the same time giving him a Subsidy of six shillings in the Pound to be paid out of their Spiritual Promotions poor Stipendiary Priests paying each of them six shillings eight pence to encrease the Sum which also was so soon consumed that the next year he press'd his Subjects to a Benevolence and in the following year he obtain'd the Grant of all Chantries Hospitals Colleges and Free-Chappels within the Realm though he lived not to enjoy the benefit of it Most true it is that it was somewhat of the latest before he cast his Eye on the Lands of Bishopricks though there were some that thought the time long till they fell upon them Concerning which there goes a story That after the Court-Harpies had devoured the greatest part of the Spoyl which came by the Suppression of Abbeys they began to seek some other way to satiate that greedy Appetite which the division of the former Booty had left unsatisfied And for the satisfying whereof they found not any thing so necessary as the Bishops Lands This to Effect Sir Thomas Seymour is employed as the fittest man being in Favor with the King and Brother to Queen Jane his most beloved and best Wife and having opportunity of access unto him as being one of his Privy Chamber And he not having any good affection to Archbishop Cranmer desired that the experiment should be try'd on him And therefore took his time to inform the King that my Lord of Canterbury did nothing but fell his Woods letting long Leases for great Fines and making havock of the Royalties of his Arch Bishoprick to raise thereby a Fortune to his Wife and Children Withal he acquainted the King That the Archbishop kept no Hospitality in respect of such a large Revenue and that in the Opinion of many wise men it was more convenient for the Bishops to have a sufficient yearly stipend out of the Exchequer than to be so encumbred with Temporal Royalties being so great a hinderance to their Studies and Pastoral Charge and that the Lands and Royalties being taken to his Majesties use would afford him besides the said Annual Stipends a great yearly Revenue The King considering of it could not think fit that such a plausible Proposition as taking to himself the Lands of Bishops should be made in vain only he was resolv'd to prey further off and not to fall upon the spoyl too near the Court for fear of having more partakers in the Booty than might stand with his profit And to this end he deals with Holgate preferred not long before from Landaff to the See of York from whom he takes at one time no fewer than Seventy Mannors and Townships of good old Rents giving him in exchange to the like yearly value certain Impropriations Pensions Tythes and Portions of Tythes but all of an extended Rent which had accrued to the Crown by the Fall of Abbeys Which Lands he laid by Act of Parliament to the Dutchy of Lancaster For which see 37 Hen. 8. Chap. 16. He dismembred also by these Acts certain Mannors from the See of London and others in like manner from the See of Canterbury but not without some reasonable Compensation for them And although by reason of his death which followed within a short time after there was no further Alienation made in his time of the Churches Patrimony yet having open'd such a gap and discovered this Secret that the Sacred Patrimony might be Alienated with so little trouble the Courtiers of King Edward's time would not be kept from breaking violently into it and making up their own Fortune in the spoyl of Bishopricks So impossible a thing it is for the ill Examples of Great Princes not to find followers in all Ages especially where Profit or Preferment may be furthered by it Thus Heylyn CHAP. VI. Of some other Passages concerning this King and likewise of his death HAving now prosecuted this Relation thus far and drawing to an end of it we will here insert a Passage out of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Pag. 6. concerning King Henry the Eighth's Absolute Power of disposing of the Crown The words are these Anno Regni 28. In the Act of Succession which past in the Parliament of this year there is this Clause to wit That for lack of Lawful Heirs of the Kings Body it should and might be lawful for Him to confer the Crown on any such Person or Persons as should please his Highness and according to such Estate and after such Manner Form Fashion Order and Condition as should be Expressed Named Declared and Limited in his Letters Patents or by his Last Will The Crown to be enjoyed by such Person or Persons so to be nominated and appointed in as large and ample manner as if such Person or Persons had been his Highness's Lawful Heirs to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Thus Dr. Heylyn By this and what hath been said in these Collections it evidently appears that all Inheritances both Civil and Ecclesiastical as likewise the Lives of all men in the Reign of this King depended upon the Arbitrary Government of those times Now we must end this story concerning matters of Religion in this Kings Reign with a brief Relation of his Death with a Summary Account of his Wives and the years of his Reign The Relation of his Death is thus deliver'd by Dr. Heylyn in his History of Reformation Page 14. THe King having lived a voluptuous Life and too much indulged to his Palate was grown so corpulent or rather so over-grown with an unweildy burthen of Flesh that he was not able to go up Stairs from one Room to another but as he was hoised up by an Engine which filling his Body with foul and foggy Humors did both wast his Spirits and encrease his Passions In the midst of which Distempers it was not his least care to provide for the Succession of the Crown to his own Posterity At such time as he married Anne Bulleign He procur'd his Daughter Mary to be declar'd Illegitimate by Act of Parliament The like he also did by his Daughter Elizabeth when he had married Jane Seymour settling the Crown upon his Issue by the said Queen Jane But having no other Issue by her but Prince Edward and none at all by his following Wives he thought it a point of prudence to establish the Succession by more Stayes than one For which cause he procured an Act of Parliament in the 35 year of his Reign in which it is declared That in default of Issue of the said Prince Edward the Crown should be entail'd to the Kings Daughter the Lady Mary and the Heirs of her Body And so likewise to the Lady Elizabeth and the Heirs of her Body And for lack of such Issue to such as the King by his Letters Patents or his last Will in Writing should limit Of which Act of Parliament he being now sick and fearing his approaching end made such use in laying down the state of the
by Persons not responsible in which case the King as well as the Commissioners was to lose his Right But more was concealed by Persons not to be discovered who had so cunningly carried on the stealth that there was no tracing of their Foot-steps And some there were who being known to have such Goods in their Possession conceived themselves to be too great to be called in question and were connived at willingly by those that were but their equals and either were or meant to be Offenders in the same kind So that although some profit was hereby raised to the King's Exchequer yet the far greatest part of the Prey came to other hands Insomuch that many private Mens Parlors were hung with Altar-cloths their Tables and Beds covered with Copes instead of Carpets and Coverlets and many made Carowsing Cups of the Sacred Chalice as once Belshazzar Celebrated his drunken Feasts in the Sanctified Vessels of the Temple It was a sorry House not worth the naming which had not something of this Furniture in it though it were only a fair large Cushion made of a Cope or Altar-cloth to adorn their Windows or to make their Chairs appear to have somewhat in them of a Chair of State Yet how contemptible were these Trappings in comparrison of those vast Sums of Money which were made of Jewels Plate and Cloth of Tissue either conveighed beyond the Seas or sold at home and good Lands purchased with the Money nothing the more blessed to the Posterity of them that bought them for being purchased with the Consecrated Treasures of so many Churches Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XII Of his last designed Sacriliege to wit The Suppression of Bishopricks and Collegiate Churches and particularly of his Suppressing the Bishoprick of Durham Dr. Heylyn pag. 132. BUt as the King was plunged in Debt without being put to any extraordinary Charges so was he decayed in his Revenue without selling any part of his Crown Lands toward the payment of it By the Suppressing of some and the Surrendring of other Religious Houses the Royal Intrado was so much encreased in the late King's time that for the better managing of it the King Erected first the Court of Augmentation and afterwards the Court of Surveyors But in short time by his own profuseness and the avariciousness of this King's Ministers it was so retrenched that it was scarce able to find work enough for the Court of Exchequer Whereupon followed the Dissolving of the said Two Courts in the last Parliament of this King Which as it made a loud noise in the ears of the People so did it put this jealousie into their minds That if the King's Lands should be thus daily wasted without any recruit he must at last prove burthensome to the common Subject Some course is therefore to be thought on which might pretend to an encrease of the King's Revenue And none more easie to be compassed than to begin with the Suppression of such Bishopricks and Collegiate Churches as either lay farthest off or might be best spared In reference whereunto it was concluded in a Chapter held at Westminster by the Knights of the Garter That from thenceforth the said most Noble Order of the Garter should be no longer entituled by the Name of St. George but that it should be called The Order of the Garter only and the Feast of the said Order should be Celebrated upon Whitsun-Eve Whitsun-Day and Whitsun-Munday and not on St. George's-day as before it was And to what end was this concluded and what else was to follow upon this Conclusion but the Dissolving of the Free-Chappel of St. George in the Castle of Windsor and the transferring of the Order to the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh in the Abbey of Westminster Which had undoubtedly been done and all the Lands thereof converted to some powerful Courtiers under pretence of laying them to the Crown if the King's death which happened within Four months after had not prevented the design and thereby respited that ruine which was then intended The like preservation hapned at the same time to the Church of Durham as liberally endowed as the most and more amply privilâ—…eged than the best in the King's Dominions The Bishops thereof by Charter and long Prescription enjoying and exercising all the Rights of a County Palatine in that large Tract of Ground which lies between the Tees and the Tyne the Diocess also containing all Northumberland of which the Bishops and the Priests had the greatest shares No sooner was Bishop Tonstal committed to the Tower but presently an eye was cast upon his Possessions Which questionless had followed the same fortune with the rest of the Bishopricks if one more powerful than the rest had not preserved it from being parcelled out as the others were on a strong confidence of getting it all unto himself After this the Earl of Northumberland to preserve himself gave unto the King the greatest part of his Inheritance and dying without Children not long after left his Titles also to the King 's disposing The Lands and Titles being thus fallen unto the Crown continued undisposed of till the Fall of the Duke of Sommerset when Dudley Earl of Warwick being created Duke of Northumberland doubted not but he should be able to possess himself in short time also of all the Lands of that Family To which Estate the Bishoprick of Durham and all the Lands belonging to it would make a fair Addition upon which grounds the Bishoprick of Durham being Dissolved by Act of Parliament under pretence of patching up the King's Revenue the greatest part of the Lands thereof were kept together that they might serve for a Revenue to the future Palatine But all these Projects failed in the Death of the King and the subsequent Death of this great Duke in the following Reign of Queen Mary Thus far out of Dr. Heylyn ' s History of Reformation concerning the strange Proceedings in this Change of Religion and the sad Effects of it An Appendix I will here end this King's Reign with a short Relation of this great Dukes Ambition and the King's Death Sir Rich. Baker pag. 445. THe Duke of Northumberland having procured the cutting off the Proctor's Head and being placed next the King had now gone a great way in his Design It only remaining to perswade King Edward to exclude his two Sisters from Succession in the Crown For that done his Daughter-in-law the Lady Jane would come to have Right for as to Pretenders out of Scotland or any other he made no great matter And now to work the King to this perswasion being in a languishing Condition not far from Death he inculcates to him how much it concerned him to have a care of Religion that it might be preserved in Purity not only in his own Life but also after his Death which would not be if his Sister the Lady Mary should Succeed and She could not be put by unless the other Sister the Lady Elizabeth
