side because of the Immunity and Protection they enjoyed from that See but when Popes became ambitious and warlike Princes then new Projects and Taxes were every where set on foot to raise a great Treasure The Pall with many Bulls and high Compositions for them Annates or first Fruits and Tenths were the standing Taxes of the Clergy besides many new ones upon emergent occasions So that they finding themselves thus oppressed by the Popes fled again back to the Crown for Protection which their Predecessors had abandoned From the days of Edward the 1st many Statutes were made to restrain the Exactions of Rome For then the Popes not satisfied with their other oppressions which a Monk of that time lays open fully and from a deep sense of them did by Provisions Bulls and other Arts of that See dispose of Bishopricks Abbeys and lesser Benefices to Forreigners Cardinals and others that did not live in England Upon which the Commonalty of the Realm did represent to the King in Parliament That the Bishopricks Abbeys and other Benefices were founded by the Kings and people of England To inform the people of the Law of God and to make Hospitality Alms and other works of Charity for which end they were endowed by the King and people of England and that the King and his other Subjects who endowed them had upon Voidances the Presentment and Collations of them which now the Pope had Usurped and given to Aliens by which the Crown would be disinherited and the ends of their endowments destroyed with other great Inconveniences Therefore it was ordained that these Oppressions should not be suffered in any manner But notwithstanding this the abuse went on and there was no effectual way laid down in the Act to punish these Transgressions The Court of Rome was not so easily driven out of any thing that either encreased their Power or their Profits Therefore by another Act in his Grand-Child Edward the 3ds time the Commons complained that these abuses did abound and that the Pope did daily reserve to his Collation Church-Preferments in England and raised the first-Fruits with other great Profits by which the Treasure of the Realm was carried out of it
sometimes made by the Emperors and sometimes confirmed by them Pope Hadrian in a Synod decreed that the Emperor should choose the Pope And it was a late and unheard of thing before the dayes of Gregory the 7th for Popes to pretend to depose Princes and give away their Dominions This they compared to the pride of Anti-Christ and Lucifer They also argued from Reason that there must be but one Supream and that the King being Supream over all his Subjects Clergy-men must be included for they are still Subjects Nor can their being in Orders change that former relation founded upon the Law of Nature and Nations no more than Wives or Servants by becoming Christians were not according to the Doctrine of the Apostles discharged from the Duties of their former Relations For the great Objection from those Offices that are peculiar to their Functions It was answered that these notwithstanding the King might well be Supream Head for in the Natural body there were many vital motions that proceeded not from the Head but from the Heart and the other inward parts and vessels and yet the Head was still the chief seat and root of Life So though there be peculiar functions appropriated to Church-men yet the King is still Head having Authority over them and a Power to direct and coerce them in these From that they proceeded to show that in England the Kings have allwayes assumed a Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters They began with the most Ancient Writing that relates to the Christian Religion in England then extant Pope Elentherius Letter to King Lucius in which he is twice called by him Gods Vicar in his Kingdom and he writ in it that it belong'd to his Office to bring his Subjects to the Holy Church and to maintain protect and govern them in it Many Laws were cited which Canutus Ethelred Edgar Edmond Athelstan and Ina had Enacted concerning Church-men many more Laws since the Conquest were also made both against appeals to Rome and Bishops going out of the Kingdom without the Kings leave The whole business of the Articles of Clarendon and the Contests that followed between King Henry the 2d and Thomas Becket were also opened And though a Bishops Pastoral care be of Divine Institution yet as the Kings of England had divided Bishopricks as they pleased so they also converted Benefices from the Institution of the Founders and gave them to Cloisters and Monasteries as King Edgar did all which was done by the Consent of their Clergy and Nobility without dependance on Rome They had also granted these Houses Exemption from Episcopal Jurisdiction so Ina exempted Glastenbury and Offa St. Albans from their Bishops visitation and this continued even till the dayes of William the Conqueror for he to perpetuate the Memory of the Victory he obtained over Harald and to endear himself to the Clergy founded an Abbey in the Field where the Battel was fought and called it Battel-Abbey and in the Charter he granted them these words are to be found It shall be also free and quiet for ever from all subjection to Bishops or the Dominion of any other persons as Christs Church in Canterbury is Many other things were brought out of King Alfreds Laws and a speech of King Edgars with several Letters written to the Popes from the Kings the Parliaments and the Clergy of England to show that their Kings did always make Laws about Sacred matters and that their Power reach't to that and to the persons of Church-men as well as to their other Subjects But at the same time that they pleaded so much for the Kings Supremacy and Power of making Laws for restraining and Coercing his Subjects it appeared that they were far from vesting him with such an absolute Power as the Popes had pretended to for they thus defined the extent of the Kings Power To them specially and principally it pertaineth to defend the Faith of Christ and his Religion to conserve and maintain the true Doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and setters forth thereof and to abolish Abuses Heresies and Idolatries and to punish with corporal pains such as of malice be the occasion of the same And finally to oversee and cause that the said Bishops and Priests do execute their pastoral office truly and faithfully and specially in these points which by Christ and his Apostles was given and Committed to them and in case they shall be negligent in any part thereof or would not diligently execute the same to cause them to redouble and supply their lack and if they obstinately withstand their Princes kind monition and will not amend their faults then and in such case to put others in their rooms and places And God hath also commanded the said Bishops and Priests to obey with all humbleness and Reverence both Kings and Princes and Governors and all their Laws not being contrary to the Laws of God whatsoever they be and that not only propter Iram but also propter Conscientiam that is to say not only for fear of punishment but also for Discharge of Conscience Thus it appears that they both limited obedience to the Kings Laws with the due Caution of their not being contrary to the Law of God and acknowledged the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the discharge of the Pastoral Office committed to the Pastors of the Church by Christ and his Apostles and that the Supremacy then pretended to was no such Extravagant Power as some imagine Upon the whole matter it was Concluded that the Popes Power in England had no good Foundation and had been managed with as much Tyranny as it had begun with Usurpation the Exactions of their Courts were every-where heavy but in no place so intolerable as in England and though many complaints were made of them in these last 300 years yet they got no ease and all the Laws about Provisors were still defeated and made ineffectual Therefore they saw it was impossible to moderate their proceedings so that there was no other Remedy but to extirpate their pretended Authority and thenceforth to acknowledge the Pope only Bishop of Rome with the jurisdiction about it defined by the Ancient Canons and for the King to re-assume his own Authority and the Prerogatives of his Crown from which the Kings of England had never formally departed though they had for this last Hundred years connived at an Invasion and Usurpation upon them which was no longer to be endured These were the Grounds of casting off the Pope's Power that had been for two or three years studied and enquired into by all the Learned men in England and had been debated both in Convocation and Parliament and except Fisher Bishop of Rochester I do not find that any Bishop appeared for the Popes Power and for the Abbots and Priors as they were generally very ignorant so what the Cardinal had done in suppressing some Monasteries and what they now heard that the
Bribes at this time which is not to be wondred at when there was so much to be shared But great disorders followed upon the Dissolution of the other Houses People were still generally discontented The Suppression of Religious Houses occasioned much out-crying and the Articles then lately published about Religion encreased the distaste they had conceived at the Government The old Clergy were also very watchful to improve all opportunities and to blow upon every spark And the Popes Power of deposing Kings had been for almost five hundred years received as an Article of Faith The same Council that established Transubstantiation had asserted it and there were many Precedents not only in Germany France Spain and Italy but also in England of Kings that were Deposed by Popes whose Dominions were given to other Princes This had begun in the Eighth Century in two famous Deprivations The one in France of Childeric the 3d who was deprived and the Crown given to Pepin and about the same time those Dominions in Italy which were under the Eastern Emperors renounced their alleagance to them In both these the Popes had a great hand yet they rather confirmed and approved of those Treasonable Mutations than gave the first rise to them But after Pope Gregory the 7th's time it was clearly assumed as a Right and Prerogative of the Papal Crown to Depose Princes and absolve Subjects from the Oaths of Alleagance and set up others in their stead And all those Emperors or Kings that contested any thing with Popes sat very uneasie and unsafe in their Thrones ever after that But if they were tractable to the demands of the Court of Rome then they might oppress their Subjects and Govern as unjustly as they pleased for they had a mighty support from that Court This made Princes more easily bear the Popes usurpations because they were assisted by them in all their other Proceedings And the Friers having the Consciences of people generally in their hands as they had the word given by their General at Rome so they disposed people either to be obedient or seditious as they pleased Now not only their own Interests mixed with their zeal for the ancient Religion but the Popes Authority gave them as good a Warrant to encline the people to Rebel as any had in former times of whom some were Canonized for the like practices For in August the former year the Pope had Summoned the King to appear within Ninety days and to answer for putting away his Queen and taking another Wife and for the Laws he had made against the Church and putting the Bishop of Rochester and others to death for not obeying these Laws and if he did not reform these faults or did not appear to answer for them the Pope Excommunicated him and all that favoured him deprived the King put the Kingdom under an Interdict forbade all his Subjects to obey and other States to hold Commerce with him dissolved all his Leagues with forreign Princes commanded all the Clergy to depart out of England and his Nobility to rise in Arms against him But now the force of those Thunders which had formerly produced great Earth-quakes and Commotions was much abated yet some storms were raised by this though not so violent as had been in former times The