This as it was fatal to the Counts of Tholouse who were great Princes in the South of France and first fell under the Censures so it was terrible to all other Princes who thereupon to save themselves delivered up their Subjects to the Mercy of the Ecclesiastical Courts Burning was the death they made choice of because Witches Vizards and Sodomites had been so executed Therefore to make Heresie appear a terrible thing this was thought the most proper punishment of it It had also a resemblance of everlasting Burning to which they adjudged their Souls as well as their bodies were condemned to the â—ire but with this signal difference that they could find no such effectual way to oblige God to execute their sentence as they contrived against the Civil Magistrate But however they confidently gave it out that by vertue of that Promise of our Saviours Whose sins ye bind on Earth they are bound in Heaven their Decrees were ratified in Heaven And it not being easie to disprove what they said people believed the one as they saw the other Sentence executed So that whatever they condemned as Heresie was looked on as the worst thing in in the world There was no occasion for the execution of this Law in England till the days of Wickliffe And the favour he had from some great men stopt the Proceedings against him But in the 5th year of King Richard the Second a Bill passed in the House of Lords and was assented to by the King and published for an Act of Parliament though the Bill was never sent to the House of Commons By this pretended Law it appears Wickliff's followers were then very numerous that they had a certain habit and did Preach in many places both in Churches Church-yards and Markets without Licence from the Ordinary and did preach several Doctrines both against the Faith and the Laws of the Land as had been proved before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the other Bishops Prelats Doctors of Divinity and of the Civil and canon-Canon-Law and others of the Clergy That they would not submit to the admonitions nor Censures of the Church but by their subtile ingenious words did draw the people to follow them and defend them by strong hand and in great routs Therefore it was Ordained that upon the Bishops certifying into the Chancery the names of such Preachers and their Abettors the Chancellour should issue forth Commissions to the Sheriffs and others the Kings Ministers to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison till they should justify them according to the Law and reason of Holy Church From the gentleness of which law it may appear that England was not then so tame as to bear the severity of those cruel laws which were setled and put in execution in other Kingdoms The Custome at that time was to engross Copies of all the Acts of Parliament and to send them with a Writ under the great Seal to the Sheriffs to make them be proclaimed within their jurisdictions And Iohn Braibrook Bishop of London then Lord Chancellour sent this with the other Acts of that Parliament to be proclaimed The Writ bears date the 26th of May 5 to Reg. But in the next Parliament that was held in the 6th year of that Kings Reign the Commons preferred a Bill reciting the former Act and constantly affirmed that they had never assented to it and therefore desired it might be declared to be void for they Protested it was never their intent to be Iustified and to bind themselves and their Successors to the Prelats more than their Ancestors had done in times past To which the King gave the Royal Assent as it is in the Records of Parliament But in the Proclamation of the Acts of that Parliament this Act was suppressed so that the former Act was still looked on as a good law and is Printed in the Book of Statutes Such pious frauds were always practised by the Popish Clergy and were indeed necessary for the supporting the Credit of that Church When Richard the 2d was deposed and the Crown usurped by Henry the 4th then he in gratitude to the Clergy that assisted him in his coming to the Crown granted them a law to their hearts content in the 2 d. year of his Reign The Preamble bears That some had a new Faith about the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same and did Preach without Authority gathered Conventicles taught Schools wrote Books against the Catholick Faith with many other heinous aggravations Upon which the Prelats and Clergy and the Commons of the Realm prayed the King to provide a sufficient remedy to so great an evil Therefore the King by the assent of the States and other discreet men of the Realm being in the said Parliament did Ordain That none should Preach without Licence except persons Priviledged That none should Preach any Doctrine contrary to the Catholick Faith or the Determination of the Holy Church and that none should favour and abett them nor keep their Books but deliver them to the Diocesan of the place within 40 days after the Proclamation of that Statute And that if any Persons were defamed or suspected of doing against that Ordinance then the Ordinary might Arrest them and keep them in his Prison till they were Canonically purged of the Articles laid against them or did abjure them according to the Laws of the Church Provided always that the proceedings against them were publickly and judicially done and ended within three Months after they had been so Arrested and if they were Convict the Diocesan or his Commissaries might keep them in Prison as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and might Fine them as should seem competent to him certifying the Fine into the Kings Exchequer and if any being Convict did refuse to abjure or after Abjuration did fall into Relapse then he was to be left to the Secular Court according to the Holy Canons And the Majors Sheriffs or Bayliffs were to be personally present at the passing the Sentence when they should be required by the Diocesan or his Commissaries and after the Sentence they were to receive them and them before the People in a high place do to be Brent By this Statute the Sheriffs or other Officers were immediatly to proceed to the Burning of Hereticks without any Writ or Warrant from the King But it seems the Kings Learned Council advised him to issue out a Writ De Haeretico comburendo upon what grounds of Law I cannot tell For in the same year when William Sartre who was the first that was put to death upon the account of Heresie was judged Relapse by Thomas Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in a Convocation of his Province and thereupon was degraded from Priesthood and left to Secular Power a Writ was issued out to Burn him which in the Writ is called The Customary Punishment relating it as like to the Customs that were beyond
at last expedited at what Rates I cannot tell but this I set down to show how severe the Exactions of the Court of Rome were As the Pope recovered his health so he inclined more to joyn himself to the Emperor than ever and was more alienated than formerly from the King and the Cardinal which perhaps was increased by the distaste he took at the Cardinals aspiring to the Popedom The first thing that the Emperor did in the Kings Cause was to protest in the Queen of Englands name that she refused to submit to the Legates The one was the Kings chief Minister and her mortal enemy The other was also justly suspected since he had a Bishoprick in England The Kings Ambassador pressed the Pope much not to admit the Protestation but it was pretended that it could not be denyed either in Law or Justice But that this might not offend the King Salviati that was the Popes Favourite wrote to Campegio that the Protestation could not be hindred but that the Pope did still most earnestly desire to satisfie the King and that the Ambassadors were much mistaken who were so distrustful of the Popes good mind to the Kings Cause But now good words could deceive the King no longer who clearly discovered the Popes mind and being out of all hopes of any thing more from Rome resolved to proceed in England before the Legates and therefore Gardiner was recalled who was thought the fittest person to manage the Process in England being esteemed the greatest Canonist they had and was so valued by the King that he would not begin the Process till he came Sr. Francis Brian was also recalled and when they took leave of the Pope they were ordered to Expostulate in the Kings name Upon the Partiality he expressed for the Emperor notwithstanding the many assurances that both the Legates had given the King that the Pope would do all he could toward his Satisfaction which was now so ill performed that he expected no more justice from him They were also to say as much as they could devise in the Cardinals name to the same purpose upon which they were to try if it were possible to obtain any Enlargement of the Commission with fuller Power to the Legates for they saw it was in vain to move for any new Bulls or Orders from the Pope about it And though Gardiner had obtained a Pollicitation from the Pope by which he both bound himself not to recal the cause from the Legates and also to confirm their Sentence and had sent it over they found it was so conceived that the Pope could go back from it when he pleased So there was a new Draught of a Pollicitation formed with more binding Clauses in it which Gardiner was to try if he could obtain by the following Pretence He was to tell the Pope that the Courier to whom he trusted it had been so little careful of it that it was all wet and defaced and of no more use so that he durst not deliver it And this might turn much to Gardiners prejudice that a matter of such Concern was through his neglect spoiled upon which he was to see if the Pope would renew it If that could be obtained he was to use all his Industry to get as many pregnant and material words added as might make it more binding He was also to assure the Pope that though the Emperor was gone to Barcellona to give reputation to his affairs in Italy yet he had neither Army nor Fleet ready so that they needed not fear him And he was to inform the Pope of the Arts he was using both in the English and French Court to make a separated Treaty But that all was to no pâ—rpose the two Kings being so firmly linked together But the Pope was so great a Master in all the Arts of Dissimulation and Policy that he was not to be overreached easily and when he understood that his Polliâ—itation was defaced he was in his heart glad at it and could not be prevailed with to renew it So they returned to England and Dr. Bennet came in their place He carryed with him one of the fullest and most important Dispatches that I find in this whole matter from the two Legates to the Pope and the Consistory who wrote to them that they had in vain endeavoured to perswade either party to yield to the other That the Breve being shewed to them by the Queen they found great and evident Presumptions of it's being a meer forgery and that they thought it was too much for them to sit and try the Validity or Authenticalness of the Popes Bulls or Breves or to hear his Power of Dispencing in such cases disputed therefore it was more expedient to Avocate the cause to which the King would consent if the Pope obliged himself under his hand to pass Sentence speedily in his favour but they rather advised the Granting a Decretal Bull which would put an end to the whole matter in order to which the Bearer was Instructed to show very good Precedents But in the mean while they advised the Pope to press the Queen most effectually to enter into a Religious life as that which would compose all these differences in the softest and easiest way It pitied them to see the rack and torments of Conscience under which the King had smarted so many years and that the Disputes of Divines and the Decrees of Fathers had so disquieted him that for clearing a matter thus perplexed there was not only need of Learning but of a more singular Piety and Illumination To this were to be added the desire of Issue the Settlement of the Kingdom with many other pressing reasons that as the matter did admit of no further delays so there was not any thing in the opposite scale to ballance these Considerations There were false Suggestions surmised abroad as if the hatred of the Queen or the desire of another wife who was not perhaps yet known much less designed were the true causes of this Suit But though the Queen was of a rough Temper and an unpleasant Conversation and was passed all hopes of Children yet who could imagine that the King who had spent his most youthful days with her so kindly would now in the decline of his Age be at all this trouble to be rid of her if he had no other Motives But they by searching his sore found there was rooted in his heart both an awe of God and a respect to Law and Order so that though all his people pressed him to drive the Matter to an issue yet he would still wait for the decision of the Apostolick See Therefore they most pressingly desire the Pope to grant the Cure which his distemper required and to consider that it was not fit to insist too much on the Rigour of the Law but since the Soul and Life of all the Laws of the Church was in the Popes breast in doubtful cases
the Father Son Uncle and other such Relations there is no ground to disjoynt this so much from the rest as to make it only extend to a Marriage before the Husbands death And for any Presidents that were brought they were all in the latter Ages and were never Confirmed by any publick Authority Nor must the Practices of later Popes be laid in the Ballance against the Decisions of former Popes and the Doctrine of the whole Church and as to the Power that was ascribed to the Pope that began now to be enquired into with great Freedom as shall appear afterwards These Reasons on both sides being thus opened the Censures of them it is like will be as different now as they were then for they prevailed very little on the Queen who still persisted to justifie her Marriage and to stand to her Appeal And though the King carryed it very kindly to her in all outward appearance and employed every body that had credit with her to bring her to submit to him and to pass from her Appeal remitting the Decision of the matter to any Four Prelates and Four Secular men in England she was still unmovable and would hearken to no Proposition In the judgments that people passed the Sexes were divided the Men generally approved the Kings cause and the Women favoured the Queen But now the Session of Parliament came on the Sixteenth of Ianuary and there the King first brought in to the House of Lords the Determination of the Universities and the Books that were written for his cause by Forreigners After they were read and Considered there the Lord Chancellor did on the 20th of March with Twelve Lords both of the Spiritualty and Temporalty goe down to the House of Commons and shewed them what the Universities and Learned men beyond Sea had written for the Divorce and produced Twelve Original Papers with the Seals of the Universities to them which Sr. Brian Tuke took out of his hand and read openly in the House Translating the Latine into English Then about an Hundred Books written by Forreign Divines for the Divorce were also showed them none of which were read but put off to another time it being late When that was done the Lord Chancellor desired they would report in their Countries what they had heard and seen and then all men should clearly perceive that the King hath not attempted this matter of Will and Pleasure as strangers say but only for the Discharge of his Conscience and the Security of the Succession to the Crown Having said that he left the House The matter was also brought before the Convocation and they having weighed all that was said on both sides seemed satisfied that the Marriage was unlawful and that the Bull was of no force more not being required at that time But it is not strange that this matter went so easily in the Convocation when another of far greater consequence passed there which will require a â—ull and distinct account Cardinal Wolsey by exercising his Legantine Authority had fallen into a Premunire as hath been already shewn and now those who had appeared in his Courts and had sutes there were found to be likewise in the same guilt by the Law and this matter being excepted out of the Pardon that was granted in the former Parliament was at this time set on foot Therefore an Indictment was brought into the Kings Bench against all the Clergy of England for breaking the Statutes against Provisions or Provisors But to open this more clearly It is to be Considered that the Kings of England having claimed in all Ages a Power in Ecclesiastical Matters equal to what the Roman Emperors had in that Empire they exercised this Authority both over the Clergy and Laity and did at first erect Bishopricks grant Investitures in them call Synods make Laws about Sacred as well as Civil Concerns and in a word they Governed their whole Kingdom Yet when the Bishops of Rome did stretch their Power beyond either the limits of it in the Primitive Church or what was afterward granted them by the Roman Emperors and came to assume an Authority in all the Churches of Europe as they found some Resistance every where so they met with a great deal in this Kingdom and it was with much Difficulty that they gained the Power of giving Investitures Receiving Appeals to Rome and of sending Legates to England with several other things which were long contested but were delivered up at length either by feeble Princes or when Kings were so engaged at home or abroad that it was not safe for them to offend the Clergy For in the first Contest between the Kings and the Popes the Clergy were generally on the Popes side because of the Immunity and Protection they enjoyed from that See but when Popes became ambitious and warlike Princes then new Projects and Taxes were every where set on foot to raise a great Treasure The Pall with many Bulls and high Compositions for them Annates or first Fruits and Tenths were the standing Taxes of the Clergy besides many new ones upon emergent occasions So that they finding themselves thus oppressed by the Popes fled again back to the Crown for Protection which their Predecessors had abandoned From the days of Edward the 1st many Statutes were made to restrain the Exactions of Rome For then the Popes not satisfied with their other oppressions which a Monk of that time lays open fully and from a deep sense of them did by Provisions Bulls and other Arts of that See dispose of Bishopricks Abbeys and lesser Benefices to Forreigners Cardinals and others that did not live in England Upon which the Commonalty of the Realm did represent to the King in Parliament That the Bishopricks Abbeys and other Benefices were founded by the Kings and people of England To inform the people of the Law of God and to make Hospitality Alms and other works of Charity for which end they were endowed by the King and people of England and that the King and his other Subjects who endowed them had upon Voidances the Presentment and Collations of them which now the Pope had Usurped and given to Aliens by which the Crown would be disinherited and the ends of their endowments destroyed with other great Inconveniences Therefore it was ordained that these Oppressions should not be suffered in any manner But notwithstanding this the abuse went on and there was no effectual way laid down in the Act to punish these Transgressions The Court of Rome was not so easily driven out of any thing that either encreased their Power or their Profits Therefore by another Act in his Grand-Child Edward the 3ds time the Commons complained that these abuses did abound and that the Pope did daily reserve to his Collation Church-Preferments in England and raised the first-Fruits with other great Profits by which the Treasure of the Realm was carried out of it
them a few Bishops in the Northern and Western Parts When afterwards the Patriarch of Constantinople was declared by the Emperor Mauritius The Vniversal Bishop Gregory the great did exclaim against the Ambition of that Title as being equal to the Pride of Lucifer and declared that he who assumed it was the Forerunner of Antichrist saying that none of his Predecessors had ever claimed such a Power And this was the more observable since the English were Converted by those whom he sent over so that this was the Doctrine of that See when this Church received the Faith from it But it did not continue long within those limits for Boniface the Third assumed that Title upon the Grant of Phâ—â—as And as that Boniface got the Spiritual Sword put in his hand so the Eighth of that name pretended also to the Temporal Sword but they owe these Powers to the Industry of those Popes and not to any Donation of Christs The Popes when they are Consecrated promise to obey the Canons of the Eight first General Councils which if they observe they will receive no Appeals nor pretend to any higher Jurisdiction than these give to them and the other Patriarchs equally As for the Decrees of Latter Councils they are of less Authority For those Councils consisted of Monks and Friers in great part whose exemptions obtained from Rome obliged them to support the Authority of that Court and those who sate in them knew little of the Scriptures Fathers or the Tradition of the Church being only conversant in the Disputes and Learning of the Schools And for the Florentine Council the Eastern Churches who sent the Greek Bishops that sate there never received their Determination neither then nor at any time since Many places were also brought out of the Fathers to show that they did not look on the Bishops of Rome as superior to other Bishops and that they understood not those places of Scripture which were afterwards brought for the Popes Supremacy in that sense so that if Tradition be the best Expounder of Scripture those latter glosses must give place to the more ancient But that passage of St. Ierome in which he equals the Bishops of Eugubium and Constantinople to the Bishop of Rome was much made use of since he was a Presbyter of Rome and so likely to understand the Dignity of his own Church best There were many things brought from the Contests that other Sees had with Rome to show that all the Priviledges of that and other Sees were only founded on the practice and Canons of the Church but not upon any Divine Warrant Constantinople pretended to equal priviledges Ravenna Milan and Aquileia pretended to a Patriarchal Dignity and Exemption Some Arch-Bishops of Canterbury contended that Popes could do nothing against the Laws of the Church so Laurence and Dunstan Robert Grostest Bishop of Lincoln asserted the same and many Popes confessed it And to this day no Constitution of the Popes is binding in any Church except it be received by it and in the daily practice of the Canon Law the customs of Churches are pleaded against Papal Constitutions which shows their Authority cannot be from God otherwise all must submit to their Laws And from the latter Contests up and down Europe about giving Investitures receiving Appeals admitting of Legates and Papal Constitutions it was apparent that the Papal Authority was a Tyranny which had been managed by cruel and fraudulent Arts but was never otherwise received in the Church than as a Conquest to which they were constrained to yield And this was more fully made out in England from what passed in William the Conqueror and Henry the 2d's time and by the Statutes of Provisors in many Kings Reigns which were still renewed till within an hundred years of the present time Upon these grounds they Concluded that the Popes Power in England had no Foundation neither in the Law of God nor in the Laws of the Church or of the Land As for the Kings Power over Spiritual persons and in Spiritual causes they proved it from the Scriptures In the old Testament they found the Kings of Israel intermedled in all matters Ecclesiastical Samuel though he had been Judge yet acknowledged Sauls Authority So also did Abimelech the High-Priest and appeared before him when cited to answer upon an Accusation And Samuel 1 Sam. 15.18 sayes he was made the head of all the Tribes Aaron in that was an Example to all the following High-Priests who submitted to Moses David made many Laws about sacred things such as the Order of the Courses of the Priests and their Worship and when he was dying he declared to Solomon how far his Authority extended He told him 1 Chron. 28.21 That the Courses of the Priests and all the people were to be wholly at his commandment pursuant to which Solomon 2 Chron. 8.14 15. did appoint them their charges in the service of God and both the Priests and Levites departed not from his commandment in any matter and though he had turned out Abiathar from the High-Priesthood yet they made no opposition Iehosophat Hezekiah and Iosias made likewise Laws about Eccledsiastical Matters In the New Testament Christ himself was obedient he payed Taxes he declared that he pretended to no earthly Kingdom he charged the people to render to Caesar the things that were Caesars and his Disciples not to affect temporal dominion as the Lords of the Nations did And though the Magistrates were then Heathens yet the Apostles wrote to the Churches to obey Magistrates to submit to them to pay Taxes they call the King Supream and say he is Gods Minister to encourage them that do well and to punish the evil doors which is said of all persons without exception and every Soul is charged to be subject to the Higher Power Many passages were cited out of the Writings of the Fathers to show that they thought Church-men were included in these places as well as other persons so that the Tradition of the Church was for the Kings Supremacy and by one place of Scripture the King is called Supream by another he is called Head and by a third every Soul must be subject to him which laid together make up this conclusion That the King is the Supream Head over all persons In the primitive Church the Bishops in their Councils made rules for ordering their Dioceses which they only called Canons or Rules nor had they any compulsive Authority but what was derived from the Civil Sanctions After the Emperors were Christians they made many Laws about sacred things as may be seen in the Codes and when Iustinian digested the Roman Law he added many Novel Constitutions about Ecclesiastical persons and causes The Emperors called general Councils presided in them and confirmed them And many Letters were cited of Popes to Emperors to call Councils and of the Councils to them to Confirm their Decrees The Election of the Popes themselves was
to effect any other way they advised the King to beware of such Counsels They also proposed that there might be a Conference agreed on between such Divines as the King would name and such as they should depute to meet either in Gueldres Hamburgh Bremen or any other place that should be appointed by the King to examine the Lawfulness of private Masses of denying the Chalice and the Prohibiting the Marriage of the Clergy On these things they continued treating till the Divorce of Anne of Cleve and Cromwells fall after which I find little Correspondence between the King and them Ad Page 256. line 4. When I mentioned the Kings Letters directing the Bishops how to proceed in a Reformation I had not seen them but I have since seen an Original of them subscribed by the Kings hand In these he challenged the Clergy as guilty of great Indiscretions that the late Rebellion had been occasioned by them therefore he required the Bishops to take care that the Articles formerly published should be exactly obeyed and to go over their Dioceses in person and preach Obedience to the Laws and the good ends of those Ceremonies that were then retained that the people might neither despise them nor put too much trust in them and to silence all disputes and contentions concerning things indifferent and to signifie to the Kings Council if there were any Priests in their Diocesses that were Marryed and yet did discharge any part of the Priestly Office All which will be better understood by the Letter it self that I have put into the Collection Ad Page 258. line 8. I do there acknowledg that I knew not what Arguments were used against the necessity of Auricular Confession But I have made since that time a Considerable discovery in this particular from an Original Letter written all with the Kings own hand to Tonstal by which it appears there had been conferences in the House and that the Arch-Bishop of York the Bishop of Winchester and Duresm had pleaded much for it as necessary by a Divine Institution and that both the King and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had maintained that though it was good and profitable yet it was not necessary by any precept of the Gospel and that though the Bishops brought several texts out of Scripture and Ancient Doctors yet these were so clearly answered by the King and the Arch-Bishop that the whole House was satisfied with it Yet Tonstall drew up in a writing all the reasons he had made use of in that debate and brought them to the King which will be found in the Collection with the Anotations and reflections which the King wrote on the Margent with his own hand taken from the Original together with the Kings Letter written in answer to them By this it will appear that the King did set himself much to study points of Divinity and examined matters with a scrupulous exactness The issue of the debate was that though the Popish party endeavoured to have got Auricular Confession declared to be Commanded by Christ as a part of the Sacrament of Pennance yet the King overruled that so it was enacted that Auricular Confession was necessary and expedient to be retained in the Church of God These debates were in the House of Lords which appears not only by the Kings Letter that speaks of the House but by the Act of Parliament in the Preamble of which it is said that the King had come himself to the Parliament and had opened several points of high Learning to them Ad Page 262. line 23. There I mention the Kings diligence in drawing an Act of Parliament with his own hand but since that was Printed I have seen many other Acts and Papers if not Originally Penned by the King yet so much altered by his Corrections that in some sort they may be esteemed his draughts There are two draughts of the Act of the six Articles both corrected in many places by the King and in some of these the Correction is three lines long There is another Act concerning Precontracts of Marriage likewise Corrected very much by his Pen. Many draughts of Proclamations particularly these about the use of the Bible in English are yet extant interlined and altered with his Pen. There is a large Paper written by Tonstall of arguments for Purgatory with Copious Animadversions on it likewise written by the King which shew that then he did not believe there was a Purgatory I have also seen the draught of that part of the Necessary Erudition for a Christian man which explains the Creed full of Corrections with the Kings own Pen as also the Queries concerning the Sacraments mentioned page 289. with large Annotations written with his hand on the Margent likewise an Extract all written with his own hand of passages out of the Fathers against the Marriage of the Clergy and to conclude there is a Paper with which the Collection ends containing the true Notion of the Catholick Church which has large Emendations added with the Kings hand those I have set by themselves on the Margent of the Paper A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS OF THE HISTORY BOOK I. A Summary View of King Henry the Eighth's Reign till the Process of his Divorce was begun in which the State of England chiefly as it related to Religion is opened KING Henry's Succession to the Crown pag. 1 He proceeds against Dudley and Empson ibid He holds a Parliament p. 2 His great Expence ibid Affairs beyond Sea p. 3 A Peace and Match with France ibid He offers his Daughter to the Dolphin ibid The King of Spain chosen Emperor ib He comes to England p. 4 A second War with France ibid Vpon Leo the 10th's death Hadrian chosen Pope ibid He dies and Clement the 7th succeeds ib Charles the 5th at Windsor contracted to the Kings Daughter p. 5 But breaks his Faith ibid The Clementine League ibid Rome taken and sackt p. 6 The Pope is made a Prisoner ibid. The Kings success against Scotland ibid. A Facâ—ion in his Counsels p. 7 Cardinal Wolseys rising ibid. His Preferments p. 8 The Character of the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk p. 9 Cardinal Wolsey against Parliaments p. 10 The Kings breeding in Learning ibid. He is flattered by Scollars p. 11 The Kings Prerogative in Ecclesiastical affairs ibid. It was still kept up by him p. 12 A Contest concerning Immunities ibid. A Publick debate about them p. 13. Hunne Murdered in Prison p. 14 The Proceedings upon that p. 15 The King much courted by Popes p. 18 And declared Defender of the Faith p. 19 The Cardinal absolute in England ibid. He designed to Reform the Clergy ibid. And to Suppress Monasteries p. 20 The several kinds of Convocations ibid. The Clergy grant a Subsidy to the King p. 21 Of the State of Monasteries ibid. The Cardinal founds two Colledges p. 22 The first beginning of Reformation in England p. 23 The Cruelties of the Church of Rome ibid.