come to the Nunns of Syon with their Confessor to solicite them thereto who after many perswasions took it upon their Consciences that they ought to submit to the King's pleasure therein by God's Law But what could not be effected by such Arguments and fair Promises was by terror and streight dealing brought to pass For under pretence of suffering Delapidations in the Buildings or negligent administration of their Offices as also for breaking the Kings Injunctions they depriv'd some Abbots and then put others that were more plyant in their rooms From others they took their Convent-Seals to the end they might not by making Leases or Sale of their Jewels raise Money either for supply of their present Wants or payment of their Debts and so be necessitated to Surrender Nay to some as in particular to the Canons of Leicester the Commissioners threatned That they would charge them with Adultery and Buggery unless they would submit And Dr. London told the Nunns of Godstow That because he found them obstinate he would dissolve the House by vertue of the King's Commission in spite of their Teeth And yet all was so manag'd that the King was solicited to accept of them not being willing to have it thought that they were by Terror moved thereto and special notice was taken of those who did give out that their Surrenders were by Compulsion Which courses after so many through under-hand corruption had led the way brought on others apace as appears by their Dates which I have observ'd from the very Instruments themselves insomuch as the rest stood amaz'd not knowing which way to turn them Some therefore thought fit to try whether Money might save their Houses from this dismal fate so near at hand Others with great constancy refus'd to be thus accessory in violating the Donations of their Pious Founders But these tasted of no little severity For touching the Abbot of Fountains in York-shire I find that being charg'd by the Commissioners for taking into his hands some Jewels belonging to the Monastery which they call'd Theft and Sacrilege they pronounced him Perjur'd and so deposing him extorted a private Resignation And it appears that the Monks of Charter-House in the Suburbs of London were committed to Newgate where with hard and barbarous usage Five of them died and Five more lay at the point of death as the Commissioners signified But withal alledg'd That the Suppression of that House being of so strict a Rule would occasion great Scandal to their doings for as much as it stood in the face of the World infinite concourse from all parts coming to that Populous City and therefore desired that it might be altered to some other use And lastly that under the like pretence of robbing the Church wherewith the before specified Abbot of Fountains was charg'd the Abbot of Glastenbury with Two of his Monks being condemn'd to death was drawn from Wells upon a Hurdle and then hang'd upon the Hill call'd the Tore near Glastenbury his Head set upon the Abbey-gate and his Quarters dispos'd of to Wells Bath Ilchester and Bridgewater Nor did the Abbots of Colchester and Reading speed much better as they that shall consult our story of that time may see And for further terror to the rest some Priors and other Ecclesiastical Persons who had spoken against the Kings Supremacy a thing then somewhat uncouth being so newly set up were condemn'd as Traytors and Executed And now that all this was effected to the end it might not be thought that these things were done by a high Hand a Parliament was called â—…0 Hen. 8. to confirm these Surrenders Now there wanted not plausible insinuations to Both Houses for drawing on their Consent with all smoothness thereto The Nobility being promised large shares in the spoils either by Free-gift from the King easie-Purchases or most advantageous Exchanges and many of the Active Gentry advancements to Honour with encrease of their Estates All which we see happened to them accordingly And the better to satisfie the vulgar it was represented to them that by this Deluge of Wealth the Kingdom should be strengthened with an Army of Forty Thousand menâ—… and that for the future they should never be charg'd with Subsidies Fifteens Loans or Common Aides By which means the Parliament Ratifying these Surrenders the Work became compleated For the more firm Settling whereof a sudden course was taken to pull down and destroy the Buildings as had been done before upon the Dissolution of the smaller Houses Next to disperse a great portion of the Lands amongst the Nobility and Gentry which was accordingly done The Visitor General having told the King That the more had interest in them the more they would be irrevocable And lest any Domestick stir should arise by reason of this great and strange Alteration rumors were spread of great dangers from Forein Invasions against which great Preparations were made every where which seemed so to excuse this Suppression of the Abbyes as that the People willing to spare their own Purses began to suffer it easily But let us look upon the Success Wherein I find that the said Visitor General the grand Actor of this Tragical business having contracted upon himself an Odium from the Nobility by reason of his low Birth and being raised to so high Dignities as likewise from the Catholicks for having thus Acted in the Dissolution of the Abbeys was before the End of the said Parliament wherein that was ratified which he had with so much Industry brought to pass deserted by the King who not having any more use of him gave way to his Enemies Accusations Whereupon being Arrested by the Duke of Norfolk at the Council-Table when he least dream't of it he was Committed to the Tower and Condemned by the same Parliament for Heresie and Treason unheard and little pitied and had his Head cut off on Tower-Hill Nor did many of the Reformers speed much better For Fire and Fagot happened to be their Portion And as for the fruit the People reap'd from all their hopes built upon these specious Pretences it was very little For Subsidies from the Clergy and Fifteens of all Laymens Goods were soon after exacted And in Edward the Sixth's time the Commons were constrained to Supply the King's wants by a new Invention to wit Sheep Cloaths Goods Debts c. for Three years which Tax grew so heavy that the year following they prayed the King for mitigation of it Nor is it a little observable that whilst the Monasteries stood there was no Act for Relief of the Poor so amply did those Houses give succor to them Whereas in the next Age to wit the 39 of Elizabeth no less then Eleven Bills were brought into the House of Commons for that purpose Thus far out of Mr. Dugdale concerning this Prodigious and Diabolical Action A word out of the same History Page 109 and 119. concerning Chantryes Gilds or Fraternities I shall only mention one of each of them to
new and strange Obsequy performed for Henry the 2d King of France Howe 's upon Stow pag. 639. A solemn Obsequy was kept in Paul's Church at London for Henry the Second King of France This Obsequy was kept very solemnly with a rich Hearse but without any Lights The Bishops of Canterbury Chester and Hereford executing the Dirge of the Even song in English they siting in the Bishop of London's Seat in the upper Quire in Surplices with Doctors Hoods about their shoulders The next day after the Sermon Six of the Lords Mourners received the Communion with the Bishops Who were in Copes upon their Surplices only at the ministration of the Communion Howe 's in the same Page The Second of October in the Afternoon and the next day in the Forenoon a solemn Obsequy was held in St. Paul's Church in London for Ferdinand the late Emperor departed Thus Howes CHAP. VI. Of the great Havock this Queen made of Bishopricks although She retained Episcopal Government Anno Reg. Eliz. 2. Dr. Heylyn pag. 120. IN the Second year of Her Reign some days after the Deprivation of the former Bishops She Elected other Bishops to satisfie the world that She intended to preserve Episcopal Government But why this was deferred so long may be a question Some think it was That She might satisfie her self by putting the Church into a posture by her Visitation before she passed it over to the care of the Bishops Others conceive That she was so enamoured with the Power and Title of Supream Governess that she could not deny Her self the contentment in the exercise of it which the present Interval afforded And it is possible enough that both or either of these Considerations might have some influence upon Her But the main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees in so long a vacancy must be found elsewhere An Act had passed in the late Parliament Anno Reg. Eliz. 1. which never had the confidence to appear in Print In the Preamble whereof it was declared That by the Dissolution of Religious Houses many Impropriations Tythes and portions of Tythes had been invested in the Crown which the Queen could not well dismember from it in regard of the present low condition in which she found the Crown at her coming to it And thereupon it was Enacted that in the vacancy of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick it should be lawful for the Queen to issue out a Commission under the great Seal for taking a Survey of all Castles Mannors Lands Tenements and all other Hereditaments to the 〈◊〉 Episcopal Sees belonging and upon the return of such Survey to take into Her hands any of the said Castles Mannors Lands Tenements c. as to Her seemed good giving to the said Archbishops and Bishops as much Annual Rents to be raised upon Impropriations Tythes and portions of Tythes as the said Castles Mannors Lands c. did amount unto The Church-Lands certified according to the ancient Rents without consideration of the Casualties or other Perquisites of the Court which belonged to them The retribution made in Pensions Tythes and portions of Tythes extended to the utmost value from which no other profit was to be expected than the Rent it self Which Act being not to take effect till the end of the Parliament the Interval between the end of that Parliament the deprivation of the old Bishops and the Consecration of the new was to be taken up in the execution of such Surveys and making such Advantages of them as most redounded to the profit of the Queen and her Courtiers Upon which ground as all the Bishops Sees were so long kept vacant before any one of them was filled so in the following times they were kept void one after another as occasion served till the best Flowers in the Garden of the Church had been culled out of it There was another Clause in the said Statutes by which the Patrimony of the Church was as much Dilapidated even after the restoring of the Bishops as it was in the times of vacancy For by that Clause all Bishops were restrained from making any Grants of their Farms and Mannors for more than One and Twenty years or Three Lives at the most except it were to the Queen her Heirs and Successors And under that pretence they might be granted to any of Her hungry Courtiers in Fee-farm or for a Lease of Fourscore and Nineteen years as it pleased the parties By which means Crediton was dismembred from the See of Excester and the goodly Mannor of Sherbourn from that of Salisbury Many fair Mannors were likewise Alienated for ever from the rich Sees of Winchester Ely and indeed what not Moreover when the rest of the Episcopal Sees were supplied with new Bishops yet York and Winchester were not so soon provided That they might afford on Michaelmas-Rent more to the Queens Exchequer before the Lord Tresurer could give way to a new Incumbent But notwithstanding this great Havock that was made of the Bishopricks yet Episcopacy was now setled with the retaining of many Rites and Ceremonies belonging to Catholick Religion Whereof one was that she had caused a Massy Crucifix of Silver to be placed upon the midst of the Altar in her Chappel But this so displeased Sir Francis Knolls the Queens neer Kinsman by the Caries a great Zelot for the Reformation that he caused it to be broken in pieces There was at this time a Sermon preached in defence of the Real presence For which the Queen openly gave the Preacher Thanks for his Pains and Piety Thus Dr. Heylyn But it is here to be noted Tâ—…t in the beginning of Her Reign out of scruple of Conscience she did forbid the Elevation of the Sacrament So that although Christ were acknowledged to be really present yet he was not to be Adored I could not omit to take notice of this contradiction CHAP. VII Of the Disturbance the Presbyterians gave to the Setling of this New Church and of a Rebellion in Scotland and the Death of the Queen of Scots Dr. Heylyn pag. 124. THe Queen having thus regulated and setled Ecclesiastical Affairs the same settlement might have longer continued had not Her Order been confounded and her Peace disturbed by some factious Spirits who having had their wills at Frankfort or otherwise Ruling the Presbytery when they were at Geneva thought to have carried all before them with the like facility when they were in England But leaving them and their designs to some other time we must next look upon the Aid which the Queen sent to those of the Reformed Religion in Scotland but carried under the pretence of dislodging such French Forces as were Garrison'd there Such of the Scots as desired a Reformation of Religion taking advantage by the Queens absence the easiness of the Earl of Arran and want of Power in the Queen Regent to suppress their practices had put themselves into a Body headed by some of the Nobility they take unto themselves the Name of
very Gall of Schism by usurping an Authority which express Scripture says belongs only to Pastors I fear much fewer than is ordinarily imagined of those who have any liberal Education will be excused from this sin by any Ignorance Surreptition Provocation c. by reason of that great evidence and light which they have of the continued Succession Unity of Doctrin perfect Obedience to their spiritual Superiors Pennances and Retirements from the World and several other signal marks of the One Holy Catholick and Apostclick Church Some may be more deeply guilty and obnoxious to a heavier damnation than others as Ring-leaders more than their Followers But Damnation is by the Fathers generally denounced as the portion of them all Thus of the sin of Schism CHAP. VI. Of the Schism of the Church of England NOw whereas some Protestants seek to vindicate the Church of England from Schism by likening it to the Church of St. Cyprian of whom it is said That it condemned no man nor separated none from its Communion yet you are to know that this Plea helps them not at all For although this Moderation did exempt St. Cyprian from Schism because as St. Augustin says The Church had not then decided the dispute to whose decision St. Cyprian would certainly have submitted Yet this Moderation does not at all exempt the Church of England from Schism because her separation from her Mother-Church is for very many Doctrins of Faith defined and determined by the same Church This following Example will make the Case of the Church of England evidently appear For if for Example a Province in England had with-drawn it self from the Publick Civil Authority this Excuse would not exempt them from being Rebels to say We do not intend to quarrel with Those that continue in Obedience to the King we mean neither him nor them any harm They shall be welcome to come among us if they will we will be good friends we will not meddle with their doings but we will be governed only by our own Laws and Magistrates c. I believe I say This would not take from them the Guilt of Rebellion Their Civility in such their Rebellion would not change the Title of their crime nor free them from the punishment due unto it It may perhaps qualifie the Prince's resentment but the civilest Treason is Treason In this Point of Schism to the end that Doctor Peirce in his Court-Sermon may clear Protestants and lay the weight of so great a crime on the Catholick Church he argues thus Since besides the corruptions in Practice which yet alone cannot justifie separation there were in the Roman Church so many corruptions in Doctrin likewise entrenching on Fundamentals the Schism could not be on the Church of England's side which was obliged to separate so just cause being given but on theirs who gave the cause of the separation This Plea of the Doctors if it be admitted totally destroys all Governments and lays all the Guilt of Schisms and Rebellions in Church and State upon Civil and Ecclesiastical Governors For if Subjects may accuse their Governors and be themselves Judges of the Justice of such their Accusations the Governors are always sure to be condemned and pronounced guilty and the Subject justified Now to admit this Liberty of the Subject in Church-Government above all others is the most unjust Thing imaginable because that Government is protected from all error in Doctrins of Faith by the assistance of the Holy Ghost who was sent by our Saviour to teach it all Truth Wherefore to tax that Government with Errors in Faith is either