project of the Speakers his lineal Heir Sir Tho. Cheiney Lord Warden of the Cinque Port did then behold and shortly felt the wrathfull Hand of God upon his Family whether for this or any other Sin I dare not judge But being reputed to be the greatest Man of Possessions in the whole Kingdom in so much as Queen Elizabeth on a time said merrily unto him that they two meaning her self and him were the two best Marriages in England which afterward appeared to be true in that his Heir was said to sue his Livery at 3100 never done by any other Yet was this huge Estate all wasted on a suddain Yet when the Commons did desire to have the Lands of the Clergy they did not design or wish that they should be otherwise employ'd than for publick Benefit of the whole Kingdom and that all Men should be freed thereby from payment of Subsidies or Taxes to maintain Soldiers for the Defence of the Kingdom For they suggested that the value of the Lands would be sufficient Maintenance for a standing Army and all great Officers and Commanders to conduct and manage the same for the safety of the Publick as that they would maintain 150 Lords 1500 Knights 6000 Esquires and an 100 Hospitals for maimed Soldiers Thus they projected many good uses to be performed not to enrich private Men or to sell them for small Summs of Money which would quickly be wasted but to be a perpetual standing Maintenance for an Army and all publick Necessities Priories Alien not being Conventual with their Possessions except the College of Foderinghay were by the Parliament given to King Henry V. and his Heirs he suppressed them to the Number of 190 and more Stow p. 563. But gave some of them to the College of Foderinghay p. 551. King Henry VI. gave them afterward to the two Colleges of the Kings in Cambridge and that of Eaton yet Henry V. died young his Son Henry VI. after many Passions of Fortune was twice deprived of his Kingdom and at last cruelly murthered and Prince Edward his Grandchild Son of Henry VI. cruelly also slain by the Servants of King Edward IV. Stow p. 704 705. Cardinal Wolsey intending to build a Colledge at Oxford and another at Ipswich obtained licence of Pope Clement the 7th to suppress about 40 Monasteries In execution whereof he used principally five Persons whereof one was slain by another of these his Companions that other was hanged for it a third drowned himself in a Well The fourth being well known to be worth 200 l. in those days became in three Years time so poor that he begged to his Death Dr. Allen the 5th being made a Bishop in Ireland was there cruelly maimed The Cardinal that obtained the licence fell most grievously into the King's displeasure lost all he had was fain to be relieved by his Followers and died miserably not without the suspicion of poysoning himself The Pope that granted the licence was beaten out of his City of Rome saw it sacked by the Duke of Bourbon's Army and himself then besieged in the Castle of St. Angelo whither he fled escaping narrowly with his life Stow p. 880. taken Prisoner scorned ransomed and at last poysoned as some reported But these five were not the only Actors of this business For Mr. Fox saith That the doing hereof was committed to the Charge of Thomas Cromwell in the execution whereof he shewed himself very forward and industrious In such sort that in handling thereof he procur'd to himself much grudge with divers of the superstitious sort and some also of noble Calling about the King c. in Henry VIII p. 1150. col b. Well as he had his part in the one let him take it also in the other for he lost all he had and his Head to boot as after shall appear in the Progress of these his Actions Annotations upon this Chapter Whereas it is said that the Knight's Fees in Edward Ist. Time were found to be 67000 and that 28000 of them were in the hands of the Clergy it is to be consider'd that if the Account be rightly made there could not be above a third part for there is as much Land in base Tenures that were never within the Fees besides all Crown-lands and Eleemosynary-lands Copy-holds Gavel-kind Burrough-English c. Whereas it is said That when the Commons did desire to have the Lands of the Clergy taken away they did not design or wish that they should be otherwise employ'd than for the publick Benefit and that all Men should be freed from Subsidies and Taxes and they suggested also that the Lands of the Clergy would maintain a great Army to be always ready and for the Conduct thereof many Lords Knights and Esquires should be maintain'd out of the Lands and also many Hospitals provided for such Soldiers as should happen to be maim'd in the Wars And to this purpose it is fit to set down here the Words of my Lord Coke 4 Institut pag. 44. Advice concerning new and plausible Projects and Offers in Parliament When any plausible Project is made in Parliament to draw the Lords or Commons to assent to any Act especially in matters of weight and importance if both Houses do give upon the matter projected and premised their consent it shall be most necessary they being trusted for the Common-wealth to have the matter projected and premised which moved the Houses to consent to be establish'd in the same Act least the Benefit of the Act be taken and the matter projected and premised never perform'd and so the Houses of Parliament perform not the Trust repos'd in them As it fell out taking one Example for many in the Reign of Henry VIII On the King's behalf the Members of both Houses were inform'd in Parliament that no King or Kingdom was safe but where the King had three Abilities First To live of his own and able to defend his Kingdom upon any sudden Invasion or Insurrection Secondly To aid his Confederates otherwise they would never assist him Thirdly To reward his well deserving Servants And the Project was if the Parliament would give unto him all the Abbeys Priories Friaries Nunneries and other Monasteries that for ever in time to come he would take order that the same should not be converted to private Use. But First That his Exchequer for the purposes aforesaid should be enrich'd Secondly The Kingdom strengthen'd by a continual Maintenance of 40000 well-train'd Soldiers with skilfull Captains and Commanders Thirdly For the benefit and ease of the Subject when-ever afterwards as was projected in any time to come should be charg'd with Subsidies Fifteenths Loans or Common-aids Fourthly Least the Honour of the Realm should receive any diminution of Honour by the dissolution of the said Monasteries there being 29 Lords of Parliament of the Abbots and Priors that held of the King per Baroniam whereof more in the next leaf that the King would creat a Number of Nobles
at Noon Then the storm being ended the Irish by Boats fetch'd them to their Houses and reliev'd them It is said That Sir John Arundel lost in this storm besides his Life 52 Suits of very rich Apparel much princely stuff with his great Horse and other Horses and things of price to the value of Ten thousand Marks and twenty five other ships which followed him with Men Horses and other Provision all perishing with him Touching the residue not guilty of this Out-rage and Sacrilege Sir Thomas Piercy Sir Hugh Calverley Sir William Elmham and the rest of the Army they were far and near dispers'd on the Seas with the same dangers but it pleased God to preserve them Yet as soon as the storm was ended a new Misfortune fell upon Sir Tho. Piercy for being weak and weather-beaten with all his Company a Spanish Man of War now setteth upon him singled from the rest of the Navy and drives him to bestir himself as he could which he did so happily as at last he took the Spaniard and bringing him home brought also the occasion of double Joy one for his safety the other for his victory And then pawning that ship for 100 l. he presently furnish'd himself forth again and with as great Joy arriv'd safely at Brest whereof he was one of the Captains with Sir Hugh Calverly and thus supply'd that charge also very fortunately Sir Hugh Calverley also and Sir William Elmham with the rest of those Ships return'd safely into other parts and by the great Mercy of God lost not either Man Horse or any other thing in all this so furious a Tempest All this is much largerly related by Tho. Walsingham in An. 1379 p. 231. seq Though the Attempts of Rebels and Traitors be usually suppress'd by the Power of the Prince yet that notorious Rebel Wat Tyler and his Confederates prevail'd so against King Richard II. that neither his the King's Authority nor the Power of the Kingdom could resist them insomuch as they became Lords of the City and Tower of London and had the King himself so far in their disposition as they got him to come and go to do and forbear when and what they requir'd But after they had spoil'd and burnt the Monastery of St. John's of Jerusalem beheaded the Archbishop of Canterbury and done some other acts of Sacrilege their Fortune quickly chang'd and their Captain Wat Tyler being in the greatest height of his Glory with his Army behind him to do what he commanded and the King fearfully before him not able to resist was upon the sudden wounded and surpriz'd by the Mayor of London his prosperous Success over-turn'd and both he and they whom an Army could not earst subdue are now by the Act of a single Man utterly broken and discomfited and justly brought to their deserved Execution Holinshed and Stow in 4 Rich. II. CHAP. VI. The Attempt and Project upon the Lands of the Clergy in the Time of Henry IV. disappointed BY that Time King Henry IV. was come to the Crown the Clergy of England had passed the Meridian of their greatness and were onward in their declination For the People now left to admire them as before they had done and by little and little to fall off from them in every Place being most distracted though not wholly led away by the prime Lectures Sermons and Pamphlets of them that laboured for an alteration in Religion The Commons also of Parliament which usually do breath the Spirit of the People not only envied their greatness but thought it against reason that those whom the Laity had raised fed and fatted by their Alms and Liberality should use such rigorous Jurisdiction so they accounted it over their Patrons and Founders and against Religion also that they who had devoted themselves to Spiritual contemplation should be so much intangled with the Secular affairs But above all that they who laboured not in the Common-wealth nor were the hundredth part of the People should possess as great a Portion almost of the Kingdom as the whole Body of the Laity For an Estimate hereof had been taken anciently by the Knight's Fees of the Kingdom which in Edward I. Time were found to be 67000 and that 28000 of them were in the Clergy's hands So that they had gotten well towards one half of the Knight's Fees of the Kingdom and had