the Commandment is conceived in general words yet there are some exceptions to be admitted as though it be said Thou shalt not kill yet in some cases we may lawfully kill so in the case of justice a Judge may lawfully sit on his Father But Doctor Veysey's Argument was that which took most with all that were present He said it was certain that the Laws of the Church did not bind any but those who received them To prove this he said that in old times all secular Priests were Married but in the days of St. Augustine the Apostle of England there was a Decree made to the contrary which was received in England and in many other places by vertue whereof the Secular Priests in England may not Marry but this Law not being universally received the Greek Church never judged themselves bound by it so that to this day the Priests in that Church have Wives as well as other secular men If then the Churches of the East not having received the Law of the Celibate of the Clergy have never been condemned by the Church for not obeying it then the conveening Clerks having been always practised in England was no sin notwithstanding the Decree to the contrary which was never received here Nor is this to be compared to those priviledges that concern only a Private mans Interest for the Common-Wealth of the whole Realm was chiefly to be lookt at and to be preferred to all other things When the Matter was thus argued on both sides all the Judges delivered their Opinions in these words That all those of the Convocation who did award the Citation against Standish were in the case of a Premunire facias and added somewhat about the Constitution of the Parliament which being forreign to my business and contrary to a received opinion I need not mention but refer the Reader to Keilway for his Information if he desires to know more of it and thus the Court broke up But soon after all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal with many of the House of Commons and all the Judges and the Kings Council were called before the King to Baynards Castle and in all their presence the Cardinal kneeled down before the King and in the name of the Clergy said That none of them intended to do any thing that might derogate from his Prerogative and least of all himself who owed his advancement only to the Kings favour But this matter of Conveening of Clerks did seem to them all to be contrary to the Laws of God and the Liberties of the Church which they were bound by their Oaths to maintain according to their Power Therefore in their name he humbly begged That the King to avoid the Censures of the Church would refer the Matter to the decision of the Pope and his Council at the Court of Rome To which the King answered It seems to us that Doctor Standish and others of our Spiritual Council have answered you fully in all points The Bishop of Winchester replyed Sir I warrant you Doctor Standish will not abide by his Opinion at his peril But the Doctor said what should one poor Frier doe alone against all the Bishops and Clergy of England After a short silence the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury said That in former times divers holy Fathers of the Church had opposed the execution of that Law and some of them suffered Martyrdome in the Quarrel To whom Fineux Lord Chief Justice said That many holy Kings had mantained that Law and many holy Fathers had given Obedience to it which it is not to be presumed they would have done had they known it to be contrary to the Law of God and he desired to know by what Law Bishops could judge Clerks for Felony it being a thing only determined by the Temporal Law so that either it was not at all to be tryed or it was only in the Temporal Court so that either Clerks must do as they please or be tryed in the Civil Courts To this no Answer being made the King said these words By the Permission and Ordinance of God we are King of England and the Kings of England in times past had never any Superiour but God only Therefore know you well that we will maintain the Right of our Crown and of our Temporal Iurisdiction as well in this as in all other points in as ample manner as any of our Progenitours have done before our time And as for your Decrees we are well assured that you of the Spirituality go expresly against the words of divers of them as hath been shewed you by some of our Council and you interpret your Decrees at your pleasure but we will not agree to them more than our Progenitors have done in former times But the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury made most humble Instance that the Matter might be so long respited till they could get a Resolution from the Court of Rome which they should procure at their own Charges and if it did consist with the Law of God they should conform themselves to the Law of the Land To this the King made no answer but the Warrants being out against Doctor Horsey the Bishop of London's Chancellour he did abscond in the Arch-Bishops house though it was pretended he was a Prisoner there till afterwards a temper was found that Horsey should render himself a Prisoner in the Kings Bench and be tryed But the Bishop of London made earnest Applications to the Cardinal that he would move the King to command the Attourney-General to confess the Inditement was not true that it might not be referred to a Jury since he said the Citizens of London did so favour Heresie that if he were as Innocent as Abel they would find any Clerk guilty The King not willing to irritate the Clergy too much and judging he had maintained his Prerogative by bringing Horsey to the Bar ordered the Attourney to do so And accordingly when Horsey was brought to the Bar and Endited of Murder he pleaded Not guilty which the Attourney acknowledging he was dismissed and went and lived at Exeter and never again came back to London either out of fear or shame And for Doctor Standish upon the Kings Command he was also dismissed out of the Court of Convocation It does not appear that the Pope thought fit to interpose in this Matter For though upon less Provocations Popes had proceeded to the highest Censures against Princes yet this King was otherwise so necessary to the Pope at this time that he was not to be offended The Clergy suffered much in this business besides the loss of their reputation with the people who involved them all in the guilt of Hunne's Murder for now their Exemption being well examined was found to have no foundation at all but in their own Decrees and few were much convinced by that authority since upon the matter it was but a judgment of their own in their own favours nor was the City of London at all satisfied with
some days publick Dispute on the 1st of Iuly determined to the same purpose about which Crooks Letter will be found among the Instruments at the end of this Book At Ferrara the Divines did also confirm the same conclusion and sâ—t their Seal to it but it was taken away violently by some of the other Faction yet the Duke made it be restored The profession of the Canon-Law was then in great credit there and in a Congregation of 72 of that proâ—ession it was determined for the King but they asked 150 Crowns foâ— setting the Seal to it and Crook would not give more than an hundred the next day he came and offered the Money but then it was told him they would not meddle in it and he could not afterwards obtain it In all Crook sent over by Stokesley an hundred several Books Papers and Subscriptions and there were many hands subscribed to many of those Papers But it seems Crook died before he could receive a reward of this great Service he did the King for I do not find him mentioned after this I hope the Reader will forgive my insisting so much on this Negotiation for it seemed necessary to give full and convincing Evidences of the sincerity of the Kings proceedings in it since it is so confidently given out that these were but mercenary Subscriptions What difficulties or opposition those who were employed in France found does not yet appear to me but the Seals of the chief Universities there were procured The University of Orleance determined it on the 7th of April The faculty of the Canon-Law at Paris did also conclude that the Pope had no Power to dispence in that Case on the 25th of May. But the great and celebrated faculty of the Sorbon whose Conclusions had been lookt on for some Ages as little inferiour to the Decrees of Councils made their Decision with all possible Solemnity and Decency They first met at the Church of St. Mathurin where there was a Mass of the H. Ghost and every one took an Oath to study the Question and resolve it according to his Conscience and from the 8th of Iune to the 2d of Iuly they continued searching the matter with all possible diligence both out of the Scriptures the Fathers and the Councils and had many Disputes about it After which the greater part of the Faculty did Determine That the King of Englands Marriage was unlawful and that the Pope had no Power to dispence in it and they set their common Seal to it at St. Mathurin's the 2d of Iuly 1530. To the same purpose did both the Faculties of Law Civil and Canon at Angiers Determine the 7th of May. On the 10th of Iune the Faculty of Divinity at Bourges made the same Determination And on the 1st of October the whole University of Tholose did all with one consent give their judgment agreeing with the former Conclusions More of the Decisions of Universities were not Printed though many more were obtained to the same effect In Germany Spain and Flanders the Emperors Authority was so great that much could not be expected except from the Lutherans with whom Cranmer conversed and chiefly with Osiander whose Neece he then Married Osiander upon that wrote a Book about Incestuous Marriages which was published but was called in by a Prohibition Printed at Ausburg because it Determined in the Kings cause and on his side But now I find the King did likewise deal among those in Switzerland that had set up the Reformation The Duke of Suffolk did most set him on to this so one who was imployed in that time writes for he often asked him how he could so humble himself as to submit his Cause to such a vile vitious stranger Priest as Campegio was To which the King answered He could give no other reason but that it seemed to him Spiritual men should judge Spiritual things yet he said he would search the matter further but he had no great mind to seem more curious than other Princes But the Duke desired him to discuss the matter secretly amongst Learned men to which he consented and wrote to some Forreign Writers that were then in great estimation Erasmus was much in his favour but he would not appear in it He had no mind to provoke the Emperor and live uneasily in his own Country But Simon Grineus was sent for whom the King esteemed much for his Learning The King informed him about his Process and sent him back to Basil to try what his Friends in Germany and Switzerland thought of it He wrote about it to Bucer Oecolampadius Zuinglius and Paulus Phrygion Oecolampadius as it appears by three Letters one dated the 10th of August 1531. another the last of the same Month another to Bucer the 10th of September was positively of Opinion That the Law in Leviticus did bind all mankind and says That Law of a Brothers Marrying his Sister-in-Law was a Dispensation given by God to his own Law which belonged only to the Jews and therefore he thought that the King might without any scruple put away the Queen But Bucer was of another mind and thought the Law in Leviticus did not bind and could not be Moral because God had dispensed with it in one Case of raising up seed to his Brother Therefore he thought these Laws belonged only to that Dispensation and did no more bind Christians than the other Ceremonial or Judiciary Precepts and that to Marry in some of these Degrees was no more a sin than it was a sin in the Disciples to pluck Ears of Corn on the Sabbath-day There are none of Bucers Letters remaining on this Head but by the answers that Grineus wrote to him one on the 29th of August another of the 10th of September I gather his Opinion and the reasons for it But they all agreed That the Popes Dispensation was of no force to alter the nature of the thing Paulus Phrygion was of Opinion That the Laws in Leviticus did bind all Nations because it is said in the Text That the Canaanites were punished for doing contrary to them which did not consist with the Iustice of God if those Prohibitions had not been parts of the Law of Nature Dated Basil the 10th of September In Grineus's Letter to Bucer he tells him that the King had said to him That now for seven years he had perpetual trouble upon him about this Marriage Zuinglius Letter is very full First he largely proves that neither the Pope nor any other Power could dispence with the Law of God Then that the Apostles had made no new Laws about Marriage but had left it as they found it That the Marrying within near degrees was hated by the Greeks and other Heathen Nations But whereas Grineus seemed to be of opinion that though the Marriage was ill made yet it ought not to be dissolved and inclined rather to advise that the King should take
and many Clerks advanced in the Realm were put out of their Benefices by those Provisors therefore the King being bound by Oath to see the Laws kept did with the assent of all the great men and the Commonalty of the Realm ordain that the free Elections Presentments and Collations of Benefices should stand in the Right of the Crown or of any of his Subjects as they had formerly enjoyed them notwithstanding any Provisions from Rome And if any did disturb the Incumbents by vertue of such Provisions those Provisors or others employed by them were to be put in Prison till they made Fine and Ransome to the King at his will or if they could not be apprehended writs were to be issued out to seize them and all Beneficeâ— possessed by them were to fall into the Kings hands except they were 〈◊〉 or Priories that fell to the Canons or Colledges By another Act the Provisors were put out of the Kings Protection and if any man offended against them in Person or Goods he was excused and was never to be impeached for it And two years after that upon another Complaint of their Suing the Kings Subjects in other Courts or beyond Sea it was Ordained that any who Sued either beyond Sea or in any other Court for things that had been Sued and about which judgment had been given in former times in the Kings Courts were to be Cited to answer for it in the Kings Courts within two Months and if they came not they were to be put out of the Kings Protection and to forfeit their Lands Goods and Chattels to the King and to be imprisoned and ransomed at the Kings will Both these Statutes received a new Confirmation Eleven years after that But those Statutes proved ineffectual and in the beginning of the Reign of Richard the 2d the former Acts were Confirmed by another Statute and appointed to be Executed and not only the Provisors themselves but all such as took Procuratories Letters of Attourney or Farms from them were involved in the same Guilt And in the 7th year of that King Provisions was made against Aliens having Benefices without the Kings Licence and the King promised to abstain from granting them Licences for this was another Artifice of the Roman Court to get the King of their side by accepting his Licence which by this Act was restrained This failing they betook themselves to another course which was to prevail with the Incumbents that were presented in England according to Law to take Provisions for their Benefices from Rome to Confirm their Titles This was also forbidden under the former Pains As for the Rights of Presentations by the Law they were tryed and judged in the Kings Courts and the Bishops were to give Institution according to the Title declared in these judgments This the Popes had a mind to draw to themselves and to have all Titles to Advousons tryed in their Courts and Bishops were Excommunicated who proceeded in this matter according to the Law Of which great Complaint was made in the 16th year of the Reign of Richard the 2d And it was added to that that the Pope intended to make many Translations of Bishops some to be within and some out of the Realm which among other Inconveniences reckoned in the Statute would produce this effect That the Crown of England which had been so free at all times should be subjected to the Bishop of Rome and the Laws and Statutes of the Realm by him defeated and destroyed at his Will They also found those things to be against the Kings Crown and Regality used and approved in the time of his Progenitors Therefore all the Commons resolved to live and dye with him and his Crown and they required him by way of Iustice to Examine all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal what they thought of those things and whether they would be with the Crown to uphold the Regality of it To which all the Temporal Lords answered they would be with the Crown But the Spiritual Lords being asked said they would neither deny nor affirm that the Bishop of Rome might or might not Excommunicate Bishops or make Translations of Prelates But upon that Protestation they said that if such things were done they thought it was against the Crown and said they would be with the King as they were bound by their Leageance whereupon it was ordained that if any did purchase Translations Sentences of Excommunication Bulls or other Instruments from the Court of Rome against the King or his Crown or whosoever brought them to England or did receive or execute them they were out of the Kings Protection and that they should forfeit their Goods and Chattels to the King and their Persons should be imprisoned And because the Proceedings were to be upon a writ called from the most material words of it Premunire facies this was called the Statute of Premunire When Henry the 4th had Treasonably Usurped the Crown all the Bishops Carlisle only excepted did assist him in it and he did very gratefully oblige them again in other things yet he kept up the force of the former Statutes For the Cistercian Order having procured Bulls discharging them of paying Tithes and forbiding them to let their Farms to any but to possess them themselves This was complained of in Parliament in the 2d year of his Reign and those Bulls were declared to be of no force and if any did put them in Execution or procured other such Bulls they were to be proceeded against upon the Statutes made in the 13th year of the former Kings Reign against Provisors But all this while though they made Laws for the future yet they had not the Courage to put them in Execution And this Feebleness in the Government made them so much despised and so oft broken whereas the severe execution of one Law in one Instance would more effectually have prevenâ—ed the Mischief than all these Laws did without Execution In the 6th year of his Reign Complaints being made of the excessive Rates of Compositions for Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks in the Popes Chamber which were raised to the treble of what had been formerly payed it was Enacted That they should pay no more than had been formerly wont to be payed In the 7th year of his Reign the Statuâ—e made in the 2d year was confirmed and by another Act the Licences which the King had Granted for the Executing any of the Popes Bulls are declared of no force to prejudice any Incumbent in his Right Yet the abuses and Encroachments of the Court of Rome still encreasing all former Statutes against Provisors were Confirmed again and all Elections declared free and not to be interrupted either by the Pope or the King But at the same time the King pardoned all the former Transgressions against these Statutes By those Pardon 's the Court of Rome was more encouraged than terrified by the Laws therefore there was a
over his own Clergy that he could sâ—arce have expected more if he had set up a Patriarch in France so that Francis did resolve to go on in the designs which had been concerted between him and the King of England no further but still he considered his alliance so much that he promised to use his most effectual intercession with the Pope to prevent all Censures and Bulls against the King and if it were possible to bring the matter to an Amicable conclusion And the Emperor was not ill-pleased to see France and England divided Therefore though he had at first opposed the Treaty between the Pope and Francis yet afterwards he was not troubled that it took effect hoping that it would dis-unite those two Kings whose conjunction had been so troublesome to him But when the news was brought to Rome of what was done in England with which it was also related that Books were coming out against the Popes Supremacy all the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction pressed the Pope to give a definitive Sentence and to proceed to Censures against the King But the more moderate Cardinals thought England was not to be thrown away with such precipitation And therefore a temper was found that a Sentence should be given upon what had been attempted in England by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury which in the Stile of the canon-Canon-Law were called the Attentates for it was pretended that the matter depending in the Court of Rome by the Queens Appeal and the other steps that had been made it was not in the Arch-Bishop's Power to proceed to any Sentence Therefore in general it was declared that all that had been attempted or done in England about the Kings Suit of Divorce was null and that the King by such attempts was liable to Excommunication unless he put things again in the state they were in and that before September next and that then they would proceed further and this Sentence was affixed in Dunkirk soon after The King resolving to follow the thing as far as it was possible sent a great Embassy to Francis who was then on his Journey to Marseilles to dissuade the Interview and Marriage till the Pope gave the King satisfaction But the French King was engaged in honour to go forward yet he protested he would do all that lay in his Power to compose the matter and that he would take any injury that were done to the King as highly as if it were done to himself and he desired the King would send some to Marseilles who thereupon sent Gardiner and Sir Francis Brian But at this time the Queen brought forth a Daughter who was Christened Elizabeth the renowned Queen of England the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being her God-Father She was soon after declared Princess of Wales though Lawyers thought that against Law for she was only Heir presumptive but not apparent to the Crown since a Son coming after he must be preferred Yet the King would justifie what he had done in his Marriage with all possible respect and having before declared the Lady Mary Princess of Wales he did now the same in favour of the Lady Elizabeth The Interview between the Pope and the French King was at Marseilles in October where the Marriage was made up between the Duke of Orleance and Katharine de Medici to whom besides 100000 Crowns Portion the Principality of many Towns in Italy as Milan Reggio Pisa Legorn Parma and Piacenza and the Dutchy of Urbin were given To the former the Pope pretended in the Right of the Popedom and to the last in the Right of the House of Medici But the French King was â—o clear all those Titles by his Sword As for the Kings business the Pope referred it to the Consistory But it seems there was a secret Transaction between him and Francis that if the King would in all other things return to his wonted obedience to the Apostolick See and submit the matter to the judgment of the Consistory excepting only to the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction as partial and incompetent judges the Decision should be made to his hearts content This I collect from what will afterwards appear The King upon the Sentence that was passed against him sent Bonner to Marseilles who procuring an Audience of the Pope delivered to him the Authentick Instrument of the Kings Appeal from him to the next general Council lawfully called At this the Pope was much incensed but said he would consider of it in Consistory and having consulted about it there he answered that the Appeal was unlawful and therefore he rejected it and for a general Council the calling of it belonged to him and not to the King About the same time the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being threatned with a Process from Rome put in also his Appeal to the next general Council Upon which Bonner delivered the threatnings that he was ordered to make with so much vehemency and fury that the Pope talked of throwing him in a Cauldron of melted Lead or of Burning him alive and he apprehending some danger made his escape About the middle of November the Interview ended the Pope returning to Rome and the French King to Paris a firm Alliance being established between them But upon the Duke of Orleance his Marrying the Pope's Neece I shall add one observation that will neither be unpleasant nor impertinent The Duke of Orleance was then but Fourteen years and Nine Months old being born on the last of March 1518. and yet was believed to have consummated his Marriage the very first night after so the Popes Historians tell us with much Triumph though they represented that improbable if not impossible in Prince Arthur who was nine Months elder when he died Upon the French Kings return from Marseilles the Bishop of Paris was sent over to the King which as may be reasonably collected followed upon some Agreement made at Marseilles and he prevailed with the King to submit the whole matter to the Pope and the Consistory on such terms that the Imperialists should not be allowed a Voice because they were Parties being in the Emperor's Power None that has observed the genius of this King can think that after he had proceeded so far he would â—aâ—e made this Submission without very good assurances and if there had not been great grounds to expect good effects from it the Bishop of Paris would not in the middle of Winter have undertaken a Journey from England to Rome But the King it seems would not abase himself so far as to send any Submission in writing till he had fuller assurances The Lord Herbert has published a Letter which he transcribed from the Original written by the Arch-Bishop of York and the Bishop of Duresmâ— to the King the 11th of May 1534. giving an account of a Conference they had with Queen Katharine in which among other motives they used this was one to perswade her to comply with what