to tax the Holy Ghost with them or to blaspheme against our Saviour by saying he has not kept his word in sending the Holy Ghost to teach the Church All truth Besides There is this other consideration which doth further manifest the weakness of this the Doctor 's Plea For if the Church of Rome be our Mother-Church as King James acknowledged her to be in a publick Speech made to his Parliament wherein he says I acknowledge the Church of Rome to be our Mother-Church See Stow pag. 840. then it will follow as it was urg'd in Parliament by Doctor Heath Archbishop of York in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth That if now after so many Ages this Church of Rome be found an Erroneous Church then we have hitherto received no benefit by our Christianity but rather have been all along deceived Since if this Mother-Church be false the Doctrin which she taught us must necessarily be false A Church being said to be false because she teacheth false Doctrin Thus the Doctor may see what he has gotten by his Reformation There is one thing yet that deserves well to be taken notice of in this change of Religion here in England For if all the Clergy and the Universities had generally assented to this Change it might have seemed a lesser crime But to have this done as de facto it was done in Queen Elizabeths Reign by Laymen only and this only with the Difference of Six Voices in Parliament although that Parliament was pack'd for this purpose and in opposition to the contrary Protestations and Declarations of all the Clergy and Universities This does heighten this crime to the utmost of all Impiety I will yet for a close add one thing more which does not a little manifest this Impiety For although Reformation of Religion was here pretended yet it evidently appears by our English History that nothing but worldly and carnal Interests carried on this business For was not the Liberty obtained by King Henry the Eighth to bring into his Bed a new handsom Wife instead of his former vertuous Queen a very carnal Interest Was not his invading all the Possessions and Treasure of Monasteries a great Secular Interest Was not the dividing the said Lands amongst the Nobility and Gentry at very easie rates a very great Interest In King Edward's days was not the Protector 's seizing on the remainder of Churchspoyls a great Interest Was not the freeing of Clergy-men from a necessity of saying daily and almost hourly long Ecclesiastical Offices from lying alone without Bedfellows c. matters of great both carnal and secular Interest Was not the exempting of All both Layity and Ecclesiasticks from the Duty of confessing their Sins and submitting themselves to Penitential Satisfactions from rigorous Fasts out of Conscience and Religion and other Austerities a matter of considerable Interest to Flesh and corrupt Nature By what hath been hitherto said appears but even too clearly how that the Fundamental Rule of all Government and Subordination was utterly neglected in England at the time that the pretended Reformation was contrived and executed Here is a new and thorough moulding of a Church both in Doctrins and Discipline called a Reformation Wherein all the Synodical Acts of this Church since Christianity entred among us are as to any obliging Power by their Authority reversed wherein all the Decisions of
and observe St. Benets Rule as strictly as the Jews did the Law of Moses And at the length Odo D. of Burgnndy favoring their devout purposes bestowed on them certain Lands in a place called Cisteaux in the Bishoprick of Chalons where the said Abbot Robert with the rest for some time inhabited by example of whose strict and holy life in that Wilderness many began to do the like But in time the Covent at Molisme wanting a Pastor to govern them complained to Pope Urban shewing unto him the inconveniences that they sustained by reason thereof who having a paternal affection to both places commanded Abbot Robert to go back thither substituting some one of those Monks at Cisteaux to supply his room as Abbot there whereupon he constituted one Alberic to whom afterwards one Stephen an Englishman of great piety succeeded This plantation at Cisteaux was in the year 1098. as the same Author affirmeth with whom agreeth an ancient Chronical of the Church of Durham further manifesting that this Abbot Robert was an Englishman his sirname Harding and a Monk of Shirburne who in his younger years forsaking his habit went over into France for advancement of his knowledge in learning and coming to the Monastery of Molesme before mentioned was there shorne a Monk the second time and shortly after became Abbot Which Monks increased so much by the great conflux of Men to Cisteaux that from thence almost 500 Abbies of that Order were sprung within the compass of 55 years so that in a general Chapter held there by the Abbots and Bishops that were of that Rule it was ordained that from thenceforth there should be no more erected of that Order for their Monastries were built in Deserts and Woody places by their own proper handywork unto many whereof they gave special holy Names as Domus-Dei Clara-vallis Curia-Dei and the like Having said thus much of their original I shall add a word or two of the strictness in their Rule and so proceed with my discourse touching the further endowment of this Monastery First of their Habit they wear no Leather nor Linnen nor indeed any fine Woollen Cloth neither except it be in a journey do they put on any Breeches and then upon their return deliver them fair washt Having two Coats with Cowles in Winter time they are not to augment but in Summer if they please may lessen them In which habit they are to sleep and after Mattins not to return to their Beds For Prayers the hour of Prime they so conclude that before the Laudes it may be Day-break strictly observing their Rule that not one jot or tittle of their service is omitted Immediately after Laudes they sing the Prime and after Prime they go out performing their appointed hours in work what is to be done in the day they act by day-light for none of them except he be sick is to be absent from his Diurnal hours or the Compline When the Compline is finished the Steward of the House and he that hath charge of the guests go forth but with great care of silence serve them For Diet the Abbot assumes no more liberty to himself than any of his Covent every where being present with them and taking care of his flock except at meat in regard his Table is always with the strangers and poor people nevertheless wheresoever he eats is he abstemious of talk or any dainty fair nor hath he or any of them ever above two dishes of meat neither do they eat of fat or flesh except in case of sickness and from the Ides of September till Easter they eat no more than once a day except on Sundays no not on any Festival Out of the precincts of their Cloyster they go not but to work neither there or any where do they discourse with any but the Abbot or Prior. They unweariedly continue their Canonical hours not piecing any service to another except the Vigils for the decased They observe the Office of St. Ambrose so far as they could have perfect knowledge thereof from Millain and taking care of strangers or sick people do do devise extraordinary afflictions for their own bodies to the intent their own souls may be advantaged Which Rules were duly observed by the first Abbot and Covent but afterwards somewhat was abated of that austerity but their Habit is still white and nothing different in the fashion from the Monks of St. Benedict's Rule except a girdle which these wear about their middle The Black Friers pag. 367. col 2. This Order was begun by St. Dominick a Spaniard in the time of Pope Innocent the III who being at first a Canon with a few that he chose to be his companions instituted a new Rule of strict and holy living and lest they should grow sluggish in the service of God by staying at home in imitation of our blessed Saviour he appointed them to travel far and wide to preach the Gospel their Habit being a white Coat with a black Cloak over it which Order Honorius the III. who succeded Pope Innocent confirmed and Gregory the Ninth canonized him for a Saint In Anno 1221. 20 H. 3. they first came into England The White Friers pag. 117. col 1. The first institution of this Order as divers Authors affirm was Elias the Prophet at Mount-Carmell in Syria where living a retired life in the service of God he gave example unto many devout Anchorites to repair thither for solitude but these being disperst over the whole mountain in private Cells were at length by Almeric Bishop of Antioch reduced into one Covent at which time they elected cut of themselves a Superior and first began the Fountain of a Monastery where the Chappel of the blessed Virgin stood viz. near the foundation of Helias Howbeit the observance of this life began not till the days of Pope Alexander the Third about the year 1170. Nor till the time of Innocent the Third near 40. years after had they any direct Order that Albert Bishop of Jerusalem prescribed unto them thus living in the wilderness a form out of St. Basills Rule and a parti-colored Mantle of white and red such a one as Helyas the Prophet anciently used which afterwards Honorius the Third altered conceiving it not to be so proper and instead of the party-color appointed that it should be all white calling the Covent of these Friers the family of the Blessed Virgin in regard the white colour being least spotted doth best accord with Virginity But the first mention that I find of their propagating in this Realm is in anno 1250. 34 H. 3. at which time Sir John de Vescy of Alnwike in Northumberland a great Baron in those days returning from the holy-Holy-Land brought into England this Order of Friers and built for them a Monastery at Holme in Northumberland then a desert place and not unlike to Mount-Carmel before mentioned The Gray-Friers p. 113. col 1. First therefore as to their original we shall
And with thanks to God we know the way to Heaven to be as ready by Water as by Land and therefore we care not which way we go These Friars and all the rest of their Order were banish'd shortly after And after that none durst openly oppose themselves against the Kings affections Thus far Stow. Now more perfectly to Establish this Change It was Ordered That there should be Sermons Preached at Paul's-Cross against the Popes Supremacy Thus related by Howes upon Stow Pag. 571. Every Sunday at Paul's-Cross Preached a Bishop declaring the Pope not to be Supream Head of the Church Also in other Places of this Realm great Troubles were raised about Preaching namely at Bristow where Mr. Latimer preach'd and there preach'd against him one Mr. Hobberton and Dr. Powel So that there was great partakings on both sides insomuch that divers Priests and others set up Bills against the Mayor and against Mr. Latimer But the Mayor permitting Laymen to Preach caused divers Priests to be apprehended and put in Newgate with Bolts upon them and divers others ran away and lost their Livings rather than come into the Mayor's handling Thus Howes The King being thus Establish'd Head of the Church of England makes one Thomas Cromwel his Vicar General which is thus set down by Sir Rich. Baker Pag. 408. Thomas Cromwell Son to a Black smith in Putney being raised to High Dignities was lastly made Vicar General under the King in all Ecclefiastical Affairs who sate divers times in the Convocation-House amongst the Bishops as Head over them Thus Sir Richard Baker And thus far of the first beginning of this prodigious Change of Religion CHAP. II. Of the Dissolution of Abbeys being the first Effect of this Change of Religion Stow Pag. 572. THE King sent the said Cromwel and others to visit the Abbeys and Nunneries in England the said Cromwel being ordained Principal Visitor He put forth all Religious Persons that would go and all under the Age of Four and Twenty And after closed up the residue that would remain so that they should not come out of their places All Religious Men that departed the Abbot or Prior gave them for their Habit a Priests Gown and Forty Shillings in Money The Nuns had such Apparel given them as Secular Women wear and had liberty to go whither they would They took out of the Monasteries and Abbeys their Reliques and chiefest Jewels to the Kings use they said Thus Stow. Here follows a more particular Account of the Dissolution of these Abbeys The first Religious House that the King took into his hands was the Hospital of St. James near Charing-cross with all the Means to the same belonging compounding with the Sisters of the House who were to have Pensions during their lives And built in place of the said Hospital a Goodly Mansion retaining still the Name of St. James Stow p. 560. In a Parliament were granted to the King and his Heirs All Religious Houses in the Realm of England of the value of Two hundred pounds and under with all Lands and Goods to them belonging The Number of these Houses then suppressed were about Three Hundred Seventy Six and the value of their Lands then Thirty two thousand pounds and more by the Year The Moveable Goods as they were then sold at Robin-Hood's peny-worths amounted to more than Ten thousand pounds The Religious Persons that were in the said Houses were clearly put out whereof some went to other Greater Houses and some went abroad to the World It was saith my Author a pitiful thing to hear the lamentation that People in the Countrey made for them for there was great Hospitality kept amongst them and as it was thought more than Ten thousand Persons Masters and Servants lost their Living by the putting down of these Houses Thus Stoâ—…v Not long after by the means of the said Cromwel All the Orders of Friars and Nunns with their Cloysters and Houses were suppressed and put down First the Black-Friars in London the next day the White-Friars the Grey-Friars and the Monks of Charter-House and so all the others Thus Baker page 415. Here follows a particular Relation concerning the Shrine at Canterbury Thus deliver'd by Sir Rich Baker pag. 411. SAint Augustines Abbey at Canterbury was suppress'd and the Shrine and Goods taken to the Kings Treasury as also the Shrine of Thomas Becket in the Priory of Christs-Church was likewise taken to the Kings use This Shrine was built about a man's height all of Stone and then upwards of Timber plain within the which was a Chest of Iron containing the Bones of Thomas Becket Scull and all with the wound on his Head and the piece cut out of his Scull in the same wound These Bones by the Command of the Lord Cromwel were burnt The Timber-work of This Shrine on the out-side was covered with Plates of Gold Damasked with Gold-wyre which Ground of Gold was again cover'd with Jewels of Gold as Ten or Twelve Rings â—…ramped with Gold-wyre into the said Ground of Gold many of these Rings having Stones in them There were likewise Images of Angels Precious Stones and Great Pearls The Spoyl of which Shrine in Gold and Precious Stones fill'd two great Chests such as six or seven strong men could do no more than remove one of them at once out of the Church The Monks of that Church were commanded to change their Habits into the Apparel of Secular Priests Thus Baker The Knights of the Rhodes and Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in England and Ireland were utterly Dissolv'd and made void The King his Heirs and Successors to have and enjoy all the Mansion-House Church and all other Buildings and Gardens to the same belonging near to the City of London call'd the House of St. John of Jerusalem in England and also the Hospital-Church an House of Kilwarin in Ireland with all Castles Honours Mannors Measees Lands Tenements Rents Revenues Services Woods Downs Pastures Parks Warrens c. in England and Ireland with all the Goods Cattels c. Thus Stow pag. 579. Besides these Religious Houses there were likewise by Act of Parliament given the King All Colleges Chanteries Hospitals Free Chappels Fraternities Brother-hoods and Gilds The Number of Monasteries suppress'd were 645 besides 90 Colleges 110 Hospitals and of Chanteries and Free Chappels 2374. Thus Baker in the former page Now to give a more exact Account of the Grounds and Progress of the Dissolution of these Monasteries We will here insert a Discourse taken out of Mr. Dugdales Antiquities of Warwick-shire Pag. 801. where he treats of the Dissolution of a particular Monastery of Nunnes called Poles-worth and upon that occasion of the Dissolution of all other Monasteries in the Kingdom The Discourse is thus delivered I Find it left Recorded by the Commissioners that were imploy'd to take Surrender of the Monasteries in this Shire Anno 29. Hen. 8. viz. That after strict scrutiny not only by the fame of the Countrey but