not the Statutes of Mortmain come in their way they were like enough in a short time to have had the better part Yet did not the Statutes otherwise hinder them but that with the King's Licence they daily obtained great accessions and might by the Time of King Henry IV. be thought probably enough to have half the Kingdom amongst them if not more considering that out of that part which remained to the Laity they had after a manner a tenth part by way of Tithe and besides that an inestimable Revenue by way of Altarage Offerings Oblations Obventions Mortuaries Church-Duties Gifts Legacies c. The Parliament therefore 6 Henry IV. called the Laymen's Parliament that all Lawyers were shut out of it casting a malevolent Eye hereon did not seek by a Moderate course a Reformation but as may be observed in other cases to cure a great excess by an extreme defect and at one blow to take from the Clergy all their Temporalities This was propounded to the King by Sir John Cheiney their Speaker who in former time had been himself a Deacon and lapping then some of the Milk of the Church found it so sweet as he now would eat of the Breasts that gave it He inforced this proposition with all the Rhetorick and Power he had and tickled so the Ears of the King that if the Archbishop of Canterbury had not that day stood like Moses in the gap the evils that succeeded might even then have fallen upon the Clergy But the Archbishop declaring that the Commons sought thereby their own enriching knowing well that they should be sharers in this Royal prey assured the King that as he and his Predecessors Edward III. and Richard II. had by the Counsel of the Commons confiscated the Goods and Lands of the Cells or Monasteries that the Frenchmen and Normans did possess in England being worth many thousands of Gold and was not that day the richer thereby half a Mark so if he should now which God forbid fulfill their wicked desire he should not be one Farthing the richer the next Year following This demonstrative and prophetical Speech pronounced with great vehemency by the Archbishop it so wrought upon the Heart of the King that he professed he would leave the Church in better State than he found it rather than in worse And thus that Hideous Cloud of Confusion which hung over the Head of the Clergy vapoured suddenly at this time into nothing Yet did it lay the Train that Henry V. did make a sore Eruption and in Henry VIIIth's Time blew up at the Monasteries The event of which
which we omit The said Monasteries were given to the King by authority of divers Acts of Parliament but no provision was herein made for the said Project or any part thereof Only ad favendum populum these Possessions were given to the King his Heirs and Successors to do and use therewith his and their own Wills To the Pleasure of Almighty God and the Honour and Profit of the Realm Now observe the Catastrophe In the same Parliament of 32. Henry VIII when the great and opulent Priory of St. Johns of Jerusalem was given to the King he demanded and had a Subsidy both of the Clergy and Laity and the like he had in 34. Henry VIII and in 37. Henry VIII he had another Subsidy And since the dissolution of the said Monasteries he exacted divers Loans and against Law receiv'd the same Thus the great Judge the Lord Coke doth severely censure the ill-doings under Henry VIII and sheweth that notwithstanding the infinite Wealth in Money Lands and other Riches which came to the King by the dissolutions yet the People were burthen'd with more Taxes Subsidies and Loans than ever in former Times That it fully appeareth that as the goodly pretences to free the People from Subsidies and several Payments were but empty and vain pretences only ad favendum populum to deceive and abuse the People So in our late long Parliament many publick Projects and Pretences were propos'd and the Presbyterian party were zealous to advance the Throne of Christ and the Tribunal of Christ with all his holy Ordinances in full force as their Language did propose it But it was quickly discover'd that no such Matters were truly intended but only the Land of the Church must be taken to maintain Armies to bring in the Scots-Highlanders Red-shanks Goths and Vandals to subvert the King his Crown and Dignity and in the end to take all the Crown-lands and to divide them amongst the Soldiers and others at their pleasures But the dismal Events and tragical Mischiefs that have happen'd might have been foreseen and prevented but that most Men are ignorant of our own Histories and Chronicles as well as of foreign Histories and Examples wherein they might easily have observ'd the fearfull ends that have follow'd upon the like doings both in our own Kingdoms and other neighbouring Nations as France Germany and Bohemia especially within these last forty Years For as Solomon saith There is no new thing under the Sun For the like hath happen'd often both at home and abroad but that Men will take no warning by any Examples but persist in their wicked and sacrilegious Attempts tho' in the end they bring confusion and destruction upon themselves Whereas it is said that when Henry V. suppress'd the Priories Aliens a good part of their Lands was given to other Religious Houses both by that King and his Son Henry VI. who bestow'd a great part of those Lands upon Colleges in the Universities it is true but in our Reformation there is no such care taken to convert any part of the Church-lands to pious and publick Uses but the Cormorants devour all They spake also of maintaining many Hospitals for relieving of maim'd Soldiers in our present time there is an infinite Number of maim'd Soldiers but no Hospitals provided for them whereas they should have provided some good Number and withall an hundred Bedlams to entertain pious zealous and outragious Puritans who have lost their Wits and Senses and are become extremely mad with distemper'd Zeal as the Anabaptists and Fifth-Monarchy-men Quakers and the rest of the Rabble Humfrey Duke of Glocester coming to the Parliament at St. Edmundsbury and lodging there in a place as Leland saith sacred to our Saviour he was by the Lord John Beaumont then High-Constable of England the Duke of Buckingham the Duke of Somerset and others arrested of High-Treason suggested and being kept in Ward in the same place was the Night following viz. 24. Febr. cruelly murther'd by De la Pole Duke of Suffolk Some judg'd him to have been strangled some to have a hot Spit thrust up his Fundament some to be smother'd between two Feather-beds But all indifferent Persons saith Hall might well understand that he died some violent Death Being found dead in his Bed his Body was shewed to the Lords and Commons as though he had died of a Palsie or Imposthume which others do publish But it falleth out that this Lord John Vicount Beaumont and the Duke of Buckingham were both slain in the Battle of Northampton 38. Henry VI. The Duke of Somerset taken Prisoner at the Battle of Exham An. 1462. and there beheaded The Duke of Suffolk being banisht the Land was in passing the Seas surpriz'd by a Ship of the Duke of Exeter's and brought back to Dover-Road where in a Cock-boat at the Commandment of the Captain his Head was stricken off and both Head and Body left on the Shore CHAP. VII Of the great Sacrilege and Spoil of Church-lands committed by Henry VIII His promise to employ the Lands to the advancement of Learning Religion and Relief of the Poor The preamble of the Statute 27. Henry VIII to that purpose which is omitted in the printed Statutes The neglect of that Promise The great increase of Lands and Wealth that came to the King by the Dissolution Quadruple to the Crown-lands The Accidents which happen'd to the King and his Posterity to the Agents under him as the Lord Cromwell and others to the Crown and the whole Kingdom and to the new Owners of the Lands A View of the Parliaments that passed the Acts of the 27 and 31 of Henry VIII and of the Lords that voted in them and what happened to them and their Families The Names of the Lords in the 27 of Henry VIII omitted in the Record but those of the 31 Henry VIII are remaining being most the same Men. The Names of the Lords Spiritual in those Parliaments and the great Spoil of Libraries and Books The Names of the Lords Temporal in those Parliaments with the Misfortunes in their Families and Dignity abated What hath happened to the Crown it self by the loss of Crown-lands What hath happened to the Kingdom in general and the great Injury done to the Poor The Mischief of the Tenure of Knights-service in Capite which by Act is to be reserved upon all Church-lands that pass from the Crown The ancient Original of Wardship from the Goths and Lombards the abuse of it amongst us The prediction of Egebred an old Hermite The unfortunate Calamities of the Palsgrave and other Princes of Germany by invading the Patrimony of the Church How carefull the Heathens were not to misuse the things consecrated to their Gods King James's Letter to the University of Oxon about Impropriations I Am now come off the Rivers into the Ocean of Iniquity and Sacrilege where whole thousands of Churches and Chappels dedicated to the Service of God in the same manner that
flowed into it by Act of Parliament the next year following being the 33d of his Reign to the Number one and other of But as the Red-sea by the miraculous Hand of God was once dried up so was this Sea of Wealth by the wastfull Hand of this Prince immediately so dried up as the very next year viz. Regni 34. the Parliament was drawn again to grant him a great Subsidy for in the Statute-book it is so stiled and this not serving his turn he was yet driven not only to enhance his Gold and Silver-money in Anno 36 but against the Honour of a Prince to coin base Money and when all this served not his turn in the very same year to exact a Benevolence of his Subjects to their grievous Discontent Perceiving therefore that nothing could fill the gulf of his effusion and that there was now a just cause of great expence by reason of his Wars at Bulloign and in France they granted him in the 37th Year 2 Subsidies at once and four Fifteens and for a Corollary all the Colleges Free-Chapels Chantries Hospitals c. before-mentioned in Number 2374. upon confidence that he should dispose them as he promised solemnly in the Parliament to the Glory of God who in truth for ought that I can hear had little part thereof The next year was his fatal Period otherwise it was much to be feared that Deans and Chapters if not Bishopricks which have been long levelled at had been his next design for he took a very good Say of them by exchanging Lands with them before the Dissolution giving them rackt Lands and small things for goodly Manners and Lordships and also Impropriations for their solid Patrimony in finable Lands like the exchange that Palamedes