Author of it would certainly be hanged So when the Secretary came to ask for it and said it was the Arch-bishop's Book the other that was an obstinate Papist refused to give it and reckoned that now Cranmer would be certainly ruined but the Secretary acquainting Cromwell with it he called for him next day and chid him severely for presuming to keep a Privy-Counsellours Book and so he took it out of his Hands thus Cranmer was delivered out of this Danger Shaxton and Latimer not only resigned their Bishopricks but being presented for some Words spoken against the six Articles they were put in Prison where they lay till a recantation discharged the one and the King's Death set the other at liberty There were about 500 others presented on the same account but upon the Intercessions of Cranmer Cromwell and others they were set at liberty and there was a stop put to the further Execution of the Act till Cromwell fell The Bishops of the Popish Party took strange Methods to insinuate themselves into the King's Confidence Bishops hold their Sees at the King's Pleasure for they took out Commissions by which they acknowledged That all Jurisdiction Civil and Ecclesiastical flowed from the King and that they exercised it only at the King's Courtesy and as they had of his Bounty so they would be ready to deliver it up when he should be pleased to call for it and therefore the King did empower them in his stead to ordain give Institution and do all the other parts of the Episcopal Function which was to last during his Pleasure and a mighty charge was given them to ordain none but Persons of great Integrity good Life and well learned for since the Corruption of Religion flowed from ill Pastors so the Reformation of it was to be expected chiefly from good Pastors By this they were made indeed the King's Bishops in this Bonner set an Example to the rest but it does not appear that Cranmer took out any such Commission all this Reign Now came on the total Dissolution of the Abbies All the Monasteries supprest 57 surrenders were made this Year of which 30 are yet extant of these 37 were Monasteries and 20 were Nunneries and among them 12 were Parliamentary Abbies which were in all 28 Abington St. Albans St. Austin's Canterbury Battell St. Bennets in the Holm Bardeny Cirencester Colchester Coventry Croyland St. Edmundsbury Evesham Glassenbury Gloceste Hide Malmsbury St. Mary's in York Peterborough Ramsey Reading Selby Shrewsbury Tavestock Tewkesbury Thorney Waltham Westminster and Winchelcomb When all had thus resigned Commissioners were appointed by the Court of Augmentations to seize on the Revenues and Goods belonging to these Houses to establish the Pensions that were to be given to every one that had been in them and to pull down the Churches or such other parts of the Fabrick as they thought superfluous and to sell the Materials of them When this was done others began to get Hospitals to be surrendred to the King Thirleby being Master of St. Thomas Hospital in Southwark was the first that set an Example to the rest he was soon after made a Bishop and turned with every Change that followed till Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and then he refused to comply tho he had gone along with all the Changes that were made in King Edward's time The valued Rents of the abby-Abby-Lands as they were then let was 132607 l. 6 s. 4 d. but they were worth above ten times so much in true value The King had now in his hand the greatest Advantage that ever King of England had both for enriching the Crown and making Royal Foundations But such was his Easiness to his Courtiers and his Lavishness that all this melted away in a few Years and his Designs were never accomplished he intended to have founded 18 new Bishopricks but he founded only six Other great Projects did also become abortive In particular one that was designed by Sir Nicholas Bacon which was a Seminary for States-men he proposed the crecting a House for Persons of Quality or of extraordinary Endowments for the study of the Civil Law and of the Latine and French Tongues of whom some were to be sent with every Ambassadour beyond Sea to be improved in the Knowledg of Forreign Assairs in which they should be imploied as they grew capable of them And others were to be set to work to write the History of the Trasactions abroad and of Assairs at home This was to supply one Loss that was like to follow on the Fall of Abbies for in most of them there was kept a Chronicle of the Times These were written by Men that were more credulous than judicious and so they are often more particular in the recital of Trifles than of important Affairs and an invincible Humour of lying when it might raise the Credit of their Order or House runs through all their Manuscripts All the Ground that Cranmer gained this Year in which there was so much lost was a Liberty that all private Persons might have Bibles in their House the managing of which was put in Cromwell's Hands by a special Patent Gardiner opposed it vehemently and built much on this that without Tradition it was impossible to understand the meaning of the Scriptures and one day before the King he challenged Cranmer to shew any Difference between the Scriptures and the Apostles Canons It is not known how Cranmer managed the Debate but the Issue of it was this The King judged in his Favours and said He was an old experienced Captain and ought not to be troubled by fresh Men and Novices The King was now resolved to marry again and both the Emperour and the King of France proposed Matches to him but they came to no Effect The Emperour endeavoured by all means possible to separate the King from the Princes of the Smalcaldick League and the Act of the six Articles had done that already in a great measure for they complained much of the King's Severity in those Points which were the principal Parts of their Doctrine such as Communion in both kinds Private Masses and the Marriage of the Clergy Gardiner studied to animate the King much against them he often told him it was below his Dignity to suffer dull Gâ—rrâ—ans to dictate to him and he suggested that they who would not acknowledg the Emperours Supremacy in the matters of Religion could not be hearty Friends to the Authority which the King had assumed in them But the Germans did not look on the Emperour as their Soveraign but only as the Head of the Empire and they did believe that every Prinee in his Dominions and the Diet for the whole Empire had sufficient Authority for making Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs but what other Considerations could not induce the King to was like to be more powerfully carried on by the Match with Anne of Cleve which was now set on foot There had been a Treaty between her Father and
2. That Christ was entirely in each kind and so Communion in both was not necessary 3. That Priests by the Law of God ought not to marry 4. That Vows of Chastity taken after the Age of 21 ought to be kept 5. That Private Masses were lawful and useful 6. That Auricular Confession was necessary and ought to be retained Such as did speak or write agaist the first of these were to be burned without the benefit of Abjuration and it was made Felony to dispute against the other five and such as did speak against them were to be in a Premunire for the first Offence the second was made Felony Married Priests that did not put away their Wives were to be condemned of Fellony in those that lived incontinently the first Offence was a Premunire and the second Felony Women that offended were to be punished as the Priests were Those that contemned Confession and the Sacrament and abstained from it at the accustomed times were for the first Offence in a Premunire the second was Felony Proceedings were to be made in the Forms of Common Law by Presentments and a Jury and all Church-men were charged to read the Act in their Churches once a Quarter This Act was received with great Joy by all the Popish Party Censures past upon it they reckoned that now Heresy would be extirpated and that the King was as much engaged against it as he was when he writ against Luther this made the Suppression of the Monasteries pass much the easier The poor Reformers were now exposed to the Rage of their Enemies and had no Comfort from any part of it but one that they were not delivered up to the Cruelty of the Ecclesiastical Courts or the Trials ex Officio but were to be tried by Juries yet the denying the benefit of Abjuration was a Severity without a Precedent and was a forcing Martyrdom on them since they were not to be the better for their Apostacy It was some Satisfaction to the married Clergy that the incontinent Priests were to be so severely punished which Cromwell put in and the Clergy knew not how they could decently oppose it Upon the passing the Act the German Ambassadours being set on to it by those that favoured their Doctrine in England desired an Audience of the King and told him of the Grief with which their Masters would receive the News of this Act and therefore earnestly press'd him to stop the Execution of it The King answered that he found it necessary to have the Act made for repressing the Insolence of some People but assured them it should not be put in Execution except upon great Provocation When the Princes heard of the Act they writ to the King to the same purpose they warned him of many Bishops that were about him who in their Hearts loved Popery and all the old Abuses and took this method to force the King to return back to the former Yoke hoping that if they once made him cruel to all those they called Hereticks it would be easy to bring him back to submit to that Tyranny which he had shaken off and therefore they proposed a Conference between some Divines of both sides in order to an Agreement of Doctrine The King was only concerned upon State Maxims to keep up their League in Opposition to the Emperour but they still press'd a Religious as well as a Civil League After the Act of the six Articles An Act for suppressing the Monasteries the Act for suppressing the Monasteries was brought in and tho there were so many Abbots sitting in the House none of them protested against it By it no Monastery was suppressed but only the Resignations made or to be made were confirmed and the King 's Right founded either on their Surrenders Forfeitures or Attainders of Treason was declared good in Law Houses surrendred were to be managed by the Court of Augmentations but those seized on by Attainders were to come to the Exchequer All Persons except the Founders and Donors were to have the same Rights to the Lands belonging to these Houses that they had before this Act was made All Deeds and Leases made for a Year before this to the prejudice of these Houses were annulled and all the Churches belonging to them and formerly exempted were put under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop or of such as should be appointed by the King This last Proviso has produced a great Mischief in this Church for many that purchased abby-Abby-Lands had this Clause put in their Grants that they should be the Visitors of the Churches and by this they continue still exempted from the Episcopal Jurisdiction and this has emboldened many to break out into great Scandals which have been made use of by prejudiced Men to cast an Obloquy on the Church tho this Disorder proceeds only from the want of Authority in the Bishops to censure them A Question was raised upon this Suppression whether the Lands should have reverted to the Donors or been escheated to the Crown By a Judgment of the Roman Senate in Theodosius's time all the Endowments of the Heathenish Temples were given to the Fisc and tho the Heirs of the Donors pretended to them yet it was said that by the Gifts that their Ancestors made they were totally alienated from them and their Heirs When the Order of the Templers was suppressed their Lands went to the Lord by an Escheat This might seem reasonable in Endowments that were simple Gifts without any Conditions But the Grants to Religious Houses were of the nature of Covenants given in consideration of the Masses that were to be said for them and their Families and therefore it was inferred that when the Cheat of redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was discovered and these Houses were suppress'd then the Lands ought to revert to the Heirs of the Donors and upon that account it was thought necessary to exclude them by a special Proviso Another Bill was brought in An Act for new Bishopricks empowering the King to erect new Bishopricks by his Letters Patents it was read three times in one day in the House of Lords The Preamble set forth that the ill Lives of those that were called Religious made it necessary to change thir Houses to better Uses for teaching the Word of God instructing of Children educating of Clerks relieving of old infirm People the endowing of Readers for Greek Latine and Hebrew mending of High-ways and the bettering the Condition of the Parish Priests and for this end the King was empowered to erect new Sees and to assign what Limits and Divisions and appoint them what Statutes he pleased I have seen the first Draught of this Preamble all written with the King 's own Hand and indeed he used extraordinary Care in corecting both Acts of Parliament and Proclamations with his own Hand All Papers in matters of Religion that were set out by publick Authority in this Reign were revised by him and in many places large
Conquerors time besides many other Acts that clearly imported a Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes But they did at the same time so explain and limit this Power that it was visible they did not intend to subject Religion wholly to the Pleasure of the King for it was declared that his Power was only a Coercive Authority to defend the true Religion to abolish Heresies and Idolatries to cause Bishops and Pastors to do their Duties and in case they were negligent or would not amend their Faults to put others in their room Upon the whole matter they concluded that the Pope had no Power in England and that the King had an intire Dominion over all his Subjects which did extend even to the regulating of Ecclesiastical Matters These things being fully opened in many Disputes The Clergy submitted to it and published in several Books all the Bishops Abbots and Priors of England Fisher only excepted were so far satisfied with them or so much in love with their Preferments that they resolved to comply with the Changes which the King was resolved to make Fisher was in great esteem for Piety and strictness of Life and so much pains was taken on him A little before the Parliament met Cranmer proposed to him that he and any five Doctors he would choose and Stokesly with five on his side should confer on that point and examine he Authorities that were on both sides he accepted of it and Stokesly wrote to him to name time and place but Fisher's Sickness hindered the Progress of that motion The Parliament met the 15th of January A Session of Parliament there were but seven Bishops and twelve Abbots present the rest it seems were unwilling to concur in making this change tho they complied with it when it was made Every Sunday during the Session a Bishop preached at St. Paul's and declared that the Pope had no Authority in England Before this they had only said that a General Council was above him and that the Exactions of that Court and Appeals to it were unlawful but now they went a strain higher to prepare the People for receiving the Acts then in Agitation On the 9th of March The Pope's Power taken away the Commons began the Bill for taking away the Pope's Power and sent it to the Lords on the 14th who past it on the 20th without any dissent In it they set forth the Exactions of the Court of Rome grounded on the Pope's Power of dispensing and that as none could dispense with the Laws of God so the King and Parliament only had the Authority of dispensing with the Laws of the Land and that therefore such Licenses or Dispensations as were formerly in use should be for the future granted by the two Arch-bishops some of these were to be confirmed under the Great Seal and they appointed that thereafter all Commerce with Rome should cease They also declared that they did not intend to alter any Article of the Catholick Faith of Christendome or of that which was declared in the Scripture necessary to Salvation They confirmed all the Exemptions granted to Monasteries by the Popes but subjected them to the King's Visitation and gave the King and his Council power to examine and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges granted by the Pope The Offenders against this Law were to be punished according to the Statutes of Premunire This Act subjected the Monasteries entirely to the King's Authority and put them in no small Confusion Those that loved the Reformation rejoyced both to see the Pope's Power rooted out and to find the Scripture made the Standard of Religion After this Act The Act of the Succession another past in both Houses in six Days time without any Opposition Settling the Succession of the Crown confirming the Sentence of Divorce and the King's Marriage with Queen Anne and declaring all Marriages within the Degrees prohibited by Moses to be unlawful All that had married within them were appointed to be divorced and their Issue illegitimated and the Succession to the Crown was settled upon the King's Issue by the prefent Queen or in default of that to the King 's right Heirs for ever All were required to swear to maintain the Contents of this Act and if any refused to swear to it or should say any thing to the Slander of the King's Marriage he was to be judged guilty of misprision of Treason and to be punished accordingly The Oath is also set down in the Journals of the House of Lords by which they did not only swear Obedience to the King and his Heirs by his present Marriage but also to defend the Act of Succession and all the Effects and Contents in it against all manner of Persons whatsoever by which they were bound to maintain the Divorce both against the Pope's Censures and the Emperour if he went about to execute them At this time An Act regulating the proceedings against Hereticks one Philips complained to the House of Commons of the Bishop of London for using him cruelly in Prison upon Suspicion of Heresy the Commons sent up this to the Lords but received no Answer So they sent some of their Members to the Bishop desiring him to answer the Complaints put in against him But he acquainted the House of Lords with it and they all with one consent voted that none of their House ought to appear or answer to any Complaint at the Bar of the House of Commons So the Commons let this particular Case fall and sent up a Bill to which the Lords agreed regulating the Proceedings against Hereticks That whereas by the Statute made by King Henry the Fourth Bishops might commit Men upon Suspition of Heresy and Heresy was generally defined to be whatever was contrary to the Scriptures or Canonical Sanctions which was liable to great Ambiguity therefore that Statute was repealed and none were to be committed for Heresy but upon a Presentment made by two Witnesses None were to be accused for speaking against things that were grounded only upon the Pope's Canons Bail was to be taken for Hereticks and they were to be brought to their Trials in open Court and if upon Conviction they did not abjure or were Relapses they were to be burnt the King 's Writ being first obtained This was a great check to the Bishop's Tyrrany and gave no smal comfort to all that favoured the Reformation The Convocation sent in a Submission at the same time The Submission of the Clergy by which they acknowledged That all Convocations ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and promised upon the Word of Priests never to make nor execute any Canons without the King's Assent They also desired That since many of the received Canons were found to be contrary to the King's Prerogative and the Laws of the Land there might be a Committee named by the King of 32 the one half out of both Houses of Parliament and the other