by Examination of several Persons they found these Nunnes Virtuous and Religious Women and of good Conversation And that in the Town where the Monastery was there were Fourty Four Tenements and but one Plough the residue of the Inhabitants being Artificers who had their lively-hood by the Monastery These implor'd the Mediation of Thomas Cromwel that it might not be suppress'd Nevertheless it was not the strict and regular Lives of these Devout Ladies nor any thing that might be said in the behalf of the Monasteries that could prevent their ruine then approaching So great an aim had the King to make himself thereby glorious and many others no less hopes to be enrich'd in a considerable manner But to the end that such a change should not overwhelm those that might be Active therein in regard the People every where had no small esteem of these Houses for their Devout and Daily Exercises of Prayer Alms-deeds Hospitality and the like whereby not only the Souls of their Deceased Ancestors had much benefit as then was taught but Themselves the Poor as also Strangers and Pilgrims constant advantage there wanted not the most subtil Contrivances to effect this stupendious Work that I think any Age hath beheld In order therefore to it that which Cardinal Wolsey had done for the Founding his Colleges in Oxford and Ipswich dissolving about Thirty Religious Houses was made a President Now that this business might be the better carried on Mr. Thomas Cromwel who had been an old Servant to the Cardinal and not a little active in that was the chief Person pitch'd upon to assist therein For I look upon this business as not originally design'd by the King but by some Principal Ambitious Men of that Age who projected to themselves all worldly Advantages imaginable through that deluge of Wealth which was like to flow amongst them by this hideous storm First therefore having insinuated to the King matter of Profit and Honour Profit by so vast an Enlargement of his Revenue And Honour in being able to maintain mighty Armies to recover his Right in France as also to strengthen Himself against the Pope whose Supremacy he had abolish'd and withal to make a firmer Alliance with such Princes as had done the like Further to promote this Design they procured Cranmers Advancement to the See of Canterbury and more of the Protestant Clergie as my Author terms them to other Bishopricks and high Places to the end that the rest should not be able in a full Council to carry any thing against their design sending out Preachers to perswade the People to stand fast to the King without fear of the Pope's Curse Next that it might be the more plausibly carried on care was taken so to represent the Lives of the Monks Nunns Canons c. to the World as that the less regret might be made at their ruine To which purpose Thomas Cromwel being Constituted General Visitor employ'd sundry Persons who acted their parts therein accordingly He likewise sent others to whom he gave Instructions in Eighty Six Articles by which they were to enquire into the Government and Behaviour of the Religious of both Sexes Which Commissioners the better to manage the design gave encouragement to the Monks not only to Accuse their Governors but to Inform against each other compelling them also to produce their Charters and Evidences of their Lands as also their Plate and Money and to give an Inventory thereof And hereunto they added certain Injunctions from the King containing most severe and strict Rules by means whereof many being found obnoxious to their Censure were expelled and others discerning themselves not able to live free from Exception or Advantage that might be taken against them desired to leave their Habitations And having by these Visitors thus search'd into their Lives which by a Black-book containing a world of Enormities were represented in no small measure scandalous to the end that the People might be the better satisfied with their proceedings it was thought convenient to suggest that the Lesser-Houses for want of Good Government were chiefly guilty of these Crimes and so they did as appears by the Preamble of the Act for their Dissolution made in the 27 Hen. 8. which Parliament consisting for the most part of such Members as were pack'd for the purpose through private Interest as is evident by divers original Letters of that time many of the Nobility for the like respects also favouring the design Assented to the suppression of All such Houses as had been Certified of less value than Two hundred pounds by the year giving them with their Lands and Revenues to the King yet with this addition That the Possessions belonging to such Houses should be converted to better uses But how well this was observ'd we shall soon see These specious pretences being made use of for no other purpose than by opening this gap to make way for the total Ruine of the Greater Houses wherein notwithstanding it is by the said Act acknoweldged that Religion was well observ'd For no sooner were the Monks turned out and the Houses demolish'd that being first thought requisite least some accidental Change might conduce to their restitution but care was taken to prefer such Persons to the Superiority in Government upon any vacancy of these Great Houses as might be Instrumental to their Surrender by perswading with the Convent to that purpose The truth is that there was no omission of any endeavour that can well be imagin'd to accomplish these Surrenders For so subtlely did the Commissioners act their parts that after earnest solicitation with all the Abbots when they found them backwards they tempted them with the promise of Good Pensions during life Neither were the Courtiers unactive in driving on this Work as may appear by my Lord Chancellor Audley's employing a special Agent to treat with the Abbot of Athelney offering him a Hundred Marks a year in case he would Surrender and the personal endeavour that he us'd with the Abbot of Osiths in Essex as by his Letter to the said Visitor is evident wherein is signified that he had with great solicitation prevail'd with the said Abbot But withal insinuated his desire that his place of Lord Chancellor being very chargeable the King might be mov'd for an Addition of some more profitable Offices to him Nay I find that this Great Man hunting eagerly after the Abbey of Waldon in Essex out of the Ruines whereof afterwards that Magnificent Fabrick called by the Name of Audley Inn was built as an argument the sooner to obtain it did besides the extenuation of its worth alledge that he had in this World sustained great Damages and Infamy in his serving the King which the Grant of this should recompence Some Arguments were used by the Abbots to hinder these Suppressions but nothing would avail For resolv'd they were to effect what they had begun by one means or other insomuch as they procured the Bishop of London to
make it known what they were Prestons Chantery THis was Founded by John Preston for two Priests to Sing Mass daily for the good Estate of Him the said John during this mortal Life and afterwards for the health of his Soul as also for the Souls of his Parents and Benefactors and all the Faithful Deceased Thus Mr. Dugdale Of Gilds or Fraternities The word Gild Proceeds from the Saxon word Gelo or Gilo which signifies Money because that such as were either for Charity Religion or Merchandize sake associated did cast their Money Goods yea and sometimes Lands together for the publick support of their own common charge These had their Annual Feasts â—…nd Neighbourly Meetings The First and most Ancient of these Gilds here in Coventry was Founded in the Fourteenth year of Edward the Third At which time the King granted Licence to the Coventry men That they should have a Merchants Gild and a Fraternity of Brethren and Sisters of the same in this Town with a Master or Warden thereof to be chosen out of the same Fraternity And that they might make Chantries bestow Alms do other works of Piety and Constituted Ordinances touching the same with all Appurtenances thereto And in the Seventeenth year Edward the Third gave leave to several to enter into a Fraternity and make a Gild consisting of themselves and such others as would joyn with them to the Honor of St. John Baptist. As also to purchase certain Lands Tenements and Rents for the Founding of a Chantry of Six Priests to Sing Mass every day in the Church of the Holy Trinity and St. Michael in Coventry for the Souls of the King's Progenitors and for the good Estate of the King Queen Isabel his Mother Queen Philippa his Wife and their Children As also of Walter Chesthunt and William De-Belgrave during their lives here on Earth and for their Souls after their departure hence and for the good Estate of the said John John Tho. Rich. Pet. and William and the rest of the said Gild with their Benefactors and likewise for the Soul of John Eltham late Earl of Cornwal and all of the Faithful Deceased Which Gild being so Founded within Two years after the same King Edward gave Licence to Queen Isabel his Mother to Give and Assign thereunto a parcel of Land to build thereupon a Chappel to the Honor of our Bâ—…essed Saviour and St. John Baptist for Two Priests to Sing Mass daily for the good Estate of the said King Edward Queen Isabel his Mother Queen Philippa his Wife Edward Prince of Wales and of the Brethren and Benefactors of the same Gild whilst they lived in this World and for their Souls after their Departure hence As also for the Soul of John of Eltham Earl of Cornwal and the Souls of the said Brethren and Benefactors with all the Faithful Deceased Thus Mr. Dugdale p. 119. There were great store of these and such like Pious Foundations throughout all England as appears by the same History All destroyed by King Henry the Eighth and his Son This Change being made something must necessarily be established in order to Religion CHAP. III. A Book of Religion Published THE Clergy held a Convocation in St. Paul's Church where after much disputing and debating of matters they Published a Book of Religion Entituled Articles Devised by the King's Highness c. In which Book is mentioned but Three Sacraments Baptism Eucharist and Penance The Articles contained in this Book were Six And by an Act of Parliament all were condemned for Hereticks and to be Burnt that should hold the contrary to them Asserting 1. That the Body of Christ was not really present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist after Consecration 2. That Priests entred into Holy Orders might Marry 3. That the Sacrament might not truly be Administred in one kind 4. That Vows of Chastity made upon mature deliberation were not to be kept That Private Masses were not to be used That Auricular Confession was not necessary in the Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker pag. 408. Here followeth the Act it self out of the Statute Book An Act of Parliament made in King Henry the Eighth's time for abolishing diversity of Opinions in certain Articles concerning Religion THe King 's Most Royal Majesty most prudently considering that by occasion of various Opinions and Judgments concerning some Articles in Religion great discord and variance hath arisen as well amongst the Clergy of this Realm as amongst a great number of the vulgar People And being in a full hope and trust that a full and perfect Resolution of the said Articles would make a perfect Concord and Unity generally amongst all His Loving and Obedient Subjects of His most Excellent Goodness not only Commanded that the said Articles should Deliberately and Advisedly by His Archbishops Bishops and other Learned Men of His Clergy be Debated Argued and Reasoned and their Opinions therein to be Understood Declared and Known But also most Graciously vouchsafed in his own Princely Person to come unto his High Court of Parliament and Council and there like a wise Prince of most high Prudence and no less Learning opened and declared many Things of most high Learning and great Knowledge touching the said Articles Matters and Questions for an Unity to be had in the same Whereupon after a great and long deliberate and advised Disputation and Consultation had and made concerning the said Articles as well by the consent of the King's Highness as by the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and other Leaned Men of His Clergy in their Convocations and by the Consent of the Commons in Parliament Assembled it was and is finally resolved accorded and Agreed in manner and form following that is to say 1. First That in the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar by the strength and efficacy of Christ's mighty Word it being spoken by the Priest is present really under the Forms of Bread and Wine the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary and that after the Consecration there remains no substance of the Bread or Wine nor any other Substance but the Substance of Christ God and Man 2. That the Communion in both kinds is not necessary to Salvation by the Law of God to all Persons and that it is to be Believed and not Doubted but that in the Flesh under the Form of Bread is the very Blood and with Blood under the Form of Wine is the very Flesh as well apart as if they were both together 3. That Priests after the Order of Priesthood received may not Marry by the Law of God 4. That Vows of Chastity Widowhood c. are to be kept 5. That it is meet and necessary that Private Masses be continued and admitted in the King 's English Church and Congregation as whereby good Christian People orcering themselves accordingly do receive both Godly and Goodly Consolations and Benefits and it is agreeable also to God's Law 6. That