made with Glaucus much thereby encreasing his own Revenues as he took 72 from York besides other Lands Tenements Advowsons Patronages c. in the 37th of his Reign which are mentioned particularly in the Statute 37. Henry VIII cap. 16. He took also 30 and above as I remember in the 27th Year from the Bishop of Norwich whom he left not that I can learn one Foot of the goodly Possessions of his Church save the Palace at Norwich and how many I know not in the 37th Year also from the Bishop of London I speak not of his prodigal Hand in the Blood of his Subjects which no doubt much alienated the Hearts of them from him But God in these eleven Years space visited him with 5 or 6 Rebellions In Lincolnshire Anno 28 and 3 one after another in Yorkshire Anno 33 one in Somersetshire Anno 29 and again in Yorkshire Anno 33. And though Rebellions and Insurrections are not to be defended yet they discover unto us what the displeasure and dislike was of the common People for spoiling the Revenues of the Church whereby they were great losers the Clergy being mercifull Landlords and bountifull Benefactors to all Men by their great Hospitality and Works of Charity Thus much touching his own Fortunes accompanying the Wealth and Treasure gotten by him as we have declared by confiscating the Monasteries wherein the prophetical Speech that the Archbishop of Canterbury used in the Parliament 6. Henry IV. seemeth performed That the King should not be one farthing the richer the next Year following II. What happened to the King's Children and Posterity Touching his Children and Posterity after the time that he entered into these Courses he had two Sons and three Daughters whereof one of each kind died Infants the other three succeeding in the Crown without Posterity His base Son the Duke of Richmond died also without Issue and as the Issue of Nebuchodonosor was extinct and his Kingdom given to another Nation the 68th Year after he had rifled the Temple of Jerusalem and taken away the holy Vessels so about the same period that King Henry VIII began to sack the Monasteries with their Churches and things dedicated to God was his whole Issue extinct Male and Female base and legitimate and his Kingdom transferred to another Nation and therein to another Royal Family which is now His Majesty's singular happiness that had no hand in the like depredation of the Monasteries and Churches of that Kingdom there committed by the tumultuous if not rebellious Subjects Contrary as it seems to the good liking of our late Sovereign King James who as is reported said that if he had found the Monasteries standing he would not have pulled them down not meaning to continue them in their superstitious Uses but to employ them as Chorah's censers to some godly purposes Wherein most piously he declared himself both in restoring as I hear some Bishopricks and divers Appropriations in Scotland and also by moving the Universities of England to do the like as by his gracious Letter doth appear which shall here following be expressed in the end So his Grandfather King James the 4th of Scotland when he was solicited by Sir Ralph Sadler then Embassador from King Henry to augment his Estate by taking into his Hands the Abbies James refus'd saying What need I take them into mine Hands when I may have any thing I require of them And if there be Abuses in them I will reform them for there be a great many good Which was a wise answer and if King Henry had done the like here he might have had an immense and ample Revenue out of the Monasteries and old Bishopricks while they enjoyed their Lands being a third part of the Kingdom as appears by Doomsday-Book by way of First-fruits Tenths Pensions and Corrodies yearly that he should never have needed at any time to ask one Subsidy of his Subjects To return where we left off having spoken of the extinguishment of the Issue of King Henry whereof the immortally renown'd Princess Queen Elizabeth was the golden period Let us cast our Eyes upon the principal Agents and Contrivers of this Business III. What happen'd to the Principal Agents The Lord Cromwel was conceived to be the principal mover and prosecutor thereof both before and in the Parliament of 27 and 37 Hen. VIII and for his good service impenso impendendo upon the 18th of April before the beginning of the Parliament of 31 which was on the last of the Month he was created Earl of Essex and his Son Gregory made Lord Cromwell yet e're the Year was past from the end of the Parliament of 31 he fell wholly into the King's Displeasure and in July 32 he was attainted and beheaded professing at his Death that he had been seduc'd and dy'd a Catholick His Son Gregory Lord Cromwell being as I said made a Baron in the life time of his Father and invested with divers great Possessions of the Church supported that new risen Family from utter ruine but his Grandchild Edward Lord Cromwell wasting the whole Inheritance sold the head of his Barony Oukham in Rutlandshire and exchanging some of the rest all that remained with the E. of Devonshire for
the meanest of the People to Shop-keepers Taverners Taylors Tradesmen Burghers Brewers Grasiers and it may be supposed that as Constantine the Great seeing the inconvenience of the multitude of Comites of his time distinguished them as Eusebius reporteth into three degrees making the latter far inferior to the former so may it one day come to pass among these of our times and it shall not want some precedent of our own to the like purpose Vide Glossarium in voc Comes pag. 109. IV. What hath happened to the Crown it self It now remaineth to shew how the Lands themselves thus pulled from the Church have thriven with the Crown and in the Hands of the King his Heirs and Successors truly no otherwise than the Archbishop I spake of so long since foretold For they have melted and dropt away from the Crown like Snow yet herein that Snow leaves moisture to enrich the Ground but those nothing save dry and fruitless Coffers for now they are all gone in a manner and little to speak of remaining for them to the Treasury for my own part I think the Crown the happier that they are gone but very unhappy in their manner of going for as Sampson going out of Gaza carried with him the Gates the Bars and Posts of the City leaving it thereby exposed to Enemies weak and undefenced so those Lands going from the Crown have carried away with them the very Crown-Lands themselves which were in former times the glorious Gates of Regal Magnificence the present and ready Bars of Security at all Necessities and like immoveable Posts or Hercules Pillars in all the transmigrations of Crown and Kingdom had to our Time 1000 Years and upward remained fixed and amor ... to the Scepter These I say are in effect all gone since the Dissolution the new Piece hath rent away the old Garment and the Title of terra Regis within Dooms-day Book was generally the Targett in every County is now a Blank I fear in most of them But his Majesty hath a great Fee-farm reserved out of the greatest part of both of them 40000 l. a Year they say out of the Crown Lands and 60000 l. out of the Church Lands I confess it makes a goodly sound yet is it but froth in respect of the solid Land which is deemed to be more than ten times if not twenty times as much and this being but succus redditus a sick and languishing Rent will grow daily as our Rents of Assess have already done to be of lesser worth as the price of Lands and Commodities increase and rise higher but I hear there is ... thousand pounds a Year of the Crown-lands gone without any Reservation at all and above ... thousand likewise of the Church Lands and to tell the truth which my self do well know a great proportion of the Fee-farm Rents themselves are likewise aliened already but mihi Cynthius aurem vellit I must launch no further V. What happened to the whole Kingdom generally What the whole Body of the Kingdom hath suffered since these Acts of Confiscation of the Monasteries and their Churches is very remarkable let the Monks and Friers shift as they deserv'd the good if you will and the bad together my purpose is not to defend their Iniquities the thing I lament is that the Wheat perish'd with the Darnel things of good and pious Institution with those that abused and perverted them by reason whereof the Service of God was not only grievously wounded and bleedeth at this day but infinite Works of Charity whereby the Poor were universally reliev'd thro' the Kingdon were utterly cut off and extinguish'd many thousand masterless Servants turn'd loose into the World and many thousand of poor People which were constantly fed clad and nourished by the Monasteries now like young Ravens seek their Meat at God Every Monastery according to their Ability had an Ambery greater or little for the daily relief of the Poor about them Every principal Monastery an Hospital commonly for Travellers and an Infirmary which we now call a Spittle for the sick and diseased Persons with Officers and Attendants to take care of them Gentlmen and others having Children without means of Maintenance had them here brought up and provided for which course in some Countries and namely in Pomerland as I hear is still observed tho' Monks and Friers be abandoned These and such other Miseries falling upon the meaner sort of People drove them into so many Rebellions as we spake of and rung such loud peals in the King's Ears that on his Death-bed he gave back the Spittle of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield lately valued saith Stow at 308 l. 6 s. 7 d. and the Church of the Gray-Friers valued at 32 l. 19 s. 7 d. with other Churches and 500 Marks a Year added to it to be united and called Christ Church founded by King Henry 8. and to be Hospitals for relieving the Poor the Bishop of Rochester declaring his Bounty at Paul's Cross on the 3d of Jan. and on the 28th day following the King died viz the 28 Jan. This touching the Poor VI. What happened to private Owners of the Monasteries particularly I turn now to the richer sort and shall not need to speak of the Clergy whose irreparable Misery Piers Ploughman foresaw so many Ages before saying That a King should come that should give the Abbat of Abingdon such a blow as incurable should be the Wound thereof Their Misery and Wrack is so notorious as it needs no Pen to decypher it nor will I speak of the loss that the Lay-men our Grandfathers had by this means in their right of Founders and Patronage Meantenures Rents-services Pensions Corrodies and many other Duties and Privileges whereof some were saved by the Statutes yet by little and little all in effect worn out and gone Those I say I speak not of for that they are Wounds grown up and forgotten but of one instead of all that immortal and incurable Wound which every day bleedeth more than other given to us and our Posterity by the infinite number of Tenures by Knights service in capite either newly created upon granting out of these Monasteries and Lands or daily raised by double Ignoramus in every Town almost of the Kingdom For as the Abbies had Lands commonly scattered abroad in every of them in some greater or lesser quantity according to the Ability of their Benefactors so the Leprosie of this Tenure comes thereby as generally to be scatter'd thro' the Kingdom And whereas before that time very few did hold on that manner besides the Nobility and principal Gentlemen that were owners of great Lordships and Possessions which from time to time descended intirely to their Heirs and were not broken out into small parcels amongst inferiour Tenents and mean Purchasers Now by reason that those Abby Lands are minced into such infinite numbers of little Quillets and thereby privily sown like the Tares in the Parable almost in every