French Universities for the Divorce Yet after that he came to England and was present when the Convocation declared the King to be their Supream Head And it is probable that he joined in it for he kept his Deanry some Years after this which it is not likely would have been granted him if he had not done that The King suffered him after that to go beyond Sea but could never draw him over again Some time afterwards he wrote plainly to the King that he condemned both his Divorce and his Separation from the Apostolick See The King upon that sent him a Book writ by Sampson Bishop of Chichester in defence of these things and that set him on writing his Book de Vnione Ecclesiastica which was printed this Year It was full of sharp Reflections on the King whom he compared to Nebuchadnezzar It tended much to depress the Regal and to exalt the Papal Authority And in Conclusion he addressed himself to the Emperour praying him rather to turn his Arms against the King than the Turk It was very Eloquently wrote but there was little Learning or Reasoning in it and it was full of Indecencies in the Language that he bestowed not only on Sampson but on the King The King required him to come over but that was not to be expected after he had made such a step So he devested him of all his Dignities but that recommended him to a Cardinal's Hat Stokesly and Tonstal wrote him a long and learned Letter in the King's Vindication Gary diner wrote also his Book de vera Obedientia to which Bonner prefixed a vehement Preface against the Pope's Power and for justifying the King's Supremacy The King's anger at Pool could not reach him but it fell Heavy on his Kindred Visitors were appointed to survey all the lesser Monasteries The lesser Monasteries cited in They were required to carry along with them the Concurrence of the Gentry near them and to examine the estate of their Revenues and Goods and take Inventories of them and to take their Seals into their keeping They were to try how many of the Religious would take Capacities and return to a Secular Course of Life and these were to be sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Lord Chancellour for them and an Allowance was to be given them for their Journey But those who intended to continue in that state were to be sent to some of the great Monasteries that lay next A Pension was also to be assigned to the Abbot or Prior during Life And of all this they were to make their report by Michaelmass And they were particularly to examine what Leases had been made all the last Year The Abbots hearing of what was coming on them had been raising all the Mony they could and so it was intended to recover what was made away by ill Bargains There were great Complaints made of the Proceedings of the Visitors of their Violencies and Briberies and perhaps not without reason Ten Thousand of the Religious were set to seek for their Livings with Forty Shillings and a Gown a Man Their Goods and Plate were estimated at an 100000 l. And the valued Rents of their Houses was 32000 l. but was really above ten times so much The Churches and Cloisters were in most places pulled down and the Materials sold This gave a general Discontent Which gave a general Discontent and the Monks were now as much pitied as they were formerly hated It was thought strange to see the King devour what his Ancestors had dedicated to the Honour of God and his Saints The Nobility and Gentry who provided for their younger Children or Friends by putting them in those Sanctuaries were sensible of their Loss The People who had been fed at the Abbot's Tables and as they travelled over the Country found the Abbies to be places of Reception to Strangers saw what they were to lose But the more Superstitious who thought their Friends must now ly still in Purgatory without that Relief which the Masses procured them were out of measure offended at these Proceedings The Books that were published of the Disorders in these Houses had no great effect on the People For it was said There was no reason to destroy whole Houses for the sake of some vicious Persons who ought to have been driven out of them and punished But to remove this general discontent Cromwel advised the King to sell these Lands at very easy Rates to the Nobility and Gentry and to oblige them to keep up the wonted Hospitality This would both be grateful to them and would engage them to assist the Crown in the Maintenance of the changes that had been made since their own Interests would be Interwoven with the Rights of Crown and the commoner sort whose grudges lay chiefly in their Stomachs for the want of the good Dinners they used to find would be easily pacified if these were still kept up And upon a Clause in the Act empowering the King to found anew such Houses as he should think fit there were 15 Monasteries and 16 Nunneries new founded It seems these had been more regular than the rest so that for a while they were reprived till the General Suppression came that they fell with the rest They were bound to obey such Rules as the King should send them and to pay him Tenths and first Fruits But all this did not so pacify the People but there was still a great out-cry The Clergy studied much to inflame the Nation and built much on this That an Heretical Prince deposed by the Pope was no more to be acknowledged which had been for 500 Years received as an Article of Faith and was decreed in the same Council that Established Transubstantiation and had been received and caried down from Gregory the Seventh's time who pretended that it was a part of the Papal Power to depose Kings and give away their Dominions and had it been oft put in Practice in almost all the Parts of Europe and some that had been raisers of great Sedititions had been Canonized for it The Pope had summoned the King to appear at Rome and answer for putting away his Queen and taking another Wife for the Laws he had made against the Church and for putting the Bishop of Rochester and others to death for their not obeying them if he did not appear nor reform these things he excommunicated and deprived him absolved his Subjects from their Obedience dissolved his Leagues with Forreign Princes and put the Kingdom under an Interdict But tho the force of these Thunders was in this Age much abated yet they had not quite lost their Strength and the Clergy resolved to make the most of them that could be Some Injunctions which were given by Cromwell Injunctions given by the King increased this ill Disposition They were to this Effect All Church-men were required every Sunday for a quarter of a Year and twice every Quarter after that to preach against
he was prevailed with by a Pension of 500 Marks to resign The Inferiour Governours had some 30 20 or 10 l. Pensions and the Monks had generally 6 l. or 8 Marks a piece If any Abbot died the new Abbot they being chosen as the Bishops were upon a Conge delire and a Missive Letter was named for that purpose only to resigne the House And all were made to hope for Advancement that should give good Example to others by a quick and cheerful Surrender by these means 121 of those Houses were this Year resigned to the King In most Houses the Visitor made the Monks sign a Confession of their former Vices and Disorders of which there is only one Original Extant that escaped a general Rasure of all such Papers in Queen Mary's time in which they acknowledged in a long Narrative their former Idleness Gluttony and Sensuaality for which the pit of Hell was ready to swallow them up Others acknowledged that they were sensible that the manner of their former pretended Religion consisted in some dumb Ceremonies by which they were blindly led having no true Knowledg of God's Laws but that they had procured Exemption from their Diocesans and had subjected themselves wholly to a Forreign Power that took no care to reform their Abuses and therefore since the most perfect way of Life was revealed by Christ and his Apostles and that it was fit they should be governed by the King their Supream Head they resigned to him Of this sort I have seen six Some resigned in hopes that the King would found them of new these favoured the Reformation and intended to convert their Houses to better Uses for preaching study and Prayer and Latimer prest Cromwell earnestly that two or three Houses might be reserved for such purposes in every County But it was resolved to suppress all and therefore neither could the Intercessions of the Gentry of Oxfordshire nor of the Visitors preserve the Nunnery at Godstow tho they found great Strictness of Life in it and it was the common place of the Education of young Women of Quality in that County The common Preamble to most Surrenders was That upon full Deliberation and of their own proper Motion for just and reasonable Causes moving their Consciences they did freely give up their Houses to the King Some surrendred without any Preamble to the Visitors as Feofees in trust for the King In short they went on at such a rate that 159 Resignations were obtained before the Parliament met and of these the Originals of 154 are yet extant Some thought that these Resignations could not be valid since the Incumbents had not the Property but only the Trust for life of those Houses But the Parliament did afterwards declare them good in Law It was also said that they being of the Nature of Corporations all Deeds under their Seals were valid and that at least by their Resignation and quitting their Houses they forfeited them to the King But this was thought to subsist rather on a Nicety in Law than natural Equity Others were more roughly handled Some Abbots attainted The Prior of Wooburn was suspected of a Correspondence with the Rebels and of favouring the Pope he was dealt with to submit to the King and he was prevailed on to do it but was not easie in it once nor fixed to it He complained that the new Preachers detracted from the Honour due to the Virgin and Saints he thought the Religion was changed and wondered that the Judgments of God on Q. Anne had not terrified others from going on to subvert the Faith When the Rebellion broke out he joined in it as did also the Abbots of Whaley Garvaux and Sawley and the Prior of Burlington all these were all taken and attainted of Treason and executed The Abbots of Glassenbury and Reading had also sent a great deal of their Plate to the Rebels the former to disguise it the better had made one break into the House where the Plate was kept So he was convicted both of Burglary and Treason and at his Execution he confessed his Crime and begged both God's and the King's Pardon for it The Abbot of Colchester was also attainted and executed but the Grounds of it are not known for the Records of their Attaindors are lost These had over and over again taken the Oaths in which they acknowledged the King to be Supream Head of the Church and were present in those Parliaments in which the several Acts about it were pass'd and did not dissent to them and since they made no Opposition when they might safely and legally do it there is no Reason to think they would have done it afterwards when it was more dangerous and criminal So that all those who have represented them as having suffered for denying the King's Supremacy have therein shewed their Unacquaintedness with the Journals of Parliament The Abbot of Reading had complied so far that he was grown into Favour with Cromwell so that in some Contests between Shaxton Bishop of Salisbury and him the Bishop who was a proud ill-natured Man complained that Cromwell supported the Abbot against him and writ upon that a very Insolent Expostulatory Letter to him which Cromwell answered with great strength of Reason and Decency of Stile by which it appears that heighth of his Condition had no other Effect on him but to make him know himself and others better Upon the Attainders of those Abbots their Abbies were seized on and this was thought a great stretch both in Law and Equity for it seemed not reasonable if an Incumbent was faulty for that to seize on his Benefice which upon his Attainder ought to continue entire and pass to the next Successor as if he were really dead But a Clause was put in the Act of Treason 26 Hen. 8 That whatsoever Lands of Estate of Inheritance any that should be convicted of Treason had in Vse or Possession by any Right or manner should be forfeited to the King By which as intailed Estates were certainly comprehended so it seems they applied it likewise to Church-Benefices yet when the Bishop of Rochester was attainted this was not thought on The words Estate of Inheritance seemed to exclude church-Church-Lands but the mention that was made of Traitors Successors that were cut off as well as their Heirs seemed on the other hand to include Estates to which Successors might come in a Traitor's room as well as those which descended by Inheritance The Words were ambiguous and were stretched to justify those Seizures and therefore in an Act of Treasons made in the next Reign this was more cautiously worded for it was provided that Traitors should forfeit the Estates which they possessed in their own Right But whatsoever Illegality there might be in these Proceedings they were confirmed by the following Parliament in a special Proviso made concerning those Abbies that were seized on by any Attainders of Treason Many of the Carthusians were executed for denying the
That the matter of the Precontract with the Prince of Lorrain was not fully cleared and it did not appear if it was made by the Queen or whether it was in the Words of the present time or not That the King had married her against her Will and had not given an inward and compleat Consent and that he had never consummated the Marriage so that they saw he could have no Issue by the Queen Upon these grounds the whole Convocation with one consent annulled the Marriage and declared both Parties free This was the grossest piece of Compliance that the King had from his Clergy in his whole Reign For as they knew that there was nothing in the pretended Precontract so by voiding the Marriage because the Consent was not internal and free they made a most pernicious Precedent for breaking all publick Treaties for none can know Men's Hearts it would be easy for every one to pretend that he had not given a perfect Consent and that being allowed there could be no Confidence nor safety among Men any more And in the Process for the King 's first Divorce they had laid it down as a Principle that a Marriage was compleat tho it were never consummated But in a Word the King was resolved to be rid of the Queen and the Clergy were resolved not to offend him And they rather sought out Reasons to give a colour to their Sentence then past it on the force of those Reasons Cromwel was required to send a Declaration of all he knew concerning the Marriage which he did but ended in these most abject Words Written with the heavy Heart and trembling Hand of your Highness's most heavy and most miserable Prisoner and poor Slave Tho. Cromwel and under his Subscription he wrote Most Sacred Prince I cry for Mercy Mercy Mercy The Judgment of the Convocation was reported to the House of Lords by Cranmer and the Reasons were opened by Gardiner They were sent down to the Commons to give them the same account and both Houses were satisfied with it Next day some Lords were sent to the Queen who had retired to Richmond They told her The King was resolved to declare her his adopted Sister and to setle 4000 l. a Year on her if she would consent to it which she cheerfully embraced and it being left to her choice either to live in England or to return to her Brother She preferred the former They prest her to write to her Brother that all this matter was done with her good Will that the King used her as a Father and that therefore he and the other Allies should not take this ill at his hands She was a little averse to this but was prevailed on to do it When things were thus prepared the Act confirming the Judgment of the Convocation past without any Opposition An Act past mitigating one Clause in the Act of the six Articles by which the pains of Death for the Marriage or Incontinence of the Clergy were changed into a Forfeiture of their Goods and Benefices Another Act past Authorizing those Committees of Bishops and Divines that had been named by the King both for the Doctrine and Ceremonies to go on in it and appointing that what should be agreed on by them and Published with the King's Approbation should bind the Subjects as much as if every Particular in it had been ennumerated in that Act any Law or Custome to the contrary notwithstanding But a Proviso was added That nothing might be done by them contrary to the Laws then in force Which Contradiction in the Provisos seems to have been put in on design to keep all Ecclesiastical Proceedings under the Inspection of the Secular Courts since they are the only Expounders of Acts of Parliament Another Act past That no Pretence of a Precontract should be made use of to annul a Marriage duly Solemnized and Consummated And that no Degrees of Kindred but those ennumerated in the Law of Moses might hinder a Marriage This last was added To enable the King to marry Katherine Howard that was Cousin German to Ann Boleyn which was one of the Degrees prohibited by the Canon Law but the reason of the former part is not known It directly condemns the King's Divorce of Ann Boleyn grounded on a pretended Precontract The Province of Canterbury gave the King a Subsidy of 4 s. in the Pound to be payed in two Years with a Preamble of high Acknowledgments of their Happiness under his Protection A Subsidy was also asked of the Laity but in the House of Commons it was much opposed Many said they had given the King the abbey-Abbey-Lands in hopes that no Subsidies should have been any more demanded and it shewed a strange Profuseness that now within a Year after that a Subsidy was demanded But it was answered That the King had been at great charge in fortifying his Coasts and in keeping up such Leagues beyond Sea as preserved the Nation in safety a Tenth and four 15ths were granted Several Bills of Attainder were past And in Conclusion the King sent a General Pardon out of which Cromwel and divers others were excepted and then the Parliament was dissolved Cromwel's mean Addresses could not preserve him So he was executed on the 28 of July Cromwels Death He thanked God for bringing him to die in that manner which was just on the account of his Sins against God and his Offences against his Prince He declared that he doubted of no Article of the Catholick Faith nor of any Sacrament of the Church He said He had been seduced but now he died in the Catholick Faith and denied he had supported the Preachers of ill Opinions He desired all their Prayers and prayed very fervently for himself and thus did he end his days He rose meerly by the strength of his Natural Parts for his Education was suitable to his mean Extraction Only he had all the New Testament in Latin by Heart He carried his Greatness with Extraordinary Moderation and fell rather under the weight of Popular Odium than Guilt At his Death he mixed none of the Superstitions of the Church of Rome with his Devotions So it was said that he used the Word Catholick Faith in its true sense and in Opposition to the Novelties of the Church of Rome Yet his Ambiguous way of expressing himself made the Papists say that he died repenting of his Heresy But the Protestants said that he died in the same Perswasions in which he lived With him fell the Office of the King's Vicegerent and none after him have aspired to that Character that proved so fatal to him who first carried it It was believed that the King lamented his Death when it was too late and the Miseries that fell on the new Queen and on the Duke of Norfolk and his Family were look'd on as Strokes from Heaven on them for their cruel prosecuting this unfortunate Minister With his Fall the Progress of the Reformation stopt for Cranmer