sometimes made by the Emperors and sometimes confirmed by them Pope Hadrian in a Synod decreed that the Emperor should choose the Pope And it was a late and unheard of thing before the dayes of Gregory the 7th for Popes to pretend to depose Princes and give away their Dominions This they compared to the pride of Anti-Christ and Lucifer They also argued from Reason that there must be but one Supream and that the King being Supream over all his Subjects Clergy-men must be included for they are still Subjects Nor can their being in Orders change that former relation founded upon the Law of Nature and Nations no more than Wives or Servants by becoming Christians were not according to the Doctrine of the Apostles discharged from the Duties of their former Relations For the great Objection from those Offices that are peculiar to their Functions It was answered that these notwithstanding the King might well be Supream Head for in the Natural body there were many vital motions that proceeded not from the Head but from the Heart and the other inward parts and vessels and yet the Head was still the chief seat and root of Life So though there be peculiar functions appropriated to Church-men yet the King is still Head having Authority over them and a Power to direct and coerce them in these From that they proceeded to show that in England the Kings have allwayes assumed a Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters They began with the most Ancient Writing that relates to the Christian Religion in England then extant Pope Elentherius Letter to King Lucius in which he is twice called by him Gods Vicar in his Kingdom and he writ in it that it belong'd to his Office to bring his Subjects to the Holy Church and to maintain protect and govern them in it Many Laws were cited which Canutus Ethelred Edgar Edmond Athelstan and Ina had Enacted concerning Church-men many more Laws since the Conquest were also made both against appeals to Rome and Bishops going out of the Kingdom without the Kings leave The whole business of the Articles of Clarendon and the Contests that followed between King Henry the 2d and Thomas Becket were also opened And though a Bishops Pastoral care be of Divine Institution yet as the Kings of England had divided Bishopricks as they pleased so they also converted Benefices from the Institution of the Founders and gave them to Cloisters and Monasteries as King Edgar did all which was done by the Consent of their Clergy and Nobility without dependance on Rome They had also granted these Houses Exemption from Episcopal Jurisdiction so Ina exempted Glastenbury and Offa St. Albans from their Bishops visitation and this continued even till the dayes of William the Conqueror for he to perpetuate the Memory of the Victory he obtained over Harald and to endear himself to the Clergy founded an Abbey in the Field where the Battel was fought and called it Battel-Abbey and in the Charter he granted them these words are to be found It shall be also free and quiet for ever from all subjection to Bishops or the Dominion of any other persons as Christs Church in Canterbury is Many other things were brought out of King Alfreds Laws and a speech of King Edgars with several Letters written to the Popes from the Kings the Parliaments and the Clergy of England to show that their Kings did always make Laws about Sacred matters and that their Power reach't to that and to the persons of Church-men as well as to their other Subjects But at the same time that they pleaded so much for the Kings Supremacy and Power of making Laws for restraining and Coercing his Subjects it appeared that they were far from vesting him with such an absolute Power as the Popes had pretended to for they thus defined the extent of the Kings Power To them specially and principally it pertaineth to defend the Faith of Christ and his Religion to conserve and maintain the true Doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and setters forth thereof and to abolish Abuses Heresies and Idolatries and to punish with corporal pains such as of malice be the occasion of the same And finally to oversee and cause that the said Bishops and Priests do execute their pastoral office truly and faithfully and specially in these points which by Christ and his Apostles was given and Committed to them and in case they shall be negligent in any part thereof or would not diligently execute the same to cause them to redouble and supply their lack and if they obstinately withstand their Princes kind monition and will not amend their faults then and in such case to put others in their rooms and places And God hath also commanded the said Bishops and Priests to obey with all humbleness and Reverence both Kings and Princes and Governors and all their Laws not being contrary to the Laws of God whatsoever they be and that not only propter Iram but also propter Conscientiam that is to say not only for fear of punishment but also for Discharge of Conscience Thus it appears that they both limited obedience to the Kings Laws with the due Caution of their not being contrary to the Law of God and acknowledged the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the discharge of the Pastoral Office committed to the Pastors of the Church by Christ and his Apostles and that the Supremacy then pretended to was no such Extravagant Power as some imagine Upon the whole matter it was Concluded that the Popes Power in England had no good Foundation and had been managed with as much Tyranny as it had begun with Usurpation the Exactions of their Courts were every-where heavy but in no place so intolerable as in England and though many complaints were made of them in these last 300 years yet they got no ease and all the Laws about Provisors were still defeated and made ineffectual Therefore they saw it was impossible to moderate their proceedings so that there was no other Remedy but to extirpate their pretended Authority and thenceforth to acknowledge the Pope only Bishop of Rome with the jurisdiction about it defined by the Ancient Canons and for the King to re-assume his own Authority and the Prerogatives of his Crown from which the Kings of England had never formally departed though they had for this last Hundred years connived at an Invasion and Usurpation upon them which was no longer to be endured These were the Grounds of casting off the Pope's Power that had been for two or three years studied and enquired into by all the Learned men in England and had been debated both in Convocation and Parliament and except Fisher Bishop of Rochester I do not find that any Bishop appeared for the Popes Power and for the Abbots and Priors as they were generally very ignorant so what the Cardinal had done in suppressing some Monasteries and what they now heard that the
would grant But he wrote back excusing himself that all he did was only to try whether her Revelations were true He confessed he conceived a great opinion of her Holiness both from common Fame and her entring into Religion from the report of her Ghostly Father whom he esteemed Learned and Religious and of many other Learned and Vertuous Priests from the good opinion the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had of her and from what is in the Prophet Amos That God will do nothing without revealing it to his Servants That upon these grounds he was induced to have a good opinion of her and that to try the truth about her he had sometimes spoken with her and sent his Chaplains to her but never discovered any falsehood in her And for his concealing what she had told him about the King which was laid to his charge he thought it needless for him to speak of it to the King since she had said to him that she had told it to the King her self She had named no person who should kill the King which by being known might have been prevented And as in Spiritual things every Church-man was not bound to denounce judgments against those that could not bear it so in temporal things the case might be the same and the King had on other occasions spoken so sharply to him that he had reason to think the King would have been offended with him for speaking of it and would have suspected that he had a hand in it therefore he desired for the passion of Christ to be no more troubled about that matter otherwise he would speak his Conscience freely To all which Cromwell wrote a long Letter which the Reader will find in the Collection copied from the rude draught of it written with his own hand In which he charges the Matter upon him heavily and shews him that he had not proceeded as a grave Prelate ought to have done for he had taken all that he had heard of her upon trust and had examined nothing that if every person that pretends to Revelations were believed on their own words all Government would be thereby destroyed He had no reason to conclude from the Prophecie of Amos that every thing that is to fall out must be revealed to some Prophet since many notable things had fallen out of which there was no Revelation made before hand But he told him the true reason that made him give credit to her was the matter of her Prophecies to which he was so addicted as he was to every other thing in which he once entred that nothing could come amiss that served to that end And he appealed to his Conscience whether if she had prophecied for the King he would have given such easie credit to her and not have examined the matter further Then he showes how guilty he was in not revealing what concerned the Kings Life and how frivolous all his excuses were And after all tells him that though his excusing the matter had provoked the King and that if it came to a Tryal he would certainly be found guilty yet again he advises him to beg the Kings pardon for his Negligence and offence in that matter and undertakes that the King would receive him into his favour and that all matters of displeasure pass'd before that time should be forgiven and forgotten This shows that though Fisher had in the progress of the Kings cause given him great offence yet he was ready to pass it all over and not to take the advantage which he now had against him But Fisher was still obstinate and made no submission and so was included within the Act for misprision of Treason and yet I do not find that the King proceeded against him upon this Act till by new provocations he drew a heavier storm of indignation upon himself When the Session of Parliament was at an end Commissioners were sent every-where to offer the Oath of the Succession to the Crown to all according to the Act of Parliament which was universally taken by all sorts of persons Gardiner wrote from Winchester the 6th of May to Cromwell that in the presence of the Lord Chamberlain the Lord Audley and many other Gentlemen all Abbots Priors Wardens with the Curates of all Parishes and Chappels within the Shire had appeared and taken the Oath very obediently and had given in a list of all the Religious persons in their Houses of 14 years of Age and above for taking whose Oaths some Commissioners were appointed The forms in which they took the Oath are not known and it is no wonder for though they were enrolled yet in Queen Maries time there was a Commission given to Bonner and others to examine the Records and raze out of them all things that were done either in contempt of the See of Rome or to the defamation of Religious Houses pursuant to which there are many things taken out of the Rolls which I shall sometimes have occasion afterwards to take notice of yet some Writings have escaped their diligence so there remains but two of the Subscriptions of Religious Orders both bearing date the 4th of May 1534. One is by the Prior and Convent of Langley Regis that were Dominicans the Franciscans of Ailesbury the Dominicans of Dunstable the Franciscans of Bedford the Carmelites of Hecking and the Franciscans de Mare The other is by the Prioress and Convent of the Dominican Nuns at Deptford In these besides the renewing their allegiance to the King they swear the Lawfulness of his Marriage with Queen Anne and that they shall be true to the Issue begotten in it that they shall always acknowledge the King Head of the Church of England and that the Bishop of Rome has no more Power than any other Bishop has in his own Diocess and that they should submit to all the Kings Laws notwithstanding the Popes censures to the contrary That in their Sermons they should not pervert the Scriptures but preach Christ and his Gospel sincerely according to the Scriptures and the Tradition of Orthodox and Catholick Doctors and in their Prayers that they should pray first for the King as Supreme Head of the Church of England then for the Queen and her issue and then for the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the other ranks of the Clergy To this these Six Priors set their hands with the Seals of their Convents and in their Subscriptions declared that they did it freely and uncompelled and in the name of all the Brethren in the Convent But Sir Thomas More and the Bishop of Rochester refused to take the Oath as it was conceived Whose Fall being so remarkable I shall shew the steps of it There was a meeting of the Privy Council at Lambeth to which many were cited to appear and take the Oath Sr. Thomas More was first called and the Oath was tendred to him under the great Seal then he called for the Act of Succession
more speedy administration of the Sacraments and other good wholesom and devout things and laudable ceremonies to the encrease of Gods honour and for the commodity of good and devout people therefore they appointed for Suffragans Sees the Towns of Thetford Ipswich Colechester Dover Gilford Southampton Taunton Shaftbury Malton Marleborough Bedford Leicester Glocester Shrewsbury Bristol Penreth Bridgewater Nottingham Grantham Hâ—ll Huntington Cambridge and the Towns of Pereth and Berwick St. Germans in Cornwall and the Isle of Wight For these Sees the Bishop of the Diocess was to present two to the King who might choose either of them and present the person so named to the Arch-Bishop of the Province to be Consecrated after which they might exercise such jurisdiction as the Bishop of the Diocess should give to them or as Suffragans had been formerly used to do but their Authority was to last no longer than the Bishop continued his Commission to them But that the Reader may more clearly see how this Act was executed he shall find in the Collection a Writ for making a Suffragan Bishop These were believed to be the same with the Chorâ—piscopi in the Primitive Church which as they were begun before the first Council of Nice so they continued in the Western Church till the Ninth Century and then a Decretal of Damasus being forged that condemned them they were put down every-where by degrees and now revived in England Then followed the grant of a Subsidy to the King It was now Twelve years since there was any Subsidy granted A Fiveteenth and a Tenth were given to be payed in Three years the final payment being to be at Allhallontide in the year 1537. The Bill began with a most Glorious Preamble of the Kings high Wisdom and Policy in the Government of the Kingdom these Twenty Four years in great wealth and quietness and the great charges he had been at in the last War with Scotland in fortifying Callais and in the War of Ireland and that he intended to bring the wilful wild and unreasonable and savage people of Ireland to Order and Obedience and intended to build Forts on the Marches of Scotland for the security of the Nation to amend the Haven of Calais and make a new one at Dover By all which they did perceive the entire love and zeal which the King bore to his People and that he sought not their wealth and quietness only for his own time being a Mortal man but did provide for it in all time coming therefore they thought that of very equity reason and good Conscience they were bound to show like correspondence of zeal gratitude and kindness Upon this the King sent a general pardon with some exceptions ordinary in such cases But Fisher and More were not only excluded from this pardon by general Clauses but by two particular Acts they were attainted of misprision of Treason By the Third Act according to the Record Iohn Bishop of Rochester Christopher Plummer Nicholas Wilson Edward Powel Richard Fetherston and Miles Willyr Clerks were attainted for refusing the Oath of Succession and the Bishoprick of Rochester with the Benefices of the other Clerks were declared void from the 2d of Ianuary next yet it seems few were fond of succeeding him in that See for Iohn Hilsey the next Bishop of Rochester was not Consecraed before the year 1537. By the Fourth Act Sr. Thomas More is by an Invidious Preamble charged with ingratitude for the great favours he had received from the King and for studying to sow and make sedition among the Kings Subjects and refusing to take the Oath of Succession therefore they declared the Kings Grants to him to be void and attaint him of misprision of Treason This severity though it was blamed by many yet others thought it was necessary in so great a Change since the Authority of these two men was such that if some signal notice had not been taken of them many might by their endeavors especially encouraged by that Impunity have been corrupted in their affections to the King Others thought the prosecuting them in such a manner did rather raise their reputation higher and give them more credit with the people who are naturally enclined to pity those that suffer and to think well of those opinions for which they see men resolved to endure all extremities But others observed the justice of God in retaliating thus upon them their own severities to others for as Fisher did grievously prosecute the preachers of Luthers Doctrine so Mores hand had been very heavy on them as long as he had Power and he had shewed them no mercy but the extremity of the Law which himself now felt to be very heavy Thus ended this Session of Parliament with which this Book is also to conclude for now I come to a Third period of the Kings Reign in which he did Govern his Subjects without any Competitor but I am to stop a little and give an account of the Progress of the Reformation in these years that I have past through The Cardinal was no great persecutor of Hereticks which was generally thought to flow from his hatred of the Clergy and that he was not ill pleased to have them depressed During the agitation of the Kings process there was no prosecution of the Preachers of Luthers Doctrine whether this flowed from any Intimation of the Kings pleasure to the Bishops or not I cannot tell but it is very probable it must have been so for these opinions were received by many and the Popish Clergy were so inclined to severity that as they wanted not Occasions so they had a good mind to use those Preachers cruelly so that it is likely the King restrained them and that was always mixed with the other threatnings to work upon the Pope that Heresie would prevail in England if the King got not justice done him so that till the Cardinal fell they were put to no further trouble But as soon as More came into favour he pressed the King much to put the Laws against Hereticks in execution and suggested that the Court of Rome would be more wrought upon by the Kings supporting the Church and defending the Faith vigorously than by threatnings and therefore a long Proclamation was issued out against the Hereticks many of their Books were prohibited and all the Laws against them were appointed to be put in execution and great care was taken to seize them as they came into England but many escaped their diligence There were some at Antwerp Tindal Ioye Constantine with a few more that were every year writing and printing new Books chiefly against the corruptions of the Clergy the Superstition of pilgrimages of worshiping Images Saints and Relicks and against relying on these things which were then called in the common style Good works in opposition to which they wrote much about Faith in Christ with a true Evangelical obedience as the only mean by which men
mitigated but that it may be to the Salvation of thy Soul to the extirpation terror and conversion of Hereticks and to the Unity of the Catholick Faith This was thought a scorning of God and men when those who knew that he was to be burnt and intended it should be so yet used such an Obtestation by the Bowels of Jesus Christ that the rigor might not be extreme This being certified the Writ was issued out and as the Register bears he was burnt in Smithfield the 4th of Iuly and one Andrew Hewet with him who also denyed the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar This Hewet was an Apprentice and went to the meetings of these Preachers and was twice betrayed by some spies whom the Bishops Officers had among them who discovered many When he was examined he would not acknowledge the Corporal Presence but was illiterate and resolved to do as Frith did so he was also condemned and burnt with him When they were brought to the Stake Frith expressed great joy at his approaching Martyrdom and in a Transport of it hugged the â—aggots in his Arms as the Instruments that were to send him to his eternal rest One Doctor Cook a Parson of London called to the people that they should not pray for them any more than they would do for a Dog At which Frith smiled and prayed God to forgive him so the fire was set to and they were consum'd to Ashes This was the last Act of the Clergies Cruelty against mens lives and was much condemned it was thought an unheard-of barbarity thus to burn a moderate and learned young man only because he would not acknowledge some of their Doctrines to be Articles of Faith and though his private judgment was against their tenet yet he was not positive in it any further than that he could not believe the contrary to be necessary to Salvation But the Clergy were now so bathed in blood that they seemed to have strip't themselves of those impressions of pity and compassion which are natural to mankind they therefore held on in their severe courses till the Act of Parliament did effectually restrain them In the Account that was given of that Act mention was made of one Thomas Philips who put in his complaint to the House of Commons against the Bishop of London The proceedings against him had been both extreme and illegal he was first apprehended and put in the Tower upon suspition of Heresie and when they searched him a Copy of Tracy's Testament was found about him and Butter and Cheese were found in his Chamber it being in the time of Lent There was also another Letter found about him exhorting him to be ready to suffer constantly for the Truth Upon these presumptions the Bishop of London proceeded against him and required him to abjure But he said he would willingly swear to be obedient as a Christian man ought and that he would never hold any Heresie during his life nor favour Hereticks but the Bishop would not accept of that since there might be Ambiguities in it therefore he required him to make the Abjuration in common form which he refused to do and appealed to the King as the Supreme Head of the Church Yet the Bishop pronounced him Contumax and did excommunicate him but whether he was released on his Appeal or not I do not find yet perhaps this was the man of whom the Pope complained to the English Ambassadors 1532. that an Heretick having appealed to the King as the Supreme Head of the Church was taken out of the Bishops hands and judged and acquitted in the Kings Courts It is probable this was the man only the Pope was informed that it was from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury that he Appealed in which there might be a mistake for the Bishop of London But whatever ground there may be for that conjecture Philips got his liberty and put in a Complaint to the House of Commons which produced the Act about Hereticks And now that Act being passed together with the extirpation of the Popes Authority and the Power being lodged in the King to correct and reform Heresies Idolatries and Abuses the Standard of the Catholick Faith being also declared to be the Scriptures the Persecuted Preachers had ease and encouragement every-where They also saw that the necessity of the Kings Affairs would constrain him to be gentle to them for the Sentence which the Pope gave against the King was committed to the Emperor to be executed by him who was then aspiring to an universal Monarchy and therefore as soon as his other Wars gave him leisure to look over to England and Ireland he had now a good colour to justifie an Invasion both from the Popes Sentence and the interests and honour of his Family in protecting his Aunt and her Daughter Therefore the King was to give him work elsewhere in order to which his interest obliged him to joyn himself to the Princes of Germany who had at Smalcald entred into a League offensive and defensive for the liberty of Religion and the Rights of the Empire This was a thorn in the Emperor's side which the Kings Interest would oblige him by all means to maintain Upon which the Reformers in England concluded that either the King to recommend himself to these Princes would relax the severities of the Law against them or otherwise that their Friends in Germany would see to it for in these first fervours of Reformations the Princes made that always a condition in their Treaties that those who favoured their Doctrine might be no more persecuted But their chief encouragement was from the Queen who Reigned in the Kings heart as absolutely as he did over his Subjects and was a known favourer of them She took Shaxton and Latimer to be her Chaplains and soon after promoted them to the Bishopricks of Salisbury and Worcester then vacant by the deprivation of Campegio and Ghinuccii and in all other things cherished and protected them and used her most effectual endeavours with the King to promote the Reformation Next to her Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was a professed favourer of it who besides the Authority of his Character and See was well-fitted for carrying it on being a very Learned and Industrious man He was at great pains to collect the sense of Ancient Writers upon all the Heads of Religion by which he might be well-directed in such an Important matter I have seen two Volumns in Folio written with his own Hand containing upon all the Heads of Religion a vast heap both of places of Scripture and Quotations out of Ancient Fathers and later Doctors and School-men by which he governed himself in that work There is also an original Letter of the Lord Burghly's extant which I have seen in which he writes that he had six or seven Volumns of his Writings all which except two other that I have seen are lost for ought I can understand From