off the arm of Eli's Father's house i. e. the Authority and Honour of the Priesthood which was performed when Solomon cast out Abiathar ... of Eli out of the Priest's Office and bestowed it on Zadock being of another Family 1 King 2. 26. Secondly That all of his Family should die before they came to be old which himself did partly see in his own Sons Thirdly That his sons Hophni and Phinehas should die both in one day Fourthly That he should see his enemy possess his office and that the remnant of his family should crouch and be suitors to him for relief and favour All which undoubtedly came to pass And yet with all this was not the Wrath of God appeased but spreading it self into a further Agony of Indignation fell not only upon the whole People of Israel but also upon the holiest Monuments of the Glory of God The Word of the Lord became rare and precious There was no manifest Vision The Army of Israel is beaten by the Philistines and about 4000 of them slain in one Battle and 30000 in another The Ark of God taken Prisoner and carried Captive into the House of Dagon the Philistines Idol Hophni and Phinehas died Eli falleth backward and breaketh his Neck The Wife of Phinehas falleth untimely into Travail and dieth with Grief 1 Sam. chap. 2. 3 4. Fourscore and five Priests of Eli's House are at Saul's Commandment tyrannously slain all in one Day Nob the City of the Priests with the Men Women Children Sucklings Oxen Sheep and Asses all destroyed 22. 18. And finally to cut the Priesthood for ever from the House of Eli Solomon cast Abiathar out of it being the fourth in Succession after Eli and brought in Zadock of another Family 1 Chron. 6. 8. Oh the dreadful Justice of Almighty God! But such of old was the Fruit of Sacrilege and such Effects it still produceth Joash stoned Zachariah in the Court of the Temple This double Sacrilege of Person and Place was punished by the Slaughter of his People Loss of his Treasure Diseases of his Body and Murther of his Person as we have already cleared in Sacrilege of the Person So Vzziah entering the Sanctuary by force and attempting the Priest's Office in burning Incense committed Sacrilege of Place and Person was punished as we have cleared Ahaz committeth Idolatry and spoileth the Temple of the Treasure and some other Ornaments He is first given into the hands of the Azarites or Assyrians then Pekah King of Israel slayeth 120000 of his Soldiers all in one day and taking 200000 Women and Children Prisoners took away also much Spoil which they brought to Samaria The Edomites also beat him and captivated his People and the Philistines took and inhabited many of his Cities In this Affliction he farther spoileth the Temple of the Vessels and shutteth it up and dying an Idolater and Sacrilegious is not buried in the Sepulchre of his Father but a-part in Jerusalem 2 Chron. 28. Nebuchadonosor otherwise called Nebuchadnezzar spoileth the Temple carrieth thence all the Treasure and Holy Vessels 2 King 24. 13. slayeth those that were fled thither for Safety after by his Servants burnt it 2 Chron. 36. 17. He is stricken with Madness cast out of his Kingdom liveth among Beasts and like a Beast feedeth upon Grass till his Hairs were grown like Eagles Feathers and his Nails like Birds Claws Dan. 4. 3. And in the Days of his Grand-Child was his Family clean extinguished and his great Empire taken from him by Force and given to the Persians Dan. 5. Antiochus Epiphanes Son of Antiochus the Great King of Syria entereth into the Sanctuary and taketh away the Golden Altar and the Treasure of the Temple even 1800 Talents Presently his Posterity and Glory altereth his Captains are slain his Armies beaten and all his Affairs were so unfortunate that calling his Friends unto him confesseth that he was fallen into that Adversity and Flood of Misery for that Evil he had done at Jerusalem For I took saith he all the Vessels of Gold and Silver that were in it ... and I know that these Troubles are come upon me for the same Cause and behold I must die with great Sorrow in a strange Land Thus in Passions of Grief he ended his Days cap. 6. 11. Yet did not this end his Tragedy for his Son Antiochus Eupater was depriv'd of his Kingdom by his Uncle Demetrius and put to Death and altho' Alexander Epiphanes his other Son a Brother of Antiochus Eupater recover'd the Kingdom and slew Demetrius and fortified himself by the Marriage of Cleopatra Daughter of Ptolemy King of Aegypt to his great Happiness as he thought yet God turned it to his own Destruction for Ptolemy took both her and the Kingdom from him and gave them to his Enemy Demetrius Nicanor and whilst he fled to save his Life to his Friend Zabdiel the Arabian he struck off his Head and sent it to Ptolemy 1 Maccab. 11. 9. notwithstanding this his Son Antiochus Theos being but a Child by the Help of Tryphon was restored to his Father's Kingdom and overthrew Demetrius Nicanor Cap. 11. 54. who flying is imprisoned by Arsaces King of Persia Cap. 14. 2. and after slain so that Antiochus seemeth not secure but the Hand of God is still upon the Posterity of Antiochus Epiphanes the Sacrilegist for even now doth Tryphon himself murther his Grand-child Antiochus Theos and ending that Line usurpeth the Kingdom 1 Maccab. 33. 31. Read 2 Maccab. 9. 7. Touching the Sacrilegious Attempt made by Antiochus and some of his Soldiers upon the Temple of ... or Diana as Lyra taketh it in Persia and the terrible Destruction that fell immediately upon them mentioned 2 Macc. 1. 16. I pass it over as not belonging to this place Heliodoras the Treasurer of King Seleucus is sent by his Master to fetch the innumerable Money that was in the Temple of Jerusalem not belonging to the Provision of the Sacrifices but deposited there in safety for Widows and Orphans The high Priest Onias declareth to him that there was not above 400 Talents of Silver and 200 of Gold and both he and the rest of the Priests and the rest of the City prayed instantly to God to preserve the Treasury notwithstanding Heliodorus and his Souldiers approach unto it and presently there appeared a terrible Man on Horse-back richly barbed between two young Men of notable strength and the Horse running fiercely upon him struck him on the Breast with his Fore-foot and the young Men scourged him continually with many sore stripes so that Heliodorus falling to the Ground and covered with great Darkness was carried away in a Horse-Litter desperate of Life till by Entreaty Onias prayed for him and thereupon the young Men appearing again to Heliodorus willed him to give Onias thanks because God for his sake had spared his Life Seleucus after this would have sent another but Heliodorus advising him to send his Enemy he gave it over 2
neglected No marvel they pass over the Apocryphal Books wherein are remarkable Examples against Sacrilege as is already set forth in this Discourse out of them And tho' the Books themselves are not accounted Canonical equal to the rest yet for the Historical Truths concerning the Persecutions and Sufferings of the Jews there is no question made of their Credit The Authors therefore of the Annotations though in their Preface they promise all Sincerity and Fidelity yet have they failed in both very grosly They solemnly attest the Divine Omniscience and profess with the blessed Apostle St. Paul that they are not of those that corrupt the word of God 2 Cor. 2. 17. or who handle it deceitfully Chap. 4. 2. nor who wrest any part of it to the Patronage of any Error of what denomination soever nor have we added to it say they any of our own preconceived Opinions to imprint a partiality in our Expositions nor taken from it or smothered the least tittle of sacred Truth contained in it nor yet have we subtilly passed over any difficult place with silence as if it had no need of an Annotation to clear it But let the Reader judge whether it appears not by these few Observations touching Sacrilege which is the crying Sin of this Age that they have dealt very slightly and subtilly in passing over such remarkable Places with silence and smothering the Truth which might have been confirmed and inforced from these pregnant Texts They have plainly discovered their Double-dealing Dissembling and Forbearance to denounce the Judgments of God against such a notorious Sin so raging and predominant at this time They have done like the false Prophets of old that did sow Pillows and flatter the People in their evil Courses whereas Sacrilege is accounted one of the most hainous Sins of these Days by the best Divines and other learned Men that have written thereof The Apostle saith Rom. 2. 22. Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacrilege The Presbyterians are very zealous against all sorts of Idols Images Pictures and Crosses but for Sacrilege unless it be for that of the Sabbath they are very sparing and silent But for the Apostles words 't is true as one doth well infer upon them these words are spoken as to the Person of an unconverted Jew and may be therefore thought to aim only at those Sins which were described in the Law of Moses But do but view St. Paul's way of Arguing and you will quickly find they come home to us Christians He therefore tells the Jew that he taught others those things which he would not do himself and he strives to make this good by three several Instances First Thou that preachest a Man should not steal dost thou steal Secondly Thou that sayest a Man should not commit Adultery dost thou commit Adultery In both these it is plain that the Jew he dealt with did the same things he reprehended And streightway the third comes Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacrilege So that hence it will follow if St. Paul's words have any Logick in them that these two Sins are of the self same Nature too and that to commit a Sacrilege is a breach of the same Law as to commit an Idolatry so that the Crime will appear without all doubt a plain Robbery of God For he that steals from Men yea though a whole Community of Men though bona universitatis yet he sins but against his Neighbour 't is but an Offence against the Second Table of the Law in these words Thou shalt not steal But Sacrilege lays hold on those things which the Latins Laws call bona nullius it strikes downright immediately at God and in that regard no Idolatry can out-do it As this is 't is a breach of the First Table of the Law and both these Crimes are equally built upon the self same contempt of God The Offenders in both kinds the Idolater and the sacrilegious Person both think him a dull sluggish Thing The first thinks he will patiently look on whilst his Honour is shared to an Idol The other imagines he will be as sottishly tame though his Goods be stollen to his Face XERXES having Ten hundred thousand Men in his Land-Army and as many by Estimation in his Navy intendeth to make an absolute Conquest of Greece pag. 13. and spoiling all Phocis leaveth a part of his Army among the Doreans commanding them to invade Delphos and to fire the Temple of Apollo and to bring away the Sacred Riches of it The Soldiers marching toward it came to Pronoea a place not far from Delphos where a wonderful Tempest of Rain and Lightning suddenly came upon them and rending down part of the Mountains overwhelmed many of the Army and so amaz'd the rest that they fled away immediately in all the haste they could fearing to be consumed by the God who by this prodigeous Miracle thus preserv'd his Temple In memory hereof a Pillar was erected in the Place with an Inscription to relate it pag. 12. But this seemed not a sufficient Revenge for so horrible a Design accompany'd with other acted Sacrileges Nothing therefore prospereth with Xerxes His invincible Navy is overthrown in a Sea-Battle at Salamis by Themistocles his Land-Army at Plateos by Pausanias where Mardonius Xerxes's General that destroy'd the Houses sacred to the Gods was also slain Both these great Victories beyond human Expectation sell against him in one day and beaten thereby out of Europe with the Loss of ... thousand of his Men he fortifieth the rest of his Navy and Army at Mycale a City of Ionia in Asia where Leotychidas the Lacedaemonian General obtaining as admirable a Victory of him as the other slayeth above Forty thousand of his Men putting the rest to flight Which struck such terror into the Heart of Xerxes as upon report thereof he fled also to Ecbatan and in this manner ended his Wars with inestimable Loss Derision and Shame Vengeance notwithstanding still pursued him so that after many Years Artabanes the Captain of his Guard aspiring to the Kingdom though he obtain'd it not murthered both him and his eldest Son Darius Diodor lib. 11. pa. 15 23 28 53. Imilco a famous General of the Carthaginians for their Wars of Sicily in the time of Dionysius the Tyrant prevailed very fortunately in all his Enterprizes till that taking the Suburbs of Archadina he spoil'd in it the Temple of Ceres and Proserpina This Sacrilege saith Diodorus brought a just Punishment upon him for in the next Encounter the Syracusans overthrew him And being arrived in his Camp Fears and Tumults rise amongst his Soldiers in the Night time and sudden Alarms as if the Enemy had been upon his Trenches Besides this a grievous Plague at last ... in his Army accompany'd with many fierce Diseases that drave his Men into Frenzies and Forgetfulness so that running up and down the Army they flew upon every Man they met with And no Physick could help them for
apud Malmes de gest Reg. lib. 1. p. 28. Sed fusiùs apud Baron in An. 745. nu 5. Ceolred King of the Mercians or Midland England was guilty also of spoiling Monasteries and defiling of Nuns and was the first with Osred before named that since the entrance of Austin brake the Privileges granted by the Saxon Kings unto Monasteries and for these sins saith Boniface and the other Bishops in the said Epistle Justo judicio Dei damnati de culmine regali hujus vitae abjecti immaturâ terribili morte praeventi c. For Ceolred as those that were present did testifie being at a great Feast among his Earls that Evil Spirit which before had mov'd him to do such wickedness struck him there with Madness and in that case he dy'd Impenitently the same Year that Osred his fellow in Sacrilege was murder'd viz. An. 716. Epist. praedict Beda in Epit. It seemeth his Line was also extinct Ethelbald the next Successor of Ceolred in the Kingdom of Mercia succeeded him also in his wicked Courses He forbeareth lawfull Marriage but liveth Adulterously with the Nuns and breaking the Privileges of Churches and Monasteries taketh away also their Substance which gave the occasion that Boniface Arch-bishop of Mentz and other German Bishops wrote the foremention'd Epistle unto him desiring him to mend his course and the wrongs he had done which like a good King he willingly did and at a Council holden at Clovesho now call'd Cliff in Kent acknowledging his Sin did also by his Charter restore what he had taken or broken with an Overplus and founded the Monastery of Crowland yet so was the hand of God upon him that in a War unwisely begun he was treacherously Slain by Bartred alias Beornred and the Kingdom by him usurp'd Epist. praedict Stow pag. 88. Bar. 742 nu 16. Celsus Veronensis THat many rare and excellent Men and all Nations attributed the fortunate Success of the Turks against the Venetians as the loss of their Island Cubaea the lamentable success of their Expedition of Achaia his last Victory which made his way broader and his enterance easier the Death and Calamity of their Euripus many think and affirm that God of his righteous and just Judgment hath brought upon you for your insolent Taxing and Polling of Holy Things belonging to the Church and your injurious troubling of the Estate of Religion pag. 212. Compilation and Pilling of Holy Things pag. 214. New and unusual Taxing and Tolling of the Church pag. 215. How many Victories Conquests Sports happy Events have you had in these so long Wars since you invented this strange and pestilent Counsel to lay violent Hands on Church Goods and Holy Things dedicated to God which Impiety believe me will not help you one whit in these your great Dangers and extream Necessity pag. 219. That the Captivity of Constantinople was from the discord and departing from the Church of Rome pag. 215. The Pisans Kingdom prosper'd by Sea and Land till they laid wicked and violent Hands on the Church and the Ministers of the high God Ibid. Caesar would not suffer his Sword hung up as a Spoil gotten from him in the Church of Avernia to be pull'd down Vita ejus pag. 219. Mithridates in the Life of Lucullus notably afflicted by Diana pag. 226. Historius Banish'd taken Captive by the barbarous the City burnt over his Head his Life always in danger fell into a most deadly Contagion his Tongue eaten out of his Head with Worms and miserably died Evagr. Hist. lib. 1. pag. 169. Lastly Propound unto your selves the late Example of Philip Maria when he had good Success in all his Affairs and all things fell out with him as well as he could wish At length he gave over himself to such a madness that all fear set apart he challeng'd Church Goods to himself But mark how duly he suffer'd worthy Punishment being wearied with continual Wars he not only lost a great part of his own Dominions his Enemies besieging him even hard unto his Walls but also he suffer'd dangerous and grievous Diseases so that he being blind led a most sorrowful life a long time after But what became of his Empire and by what means his Noble Family is now clear extinguish'd and no Succession left at all it may easily appear to every Man the thing being so fresh in Memory Cels. Veron pag. 241. Frederick II. made Emperor by Innocent III. having taken the Cross against the Christian Enemies even then feared not wickedly to take away the Goods of the Church to employ them profanely but made a Sacrilegious pact with the mighty King of Egypt the Soldan concerning the suppressing of Religion and Religious Houses but he did not long escape the just Vengeance of God for after he had spoil'd many Cities after many Dissensions had with the Church of Rome after he had devour'd many Temples after many most cruel and barbarous Sacrileges having his own Son in a jealousie that he affected the Empire he shut him up in most filthy Dungeons till he dy'd And he feeling the great and grievous censure of the Church as the righteous God had appointed was Strangled by his own Son Manfredus most cursedly Celsus of Verona pag. 289. The Princes of Carraria in like Impiety when they began once wickedly to challenge to themselves the ordering of those things which belong only to the Holy Function by reason of the Pestilent Counsel they had taken very soon after lost the famous City Patavium most strong by Situation and free which was thought almost to be invincible Cels. of Ver. pag. 239 240. Eudo alias Oda Duke of Aquitane not able to resist Charles Martel draweth an excessive Army of Saracens out of Spain unto his aid They being come into France waste all places and burn down the Churches as far as to Poictiers Charles Martel assisted by the Hand of God encountreth them and slayeth three Hundred seventy five Thousand others say three Hundred eighty Thousand of them together with their King Abdyrama losing not above an Hundred and Fifty of his own Men. Then Eudo himself reconcil'd to Charles spoileth the Camp of the Saracens and destroyeth the rest But fighting again with Charles in Gascony loseth both his Dukedom of Aquitane and his Life his Sons also Gaifer and Haimald are overcome and the Saracens wholly beaten out of France Sigeb An. 730 732. Guil. de Nanges Blond 10. Decad. 1. Platin. The Normans under Ragenarius their Captain besides other Sacrileges spoil the Church of St. Germans by Paris and attempting to cut down some of the Firr Beams to repair their Ships three of them attempting it are dasht in pieces Another hewing a Marble Pillar with his Sword to overthrow some part of the Church had his Hand like Jeroboam's dried up and the haft of his Sword stuck so to it as it parted not without the Skin Many were stricken with Blindness and as