condemned to be burnt as detestable Hereticks in general Words In the same Act by which they were condemned four other were attainted of Treason for being confederated with Reginald Pool and for intending to surprize Calais and as there was a strange mixture in their Condemnation so the like was in their Executions for Abel Featherston and Powell that were attainted in the same Parliament for owning the Pope's Supremacy were executed with them and were coupled together in the Hurdles in which they were carried to Smithfield the King in this affecting an extravagant Appearance of Impartiality in his Justice Barnes being tied to the Stake And burnt went over the Articles of the Creed and declared his Belief of them all and that he abhorred the impious Opinions of some German Anabaptists He asserted the necessity of Good Works but ascribed Justification wholly to the Merits of Christ he professed all due Reverence to the Saints but said he saw no Warrant to pray for them he asked the Sheriff and the People if they knew for what they were condemned and what Heresies they were accused of but none made Answer he prayed God to forgive all that sought their Death and in particular Gardiner if he had done it then prayed for the King and the Prince and expressed his Loyalty to the King that he believed all his just Laws were to be obeyed for Conscience sake and that in no Case it was lawful to resist him he sent some Desires to the King as that he would apply the abby-Abby-Lands to good Uses and the Relief of his poor Subjects that he would punish the Contempt of Marriage that was so common and would put a stop to the Liberty many took of casting off their Wives and living in Whoredom that Swearers might be punished and that since the King had begun to set forth the Christian Religion that he would go on with it for a great deal remained yet to be done he asked the Forgiveness of all People whom he might have at any time offended and so turned and prepared himself for Death then the other two spoke to the same purpose they declared their Faith and exhorted the People to a good Life and mutual Love and they all prayed and embraced one another after that the Fire was set to The Constancy they expressed together with the Gentleness of their Deportment towards their Enemies made great Impressions on the Spectators and cast a heavy Imputation on Gardiner as the Procurer of their Deaths tho he justified himself in an Apology which he printed in which he denied any other Accession to it but giving his Vote to the Bill of Attainder Bonner began now to shew himself in his own Colours He had courted Cromwell more than any Person whatsoever yet the very day after his Disgrace he shewed his Ingratitude for Grafton that had printed the Bible and was much in Cromwell's Favour upon that account meeting Bonner expressed his Sorrow for Cromwell's being sent to the Tower but the other answered that it had been good he had been there much sooner Grafton saw his Error in speaking so freely and went from him but some Verses being printed in Cromwell's Praise Bonner informed the Council what Grafton had said to him and so thought it was probable he had printed them yet he had so many Friends that he was let go He procured many to be indicted upon the Act of the six Articles but an Order came from the King to stop further Proceedings yet he pick'd out one Instance which did equally discover his brutal Cruelty and his want of Judgment One Mekins not above fifteen Years old had said somewhat against the Corporal Presence and in Commendation of Dr. Barnes The Witnesses differed in their Evidence one swore he had said the Sacrament was only a Ceremony the other swore he had said it was only a Signification so two Grand Juries returned an Ignoramus on the Bill upon which he fell into a fit of Cursing and violent Rage and he made the second Grand Jury go aside and consider better of it they being terrified found the Bill and he was condemned to be burnt but hoping to be preserved by what he should say at the Stake he railed at Barnes and praised Bonner much yet that did not save him Two were burnt at Salisbury and two at Lincoln upon the same Statute besides great Numbers that were put in Prison In the end of this Year New Sees founded the King began to endow the new Bishopricks Westminster was the first in which he endowed a Bishoprick a Deanry 12 Prebendaries a Quire and other Officers The Year after this he endowed Chester Glocester and Peterborough but in these Cathedrals he only endowed six Prebendaries two Years after he likewise endowed Oxford and Bristol The Foundations had Preambles are almost the same with that of the Act of Parliament that empowred him to erect them he promoted the Bishops to those Sees by a special Writ tho that was to go thereafter in the way of Election as it was in the other Sees he also converted the Priories of Canterbury Winchester Duresme Worcester Ely Rochester and Carlile into Collegiate Churches consisting of Deans and Prebendaries But as all this came much far short of what the King had at first intended so the Channel in which those Foundations run differed much from what Cranmer had projected whose Interest was so low at Court that his Opinion was not now regarded as it had been formerly He intended to have restored the Cathedrals to what they had been at first to be Colleges and Nurseries for the Diocess and to have set up Readers of the Learned Tongues and of Divinity in them that so a considerable number of young Clerks might have been trained up under the Bishop's Eye both in their Studies and in a Course of Devotion to be by him put afterwards in Livings according to their Merit and Improvements The want of such Houses for the strict Education of those who are to serve in the Church has been the occasion of many fatal Consequences since that time by the Scandals which Men initiated to the Sacred Functions before they were well prepared for them have given the World The Popish Party beyond Sea censured these Endowments both as being a very defective Restitution of the Lands that had been invaded and as an Invasion on the Spiritual Authority when the King divided Diocesses and removed Churches from one Jurisdiction and put them under another To which it was answered That as their Practices against the King had put him to such a charge that he could not execute what he at first intended so both the Roman Emperours and other Christian Kings had regulated and divided the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and made Primates and Patriarchs as they pleased Ely in England was taken out of Lincoln only by the King and his Parliament tho P. Nicolaus did officiously send a Confirmation of it that being an Art of
received the new Opinions Seaton a Dominican the King's Confessor preaching in Lent set out the Nature of true Repentance and the Method to it without mixing the Directions which the Friars commonly gave on that Subject and when another Friar shewed the defectiveness of what he had taught he defended himself in another Sermon and reflected on those Bishops that did not preach and called them dumb Dogs But the Clergy would not meddle with him till they found him in ill Terms with the King and the freedom he used in reproving him for his Vices quickly alienated the King from him upon which they resolved to fall on him but he withdrew into England and wrote to the King taxing the Clergy for their Cruelty and praying him to restrain it One Forrest an ignorant Benedictine was accused for having spoken Honourably of Patrick Hamilton and was put in Prison In Confession to a Friar he acknowledged he thought he was a good Man and that the Articles for which he was condemned might be defended The Friar discovered this and it was received as Evidence and upon it he was condemned and burnt Divers others were brought into the Bishop's Courts of whom the greatest part abjured but two were more resolute one Gourley denied Purgatory and the Pope's Authority another was David Smiton who being a Fisherman had refused to pay the Tithe of his Fish and when the Vicar came to take them he said the Tithe was taken where the Stock grew and therefore he threw the tenth Fish into the Sea For this and other Opinions he was condemned and they were both burnt at one Stake Several others were accused of whom some fled to England and others went over to Germany The Changes made in England raised in all the People a curiosity of searching into matters of Religion and that was always fatal to Superstition Pope Clement the 7th wrote earnestly to the King of Scotland to continue firm to the Catholick Faith Upon which he called a Parliament and made new Laws for maintaining the Pope's Authority and proceeding against Hereticks yet the Pope could not engage him to make War on England King Henry sent Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to him with some Books that were written in Defence of his Proceedings and desired him to examine them Impartially He also proposed the Enterview at York and a Match between him and Lady Mary the King 's eldest Daughter and promised that he should be made Duke of York and Lord Lieutenant of the whole Kingdom Yet the Clergy diverted him from this and perswaded him to go in Person to France and court the Daughter of that King Magdalene He married her in January 1537 but she died in May. She had been bred in the Queen of Navarre's Court and so was well disposed towards the Reformation Upon her Death the King married Mary of Guise she was a Branch of the Family of all Europe that was most zealously addicted to the old Superstition and her Interest joined with the Clergy's engaged the King to become a violent Persecuter of all that were of another mind The King was very expensive both in his Pleasures and Buildings and had a numerous Race of Bastards A Persecution set on foot in Scotland so that he came to want Mony much The Nobility proposed to him the seizing on the abbey-Abbey-Lands as his Uncle had done The Clergy on the other hand advised him to proceed severely against all suspected of Heresy By which means according to the Lists they shewed him he might raise 100000 Crowns a Year They also advised him to provide his Children to Abbies and Priories and represented to him That if he continued stedfast in the old Religion he would still have a great Party in England and might be made the Head of a League which was then in Project against King Henry This so far prevailed with him that as he made four of his Sons Abbots and Priors so he gave way to the persecuting Spirit of the Clergy Upon which many were cited to answer for Heresy of these many abjured and some were banisht A Canon Regular a Secular Priest two Friars and a Gentleman were burnt Forrest the Canon Regular had been reproved by his Ordinary the Bishop of Dunkell for meddling with the Scriptures too much He told him he had lived long and had never known what was in the Old or New Testament but contented himself with his Portoise and Pontifical and that he might come to repent it if he troubled himself with such Fancsies The Archbishop of Glasgow was a very moderate Man and disliked cruel Proceedings Russel a Friar and Kennedy a young Man of 18 Years of Age were brought before him they expressed wonderful Joy and a steady Resolution in their Sufferings And after a long dispute between Russel and the Bishop's Divines Russel concluded This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness go on and fill up the Measures of your Iniquities The Archbishop was unwilling to give Sentence he said he thought these Executions did the Church more Hurt than Good But those about him told him He must not take a Way different from the rest of the Bishops and threatned him so that he pronounced Sentence They were burned but they gave such Demonstrations of Patience and Joy as made no small Impression on all that saw it or heard of it Among those that were in trouble George Buchanan was one who at the King's Instigations had writ a very sharp Poem against the Franciscans but was now abandoned by him He made his Escape and lived 20 Years in Forraign Parts and at last returned to do his Country Honour and what by his Immortal Poems what by his History of Scotland he shewed both how great a Master he was in the Roman Tongue and how true a Judge he was both in Wit and in the Knowledge of Human Affairs if Passion had not corrupted him towards the end of his History that he is justly to be reckoned the greatest and best of the Modern Writers So much of the Affairs of Scotland the Author 's Native Country King Henry stayed not long at York The Queen 's ill Life is discovered since his Nephew came not to him He set out a Proclamation there inviting all that had been of late oppressed to come in and make their Complaints and he promised to repair them This was done to cast the Load of all past Errours upon Cromwel The King was mightily wrought on by the Charms of his Wife so that on the First of November he gave publick thanks to God for the happy Choice he had made But this did not last long for the next day Cranmer came and gave him an account of the Queen 's ill Life which one Lassells had revealed to him as having learnt it from his Sister She had been very lewd before her Marriage both with one Deirham and one Mannock Cranmer by the Advice of the other Privy Counsellors put this in Writing
instruct their Hearers in the Fundamentals of Religion of which they had known little formerly This made the Nation run after these Teachers with a wonderful Zeal but they mixed too much Sharpness against the Friars in their Sermons which was judged indecent in them to do tho their Hypocrisy and Cheats did in a great measure excuse those Heats and it was observed that our Saviour had exposed the Pharisees in so plain a manner that it did very much justify the treating them with some Roughness yet it is not to be denied but Resentments for the Cruelties they or their Friends had suffered by their means might have too much Influence on them This made it seem necessary to suffer none to preach at least out of their own Parishes without Licence and many were licensed to preach as Itinerants There was also a Book of Homilies on all the Epistles and Gospels in the Year put out which contained a plain Paraphrase of those Parcels of Scripture together with some practical Exhortations founded on them Many Complaints were made of those that were licensed to preach and that they might be able to justify themselves they began generally to write and read their Sermons and thus did this Custom begin in which what is wanting in the heat and force of Delivery is much made up by the strength and solidity of the Matter and has produced many Volumes of as excellent Sermons as have been preached in any Age. Plays and Enterludes were a great Abuse in that time in them Mock-Representations were made both of the Clergy and of the Pageantry of their Worship The Clergy complained much of these as an Introduction to Atheism when things Sacred were thus laught at and said They that begun to laugh at Abuses would not cease till they had represented all the Mysteries of Religion as ridiculous The graver sort of Reformers did not approve of it but political Men encouraged it and thought nothing would more effectually pull down the Abuses that yet remained than the exposing them to the scorn of the Nation A War did now break out between England and Scotland at the Instigation of the King of France A War with Scotland King Henry set out a Declaration pretending that the Crown of Scotland owed Homage to him and cited many Precedents to shew that Homage was done not only by their Kings but by consent of the States for which Original Records were appealed to The Scots on the other hand asserted that they were a free and independent Kingdom that the Homages antiently made by their Kings were only for Lands which they had in England and that those more lately made were either offered by Pretenders in the case of a doubtful Title or were extorted by Force And they said their Kings could not give up the Rights of a free Crown and People The Duke of Norfolk made an In-road into Scotland with 20000 Men in October but after he had burnt some small Towns and wasted Teviotdale he returned back to England In the end of November an Army of 15000 Scots with a good Train of Artillery was brought together They intended to march into England by the Western Road. The King went to it in Person but he was at this time much disturbed in his Fancy and thought the Ghost of one whom he had unjustly put to death followed him continually he not only left the Army but sent a Commission to Oliver Sinclare then called his Minion to command in chief This disgusted the Nobility very much who were become weary of the Insolence of that Favourite so they refused to march and were beginning to separate While they were in this Disorder 500 English appeared and they apprehending it was a fore Party of the Duke of Norfolk's Army refused to fight so the English fell upon them and dispersed them they took all their Ordinance and Baggage and 1000 Prisoners of whom 200 were Gentlemen The chief of these were the Earls of Glencarn and Cassilis The News of this so over-charged the Melancholy King that he died soon after leaving only an Infant Daughter newly born to succeed him The Lords that were taken were brought up to London and lodged in the Houses of the English Nobility Cassilis was sent to Lambeth where he received those Seeds of Knowledg which produced afterwards a great Harvest in Scotland The other Prisoners were also instructed to such a degree that they came to have very different Thoughts of the Changes that had been made in England from what the Scotish Clergy had possessed them with who had encouraged their King to engage in the War both by the assurance of Victory since he fought against an Heretical Prince and the Contribution of 50000 Crowns a Year The King's Death and the Crowns falling to his Daughter made the English Council lay hold on this as a proper Conjuncture for uniting the whole Island in one therefore they sent for the Scotish Lords and proposed to them the marrying the Prince of Wales to their young Queen this the Scots liked very well and promised to promote it all they could And so upon their giving Hostages for the performing their Promises faithfully they were sent home and went away much pleased both with the Splendor of the King's Court and with the way of Religion which they had seen in England A Parliament was called A Parliament called in which the King had great Subsidies given him of six Shillings in the Pound to be paid in three Years A Bill was proposed for the advancement of true Religion by Cranmer and some other Bishops for the Spirits of the Popish Party were much fallen ever since the last Queen's Death yet at this time a Treaty was set on foot between the King and the Emperour which raised them a little for since the King was like to engage in a War with France it was necessary for him to make the Emperour his Friend Cranmer's Motion was much opposed and the timorous Bishops forsook him yet he put it as far as it would go An Act about Religion tho in most Points things went against him By it Tindall's Translation of the Bible was condemned as crafty and false and also all other Books contrary to the Doctrine set forth by the Bishops But Bibles of another Translation were still allowed to be kept only all Prefaces or Annotations that might be in them were to be dashed or cut out All the King's Injunctions were confirmed No Books of Religion might be printed without Licence there was to be no Exposition of Scripture in Plays or Enterludes none of the Laity might read the Scripture or explain it in any publick Assembly But a Proviso was made for publick Speeches which then began generally with a Text of Scripture and were like Sermons Noblemen Gentlemen and their Wives or Merchants might have Bibles but no ordinary Woman Tradesman Apprentice or Husbandman might have any Every Person might have the Book set out by the