And therefore they were every-where meeting together and consulting what should be done for suppressing Heresie and preserving the Catholick Faith That zeal was much inflamed by the Monks and Friers who clearly saw the Acts of Parliament were so levelled at their Exemptions and Immunities that they were now like to be at the Kings mercy They were no more to plead their Bulls nor claim any Priviledges further than it pleased the King to allow them No new Saints from Rome could draw more Riches or Honour to their Orders Priviledges and Indulgences were out of doors so that the Arts of drawing in the people to enrich their Churches and Houses were at an end And they had also secret Intimations that the King and the Courtiers had an eye on their Lands and they gave themselves for lost if they could not so embroyl the Kings Affairs that he should not adventure on so invidious a thing Therefore both in Confessions and Conferences they infused into the people a dislike of the Kings Proceedings which though for some time it did not break out into an open Rebellion yet the humor still fermented and people only waited for an opportunity So that if the Emperor had not been otherwise distracted he might have made War upon the King with great Advantages For many of his discontented Subjects would have joyned with the Enemy But the King did so dextrously manage his Leagues with the French King and the Princes of the Empire that the Emperor could never make any impressions on his Dominions But those factious Spirits seeing nothing was to be expected from any forreign Power could not contain themselves but broke out into open Rebellion And this provoked the King to great severities His Spirit was so fretted by the tricks the Court of Rome had put on him and by the Ingratitude and seditious practises of Reginald Pool that he thereby lost much of his former temper and patience and was too ready upon slight grounds to bring his Subjects to the Bar. Where though the matter was always so ordered that according to Law they were Endicted and Judged yet the severity of the Law bordering sometimes on rigor and cruelty he came to be called a cruel Tyrant Nor did his severity lie only on one side but being addicted to some Tenets of the Old Religion and impatient of Contradiction or perhaps blown up either with the vanity of his new Title of Head of the Church or with the praises which Flatterers bestowed on him he thought all persons were bound to regulate their Belief by his Dictates which made him prosecute Protestants as well as proceed against Papists Yet it does not appear that Cruelty was Natural to him For in Twenty five years Reign none had suffered for any Crime against the State but Pool Earl of Suffolk and Stafford Duke of Buckingham The former he prosecuted in Obedience to his Fathers last Commands at his death His severity to the other was imputed to the Cardinals Malice The Proceedings were also legal And the Duke of Buckingham had by the knavery of a Priest to whom he gave great credit been made believe he had a Right to the Crown and practises of that nature touch Princes so nearly that no wonder the Law was executed in such a case This showes that the King was not very jealous nor desirous of the Blood of his Subjects But though he always proceeded upon Law yet in the last Ten years of his Life many instances of Severity occurred for which he is rather to be pityed than either imitated or sharply censured The former Book was full of Intrigues and forreign Transactions the greatest part of it being an account of a tedious Negotiation with the subtlest and most refined Court in Christendome in all the Arts of humane Policy But now my work is confined to this Nation and except in short touches by the way I shall meddle no further with the Mysteries of State but shall give as clear an account of those things that relate to Religion and Reformation as I could possibly recover The Suppression of Monasteries The advance and declension of Reformation and the Proceedings against those who adhered to the Interests of the Court of Rome must be the chief Subjects of this Book The two former shall be opened in the series of time as they were Transacted But the last shall be left to the end of the Book that it may be presented in one full view After the Parliament had ended their Business the Bishops did all renew their Allegeance to the King and swore also to maintain his Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters acknowledging that he was the Supreme Head of the Church of England though there was yet no Law for the requiring of any such Oath The first act of the Kings Supremacy was his naming Cromwell Vicar-General and General Visitor of all the Monasteries and other Priviledged places This is commonly confounded with his following Dignity of Lord Vice-Gerent in Ecclesiastical matters but they were two different Places and held by different Commissions By the one he had no Authority over the Bishops nor had he any Precedence but the other as it gave him the Precedence next the Royal Family so it cloathed him with a compleat Delegation of the Kings whole Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs For Two years he was only Vicar-General But the tenour of his Commissions and the nature of the Power devolved on him by them cannot be fully known For neither the one nor the other are in the Rolls though there can be no doubt made but Commissions of such Importance were enrolled therefore the loss of them can only be charged on that search and rasure of Records made by Bonner upon the Commission granted to him by Queen Mary of which I have spoken in the Preface of this work In the Prerogative-Office there is a subalterne Commission granted to Doctor afterwards Secretary Petre on Ian. 13. in the Twenty Seventh year of the Kings Reign by which it appears that Cromwells Commission was at first conceived in very General words for he is called the Kings Vice-Gerent in Ecclesiastical causes his Vicar-General and Official-Principal But because he could not himself attend upon all these affairs therefore Doctor Petre is deputed under him for receiving the Probates of Wills from thence likewise it appears that all Wills where the Estate was 200 lib. or above were no more to be tryed or proved in the Bishops Courts but in the Vicar-Generals Court Yet though he was called Vice-Gerent in that Commission he was spoken of and writ to by the Name of Vicar-General but after the second Commission seen and mentioned by the Lord Herbert in Iuly 1536. he was alwayes designed Lord Vice-Gerent The next thing that was every-where laboured with great industry was to engage all the rest of the Clergy chiefly the Regulars to own the Kings Supremacy To which they generally submitted In Oxford the Question being put whether
Wives gained most on his esteem and affection But she was happy in one thing that she did not out-live his love otherwise she might have fallen as signally as her Predecessor had done Upon this turn of Affairs a great change of Counsels followed There was nothing now that kept the Emperor and the King at a distance but the Illegitimation of the Lady Mary and if that matter had been adjusted the King was in no more hazard of trouble from him Therefore it was proposed that she might be again restored to the Kings favour She found this was the best opportunity she could ever look for and therefore laid hold on it and wrote an humble submission to the King and desired again to be admitted to his presence But her Submissions had some reserves in them therefore she was pressed to be more express in her acknowledgments At this she stuck long and had almost embroyled her self again with her Father She freely offered to submit to the Laws of the Land about the Succession and confessed the fault of her former Obstinacy But the King would have her acknowledge that his Marriage to her Mother was incestuous and unlawful and to renounce the Popes Authority and to accept him as Supream Head of the Church of England These things were of hard digestion with her and she could not easily swallow them so she wrote to Cromwell to befriend her at the Kings hands Upon which many Letters passed between them He wrote to her that it was impossible to recover her Fathers favour without a full and clear Submission in all points So in the end she yielded and sent the following Paper all written with her own hand which is set down as it was Copied from the Original yet extant The Confession of me the Lady Mary made upon certain points and Articles under written in the which as I do now plainly and with all mine heart confess and declare mine inward Sentence Belief and Judgment with a due conformity of Obedience to the Laws of the Realm so minding for ever to persist and continue in this determination without change alteration or variance I do most humbly beseech the Kings Highness my Father whom I have obstinately and inobediently offended in the denial of the same heretofore to forgive mine offences therein and to take me to his most gracious Mercy First I confess and knowledg the Kings Majesty to be my Soveraign Lord and King in the Imperial Crown of this Realm of England and do submit my self to his Highness and to all and singular Laws and Statutes of this Realm as becometh a true and faithful Subject to do which I shall also obey keep observe advance and maintain according to my bounden duty with all the power force and qualities that God hath endued me with during my Life Item I do recognize accept take repute and knowledg the Kings Highness to be Supream Head in Earth under Christ of the Church of England and do utterly refuse the Bishop of Romes pretended Authority Power and Jurisdiction within this Realm heretofore usurped according to the Laws and Statutes made in that behalf and of all the Kings true Subjects humbly received admitted obeyed kept and observed and also do utterly renounce and forsake all manner of Remedy Interest and advantage which I may by any means claim by the Bishop of Rome's Laws Process Jurisdiction or Sentence at this present time or in any wise hereafter by any manner of title colour mean or case that is shall or can be devised for that purpose Mary Item I do freely frankly and for the Discharge of my duty towards God the Kings Highness and his Laws without other respect recognize and knowledg that the Marriage heretofore had between his Majesty and my Mother the late Princess Dowager was by Gods Law and Mans Law incestuous and unlawful Mary Upon this she was again received into favour One circumstance I shall add that shows the frugality of that time In the Establishment that was made for her Family there was only 40 l. a quarter assigned for her privy purse I have seen a Letter of hers to Cromwell at the Christsmas quarter desiring him to let the King know that she must be at some Extraordinary expence that season that so he might encrease her allowance since the 40 l. would not defray the Charge of that quarter For the Lady Elizabeth though the King devested her of the Title of Princess of Wales yet he continued still to breed her up in the Court with all the care and tenderness of a Father And the new Queen what from the sweetness of her disposition and what out of compliance with the King who loved her much was as kind to her as if she had been her Mother Of which I shall add one pretty evidence though the childishness of it may be thought below the Gravity of a History Yet by it the Reader will see both the kindness that the King and Queen had for her and that they allowed her to subscribe Daughter There are two Original Letters of hers yet remaining writ to the Queen when she was with Child of King Edward the one in Italian the other in English both writ in a fair hand the same that she wrote all the rest of her life But the conceits in that writ in English are so pretty that it will not be unacceptable to the Reader to see this first Blossome of so great a Princess when she was not full Four years of Age She being born in September 1533. and this writ in Iuly 1537. Although your Highness Letters be most joyful to me in absence yet considering what pain it is to you to write your Grace being so great with Child and so sickly your Commendation were enough in my Lords Letter I much rejoyce at your health with the well liking of the Countrey with my humble thanks that your Grace wished me with you till I were weary of that Countrey Your Highness were like to be combered if I should not depart till I were weary being with you although it were in the worst soil in the World your presence would make it pleasant I cannot reprove my Lord for not doing your Commendations in his Letter for he did it and although he had not yet I will not complain on him for that he shall be diligent to give me knowledg from time to time how his busie child doth and if I were at his birth no doubt I would see him beaten for the trouble he has put you to Mr Denny and my Lady with humble thanks prayeth most entirely for your Grace praying the Almighty God to send you a most lucky deliverance And my Mistress wisheth no less giving your Highness most humble thanks for her commendations Writ with very little leisure this last day of Iuly Your Humble Daughter Elizabeth But to proceed to more serious matters A Parliament was Summoned to meet the 8th of Iune
the Bishop of Rome whom some called the Pope who had long darkned Gods word that it might serve his Pomp Glory Avarice Ambition and Tyranny both upon the Souls Bodies and Goods of all Christians excluding Christ out of the Rule of mans Soul and Princes out of their Dominions And had exacted in England great Sums by dreams and vanities and other Superstitious ways â—pon these reasons his Usurpations had been by Law put down in this Nation yet many of his Emissaries were still practising up and down the Kingdom and perswading people to acknowledg his pretended Authority Therefore every person so offending after the last of Iâ—ly next to come was to incur the pains of a Premunire and all Officers both Civil and Ecclesiastical were commanded to make enquiry about such offences under several penalties On the 12th of Iuly a Bill was brought in concerning Priviledges obtained from the See of Rome and was read the First time And on the 17th it was agreed to and sent down to the Commons who sent it up again the next day It bears that the Popes had during their Usurpation granted many Immunities to several Bodies and Societies in England which upon that Grant had been now long in use Therefore all these Bulls Breves and every thing depending on or flowing from them were declared void and of no force Yet all Marriages celebrated by vertue of them that were not otherwise contrary to the Law of God were declared good in Law and all Consecrations of Bishops by vertue of them were confirmed And for the future all who enjoyed any Priviledges by Bulls were to bring them in to the Chancery or to such persons as the King should appoint for that end And the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was Lawfully to grant anew the effects contained in them which â—rant was to pass under the great Seal and to be of full force in Law This struck at the Abbots Rights But they were glad to bear a Diminution of their Greatness so they might save the whole which now lay at stake By the Thirteenth Act they corrected an Abuse which had come in to evade the force of a Statute made in the Twenty First year of this King about the Residence of all Ecclesiastical persons in their Livings One qualification that did excuse from Residence was their staying at the University for the compleating of their Studies Now it was found that many dissolute Clergymen went and lived at the Universities not for their Studies but to be excused from serving their Cures So it was Enacted that none above the Age of Forty that were not either Heads of Houses or Publick Readers should have any Exemption from their Residence by vertue of that Clause in the former Act. And those under that Age should not have the Benefit of it except they were present at the Lectures and perform'd their Exercises in the Schools By another Act there was Provision made against the prejudice the Kings Heirs might receive before they were of Age by Parliaments held in their Non-Age That whatsoever Acts were made before they were Twenty Four years of Age they might at any time of their lives after that Repeal and Annul by their Letters Patents which should have equal force with a Repeal by Act of Parliament From these Acts it appears that the King was absolute Master both of the affections and fears of his Subjects when in a new Parliament called on a sudden and in a Session of six weeks from the 8th of Iune to the 18th of Iuly Acts of this Importance were passed without any Protest or publick Opposition But having now opened the business of the Parliament as it relates to the State I must next give an account of the Convocation which sate at this time and was very busie as appears by the Journal of the House of Lords in which this is given for a reason of many Adjournments because the Spiritual Lords were busie in the Convocation It sate down on the 9th of Iune according to Fullers Extract it being the Custom of all this Reign for that Court to meet two or three days after the Parliament Hither Cromwell came as the Kings Vicar-General But he was not yet Vice-Gerent For he sate next the Arch-Bishop but when he had that Dignity he sate above him Nor do I find him Stiled in any Writing Vice-gerent for some time after this though the Lord Herbert says he was made Vice-gerent the 18th of Iuly this year the same day in which the Parliament was Dissolved Latimer Bishop of Worcester preached the Latine Sermon on these words The Children of this World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light He was the most Celebrated Preacher of that time The simplicity and plainness of his matter with a serious and fervent Action that accompanied it being preferred to more learned and elaborate Composures On the 21st of Iune Cromwell moved that they would Confirm the Sentence of the Invalidity of the Kings Marriage with Queen Anne which was accordingly done by both Houses of Convocation But certainly Fuller was asleep when he wrote That Ten days before that the Arch-Bishop had passed the Sentence of Divorce on the day before the Queen was beheaded Whereas if he had considered this more fully he must have seen that the Queen was put to death a Month before this and was Divorced two days before she dyed Yet with this animadversion I must give him my thanks for his pains in copying out of the Journals of Convocation many remarkable things which had been otherwise irrecoverably lost On the 23d of Iune the lower House of Convocation sent to the upper House a Collection of many opinions that were then in the Realm which as they thought were abuses and errors worthy of special Reformation But they began this Representation with a Protestation That they intended not to do or speak any thing which might be unpleasant to the King whom they acknowledged their Supream Head and were resolved to obey his Commands renouncing the Popes usurp'd Authority with all his Laws and Inventions now extinguisht and abolisht and did addict themselves to Almighty God and his Laws and unto the King and the Laws made within this Kingdom There are Sixty Seven opinions set down and are either the Tenets of the Old Lollards or the New Reformers together with the Anabaptists opinions Besides all which they complained of many unsavory and indiscreet expressions which were either feigned on design to disgrace the New Preachers or were perhaps the extravagant Reflexions of some illiterate and injudicious persons who are apt upon all occasions by their heat and folly rather to prejudice than advance their party and affect some petulant jeers which they think witty and are perhaps well entertained by some others who though they are more judicious themselves yet imagining that such jests on the contrary opinions will take with the people do give them too much Encouragement Many of these