no it is said he died within nine Days and the truth is that he died indeed at his Age of thirty seven Years when he had Reigned sixteen Years and two Months Rog. Higd. Chr. p. 161. col 1. lib. 60. King Edgar understanding that the Welshmen were in Rebellion invaded the Countrey of Glamorgan with an Army and in spoiling of it the Bell of St. Ellutus was taken away and hang'd about an Horse's Neck Therefore in Vndertyde while King Edgar lay on his Bed to rest him saith the Chronicle one appeared to him and smote him on the Breast with a Spear Then when the King was waken he bad restore again all that was taken But the King died after nine Days or as Fabian saith within ten Days Ranulph Cestrens out of the British History This King Edgar was buried at Glastenbury and when Ayleward the Abbot there had unworthily digged open his Grave he the Abbot fell Mad and going out of Church brake his Neck and died Ibidem immediatè supra Griffith the Valiant and Victorious King of North-Wales in aid of Algar Earl of Chester whom King Edward the Confessor had expelled and banished invadeth Herefordshire putteth to flight Radulf Earl thereof and Son of Goda the Confessors Sister with his whole Army and taking the City of Hereford fired the Cathedral Church slew Leogar the Bishop and seven of the Canons that defended it burnt also the Monastery built by Bishop Aethelstane carried away the Spoil thereof and of the City with slaughter of the Citizens and fully restored Algar the Earl both now and a second time Upon this King Edward sent Harald against him who upon his second Voyage into North-Wales burnt his Palace and Ships After this Griffith raising an Army for Revenge and going to meet Harald was by his own People traiterously Murdered and his Head brought to Harald Alfgarus Stalhere that is Constable of the Army to Edward the Confessor invaded the Town of Estre otherwise called Plassie and pulling it from the Monastery of Ely converted it to his own use The Abbot and Monks there besought him by all fair means to restore it but prevailing not they proceeded to denounce daily Curses and Imprecations against him and at last altho' he were so great a Person in the Kingdom to excommunicate him Hereupon the King reproving him sharply and the People shunning his Company he at last sought to be reconciled to the Church and for obtaining thereof granted by his Deed and ratified it by his Oath that the Town after his decease should again return to the Monastery Yet after the Death of Edward the Confessor and Harald the Usurper he was by the Conqueror cast into Prison and there among others in Fetters of Iron ended his Life Jordan Prince of Capua hearing that the Bishop of Rosella had brought and laid up a good Sum of Money in the Monastery of Cassin in Italy sent his Soldiers and by force took it out of the Treasury of the Church but was shortly after strucken Blind Leo. Marsic lib. 3. cap. 45. Upon this Gregory the Seventh calleth a Council and maketh a Canon against Sacrilege and writing to Jordan reproveth him for this and other Offences admonishing him to amend them Baron An. 1078. 24. The Prince touch'd with Remorse granteth in Recompence the next Year after to the Monastery of Cassin divers great Territories and Privileges with a Penalty of 5000 l. of Gold upon the Violaters thereof Leo. Marsic in Chron. Cassin lib. 3. cap. 46. RIchard Robert and Anesgot Sons of William Sorenge in the time of William Duke of Normandy wasting the Countrey about Say invaded the Church of St. Gervase lodging their Soldiers there and making it a Stable for their Horses God deferred not the Revenge for Richard escaping on a Night out of a Cottage where he was beset with his Enemies a Boor whom he had fettered a little before light upon him and with an Hatchet clave his Head asunder Robert having taken a Prey about Soucer was pursued by the Peasants and slain Anesgot entring and sacking of Cambray was struck in the Head with a Dart thrown downward on him and so died Lo saith Gemeticensis we have here seen that truly perform'd which we have heard If any man shall violate the Temple of God God shall destroy him 1 Cor. 3. 17. And admonishing such as spoil Churches to look about them and not to sooth themselves in their Sin for that God often deferreth the Punishment he concludeth with these Verses of another Mans Lib. 6. cap. 13 14. Vos male gaudetis quia tandem suscipietis Nequitiae fructum tenebras incendia luctum Nam pius indultor justusque tamen Deus ultor Quae sua sunt munit quae sunt hostilia punit Dear bought for thou must one Day undergo The price of this Hell Darkness Fire and Woe God's Threats are sure tho' Mercy be among them He guards his Rights and pays them home that wrong them William the Conqueror in making the Forest of Ytene commonly called the New-Forest is reported to have destroy'd twenty six Towns with as many Parish-Churches and to have banished both Men and Religion for thirty Miles in length to make room for his Deer He had ruined also some other Churches in France upon occasion of War and in Lent-time in the fourth Year of his Reign he rifled all the Monasteries of England of the Gold and Silver which was laid up there by the richer of the People to be protected by the Sanctity of the Places from Spoil and Rapine and of that also which belonged to the Monasteries themselves not sparing either the Chalices or Shrines But he that in the like Attempt met with Heliodorus in the second of Machab. 3. met with him also grievously both in his Person and Posterity Touching his Person as God raised Absalom against David so raised he Robert Duke of Normandy against his Father the Conqueror and fought a Battle with him by the Castle of Gerborie in France where the Conqueror himself was unhorst his Son William wounded and many of their Family slain Hereupon the Conqueror as casting Oyl into the Fire of God's Wrath that was kindled to consume his own Family cursed his Son Robert which to his dying Day wrought fearfully upon him as shall by and by appear But to proceed with the Conqueror himself it is very Remarkable that being so great and renowned a King he was no sooner Dead but his Corps was forsaken of his Children Brethren Friends Servants and Followers and wickedly left saith Jo. Stow as a barbarous Person not one of his Knights being found to take care of his Exequies So that a Countrey Knight out of Charity was moved to take care thereof and conveying the Corps to Caen in Normandy the Abbots and Monks of St. Stephens there with the rest of the Clergy and Laity of the Town met it reverently but in conducting it to the Church a
terrible Fire broke out of an House and spreading suddenly over a great part of the Town the whole Company was disperst and only the Monks left to end the Office begun The Funeral notwithstanding proceeded afterwards in great Solemnity the Bishops and Abbots of Normandy attending it But when the Mass was done and that the Bishop of Ebroscen at the end of his Sermon had desired all that were present to pray for the dead Prince and charitably to forgive him if he had offended any of them one Anselm Fitz-Arthur rising up said aloud The Ground whereon ye stand was the floor of my Father's House and the Man for whom ye make Intercession took it violently from him while he was Duke of Normandy and founded this House upon it I now therefore claim my own and forbid him that took it away by violence to 〈◊〉 covered with my Earth or to be buried 〈◊〉 my Inheritance The Bishops and Nobility hearing this and understanding it to be true by the Testimony of others presently compounded with the Party in fair manner giving him 60 s. in Hand for the place of Burial and promising a just Satisfaction for the rest for which he received afterwards a 100 l. in Silver by consent of Henry the Conqueror's Son This Blur being thus wiped away they proceeded to put the Corps into the Tomb or Coffin prepared by the Mason whereupon another followed very loathsome for it being too short and strait as they strove violently to thrust the Corps into it the fat Belly not being Boweled burst in pieces and vapoured forth so horrible a savour as the smoak of Frankincense and other Aromaticks ascending plentifully from the Censers prevail'd not to suppress it but both Priest and Company were driven tumultuously to dispatch the Business and get them gone Thus much of the Disasters touching the Person of the Conqueror To which may be added that his very Death proceeded from a violent Accident happening unto him in the Sacking of Medant where the heat and heaviness of his Armour and the extream clamor upon his Soldiers wrought as was reported a Dissolution of his Entrails à ruina intestinorum ejus liquefacta saith Gemeticensis for tho' he liv'd a while after yet he languish'd till his Death But note by the way that he who had in his Life-time destroy'd so many Churches and Burying-places being dead although he were so great a King yet he wanted the Office of his Children Friends and Servants to carry him to Church or to take care of his Burial that being carried thither by others the very Fire wherewith he had devoured certain Churches interrupted his Passage that being come to the Church he that had put so many by their places of Burial was now put by his own And lastly that when the place of his Burial was obtain'd for Money it happened fatally that it was too strait to receive him as tho' the Earth of the Church which he had so grievously injured were unwilling to open her Mouth to entertain him But after all difficulties Did he not rest quiet at last Reason would he should for the Grave is Asilum Requiei the Sanctuary of Rest and he did enjoy it for many Ages Yet the Bishop of Bajeux in the Year 1542. opened his Tomb and brought to light his Epitaph hidden in it Graven upon a Gilded-plate of Brass But in the Year 1562. certain French Soldiers with some English that under the Conduct of the Chastillon took the City of Caen and fell to spoiling of Churches there did barbarously break down and deface the Monument of this great King and as tho' the Malus Genius of the Churches which himself had destroy'd still pursued him with Revenge did take out his Bones and cast them away Verst p. 184. What befel these Soldiers that thus rifled Churches appeareth not obscurity and oblivion do conceal them But the lamentable end of the Chastillon himself that suffered this Outrage is very notorious in the Massacre of Paris To come to his Posterity his Sons were four all of them at times in War amongst themselves Robert the eldest deprived of his Birth-right the Crown of England first by his Brother William then by his Brother Henry who also took from him his Dutchy of Normandy put out his Eyes and kept him cruelly in Prison till the Day of his Death His only Son Richard hunting in the New-Forest was slain in the Life of his Father by an Arrow shot casually as Florentius Wigorneinsis reporteth Others name him Henry and say he was hanged there like Absalom by the Hair of the Head Be it one or both the Death was violent and in the New-Forest But thus Robert died without Issue nothing prospering with him as Stow noteth after his Father Cursed him Richard second Son of the Conqueror Duke of Beorne as Stow saith died also in the same Forest in the fifteenth Year of his Father upon a pernicious Blast that happened on him but Gemeticensis lib. 11. c. 9. saith with a blow of a Tree William Rufus the third Son was contaminate as well with his own