begged that he might be heard with his Accusers face to face He prayed that the King would take all his Lands and Goods and only restore him to his Favour and grant him such an Allowance to live on as he thought fit He went further and set his Hand to a Confession of several Crimes as 1. His revealing the Secrets of the King's Council 2. His concealing his Son's Treason in giving the Arms of Edward the Confessor 3. His own giving the Arms of England with the Labels of Silver which belonged only to the Prince which he acknowledged was High Treason and therefore he begged the King's Mercy But all this had no effect on the King tho his drawing so near his end ought to have begot in him a greater regard to the shedding of Innocent Blood When the Parliament met And the Duke attainted by Act of Parliament the King was not able to come to Westminster but he sent his Pleasure to them by a Commission He intended to have Prince Edward Crowned Prince of Wales and therefore desired they would make all possible hast in the Attainder of the Duke of Norfolk that so the Places which he held by Patent might be disposed of to others who should assist at the Coronation which tho it was a very slight Excuse for so high a piece of Injustice yet it had that effect that in seven Days both Houses past the Bill On the 27th of January the Royal Assent was given by those Commissioned by the King and the Execution was ordered to be next Morning There was no special Matter in the Act but that of the Coat of Arms which he and his Ancestors were used to give according to Records in the Herauld's Office so that this was condemned by all Persons as a most Inexcusable Act of Tyranny But the Night after this the King died and it was thought contrary to the Decencies of Government to begin a new Reign with so Unjustifiable an Act as the beheading of the old Duke and so he was preserved Yet both Sides made Inferences from this Calamity that fell on him The Papists said It was God's just Judgment on him for his Obsequiousness to King Henry But the Protestants said It was a just return on him for what he had done against Cromwel and many others on the account of the six Articles Cranmer would not meddle in this Matter but that he might be out of the way he retired to Croydon whereas Gardiner that had been his Friend all along continued still about the Court. The King's Distemper had been growing long upon him He was become so Corpulent that he could not go up and down Stairs but made use of an Ingine The King's Sickness when he intended to walk in his Garden by which he was let down and drawn up He had an old Sore in his Leg that pained him much the Humours of his Body discharging themselves that way till at last all setled in a Dropsy Those about him were afraid to let him know that his Death seemed near lest that might have been brought within the Statute of foretelling his Death which was made Treason His Will was made ready and as it was given out was signed by him on the 30th of December He had made one at his last going over to France All the Change that he made at this time was that he ordered Gardiner's Name to be struck out for in that formerly made he was named one of the Executors When Sir Anthony Brown endeavoured to perswade him not to put that Disgrace on an old Servant he continued positive in it for he said he knew his Temper and could govern him but it would not be in the Power of others to do it if he were put in so high a Trust The most material thing in the Will was the preferring the Children of his second Sister by Charles Brandon to the Children of his eldest Sister the Queen of Scotland in the Succession to the Crown Some Objections were made to the Validity and Truth of the Will It was not signed by the King's Hand as it was directed by the Act of Parliament but only stamped with his Name and it was said this was done when he was dying without any Order given for it by himself for proof of which the Scots that were most concerned appealed to many Witnesses and chiefly to a Deposition which the Lord Paget had made who was then Secretary of State On his Death-bed he finished the Foundation of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge and of Christ's-Church Hospital near Newgate yet this last was not so fully setled as was needful till his Son compleated what he had begun On the 27th of January And Death his Spirits sunk so that it was visible he had not long to live Sir Anthony Denny took the courage to tell him that Death was approaching and desired him to call on God for his Mercy The King exprest in general his Sorrow for his past Sins and his Trust in the Mercies of God in Christ Jesus He ordered Cranmer to be sent for but he was speechless before he could be brought from Croidon yet he gave a Sign that he understood what he said to him and soon after he died in the 57th Year of his Age after he had reigned 37 Years and nine Months His Death was concealed three days for the Parliament which was dissolved with his last Breath continued to do business till the 31st and then his Death was published It is probable the Seimours concealed it so long till they made a Party for the putting the Government into their own Hands The Severities he used against many of his Subjects in matters of Religion An account of his Severities against the Priests made both sides write with great Sharpness of him His Temper was Imperious and Cruel He was both sudden and violent in his Revenges and stuck at nothing by which he could either gratify his Lust or his Passion This was much provoked by the Sentence the Pope thundered against him by the virulent Books Cardinal Pool and others published by the Rebellions that were raised in England and the Apprehensions he was in of the Emperour's Greatness and of the Inclinations his People had to have joined with him together with what he had read in History of the Fates of those Princes against whom Popes had thundered in former times all which made him think it necessary to keep his People under the Terror of a severe Government and by some publick Examples to secure the Peace of the Nation and thereby to prevent a more profuse Effusion of Blood which might have otherwise followed if he had been more gentle And it was no wonder if after the Pope deposed him he proceeded to great Severities against all that which supported that Authority The first Instance of Capital Proceedings upon that account was in Easter-Term 1535 in which three Priors and a Monk of the Carthusian Order The Carthusians
of Age he was put into the hands of Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheek the one was to form his mind and to teach him Philosophy and Divinity the other was to teach him the Tongues and Mathematicks other Masters were also appointed for the other parts of his Education He discovered very early a good disposition to Religion and Vertue and a particular Reverence for the Scriptures for he took it very ill when one about him laid a great Bible on the Floor to step up on it to somewhat which was out of his reach without such an advantage He profited well in Letters and wrote at eight Years old Latin Letters frequently both to the King to Q. Katherine Parre to the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Uncle the Earl of Hartford who had been first made Viscount Beauchamp being the Heir by his Mother of that Family and was after that advanced to be an Earl In the end of his Fathers life it had been designed to create him Prince of Wales for that was one of the reasons given to hasten the attainder of the D. of Norfolk because he held some places during life which the King intended to put in other hands in order to that Ceremony Upon his Fathers death the E. of Hartford and Sir Anth. Brown were sent to bring him up to the Tower of London and when King Henry's death was published he was proclaimed King At his coming to the Tower his Fathers Will was opened K. Hen. testament by which it was found that he had named 16. to be the Governors of the Kingdom and of his Sons person till he should be eighteen Years of Age. These were the Archbishops of Canterbury the Lord Wriothesly Lord Chancellor Lord St. John Great Master Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal Earl Hartford Lord Great Chamberlain Vis Lisle Lord Admiral Tonstall B. of Duresme Sir Anth. Brown Master of the Horse Sr Will. Paget Secretary of State Sr Ed. North Chancellour of the Augmentations Sir Ed. Mountague L d Chief Just of the Common Pleas Judge Bromley Sir Anth. Denny and Sir Will. Herbert Chief Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Sr Ed. Wotton Treasurer of Callis Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York They were also to give the Kings Sisters in Marriage and if they married without their consent they were to forfeit their right of succession for the King was Impowered by Act of Parliament to leave the Crown to them with what limitations he should think fit to appoint There was also a Privy Council named to be their Assistants in the Government if any of the 16. died the Survivers were to continue in the Administration without a power to substitute others in their rooms who should die It was now proposed that one should be chosen out of the 16. to whom Ambassadours should address themselves and who should have the chief direction of affairs but should be restrained to do nothing but by the consent of the greater part of the other Co-executors The Chancellor who thought the Precedence fell to him by his Office since the Archbishop did not meddle much in secular Affairs opposed this much and said it was a change of the Kings will who had made them all equal in power and dignity and if any were raised above the rest in Title it would not be possible to keep him within due bounds since great Titles make way for High Power but the Earl of Hartford had so prepared his Friends that it was carried that he should be declared the Governour of the Kings Person and the Protector of the Kingdom A Protector chosen with this restriction that he should do nothing but by the advice and consent of the rest Upon this advancement and the opposition made to it two Parties were formed the one headed by the Protector and the other by the Chancellour the favourers of the Reformation were of the former and those that opposed it were of the latter The Chancellor was ordered to renew the Commissions of the Judges and Justices of Peace and King Henry's great Seal was to be made use of till a new one should be made The day after this all the Executors took their Oaths to execute their trust faithfully the Privy Councellors were also brought into the Kings presence who did all express their satisfaction in the choice that was made of the Protector and it was ordered that all dispatches to foreign Princes should be signed only by him All that held Offices were required to come and renew their Commissions Bishops take out Commissions and to swear Allegiance to the King among the rest the Bishops came and took out such Commissions as were granted in the former Reign only by those they were subaltern to the Kings Vicegerent but there being none now in that Office they were immediately subaltern to the King and by them they were to hold their Bishopricks only during the Kings pleasure and were impowered in the Kings name as his Delegates to perform all the parts of the Episcopal function Cranmer set an Example to the rest in taking out one of those It was thought fit thus to keep the Bishops under the terror of such an Arbitrary power lodged in the King that so it might be more easie to turn them out if they should much oppose what might be done in points of Religion but the ill consequences of such an unlimited power being well foreseen the Bishops that were afterwards promoted were not so fettered but were provided to hold their Bishopricks during life The late King had in his Will required his Executors to perform all the promises he had made A Creation of Noblemen so Paget was required to give an account of the Promises the late King had made and he declared upon Oath that upon the prospect of the attainder of the D. of Norfolk the King intended a Creation of Peers and to divide his Lands among them the Persons to be raised were Hartford to be a Duke Essex a Marquess Lisle Russel St. John and Wriothesly to be Earls Sir Tho. Seimour Cheyney Rich Willoughby Arundell Sheffield St. Leger Wymbish Vernon and Danby to be Barons and a division was to be made of the Duke of Norfolks Estate among them some shares were also set off for others who were not to be advanced in Title as Denny and Herbert and they finding Paget had been mindful of them but had not mentioned himself had moved the King for a share to him The King appointed Paget to give notice of this to the Persons named but many excused themselves and desired no addition of honor since the Lands which the King intended to give them were not sufficient to support that dignity The Duke of Norfolk prevented all this for being apprehensive of the ruine of his Family if his Estate were once divided he sent a message to the King desiring him to convert it all to be a Revenue to the Prince of Wales This wrought so much on the
King that he resolved to reward those he intended to raise another way and he appointed that Estate to be kept entire and the Kings distemper increasing on him he at last came to a resolution that the E. of Hartford should be made a Duke be made both Earl Marshal and Lord Treasurer the Earl of Essex a Marquess Lisle and Wriothesly Earls and Seimour Rich Sheffield St. Leger Willoughby and Danby Barons with Revenues in Lands to every one of them and the Earl of Hartford was to have the first good Deanery and Treasurership and the four best Prebends that should fall in any Cathedral But though the King had resolved on this and had ordered Paget to propose it to the Persons concerned yet his Disease increased so fast on him that he never finished it and therefore he ordered his Executors to perform all that should appear to have been promised by him The greatest part of this was also confirmed by Denny and Herbert to whom the King had talked of it and had shewed the design of it in writing as it had been agreed between Paget and him So the Executors being concerned in this themselves it may be easily supposed that they determined to execute this part of their trust very faithfully Yet the King being then like to be engaged in Wars they resolved neither to lessen his Treasure nor Revenue but to find another way for giving the Rewards intended by the King which was afterwards done by the sale and distribution of the Chantry Lands The Castle of St. Andrews was then much pressed so they sent down by Balnaves the Agent of that party 1180 l. for the pay of the Garrison they gave also pensions to the chief supporters of their Interest in Scotland to some 250 to others 200 l. or less according to their interest in the Countrey The King received the Ceremony of Knighthood from the Protector and Knighted the Mayor of London the same day The grant of so many Ecclesiastical Dignities to the Earl of Hartford Lay-men had Ecclesiastical Dignities was no extraordinary thing at that time for as Cromwel had been Dean of Wells so diverse other Lay-men were provided to them which was thus excused because there was no cure of Souls belonging to them and during vacancies even in times of Popery the Kings had by their own Authority by the Right of the Regale given Institution to them so that they seem'd to be no Spiritual imployments and the Ecclesiasticks that had enjoyed them had been a lazy and sensual sort of men so that their abusing those Revenues either to luxury or to the enriching their kindred by the spoils of the Church had this effect that the putting them in Lay hands gave no great scandal and that the rather because a simple tonsure qualified a man for them by the Canons These foundations were at first designed for a Nursery to the Diocess in which the young Clergy were to be educated or for a retreat to those who were more speculative and not so fit for the service of the Church in the active parts of the Pastoral care so it had been an excellent design to have reformed them and restored them to the purposes for which they were at first intended And it was both against Magna Charta and all Natural Equity to take them out of the hands of Church-men and give them to those of the Laity But it was no wonder to see men yet under the influence of the Canon Law commit such errors At the same time an accident fell out Some take down Images that made way for great changes the Curate and Church-wardens of St. Martins in London were brought before the Council for removing the Crucifix and other Images and putting some Texts of Scripture on the Walls of their Church in the places where they stood They Answered That they going to repair their Church removed the Images and they being rotten they did not renew them but put places of Scripture in their room They had also removed others which they found had been abused to Idolatry Great pains was taken by the Popish party to punish them severely for striking terrour into others but Cranmer was for the removing of all Images which were set up in Churches expressly contrary both to the Second Commandment and to the practice of the Christians for diverse ages Arguments for and against it And though in compliance with the gross abuses of Paganism there was very early much of the Pomp of their worship brought into the Christian Church yet it was long before this crept in At first all Images were condemned by the Fathers then they allowed the use of them but condemned the worshipping of them and afterwards in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries the worshipping of them was after a long contest both in the East and West in which there were by turns General Councils that both approved and condemned them at last generally received and then the reverence for them and for some in particular that were believed to be more wonderfully enchanted was much improved by the cheats of the Monks who had enriched themselves by such means And it was grown to such a height that Heathenism it self had been guilty of nothing more absurd towards its Idols and the singular vertues in some Images shewed they were not worshipp'd only as Representations for then all should have equal degrees of veneration paid to them And since all these abuses had risen meerly out of the bare use of them and the setting them up being contrary to the command of God and the nature of the Christian Religion which is simple and Spiritual it seemed most reasonable to cure the disease in its root and to clear the Churches of Images that so the people might be preserved from Idolatry These Reasons prevail'd so far that the Curate and Wardens were dismissed with a Reprimand they were required to beware of such rashness for the future and to provide a Crucifix and till that could be had they were ordered to cause one to be painted on the Wall Upon this Dr. Ridley being to preach before the King inveighed against the superstition towards Images and Holy Water and there was a general disposition over all the Nation to pull them down which was soon after effected in Portsmouth Upon that Gardiner made great complaints he said the Lutherans themselves went not so far for he had seen Images in their Churches he argued from the Kings face on the Coyn and Great Seal for the use of Images and that the Law of Moses did no more bind in this particular than in that of abstaining from Blood He distinguished between Image and Idol as if the one which he said was only condemned was the representation of a False God and the other of the True and he thought that as words conveyed by the Ear begat devotion so Images by the conveyance of the Eye might have the same effect on the mind He also