people were quiet till they had reaped their Harvest And though some Injunctions were published a little before to help it the better forward most of the Holy days in Harvest being abolished by the Kings Authority yet that rather Inflamed them the more Other Injunctions were also published in the Kings name by Cromwell his Vice-gerent which was the first Act of pure Supremacy done by the King For in all that went before he had the Concurrence of the two Convocations But these it is like were penned by Cranmer The Reader is referred to the Collection of Papers for them as I transcribed them out of the Register The Substance of them was that first all Ecclesiastical Incumbents were for a quarter of an year after that once every Sunday and ever after that twice every quarter to publish to the people That the Bishop of Romes usurped Power had no ground in the Law of God and therefore was on good reasons abolished in this Kingdom And that the Kings Power was by the Law of God Supream over all persons in his Dominions And they were to do their uttermost endeavour to extirpate the Popes Authority and to establish the Kings Secondly They were to declare the Articles lately published and agreed to by the Convocation and to make the people know which of them were Articles of Faith and which of them Rules for the decent and politick Order of the Church Thirdly They were to declare the Articles lately set forth for the Abrogation of some superfluous Holy days particularly in Harvest time Fourthly They were no more to extol Images or Relicks for superstition or gain nor to exhort people to make Pilgrimages as if blessings and good things were to be obtained of this or that Saint or Image But in stead of that the people were to be instructed to apply themselves to the keeping of Gods Commandments and doing works of Charity and to believe that God was better served by them when they stayed at home and provided for their Families than when they went Pilgrimages and that the Moneys laid out on these were better given to the poor Fifthly They were to exhort the people to teach their Children the Lords Prayer the Creed and the ten Commandments in English and every Incumbent was to explain these one Article a day till the people were Instructed in them And to take great care that all Children were bred up to some trade or way of Living Sixthly They must take care that the Sacraments and Sacramentals be reverently administred in their Parishes from which when at any time they were absent they were to Commit the Cure to a Learned and expert Curate who might instruct the people in wholsome Doctrine that they might all see that their Pastors did not pursue their own profits or interests so much as the Glory of God and the good of the Souls under their Cure Seventhly They should not except on urgent occasion go to Taverns or Ale-houses nor sit too long at any sort of Games after their Meals but give themselves to the Study of the Scripture or some other honest exercise and remember that they must excel others in purity of life and be examples to all others to live well and Christianly Eighthly Because the goods of the Church were the goods of the poor every Beneficed person that had twenty Pound or above and did not reside was yearly to distribute the Fortieth part of his Benefice to the poor of the Parish Ninthly Every Incumbent that had an hundred Pound a year must give an Exhibition for one Schollar at some Grammar School or University who after he had compleated his Studies was to be Partner of
his going over to England but not one word of any such discourse with the King And King Henry was not a Man of such a temper as to permit one of Pole's quality to go out of England and live among his Enemies and continue his Pensions to him if he had to his face opposed him in a Matter he laid so much to heart 44. He says Fisher of Rochester and Holman Bishop of Bristol wrote for the Marriage There was no Bishoprick nor Bishop of Bristol at that time nor thirteen years after 45. Many are reckoned up who wrote for the Marriage in all Nations These are neither to be compared in number nor authority to those who wrote against it an hundred Books were shewed in Parliament written by Divines and Lawyers beyond Sea besides the determinations of twelve of the most celebrated Universities in Europe The Emperor did indeed give so great Rewards and such good Benefices to those who wrote against the King that it is a wonder there were not more Writers of his side 46. He says That upon Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's death the Earl of Wiltshire told the King that he had a Chaplain who was at his House that would certainly serve the King in the matter of his Divorce upon which Cranmer was promoted Cranmer was no stranger to the King at this time he was first recommended by the King to the Earl of Wiltshire to be kept in his House but was in Germany when Warham died and made no haste over but delayed his Journey some months It is true he was of the mind that the King ought to be divorced but this was not out of servile compliance for when the King pressed him in other things that were against his Conscience he expressed all the courage and constancy of mind which became so great a Prelate 47. He say's That Cranmer being to swear the Oath of Obedience to the Pope before he was consecrated did protest to a Publick Notary that he took it against his will and that he had no mind to keep his Faith to the Pope in prejudice to the King's Authority He did not protest that he did it unwillingly nor was it only to a Notary but twice at the high Altar he repeated the Protestation that he made which was to this effect That he intended not thereby to oblige himself to any thing contrary to the Law of God the King's Prerogative or the Laws of the Land nor to be restrained from speaking advising or consenting to any thing that should concern the Reformation of the Christian Faith the Government of the Church of England and the Prerogative of the Crown and Kingdom 48. He says Cranmer did in all things so comply with the King's