Bribes at this time which is not to be wondred at when there was so much to be shared But great disorders followed upon the Dissolution of the other Houses People were still generally discontented The Suppression of Religious Houses occasioned much out-crying and the Articles then lately published about Religion encreased the distaste they had conceived at the Government The old Clergy were also very watchful to improve all opportunities and to blow upon every spark And the Popes Power of deposing Kings had been for almost five hundred years received as an Article of Faith The same Council that established Transubstantiation had asserted it and there were many Precedents not only in Germany France Spain and Italy but also in England of Kings that were Deposed by Popes whose Dominions were given to other Princes This had begun in the Eighth Century in two famous Deprivations The one in France of Childeric the 3d who was deprived and the Crown given to Pepin and about the same time those Dominions in Italy which were under the Eastern Emperors renounced their alleagance to them In both these the Popes had a great hand yet they rather confirmed and approved of those Treasonable Mutations than gave the first rise to them But after Pope Gregory the 7th's time it was clearly assumed as a Right and Prerogative of the Papal Crown to Depose Princes and absolve Subjects from the Oaths of Alleagance and set up others in their stead And all those Emperors or Kings that contested any thing with Popes sat very uneasie and unsafe in their Thrones ever after that But if they were tractable to the demands of the Court of Rome then they might oppress their Subjects and Govern as unjustly as they pleased for they had a mighty support from that Court This made Princes more easily bear the Popes usurpations because they were assisted by them in all their other Proceedings And the Friers having the Consciences of people generally in their hands as they had the word given by their General at Rome so they disposed people either to be obedient or seditious as they pleased Now not only their own Interests mixed with their zeal for the ancient Religion but the Popes Authority gave them as good a Warrant to encline the people to Rebel as any had in former times of whom some were Canonized for the like practices For in August the former year the Pope had Summoned the King to appear within Ninety days and to answer for putting away his Queen and taking another Wife and for the Laws he had made against the Church and putting the Bishop of Rochester and others to death for not obeying these Laws and if he did not reform these faults or did not appear to answer for them the Pope Excommunicated him and all that favoured him deprived the King put the Kingdom under an Interdict forbade all his Subjects to obey and other States to hold Commerce with him dissolved all his Leagues with forreign Princes commanded all the Clergy to depart out of England and his Nobility to rise in Arms against him But now the force of those Thunders which had formerly produced great Earth-quakes and Commotions was much abated yet some storms were raised by this though not so violent as had been in former times The people were quiet till they had reaped their Harvest And though some Injunctions were published a little before to help it the better forward most of the Holy days in Harvest being abolished by the Kings Authority yet that rather Inflamed them the more Other Injunctions were also published in the Kings name by Cromwell his Vice-gerent which was the first Act of pure Supremacy done by the King For in all that went before he had the Concurrence of the two Convocations But these it is like were penned by Cranmer The Reader is referred to the Collection of Papers for them as I transcribed them out of the Register The Substance of them was that first all Ecclesiastical Incumbents were for a quarter of an year after that once every Sunday and ever after that twice every quarter to publish to the people That the Bishop of Romes usurped Power had no ground in the Law of God and therefore was on good reasons abolished in this Kingdom And that the Kings Power was by the Law of God Supream over all persons in his Dominions And they were to do their uttermost endeavour to extirpate the Popes Authority and to establish the Kings Secondly They were to declare the Articles lately published and agreed to by the Convocation and to make the people know which of them were Articles of Faith and which of them Rules for the decent and politick Order of the Church Thirdly They were to declare the Articles lately set forth for the Abrogation of some superfluous Holy days particularly in Harvest time Fourthly They were no more to extol Images or Relicks for superstition or gain nor to exhort people to make Pilgrimages as if blessings and good things were to be obtained of this or that Saint or Image But in stead of that the people were to be instructed to apply themselves to the keeping of Gods Commandments and doing works of Charity and to believe that God was better served by them when they stayed at home and provided for their Families than when they went Pilgrimages and that the Moneys laid out on these were better given to the poor Fifthly They were to exhort the people to teach their Children the Lords Prayer the Creed and the ten Commandments in English and every Incumbent was to explain these one Article a day till the people were Instructed in them And to take great care that all Children were bred up to some trade or way of Living Sixthly They must take care that the Sacraments and Sacramentals be reverently administred in their Parishes from which when at any time they were absent they were to Commit the Cure to a Learned and expert Curate who might instruct the people in wholsome Doctrine that they might all see that their Pastors did not pursue their own profits or interests so much as the Glory of God and the good of the Souls under their Cure Seventhly They should not except on urgent occasion go to Taverns or Ale-houses nor sit too long at any sort of Games after their Meals but give themselves to the Study of the Scripture or some other honest exercise and remember that they must excel others in purity of life and be examples to all others to live well and Christianly Eighthly Because the goods of the Church were the goods of the poor every Beneficed person that had twenty Pound or above and did not reside was yearly to distribute the Fortieth part of his Benefice to the poor of the Parish Ninthly Every Incumbent that had an hundred Pound a year must give an Exhibition for one Schollar at some Grammar School or University who after he had compleated his Studies was to be Partner of
to shake him in his Throne The Preamble of it was That as our Saviour had pity on St. Peter after his fall so it became St. Peters successors to imitate our Saviour in his Clemency and that therefore though he having heard of King Henry's crimes had proceeded to a sentence against him Here the former Bull was recited Yet some other Princes who hoped he might be reclaimed by gentler methods had interposed for a suspension of the Sentence and he being easie to believe what he so earnestly desired had upon their Intercession suspended it But now he found they had been deceived in their hopes and that he grew worse and worse and had done such dishonour to the Saints as to raise St. Thomas of Canterburies body to arraign him of High Treason and to burn his Body and Sacrilegiously to rob the Riches that had been offered to his Shrine as also to suppress St. Austins Abbey in Canterbury and that having thrust out the Monks he had put in wild Beasts into their grounds having transformed himself into a Beast Therefore he takes off the Suspension and publishes the Bull commanding it to be executed Declaring that the affixing it at Diepe or Bulloign in France at St. Andrews or Callistren that is Callstream a Town near the border of England in Scotland or Tuam or Artifert in Ireland or any two of these should be a sufficient Publication Dated the 7th of December Anno Dom. 1538. No man can read these Bulls but he must conclude that if the Pope be the Infallible and Universal Pastor of the Church whom all are bound to obey he has a full authority over all Kings to proceed to the highest Censures possible and since the matters of fact enumerated in the Sentence as the grounds of it were certainly true then 〈◊〉 the Pope is either cloathed with the powers of Deposing Princes or if otherwise he lied to the world when he pretended to it thus and taught false Doctrine which cannot stand with Infallibility And the pretended grounds of the sentence as to matter of fact being evidently true this must be a just Sentence and therefore all that acknowledged the Infallibility of that See were bound to obey it and all the Rebellions that followed during the reign of the King or his Children were founded on this sentence and must be justified by it otherwise the Popes Infallibility must fall to the ground But this was to be said for the Pope that though he had raised the several branches of this Sentence higher than any of his Predecessors had ever done yet as to the main he had very good and Authentick Precedents for what he did from the Depositions of Emperours or Kings that were made by former Popes for about 500 years together This I thought needful to be more fully opened because of the present Circumstances we are now in since hereby every one that will consider things must needs see that the belief of the Popes Infallibility does necessarily infer the acknowledgment of their power of deposing Heretical Kings For it is plain the Pope did this ex Cathedra and as a Pastor Feeding and Correcting his Flock But not content with this he also wrote to other Princes inflaming them against the King Particularly to the Kings of France and Scotland To the last of these he sent a Breve declaring King Henry a Heretique a Schismatique a manifest Adulterer a publick Murtherer a Rebel and convict of High Treason against him the Pope his Lord for which Crimes he had deposed him and offered his Dominions to him if he would go and invade them And thus the breach between him and the Pope was past reconciling and at Rome it was declared equally meritorious to fight against him as against the Turk But Card. Pool made it more meritorious in his Book Yet the Thunders of the Vatican had now lost their force so that these had no other effect but to enrage the King more against all such as were suspected to favour their interests or to hold any correspondence with Cardinal Pool Therefore he first procured a Declaration against the Popes pretensions to be Signed by all the Bishops of England In which after they declared against the Popes Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction upon the grounds formerly touched they concluded That the People ought to be Instructed that Christ did expresly forbid his Apostles or their Successors to take to themselves the power of the Sword or the authority of Kings And that if the Bishop of Rome or any other Bishop assumed any such power he was a Tyrant and Usurper of other mens Rights and a subverter of the Kingdom of Christ. This was subscribed by 19 Bishops all that were then in England and 25 Doctors of Divinity and Law It was at some time before May 1538. For Edward Fox Bishop of Hereford who was one that signed it died the 8th of May that year There was no Convocation called by Writ for doing this For as there is no mention of any such Writ in the Registers so if it had been done by Convocation Cromwell had signed it first but his hand not being at it it is more probable that a meeting of the Clergy was called by the Kings Missive Letters or that as was once done before the Paper was drawn at London and sent over the Kingdom to the Episcopal Sees for the Bishops hands to it There is another original Paper extant Signed at this time by eight Bishops from which I conjecture those were all that were then about London It was to shew That by the Commission which Christ gave to Church-men they were only Ministers of his Gospel to instruct the people in the purity of the Faith But that by other places of Scripture the Authority of Christian Princes over all their Subjects as well Bishops and Priests as others was also clear And that the Bishops and Priests have charge of Souls within their Cures Power to administer Sacraments and to teach the word of God To the which word of God Christian Princes acknowledg themselves subject and that in case the Bishops be negligent it is the Christian Princes Office to see them do their duty This being Signed by Iohn Hilsey Bishop of Rochester must be after the year 1537. in which he was consecrated and Latimer and Shaxton also Signing it must be before the year 1539. in which they resigned But I believe it was Signed at the same time that the other was And the design of it was to refuse those Calumnies spread at Rome as if the King had wholly Suppressed all Ecclesiastical Offices and denyed them any divine Authority making them wholly dependent on the Civil Power and Acting by Commission only from him And therefore they explained the limits of both these Powers in so clear and moderate a way that it must have stopt the Mouths of all Opposers But whether there was any publick use made of this Paper I can by no means discover
of Iuly a Bill was brought in for moderating the Statute of the six Articles in the Clauses that related to the marriage of the Priests or their Incontinency with other Women On the 17th it was agreed by the whole House without a contradictory vote and sent down to the Commons who on the 21th sent it up again By it the pains of Death were turned to forfeitures of their Goods and Chattels and the rents of their Ecclesiastical promotions to the King On the 20th of Iuly a Bill was brought in concerning a Declaration of the Christian Religion and was then read the first 2d and 3d time and passed without any opposition and sent down to the Commons who agreeing to it sent it up again the next day It contained that the King as Supream Head of the Church was taking much pains for an Union among all his Subjects in matters of Religion and for preventing the further progress of Heresie had appointed many of the Bishops and the most learned Divines to declare the principal Articles of the Christian Belief with the Ceremonies and way of Gods service to be observed That therefore a thing of that weight might not be rashly done or hasted through in this Session of Parliament but be done with that care which was requisite Therefore it was Enacted that whatsoever was determined by the Arch-Bishops Bishops and the other Divines now Commissionated for that effect or by any others appointed by the King or by the whole Clergy of England and published by the Kings Authority concerning the Christian Faith or the Ceremonies of the Church should be believed and obeyed by all the Kings Subjects as well as if the particulars so set forth had been ennumerated in this Act any Custom or Law to the Contrary notwithstanding To this a strange Proviso was added which destroyed the former Clause That nothing should be done or determined by the Authority of this Act which was contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom But whether this Proviso was added by the House of Commons or originally put into the Bill does not appear It was more likely it was put in at the first by the Kings Council for these contradictory Clauses raised the Prerogative higher and left it in the Judges power to determine which of the two should be followed by which all Ecclesiastical matters were to be brought under Tryals at Common Law for it was one of the great designs both of the Ministers and Lawyers at this time to bring all Ecclesiastical Matters to thâ— Cognizance of the Secular Judge But another Bill passed which seems a little odd concerning the circumstances of that time That whereas many Marriages had been annulled in the time of Popery upon the pretence of Precontracts or other degrees of kindred than those that were prohibited by the Law of God Therefore after a Marriage was consummated no pretence of any pre-contract or any degrees of kindred or alliance but those mentioned in the Law of God should be brought or made use of to annull it since these things had been oft pretended only to dissolve a Marriage when the parties grew weary of each other which was contrary to Gods Law Therefore it was Enacted that no pretence of precontract not consummated should be made use of to annull a Marriage duly solemnized and consummated and that no degrees of kindred not mentioned by the Law of God should be pleaded to annull a Marriage This Act gave great occasion of censuring the Kings former proceedings against Queen Anne Boleyn since that which was now condemned had been the pretence for dissolving his Marriage with her Others thought the King did it on design to remove that Impediment out of the way of the Lady Elizabeth's succeeding to the Crown since that judgment upon which she was Illegitimated was now indirectly censured And that other branch of the Act for taking away all prohibitions of Marriages within any degrees but those forbidden in Scripture was to make way for the Kings Marriage with Katherine Howard who was Cousin German to Queen Anne Boleyn for that was one of the prohibited degrees by the Canon Law The Province of Canterbury offered a Subsidy of four shillings in the pound of all Ecclesiastical preferments to be payed in two years and in that acknowledgment of the great liberty they enjoyed by being delivered from the Usurpations of the Bishops of Rome and in recompencâ— the great charges of the King had been at and was still to be at in building Havens Bullwarks and other Forts for the defence of his Coasts and the security of his Subjects This was confirmed in Parliament But that did not satisfie the King who had husbanded the money that came in by the sale of Abbey Lands so ill that now he wanted money and was forced to aske a subsidy for his Marriage of the Parliament this was obtained with great difficulty For it was said That if the King was already in want after so vast an income especially being engaged in no Warr there would be no end of his necessities nor could it be possible for them to supply them But it was answered that the King had laid out a great Treasure in fortifying the Coast and though he was then in no visible Warr yet the charge he was at in keeping up the Warr beyond Sea was equal to the expence of a Warr and much more to the advantage of his people who were kept in peace and plenty This obtained a Tenth and four 15ths After the passing of all these Bills and many others that concerned the publick with several other Bills of Attaindor of some that favoured the Popes Interests or Corresponded with Cardinal Pool which shall be mentioned in another place the King sent in a General Pardon with the Ordinary Exceptions and in particular excepted Cromwel the Countess of Sarum with many others then in person Some of them were put in for opposing the Kings Supremacy and others for transgressing the Statute of the six Articles On the 24th of Iuly the Parliament was dissolved And now Cromwel who had been six weeks a Prisoner was brought to his Execution He had used all the endeavours he could for his own preservation Once he wrote to the King in such melting terms that he made the Letter to be thrice read and seemed touched with it But the charms of Katharine Howard and the endeavours of the Duke of Norfolk and the Bishop of Winchester at length prevailed So a Warrant was sent to cut off his Head on the 28th of Iuly at Tower-hill When he was brought to the Scaffold his kindness to his Son made him very cautious in what he said he declined the purging of himself but said he was by Law condemned to die and thanked God for bringing him to that death for his offences He acknowledged his Sins against God and his offences against his Prince who had raised him from a base degree
The Laws made in England against Hereticks p. 25. Vnder Richard the 2d ibid. Vnder Henry the 4th ibid. And Henry the 5th p. 26 Heresie declared by the Kings Iudges p. 27 Warhams proceeding against Hereticks ib. The Bishop of London's proceedings against them p. 29 The Progress of Luthers Doctrine p. 30 His Books were Translated into English p. 31 The King wrote against him ibid. He replyed ibid. Endeavours to suppress the New Testament p. 32 Sir Thomas More writes against Luther ibid. Bilney and others proceeded against for Heresie ibid. BOOK II. Of the Process of Divorce between King Henry and Queen Katherine and of what passed from the 19th to the 25th year of his Reign in which he was declared Supream Head of the Church of England THe beginning of the Sute of Divorce p. 34 Prince Arthur Marryed the Infanta ibid. And died soon after p. 35 A Marriage proposed between Henry and her ibid. It is allowed by the Pope ibid. Henry Protested against it p. 36 His Father disswaded it ibid. Being come to the Crown he Marries her ibid. Shâ— bore some Children but only the Lady Mary lived ibid. Several Matches proposed for her p. 37 The Kings Marriage is questioned by Forreigners ibid. Anno 1527. He himself has Scruples concerning it ib. The Grounds of these p. 38 All his Bishops except Fisher condemn it ibid. The reasons of State against it p. 39. Wolsey goes into France ibid. The Kings fears and hopes ibid. Arguments against the Bull p. 40 Calumnies cast on Anne Boleyn p. 41 They are false and ill-contrived p. 42 Her Birth and Education p. 43 She was contrâ—cted to the Lord Piercy p. 44 The Divorce moved for at Rome ibid. The first Dispatch concerning it ibid. Anno 1528. The Pope granted it p. 47 And gave a Bull of dispensation p. 48 The Popes craft and policy ibid. A subtile method proposed by the Pope p. 49 Staphileus sent from England p. 50 The Cardinals Letters to the Pope p. 57 A fuller Bull is desired by the King ibid. Gardiner and Fox are sent to Rome p. 52 The Bull desired by them ibid. Wolsey's earnestness to procure it p. 53 Campegio declared Legate p. 54 He delaies his Iourney ibid. The Pope grants the Decretal Bull p. 55 Two Letters from Anne Boleyn to Wolsey ibid. Wolsey desires the Bull may be seen by some of the Kings Council p. 56 The Emperor opposes the Kings business p. 57 A Breve is found in Spain ibid. It was thought to be forged ibid. Campegio comes to England p. 58 And lets the King see the Bull ibid. But refuses to shew it to others ibid. Wolsey moves the Pope that some might see it ibid. But in vain p. 59 Campana is sent by the Pope to Engl. p. 60 The King offers the Pope a Guard ibid. The Pope inclines to the Emperor ibid. Threatnings used to him p. 61 Anno 1529. HE repents the sending over a Bull ibid. But feeds the King with Promises p. 62 The Popes sickness p. 63 Wolsey aspires to the Papacy Ibid. Instructions for promoting him p. 64 New motions for the Divorce p. 65 The Pope Relapses dangerously ibid. A new Dispatch to Rome p. 66 Wolseys Bulls for the Bishoprick of Winton p. 67 The Emperor Protests against the Legates ib. Yet the Pope promises not to recal it ibid. The Legates write to the Pope p. 68 Campegio led an ill life p. 69 The Emperor moves for an Avocation ibid. The Popes Dissimulation p. 70 Great contests about the Avocation ibid. The Legates begin the Process p. 72 A severe charge against the Queen ibid. The King and Queen appear in Court ibid. The Queens speech p. 73. The King declares his scruples ibid. The Queen Appeals to the Pope p. 74 Articles framed and witnesses examined ib. An Avocation prest at Rome ibid. The Pope joyns with the Emperor p. 75 Yet is in great perplexities ibid. The Avocation is granted p. 76 The Proceedings of the Legates ibid. Campegio adjourns the Court p. 77 Which gave great offence ibid. Wolseys danger ibid. Anne Boleyn returns to Court p. 78 Cranmers Opinion about the Divorce p. 79 Approved by the King p. 80 Cardinal Wolsey's fall ibid. The meanness of his temper p. 81 He is Attached of Treason ibid. He dies his Character p. 82. A Parliament called ibid. Complaints against the Clergy p. 83 The Kings debts are discharged ibid. The Pope and the Emperor unite p. 84 The Womens peace ibid. Anno 1530. The Emperor is Crowned at Bononia ib. The Vniversities consulted in the Kings sute of Divorce p. 85 The answers from Oxford and Cambridge p. 86. D. Crook Imployed in Venice p. 87 Many in Italy wrote for the Divorce p. 88 It was opposed by the Pope and the Emperor p. 89 No Money given by the Kings Agents ibid. Great Rewards given by the Emperor p. 90 It is determined for the King at Bononia Padua Ferrara and Orleance p. 91 At Paris Bourges and Tholose p. 92 The Opinions of some Reformers ibid. And of the Lutherans p. 94 The King will not appear at Rome ibid. Cranmer offers to defend the Divorce p. 95 The Clergy Nobility and Gentry write to the Pope for the Divorce ibid. The Popes answer to them p. 96 A Proclamation against Bulls ibid. Books written for the Divorce p. 97 Reasons out of the Old and New Testament ibid. The Authorities of Popes and Councils p. 98 And the Greek and Latine Fathers p. 99 And Canonists p. 100 Marriage is Compleat by Consent ibid. Violent Presumptions of the Consummation of the former Marriage ibid. The Popes Dispensation of no force p. 101. Bishops are not to obey his Decrees p. 102 The Authority of Tradition ibid. The Reasons against the Divorce p. 103 Answers made to these p. 104 The Queen is intractable p. 105 Anno 1531. A Session of Parliament ibid. The Clergy found in a Premunire p. 106 The Prerogatives of the Kings of England in Ecclesiastical affairs ibid. The Encroachments of Popes ibid. Statutes made against them p. 107 The Popes endeavoured to have those repealed p. 109 But with no effect p. 111 The Clergy excused themselves p. 112 Yet they submit and acknowledg the King Supream Head of the Church ibid. The King Pardons them p. 113 And with some difficulty the Laity ibid. One Attainted for Poysoning ibid. The King leaves the Queen p. 114 A disorder among the Clergy ibid. The Pope turns to the French p. 115 And offers his Niece to the Duke of Orleance ibid. The Turk invades the Empire p. 116 Anno 1532. THe Parliament complains of the Spiritual Courts ibid. They reject a Bill concerning Wards p. 117 An Act against Annates ibid. The Pope writes to the King p. 118 The Kings answer ibid. Sir Edward Car sent to Rome p. 119 His Negotiation there p. 120 He corrupts the Cardinal of Ravenna ibid. The Process against the King at Rome p. 121 A Bull for new Bishopricks ibid. The Pope desires