all who gave Livings by Simoniacal bargains were declared to have forfeited their right of Patronage to the King A great charge was also given for the strict observation of the Lords Day which was appointed to be spent wholly in the service of GOD it not being enough to hear Mass or Mattins in the Morning and spend the rest of the Day in drunkenness and quarrelling as was commonly practised but it ought to be all imployed either in the duties of Religion or in acts of Charity only in time of Harvest they were allowed to work on that and other Festival days Direction was also given for the bidding of Prayers in which the King as Supreme head the Queen and the Kings Sisters the Protector and Council and all the Orders of the Kingdom were to be mentioned they were also to pray for departed souls that at the last day we with them might rest both body and soul There were also Injunctions given for the Bishops that they should preach four times a year in their Diocesses once in their Cathedral and thrice in any other Church unless they had a good excuse to the contrary that their Chaplains should preach often and that they should give Orders to none but those that were duly qualified These were variously censured The Clergy were only impowered to remove the abused Images Censures on ths Injunctions and the People were restrained from doing it but this authority being put in their hands it was thought they would be slow and backward in it It had been happy for this Church if all had agreed since that time to press the Religious observation of the Lords Day without starting needless questions about the Morality of it and the obligation of the fourth Commandment which has occasioned much dispute and heat and when one Party raised the obligation of that duty to a pitch that was not practicable it provoked others to slacken it too much and this produced many sharp reflections on both sides and has concluded in too common a neglect of that day which instead of being so great a bond and instrument of Religion as it ought to be is become generally a day of idleness and loosness The Corruptions of Lay Patrons and Simoniacal Priests have been often complained of but no Laws nor Provisions have ever been able to preserve the Church from this great mischief which can never be removed till Patrons look on their right to nominate one to the charge of Souls as a trust for which they are to render a severe account to God and till Priests are cured of their aspiring to that charge and look on it with dread and great caution The bidding of Prayers had been the custome in time of Popery for the Preacher after he had named his Text and shewed what was to be the method of his Sermon desired the People to joyn with him in a Prayer for a blessing upon it and told them likewise whom they were to pray for and then all the People said their Beads in silence and he kneeling down said his and from that this was called the bidding of the Beads In this new direction for them Order was given to repeat always the Kings Title of Supream Head that so the People hearing it often mentioned might grow better accustomed to it but when instead of a bidding Prayer an immediate one is come generally to be used that enumeration of Titles seems not so decent a thing nor is it now so necessary as it then was The prayer for departed souls was now moderated to be a prayer only for the consummation of their happiness at the last day whereas in King Henry's time they prayed that God would grant them the fruition of his presence which implied a Purgatory The Injunctions to the Bishops directing them to give Orders with great caution pointed out that by which only a Church can be preserved from Errors and Corruptions for when Bishops do easily upon recommendations or emendicated Titles confer Orders as a sort of favour that is at their disposal the ill effects of that must be fatal to the Church either by the Corruptions that those vicious Priests will be guilty of or by the Scandals which are given to some good minds by their means who are thereby disgusted at the Church for their sakes and so are disposed to be easily drawn into those Societies that separate from it The War with Scotland was now in consultation The War with Scotland but the Protector being apprehensive that France would engage in the quarrel sent over Sir Fr. Brian to congratulate with the new King to desire a confirmation of the last Peace and to complain of the Scots who had broken their Faith with the King in the matter of the Marriage of their Queen The French King refused to confirm the Treaty till some Articles should be first explained and so he disowned his Fathers Embassadour and for the Scots he said he could not forsake them if they were in distress The English alledged that Scotland was subject to England but the French had no regard to that and would not so much as look on the Records that were offer'd to prove it and said they would take things as they found them and not look back to a dispute of two hundred years old This made the English Council more fearful of engaging in a War which by all appearance would bring a War on them from France The Castle of St. Andrews was surrendred and all their Pensioners in Scotland were not able to do them great fervice The Scots were now much lifted up for as England was under an Infant King so the Court of France was governed by their Queen Dowagers Brothers The Scots began to make Inroads on England and Descents on Ireland Commissioners were sent to the Borders to treat on both sides and the Protector raised a great Army which he resolved to command in person But the meeting on the Borders was soon broke up for the Scots had no Instructions to treat concerning the Marriage and the English were ordered to treat of nothing else till that should be first agreed to And the Records that were shewed of the Homage done by the Scottish Kings to the English had no great effect for the Scots either said they were forged or forced from some weak Princes or were only Homages for their Lands in England as the Kings of England did Homage to the Crown of France for their Lands there They also shewed their Records by which their Ancestors had asserted that they were free and independent of England The Protector left Commissions of Lieutenancy to some of the Nobility August and devolved his own power during his absence on the Privy Council and came to the Borders by the end of August The Scots had abandoned the Passes so that he found no difficulty in his March and the small Forts that were in his way were surrendred upon Summons When the English advanced to
the other Executors had treated with Ambassadours apart had made Bishops and Lord-Lieutenants without their knowledge had held a Court of Requests in his House had embased the Coin had neglected the Places the King had in France had encouraged the Commons in their late Insurrections and had given out Commissions and proclaimed a Pardon without their consent that he had animated the King against the rest of the Council and had proclaimed them Traitors had put his own Servants armed about the King's Person By these it appears the Crimes against him were the effects of his sudden exaltation that had made him too much forget that he was a subject but that he had carried his greatness with much Innocence since no acts of Cruelty Rapine or Bribery were objected to him for they were rather errours and weaknesses than Crimes His embasing the Coin was done upon a common mistake of weak Governments who flye to that as their last refuge in the necessity of their affairs In his Imprisonment he set himself to the study of Moral Philosophy and Divinity and writ a Preface to a Book of Patience which had made great Impressions on him His fall was a great affliction to all that loved the Reformation and that was increased because they had no reason to trust much to the two chief Men of the party against him Southampton and Warwick the one was a known Papist and the other was lookt on as a Man of no Religion and both at the Emperor's Court and in France it was expected that upon this revolution matters of Religion would be again set back into the posture in which King Henry had left them The Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner hoped to be discharged and Bonner lookt to be re-established in his Bishoprick again and all People began to fall off much from the new service but the Earl of Warwick finding the King was zealously addicted to the Reformation quickly forsook the Popish party and seemed to be a mighty promoter of that work A Court of Civilians was appointed to examine Bonner's Appeal and upon their report the Council rejected it and confirmed the Sentence that was past upon him But next The Emperor will not assist them foreign affairs come under their care They suspected that Paget had not dealt effectually with the Emperour to assist them in the preservation of Bulloign so they sent over Sir Tho. Cheyney to try what might be expected from him they took also care of the Garrison and both encreased it and supplied it well Cheyney found the same reception with the Emperour and had the same answer that Paget got The Emperor prest him much that matters of Religion might be again considered and confest that till that were done he could not assist them so effectually as otherwise he would do so now the Council found it necessary to apply to the Court of France for a Peace The Earl of Southampton left the Court in great discontent he was neither restored to his Office of Chancellour nor was he made one of the six Lords that were appointed to have the charge of the King's Person this touched him so much that he died not long after of grief as was believed In November A Session of Parliament a Session of Parliament met in which an Act was past declaring it Treason to call any to the number of Twelve together about any matter of State if being required they did not disperse themselves other Riotous Assemblies were also declared felonious the giving out of Prophecies concerning the King or Council was also made Penal Another Law was made against Vagabonds the former Statute was repealed as too severe and Provisions were made for the relief of the Sick and Impotent and Imploying such as could work The Bishops made a heavy complaint of the growth of Vice and Impiety and that their power was so much abridged that they could not repress it so a Bill was read enlarging their Authority but it was thought that it gave them too much power yet it was so moderated that the Lords past it But the Commons rejected it and instead of it sent up a Bill that impowered XXXII who were to be named by the King the one half of the Temporalty and the other of Spiritualty to compile a body of Ecclesiastical Laws within three years and that these not being contrary to the Common or Statute Law and approved of by the King should have the force of Ecclesiastical Laws of the 32. Four were to be Bishops and as many to be Common Lawyers Six Bishops and six Divines were impowered to prepare a new form of Ordination which being confirmed under the Great Seal should take place after April next Articles were also put in against the Duke of Somerset with a Confession signed by him But some objected that they ought not to proceed The Duke of Somerset fined but restored to favour till they knew whether he had signed it voluntarily or not and some were sent to examine him he acknowledged he had done it freely but protested that his errours had flowed rather from Indiscretion than Malice and denied all treasonable designs against the King or the Realm he was fined in 2000 l. a year in Land and in the loss of all his Goods and Offices He complained of the heaviness of this Censure and desired earnestly to be restored to the Kings favour and promised to carry himself so humbly and obediently that he should make amends for his past follies which was thought a sign of too abject a mind others excused it since the power and malice of his Enemies was such that he was not safe as long as he continued in Prison he was discharged in the beginning of February soon after he had his pardon and did so manage his interest in the King that he was again brought both to the Court and Council in April But if these submissions gained him some favour at Court they sunk him as much in the esteem of the World The Reformation was now A Progress in the Reformation after this confusion was over carried on again with vigour The Council sent Orders over England to require all to conform themselves to the new service and to call in all the Books of the old Offices An Act past in Parliament to the same effect one Earl six Bishops and four Lords only dissenting all the old Books and Images were appointed to be defaced and all prayers to Saints were to be struck out of the Primers published by the late King A Subsidy was granted and the King gave a General Pardon out of which all Prisoners on the account of the State and Anabaptists were excepted In this Session the Eldest Sons of Peers were first allowed to sit in the House of Commons The Committee appointed to prepare the Book of Ordination finished their work with common consent only Heath Bishop of Worcester refused to sign it for which he was called before the
Laws and Orders of Council but that he would acknowledge no fault not having committed any The things objected to him were that he refused to set out in his Sermon the King's power when he was under Age and had affronted the Preachers whom the King had sent to his Diocess that he had been negligent in executing the King's Injunctions and refused to confess his fault or ask the King pardon and it was said that the Rebellions raised in England might have been prevented if he had timously set forth the King's authority he answered that he was not required to do it by any Order of Council but only in a private discourse yet Witnesses being examined upon those particulars the Delegates proceeded to sentence of deprivation against him notwithstanding his Appeal to the King in Person and he was appointed to lie still in the Tower where he continued till Queen Mary discharged him Nothing was pretended to excuse the severity of these proceedings but that he having taken out a Commission for holding his Bishoprick only during the King's pleasure he could not complain when that was intimated to him and if he had been turned out meerly upon pleasure without the Pomp of a Process the matter might have been better excused Poinet was put in his See and had 2000. Marks in Lands assigned him for his subsistence Story was put in Rochester and upon Veysy's resignation Coverdale was made Bishop of Exeter The scruples that Hooper made were now so far satisfied that he was content both to be consecrated in his Vestments and to use them when he preached before the King or in his Cathedral but he was dispensed with upon other occasions By this time the greater number of the Bishops were Men that heartily received the Reformation The Articles of Religion agreed on so it was resolved now to proceed to a settlement of the Doctrine of the Church many thought that should have been done in the first place But Cranmer judged it was better to proceed slowly in that matter he thought the Corruptions in the Worship were to be begun with since while they remained the addresses to God were so defiled that thereby all People were involved in unlawful compliances he thought speculative Opinions might come last since errours in them were not of such ill consequence and he judged it necessary to lay these open in many Treatises and Disputes before they should proceed to make alterations that so all People might be before-hand satisfied with what should be done So now they framed a Body of Articles which contained the Doctrine of the Church of England they were cast into forty two Articles and afterwards some few alterations being made in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign they were reduced to XXXIX which being in all Peoples hands need not be much inlarged on In the Ancient Church there was at first a great simplicity in their Creeds but afterwards upon the breaking out of Heresies concerning the Person of Christ equivocal senses being put on the terms formerly used new ones that could not be so easily eluded were invented A humour of explaining Mysteries by similies and niceties and of passing Anathema's on all that did not receive these did much over-run the Church and though the Council of Ephesus decreed that no new additions should be made to the Creed yet that did not restrain those who loved to make all their own conceits be received as parts of the Faith The Fathers were carried too far with this curiosity but the Schoolmen went farther and spun the Thread much finer they condemned every thing that differed from their Notions as Heretical Many of the Lutherans had retained much of that peremptoriness and were not easie to those who differed from them In England great care was taken to frame these Articles in the most comprehensive words and the greatest simplicity possible Changes made in the Common-prayer-book When this was setled they went about the review of the Common-prayer-Book In the daily service they added the Confession and Absolution that so the worship of God might begin with a grave and humble Confession conceived in general words but to which every one ought to joyn a secret confession of his particular sins after which a solemn declaration of the mercy of God according to the terms of the Gospel was to be pronounced by the Priest This was thought much better than the giving Absolution in such formal words as I absolve thee which begat in the undiscerning Vulgar an Opinion that the Priest had authority to pardon sin and that made them think of nothing so much as how to purchase it at his hands and it proved as it was managed the greatest Engine that ever was for overthrowing the power of Religion In the Communion-Service they ordered a recital of the Commandments with a short devotion between every one of them judging that till Church-Discipline were restored nothing could more effectually awaken such as came to receive it to a due seriousness in it than the hearing the Law of God thus pronounced with those stops in it to make the People reflect on their offences against it The Chrism the use of the Cross in consecrating the Eucharist Prayers for the Dead and some expressions that favoured Transubstantiation were laid aside and the Book was put in the same Order and Method in which it continues to this day excepting only some inconsiderable variations that have been made since A Rubrick was added to the Office of the Communion explaining the reason of kneeling in it that it was only as an expression of due reverence and gratitude upon the receiving so particular a mark of the favour of God but that no adoration was intended by it and that they did not think Christ was corporally present in it In Queen Elizabeth's time this was left out that such as conformed in other things but still retained the belief of the Corporal Presence might not be offended at such a Declaration It was again put in the Book upon his present Majesties Restoration for removing the Scruples of those who excepted to that posture Christ did at first institute this Sacrament in the ordinary Table-gesture Moses appointed the Paschal Lamb to be eaten by the People standing with staves in their hands they being then to begin their march yet that was afterwards changed by the Jews who did eat it in the posture common at Meals which our Saviour's practice justifies so though Christ in his state of Humiliation did Institute this Ordinance in so familiar a posture yet it was thought more becoming the reverence due to him in his Exaltation to celebrate it with greater expressions of humility and devotion The Ancient Christians received it standing and bowing their Body downward Kneeling was afterwards used as a higher expression of devout worship but great difference is to be made between the adoration practised in the Church of Rome in which upon lifting up the Host all fall down