Lusts that the King was wont to say he was the only Man that had never contradicted him in any thing he had a mind to Cranmer was both a good Subject and a modest and discreet Man and so would obey and submit as far as he might without sin yet when his Conscience charged him to appear against any thing that the King pressed him to as in the matter of the six Articles he did it with much resolution and boldness 49. He says The King going over to Calais carried Ann Boleyn secretly with him He carried her over in great state having made her Marchioness of Pembroke and in the publick Interview between him and Francis she appeared with all possible splendor 50. He says After the King's return from France he brought the Action of Premunire against all the Clergy This is an Error of two years for so long before this Voyage to France was that action begun and the Clergy about 28 months before had made their submission and obtained their pardon in March 1531 which appears by the printed Statutes and the King went over to France in September 1532 so that it is clear Sanders never looked for any verification of what he wrote 51. He says The King by an unheard-of Tyranny and a new Calumny brought this Charge against the Clergy These Laws upon which the Charge was founded had been oft renewed they were first made under Edward the First by reason of the Papal Encroachments that gave the rise to them they were oft confirmed by Edward the Third Richard the Second Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth with the concurrence of their Parliaments so the Charge was neither new nor tyrannical 52. He says The Clergy submitted to the King being betrayed by their Metropolitanes Cranmer and Lee. The submission was made two years before Cranmer was Arch-Bishop in March 1531 and Cranmer was Consecrated in March 1533. but at that time Warham sate in Canterbury as for Lee he opposed it for some time 53. He says The whole Clergâ— petitioned the King to forgive their Crime according to that Supreme Power which he had over all the Clergy and Laity within his Kingdom from whence the King's Counsellors took occasion afterwards to call him Supreme Head The Clergy did in the Title of their Submission call the King in formal terms Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England as far as by the Law of Christ is lawful to which Fisher with the rest of the Convocation subscribed And all this was done when More was Chancellor 54. He says When the King went to marry Ann Boleyn he perswaded Rowland Lee made soon after Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield to officiate in it assuring him he had obtain'd a Bull for it from Rome which was then lying in his Cabinet Upon which Lee giving credit to what he said did marry them This is another trial of Sander's wit to excuse Lee who tho at this time he complied absolutely with the King yet did afterwards turn over to the Popish Party therefore to make him look a little clean this Story must be forged But at that time all the World saw that the Pope and the Emperor were so linked together that Lee could not but know that no such thing was possible And he was so obsequious to the King that such Arts were needless to perswade him to any thing the King had a mind to 55. For five pages he runs out in repetition of all those foul Lyes concerning Ann Boleyn by which he designed both to disgrace the Reformers who were supported by her and to defame her Daughter Queen Elizabeth which have been before confuted after that he says Queen Katharine with three Maids and a small Family retired into the Country She had both the respect of a Princess Dowager and all the Jointure contracted to her by Prince Arthur so she could not be driven to that straitness but this must go for an Ornament in the Fable 56. He says It was concluded that Cranmer might be more free to pass Sentence that there should be an Oath imposed on the Clergy for paying the same Obedience to the King that they had paid the Pope
than Complements And though he clearly discovered having sent over the Duke of Norfolk to Francis that he was not to depend much on his friendship yet at the same time he knew that the Emperor would not yield up the Dutchy of Milan to him upon which his heart was much set So he saw they could come to no agreement Therefore he made no great account of the loss of France since he knew the Emperor would willingly make an Alliance with him The hopes of which made him more indifferent whether the German Princes were pleased with what he did or not since he had now attained the end he had proposed to himself in all his Negotiations with them which was to secure himself from any trouble the Emperor might give him Therefore Cromwels Counsels were now disliked for he had always enclined the King to favour those Princes against the Emperor Another secret cause was that as the King had an unconquerable aversion to his Queen so he was taken with the Beauty and behaviour of Mistress Katharine Howard Daughter to the Lord Edmond Howard a Brother of the Duke of Norfolks And as this designed Match raised the credit of her Uncle so the ill consequences of the former drew him down who had been the chief Counsellor in it The King also found his Government was grown uneasie and therefore judged it was no ill Policy to cast over all that had been done amiss upon a Minister who had great Power with him and being now in disgrace all the blame of these things would be taken off from the King and laid on him and his Ruin would much appease discontents and make them more moderate in censuring the King or his Proceedings It is said that other Particulars were charged on him which lost him the Kings favour If this be true it is like they related to the encouragement he was said to have given to some Reformers in the opposition they made to the six Articles Upon the Execution of which the King was now much set His fall was so secretly carryed that though he had often before looked for it knowing the Kings uneasie and jealous temper yet at that time he had no apprehensions of it till the Storm