the King would submit to him p. 122 A new Session of Parliament ibid. A Subsidy is voted p. 123 The Oaths the Clergy swore to the Pope and to the King ibid. Chancellor More delivers up his Office p. 124 The King meets with the French King ibid. Eliot sent to Rome p. 125 The King Marries Anne Boleyn p. 126 New Overtures for the Divorce ibid. Anno 1533. A Session of Parliament ibid. An Act against Appeals to Rome ibid. Arch-Bishop Warham dies p. 127 Cranmer succeeds him ibid. His Bulls from Rome p. 128 His Consecration ibid. The Iudgment of the Convocation concerning the Divorce p. 129 Endeavours to make the Queen Submit p. 130 But in vain ibid. Cranmer gives Iudgment p. 131 Censures that pass upon it ibid. The Pope united to the French King p. 133 A Sentence against the Kings proceedings ibid. Queen Elizabeth is born p. 134 An Enterview between the Pope and the French King ibid. The King submits to the Pope ibid. The Imperialists oppose the agreement p. 135 And procure a definitive Sentence p. 136 The King resolves to abolish the Popes Power in England ibid. It was long disputed ibid. Arguments against it from Scripture p. 137 And the Primitive Church p. 138 Arguments for the Kings Supremacy p. 140 From Scripture and the Laws of England p. 141 The Supremacy explained p. 142 Pains taken to satisfie Fisher p. 143 Anno 1534. A Session of Parliament ibid. An Act for taking away the Popes Power p. 144 About the Succession to the Crown p. 145 For punishing Hereticks p. 147 The Submission of the Clergy ibid. About the Election of Bishops p. 148 And the Maid of Kent p. 149 The Insolence of some Friers p. 151 The Nuns speech at her death p. 152 Fisher is dealt with Gently p. 153 The Oath for the Succession taken by many p. 154 More and Fisher refuse it p. 155 And are proceeded against p. 156 Another Session of Parliament p. 157 The Kings Supremacy is Enacted ibid. An Act for Suffragan Bishops ibid. A Subsidy is granted p. 158 More and Fisher are Attainted ibid. The Progress of the Reformation p. 159 Tindal and others at Antwerp send over Books and the New Testament ibid. The Supplication of the Beggars p. 160 More answers and Frith replyes p. 161 Cruel proceeding against Reformers p. 162 Bilney's Sufferings p. 163 The Sufferings of Byfield p. 164 And Bainham p. 165 Articles abjured by some ibid. Tracy's Testament p. 166 Frith's Sufferings p. 167 His Arguments against the Corporal presence in the Sacrament ibid. His Opinion of the Sacrament and Purgatory for which he was condemned p. 169 His Constancy at his death p. 170 A stop put to Cruel proceedings p. 171 The Queen favoured the Reformers ibid. Cranmer Promoted it ibid. And was Assisted by Cromwell p. 172. A strong party against it ibid. Reasons used against it ibid. And for it p. 173. The Iudgment of some Bishops concerning a General Council p. 174 A speech of Cranmers of it ibid. BOOK III. Of the other Transactions about Religion and Reformation during the rest of the Reign of King Henry the 8th Anno 1535. THe rest of the Kings Reign was troublesome p. 179 By the practises of the Clergy p. 180 Which provoked the King much ibid. The Bishops swear the Kings Supremacy p. 181. The Franciscans only refuse it p. 182 A Visitation of Monasteries ibid. The Instructions of the Visitors p. 184 Injunctions sent by them p. 185 The State of the Monasteries in England and their Exemptions p. 186 They were deserted but again set up by King Edgar p. 187 Arts used by the Monks ibid. They were generally corrupt p. 188 And so grew the Friers p. 189 The Kings other reasons for suppressing Monasteries ibid. Cranmers design in it p. 190 The Proceedings of the Visitors ibid. Some Houses resigned to the King p. 191 Anno 1536. QVeen Katherine dies ibid. A Session of Parliament in which the lesser Monasteries were suppressed p. 193 The reasons for doing it ibid. The Translation of the Bible in English designed p. 194 The reasons for it ibid. The opposition made to it p. 195 Queen Anns fall driven on by the Popish party p. 196 The King became jealous p. 197 She is put in the Tower p. 198 She confessed some Indiscreet words p. 199 Cranmers Letters concerning her p. 200 She is brought to a Tryal p. 201 And Condemned p. 202 And also Divorced p. 203 She prepares for Death p. 204 The Lieutenant of the Tower's Letters about her ibid. Her Execution p. 205 The Censures made on this ibid. Lady Mary is reconciled to her Father and makes a full Submission p. 207 Lady Elizabeth is well used by the King p. 208 A Letter of hers to the Queen p. 209 A New Parliament is called ibid. An Act of the Succession p. 210 The Pope endeavours a reconciliation p. 211 But in vain ibid. The Proceedings of the Convocation p. 213 Articles agreed on about Religion p. 215 Published by the Kings Authority p. 217 But variously censured p. 218 The Convocation declared against the Council Summoned by the Pope p. 219 The King publishes his reasons against it p. 220 Cardinal Pool writes against the King ibid. Many Books are written for the King p. 221 Instructions for the dissolution of Monasteries p. 222 Great discontents among all sorts p. 223 Endeavours to qualifie these ibid. The people were disposed to Rebel p. 224 The Kings Injunctions about Religion p. 225 They were much censured p. 226 A Rising in Lincoln-shire p. 227 Their Demands and the Kings Answer ibid. It was quieted by the Duke of Suffolk p. 228 A great Rebellion in the North ibid. The Duke of Norfolk was sent against them p. 230 They advance to Doncaster ibid. Their Demands p. 231 The Kings Answer to them p. 232 Anno 1537. THe Rebellion is quieted p. 233 New risings soon dispersed p. 234 The chief Rebels Executed ibid. A New Visitation of Monasteries p. 235 Some great Abbots resign ibid. Confessions of horrid crimes are made p. 237 Some are Attainted p. 238 And their Abbies Suppressed p. 240 The Superstition and Cheats of these Houses discovered p. 242 Anno 1538. SOme Images publickly broken ibid. Thomas Beckets shrine broken p. 243 New Injunctions about Religion p. 245 Inâ—ectives against the King at Rome ibid. The Popes Bulls against the King ibid. The Clergy in England declared against these p. 248 The Bible is Printed in English p. 249 New Injunctions ibid. Prince Edward is born p. 250 The Complyance of the Popish party p. 251 Lambert appealed to the King p. 252 And is publickly tryed ibid. Many Arguments brought against him p. 253 He is condemned and burnt p. 254 The Popish party gain ground ibid. A Treaty with the German Princes p. 255 Bonners dissimulation ibid. Anno 1539. A Parliament is called p. 256 The six Articles are proposed ibid. Arguments against them p. 257 An Act passed for them p. 258 Which is variously
within this Realm other or otherwise than hereafter in this present Act is declared And that no manner Person nor Persons hereafter to be named elected presented or postulated to any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick within this Realm shall pay the said Annates or First-Fruits for the said Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick nor any other manner of Sum or Sums of Mony Pensions or Annates for the same or for any other like exaction or cause upon pain to forfeit to our said Sovereign Lord the King his Heirs and Successors all manner his Goods and Chattels for ever and all the Temporal Lands and Possessions of the same Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick during the time that he or they which shall offend contrary to this present Act shall have possess or enjoy the Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick wherefore he shall so offend contrary to the form aforesaid And furthermore it is enacted by Authority of this present Parliament That if any Person hereafter named and presented to the Court of Rome by the King or any of his Heirs or Successors to be Bishop of any See or Diocess within this Realm hereafter shall be letted deferred or delayed at the Court of Rome from any such Bishoprick whereunto he shall be so represented by means of restraint of Bulls Apostolick and other things requisite to the same or shall be denied at the Court of Rome upon convenient suit made any manner Bulls requisite for any of the Causes aforesaid any such Person or Persons so presented may be and shall be consecrated here in England by the Arch-Bishop in whose Province the said Bishoprick shall be so alway that the same Person shall be named and presented by the King for the time being to the same Arch-Bishoprick And if any Persons being named and presented as aforesaid to any Arch-Bishoprick of this Realm making convenient suit as is aforesaid shall happen to be letted deferred delayed or otherwise disturbed from the same Arch-Bishoprick for lack of Pall Bulls or other to him requisite to be obtained in the Court of Rome in that behalf that then every such Person named and presented to be Arch-Bishop may be and shall be consecrated and invested after presentation made as is aforesaid by any other two Bishops within this Realm whom the King's Highness or any of his Heirs or Successors Kings of England for the time being will assign and appoint for the same according and in like manner as divers other Arch-Bishops Bishops have been heretofore in ancient time by sundry the King 's most noble Progenitors made consecrated and invested within this Realm And that every Arch-Bishop and Bishop hereafter being named and presented by the King's Highness his Heirs or Successors Kings of England and being consecrated and invested as is aforesaid shall be installed accordingly and shall be accepted taken reputed used and obeyed as an Arch-Bishop or Bishop of the Dignity See or Place whereunto he so shall be named presented and consecrated requireth and as other like Prelates of that Province See or Diocess have been used accepted taken and obeyed which have had and obtained compleatly their Bulls and other things requisite in that behalf from the Court of Rome And also shall fully and entirely have and enjoy all the Spiritualities and Temporalities of the said Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick in as large ample and beneficial manner as any of his or their Predecessors had or enjoyed in the said Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick satisfying and yielding unto the King our Sovereign Lord and to his Heirs and Successors Kings of England all such Duties Rights and Interests as before this time had been accustomed to be paid for any such Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick according to the Ancient Laws and Customs of this Realm and the King's Prerogative Royal. And to the intent our said Holy Father the Pope and the Court of Rome shall not think that the pains and labours taken and hereafter to be taken about the writing sealing obtaining and other businesses sustained and hereafter to be sustained by the Offices of the said Court of Rome for and about the Expedition of any Bulls hereafter to be obtained or had for any such Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick shall be irremunerated or shall not be sufficiently and condignly recompensed in that behalf And for their more ready expedition to be had therein it is therefore enacted by the Authority aforesaid That every Spiritual Person of this Realm hereafter to be named presented or postulated to any Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick of this Realm shall and may lawfully pay for the writing and obtaining of his or their said Bulls at the Court of Rome and ensealing the same with Lead to be had without payment of any Annates or First-Fruits or other charge or exaction by him or them to be made yielden or paied for the same five pounds Sterling for and after the rate of the clear and whole yearly value of every hundreth pounds Sterling above all charges of any such Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick or other mony to the value of the said five pounds for the clear yearly value of every hundreth pounds of every such Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick and not above nor in any other wise any things in this present Act before written notwithstanding And forasmuch as the King's Highness and this his High Court of Parliament neither have nor do intend to use in this or any other like cause any manner of extremity or violence before gentle courtesie or friendship ways and means first approved and attempted and without a very great urgent cause and occasion given to the contrary but principally coveting to disburden this Realm of the said great exactions and intolerable charges of Annates and First-Fruits have therefore thought convenient to commit the final order and determination of the Premisses in all things unto the King's Highness So that if it may seem to his high wisdom and most prudent discretion meet to move the Pope's Holiness and the Court of Rome amicably charitably and reasonably to compound other to extinct and make frustrate the payments of the said Annates or First-Fruits or else by some friendly loving and tolerable composition to moderate the same in such wise as may be by this Realm easily born and sustained That then those ways and compositions once taken concluded and agreed between the Pope's Holiness and the King's Highness shall stand in strength force and effect of Law inviolably to be observed And it is also further ordained and enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament That the King's Highness at any time or times on this side the Feast of Easter which shall be in the Year of our Lord God a thousand five hundred and three and thirty or at any time on this side the beginning of the next Parliament by his Letters Pattents under his Great Seal to be made and to be entred of Record in the Roll of this present Parliament may and shall have full power and liberty to declare by the said Letters
of Bread and Wine The Tenth The Church of Christ hath doth and may lawfully order some Priests to be Ministers of the Sacraments altho the same do not preach nor be not admitted thereunto The Eleventh Priests being once dedicated unto God by the Order of Priesthood and all such Men and Women as have advisedly made Vows unto God of Chastity or Widowhood may not lawfully marry after their said Orders received or Vows made The Twelfth Secret auricular Confession is expedient and necessary to be retained continued and frequented in the Church of Christ. The Thirteenth The Prescience and Predestination of Almighty God altho in it self it be infallible induceth no necessity to the Action of Man but that he may freely use the power of his own will or choice the said Prescience or Predestination notwithstanding I Nicholas Shaxton with my Heart do believe and with my Mouth do confess all these Articles above-written to be true in every part Ne despicias hominem avertentem se a peccato neque improperes ei memento quoniam omnes in corruptione sumus Eccles. 8. XXX A Letter written by Lethington the Secretary of Scotland to Sir William Cecil the Queen of England's Secretary touching the Title of the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England By which it appears that K. Henry's Will was not signed by him I Cannot be ignorant that some do object as to her Majesties Forreign Birth and hereby think to make her incapable of the Inheritance of England To that you know for answer what may be said by an English Patron of my Mistriss's Cause although I being a Scot will not affirm the same that there ariseth amongst you a Question Whether the Realm of Scotland be forth of the Homage and Leageance of England And therefore you have in sundry Proclamations preceding your Warsmaking and in sundry Books at sundry times laboured much to prove the Homage and Fealty of Scotland to England Your Stories also be not void of this intent What the judgment of the Fathers of your Law is and what commonly is thought in this Matter you know better than I and may have better intelligence than I the Argument being fitter for your Assertion than mine Another Question there is also upon this Objection of Forreign Birth that is to say Whether Princes inheritable to the Crown be in case of the Crown exempted or concluded as private Persons being Strangers born forth of the Allegiance of England You know in this case as divers others the State of the Crown the Persons inheritable to the Crown at the time of their Capacity have divers differences and prerogatives from other Persons many Laws made for other Persons take no hold in case of the Prince and they have such Priviledges as other Persons enjoy not As in cases of Attainders and other Penal Laws Examples Hen. 7. who being a Subject was attainted and Ed. 4. and his Father Richard Plantagenet were both attainted all which notwithstanding their Attainders had right to the Crown and two of them attained the same Amongst many Reasons to be shewed both for the differences and that Forreign Birth doth not take place in the case of the Crown as in common Persons the many experiences before the Conquest and since of your King 's do plainly testify 2. Of purpose I will name unto you Hen. 2d Maud the Empress Son and Richard of Bourdeaux the Black Princes Son the rather for that neither of the two was the King of England's Son and so not Enfant du Roy if the word be taken in this strict signification And for the better proof that it was always the common Law of your Realm that in the case of the Crown Forreign Birth was no Bar you do remember the words of the Stat. 25. Ed. 3. where it is said the Law was ever so Whereupon if you can remember it you and I fell out at a reasoning in my Lord of Leicester's Chamber by the occasion of the Abridgment of Rastal wherein I did shew you somewhat to this purpose also these words Infant and Ancestors be in Praedicamento ad aliquid and so Correlatives in such sort as the meaning of the Law was not to restrain the understanding of this word Infant so strict as only to the Children of the King's Body but to others inheritable in remainder and if some Sophisters will needs cavil about the precise understanding of Infant let them be answered with the scope of this word Ancestors in all Provisions for Filii Nepotes and Liberi you may see there was no difference betwixt the first degree and these that come after by the Civil Law Liberorum appellatione comprehenduntur non solum Filii verum etiam Nepotes Pronepotes Abnepotes c. If you examine the Reason why Forreign Birth is excluded you may see that it was not so needful in Princes Cases as in common Persons Moreover I know that England hath oftentimes married with Daughters and married with the greatest Forreign Princes of Europe And so I do also understand that they all did repute the Children of them and of the Daughters of England inheritable in succession to that Crown notwithstanding the Forreign Birth of their Issue And in this case I do appeal to all Chronicles to their Contracts of Marriages and to the opinion of all the Princes of Christendom For tho England be a noble and puissant Country the respect of the Alliance only and the Dowry hath not moved the great Princes to match so often in marriage but the possibility of the Crown in succession I cannot be ignorant altogether in this Matter considering that I serve my Sovereign in the room that you serve yours The Contract of Marriage is extant betwixt the King my Mistris's Grandfather and Queen Margaret Daughter to King Henry the 7 th by whose Person the Title is devolved on my Sovereign what her Fathers meaning was in bestowing of her the World knoweth by that which is contained in the Chronicles written by Polidorus Virgilius before as I think either you or I was born at least when it was little thought that this Matter should come in question There is another Exception also laid against my Soveraign which seems at the first to be of some weight grounded upon some Statutes made in King Hen. 8. time viz. of the 28 th 35 th of his Reign whereby full power and authority was given him the said King Henry to give dispose appoint assign declare and limit by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or else by his last Will made in writing and signed with his hand at his pleasure from time to time thereafter the Imperial Crown of that Realm c. Which Imperial Crown is by some alledged and constantly affirmed to have been limited and disposed by the last Will and Testament of the said King Hen. 8. signed with his hand before his death unto the Children of the Lady Francis and Elenor Daughter to
his going over to England but not one word of any such discourse with the King And King Henry was not a Man of such a temper as to permit one of Pole's quality to go out of England and live among his Enemies and continue his Pensions to him if he had to his face opposed him in a Matter he laid so much to heart 44. He says Fisher of Rochester and Holman Bishop of Bristol wrote for the Marriage There was no Bishoprick nor Bishop of Bristol at that time nor thirteen years after 45. Many are reckoned up who wrote for the Marriage in all Nations These are neither to be compared in number nor authority to those who wrote against it an hundred Books were shewed in Parliament written by Divines and Lawyers beyond Sea besides the determinations of twelve of the most celebrated Universities in Europe The Emperor did indeed give so great Rewards and such good Benefices to those who wrote against the King that it is a wonder there were not more Writers of his side 46. He says That upon Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's death the Earl of Wiltshire told the King that he had a Chaplain who was at his House that would certainly serve the King in the matter of his Divorce upon which Cranmer was promoted Cranmer was no stranger to the King at this time he was first recommended by the King to the Earl of Wiltshire to be kept in his House but was in Germany when Warham died and made no haste over but delayed his Journey some months It is true he was of the mind that the King ought to be divorced but this was not out of servile compliance for when the King pressed him in other things that were against his Conscience he expressed all the courage and constancy of mind which became so great a Prelate 47. He say's That Cranmer being to swear the Oath of Obedience to the Pope before he was consecrated did protest to a Publick Notary that he took it against his will and that he had no mind to keep his Faith to the Pope in prejudice to the King's Authority He did not protest that he did it unwillingly nor was it only to a Notary but twice at the high Altar he repeated the Protestation that he made which was to this effect That he intended not thereby to oblige himself to any thing contrary to the Law of God the King's Prerogative or the Laws of the Land nor to be restrained from speaking advising or consenting to any thing that should concern the Reformation of the Christian Faith the Government of the Church of England and the Prerogative of the Crown and Kingdom 48. He says Cranmer did in all things so comply with the King's Lusts that the King was wont to say he was the only Man that had never contradicted him in any thing he had a mind to Cranmer was both a good Subject and a modest and discreet Man and so would obey and submit as far as he might without sin yet when his Conscience charged him to appear against any thing that the King pressed him to as in the matter of the six Articles he did it with much resolution and boldness 49. He says The King going over to Calais carried Ann Boleyn secretly with him He carried her over in great state having made her Marchioness of Pembroke and in the publick Interview between him and Francis she appeared with all possible splendor 50. He says After the King's return from France he brought the Action of Premunire against all the Clergy This is an Error of two years for so long before this Voyage to France was that action begun and the Clergy about 28 months before had made their submission and obtained their pardon in March 1531 which appears by the printed Statutes and the King went over to France in September 1532 so that it is clear Sanders never looked for any verification of what he wrote 51. He says The King by an unheard-of Tyranny and a new Calumny brought this Charge against the Clergy These Laws upon which the Charge was founded had been oft renewed they were first made under Edward the First by reason of the Papal Encroachments that gave the rise to them they were oft confirmed by Edward the Third Richard the Second Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth with the concurrence of their Parliaments so the Charge was neither new nor tyrannical 52. He says The Clergy submitted to the King being betrayed by their Metropolitanes Cranmer and Lee. The submission was made two years before Cranmer was Arch-Bishop in March 1531 and Cranmer was Consecrated in March 1533. but at that time Warham sate in Canterbury as for Lee he opposed it for some time 53. He says The whole Clergâ— petitioned the King to forgive their Crime according to that Supreme Power which he had over all the Clergy and Laity within his Kingdom from whence the King's Counsellors took occasion afterwards to call him Supreme Head The Clergy did in the Title of their Submission call the King in formal terms Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England as far as by the Law of Christ is lawful to which Fisher with the rest of the Convocation subscribed And all this was done when More was Chancellor 54. He says When the King went to marry Ann Boleyn he perswaded Rowland Lee made soon after Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield to officiate in it assuring him he had obtain'd a Bull for it from Rome which was then lying in his Cabinet Upon which Lee giving credit to what he said did marry them This is another trial of Sander's wit to excuse Lee who tho at this time he complied absolutely with the King yet did afterwards turn over to the Popish Party therefore to make him look a little clean this Story must be forged But at that time all the World saw that the Pope and the Emperor were so linked together that Lee could not but know that no such thing was possible And he was so obsequious to the King that such Arts were needless to perswade him to any thing the King had a mind to 55. For five pages he runs out in repetition of all those foul Lyes concerning Ann Boleyn by which he designed both to disgrace the Reformers who were supported by her and to defame her Daughter Queen Elizabeth which have been before confuted after that he says Queen Katharine with three Maids and a small Family retired into the Country She had both the respect of a Princess Dowager and all the Jointure contracted to her by Prince Arthur so she could not be driven to that straitness but this must go for an Ornament in the Fable 56. He says It was concluded that Cranmer might be more free to pass Sentence that there should be an Oath imposed on the Clergy for paying the same Obedience to the King that they had paid the Pope