Laws of God and the Practice of the Universal Church to declare their Bishopricks void as they were indeed already void And thus were seven of the Reformed Bishops turned out at a dash It was much censured that those who had married according to a Law then in force which was now only repealed for the future should be deprived for it and this was a new severity for in former times when the Popes were most set against the Marriage of the Clergy it was put to their option whether they would part with their Wives or with their Benefices but none were summarily deprived as was now done The other Bishops without any form of Process or special matter objected to them were turned out by an Act of meer Arbitrary Government And all this was done by vertue of the Queens being Head of the Church which though she condemned as a sinful and sacrilegious power yet she now imployed it against those Bishops whose Sees were quickly filled with Men in whom the Queen confided Goodrick died this Year It seems he complied with the change now made otherwise he that put the Seal to Lady Jane's Patents could not have escaped the being questioned for it He was an ambitious Man and so no wonder if earthly considerations prevailed more with him than a good Conscience Scory that was Bishop of Chichester renounced his Wife and did Penance for his Marriage but soon after he fled beyond Sea and returned in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign so that his Compliance was the effect of his weakness and fears Barlow resigned Bath and Wells and a Book of recantation was published in his name containing severe reflections both on the Reformers and on the Reformation it self but it is not certain whether it was writ by him or was only a forgery put out in his Name for if he turned so heartily as the strain of that Book runs it is not likely that he would have been put from his Bishoprick but he fled beyond Sea yet it seems both Scory and he gave great offence by their behaviour for though they were the only surviving Reformed Bishops when Queen Elizabeth succeeded yet they were so far from being promoted that they were not so much as restored to their former Sees but put in meaner ones By all these deprivations and resignations there were sixteen new Bishops made which made no small change in the face of the English Church Now the Old Service was every where set up in which Bonner made such hast that before the Royal Assent was given to the Bill for it he began the Old Service and Processions The first opening of it was somewhat strange for it being on Saint Katherine's day the Quiristers went up to the Steeple and sung the Anthem there according to the Custom for that Day Great numbers of the Clergy were summarily deprived for being Married they were estimated by Parker to be 12000. and most of them were judged upon common fame without any Process but a Citation and many being then in Prison yet were Censured and put out for Contumacy and held guilty Many Books were written against the Marriage of the Clergy and the accusing them of Impurity and sensuality on that account was one of the chief Topicks used by the Popish Clergy to disgrace the Reformers which made some recriminate too indecently and lay open the filthiness of the Unmarried Clergy and those that were called Religious who led most irregular lives in particular it was said Bonner had no reason to be a friend to that state for he was the Bastard of a Bastard and his Father though a Priest begat him in Adultery On the 2d of April a Parliament met A new Parliament but the most considerable Members were before-hand corrupted by Gardiner who gave them Pensions some 200. and others 100 l. a Year for their Voices The first Act that past was declaratory that all the Prerogatives and Limitations which by Law belonged to the Kings of England were the same whether the Crown fell into the hands of a Male or a Female The secret of this was little known some were afraid there was an ill design in it and that it being declared that she had all the authority which any of her Progenitors ever had it might be inferred from thence that she might pretend to a right of Conquest A proposition to make the Queen absolute and so seize on the Estates of the English as William the Conqueror had done But it was so conceived that the Queen was put under the fame limitations as well as acknowledged to have the same Prerogatives with her Progenitors The secret of this was afterwards discovered A projecting Man that had served Cromwell and loved to meddle much had been deeply engaged both in Lady Jane's business and in the late Insurrection and was now in danger of his life so he made application to the Emperour's Ambassadour and by his means obtained his Pardon He offered a Project that the Queen should declare that she succeeded to the Crown by the Common-Law but was not tied by the Statute-Law which did only bind Kings and therefore a Queen was not obliged by it thus she might pretend to be a Conqueror and rule at pleasure and by this means might restore both Religion and the abbey-Abbey-Lands and be under no restraint This the Ambassadour brought to the Queen and prayed her to keep it very secret But she disliked it yet she sent for Gardiner and charged him to give her his Opinion of it sincerely as he would answer to God for it at the Great Day He read it carefully and told her it was a most pernicious contrivance and beg'd her not to listen to such Plat-forms which might be brought her by base Sycophants Upon that she burnt the Paper and charged the Ambassadour not to bring her any more such Projects This gave Gardiner great apprehensions of the mischiefs that Spanish Counsels might bring on the Nation and so he procured the Act to be made by which the Queen was bound by the Law as much as her Ancestors were He also got an Act to be past ratifying the Articles of the Marriage with strong clauses for keeping the Government entirely in the Queen's hands that so Philip might not take it on him as Henry the VII had done when he married the Heir of the House of York for as he set up a Title in his own Name and kept the Government in his own hands so the Spaniards began to reckon a descent from John of Gaunt which made Gardiner the more cautious and it must be confessed that the preserving the Nation out of the hands of the Spaniards was almost only owing to his care and wisdom The Bishoprick of Durham was again restored after a vigorous resistance made by those of Gateside near Newcastle The Attainders of the Duke of Suffolk and Fifty-eight more for the late Rebellion were confirmed The Commons sent up four several Bills
to be favourable to the work he came for the Queen sent two Lords Paget and Hastings for him Both King and Queen rode in state to Westminster and each had a Sword of state carried before them The first Bill that past was a Repeal of Pool's Attainder it was read by the Commons three times in one Day and the Bill was passed without making a Session by a short Prorogation He came over and entred privately to London on the 24th of November for the Pope's authority not being yet acknowledged he could not be received as a Legate His Instructions were full besides the authority commonly lodged with Legates which consists chiefly in the many Graces and Dispensations that they are impowered to grant though it might be expected that they should come rather to see the Canons obeyed than broken only the more scandalous abuses were still reserved to the Popes themselves whose special Prerogative it has always been to be the most Eminent Transgressors of all Canons and Constitutions Pool made his first Speech to the King and Queen The Nation is reconciled to the See of Rome and then to the Parliament in the Name of the Common Pastor inviting them to Return to the Sheepfold of the Church The Queen felt a strange emotion of joy within her as he made his Speech which she thought was a Child quickned in her Belly and the flattering Court Ladies heightned her belief of it The Council ordered Bonner to sing Te Deum and there were Bonefires and all other publick demonstrations of joy upon it The Priests said that here was another John Baptist to come that leapt in his Mother's Belly upon the Salutation from Christ's Vicar Both Houses agreed on an Address to the King and Queen that they would intercede with the Legate to reconcile them to the See of Rome and they offered to repeal all the Laws they had made against the Pope's authority in sign of their repentance Upon this the Cardinal came to the Parliament He first thanked them for repealing his Attainder in recompence of which he was now to reconcile them to the Body of the Church He made a long Speech of the Conversion of the Britains and Saxons to the Faith and of the Obedience they had payed to the Apostolick See and of the many favours that See had granted the Crown of which none was more Eminent than the Title of Defender of the Faith The ruine of the Greek Church and the distractions of Germany and the Confusions themselves had been in since they departed from the Unity of the Church might convince them of the necessity of keeping that bond entire In Conclusion he gave them and the whole Nation a Plenary Absolution The rest of the Day was spent in singing Te Deum and the Night in Bonefires The Act repealing all Laws made against the Popes authority was quickly past only it stuck a little by reason of a Proviso which the House of Lords put in for some Lands which the Lord Wentworth had of the See of London w th the Commons opposed so much that after the Bill was offered to the Royal assent it was cut out of the Parchment by Gardiner They did enumerate and repeal all Acts made since the 20th of Hen. 8. against the Pope's authority but all foundations of Bishopricks and Cathedrals all Marriages tho' contrary to the Laws of the Church all Institutions all Judicial Processes and the settlements made either of Church or Abbey-Lands were confirmed The Convocation of Canterbury had joyned their Intercession with the Cardinal that he would confirm the right of the present Possessors of those Lands Upon which he did confirm them but he added a heavy charge requiring those that had any of the Goods of the Church to remember the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazzar for profaning the holy Vessels though they were not taken away by himself but by his Father and that at least they would take care that such as served the Cures should be sufficiently maintained all which was put in the Act and confirmed by it and it was declared that all Suits concerning those Lands were to be tried in the Civil Courts and that it should be a Praemunire if any went about to disturb the Possessors by the pretence of an Ecclesiastical power They also declared that the Title of Supream Head of the Church did never of right belong to the Crown enacted that it should be left out of Writs in all time coming All Exemptions granted to Monasteries and now continued in Lay-hands were taken away and all Churches were made subject to Episcopal Jurisdiction except Westminster Windsor and the Tower of London The statute of Mortmain was repealed for 20. years to come and all things were brought back to the state in which they were in the 20th year of King Henry's reign The Lower House of Convocation gave occasion to many clauses in this Act by a Petition which they made to the Upper-house consenting to the settlement made of Church and Abbey Lands and praying that the Statute of Mortmain might be repealed and that all the Tithes might be restored to the Church they proposed also some things in relation to Religion for the condemning and burning all Heretical Books and that great care should be had of the Printing and venting of Books that the Church should be restored to its former Jurisdiction that Pluralities and Non-residence might be effectually condemned and all Simoniacal pactions punished that the Clergy might be discharged of paying first-fruits and Tenths that Exemptions might be taken away that all the Clergy should go in their Habits and that they should not be sued in a Praemunire till a Prohibition were first served and disobeyed that so they might not be surprised and ruined a second time By another Bill all former Acts made against Lollards were revived The Commons offered another Bill for voiding all Leases made by married Priests but it was laid aside by the Lords Thus were the Pensioners and aspiring Men in the House of Commons either redeeming former faults or hoping to merit highly by the forwardness of their Zeal By another Bill several things were made Treason and it was declared that if the Queen died before the King and left any Children the King should have the Government in his hands till they were of Age and during that time the conspiring his Death was made Treason but none were to be tried for words but within six Months after they were spoken Another Act past declaring it Treason in any to pray for the Queens death unless they repented of it and in that case they were to suffer Corporal punishment at the Judges discretion A severe Act was also passed against all that spread lying Reports of the King the Queen the Peers Judges or great Officers Some were to lose their Hands others their Ears and others were to be fined according to the degree of their offence And thus all affairs were
carried in Parliament Gardiners policy in the steps of this change as well as the Court could wish and upon this Gardiner's reputation was much raised for bringing about so great a change in so little time with so little opposition He took much pains to remove all the Objections that were generally made use of they were chiefly two the one was the fear of coming under such Tyranny from Rome as their Ancestors had groaned under and the other was the loss of the Abbey-Lands But to the first he said that all the old Laws against Provisions from Rome should still continue in force and to shew them that Legates should exercise no dangerous authority in England he made Pool take out a Licence under the Great Seal for his Legatine power As for the other he promised both an Act of Parliament and Convocation confirming them and undertook that the Pope should ratifie these as well as his Legate did now consent to them But to all this it was answered that if the Nation were again brought under the old Superstition and the Papal authority established it would not be possible to bridle that power which would be no longer kept within limits if once they became Masters again and brought the World under a blind obedience It was objected that the Church-Lands must be certainly taken back it was not likely the Pope would confirm the alienation of them but though he should do it yet his Successors might annul that as sacrilegious And it was observed in the charge which Pool gave to all to make restitution by the repeal of the statute of Mortmain that it was intended to possess the Nation with an Opinion of the Unlawfulness of keeping those Lands which would probably work much on Men that were near death and could not resist the terrours of Purgatory or perhaps of Hell for the sin of Sacriledge and so would be easily induced to make restitution of them especially at such a time when they were not able to possess them any longer themselves Now the Parliament was at an end Consultations about the way of proceeding against Hereticks and the first thing taken into consideration was what way they ought to proceed against the Hereticks Pool had been suspected to bear some favour to them formerly but he took great care to avoid all occasions of being any more blamed for that and indeed he lived in that distrust of all the English that he opened his thoughts to very few for his chief Confidents were two Italians that came over with him Priuli and Ormaneto Secretary Cecyl who in matters of Religion complied with the present time was observed to have more of his favour than any English Man had Pool was an Enemy to all severe proceedings he thought Churchmen should have the tenderness of a Father and the care of a Shepherd and ought to reduce but not devour the stray sheep he had observed that Cruelty rather inflamed than cured that Distemper he thought the better and surer way was to begin with an effectual Reformation of the manners of the Clergy since it was the scandals given by their ill conduct and Ignorance that was the chief cause of the growth of Heresie so he concluded that if a Primitive Discipline should be revived the Nation would by degrees lay down their prejudices and might in time be gained by gentle methods Gardiner on the other hand being of an abject and cruel temper himself thought the strict execution of the Laws against the Lollards was that to which they ought chiefly to trust if the Preachers were made publick Examples he concluded the People would be easily reclaimed for he pretended that it was visible if King Henry had executed the Act of the six Articles vigorously all would have submitted he confessed a Reformation of the Clergy was a good thing but all times could not bear it if they should proceed severely against scandalous Churchmen the Hereticks would take advantage from that to defame the Church the more and raise a clamour against all Clergymen Gardiner's spite was at this time much whetted by the reprinting of his Books of true Obedience which was done at Strasburg and sent over In it he had called King Henry's marriage with Queen Catherine Incestuous and had justified his Divorce and his second Marriage with his most godly and vertuous Wife Queen Anne This was a severe exposing of him but he had brow enough and bore down these reproaches by saying Peter had denied his Master but others said a Compliance of 25. years continuance was very unjustly compared to a sudden denial that was presently expiated with so sincere a Repentance The Queen was for joining both these Councils together and intended to proceed at the same time both against scandalous Churchmen and Hereticks After the Parliament was over there was a solemn Procession of many Bishops and Priests Bonner carrying the Host to thank God for reconciling the Nation again to Saint Peter's Chair and it having been done on St. Andrew's Day that was appointed to be an Anniversary and was called The Feast of the Reconciliation But soon after began the Persecution Rogers Hooper Taylor Bradford A Persecution set on foot and seven more were brought before the Council and asked one by one if they would return to the Union of the Catholick Church and acknowledge the Pope but they all answered resolutely that they had renounced the Pope's power as all the Bishops had also done they were assured he had no authority but over his own Diocess for the first four Ages so they could not submit to his Tyranny Gardiner told them Mercy was now offered them but if they rejected it Justice would be done next so they were all sent back to Prison except one who had great Friends so he was only asked if he would be an honest man and upon that promise was dismist They began with Rogers whose Imprisonment was formerly mentioned Many had advised him to make his escape and flie to Germany but he would not do it though a Family of Ten Children was a great Temptation Both he and Hooper were brought before Gardiner Rogers and Hooper condemned and burnt Bonner Tonstall and three other Bishops They asked them whether they would submit to the Church or not but they answered that they looked on the Church of Rome as Antichristian Gardiner said that was a reproach on the Queen Rogers said they honoured the Queen and lookt for no ill at her hands but as she was set on to it by them Upon that Gardiner and the other Bishops declared that so far were they from setting on the Queen to the executing of the Law that she commanded them to do it and this was confirmed by two Privy Councellours that were present In conclusion they gave them time till next Morning to consider what they would do and then they continuing firm they declared them obstinate Hereticks and degraded them but they did