broke upon him In his fall he had the common fate of all disgraced Ministers to be forsaken by his Friends and insulted over by his Enemies Only Cranmer retained still so much of his former simplicity that he could never learn these Court Arts. Therefore he wrote to the King about him next day He much magnified his diligence in the Kings service and preservation and discovering all Plots as soon as they were made That he had always loved the King above all things and served him with great fidelity and success That he thought no King of England had ever such a servant upon that account he had loved him as one that loved the King above all others But if he was a Traytor he was glad it was discovered But he prayed God earnestly to send the King such a Councellor in his stead who could and would serve him as he had done This shews both the firmness of Cranmers friendship to him and that he had a great Soul not turned by the changes of mens fortunes to like or dislike them as they stood or declined from their greatness And had not the Kings kindness for Cranmer been deeply rooted this Letter had ruined him For he was the most impatient of Contradiction in such cases that could be Cromwels ruin was now Decreed and he who had so servily complyed with the Kings pleasure in procuring some to be Attainted the year before without being brought to make their answer fell now under the same severity For whether it was that his Enemies knew That if he were brought to the Bar he would so justifie himself that they would find great difficulties in the Process or whether it was that they blindly resolved to follow that injustifiable Precedent of passing over so necessary a Rule to all Courts of giving the Party accused an hearing the Bill of Attaindor was brought in to the House of Lords Cranmer being absent that day as appears by the Journal on the 17th of Iune and read the first time and on the 19th was read the second and third time and sent down to the Commons By which it appears how few friends he had in that House when a Bill of that nature went on so hastily But it seems he found in the House of Commons somewhat of the same measure which ten years before he had dealt to the Cardinal though not with the same success For his matter stuck ten days there At length a new Bill of Attaindor was brought up conceived in the House of Commons with a Proviso annexed to it They also sent back the Bill which the Lords sent to them But it is not clear from the Journals what they meant by these two Bills It seems they rejected the Lords Bill and yet sent it up with their own either in respect to the Lords or that they left it to their choice which of the two Bills they would offer to the Royal Assent But though this be an unparliamentary way of proceeding I know no other sense which the words of the Journal can bear which I shall set down in the Margent that the Reader may Judge better concerning it * And that very day the King assented to it as appears by the Letter written the next day by Cromwel to the King The Act said that the King having raised Thomas Cromwel from a base degree to great Dignities and high Trusts yet he had now by a great number of Witnesses persons of honour found him to be the most Corrupt Traitor and deceiver of the King and the Crown that had ever been known in his whole Reign He had taken upon him to set at liberty divers persons put in Prison for misprision of Treason and others that were suspected of it He had also received several bribes and for them granted Licenses to carry Money Corn Horses and other things out of the Kingdom contrary to the Kings Proclamations He had also given out many Commissions without the Kings knowledg and being but of a base Birth had said That he was sure of the King He had granted many Passports both to the Kings Subjects and Forreigners for passing the Seas without search He being also an Heretick had dispersed many Erroneous Books among the Kings Subjects particularly some that were contrary to the Belief of the Sacrament And when some had informed him of this and had shewed him these Heresies in Books Printed in England he said they were good and that he found no fault in them and said It was as Lawful for every Christian man to be the Minister of that Sacrament as a Priest And whereas the King had constituted him Vice-gerent for the Spiritual affairs of the Church he had under the Seal of that
office licensed many that were suspected of Heresie to Preach over the Kingdom and he had both by word and in writing suggested to several Sheriffs That it was the Kings pleasure they should discharge many Prisoners of whom some were Indicted others apprehended for Heresie And when many particular complaints were brought to him of detestable Heresies with the names of the offenders he not only defended the Hereticks but severely checkt the Informers and vexed some of them by Imprisonment and other ways The particulars of all which were too tedious to be recited And he having entertained many of the Kings Subjects about himself whom he had infected with Heresie and imagining he was by force able to defend his Treasons and Heresies on the last of March in the 30th year of the Kings Reign in the Parish of St. Peters the poor in London when some of them complained to him of the new Preachers such as Barnes and others he said Their Preaching was good and said also among other things That if the King would turn from it yet he would not turn And if the King did turn and VERA EFFIGIES THOMAE CROMWELL ESSEXIAE COMITIS EQVES PERISCELIS H. Holbeâ—n pinxit R. White sculpsit Natus 1490 Regis vicarius Generalis 1536 Eques Periscelis 1537. Capite truncatus Iuly 18th 1540. Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in St Pauls Church yard all his people with him he would fight in the Fiâ—lâ— in his own person with his Sword in his hand against him and all others And then he pulled out his Dagger and held it up and said or else this Dagger thrust me to the heart if I would not die in that quarrel against them all and I trust if I live one year or two it shall not be in the Kings Power to resist or lett it if he would and swearing a great Oath said I would do so indeed He had also by Oppression and Bribery made a great Estate to himself and extorted much Money from the Kings Subjects and being greatly enriched had treated the Nobility with much contempt And on the last of Ianuary in the 31th year of the Kings Reign in the Parish of St. Martins in the Fields when some had put him in mind to what the King had raised him he said If the Lords would handle him so he would give them such a Break-fast as was never made in England and that the proudest of them should know it For all which Treasons and Heresies he was Attainted to suffer the pains of death for Heresie and Treason as should please the King and to forfeit all his Estate and goods to the Kings use that he had on the last of March in the 31st year of the Kings Reign or since that time There was added to this Bill a Proviso That this should not be hurtful to the Bishop of Bath and Wells and to the Dean and Chapteâ— of Wells with whom it seems he had made some exchanges of Lands From these particulars the Reader will clearly see why he was not brought to make his answer most of them relating to Orders and Directions he had given for which it is very probable he had the Kings Warrant And for the matter of Heresie it has appeared how far the King had proceeded towards a Reformation so that what he did that way was most likely done by the Kings Order But the King now falling from these things it was thought they intended to stifle him by such an Attaindor that he might not discover the secret Orders or directions given him for his own Justification For the particulars of Bribery and Extortion they being mentioned in general expressions seem only cast into the heap to defame him But for those Treasonable words it was generally thought that they were a Contrivance of his Enemies since it seemed a thing very extravagant for a Favourite in the height of his Greatness to talk so rudely And if he had been guilty of it Bedlam was thought a fitter place for his Restraint than the Tower Nor was it judged likely that he having such great and watchful Enemies at Court any such discourses could have layn so long secret Or if they had come to the Kings knowledg he was not a Prince of such a temper as to have forgiven much less imployed and advanced a man after such discourses And to think that during these fifteen months after the words were said to have been spoken none would have had the zeal for the King or the malice to Cromwel as to repeat them were things that could not be believed The formality of drawing his Dagger made it the more suspected for this was to affix an overt-Act to these words which in the opinion of many Lawyers was necessary to make words Treasonable But as if these words had not been ill enough some writers since have made them worse as if he had said He would thrust his Dagger in the Kings heart About which Fuller hath made another story to excuse these words as if they had not been meant of the King but of another But all that is founded on a mistake which if he had looked in the Record he had corrected Cromwels Fall was the first step towards the Kings Divorce For on the 24th of Iune he sent his Queen to Richmond pretending the Countrey air would agree better with her But on the 6th of Iuly a motion was made and assented to in the House of Lords that they should make an address to the King desiring him to suffer his Marriage with the Queen to be tryed Upon which the Lord Chancellor the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk the Earl of Southampton and the Bishop of Duresm were sent down to the Commons to represent the matter to them and to desire their concurrence in the Address To which they agreed and ordered twenty of their number to go along with the Peers So the whole House of Lords with these Commoners went to the King and told him they had a matter of great consequence to propose to him but it was of that Importance that they first begged his leave to move it That being obtained they desired the King would order a Tryal to be made of the validity of his Marriage To which the King consented and made a deep Protestation as in the presence of God that he should conceal nothing that related to it and all its circumstances And that there was nothing he held dearer than the Glory of God the good of the Common-wealth and the declaration of truth So a Commission was issued out to the Convocation to try it On the 7th of Iuly it was brought before the Convocation of which the Reader will see a fuller account in the Collection at the end than is needful to be brought in here The case was opened by the Bishop of Winchester and a Committee was appointed to consider it and they deputed the Bishop of
Christs express Command was to be drunk by all and that they were kept in a worship to which the unlearned could not say Amen since they understood not what was said either in the Collects or Hymns So the King had many Complaints brought him of the Abuses that were said to have risen from the Liberty given the people to read the Scriptures Upon which Bonner no doubt having obtained the Kings leave set up a new Advertisement in which he complained of these Abuses in the reading the Bible for which he threatned the people that he would remove these Bibles out of the Church if they continued as they did to abuse so high a favour Yet these Complaints produced no further severity at this time But by them the Popish party afterwards obtained what they desired This Summer the King turned the Monastery of Burton upon Trent into a Collegiat Church for a Dean and four Prebends and the Monastery of Thornton in Lincolnshire into another for a Dean and four Prebends In this year Cranmer took it into Consideration to what excess the Tables of the Bishops had risen whereby those Revenues that ought to have been applyed to better purposes were wasted on great Entertainment which though they passed under the decent name of Hospitality yet were in themselves both too high and expensive and proved great