as his Fathers Sacrilege for he would part with no Bishoprick that came into his Hands without Money for it by reason whereof he had lying upon his Hand for want of Chapmen thirteen Bishopricks at the time of his Death He was also slain in the same Forest An. with an Arrow out of the Quiver of God shot casually by Sir Walter Tyrell and as Florentius reporteth in the very self-same place where a Church did stand till the Conqueror destroy'd it He also died without Issue Gemeticens lib. 7. cap. 9. Henry the fourth Son being King Hen. I. abstain'd as I imagine Hunting in the New-Forest but God met with him in another Corner for having but two Sons William legitimate and Richard natural they were in the fifteenth Year of his Reign both drowned with other of the Nobility coming out of France and himself dying afterward without Issue Male in the Year 1135. gave a period to this Norman Family Here I must observe as elsewhere I have done that about the very same point of time viz. 68 Years wherein God cut off the Issue of Nebuchadnezzar and gave his Kingdom to another Nation after he had invaded the holy Things of the Temple About the very same point of time I say after the Conqueror had made this Spoil of Churches did God cut off his Issue Male and gave his Kingdom to another Nation not of Normandy but Bloys Inter An. 1061. An. 1070. Vrsus Abbot was made Sheriff of Worcester by William the Conqueror and building a Castle in Worcester near the Monastery cut a part of the Church-yard into the Dike of his Castle which Aldred the Arch-Bishop of York seeing said to him Hatest thou Urse have thou God's curse unless thou takest down this Castle and know assuredly that thy Posterity shall not long inherit this Ground of St. Mary ' s. He foretold
excommunicated the Earl who little regarded it The Earl so dieth the Bishop cometh into England and reneweth his Suit to Earl William his Son and Heir obtaining to have the King his Mediator but prevail'd not for Earl William and his Brethren answer'd That their Father did the Bishop no wrong having gotten the Mannors by right of War The Bishop in the agony of his Spirit reneweth the Curse against their Father and them and said That the Lord had cast it grievously upon Earl William as is written in the Psalm In a Generation his Name shall be put out and his Sons shall be Vagabonds as touching the Blessing promis'd by the Lord of Encrease and multiply Earl William the Father at the time of his Death and Burial which was in the New Temple at London 17. Kal. Apr. 1219. and 4 Hen. 3. left 5 Sons and as many Daughters Earl William the eldest Son first married Alice the Daughter and Heir of Baldwin Earl of Albermarle c. After Eleanor Daughter of King John and died without Issue 6. Apr. 1231. 15 Hen. 3. Earl Richard the second Brother succeeded he married the Lady Gervasia and was slain in Ireland 18 Hen. 3. leaving no Issue Earl Gilbert the 3d Brother succeeded He married Margaret Daughter of William King of Scots and was kill'd by his own Horse at a Tornement at Hartford 21 Hen. 3. 1241. leaving no Issue Earl Walter the fourth Brother succeeded He married Margaret Daughter and Co-heir of Robert Lord Quiney and died at London 6. Dec. 1245. 30 Hen. 3. or as others report the 24. Nov. and was buried at Tinterne leaving no Issue Earl Anselm the youngest was at the death of his Brother Walter Dean of Salisbury but admitted to be Earl of Pembroke and Marshal and in haste married Maud the Daughter of Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford that he yet at last might propagate the most noble Family But Non est consilium contra Dominum for he died within 18 or 24 days after his Brother before he was actually possess'd of his County Thus according to the Malediction of the Bishop the Name of those great Earls Marshal was utterly extinct all the five Brethren being married and dying Childless within 15 Years Matt. Par. An. 1219 1245. p. 292 665 alibi King Edw. 1. in the zeal of his Religion his Father yet living took the Cross upon him and went to assist the Christians in the Wars of Jerusalem The Pope in recompence of his Charges granted unto him in the second Year of his Reign he being return'd the tenth part of all Ecclesiastical Benefices of the Kingdom for one Year and the like to his Brother Edmond for another But afterwards the King forgetting his old Devotion in the 11th Year of his Reign seiz'd all the Treasure of the Tenths collected for that purpose and laid up in divers places of the Kingdom and breaking open the Locks caus'd it to be brought unto him and employ'd it to his own use Stow. This taste of things separate to God drew him on to a further Appetite In the 23d Year of his Reign he took into his hands all the Priories Aliens throughout the Kingdom committing them as Charles Martel of old had done in France to Officers under him and allowing every Monk 18d a Week retain'd the rest for the charge of his War as he did also the Pensions going out of those Houses to the greater Monasteries beyond the Seas Yet obtain'd he further in the same Parliament of the Clergy and Religious Persons a Subsidy of half their Goods to the value of 100000l whereof the Abby of Bury paid 655 l. 11d q. Stow ib. p. 316. King Ed. l. being in great want by his subduing Scotland about the end of the 23th Year of his Reign caused all the Monasteries of England to be search'd and the Money found in them to be brought to London Wals. pa. 65. Cax l. 7. c. 39. Shortly after in the 24th Year of his Reign at a Parliament at St. Edmundsbury he required a Subsidy which the Laity granted But the Clergy pretending that Pope Boniface at the same time had forbidden upon pain of Excommunication that either Secular Princes should impose Tallages upon the Church-men or that Church-men should pay any they refus'd to supply the King's Necessity and having day to advise better on the matter till the next Parliament at London shortly after they persisted in the same mind Whereupon the King put them out of his Protection so that being robb'd and spoil'd by lewd persons without remedy to redeem the King's Favour the Archbishop of York and many of the Bishops laid down a fifth part of all their Goods in their Churches and some by other courses satisfy'd the King's desire and so recover'd his Protection But all the Monasteries within the Province of Canterbury were seiz'd into the King's hands and Wardens appointed in them to minister to the Monks and Religious Persons therein only what must be had of necessity taking all other Monies and Surplusage to the King's use So that the Abbots and Priors were glad to follow the Court and to repair their Error with the fourth part of their Goods The Archbishop of Canterbury after all this fearing the Pope's Excommunication continu'd in his refusal lost all he had was forsaken of his Servants forbidden to be receiv'd either in any Monastery or without and rested in the House of a poor Man only with one Priest and one Clerk How these Courses were censur'd in foro coeli is not in me to judge nor will I pry into the Ark of God's Secrets But see what followeth in the Story King Edward having with great Triumph subdu'd Scotland and taken the King Prisoner did at this present peaceably enjoy that Kingdom and govern'd it by his own Officers But e're three Months came to an end Wil. Wallis began such a Rebellion there as put all in hazard and in fine it was so reviv'd by Robert le Bruce the King 's natural Subject that at length he overthrew the King's Armies slew and beat out his Officers and without all recovery gain'd the Kingdom to himself and his Posterity King Edward attempting the recovery died at the entrance of Scotland His Son Edward II. pursuing his Father's intent with one of the greatest Armies that ever was raised by the English was miserably beaten and put to flight hardly escaping in his own person All his Life after full of Tumult not only his Nobles but his very Wife his Enemy abandoned of his Subjects turn'd out of his Kingdom imprison'd and traiterously murther'd In all which the Curse which his Father upon his Death-bed laid upon him if he should break the Precepts he gave him had no doubt a cooperation for he observ'd none of them Touching the pulling of Lands from the Church all have not always been of one mind For tho' the makers of the Statute of Mortmaine did truly think that the
Clergy had so disproportionable a share by way of excess in the Lands of the Kingdom yet when in 17 Edw. II. it came to the point that the Order of the Templars for their wickedness was overthrown the Parliament then wherein many of those no doubt that made the Statute of Mortmain were present would not give the Lands and Possessions of the Templars to the King or the Lords of whom they were holden but ordain'd that they should go to the Order of the Hospital of St. John's of Jerusalem then lately erected for the defence of Christendom and the Christian Religion Edward le Bruce brother to Robert le Bruce King of Scots invadeth the North parts of Ireland with 6000 Men and accompanied with many great persons of the Nobility conquer'd the Earldom of Ulster gave the English many overthrows and prevail'd so victoriously that he caus'd himself to be crown'd King of Ireland His Soldiers in the mean time burn Churches and Abbies with the People whom they found in the same sparing neither Man Woman nor Child And most wickedly entring into other Churches spoil'd and defac'd the same of all such Tombs Monuments Plate Copies and other Ornaments as they found there He thus prevailing and the Irish much revolting to him the Archbishop of Armagh blesseth and encourageth the English Army against him Whereupon they joyn'd battle overthrew the whole Power of the Scots slew 2000 of their Men and amongst them this their King Edward le Bruce himself King Edw. III. to begin his Wars with France in An. 1337. taketh all the Treasure that was laid up in the Churches throughout England for the defence of the Holy Land Speed p. 190. And whereas there were anciently in England many Cells and Houses of Religion 110 they were counted and more belonging to greater Monasteries beyond the Seas fraught with Aliens and Strangers especially French-men and those of the Orders of Clunis and Cistertien King Edward III. at his entry into his French Wars An. 1337 Regni 12. partly fearing that they might hold intelligence with his Enemies but seeking chiefly to have their Wealth toward the payment of his Soldiers confiscated their Goods and Possessions letting their Priories and Lands to farm for Rent and selling some of them right out to others of his Subjects Yet like a Noble and Religious Prince touch'd with remorse when the Wars were ended viz. An. 1361 regni 35. he granted them all save those few that he had put away back again unto them by his Letters Patents as freely as they had formerly enjoy'd them And divers of those that were purchas'd by his Subjects were by them new-founded and given back to Religious Uses This act of the King 's was a precedent of singular Piety yet was it but a lame Offering not an Holocaust He gave back the Possessions but he retain'd the Profits which he had taken for 23 Years Speed p. 211. King John whom they so much condemn did more than this if he had done it as willingly He restor'd the Lands with the Damages But let not this good King want the charitable Commendation due unto his Piety though having dipt his Hands in this We be driven by the course of our Argument to observe what after befell to him and his Off-spring There be some things saith ... are sweet in the Mouth but bitter in the Belly pleasant at the beginning but woful in the end If these Priories and their Churches were of that nature the sequel verifies the Proverb The middle part of the King's Life was most fortunate and victorious yea all the while that these things were in his Hands even as if God had bless'd him as he did Obed-Edom 1 Sam. 6. 