could any such Oath be then put to them The only Oath which the Parliament had enacted was the Oath of the Succession and the refusing it was only misprision of Treason and was not punishable by death But it was for denying the King's Supremacy and for writing and speaking both against it and his marriage that they suffered according to Law 80. He says Cromwel threatned the Jury in the King's name with certain death if they did not bring them in guilty Every Body that knows the Law of England will soon conclude this to be a Lye for no such threatnings were ever made in Trials in this Nation Nor was there any need at this time for the Law was so plain and their Facts so clearly proved that the Jury could not refuse to bring them in guilty 81. He says The three Carthusians that suffered were made stand upright and in one place fourteen days together with Irons about their Necks Arms and Legs before they died and then with great pomp he describes their Death in all its parts as if it had been a new-devised cruelty it being the Death which the Law appoints for Traitors He tells that Cromwel lamented that others of them had died in their Cells and so prevented his cruelty He also adds a long story of the severities against the Franciscans All this he drew from his learning in the Legend The English Nation knows none of these Cruelties in which the Spanish Inquisitors are very expert I find by some Original Letters that the Carthusians who were shut up in their Cells lived about a year after this so if Cromwel had designed to take away their lives he wanted not opportunities but it appears from what More writ in his Imprisonment that Cromwel was not a cruel Man but on the contrary merciful and gentle And for the Franciscans tho they had offended the King highly two of them railing spitefully at him to his Face in his Chappel at Greenwich Yet that was passed over with a Reproof from which it appears that he was not easily provoked against them So all that Relation which he gives being without any Authority must pass for a part of the Poem 82. He says The Bishop of Rochester was condemned because he would not acknowledg the King's Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters He was never pressed to acknowledg it but was condemned for denying it and speaking against it for had he kept his Opinion to himself he could not have been questioned But the denying the King's Titles of which his being Supream Head was one was by the Law Treason so he was tried for speaking against it and not for his not acknowledging it 83. He runs out in an high commendation of Fisher and among other things mentions his Episcopal and Apostolical Charity His Charity was burning indeed He was a merciless Prosecutor of Hereticks so that the rigor of the Law under which he fell was the same measure that he had measured out to others 84. Sanders will let the World see how carefully he had read the Legend and how skilfully he could write after that Copy in a prety Fabulous Story concerning More 's death to whom I will deny none of the Praises due to his memory for his great learning and singular probity nor had he any blemish but what flowed from the Leaven of that cruel Religion which carried him to great severities against those that preached for a Reformation His Daughter Roper was a Woman of great Vertue and worthy of such a Father who needed none of Sanders's Art to represent her well to the World His Story is That the morning her Father died she went about distributing all the Mony she had in Alms to the Poor and at last was at her Prayers in a Church when of a sudden she remembred that she had forgot to provide a Winding-sheet for his Body but having no more Mony left and not being well known in that place she apprehended they would not give her credit Yet she went to a Linnen-Drapers Shop and calling for so much Cloth she put her hand in her Pocket knowing she had nothing in it but intending to make an excuse and try if they would trust her But by a Miracle she found the price of the Sheet and neither more nor less was conveighed into her Pocket This is such a lively essay of the Man's Spirit that invented it that I leave it without any further Commentary 58. He says Lee that was not in Orders was sent to visit the Monasteries who sollicited the chastity of the Nunns He does not mention Leighton and London the two chief Visitors for Leighton brought in Lee but they were of the Popish Party and Lee was Cranmer's Friend therefore all must be laid on him He was in Orders and soon after was made Dean of York I have seen complaints of Dr. London's solliciting the Nuns yet I do not find Lee complained of But since London was a Persecutor of Hereticks such a small kindness as the concealing his Name and the turning the blame over on Lee was not to be stood on among Friends especially by a Man of Sander's ingenuity 86. For the correspondence between Q. Katharine and Father Forest and the Letters that past since Sanders tells us not a word how he came by them we are to look on them as a piece of the Romance 87. He says Ann Boleyn bore a monstrous and a mishaped lump of Flesh when the time of her bearing another Child came She bore a dead Child before the time says Hall but there was no great reproach in that unless made up by Sanders's wit 88. He lays out the business of Ann Boleyn with so much spite and malice that we may easily see against whom he chiefly designed this part of his Work He says She was found guilty of Adultery and Incest There was no Evidence against her but only a hear-say from the Lady Wingfield we neither know the credit of that Lady nor of the Person who related it in her name It is true Mark Smeton did confess his Adultery with the Queen but it was generally thought he was drawn into it by some promises that were made to him and so cheated out of his Life but for the Queen and the other four they attested their innocency to the last nor would any of those unfortunate Persons redeem their lives at so ignominious a rate as to charge the Queen whom they declared they knew to be innocent so that all the Evidence against her was an hear-say of a Woman that was dead the Confession of a poor Musician and some idle words her self spake of the Discourses that had passed between her and some of those Gentlemen 89. He says Foreigners did generally rejoice at her fall and to prove this he cites Cochleus's words that only shew that Author's ill opinion of her The Germans had so great a value of her that all their
18. v. 16. Lev. 20.21 And in the New Mat. 14.4 1 Cor. 5. â— Lib. 4 to cont Marcionâ—â— The Authorities of Popes a ad omnes Galâ—iâ—e Episcopos b 30. Quaest. 3. cap. Pitanâ—m c De Pres. cap. cum in juventutem and Counciâ—s Can. 2. Chap. 5. 〈◊〉 61. Chap. 5. a And the Greek In 20. Levit. b Homil. 71. on 22. Mat. c Epist. ad Diodor. On Levit. 18. and 20. And the Latine Fathers a Lib. 8. Ep. 66. b Cont. Hâ—â—vidium c Cont. Faâ—st chap. 8 9 10. Quaest. 64. in Lev. Ad Bonifac Lib. 3. chap. 4. Lib. 15. de Civ Dâ—i chap. 16. And of the Modern Writers In Epist. ad Pium Fratâ—em e On 18. Lev. g Epist. ad Arch. Rotomag Epis. Sag. f Lib. 2. de Sacram. p. 2. chap. 5. Art 2. h Epist. 240. The Schoolmen 2 dâ— 2 dae Quaest. 154. art 9. In Tertiam Quaest. 54. art 3. In 4tam. dist 40. Q. 3. and 4. And Canonists Marriage compleated by Consent Violent presumptions of the Consummation of Prince Artâ—â—r's Marriage The Popes Dispensation of no force In Quodiâ— Lib. 4. Art 13. in 4 tam dist 15. Q. 3. art 2. Sâ—p Cap. Conjunctioniâ— 35. Q. 2. 3. Sup. Cap. Literas de Rest. Spons Cap. ad Audien Spousal Several Bishops refuse to submit to the Popes Decrees The Authority of Tradition The Arguments for the Marriage 1529. The Anwers made to h ese 1531. The Queen still intractable Hall A Session of Parliament Morâ— Convocation The whole Clergy sued in a Premâ—nire The Prerogative of the Kings of England in Ecclesiastical affairs The Encroachment of the Papacy Mat. Paris The Laws made against them 25 Edw. 1st repeated in the Stat. of Provisors 25. Edw. 3d. 25. Edward 3d. Statute of Provisors 27. Edward 3d. cap. 1st 38. Edward 3d. cap. 1st 3. Richard 2d cap. 3d. 12 Richard 2d cap. 15. 16. Richard 2d cap. 5. 2. Hen. 4. cap. 4. 6. Henry 4. cap. 1st 7. Hen. 4. cap. 6.8 17. Hen. 4. cap. 8. 4. Hen. 5. cap. 4. Ex MSS. D Petyt 1530. Reg. Chicâ—el Fol. 39. Collect. Numb 37. 1531. And to the King and Parliament Collect. Numb 38. Collect. Numb 39. But to no purpose Collect. Numb 40. The Clergy excuse themselves Yet they Compound And acknowledge the King Supreme Head of the Church of England Lord Heâ—bert Antiquit. Britanniae in vita Warham Printed in the Cabala The Commons desire to be included in the King's Pardon Hall Which thâ— King afterwards grants One Attainâ—â—ed for Poisoning 22. Hen. 8 Act. 16. Lord Herbert The King leaves the Queen A disorder among the Clergy of London about the Subsidy Hall The Pope falls off to the French Faction A Match projected between the Pope's Neece and the Duke of Orleance The Emperor is engaged in a War with â—he Turk 1532. The Parliament complains of the Ecclesiastical Courts Hall But reject a Bill about Wards The Commons Petition that they may be Dissolved 1532. The King's Answer An Act against Annates Collect. Numb 41. Parl. Rolls The Pope writes to the King about the Queens Appeal L. Herbert Collect. Numb 42. A Dispatch of the King to the Pope Sir Edward Karne sent to Rome His Negotiation there taken from the Original Letters Cott. lib. Viteli B. 13. The Cardinal of Ravenna corrupted by Bribes Collect. Numb 43. Collect. Numb 44. Collect. Numb 45. A Bull for erecting new Bishopricks The Pope desires the King would submit to him Collect. Numb 46. A Session of Parl. One moves for bringing the Queen to Court At which the King is offended A Subsidy is voted The King remits the Oaths which the Clergy swore to be considered by the Commons Their Oath to the Pope Their Oath to the King More laid down his Office An Enterveiw with the French King Eliot sent to Rome with Instructions Cott. Lib. Vil. B. 13. The King Married Anne Boâ—eyn Nov. 14. Cowper Holinsâ—ies and Sanders An enterview between Pope and Emperor Some overtures about the Divorce Lord Herbert 1533. A Session of Parliament An Act against Appeals to Rome 24. Hen. 8. Act 22. 1533. Warhams Death Aug. 23. The King resolves to promote Cranmer Fox Cranmers Bulls from Rome His Protestation about his Oath to the Pope Antiq. Brit. iâ— vita Cranmâ—â— 1532. New Endeavours to make the Queen submit But in vain 1533. Cranmer proceeds to a Sentence of Divorce taken from the Originals Cott. lib. Otho C. 1â— Collect. Numb 47. The Censures past at that time Cott. lib. Otho C. 10. The Pope unites himself to the French King And condemns the Kings proceedings in England Queen Elizabeth Born Sâ—p 7. An Interview between the Pope and Frâ—nch King at Marsâ—illâ—s The Pope promises to give Sentence for the King of England's Divorce Fidel. serv. Infidâ— subdit Responsio Bzovius The French King prevails with the King of England to submit to the Pope Which was well received at Rome Hist. Council of Trent by Padre Paule But the Imperialists opposed it 1531. And with great preparation procure a sentence against the King The King resolves to abolish the Popes Power in England Which had been much disputed there 1532. â—elerine Inglese Hall The Arguments upon which it was rejected 1533. 1534. The Arguments for the Kings Supremacy From the old Testament 1533. And the New And the Practises of the primitive Church And from Reason And from the Laws of England 1534. The Qualification of that Supremacy Necessary Erudition upon the Sacrament of Orders The necessity of extirpating the Popes Power Pains taken to satisfie Fisher about it The Origiâ—nal is in the Cott. lib. 〈◊〉 C. 10. Journal Procer The Act for taking away the Popes Power It is the Act 21 in the Statute Book 27 in the Record and 8 in the Journal The judgments past on that Act. Act about the Succession to the Crown 22 in the Statute Books 34 in the Reâ—ord 26 in the Journal The Oath about the Succesâ—ion Journal Procer Act about punishing Hereticks 14 in the Stâ—tute Book 33 in the Record 31 in the Journal The submission made by the Clergy to the King 19 in the Statute Book 25 in the Record Journal Procâ—r 〈…〉 26 in the Record Collect. â—umb 48. The Act about the Maid of Kâ—nt and her Complices 12 in Statute Book 31 in the Record 7 in the Journâ—â— See his Works paâ— 1435. The 〈…〉 of the 〈◊〉 Sâ—ow Stow. The Nuns speech at her death Hall Stow Fisher gently dealt with But is obstinate and intractable Collect. Numb 49. Cott. Lib. Cleopatâ—e E. 4. The Oath for the Succession generally sworn Orig. Cott. Lib. Otho C. â—â— Collect. Numb 50. Rot. Claus. Those last clausâ—◠〈◊〉 not in the other Writing More and Fisher refuse the Oath See his works p. 1428. Weavers Monuments page 504 and 506. And are proceeded against Another Session of Parliament The Kings Supremacy declared The Oath about the Succession conâ—iâ—med The first Fruits of Benefices given to the King Sundry
THE Historie of the REFORMATION of the CHURCH of ENGLAND LONDON Printed for Ric Chiswell Whitehall May 23. 1679. THis Book entituled The History of the Reformation of the Church of ENGLAND having been perused and approved by Persons of eminent Quality and several Divines of great Piety and Learning who have recommended it as a Work very fit to be made publick as well for the Usefulness of the Matter as for the Industry and Integrity the Author hath used in compiling of it the Honourable Mr. SECRETARY COVENTRY doth therefore allow it to be Printed and Published IO. COOKE THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE Church of England The First Part OF THE Progress made in it during the Reign OF K. Henry the VIII By GILBERT BVRNET LONDON Printed by T. H. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXIX TO THE KING SIR THE first step that was made in the Reformation of this Church was the restoring to your Royal Ancestors the Rights of the Crown and an entire Dominion over all their Subjects of which they had been disseised by the craft and violence of an unjust Pretender to whom the Clergy though your Majesties Progenitors had enriched them by a bounty no less profuse than ill-managed did not only adhere but drew with them the Laity over whose Consciences they had gained so absolute an Authority that our Kings were to expect no Obedience from their people but what the Popes were pleased to allow It is true the Nobler part of the Nation did frequently in Parliament assert the Regal Prerogatives against those Papal invasions yet these were but faint endeavours for an ill-executed Law is but an unequal match to a Principle strongly infused into the Consciences of the people But how different was this from the teaching of Christ and his Apostles They forbad men to use all those Arts by which the Papacy grew up and yet subsists They exhorted them to obey Magistrates when they knew it would cost them their Lives They were for setting up a Kingdom not of this World nor to be attained but by a holy and peaceable Religion If this might every-where take place Princes would find Government both easie and secure It would raise in their Subjects the truest courage and unite them with the firmest charity It would draw from them Obedience to the Laws and Reverence to the persons of their Kings If the Standards of Justice and Charity which the Gospel gives of doing as we would be done by and loving our Neighbours as our selves were made the measures of mens actions how steadily would Societies be governed and how exactly would Princes be obeyed The design of the Reformation was to restore Christianity to what it was at first and to purge it of those Corruptions with which it was over-run in the later and darker Ages GREAT SIR This work was carryed on by a slow and unsteady Progress under King Henry the VIII it advanced in a fuller and freer course under the short but blessed Reign of King Edward was Sealed with the blood of many Martyrs under Queen Mary was brought to a full settlement in the happy and glorious days of Queen Elizabeth was defended by the learned Pen of King Iames but the established frame of it under which it had so long flourished was overthrown with your Majesties blessed Father who fell with it and honoured it by his unexempled Suffering for it and was again restored to its former beauty and order by your Majesties happy Return What remains to compleat and perpetuate this Blessing the composing of our differences at home the establishing a closer correspondence with the Reformed Churches abroad the securing us from the restless and wicked practices of that Party who hoped so lately to have been at the end of their designs and that which can only entitle us to a Blessing from God the Reforming of our manners and lives as our Ancestors did our Doctrine and Worship All this is reserved for your Majesty that it may appear that your Royal Title of Defender of the Faith is no empty sound but the real strength and Glory of your Crown For attaining these ends it will be of great use to trace the steps of our first Reformers for if the land-marks they set be observed we can hardly go out of the way This was my chief design in the following sheets which I now most humbly offer to your Majesty hoping that as you were graciously pleased to command that I should have free access to all Records for composing them so you will not deny your Royal Patronage to the History of that Work which God grant your Majesty may live to raise to its perfection and to compleat in your Reign the Glory of all your Titles This is a part of the most earnest as well as the daily Prayers of May it please Your Sacred Majesty Your Majesties most Loyal most Faithful and most devoted Subject and Servant G. BVRNET THE CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME BOOK I. A Summary View of King Henry the Eighths Reign till the Process of his Divorce was begun in which the State of England chiefly as it related to Religion is opened Page 1. BOOK II. Of the Process of Divorce between King Henry and Queen Katherine and of what passed from the 19th to the 25th year of his Reign in which he was declared Supream Head of the Church of England Page 34. BOOK III. Of the other Transactions about Religion and Reformation during the rest of the Reign of King Henry the 8th Page 179. COLLECTION OF RECORDS c. Ad Librum Primum Page 3. Ad Librum Secundum Page 9. Ad Librum Tertium Page 131. An Appendix concerning the Errors and Falsehoods in Sanders's Book of the English Schism Page 273. ADDENDA Page 305. ERRATA in the Historical part PAge 12. Line 6. Margent for 15. read 1st p. 49. l. 19. for chiefly r. clearly p. 54. l. 15. for 10. r. 13. p. 103. l. 32. Abisha r. Abishag p. 109. l. 47. had r. has p. 115. l. 10. having r. had p. 126. l. 9. before officiate r. did p. 151. l. 31. speak r. spake p. 173. l. 31. dele a. p. 186. l. 25. Pachon r. Pachom p. 198. l. 8. co r. to p. 203. l. 41. then r. that p. 205. l. 20. being her last words r. her last words being p. 235. l. 44. that so r. so that p. 239. l. 33. was r. is p. 259. l. 42. As r. All. p. 264. l. 15. down r. out p. 275. l. 5. no r. on p. 283. l. 49. in that r. that in l. 51. the great charges of r. of the great charges p. 284. l. 21. person r. prison p. 327. l. 31. desertion r. discovery p. 333. Marginal Note resentments r. preâ—erments Informers r. Reformers p. 344. l. 22. before he r. that p. 369. l. 5. utrumque r. utcumque Some Literal faults and mistakes in the Punctuation the Reader will more easily Correct THE
laid the Murder on the Officers that had the charge of that Prison and by other proofs they found the Bishops Sumner and the Bell-ringer guilty of it and by the deposition of the Sumner himself it did appear that the Chancellour and he and the Bell-ringer did Murder him and then hang him up But as the Inquest proceeded in this Trial the Bishop began a new Process against the dead body of Richard Hunne for other points of Heresie and several Articles were gathered out of Wickliff's Preface to the Bible with which he was charged And his having the Book in his Possession being taken for good evidence he was judged an Heretick and his body delivered to the Secular Power When judgment was given the Bishops of Duresme and Lincoln with many Doctors both of Divinity and the Canon-Law sate with the Bishop of London so that it was lookt on as an Act of the whole Clergy and done by common consent On the 20th of December his body was burnt at Smithfield But this produced an effect very different from what was expected for it was hoped that he being found an Heretick no body should appear for him any more whereas on the contrary it occasioned a great out-cry the man having lived in very good reputation among his Neighbours so that after that day the City of London was never well affected to the Popish Clergy but inclined to follow any body who spoke against them and every one lookt on it as a Cause of common concern All exclaimed against the Cruelty of their Clergy that for a mans suing a Clerke according to law he should be long and hardly used in a severe imprisonment and at last cruelly murdered and all this laid on himself to defame him and ruin his family And then to burn that body which they had so handled was thought such a complication of Cruelties as few Barbarians had ever been guilty of The Bishop finding that the Inquest went on and the whole matter was discovered used all possible endeavours to stop their proceedings and they were often brought before the Kings Council where it was pretended that all proceeded from Malice and Heresie The Cardinal laboured to procure an order to forbid their going any further but the thing was both so foul and so evident that it could not be done and that opposition made it more generally believed In the Parliament there was a Bill sent up to the Lords by the Commons for restoring Hunne's Children which was passed and had the Royal assent to it but another Bill being brought in about this Murther it occasioned great heats among them The Bishop of London said that Hunne had hanged himself that the Inquest were false perjured Caitiffs and if they proceeded further he could not keep his house for Hereticks so that the Bill which was sent up by the Commons was but once read in the House of Lords for the power of the Clergy was great there But the Trial went on and both the Bishops Chancellour and the Summer were endicted as Principals in the Murder The Convocation that was then sitting finding so great a stir made and that all their liberties were now struck at resolved to call Doctor Standish to an Account for what he had said and argued in that matter so he being summoned before them some Articles were objected to him by word of mouth concerning the judging of Clerks in Civil Courts and the day following they being put in writing the Bill was delivered to him and a day assigned for him to make answer The Doctor perceiving their intention and judging it would go hard with him if he were tryed before them went and claimed the Kings Protection from this trouble that he was now brought in for discharging his duty as the Kings Spiritual Counsel But the Clergy made their excuse to the King that they were not to question him for any thing he had said as the Kings Counsel but for some Lectures he read at St Pauls and elswhere contrary to the Law of God and Liberties of the holy Church which they were bound to maintain and desired the Kings Assistance according to his Coronation Oath and as he would not incur the Censures of the holy Church On the other hand the Temporal Lords and Judges with the concurrence of the House of Commons addressed to the King to maintain the Temporal Jurisdiction according to his Coronation Oath and to protect Standish from the Malice of his enemies This put the King in great perplexity for he had no mind to lose any part of his Temporal Jurisdiction and on the other hand was no less apprehensive of the dangerous effects that might follow on a breach with the Clergy So he called for Doctor Veysey then Dean of his Chappel and afterwards Bishop of Exeter and charged him upon his Allegiance to declare the truth to him in that matter which after some study he did and said upon his Faith Conscience and Allegiance he did think that the convening of Clerks before the secular Judg which had been always practised in England might well consist with the Law of God and the true Liberties of the holy Church This gave the King great satisfaction so he commanded all the Judges and his Council both Spiritual and Temporal and some of both Houses to meet at Black-Friers and to hear the matter argued The Bill against Doctor Standish was read which consisted of Six Articles that were objected to him First That he had said that the lower Orders were not sacred Secondly That the Exemption of Clerks was not founded on a divine Right Thirdly That the Laity might coerce Clerks when the Prelates did not their duty Fourthly That no positive Ecclesiastical Law binds any but those who receive it Fifthly That the Study of the Canon-Law was needless Sixthly That of the whole Volume of the Decretum so much as a man could hold in his fist and no more did oblige Christians To these Doctor Standish answered that for those things exprest in the Third the Fifth and the Sixth Articles he had never taught them as for his asserting them at any time in discourse as he did not remember it so he did not much care whether he had done it or not To the First he said Lesser Orders in one sense are sacred and in another they are not sacred For the Second and Fourth he confessed he had taught them and was ready to justifie them It was objected by the Clergy that as by the Law of God no man could judge his Father it being contrary to that Commandment Honour thy Father So Church-men being Spiritual Fathers they could not be judged by the Laity who were their Children To which he answered that as that only concluded in favour of Priests those in Inferiour Orders not being Fathers so it was a mistake to say a Judge might not sit upon his Natural Father for the Judge was by another Relation above his Natural Father and though