hindrances to Church-mens Charity in more necessary and profitable Instances He therefore set out an Order for Regulating that Expence by which an Arch-Bishops Table was not to exceed six dishes of meat and four of Banquet a Bishops five dishes of meat and three of Banquet a Deans or Arch-Deacons Table was not to exceed four dishes and two of Banquet and other Clergy-men might be served only with two dishes But he that gives us the account of this laments that this Regulation took no effect And complains that the people expecting generally such splendid House-keeping from the Dignified Clergy and not considering how short their Revenues are of what they were anciently they out of a weak Complyance with the Multitude have disabled themselves from keeping Hospitality as our Saviour ordered it not for the Rich but the Poor not to mention the other ill effects that follow too sumptuous a Table In the end of this year the Tragical fall of the Queen put a stop to all other proceedings The King had invited his Nephew the King of Scotland to meet him at York who was resolved to come thither The King intended to gain upon him all he could and to engage him to follow the Copy he had set him in Extirpating the Popes Supremacy and Suppressing Abbeys and to establish a firm agreement in all other things The Clergy of Scotland feared the ill effects of that Interview especially their King being a Prince of most extraordinary parts who had he not blemished his Government with being so extreamly addicted to his pleasures was the Greatest Prince that Nation had for several Ages He was a great Patron of Learning and Executor of Justice he used in person and Incognito to go over his Kingdom and see how Justice was every-where done He had no very good opinion of the Religious Orders and had encouraged Buchanan to write a severe and witty Libel against the Franciscan Friars So that they were very apprehensive that he might have been wrought on by his Uncle Therefore they used all their endeavours to divert his Journey But the French King that had him fast engaged to his Interests falling then off from the King wrought more on him So instead of meeting the King at York where magnificent preparations were made for his Reception he sent his Excuse which provoked his Uncle and gave occasion to a breach that followed not long after But here I shall crave the Readers leave to give a full representation of the state of Religion at this time in Scotland and of the footing the Reformation had got there Its neighbourhood to England and the union of these Kingdoms first in the same Religion and since under the same Princes together with the intercourse that was both in this and the next Reign between these Nations seem not only to justifie this Digression but rather to challenge it as a part of the History without which it should be defective And it may be the rather expected from one who had his Birth and Education in that Kingdom The Correspondence between that Crown and France was the cause that what Learning they had came from Paris where our Kings generally kept some Schollars and from that great Nursery they were brought over and set in the Universities of Scotland to propagate Learning there From the year 1412 in which Wardlaw Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews first founded that University Learning had made such a progress that more Colledges were soon after founded in that City Universities were also founded both at Glasgow and Aberdeen which have since furnished that Nation with many eminent Scholars in all professions But at the time that Learning came into Scotland the knowledg of true Religion also followed it and in that same Arch-Bishops time one Iohn Resby an English man a follower of Wickliffs opinions was charged with Heresie Forty Articles were objected to him of which two are only mentioned The one was that The Pope is not Christs Vicar The other was that he was not to be esteemed a Pope if he was a man of wicked life For maintaining these he was burnt Anno 1407. 24 years after that one Paul Craâ— came out of Germany and being a Bohemian and an Hussite was infusing his Doctrine into some at St. Andrews which being discovered he was judged an obstinate Heretick and burnt there Anno 1432. And to encourage people to prosecute such persons Fogo who had discovered him was rewarded with the Abbey of Melross soon after It does not appear that those Doctrines which were called Lollardies in England had gained many followers in Scotland till near the end of that Century But then it was found that they were much spread over the Western parts which being in the neighbourhood of England those who were persecuted there might perhaps fly into Scotland and spread their Doctrine in that Kingdom Several persons of Quality were then charged with these Articles and brought to the Arch-Bishop of Glasgows Courts But they answered him with such confidence that he thought fit to discharge them with an admonition to take heed of new Doctrines and to content themselves with the Faith of the Church At this time the Clergy in Scotland were both very ignorant and dissolute in their manners The Secular Clergy minded nothing but their Tithes and did either hire some Friers to Preach or some poor Priests to sing Masses to them at their Churches The Abbots had possessed themselves of the best seats and the greatest wealth of the Nation and by a profuse Superstition almost the one half of