in the Truth so the Devil is ready to seduce us And I have been seduced But bear me witness That I die in the Catholick Faith of the holy Church And I desire you to pray for me that so long as life remains in this Flesh I waver nothing in my Faith Having said this he was presently beheaded Thus Howes This following Relation although it concerns not the shedding of Blood yet is very remarkable as manifesting how the King's Marriage with the Lady Anne of Cleve was in Parliament declared not lawful Which is thus related by Howes upon Stow Page 578. AFter the Death of the Lady Jane Seymour the King 's Third Wife He Married the Lady Anne of Cleve in the Two and thirtieth year of his Reign From which time the King not only continued his first Misliking of her but his hatred encreased more and more against her not only for want of beauty whereof at first he took exceptions but also for sundry other qualities whereof he secretly accused her As also he said that her body was unpleasant making great doubt that she was no Virgin when she came into England with divers other defects which he said he knew by her outward appearance to be in her And being thus so sore perplexed and desperate of redress he grew wondrous apt and willing to call in question any thing that might tend to the dissolving of this Marriage Within Eight dayes the King told his Physicians his further cause of grief That she was loathsome to him in Bed and that her Body was foul and out of order The King being thus tormented in Body and Mind knew not how to ease himself until he had procured a speedy Divorce Which was thus effected Certain Lords came down into the Lower-House of Parliament expresly declaring the causes why this Marriage was not Lawful And in conclusion the matter was by the Convocation clearly determined that the King might lawfully marry where he would and so might she It appears clearly in the Record what moved the King to this Marriage For these are his words I declare that when the first Communication was had with me about this Marriage I was glad to hearken to it trusting to have some assured Friend by it I much doubting at that time both the Emperor France and the Bishop of Rome Thus Stow. The King 's Fifth Wife Catherine Howard put to death for Adultery As appears by this Relation Baker page 514. THe King was informed of the Queens dissolute life first before her Marriage with one Francis Dereham and since her Marriage with one Thomas Culpepper of the King's Bed-Chamber Whereupon Sir Tho. Wriothsâ—…ey was sent to the Queen at Hampton-Court to charge her with these Crimes and discharging her Houshold to cause her to be conveighed to Syon The Delinquents being examined Dereham confessed that before the King's Marriage with the Lady Catherine there had been a pre-contract between him and her But when once he understood of the King 's good liking to her he then waved it and concealed it for her preferment These Gentlemen were arraigned and had Judgment to die as in cases of Treason They were drawn from the Tower to Tyburn Where Culpepper was beheaded and Dereham hanged and dismember'd The Lord William Howard and the Lady Margaret his Wife Catherine Tilney and Alice Bestwold Gentlewomen Joan Bulmer Anne Howard Wife to Henry Noward the Queens Brother with divers others were all condemned for Misprision of Treason in concealing the Queens misdemeanour and adjudged to forfeit all their Lands and Goods during life and to remain in perpetual Prison The Lords and Commons in Parliament Petitioned the King That he would not vex himself with the Queens Offences and that both she and the Lady Rochford might be Attainted by Parliament And that to avoid protracting of time he would give his Royal Assent to it under the Great Seal without staying for the end of the Parliament Also that Dereham and Culpepper having been Attainted before by the Common-Law might be Attainted likewise by Parliament All which was Assented unto by the King After this the Queen and the Lady Rochford were beheaded on the Green within the Tower It is certainly said that after her Condemnation She protested to Dr. White Bishop of Winchester her last Confessor That as for the Act for which She was condemn'd She took God and his holy Angels to witness upon her Souls Salvation that She died guiltless Thus of the putting to death of his Wives Here follows an unheard of Cruelty of Bloodshed for Religion in these times of Confusion and Change of Religion ONe Lambert was accused for denying the real presence in the Sacrament who Appeal'd to the King and the King was content to hear him Whereupon a Throne was set up in the Hall of the King's Palace at Westminster for the King to sit And when the Bishops had urged their Arguments and could not prevail then the King took him in hand hoping perhaps to have the Honor of converting an Heretick when the Bishops could not do it and withal promised him pardon if he would recant But all would not do for he remained obstinate the King miss'd his Honor and the Delinquent his Pardon Being shortly after drawn to Smithfield and burnt Baker page 412. Two more were for the same cause burnt Baker in the same page Dr. John Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moor expresly denyed at Lambeth before the Archbishop of Canterbury to take the Oath of Supremacy and thereupon were both beheaded Bishop Fisher was much lamented as being reputed a man both learned and wise and of good life Sir Thomas Moor was both learned and very wise His Devotion was such that he used to wear a Shirt of Hair-cloth next his skin for a perpetual Penance And oftentimes in the Church he would put on a Surplice and help the Priest at Mass Which he did not forbear to do when he was Lord Chancellor of England as one time the Duke of Norfolk coming to the Church found him doing it Baker page 406. Sir William Peterson Priest late Commissary of Calais and Sir William Richardson Priest of St. Maries in Calais were both there drawn hang'd and quarter'd in the Market-place for the Supremacy Stow page 579. Dr. Wilson and Dr. Samson Bishop of Chichester were sent to the Tower for relieving certain Prisoners who had denyed to Subscribe to the King's Supremacy And for the same offence Richard Farmer Grocer of London a rich and wealthy Citizen was committed to the Marshalsea and after arraigned and attainted in a Praemunire and lost all his Goods his Wife and Children thrust out of doors Stow page 580. Robert Barns Dr. of Divinity Thomas Gerrard Parson of Honey-lane and William Jerom Vicar of Stepney-Heath Bachelors in Divinity Also Edward Powel Thomas Able and Richard Fetherston all Three Doctors were drawn from the Tower of London to West Smithfield The Three First were drawn to a Stake and there
submitting themselves to the King for being found guilty of a Premunire were the first that called him Supreme Head of the Church yet with this restriction So far as it was according unto Gods Word and not otherwise In his Four and twentieth year an Act of Parliament was made That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome In his Twenty sixth year an Act was made which Authoriz'd the King to be Supreme Head of the Church of England and the Authority of the Pope to be abolish'd and then also was given to the King the First Fruits and Tenths of all Spiritual Livings and this Year were many put to death Papists for denying the Kings Supremacy Protestants for denying the Real Presence in the Sacrament nor is it credible what numbers suffered death for these two Causes in the last Ten Years of the Kings Reign of whom if we should make particular mention it would reach a great way in the Book of Martyrs In his Eight and twentieth Year the Lord Cromwel was made Vicar General under the King over the Spirituality and at least Four Hundred Monasteries were suppress'd and all their Lands and Goods conferred upon the King by an Act of Parliament In his One and thirtieth Year was set forth by the Bishops the Book of the Six Articles and all the rest of the Monasteries were conferred upon him Lastly In his Thirty fifth Year all Colleges Chantries and Hospitals were given to him Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here you have had a short view of the Beginning and sad Effects of this Prodigious Change of Religion begun by King Henry the Eighth A Further PROSECUTION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning a Second Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of King EDWARD the Sixth A Preamble THIS is a Summary Account of this King's Reign as to these matters of Religion taken out of the Preface of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Where after a brief Narration of King Henry the Eighth's Deserting the Pope he gives this following Account of his Son King Edward the Sixth The Relation whereof begins thus Next comes his Son Edward the Sixth upon the Stage whose Name was made use of to serve Turns withal and his Authority abused to his own undoing In his First year the Reformation was resolved on but on different ends endeavoured by some Bishops and others of the Lower Clergy and promoted with the like Zeal and Industry but not with like Integrity by some great Men about the â—…rt Who under Colour of removing corruptions out of the Church had cast their eyes upon the Spoil of Shrines and Images though still preserved in the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches and the improving their own Fortunes by the Chantry Lands All which they most Sacrilegiously divided amongst themselves without admitting the poor King to share with them though nothing but the filling his Coffers by the Spoil of the one and the Encrease of his Revenue by the fall of the other was openly pretended in the Conduct of it But to speak no more of this the work chiefly intended was vigorously carried on by the King and his Counsellors as appears by the Doctrinals in the Book of Homilies and by the Practical part of Christian Piety And here the business might have rested if Calvin's Pragmatical Spirit had not interposed He first began to quarrel at some passages in the Liturgy and afterwards never left Soliciting the Lord Protector and practising by his Agents on the Court the Country and the Universities till he had laid the first Foundation of the Zuinglian Faction who laboured nothing more than Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline to which they were encouraged by nothing more than some improvident Indulgence granted unto John Alasco who bringing with him a mixed multitude of Poles and Germans obtained the Priviledge of a Church for himself and his distinct in Government and Form of Worship from the Church of England This much animated the Zuinglian Gospellers to practice first upon the Church who being Countenanced if not Headed by the Earl of Warwick who then began to undermine the Lord Protector first quarrelled the Episcopal Habit and afterwards enveighed against Caps and Surplices against Gowns and Tippets But fell at last upon the Altars which were left standing by the Rules of the Liturgy The touching upon this string made excellent Musick to most of the Grandees of the Court who had before cast many an envious eye on those costly Hangings that massy Plate and other Rich and Precious things which adorned those Altars And what need all this wast said Judas when one poor Chalice only and perhaps not that might have served the turn Beside there was no small spoil to be made of Copes in which the Priest Officiated at the Holy Sacrament Some of them being made of Cloth of Tissue Cloth of Gold and Silver or Embroydred Velvet the meanest being made of Silk or Sattin with some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomely converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets to their Tables Coverlets to their Beds or Cushions for their Chairs and Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Council-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seizing on the Premises for the King's use But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a booty and the Commissioners to put a cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the Lords and Gentry of the Country who thought the Altar-cloths together with the Copes and Plate of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others This Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgy but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which conjuncture of Affairs King Edward the Sixth died From the begining of whose Reign the Reformation began All that was done in order to it under King Henry the Eighth seemed but accidental only and by the by rather designed on Private Ends than out of any settled purpose of a Reformation and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the great Work was carried on with a constant hand the Clergy cooperating with the King and the Council for the effecting of it But scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edward died whose Death I cannot reckon for an infelicity to the Church of England For being ill principled in himsels and easily enclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute
and every Act or Acts of Parliament concerning Doctrine and matters of Religion and all and every Article Branch Sentence and Matter Pains and Forfeitures in the same contained By which repeal all Men seem to have been put into a liberty of reading Scripture and being in a manner their own Expositors and of entertaining what Opinions in Religion best pleased their fancies and promulgating such Opinions as they entertained So that the English enjoyed that liberty which the Romans are affirmed by Tacitus to have enjoyed without control in the times of Nerva that is to say A liberty of being of what Opinion they pleased and of speaking freely their Opinions wheresoever they listed There was also an Act passed Entituled An Act against such as speak against the Sacrament of the Altar And to say truth it was but time that some provision should be made to suppress that Irreverence and Profaneness with which the Blessed Sacrament was at that time handled by too many of those who seemed most ignorantly Zealous of Reformation For they reproached it with such names and so unbecoming the mouths of Christians that they were never taken up by the Turks and Infidels There was another Act passed for the Receiving the Communion in both kinds yet with these Provisoes notwithstanding If necessity did not otherwise require as in the Case of sudden Sickness and other such like Extremities in which it was not possible that Wine could be provided for the use of that Sacrament nor the sick Man depart in peace without it And Secondly That the permitting this Liberty to the People of England should not be looked upon as a condemning of any other Church or Churches or their Practices in which the contrary is observed Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these acts of Parliament Another Act of Parliament The next great Business was the Retrieving of a Statute made in the Twenty seventh year of King Henry the Eighth By which all Chantries Colleges Free-Chappels and Hospitals were given to the King But he died before he had taken many of them into his Possession And the Grandees of the Court not being willing to lose so Rich a Booty it was set on foot again and carried in this present Parliament In which were Granted to the King all Chantries Colleges Free-Chappels Hospitals Fraternities Brotherhoods and Gilds not already seized on by his Father with all their Lands and Goods which being sold at a low rate enriched many and ennobled some And therefore made them firm in maintaining the change Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the ground of maintaining this Change of Religion Of Chantries Now as concerning the Nature of these Chantries here given to the King something hath been said out of Mr. Dugdale in the Reign of Henry the Eighth But it will not be amiss in this place to set down what Dr. Heylyn says concerning them pag. 51. His words are these THese Chantries consisted of Salaries to one or more Priests to say Mass daily for the Souls of their deceased Founders and their Friends Which not subsisting of themselves were generally Incorporated and united to some Parochial Collegiate or Cathedral Church no fewer than Forty seven being Founded in St. Paul's Free Chappels which though ordained for the same intent with others yet were independent of stronger Constitution and richer Endowment though therein they fell short of the Colleges which exceed them both in the beauty of their Buildings the number of their Priests maintained by them and the proportion of Revenue allotted to them Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Foundations made for Praying for the Dead A Sermon Preached Now concerning the Suppressing of these Chantries it was Preached at Mercers-Chappel in London by one Dr. Cromer a Man that wished well to the Reformation That if Trentals and Chantry-Masses could avail the Souls in Purgatory then the Parliament did not well in giving away Colleges Chantries c. which served principally for that purpose But if the Parliament did well in dissolving and bestowing them on the King which he thought that no Man could deny then was it a plane case that such Chantries and private Masses did confer no Relief on the Souls in Purgatory Which Dilemma though it were unanswerable yet was the matter so handled by the Bishops seeing how much the Doctrine of the Church was concerned therein that they brought him to a Recantation at St. Paul's-Cross in the June next following this Sermon being Preached in Lent where he confessed himself to have been seduced by naughty Books contrary to the Doctrine then received in the Church But the current of these times have run another way and Cromer might now have Preached that safely for which before he had been brought into so much trouble Thus far Dr. Heylyn as to these Chantries An Act of Parliament for the Election of Bishops BUt that which made the greatest Alteration and threatned most danger to the State Ecclesiastical was The Act Entituled An Act for the Election of Bishops and what Seals and Stiles shall be used by Spiritual Persons c. In which it is Ordained That Bishops should be made by the Kings Letters Patents and not by the Election of the Dean and Chapters and that all their Processes and Writings should be made in the King's Name only with the Bishops Teste added to and Sealed with no other Seal but the Kings or such as should be Authorized and appointed by him In the composing of which Act there was more danger couched than at first appeared By the last branch thereof it was plain and evident That the intent of the Contrivers was by degrees to weaken the Authority of the Episcopal Order by forcing them from their strong hold of Divine Institution and making them no other than the King's Ministers only his Ecclesiastical Sheriffs as a Man might say to execute his Will and disperse his Mandates And of this Act such use was made That the Bishops of those times were not in a capacity of Conferring Orders but as they were thereunto impowered by special Licence The tenor whereof if Saunders be to be believed was in these words to wit The King to such a Bishop Greeting Whereas All and All manner of Jurisdiction as well Ecclesiastical as Civil flows from the King as from the Supreme of all the Body c. We therefore Give and Grant to you Full Power and Licence to continue during our good Pleasure of conferring Orders within your Diocess and promoting fit Persons unto Holy Orders even to that of Priesthood Which being looked upon by Queen Mary not only as a dangerous Diminution of the Episcopal Power but as likewise an odious Innovation in the Church She caused this Act to be Repealed in the First year of her Reign There was also in the first branch more contained than did appear For though it seem'd to aim at nothing but that the Bishops should depend wholly upon the King for their Preferment yet the true drift of that Design was
having been so dilapidated by Bishop Thirlby that there was almost nothing left to support the Dignity most of the Lands were invaded by the Great Men of the Court the rest laid out for the Reparation of the Church of St. Paul's pared almost to the very quick in those days of Rapine From hence came that significant By-word of Robbing Peter to pay Paul There was Summoned also this year a Convocation of the Bishops in which was Settled and Confirm'd the Book of Articles prepared by Archbishop Cranmer and his Assistants There was likewise set out a new Book of Common-Prayer upon the setting out this Book there appear'd no small Alterations in the outward Solemnities of Divine Service to which the People had been formerly so long accustom'd For by the Rubrick of the Book no Copes or other Vestments were requir'd but the Surplice only whereby the Bishops were necessitated to forbear their Crosses and the Prebends of St. Paul's and other Churches occasion'd to leave off their Hoods To give a beginning hereto Ridley Bishop of London officiated the Divine Service in his Rochet only without Cope or Vestment And not long after the upper Quire in St. Paul's Church where the High Altar stood was broken down and all the Quire there about and the Communion-Table was plac'd in the lower part of the Quire where the Priest sang the Daily Service What hereupon ensued of the rich Ornaments and Plate wherewith every Church was furnish'd after its proportion we shall see shortly when the Kings Commissioners shall be sent abroad to seize upon them in his Name for their own Commodity At this time the Psalms of David were composed in English Meeter by John Hopkins following the Example of Beza who translated them to be fitted unto several Tunes which hereupon began to be sung in private Houses and by degrees to be taken up in all Churches of the French and other Nations which follow'd the Genevian Platform Hopkins's Composition likewise although it was full of Barbarity and Botching yet notwithstanding was first allowed for private Devotion and by little and little brought into the use of the Church allowed to be sung before and after Morning and Evening-Prayer and also before and after Sermons afterwards Printed and bound up with the Common-Prayer-Book and at last added at the end of the Bible But in some tract of time as the Puritan Faction grew in strength and confidence it prevailed so far in most places as to thrust the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis quite out of the Church Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these strange Changes CHAP. XI Of the Kings being engaged in Debt notwithstanding the vast Treasures he had gotten by his former Sacrileges and of one of his last Sacrileges in Pillaging of Churches Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 7. Dr. Heylyn pag. 131. Such was the Rapacity of the Times and the unfortunateness of the Kings condition that his Minority was abused to many Acts of Spoyl and Rapine even to the high degree of Sacrilege to the raising of some and enriching of others without any manner of improvement to his own Estate For notwithstanding the great and almost inestimable Treasures which must needs come in by the spoyl of so many Shrines and Images the Sale of the Lands belonging to Chantries Colleges Free-Chappels c. and the Dilapidating of the Patrimony of so many Bishopricks and Cathedral Churches he was nevertheless not only plunged in Debr but the Crown-lands are much diminish'd and empair'd since his coming to it Besides which spoyls there were many other helps and some great ones too of keeping him before-hand and full of Money had they been used to his Advantage The Lands of divers of the Halls and Companies of London were charged with Annual Pensions for the finding of such Lights Obits and Chantry-Priests as were Founded by the Donors of them For the redeeming whereof they were constrained to pay the Sum of Twenty thousand Pounds to the use of the King Other vast Sums likewise came to him upon several accounts yet notwithstanding all this he is now found to be much over-whelmed with Debt It must now be his care and the endeavors of those who plunged him into it to find the speediest way for his getting out In order to which the main Engin at this time for the advancing Money was the Speeding of a Commission into all parts of the Realm under pretence of selling such of the Lands and Goods of Chantries c. that remained unfold but in plain truth it was to seize upon all Hangings Altar-Cloths Fronts Parafronts Copes of all sorts with all manner of Plate Jewels Bells and Ornaments which were to be found in any Cathedral or Parochial Church to which rapacity the demolishing of the former Altars and placing the Communion Table in the middle of the Quires or Chancels of every Church as was then most used gave a very great hint by rendring all such Furniture rich Plate and other costly Utensils in a manner useless And that the business might be carried on with as much advantage to the King as might be he gave out certain Instructions under his hand by which the Commissioners were to regulate themselves in their proceedings to the advancement of the Service Now we cannot doubt but they were punctual and exact in the execution which cannot be better discerned than by that which is reported of their doings in all parts of the Realm and more particularly in the Church of St. Peter in Westminster more richly furnished by reason of the Pomps of Coronations Funerals and such like Solemnities than any other in the Kingdom Unto this Church they left no more then two Cups with covers all gilt one white Silver Pot three Hearse-Cloths twelve Cushions one Carpet for the Table eight Stall-Cloths for the Quire three Pulpit-Cloths nine little Carpets for the Dean's Stall two Table-Cloths The rest of all the rich Furniture Massy Plate and whatsoever else was of any value which questionless must amount to a very great Sum was seized on by the said Commissioners The like was done generally in all other parts of the Realm But notwithstanding this great care of the King on the one side and the double diligence of his Commissioners on the other the Booty did not prove so great as was expected In all great Fairs and Markets there are some fore-stallers who get the best penny-worths to themselves and suffer not the richest and most gainful Commodities to be openly sold. And so it was here For there were some who were as much before-hand with the Commissioners in Embezzelling the said Plate Jewels and other Furniture as the Commissioners did intend to be with the King in keeping always most part of it unto themselves For when the Commissioners came to execute their Powers in their several Circuits they neither could discover All or recover much of that which had been made away Some things being utterly embezzelled
Glory which by rash talk and words many have pretended And in so doing they should best please God and live without danger of the Laws and maintain the tranquillity of the Realm And furthermore for as much as it is well known That Sedition and false Rumors have been nourished and maintained in this Realm by the subtilty and malice of some evil-disposed Persons who take upon them without sufficient Authority to Preach and Interpret the Word of God after their own brains in Churches and other places both Publick and Private and also by playing Enterludes and Printing of false fond Books Ballads Rhymes and other lewd Treatises concerning Doctrine in matters now in Question Her Highness therefore strictly Charges and Commands That nothing in this kind be evermore Acted Thus Dr. Heylyn Relates Her moderate Proceedings as to Religion CHAP. III. A full Relation of the Reconciling this Nation to its former Obedience and Subjection to the Church of Rome Anno Reg. Mar. 2. Dr. Heylyn pag. 41. THe next work was the Reconciling this Nation to its former Obedience and Subjection to the Church of Rome But before the attempting this it was thought fit to remove one Difficulty which was most likely to hinder the progress of this Design The Difficulty was this There was a general fear That if the Popes were restored to their former Power the Church might challenge Restitution of her former Possessions Now to secure them against this Fear they had not only the Promise of the King and Queen but some Assurance underhand from the Cardinal Legat who knew right well that the Church Lands had been so chopped and changed by the Two last Kings as not to be restored without the manifest ruine of many of the Nobility and most of the Gentry who were invested in the same Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Obstacle Which being removed the work goes on The Relation whereof is thus delivered by Sir Rich. Baker Page 461. Cardinal Pool being sent for by the King and Queen came over into England from Rome as Legat à Latere Whereupon a Parliament being called and the King and Queen sitting there under a Cloth of State with the Cardinal on their right hand All the Lords Knights and Burgesses being present the Bishop of Winchester Lord Chancellor made a short Speech signifying the Presence of the Lord Cardinal and that he was sent from the Pope as his Legat à Latere to do a work tending to the Glory of God and the Benefit of them all which says he you may better hear from his own Mouth Thus Sir Rich. Baker Dr. Heylyn pag. 41. Then the Cardinal rose up and made a very grave and eloquent Speech First giving them Thanks for being restored unto his Country In recompence whereof he told them That he was come to restore them to the Country and Court of Heaven from which by their departure from the Church they had been estranged He therefore earnestly exhorts them to acknowledge their Errors and chearfully to receive the benefit which Christ was ready by his Vicar to extend unto them His Speech was said to have been long and Artificial but it concluded to this purpose That he had the Keys to open them away into the Church which they had shut against themselves by making so many Laws to the dishonor and reproach of the See Apostolick On the revoking of which Laws they should find him ready to make use of the Keys in opening of the door of the Church unto them It was concluded hereupon by both Houses of Parliament That a Petition should be made in the Name of the Kingdom wherein should be declared how sorry they were That they had withdrawn their Obedience from the Apostolick See and consented to the Statutes made against it promising to do their best endeavor hereafter That the said Laws and Statutes should be Repealed beseeching the King and Queen