10. whilst the Ark was in his House and had the King then dy'd he had been a most glorious pattern of earthly Felicity But the Wheel turn'd and his Oriental Fortunes became Occidental The Peace he had concluded with France for the solace of his Age brake out again into an unfortunate War Many of his Subjects there rebell Gascony in effect is lost Afflictions at home fall upon him in sequence his Son Lionel Duke of Clarence dieth without Issue-male and when he had greatest need of his renowned Son the Prince of Wales miracle of Chivalry and the Anchor of his Kingdom him even then did God take from him his Court and Nobles discontented and in Faction himself and all things much misgovern'd by his Son the Duke of Lancaster and others of that part who by the Parliament are therefore remov'd from him and by him recall'd notwithstanding to the grief of all the Kingdom Thus he dieth leaving his unweildy Scepters to the feeble Arms of a Child of Eleven Years old King Richard II. whose lamentable History for the honour of Kings is best unspoken of But so unfortunate he was among his other Calamities that he was not only deposed by his unnatural Subjects but imprison'd and murther'd dying without Issue and leaving an Usurper possessor of his Kingdoms which kindled such Fuel of Dissention as consum'd almost all the Royal Line and Ancient Nobility of the Kingdom by the Civil War between the Houses of York and Lancaster To return to the Restitution made by King Edw. III. of the Priories-Alien An Historian termeth it A rare Example of a just King it being seldom seen that Princes let go any thing whereon they have once fasten'd But this King having made a Door in this manner into the freedom and possession of the Church all the Power he had either ordinarily or by Prerogative could not now so shut it up but that this Precedent would for ever after be a Key to open it at the pleasure of Posterity which was well seen not long after For in the Parliament An. 9. of King Richard II. The Knights and Burgesses with some of the Nobility being in a great rage as John Stow saith against the Clergy for that William Courtney the Archbishop would not suffer them to be charged in Subsidy by the Laity exhibited a Petition to the King that the Temporalities might be taken from them saying That they were grown to such Pride that it was Charity and Alms to take them from them to compell them thereby to be more meek and humble And so near the Parliament-men thought themselves the point of their desire that one promised himself thus much of this Monastery another so much of another Monastery And I heard saith Tho. Walsingham one of the Knights deeply swear that of the Abbey of St. Albans he would have a thousand Marks by the Year of the Temporalities But the King hearing the inordinate crying out on the one side and the just defence on the other deny'd his consent and commanded the Bill to be cancell'd Stow p. 479. Two valiant Esquires John Shakel and Robert Hauley having taken the Earl of Dene Prisoner at the Battel of Nazers in Spain and receiv'd his Son Hostage for performing Conditions between
he went to this place to visit the Prince whom they called the King of Bohemia My Son seeing what the King was about and how he had prophaned the Church by making it a Store-house said to my Lord Craven That he fear'd it might be ominous to the King my Lord answer'd I will tell him what you say and turning to the King said This Gentleman fears this that your Majesty doth will not be prosperous to you the King answered That was but a Conceit and so pass'd it over But mark what follow'd upon it The King within a few Months after passing in a Bark with the Prince his eldest Son over the Delf of Harlam his Boat was casually stemm'd and overturn'd by a Barge that met him in the Night and tho' he himself with great difficulty was sav'd yet that hopefull Prince his Son had not that wofull happiness to be drowned right-out but after he was drench'd in the Water and gotten upon the Mast of the Bark wherein they perish'd he was there most miserably starv'd with Cold and frozen to Death And the Father himself while he lamented the death of his Son was by an unusual death of Princes taken away by the Plague laying thus the first Stone of his unfortunate Building like that of the Walls of Jericho in the death of his eldest Son and prevented in the rest by his own death God's Judgments are his Secrets I only tell Concurrences The other German Princes persecuted with the Sword and spoil'd of their Liberties How carefull the Heathens were not to misuse things consecrated to Almighty God When the Philistines had taken the Ark they with all Reverence plac'd it in the House of their God Dagon and fearing to keep it return'd it back with Oblations So Nabuchodonosor having taken away the holy Vessels of the Temple abused them not to prophane uses but kept them religiously in the House of his God And when Belshazar and his Kingdom was by the Justice of God extinguished for abusing of them and that thereby they came to the Hands of Cyrus in the Conquest of Babylon he understanding that they belonged to the Temple of God in Jerusalem would not be owner of them but sent them back to Jerusalem St. Jerom notes on Dan. 5. Quam diu vasa fuerunt in idolis Babylonicis non est iratus Dominus videbantur enim rem Dei secundum pravam quandam opinionem tamen divino cultui consecrâsse postquam autem humanis usibus divina contaminant statim poena sequitur post sacrilegium Most remarkable is the Piety of the Heathen King Darius 2 Macab 1 34 who hearing of the Pit wherein the holy Fire had been hid by the Prophet Jeremy and being turn'd into Water was after a long time taken thence by Nehemiah for the kindling of the Altar-Fire he caused the very place wherein these sanctified things had once been laid to be walled about and as holy Ground to be for ever sequestred from Prophanation Pompey the Great having taken the City Jerusalem by force and broken into the Temple seeing the inestimable Treasure and Riches thereof would neither take nor suffer any â—hing to be taken thence but commanded all things to be cleansed and the Sacrifices to be continued as they were formerly The Copy of His Majesty's Letter to the Vniversity of Oxon touching Glebe Tythes in Parsonages impropriated to be reduced to the sufficient and incumbent Minister as is here mention'd before James Rex RIght trusty and well belov'd We greet you well the Zeal that Religion might be well planted in this Realm and all other our Dominions hath caused Vs to enter into Consideration of all means that might best serve to the furtherance hereof Wherein finding that no one thing is a greater impediment than want of competent living to maintain Learned Men in such places of our Kingdom where the ordinary Benefit of the Vicarages doth not suffice and the Parsonages are impropriate and in Lay-mens Hands We have found that there could not be a readier way to supply that defect than if those Impropriations of Tythes might be converted again to the right use for which they were at present instituted wherein by God's Grace we have a purpose to do in such of of them as now are or shall be in Our Hands whatsoever Our State may well bear By which Example of Ours we presume to induce all others possess'd of the like to imitate Vs as far as with their Ability they may In the mean time We have consider'd that to give beginning to so good a work none were more fit than the Colleges in the Vniversities who being so eminent Members of Our State and having divers of them many such Impropriations and some of them also a desire as We are inform'd to provide for such persons out of such Livings as shall fall within their powers to dispose their Example should have great efficacy into all good men in this sort to advance the Glory of Christ's Gospel And because there may occur in the performance hereof some such particular difficulties as are unknown to Vs We have thought good before We entred further into it to recommend this Matter to your Consideration requiring you Our Chancellour and in your absence the Vice-Chancellour and Heads of Houses to assemble your selves and such discreet Men of all the Colleges as you shall think meet for such a Consultation and to propose that matter amongst you and to consider and set down some speedy course how upon the Expiration of the Years in being of any Lease of Tythes or Glebe impropriate the same may afterwards be so devised as Ecclesiastical Persons bred in the Houses to whom the same do belong respectively may be maintain'd and enabled to execute their Functions and yet the College provided of such things as are necessary for maintaining the same whereof We have no intention to wish any prejudice knowing well how fit it is that they be supported by all good means whatsoever of which your Deliberation and Resolution We do require you to advertise Vs with as convenient speed as you may both by Writing under your Hands and by some discreet Persons to be sent to Vs or Our Council to make Report of your doings therein Given under Our Sign at our Castle of Windsor the 10th of July 1603 in the first Year of the Reign of England France and Ireland and of Scotland 30th CHAP. VIII The particulars of divers Monasteries in Norfolk whereof the late Owners since the Dissolution are extinct or decayed or overthrown by Misfortunes and grievous Accidents ABout the Year I suppose 1615 or 1616 I described with a Pair of Compasses in the Mapp of Norfolk a Circle of 12 Miles the Semi-diameter according to the Scale thereof placing the Center about 24 the chief Seat of the Yelvertons within this Circle and the Borders of it I inclosed the Mansion-houses of about 24 Families of Gentlemen and the sight of as many Monasteries