the Kingdom fell into the hands of the Churchmen The Bishops looked more after the affairs of the State than the concerns of the Church and were resolved to maintain by their cruelty what their Predecessors had acquired by fraud and impostures And as Lesly himself confesses there was no pains taken to instruct the people in the principles of Religion nor were the Children at all Catechised but left in ignorance and the ill lives of the Clergy who were both covetous and lewd disposed the people to favour those that preached for a Reformation The first that suffered in this Age was Patrick Hamilton a person of very noble blood his Father was Brother to the Earl of Arran and his Mother Sister to the Duke of Albany so nearly was he on both sides related to the King He was provided of the Abbey of Fern in his youth and being designed for greater preferments he was sent to travel but as he went thorough Germany he contracted a friendship with Luther Melanction and others of their Perswasion by whose means he was instructed in the points about which they differed from the Church of Rome He returned to Scotland that he might communicate that knowledg to others with which himself was so happily enlightned And little considering either the hindrance of his further Preferment or the other dangers that might lie in his way he spared not to lay open the Corruptions of the Roman Church and to shew the Errours that had crept into the Christian Religion He was a man both of great learning and of a sweet and charming conversation and came to be followed and esteemed by all sorts of people The Clergy being enraged at this invited him to St. Andrews that there might be Conferences held with him about those points which he condemned And one Frier Campbel Prior of the Dominicans who had the reputation of a Learned man was appointed to treat with him They had many Conferences together and the Prior seemed to be convinced in most points and acknowledged there were many things in the Church that required Reformation But all this while he was betraying him So that when the Abbot looked for no such thing he was in the night time made Prisoner and carried to the Arch-Bishops Castle There several Articles were objected to him about Original Sin Free-will Justification Good Works Priestly Absolution Auricular Confession Purgatory and the Popes being Antichrist Some of these he positively adhered to the others he thought were disputable points yet he said he would not condemn them except he saw better reasons than any he had yet heard The matter was referred to 12 Divines of the University of whom Frier Campbel was one And within a day or two they censured all his Tenets as Heretical and contrary to the Faith of the Church On the first of March Judgment was given upon him by Beaton Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews with whom sate the Archbishop of Glasgow the Bishop of Dunkeld Brichen and Dunblan five Abbots and many of the inferior Clergy They also made the whole University old and young sign it He was declared an obstinate Heretick and delivered to the Secular Power The King had at that time gone a Pilgrimage to Ross and the Clergy fearing lest nearness of blood with the Intercessions which might be made for him should snatch this prey out of their hands proceeded that same day to his Execution So in the afternoon he was brought to the Stake before St. Salvators Colledg He stripped himself of his Garments and gave them to his man and said he had no more to leave him but the example of his death That he prayed him to keep in mind For though it was bitter and painful in mans Iudgment yet it was the entrance to Everlasting life which none could inherit that denied Christ before such a Congregation Then was he tied to a Stake and a great deal of fewel was heaped about him which he seemed not to fear but continued lifting up his eyes to heaven and recommending his soul to God When the train of Powder was kindled it did not take hold of the Fewel but only scorched his hand and the side of his face This occasioned some delay till more powder was brought from the Castle during which time the Friers were very troublesome and called to him to turn and pray to our Lady and say Salve Regina None was more officious than Frier Campbel The Abbot wished him often to let him alone and give him no more trouble But the Frier continuing to importune him he said to him Wicked man thou knowest that I am not an Heretick and that it is the truth of God for which I now suffer So much thou didst confess to me in private and thereupon I appeal thee to answer before the Iudgment Seat of Christ. By this time more powder was brought and the fire was kindled He cried out with a loud voice How long O Lord shall darkness oppress this Realm how long wilt thou suffer this Tyranny of Men and died repeating these words Lord Iesus receive my Spirit The patience and constancy he expressed in his sufferings made the Spectators generally conclude that he was a true Martyr of Christ in which they were the more confirmed by Frier Campbells falling into great despair soon after who from that turned frantick and died within a year On this I have insisted the more fully because it was indeed the beginning of the Reformation in Scotland and raised there an humour of inquiring into points of Religion which did always prove fatal to the Church of Rome In the University it self many were wrought on and particularly one Seaton a Dominican Frier who was the Kings Confessor He being appointed to preach the next Lent at St. Andrews insisted much on these points That the Law of God was the only Rule of Righteousness that Sin was only committed when Gods Law was violated that no man could satisfie for Sin and that pardon was to be obtained by unfeigned repentance and true faith But he never mentioned Purgatory Pilgrimages Merits nor Prayers to Saints which used to be the Subjects on which the Friers insisted most on these occasions Being gone from St. Andrews he heard that another Frier of his own Order had refuted these Doctrines So he returned and confirmed them in another Sermon in which he also made some reflections on Bishops that were not Teachers calling them Dumb-Dogs For this he was carried before the Arch-Bishop but he defended himself saying that he had only in St. Pauls words said a Bishop should teach and in Esaias words that such as did not teach were Dumb-doggs but having said this in the general he did not apply it to any Bishop in particular The Arch-Bishop was netled at this answer yet resolved to let him alone till he should be brought into disgrace with the King And that was soon done for the King being a licentious Prince and Frier Seaton having