to intercede for them with his Holiness that they might be Absolved from their Crimes and Censures which they had incurred and be received as Penitent Children into the bosom of the Church These things being thus resolved upon both Houses are called again to the Court on Sr. Andrews day Where being Assembled in the Presence of the King and Queen they were asked by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner Whether they were pleased that Pardon should be demanded of the Legat and whether they would return to the Unity of the Church and Obedience of the Pope Supreme Head thereof To which they assenting the Petition was presented to their Majesties in the Name of the Parliament Which being publickly read they arose with a purpose to have moved the Cardinal in it who meeting their desires declared his readiness in giving them that Satisfaction which they would have craved And having caused the Authority given him by the Pope to be publickly read he shewed how acceptable the repentance of a Sinner was in the sight of God and that the very Angels in Heaven rejoyced at the Conversion of this Kingdom Which said they all kneeled upon their Knees and imploring the Mercy of God received Absolution for themselves and the rest of the Kingdom Which Absolution was pronounced in these following words viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who with his most precious Blood hath redeemed and washed us from all our sins and iniquities that he might purchase to himself a glorious Spouse without spot or wrinkle and whom the Father hath appointed Head over all his Church He by his Mercy Absolve you And we by Apostolical Authority given unto us by his Holiness Pope Julius the 3d. his Vice-gerent here on Earth do Absolve and Free you and every one of you with the whole Realm and the Dominions thereof from all Heresie and Schism and from all and every Judgment Censures and Pains for that cause incurred and also we do restore you again to the Unity of our Mother the Holy Church as in our Letters more plainly it shall appear In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Which words of his being seconded by a loud Amen by such as were present he concluded that days work with a solemn Procession to the Chappel for rendring Prayers and Thanks to Almighty God And because this great work was wrought on St. Andrews day the Cardinal procured a Decree or Canon to be made in the Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy That from thenceforth the Feast of St. Andrews-day should be kept in the Church of England for a Majus Duplex as the Rituals call it and Celebrated with as much Solemnity as any other in the year It was thought fit also That the Actions of that Day should be communicated on the Sunday following at St. Paul's Cross in the hearing of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the rest of the City According to which appointment the Cardinal went from Lambeth by Water and landing at St. Paul's-wharf from thence proceeded to the Church with a Cross two Pillars
and the French another and on the Lord's Day so to divide the hours between them that the one might be no hindrance unto the other It hath been also said That there was another condition imposed upon them of being conform to the French in Doctrine and Ceremonies Which condition if it were imposed and not sought by themselves must needs be very agreeable to the temper and complexion of their principal Leaders who being for the most part of the Zuinglian Gospellers at their going hence became the great promoters of the Puritan Faction at their coming home The Names of Whittingham Williams Goodman Wood and Sutton who appeared in the head of this Congregation declare sufficiently of what Principles they were and how willing they would be to lay aside the face of an English Church and frame themselves to any Liturgy but their own The noise of this new Church at Frankfort occasioned Knox who after proved the great Incendiary of the Realm and Church of Scotland to leave his Sanctuary in Geneva in hope to make a better market for himself in that Congregation These Frankfort-Schismaticks desire That all Divine Offices might be executed according to the Order of the Church of Geneva which Knox would by no means yield to thinking himself as able to make a Rule for his own Congregation as any Calvin of them all Infinite were the Confusions which they had amongst themselves and from hence was the beginning of the Puritan Faction against the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church that of the Presbyterians against the Bishops or Episcopal Government and finally that also of the Independents against the Super-intendency of Pastors and Elders But Sorrow seldom goes alone for their Differing from the Government Form and Worship Established in the Church of England drew on an Alteration also in point of Doctrine Such of the English as had retired to Geneva employed themselves in setting out a New Translation of the Bible in the English-Tongue which afterwards they published with certain Marginal Notes upon it very Heterodox in point of Doctrine some dangerous and seditious in reference to the Civil Magistrate and some as scandalous in respect of Episcopal Government From this time the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination began to be dispersed in English Pamphlets as the only necessary Orthodox and saving Truth Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Protestants But now leaving these Confusions the Effect of Schism we will here Relate a Princely Work of Piety done by the Queen CHAP. V. Of the Queens Resolution of Restoring Church-Lands and of what She did Actually Restore before Her Death Anno Reg. Mar. 4. Dr. Heylyn pag. 56. BEfore She undertook this Work She thought it necessary to Communicate her purpose unto some of the Council and therefore calling them to Her She is said to have spoken to them in these following words We have willed you to be called to Us to the intent you might hear of Me my Conscience and the Resolution of my Mind concerning the Lands and Possessions as well of Monasteries as of other Churches whatsoever being now in my Possession First I do consider that the said Lands were taken away from the Churches aforesaid in time of Schism and that by unlawful means such as are contrary both to the Law of God and of the Church For which cause my Conscience doth not suffer me to detain them And therefore I here expresly refuse either to claim or retain those Lands for Mine But with all my heart freely and willingly without all Paction or Condition here and before God I do Surrender and Relinquish the said Lands and Possessions or Inheritances whatsoever and renounce the same with this mind and purpose that order and disposition thereof may be taken as shall seem best liking to the Pope or his Legat to the Honor of God and Wealth of this our Realm And albeit you may object to Me again That the State of my Kingdom the Dignity thereof and my Crown Imperial cannot be Honorably Maintained and Furnished without the Possessions aforesaid Yet notwithstanding and so She had affirmed before when She was bent upon the Restitution of the Tenths and First Fruits I set more by the Salvation of my Soul than by Ten such Kingdoms And therefore the said Possessions I utterly refuse here to hold after that sort and Title And give most hearty Thanks to God who hath given me a Husband of the same mind who hath no less good Affection in this behalf than I my self Wherefore I Charge and Command That my Chancellor with whom I have conferred my Mind in this matter and you Four do â—…esort to morrow together to the Legat signifying to him the Premises in my Name And give your Attendance upon me for the more full declaration of the State of my Kingdom and of the aforesaid Possessions according as you your selves do understand the matter and can inform him in the same Upon this opening of Her Mind the Lords thought it reqâ—…isite to direct some course wherein She might satisfie Her desires to Her own great Honor and yet not Alienate too much at once of the publick Patrimony The Abbey of Westminster had been Founded for a Convent of Benedictin Monks by King Edward the Confessor valued at the Suppression by King Henry the Eighth at the yearly Sum of Three thousand Nine hundred Seventy seven pounds in good old Rents Anno 1539. At which time having taken to himself the best and greatest part of the Lands thereof he Founded with the rest a Collegiate Church consisting of a Dean and Secular Canons But now the Queen put into it a Convent of Benedictins consisting of an Abbot and Fourteen Monks which with their Officers were as many as the Lands then left upon it would well maintain A Convent of Observants being a reformed Order of Franciscan Friers had been Founded by King Henry the Seventh near the Mannor of Greenwich and was the first which felt the fury of King Henry the Eighth by reason of some open opposition made by some of the Friars in favour of Queen Catherine the Mother of the Queen now Reigning Which moved Her in a pious gratitude to re-edifie that ruined House and to restore as many as could be found of that Order to their old Habitations making up their Corporation with some new Observants to a competent number She gathered together also a New Convent of Dominican or Black-Friars for whom She provided a House in Smithfield in the City of London fitting the same with all conveniences both for the Divine Office as likewise for other necessary Uses At Syon near Brentford there had been anciently a House of Religious Women Nunns of the Order of St. Bridget dissolved as were all the rest by King Henry the Eighth Such of these as remained alive with the addition of some others who were willing to embrace that course of Life made up a competent number for a New Plantation These She restored likewise to their
old Habitation repairing their House and laying to it a sufficient Estate in Lands for their future maintenance At Sheen on the other-side of the Water there had been Anciently another Religious House not far from a Mansion of the Kings to which they much resorted till the building of Richmond This House She stocked with a New Convent of Charthusians and endowed it with a Revenue great enough to maintain that Order And the next year having Closed up the West-end of the Quire or Chancel of the Church of St. John's near Smithfield which was all the Protector Sommerset had left standing of it She restored the same to the Hospitality of the Knights of St. John to whom it formerly belonged assigning a liberal Endowment to it for their more honorable Subsistance An Hospital had been formerly Founded in the Savoy by her Grand-father King Henry the Seventh for thâ—… relief of such Pilgrims as either went on their Devotions to the Shrine of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury or any other eminent Shrine or Saint in these parts of the Kingdom Now this Hospital being destroyed by Edward the Sixth and the Means disposed of it could no be restored to its first condition but by a new endowment from such other Lands belonging to Religious Houses which were remaining in the Crown But the Queen was so resolved upon it and withal so desirous to add some Works of Charity unto those of Piety or else in Honor of Her Grand-father whose Foundation She restored at Greenwich also the Hospital was again Re-founded and a convenient yearly Rent allotted to the Master and Brethren for the Entertainment of the poor according to the tenor and effect of the first Institution Which Prince-like Act so wrought upon the Maids of Honor and other Ladies of the Court that for the better attaining of the Queens good Grace they furnished the same at their own costs with new Beds Bedding and other necessary Furniture in a very ample manner In which condition it continues to this very day the Mastership of the Hospital being looked on as a good preferment for any well deserving Man about the Court. How far the Queens Example Seconded by the Ladies about the Court countenanced by the King and earnestly insisted on by the Pope might have prevailed on the Nobility and Gentry for doing the like either in restoring their church-Church-Lands or assigning some part of them to the like Foundations it is hard to say most probable it is that if the Queen had lived some few years longer either for Love to Her or for fear of gaining the King's Displeasure or otherwise out of an unwillingness to incur the Popes Curse and the Churches Censures there might have been very much done that way though not all at once That which might have much furthered this business was the Greatness to which Philip had attained at this present time when the Queen was most intent on these new Foundations For having passed over to Calais in the Month of September Anno 1555. And the next day going to the Emperor's Court which was then at Brussels he found his Father in a Resolution of Resigning to him all his Dominions and Estates except the Empire or the bare Title rather of it which was to be Surrendred to his Brother Ferdinand not that he had not a Design to settle the Imperial Dignity on his Successor in the Realm of Spain for the better attaining of the Universal Monarchy which he was said to have aspired to over all the West But that he had been crossed in it by Maximilian the Eldest Son of his Brother Ferdinand who Succeeded to his Father in it and left the same Hereditary in a manner to the Princes of the House of Austria of the German race For Charles grown weary of the World broken with Wars and desirous to apply himself to Divine Meditation resolved to discharge himself of all Civil Employments and spend the remainder of his life in the Monastery of St. Justus situated amongst the Mountains of Estremadura a Province in the Realm of Castile In pursuance whereof having called before him the Principal of the Nobility and Great Men of His several Kingdoms and Estates He made a Resignation of All his Hereditary Dominions to King Philip his Son having then scarce attained to the Fifty fifth year of his Liâ—…e to the great Admiration of all the World Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Noble Action of the Queen CHAP. VI. A Proclamation against the setting out of Seditious Books and of the Conventicles and Seditious Meetings of Sectaries and a Word concerning the Lutherans Anno Reg. Mar 5. The Proclamation Dr. Heylyn pag. 70. WHereas divers Books filled with Heresie Sedition and Treason have of late been Daily brought into this Realm out of Forein Countries and also some covertly Printed within this Realm and cast a broad in sundry parts thereof whereby not only God is dishonored but likewise encouragement given to disobey Lawful Princes and Governors Therefore for redress hereof We Command the Suppressing of all such Books Thus Dr. Heylyn relates this Proclamation Seditious Meetings Dr. Heylyn pag. 73. Now besides these Seditious Books they had likewise their Conventicles or Seditious Meetings even in London it self In one of which Congregations that namely whereof Bentham was at that time Minister there Assembled seldom under Forty many times an Hundred and sometimes Two Hundred but more or less as it stood most with their convenience and safety They had not all the conveniency of such Meetings but they Met frequently enough in smaller Companies Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Meetings A Remark concerning Sectaries There is one thing very remarkable in these Sectaries which is That although they alâ—… agree in a general malice against Catholick Religion yet they strangely disagree amongst themselves by furious Animosities and hatred one against another One Example whereof is here related by Dr. Heylyn pag. 80. in this following short Note concerning the Lutherans The Lutherans abominated nothing more than an English Protestant because they concurred not with them in their Doctrine of Consubstantiation Insomuch that Peter Martyr tells us of a Friend of his in the Dukedom of Saxony that was generally hated by the rest of his Country-men for being hospitable to some few of the English Nation And it is further signified by Philip Melancthon in an Epistle of this year That the Lutherans could find no other Names but the Devils-Martyrs for such as suffered Death in England in defence of Religion Now one ground of this their hatred was That John à Lasco and his Company had been lately there where thy spoke so reproachfully of Luther the Augustan Confession and the Rites and Ceremonies of their Churches as rendred them uncapable of any better entertainment than they found amongst them And by the behaviour of these men coming then from England the Lutherans past their judgment on the Church it self and consequently on all those who suffered in defence