Beard and the holding a Candle to his Hand till the Veins and Sinews burst and these not prevailing to make him change he was at last burnt in Smithfield One Hunter an Apprentice not above XIX Years old was condemned and burnt on the same account Bonner was so much concerned to preserve him that he offered him Forty Pound to change so mercenary did he think other Mens consciences were measuring them probably by his own Two Gentlemen Causton and Higbed one Lawrence a Priest and two meaner Persons were burnt near their own Houses in Essex The Method in these and in all the other proceedings during the rest of this reign was summary and ex officio Upon complaints made Persons were imprisoned and Articles containing the Points for which they were suspected were offered to them which they were required to answer and if their answers were Heretical they were burnt for them without any thing being objected to them or proved against them Ferrar that had been Bishop of S. Davids was dealt with in the same manner by his Successor Morgan When he was condemned he appealed to Cardinal Pool but that had no other effect save that his Execution was stopt three Weeks Rawlins White a poor Fisherman was condemned by the Bishop of Landaffe and afterwards burnt Marsh a Priest was burnt at Chester and to the ordinary Cruelty of burning they added a new Invention of pouring melted Pitch on his Head One Flower a rash and furious Man wounded a Priest at S. Margaret's Westminster as he was officiating for which being seised on and found to be an Heretick he was condemned and burnt The fact was disapproved by all the Reformed and he became sincerely Penitent for it before he died After this for some Weeks there was a stop put to those severities The Queen about this time sent for her Treasurer The Queen restores the Church-Lands and some of the other Officers of her Revenue and told them that she thought her self bound in Conscience to restore all the Lands of the Church that were then in her hands she thought they were unlawfully acquired and that they could not be held by her without a sin therefore she declared she would have them disposed of as Cardinal Pool should think fit Some imputed this to a Bull set out by the Pope excommunicating all that kept any Lands belonging to Abbies or Churches This alarmed many in England but Gardiner pacified them and told them that Bull was made only for Germany and that no Bull did bind in England till it was received But this did not satisfie Inquisitive People for a sin in Germany was likewise a sin in England and if the Pope's authority came from Christ it ought to take place every where equally Pope Julius died in March Marcellus chosen Pope Paul the IV. succeeds and Marcellus was chosen to succeed him he turned his thoughts wholly to the Reformation of abuses He suffered none of his Nephews nor Kindred to come to Court and resolved effectually to put down Non-residence and Pluralities but he found it very difficult to bring about the good designs he had projected and that the Popes power was such that it was more easie for him to do mischief than good which made him once cry out That he did not see how any could be saved that sat in that Chair These things wrought so much on him that he sickned within Twelve Days of his Election and died Ten Days after that Upon his death the Queen endeavoured to engage the French to consent to the Promotion of Cardinal Pool which she did without his knowledge or approbation but at Rome they were so apprehensive of another Pope set on Reformations that they made hast in their choice and set up Caraffa called Paul the Fourth who was the most extravagantly ambitious and insolent Pope that had reigned of a great while On the day of his Election The English Ambassadours come to Rome the English Ambassadors entred Rome in great state having in their Train 140. Horse of their own Attendants but the Pope would not admit them to an Audience till they had accepted of a Grant of the Title of the Kingdom of Ireland for he pretended it belonged only to him to confer those Titles The Ambassadours it seems knew it was the Queen's mind that they should in every thing submit to the Pope and so took that grant from him Their Publick Audience was given in great Solemnity in which the Pope declared that in token of his pardoning the Nation he had added to the Crown the Title of the Kingdom of Ireland by that Supream Power which God had given him to destroy or to build Kingdomes at his pleasure But in private discourse he complained much that the Abbey-Lands were not restored He said it was beyond his power to confirm Sacriledge and all were obliged under the pains of damnation to restore to the last farthing every thing that belonged to the Church he said likewise that he would send over a Collector to gather the Peter-Pence for they could not expect that St. Peter would open Heaven to them so long as they denied him his rights upon Earth These were heavy tidings to the Lord Mountacute Sir Anthony Brown whose Estate consisted chiefly of abbey-Abbey-Lands that was one of the Ambassadours But the Pope would endure to contradiction and repeated this every time they came to him In England The English grow backward in the Persecution Orders were sent to the Justices to look narrowly to the Preachers of Heresie and to have secret Spies in every Parish for giving them Information of all Peoples behaviour This was imputed to the sowrness of Spanish Councils and seemed to be taken from that base practice of the Roman Emperours that had their Informers or Delatores that went into all Companies and accommodated themselves to all Men's Tempers till they had drawn them into some discourses against the State and thereby ruined them People grew so averse to Cruelty that Bonner himself finding how odious he was become and observing the slackness of the other Bishops refused not to meddle any further and burnt none in five Weeks time Upon which the Queen writ to him and required him to do the Office of a good Pastor and either to reclaim the Hereticks or to proceed against them according to Law and he quickly shewed how ready he was to mend his pace upon such an admonition In the beginning of May The Queens delivery in vain lookt for the Court was in expectation of the Queen's Delivery The Envoys were named that were to carry the good News to the neighbouring Courts the tidings of it did flye over England and Te Deum was sung upon it in several Cathedrals But it proved to be a false conception and all hopes of Issue by her vanished This tended much to alienate King Philip from her and he finding it more necessary to look after his Hereditary Crowns than to
stay in England where he had no hopes of making himself Master left her and that increased her Melancholy New Fires were kindled More Hereticks burnt Cardmaker that had been a Prebendary at Bath and Warne a Tradesman were burnt in Smithfield in May. The body of one that suffered for Robbery but at his Execution said somewhat savouring of Heresie was burnt for it Seven were burnt in several parts of Essex They were condemned by Bonner and sent down to be burnt near the places of their abode The Council writ to the Great Men of the County to gather many together and assist at those Spectacles and when they heard that some had come of their own accord to the burnings at Colchester they writ to the Lord Rich to give their thanks to those Persons for their Zeal so dexterously did they study to cherish a spirit of Cruelty among the People Bradford who had been committed soon after he had saved Bourne in the Tumult at Saint Paul's had been condemned with the rest and was preserved till July He was so much considered that Heath Archbishop of York and Day Bishop of Chichester Weston and Harpsfield with the King's Confessor and Alphonsus à Castro went to see if they could prevail on him and had long Conferences with him in Prison but all to no purpose Bourn was made Bishop of Bath and Wells and his Brother was Secretary of State but though Bradford had preserved his life yet he neither came to visit him nor did he interpose for his life on the contrary it was objected to Bradford that by his carriage in suppressing that Tumult it appeared that he had set it on but he appealed to God who saw how unworthily they returned him evil for good and he appealed to Bourn who was sitting among the Bishops that judged him if he had not prayed him for the Passion of Christ to endeavour his preservation and if he had not done it at the hazard of his own Life But Bourn as he was ashamed to accuse him so he had not the honesty nor the courage to vindicate him a young Apprentice was burnt with him whom he encouraged much in his sufferings and in transports of joy he hugged the Faggots that were laid about him Thornton Harpsfield and others set on a Persecution at Canterbury though Cardinal Pool was averse to it but he durst not now discover so much for the Pope had an inveterate hatred to him and was resolved upon the first occasion to recall him and for that end he entred in a Correspondence with Gardiner who hoped thereby to have been made a Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury and upon the hopes he had of that he still preserved Cranmer for tho' he was now condemned for Heresie yet the See was not esteemed void till he was formally degraded Some said it was fit to begin with him that had been the chief promoter of Heresie in England But Gardiner said it was better to try if it could be possible to shake him for it would be a great blow to the whole Party if he could be wrought on to forsake it whereas if he should be burnt and should dye with such resolution as others expressed it would much raise the spirits of his followers The See of Canterbury was now only sequestred in Pool's hands and he being afraid of falling under the Pope's rage was willing to let the cruel Prebendaries do what they pleased They burnt two Priests and two Laymen at Canterbury and sent a Man and a Woman to be burnt in other Places in Kent Two that belonged to the Dioceses of Winchester and Chichester were condemned by Bonner and were burnt near the places of their abode There were at this time several pretended discoveries of Plots both in Dorsetshire and Essex and Orders were given to draw Confessions from some that were apprehended by Torture but the thing was let fall for it was grounded only on the surmises of the Clergy The Queen was this Year rebuilding the House of the Franciscans at Greenwich Religious Houses set up and had recalled Peyto and Elston of which mention was made Book 1. pag. 117. the one she made her Confessor and the other was to be Guardian of that House The People expressed such hatred of them that as they were passing upon the River some threw stones at them but they that did it could not be discovered More 's Works published Judge Rastall published Sir Tho. More 's Works at this time but as was formerly observed he left out his Letter concerning the Nun of Kent though it lies among his other Letters in that very Manuscript out of which he published them He prefixed nothing concerning Mores Life to his Works which makes it highly probable that he never writ it for this was the proper time and place for publishing it if he had ever writ it So that Manuscript life of Mores pretended to be writ by him out of which many things have been quoted since that time to the disgrace of King Henry and Anne Boleyn must be a later forgery contrived in spite to Queen Elizabeth The Queen did now go on with her Intentions of founding Religious Houses out of those abbey-Abbey-Lands that were still in the Crown She recommended it also to the Councils care that every where there might be good Preaching and that there might be a Visitation of the Universities she desired that Justice might be done on the Hereticks in such a manner that the People might be well satisfied about it and prest them to take care that there might be no Pluralities in England and that the Preachers might give good Example as well as make good Sermons The burnings went on Seven were burnt in August in several places six more were burnt in one fire at Canterbury and four were burnt in other places but the particular days are not marked In September five were burnt at Canterbury and seven in other places In October two were burnt at Ely by Shaxton's means who now compleated his Apostasie by his Cruelty The 16th of that month became remarkable by the sufferings of Ridley and Latimer Ridley and Latimer are burnt Three Bishops Lincoln Gloucester and Bristol were sent with a Commission from Cardinal Pool to proceed against them Ridley said he payed great respect to Pool as he was of the Royal Family and esteemed him much for his Learning and Vertues but as he was the Popes Legate he would express no reverence to him nor would uncover himself before any that acted by authority from him The Bishop of Lincoln exhorted him To return to the obedience of the See of S. Peter on whom Christ had founded his Church to which the Ancient Fathers had submitted and which himself had once acknowledged He began his answer with a Protestation That he did not thereby submit to the authority of the Pope or his Legate he said Christ had founded his Church not on St. Peter but on the
Reformers and those that favoured them What was said in opposition to this in the House of Lords is not known but a great deal of it may be gathered from the Paper which the Reformed Divines drew upon the second Point about which they were appointed to dispute of the power that every Church had to Reform it self This they founded on the Epistles of St. Paul to the particular Churches and St. John's to the Angels of the seven Churches In the first three Ages there were no General Councils but every Bishop in his Diocess or such few Bishops as could Assemble together condemned Heresies or determined matters that were contested so did also the Orthodox Bishops after Arianism had so over-spread the World that even the See of Rome was defiled with it And abuses were condemned in many places without staying for a general concurrence though that was then more possible when all was under one Emperour than it was at present Even in Queen Mary's time many superstitions as Pilgrimages the worshipping of Reliques were laid aside Therefore they concluded that the Queen might by her own authority reform even the Clergy as Hezekiah and Josias had done under the old Law When the Act past in the House of Lords eight Spiritual Lords and nine Temporal Lords protested against it among whom was the Marquess of Winchester Lord Treasurer Another Act past with more opposition that the Queen might reserve some Lands belonging to Bishopricks to her self as they fell void giving in lieu of them improprietated Tithes to the value of them but this was much opposed in the House of Commons who apprehended that under this pretence there might new spoils be made of church-Church-lands so that upon a Division of the House 90. were against it but 133. were for it and so it was past All Religious Houses founded by the late Queen were supprest and united to the Crown The deprivation of the Popish Bishops in King Edward's time was declared valid in Law by which all the Leases which had been made by those that were put in their Sees were good in Law A Subsidy and two Tenths and two Fifteenths with the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage were given and so the Parliament was dissolved on the 8th of May. Some Bills were proposed but not past one was for restoring the Bishops deprived by Queen Mary who were Barlow Scory and Coverdale but the first of these had been made to resign and the last being extream old resolved to follow Latimer's example and not return to his See So it was not thought worth the while to make an Act for Scory alone Another Bill that was laid aside was for restoring all Churchmen to their Benefices that had been turned Out because they were married but it seems it was not thought decent enough to begin with such an Act. Another Bill that came to nothing was for impowering XXXII Persons to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws but as this last was then let fall so to the great prejudice of this Church it has slept ever since After the Parliament was dissolved Many Bishops turned out the Oath of Supremacy was tendred to the Bishops and all except Kitchin Bishop of Landaffe refused it Tonstall continued unresolved till September and so long did the Queen delay the putting it to him But at last he refused it and so lost his Bishoprick It was generally believed that be quitted it rather because being extream old he thought it indecent to forsake his Brethren and to be still changing than out of any scruple he had in his Conscience concerning it All the Bishops were at first put under confinement but they were soon after set at liberty only Bonner White and Watson were kept Prisoners Many complaints were brought against Bonner for the Cruelties he had been guilty of against Law and the Tortures he had put his Prisoners to himself but yet the Queen resolved not to stain the beginnings of her Reign with blood and the Reformed Divines were in imitation of Nazianzen upon the like revolution in the Roman Empire exhorting their Followers not to think of revenging themselves but to leave that to God Heath lived privately at his own House in which he was sometimes visited by the Queen Tonstall and Thirleby were appointed to live in Lambeth with the new Archbishop White and Watson were morose and haughty Men much addicted to the School Divinity which has been often observed to incline People to an overvaluing of themselvs All the other Bishops except Pates Scot and Goldwell that had been Bishops of Worcester Chester and St. Asaph continued still in England but these had leave to go beyond Sea A few Gentlemen and all the Nuns went likewise out of England and so gentle was the Queen that she denied that Liberty to none that asked it The Queen inclined to keep Images still in Churches and though the Reformed Divines made many applications to divert her from it The Queen inclined to keep Images in Churches yet she was not easily wrought on The Divines put all their Reasons against them in Writing and desired her to commit the determining of that matter to a Synod of Bishops and Divines and not to take up an unalterable resolution upon Political Considerations They laid before her the second Commandment against making Images for God and the Curse pronounced against those that made an Image and put it in a secret place that is in an Oratory The Book of Wisdom calls them a snare for the feet of the Ignorant S. John charged the Christians to beware of Idols and not only of worshipping them The use of them fed superstition and ended in Idolatry and would breed great Divisions among themselves They shewed that Images were not allowed in the Church till the 7th Century and the Contests that were raised about them in the Eastern Empire occasioned such distractions as in a great measure made way for its ruine and laid it open to the Mahometans Thefe things wrought so much on the Queen that she was at last content they should be put down It was now resolved to send Visiters over England A General Visitation so Injunctions were prepared for them Those appointed in the first year of King Edward were now renewed with some little alteration To which Rules were added concerning the Marriages of the Clergy for avoiding the scandals given by them The Clergy were also required to use Habits according to their degrees in the Universities All People were to resort to their own Parish Church and some were to be appointed to examine and give notice of those who went not to Church all slanderous words were forbidden No Books were to be Printed without Licence Inquiry was ordered to be made into all the proceedings against Hereticks during the late Reign Reverence was to be expressed when the name Jesus was pronounced An Explanation was made of the supremacy that the Queen did not pretend to any authority for Ministring Divine