retired from thence to Geneva who having left some few behind to compleat their Notes upon the Bible and to make up so many of the Psalms in English Meeter as had been left unfinished by Hopkins hastned as fast homewards as the others But notwithstanding all their hast they came not time enough to effect their purposes either in reference to the Liturgy or Episcopal Government in which the Queen was so resolved that they were not able to prevail in either project It grieved them at the Heart that their own Prayers might not be made the rule of Worship in their Congregations and that they might not Lord it here in their several Parishes as Calvin did at Geneva Some friends they had about the Queen and Calvin was resolved to make use of all his power and credit both with Her and Cecil as appears by his Letters unto both to advance their ends and he was seconded therein by Peter Martyr who thought his Interest in England to be greater then Calvin's though his name was not so eminent in other places But the Quen had fixed her self on her resolution of keeping up some outward Splendor of a Church When therefore they saw the Liturgy imposed by Act of Parliament and Episcopal Sees supplyed with Bishops nothing seemed more convenient to them than to revive the quarrels raised in King Edward's time against Caps and Surplices and such particulars as had been then questioned in the publick Liturgy And herein they were seconded as before in King Edward's time by the same Peter Martyr as appears by his Letters to a Nameless friend To which he added in another of his Letters to the same friend also his dislike of the same and other Points proposed unto him as touching the Cap the Episcopal Habit the Patrimony of the Church the manner of proceeding to be held against Papists the Perambulation used in Rogation-week with many other such Points in which his judgment was desired But these Helps being too far off and not to be consulted upon all occasions without a greater loss of time than would consist with the impatience of their desires they fell upon another project more to their purpose than the decrying of the Liturgy or the quarrels about the Cap and Vestments Grindal the new Bishop of London was known to have a great respect for Calvin The business therefore was so ordered that by Calvins Letters to Grindal and the friends they had about the Queen way was given to such of the French Nation as had repaired hither to enjoy the Freedom of their own Religion and to have a Church unto themselves They could not but remember those many advantages which John à Lasco and his Church of Strangers afforded to the Zuinglian Gospellers in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth and they despaired not of the like or greater if a French Church were setled upon Calvin's Principles in some part of London Now a Church being granted them we must not wonder if we find dangerous consequences to ensue upon it For what else is the setting up of a Presbytery in a Church Founded and Established by the Rules of Episcopacy than the Erecting of a Common-wealth in the midst of a Monarchy Which Calvin well knew and thereupon gave Grindal thanks for his favor in it Of whom they afterwards served themselves upon all occasions Upon the news of which success divers both French and Dutch repaired into England planting themselves in the Sea-towns and openly professing the Reformed Religion under which covert they disguised their several Heterodoxies and Blasphemous Dotages some of them proving to be Anabaptists others infected with unsound Opinions of as ill a nature but all endeavoring to disperse their Heretical Doctrines and to empoyson the People amongst whom they lived to encrease their Sects And although a Proclamation was set out for their Banishment yet many of them lurked in England without fear of discovery especially after the Erecting of so many French and Dutch Churches in the Maritime parts which they infected with some of their phrenzies as at this time they had London and occasioned such Disputes amongst them upon that account that Peter Martyr was necessitated to enterpose himself for the composing those Heats and Differences which had grown amongst them There was likewise at the same time another Proclamation published to hinder and stop a certain Abuse which was this The Queen having given Command by her Injunctions in the year foregoing for destroying and taking away all Shrines and Coverings of Shrines all Tables Candlesticks Trindals and Rolls of Wax together with all Pictures Paintings c. so that there was to remain no memory of the same either in the Walls Glass-windows or else-where whether it were in Churches or private Houses it is said that they proceeded in the Execution of this even to the breaking down all Coats of Arms to the tearing off of all the Brass of the Tombs and Monuments of the Dead And being given to understand that Bells were blessed in time of Popery and that even the Churches themselves had been abused to Superstition and Idolatry their Zeal transported them to sell the Bells to turn the Steeples into Dove-coats and to rob the Churches of those sheets of Lead with which they were covered Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these confusions There remains nothing more of this year but this short Note concerning Westminster Dr. Heylyn pag. 136. In the space of Twenty years it had been changed from an Abbey to a Deanry from a Deanry to a See Episcopal and from that reduced again to a Deanry and likewise once more to the state of an Abbey and lastly by Queen Elizabeth having first pleased her self in the choice of some of the best Lands belonging to it and confirmed the rest upon the Church it was to be called The Collegiate Church of St. Peter's in Westminster Thus Heylyn I will add here one short Note more although it belongs not to this year concerning the Bishoprick of Oxford Dr. Heylyn pag. 156. This Bishoprick was only supplied with a Bishop for Three years in the space of Forty six years The Jurisdiction of it was managed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Revenues of it remained in the hands of the Earl of Leicester and after his decease of the Earl of Essex by whom the Lands thereof were so spoiled and wasted that they left nothing to the last Bishops but Impropriations By means of which havock and destruction all the Five Bishopricks Erected by King Henry the Eighth were so impoverished and destroyed that the new Bishops were constrained to require a Benevolence of the Clergy at their first coming to them Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Bishoprick and the other Four founded out of Abbey-Lands CHAP. X. Some particular Passages concerning Bishopricks with other short Passages concerning other things Anno Reg. Eliz. 3. Dr. Heylyn pag. 140. IN the beginning of this year were filled up all such Episcopal Sees as were
the preservation of my Life than the profit of my Living Wherefore after I had weighed as many dangers as I could remember and was perswaded that to depart the Realm was the safest way I could take I resolved to take the benefit of a happy Wind to avoid the violence of a bitter Storm And knowing that the Actions of Those who go beyond Seas though their intent be never so good and dutiful were yet evil thought of I presume to write this Letter to your Majesty and in it to declare the true causes and reasons of this my departure I here take God and his Holy Angels to witness that I would not have taken this course if I might have staied still in England without danger of my Soul and peril of my Life And though the loss of Temporal Commodities be so grievous to Flesh and Blood that I could not desire to live if I were not comforted with the remembrance of his Mercy for whom I endure all this who endured ten thousand times more for me yet I assure your Majesty that your Displeasure would be more unpleasant to me than the bitterness of all my Losses and greater grief than the greatest of my Misfortunes The Earl having written the foregoing Letter and leaving it behind him to be delivered to the Queen after his departure attempted to have passed the Seas without License for the which he was committed to the Tower and condemned to pay Ten thousand Pound Fine for his contempt and to remain Prisoner at the Queens pleasure Thus Stow. This short Relation of these Severities may make it easily conceived what endeavours there were then used totally to extirpate Catholick Religion in England Thus you have had a short view of the state of Religion in this Queens Reign An Account of the Years in which these Changes in Religion were made IN her First year she being resolved upon an Alteration of Religion as knowing well that her Legitimation and the Pope's Supremacy could not stard together called a Parliament which totally complied with her Designs in order to such a Change But the Convocation of the Clergy which accompanied this Parliament totally opposed it and thereupon were deprived of their Ecclesiastical Benefices a company of Ignorant and Illiterate Men being Substituted in their places which gave occasion to the Calvinists or Presbyterians to obtain great Ecclesiastical Preserments here By which they have continually labored to supplant and undermine the Church of England It was the Second year of her Reign before any Protestant Bishops were elected The main cause for keeping the Episcopal Sees so long vacant was that in the mean time the best Flowers might be culled out of them Aid this year was sent to assist the Rebels in Scotland against their Lawful Queen The Presbyterians seeing Episcopal Government settled begin to play their Game The Bishops being thus settled begin the next year to make Laws and to compose Articles of Religion and to exact a Conformity to them upon which they find great oppositions from the Presbyterians In her Fourth year she was solicited by Pope Pius to send her Orators to the Council of Trent which she refused to do The Emperor also writ to her to desist from these Alterations of Religion and to return to the Ancient Catholick Faith of her Predecessors In her Fifth year the Articles of Religion were agreed on in the Convocation In her Sixth year she would have Married the Earl of Leicester to the Queen of Scots Calvin dies this year and Cartwright the great promoter of Presbytery retires out of England upon a discontent to Geneva In her Seventh year the Calvinists began first to be called Puritans Dr. Heylyn In her Eighth year the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops was Confirmed And for this we are beholding to Boner the late Bishop of London who being called up to take the Oath of Supremacy by Horn of Winton refused to take the Oath upon this account because Horn's Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land Which he insisted upon because the Ordinal Established in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth by which both Horn and all the rest of Queen Elizabeths Bishops received Consecration had been Repealed by Queen Mary and not restored by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign which being first declared by Parliament in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus Omissus or rather that the Ordinal was looked upon as a part of the Liturgy confirmed in the First year of this Queen They next Enacted and Ordained That all such Bishops as were consecrated by it in time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Consecrated Baker In her Eleventh year there arose a Sect openly condemning the received Discipline of the Church of England together with the Church-Liturgy and the very Calling of Bishops This Sect so mightily encreased that in the Sixteenth year of her Reign the Queen and Kingdom was extreamly troubled with them In the same Sixteenth year were taken at Mass in their several Houses the Lord Morley's Lady and her Children the Lady Gilford and the Lady Brown who being thereof Endicted and Convicted suffered the penalties of the Laws In her Twentieth year the severe Laws against Roman Catholicks were Enacted In her Twenty third year a Proclamation was set forth That whosoever had any Children beyond Sea should by a certain day call them home and that no Person should harbour any Seminary Priest or Jesuit At this time also there arose up in Holland a certain Sect naming themselves The Family of Love In a Parliament held the 26th year of her Reign the Puritan party laboured to have Laws made in order to the destroying of the Church of England and the setting up of their own Sect. In her Twenty eighth year the Queen gave a special Charge to Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury to settle an Uniformity in the Ecclesiastical Discipline which lay now almost a gasping And at this time the Sect of Brownists derived from one Robert Brown did much oppose the Church of England In her One and Thirtieth year the Puritan-Flames broke forth again In her Thirty sixth year the Severity of the Laws were Executed upon Henry Barrow and his Sectaries for condemning the Church of England as no Christian Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here is an End of this Work Wherein I hope there is full Satisfaction given concerning the Alterations of Religion which have been made by Publick Authority in the Reigns of these Kings and Queens with a sufficient discovery of the Actings of the Presbyterians in this Nation and the ground of multiplying other Sects Here ends the Historical Collections AN APPENDIX CHAP. I. A Word concerning the Doctrins and Practices deserted by this Nation in these Changes of Religion NOw for a close to this Work I will add here in the first place one thing which I conceive deserves well to be taken notice of which is this to wit