put in the Tower and then it would appear how many would inform against him The King seemed to consent to this and they resolved to execute it the next day but in the Night the King sent for Cranmer and told him what was resolved concerning him Cranmer thanked the King for giving him notice of it and not leaving him to be surprised He submitted to it only he desired he might be heard answer for himself and that he might have indifferent Judges who understood those matters The King wondered to see him so little concerned in his own Preservation but told him he must take care of him since he took so little care of himself The King therefore gave him Instructions to appear before the Council and to desire to see his Accusers before he should be sent to the Tower and that he might be used by them as they would desire to be used in the like Case And if he could not prevail by the force of Reason then he was to appeal to the King in Person and was to shew the King's Seal-Ring which he took from his Finger and gave him and they knew it all so well that they would do nothing after they once saw that so he being summoned next Morning came over to White-Hall He was kept long in the Lobbey before he was called in But when that was done and he had observed the Method the King had ordered him to use and had at last shewed the Ring they rose all in great Confusion and went to the King He chid them severely for what they had done and expressed his Esteem and Kindness to Cranmer in such Terms that his Enemies were glad to get off by pretending that they had no other Design but to have his Innocence declared in a publick Trial and were now so convinced of the King 's unalterable Favour to him that they never made any more Attempts upon him But what they durst not do in Relation to Cranmer And against the Queen they thought might be more safely tried against the Queen who was known to love the New Learning which was the common Phrase for the Reformation She used to have Sermons in her Privy Chamber which could not be so secretly carried but that it came to the King's Knowledge Yet her Conduct in all other things was so exact and she expressed such a tender care of the King's Person that it was observed she had gained much upon him but his Peevishness growing with his Distempers made him sometimes uneasy even to her They used often to talk of Matters of Religion and sometimes she held up the Argument for the Reformers so stifly that he was offended at it yet as soon as that appeared she let it fall but once the Debate continuing long the King expressed his Displeasure at it to Gardiner when she went away He took hold of this Opportunity to perswade the King that she was a great Cherisher of Hereticks Wriothesly joined with him in the same Artifice and filled the angry King's Head with many Stories in so much that he signed the Articles upon which she was to be Impeached But Wriothesly let that Paper fall from him carelesly and it happened to be taken up by one of the Queen's Friends who carried it to her Upon which she went to the King and brought on a Discourse of Religion and after a little Opposition she yielded and seemed convinced by the King's Reasons and told him That she only held up that Argument to be instructed by him and sometimes to engage him in Discourse and so to make him forget his pains and this she seconded with such Flattery that he was perfectly satisfied and reconciled to her Next day as he was walking with her in the Garden Wriothesly came thither on design to have carryed her to the Tower but the King chid him severely for it and was heard to call him Knave and Fool. The good natured Queen interposed to mitigate his Displeasure but the King told her She had no reason to be concerned for him Thus the Design against her vanished and Gardiner that had set it on lost the King's Favour entirely by it But now the Fall of the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surry The Duke of Norfolk's Fall came on The Father had been long Treasurer and had served the King with great Fidelity and Success His Son was a Man of rare Qualities he had a great Wit and was more than ordinary learned He particularly hated the Earl of Hartford and scorned an Alliance with him which his Father had projected The Duke of Norfolk had intended to unite his Family to the Seimours by marrying his Son to the Earl of Hartford's Daughter and his Daughter the Dutchess of Richmond to Sir Thomas Seimour But both his Children refused to comply with him in it The Seimours were apprehensive of the Opposition they might meet with if the King should die from the Earl of Surry who was a high spirited Man had a vast Fortune and was the Head of the Popish Party It was likewise suspected that he kept himself unmarried in hopes of marrying the Lady Mary The Duke's Family was also fatally divided His Dutchess had been separated from him about four Years and now turned Informer against him His Daughter did also hate her Brother and was a Spy upon him One Holland a Whore of the Duke's did also betray him and discovered all she could yet all amounted to no more than some Complaints of the Fathers who thought the Services he had done the Crown were little regarded and some Threatnings of the Sons It was also said that the Father gave the Coat of Arms that belonged to the Prince of Wales and the Son gave Edward the Confessors Coat but that was only a Pretence to make a noise among the People and to cover the want of more important matter against them One Southwel objected things of a higher Nature to the Earl of Surry He denied them and desired that according to the Martial Law they might have a Trial by Combate and fight in their Shirts But that was not granted yet both Father and Son were put in the Tower The Earl of Surry was tried by a Jury of Commoners The Earl of Surry executed and was found guilty of Treason and executed on the 19th of January He was much lamented and the Blame of his Death being cast on the Seimours raised a General Odium against them The old Duke saw a Parliament called to destroy him by an Act of Attainder for there was not matter enough to ruine him at Common Law so to prevent that he made such humble Submission to the King as would have mollified any that had not Bowels of Brass He wrote to him That he had spent his whole Life in his Service without having so much as a Thought to his Prejudice He had obeyed all the King's Laws and was resolved to obey all that ever he should make He
affairs so well that the Ambassadours that were sent into England published very extraordinary things of him in all the Courts of Europe He had great quickness of apprehension but being distrustful of his Memory he took Notes of every thing he heard that was considerable in Greek Characters that those about him might not understand what he writ which he afterwards Copied out fair in the Journal that he kept His Virtues were wonderful when he was made believe that his Unkle was guilty of conspiring the death of the other Counsellours he upon that abandoned him Barnaby Fitzpatrick was his Favourite and when he sent him to travel he writ oft to him to keep good Company to avoid excess and Luxury and to improve himself in those things that might render him capable of Imployment at his return He was afterwards made Lord of Upper Ossory in Ireland by Queen Elizabeth and did answer the hopes that this excellent King had of him He was very merciful in his nature which appeared in his unwillingness to sign the Warrant for burning the Maid of Kent He took great care to have his debts well paid reckoning that a Prince who breaks his Faith and loses his Credit has thrown up that which he can never recover and made himself liable to perpetual distrust and extreme contempt He took special care of the Petitions that were given him by poor and opprest People But his great zeal for Religion crowned all the rest It was not only an angry heat about it that acted him but it was a true tenderness of conscience founded on the love of God his Neighbors These extraordinary qualities set off with great sweetness and affability made him be universally beloved by all his People Some called him their Josias others Edward the Saint and others called him the Phoenix that rise out of his Mothers ashes and all People concluded that the sins of England must have been very great since they provoked God to deprive the Nation of so signal a blessing as the rest of his Reign would have by all appearance proved Ridley and the other good Men of that time made great lamentations of the Vices that were grown then so common that Men had past all shame in them Luxury Oppression and a hatred of Religion had over-run the higher rank of People who gave a countenance to the Reformation meerly to rob the Church but by that and their other practices were become a great scandal to so good a work The inferiour sort were so much in the power of the Priests who were still notwithstanding their outward Compliance Papists in heart and were so much offended at the spoil they saw made of all good endowments without putting other and more useful ones in their room that they who understood little of Religion laboured under great prejudices against every thing that was advanced by such tools And these things as they provoked God highly so they disposed the People much to that sad Catastrophe which is to be the subject of the next Book BOOK III. Book III 1553. THE LIFE and REIGN OF Queen MARY BY King Edward's death Qu. Mary succeeds the Crown devolved according to Law on his Eldest Sister Mary who was within half a days Journey to the Court when she had notice given her by the Earl of Arundel of her Brother's death and of the Patent for Lady Jane's succession and this prevented her falling into the Trap that was laid for her Upon that she retired to Framlingham in Suffolk both to be near the Sea that she might escape to Flanders in case of a misfortune and because the slaughter that was made of Kets People by Northumberland begat him the hatred of the People in that Neighbourhood Before she got thither she wrote on the 9th of July to the Council and let them know she understood that her Brother was dead by which she succeeded to the Crown but wondred that she heard not from them she knew well what Consultations they had engaged in but she would pardon all that was done to such as would return to their duty and proclaim her Title to the Crown By this it was found that the Kings death could be no longer kept secret so some of the Privy Council went to Lady Jane and acknowledged her their Queen The news of the King's death afflicted her much and her being raised to the Throne rather encreased than lessened her trouble She was a very extraordinary Person both for Body and Mind She had learned both the Greek and Latine Tongues to great perfection and delighted much in study She read Plato in Greek and drunk in the Precepts of true Philosophy so early that as she was not tainted with the levities not to say Vices of those of her Age and condition so she seemed to have attained to the practice of the highest notions of Philosophy for in those sudden turns of her condition as she was not exalted with the prospect of a Crown so she was as little cast down when her Palace was made her Prison The only passion she shewed was that of the Noblest kind in the concern she exprest for her Father and Husband who fell with her and seemingly on her account though really Northumberland's ambition and her Father's weakness ruined her She rejected the offer of the Crown when it was first made her she said she knew that of right it belonged to the late King's Sisters and so she could not with a good Conscience assume it but it was told her that both the Judges and Privy Councellours had declared that it fell to her according to Law This joyned with the Importunities of her Husband who had more of his Father's Temper than of her Philosophy in him made her submit to it Upon this XXI Privy Councellours set their hands to a Letter to Queen Mary letting her know that Queen Jane was now their Soveraign and that the Marriage between her Father and Mother was null so she could not succeed to the Crown and therefore they required her to lay down her Pretensions and to submit to the settlement now made and if she gave a ready obedience to these Commands they promised her much favour The day after this they proclaimed Jane But Lady Jane Gray is proclaimed In it they set forth That the late King had by Patent excluded his Sisters that both were illegitimated by sentences past in the Ecclesiastical Courts and confirmed in Parliament and at best they were only his Sisters by the half blood and so not inheritable by the Law of England There was also cause to fear that they might marry strangers and change the Laws and subject the Nation to the Tyranny of the See of Rome Next to them the Crown fell to the Dutchess of Suffolk and it was provided that if she should have no Sons when the King died the Crown should devolve on her Daughter who was born and married in the Kingdom Upon which
they asserted her right and she promised to maintain the true Religion and the Laws of the Land This was not received with the shouts ordinary on such occasions A Vintners Boy expressed some scorn when he heard it for which he was next day set on a Pillory and his Ears were nailed to it to strike terror in the rest Many descanted variously on this Proclamation Censures past upon that Those who thought that the King had his power immediately from God said that then it must descend in the way of Inheritance and since the King 's two Sisters were both under sentences of illegitimation they said the next Heir in blood must succeed and that was the young Queen of Scotland but she being of the Church of Rome claimed nothing upon the sentence against Queen Mary esteeming it unlawful and null yet afterwards she made her claim against Queen Elizabeth Others said that though a Prince were named immediately by God yet upon great reasons he might alter the Succession from its natural course for so David preferred Solomon to Adonijah In England the Kings claimed the Crown by a long Prescription confirmed by many Laws and not from a divine designation and therefore they inferred that the Act of Parliament for the Succession ought to take place and that by vertue of it the two Sisters ought to succeed and it was said that as the King could limit the Prerogative so he could likewise limit the succession It was also said that Charles Brandon's Issue by the French Queen was unlawful because he was then married to one Mortimer yet this was not declared in any Court and so could not take place Others said if the Right of blood could not be cut off why was the Scotch Queen cut off and her being born out of the Kingdom could not exclude her as an Alien for though that held in other cases yet it was only a Provision of Law which could not take away a Divine right and by special Law the King's Children were excepted It was also urged that the Dutchess of Suffolk ought to be preferred to her Daughter who could only claim by her Right and though Maud the Empress and Margaret Countess of Richmond had not claimed the Crown but were satisfied that their Sons two Henries the second and seventh should reign in their right yet it was never heard that a Mother should quit her right to a Daughter that of the half blood was said to be only a rule in Law for private Families and that it did not extend to the Crown The power of limiting the succession by Patent or Testament was said to be only a Personal trust lodged in King Henry the Eighth and that it did not descend to his Heirs so that King Edward's Patents were thought to be of no force The severity against the Vintners Boy in the beginning of a Reign founded on so doubtful a Title Many turn to Queen Mary was thought a great errour in Policy and it seemed to be a well grounded Maxime that all Governments ought to begin with acts of Clemency and affect the love rather than the fear of the People Northumberland's proceeding against the Duke of Somerset upon so soul a Conspiracy and the suspicions that lay on him as the Author of the late Kings untimely death begat a great aversion in the People to him and that disposed them to set up Queen Mary She gathered all in the neighbouring Counties about her The Men of Suffolk were generally for the Reformation yet a great Body of them came to her and asked her if she would promise not to alter the Religion set up in King Edward's days she assured them she would make no changes but should be content with the private Exercise of her own Religion Upon that they all vowed that they would live and dye with her The Earl of Sussex and several others raised Forces for her and proclaimed her Queen When the Council heard this they sent the Earl of Huntington's Brother to raise Men in Buckinghamshire and meet the Forces that should be sent from London at Newmarket The Duke of Northumberland was ordered to Command the Army Northumberland marches against her He was now much distracted in his thoughts It was of equal Importance to keep London and the Privy Councellours steady and to conduct the Army well A misfortune in either of these was like to be fatal to him So he could not resolve what to do there was not a Man of spirit that was firm to him to be left behind and yet it was most necessary once to dissipate the Force that was daily growing about Queen Mary The Lady Jane and the Council were removed to the Tower not only for state but for security for here the Council were upon the matter Prisoners He could do no more but lay a strict charge on the Council to be firm to Lady Jane's Interests and so he marched out of London with 2000. Horse and 6000. Foot on the 14th of July but no acclamations or wishes of success were to be heard as he past through the Streets The Council gave the Emperor notice of the Lady Jane's succession and complained of the disturbance that was raised by Queen Mary and that his Ambassadour had officiously medled in their affairs But the Emperour would not receive their Letters Ridley was appointed to preach up Queen Jane's Title and to animate the People against Queen Mary which he too rashly obeyed But Queen Mary's Party encreased every day Hastings went over to her with 4000. Men out of Buckinghamshire and she was proclaimed Queen in many places And now did the Privy Council begin to see their danger and to think how to get out of it The Earl of Arundel hated Northumberland The Marquess of Winchester was dextrous in shifting sides for his advantage The Earl of Pembroke's Son had married the Lady Jane's Sister which made him think it necessary to redeem the danger he was in by a speedy turn To these many others were joyned They pretended it was necessary to give an Audience to the foreign Ambassadours who would not have it in the Tower And the Earl of Pembroke's House was pitched upon he being least suspected They also said it was necessary to treat with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for sending more Forces to Northumberland concerning which he had writ very earnestly When they got out they resolved to declare for Queen Mary The Council declares for her and rid themselves of Northumberland's uneasie Yoke which they knew they must bear if he were victorious They sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and easily perswaded them to concur with them and so they went immediately to Cheapside and proclaimed the Queen on the 19th of July and from thence they went to St. Paul's where Te Deum was sung They sent next to the Tower requiring the Duke of Suffolk to quit the Government of that place and the Lady Jane to lay down the