the Proceedings in the Kings Bench since there was no justice done and all thought the King seemed more careful to maintain his Prerogative than to do Justice This I have related the more fully because it seems to have had great Influence on peoples minds and to have disposed them much to the Changes that followed afterwards How these things were entred in the Books of Convocation cannot be now known For among the other sad losses sustained in the late burning of London this was one that almost all the Registers of the Spiritual Courts were burnt some few of the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and Bishops of London's Registers being only preserved But having compared Fox his Account of this and some other matters and finding it exactly according to the Registers that are preserved I shall the more confidently build on what he published from those Records that are now lost This was the only thing in the first 18 years of the Kings Reign that seemed to lessen the Greatness of the Clergy but in all other matters he was a most faithful Son of the See of Rome Pope Iulius soon after his coming to the Crown sent him a Golden Rose with a Letter to Arch-Bishop Warham to deliver it and though such Presents might seem fitter for young Children than for men of discretion yet the King was much delighted with it and to shew his Gratitude there was a Treaty concluded the year following between the King and Ferdinand of Arragon for the Defence of the Papacy against the French King And when in opposition to the Council that the French King and some other Princes and Cardinals had called first to Pisa which was afterwards translated to Milan and then to Lions that summoned the Pope to appear before them and suspended his Authority Pope Iulius called another Council to be held in the Lateran the King sent the Bishops of Worcester and Rochester the Prior of St. Iohns and the Abbot of Winchelcomb to sit in that Council in which there was such a Representative of the Catholick Church as had been for several of the latter Ages in the Western Church in which a few Bishops packt out of several Kingdoms and many Italian Bishops with a vast number of Abbots Priors and other Inferiour Digniâ—â—ed Clergy-men were brought to Confirm together whatever the Popes had a mind to Enact which passing easily among them was sent over the world with a stamp of Sacred Authority as the Decrees and Decisions of the Holy Universal Church assembled in a General Council Nor was there a worse understanding between this King and Pope Leo the 10 th that succeeded Iulius who did also complement him with those Papal Presents of Roses and at his desire made Wolsey a Cardinal and above all other things obliged him by conferring on him the Title of Defender of the Faith upon the presenting to the Pope his Book against Luther in a pompous Letter Signed by the Pope and 27 Cardinals in which the King took great pleasure affecting it always beyond all his other Titles though several of the former Kings of England had carried the same Title as Spelman informs us So easie a thing it was for Popes to oblige Princes in those days when a Title or a Rose was thought a sufficient Recompence for the greatest Services The Cardinal Governing all Temporal Affairs as he did it is not to be doubted but his Authority was absolute in Ecclesiastical Matters which seemed naturally to lie within his Province yet Warham made some opposition to him and complained to the King of his encroaching too much in his Legantine Courts upon his Jurisdiction and the things being clearly made out the King chid the Cardinal sharply for it who ever after that hated Warham in his heart yet he proceeded more warily for the future But the Cardinal drew the hatred of the Clergy upon himself chiefly by a Bull which he obtained from Rome giving him Authority to visit all Monasteries and all the Clergy of England and to dispence with all the Laws of the Church for one whole year after the date of the Bull. The power that was lodged in him by this Bull was not more invidious than the words in which it was conceived were offensive for the Preamble of it was full of severe Reflections against the Manners and Ignorance of the Clergy who are said in it to have been delivered over to a Reprobate mind This as it was a publick Deâ—aming them so how true soever it might be all thought it did not become the Cardinal whose Vices were notorious and scandalous to tax others whose faults were neither so great nor so eminent as his were He did also affect a Magnificence and Greatness not only in his Habit being the first Clergy-man in England that wore Silks but in his Family his Train and other pieces of State equal to that of Kings And even in performing Divine Offices and saying Mass he did it with the same Ceremonies that the Popes use who judg themselves so nearly related to God that those humble acts of Adoration which are Devotions in other persons would abase them too much He had not only Bishops and Abbots to serve him but even Dukes and Earls to give him the Water and the Towel He had certainly a vast mind and he saw the corruptions of the Clergy gave so great Scandal and their Ignorance was so profound that unless some effectual ways were taken for correcting these they must needs fall into great disesteem with the People For though he took great liberties himself and perhaps according to the Maxime of the Canonists he judged Cardinals as Princes of the Church were not comprehended within ordinary Ecclesiastical Laws yet he seemed to have designed the Reformation of the Inferiour Clergy by all the means he could think of except the giving them a good Example Therefore he intended to visit all the Monasteries of England that so discovering their corruptions he might the better justifie the design he had to suppress most of them and convert them into Bishopricks Cathedrals Collegiate Churches and Colledges For which end he procured the Bull from Rome but he was diverted from making any use of it by some who advised him rather to suppress Monasteries by the Popes Authority than proceed in a Method which would raise great hatred against himself cast foul aspersions on Religious Orders and give the Enemies of the Church great advantages against it Yet he had communicated his design to the King and his Secretary Cromwell understanding it was thereby instructed how to proceed afterwards when they went about the total suppression of the Monasteries The Summoning of Convocations he assumed by vertue of his Legantine Power Of these there were two sorts the first were called by the King for with the Writs for a Parliament there went out always a Summons to the Two Arch-Bishops for calling a Convocation of
a fuller Commission might be sent to himself with all possible haste since delays might produce great inconveniences If a Legate were named then care must be taken that he should be one who were Learned Indifferent and Tractable and if Campegius could be the man he was the fittest person And when one was named he should make him a decent present and assure him that the King would most liberally recompence all his labour and expence He also required him to press his speedy Dispatch and that the Commission should be full to try and determine wiâ—hout any reservation of the Sentence to be given by the Pope This Dispatch is interlined and amended with the Cardinals own hand But upon the Arrival of the Messenger whom the Secretary had sent with the Commission and Dispensation and the other Packets before mentioned It was debated in the Kings Council whether he should go on in his Process or continue to solicite new Bulls from Rome On the one hand they saw how tedious dangerous and expensive a Process at Rome was like to prove and therefore it seemed the easiest and most expedite way to proceed before the Cardinal in his Legantine Court who should ex officio and in the Summary way of their Court bring it to a speedy Conclusion But on the other hand if the Cardinal gave Sentence and the King should Marry then they were not sure but before that time the Pope might either change his mind or his Interest might turn him another way And the Popes Power was so absolute by the Canon Law that no general Clauses in Commissions to Legates could bind him to confirm their Sentences and if upon the Kings Marrying another Wife the Pope should refuse to confirm it then the King would be in a worse case than he was now in and his Marriage and Issue by it should be still disputable Therefore they thought this was by no means to be adventured on but they should make new Addresses to the Court of Rome In the debate some sharp words fell either from the King or some of his Secular Counsellors Intimating that if the Pope continued under such fears the King must find some other way to set him at ease So it was resolved that Stephen Gardiner commonly called Doctor Stevens the Cardinals chief Secretary and Edward Fox the Kings Almoner should be sent to Rome the one being esteemed the ablest Canonist in England the other one of the best Divines they were Dispatched the 10th of February By them the King wrote to the Pope thanking him that he had expressed such forward and earnest willingness to give him ease and had so kindly promised to gratifie his desires of which he expected now to see the effects He wrote also to the Cardinals his thanks for the chearfulness with which they had in Consistory promised to promote his Sute for which he assured them they should never have cause to Repent But the Cardinal wrote in a strain that shews he was in some fear that if he could not bring about the Kings desires he was like to lose his favour He besought the Pope as lying at his feet that if he thought him a Christian a good Cardinal and not unworthy of that Dignity an useful member of the Apostolick See a Promoter of Justice and Equity or thought him his faithful Creature or that he desired his own eternal Salvation that he would now so far consider his Intercession as to grant kindly and speedily that which the King earnestly desired which if he did not know to be Holy Right and Just he would undergo any hazard or punishment whatsoever rather than promote it but he did aprehend if the King found that the Pope was so overawed by the Emperor as not to grant that which all Christendom judged was grounded both on the Divine and Human Laws both he and other Christian Princes would from thence take occasion to provide themselves of other Remedies and lessen and despise the Authority of the Apostolick See In his Letters to Cassali he expressed a great sense of the Services which the Cardinal Sanctorum Quatuor had done the King and bid him enquire what were the things in which he delighted most whether Furniture Gold plate or Horses that they might make him acceptable presents and assure him that the King would contribute largely towards the carrying on the building of St. Peters in the Vatican The most Important thing about which they were employed was to procure the expediting of a Bull which was formed in England with all the strongest Clauses that could be imagined In the Preamble of which all the Reasons against the validity of the Bull of P. Iulius the 2d were recited and it was also hinted that it was against the Law of God but to lessen that it was added at least where there was not a sufficient Dispensation obtained therefore the Pope to reward the great Services by which the King had obliged the Apostolick See and having regard to the Distractions that might follow on a Disputable Title upon a full Consultation with the Cardinals having also heard the Opinions of Divines and Canonists Deputed for his Legate to concur with the Cardinal of York either together or the one being hindred or unwilling severally And if they found those things that were suggested against the Bull of P. Iulius or any of them well or sufficiently proved then to declare it void and null as surreptitiously procured upon false grounds and thereupon to Annul the Marriage that had followed upon it And to give both Parties full leave to Marry again notwithstanding any Appellation or Protestation the Pope making them his Vicars with full and absolute Power and Authority empowering them also to declare the Issue begotten in the former Marriage good and legitimate if they saw cause for it The Pope binding himself to confirm whatever they should do in that process and never to revoke or repeal what they should Pronounce Declaring also that this Bull should remain in force till the Process were ended and that by no Revocation or Inhibition it should be recalled and if any such were obtained these are all declared void and null and the Legats were to proceed notwithstanding and all ended with a full Non obstante This was judged the uttermost force that could be in a Bull Though the Civilians would scarce allow any validity at all in these extravagant Clauses but the most material thing in this Bull is that it seems the King was not fully resolved to declare his Daughter illegitimate Whether he pretended this to mitigate the Queens or the Emperors opposition or did really intend it is not clear But what he did afterwards in Parliament shews he had this deep in his thoughts though the Queens Carriage did soon after provoke him to pursue his resentments against her Daughter The French King did also joyn a most earnest Letter of his to the Pope
the whole Matter that I hope the Reader will not be ill pleased to have a short abstract of them laid before him An Abstract of those things which were written for the Divorce The Law of Marriage was originally given by God to Adam in the state of Innocence with this Declaration that man and wife were one Flesh but being afterwards corrupted by the Incestuous commixtures of those which were of Kin in the nearest degrees the Primitive Law was again revived by Moses And he gives many Rules and Prohibitions about the Degrees of Kinred and Affinity which are not to be looked on as new Laws and judiciary Precepts but as a Restoring of the Law of Nature originally given by God but then much corrupted For as the Preface which is so oft repeated before these Laws I am the Lord insinuates that they were conform to the Divine Nature so the consequences of them show they were Moral and Natural For the Breaches of them are called Wickedness and Abomination and are said to defile the Land and the Violation of them is charged on the Canaanites by which the Land was polluted and for which it did vomit out the Inhabitants From whence it must be concluded that these were not positive Precepts which did only bind the Iews but were parts of the Law of Mankind and Nature otherwise those Nations could contract no Guilt by their Violating them Among the forbidden Degrees one is Thou shalt not discover the Nakedness of thy Brothers wife it is thy Brothers Nakedness And it is again repeated If a man shall take his Brothers wife it is an unclean thing he hath uncovered his Brothers Nakedness they shall be childless These are clear and express Laws of God which therefore must needs oblige all persons of what rank soever without exception In the New Testament St. Iohn Baptist said to Herod It is not Lawful for thee to take thy Brothers wife which shows that these Laws of Moses were still obligatory St. Paul also in his epistle to the Corinthians condemns the Incestuous person for having his Fathers wife which is one of the Degrees forbidden by the Law of Moses and calls it a Fornication not so much as named among the Gentiles From whence it is inferred that these forbidden degrees are excluded by the Law of Nature since the Gentiles did not admit them St. Paul also calling it by the common name of Fornication within which according to that place all undue Commixtures of men and women are included Therefore those places in the New Testament that condemn Fornication do also condemn Marriages in forbidden degrees our Saviour did also assert the foundation of affinity by saying that man and wife are one Flesh. But in all Controverted things the sense of the Scriptures must be taken from the Tradition of the Church which no good Catholick can deny and that is to be found in the Decrees of Popes and Councils and in the writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church against which if any argue from their private understanding of the Scriptures it is the way of Heresie and savours of Lutheranism The first of the Fathers who had occasion to write of this Matter was Tertullian who lived within an Age after the Apostles He in express words says that the Law of not Marrying the Brothers wife did still oblige Christians The first Pope whose decision was sought in this Matter was Gregory the Great to whom Austin the Apostle of England wrote for his resolution of some things in which he desired direction and one of these is Whether a man may Marry his Brothers wife who in the Language of that time was called his Kinswoman The Pope answered Negatively and proved it by the Law of Moses and therefore Defined that if any of the English Nation who had Marryed within that degree were converted to the Faith he must be admonished to abstain from his wife and to look on such a Marriage as a most grievous Sin From which it appears that that good Pope did judge it a thing which by no means could be dispenced with otherwise he had not pressed it so much under such Circumstances since in the first Conversion of a Nation to the Christian Faith the Insisting too much upon it might have kept back many from receiving the Christian Religion who were otherwise well inclined to it Calixtus Zacarias and Innocent the Third have plainly asserted the obligation of these Precepts in the Law of Moses the last particularly who treats about it with great vehemency So that the Apostolick See has already judged the Matter Several Provincial Councils have also declared the obligation of the Precepts about the degrees of Marriage in Leviticus by the Council at Neocesarea If a woman had been Marryed to two Brothers she was to be cast out of the Communion of the Church till her death and thâ— man that Marryed his Brothers wife was to be Anathematized which was also Confirmed in a Council held by Pope Gregory the Second Iâ— the Council of Agde where the Degrees that make a Marriage incestuous are reckoned this of Marrying the Brothers wife is one of them and there it was Decreed that all Marriages within these Degrees were Null and the Parties so Contracting were to be cast out of the Communion of the Church and put among the Catechumens till they separated themselves from one another And in the Second Council of Toledo the Authority of the Mosaical Prohibitions about the Degrees of Marriage is acknowledged It was one of Wickcliffs errors that the Prohibition of Marriage within such degrees was without any foundation in the Law of God for which and other points he was condemned first in a Convocation at London then at Oxford and last of all at the general Council of Constance these Condemnations were confirmed So formally had the Church in many Provincial Councils and in one that was General decided this matter Next to these the Opinions of the Fathers were to be considered In the Greek Church Origen first had occasion to Treat about it writing on Leviticus and Chrysostome after him but most fully St. Basil the Great who do expressly assert the obligations of these Precepts The last particularly refuting at great length the Opinion of some who thought the Marrying two Sisters was not unlawful laies it down as a Foundation That the Laws in Leviticus about Marriage were still in force Hesychius also writing upon Leviticus proves that these Prohibitions were universally obligatory because both the Egyptians and Cananites are taxed for Marrying within these Degrees From whence he inferrs they are of Moral and Eternal obligation From the Greek they went to the Latine Fathers and alledged as was already observed that Tertullian held the same Opinion and with him agreed the three great Doctors of the Latin Church Ambrose Ierom and
the King had done That the Pope had said at Marseilles that if the King would send a Proxy to Rome he would give the Cause for him against the Queen because he knew his Cause was good and just Which is a great presumption that the Pope did really give some engagements to the French King about the King's business When the Bishop of Paris came to Rome the Motion was liked and it was promised that if the King sent a promise of that under his Hand with an Order to his Proxies to appear in Court there should be Judges sent to Cambray to form the Process and then the matter should be Determined for him at Rome This was sent to the King with the Notice of the day that was prefixed for the return of his answer and with other Motives which must have been very great since they prevailed so much For in answer there was a Courier dispatcht from the King with a formal promise under his Hand And now the matter seemed at a point the French Interest was great in the Court of Rome four new Cardinals had been made at Marseilles and there were six of that Faction before which with the Popes Creatures and the indifferent or venal Voices ballanced the Imperial Faction so that a wound that was looked on as fatal was now almost healed But God in his wise and unsearchable Providence had designed to draw other great ends out of this Rupture and therefore suffered them that were the most concerned to hinder it to be the chief instruments of driving it on For the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction were now very active they liked not the President of excluding the Cardinals of the Nations concern'd out of any business But above all things they were to hinder a Conjunction between the Pope and the King of England for the Pope being then allied to France there was nothing the Emperor feared more than the closing the Breach with England which would make the union against him so much stronger Therefore when the day that had been prefixed for the return of the Courier from England was elapsed they all pressed the Pope to proceed to a Sentence Definitive and to Censures Bellay the Bishop of Paris represented the injustice of proceeding with so much Precipitation since where there were Seas to cross in such a Season many accidents might occasion the delay of the Express The King of England had followed this Suit six years and had patience so long therefore he desired the delay of six dayes and if in that time no return came they might proceed But the Imperialists represented that those were only delays to gain time and that the King of England was still proceeding in his contempt of the Apostolick See and of the Cardinals and publishing Books and Libels against them This so wrought on the angry Pope that without consulting his ordinary prudence he brought the business into the Consistory where the Plurality of voices carryed it to proceed to a Sentence And though the Process had been carryed on all that winter in their usual Forms yet it was not so ripe but by the Rules of the Consistory there ought to have been three Sessions before Sentence was given But they concluded all in one day and so on the 23d of March the Marriage between the King and Queen Katharine was declared good and the King required to take her as his wife otherwise Censures were to be denounced against him Two days after that the Courier arrived from England with the Kings Submission under his hand in due Form and earnest Letters from the French King to have it accepted that so the business might be composed When this was known at Rome all the indiâ—â—erent and wise Cardinals among whom was Farnese that was afterwards Pope Paul the 3d. came to the Pope and desired that it might be again considered before it went furâ—her So it was brought again into the Consistory But the secret reason of the Imperialists opposing it was now more pressing since there was such an appearance of a settlement if the former Sentence were once recalled Therefore they so managed the matter that it was confirmed a-new by the Pope and the Consistory and they ordered the Emperor to execute the Sentence The King was now in so good hope of his business that he sent Sr. Edward Karne to Rome to prosecute his Suit who on his way thither met the Bishop of Paris coming back with this Melancholick account of his unprosperous Negotiation When the King heard it and understood that he was used with so much scorn and contempt at Rome being also the more vexed because he had come to such a submission he resolved then to break totally from Rome And in this he was before hand with that Court. For judging it the best way to procure a peace to manage the War vigorously he had held a Session of Parliament from the 15th of Ianuary till the 30th of March in which he had procured a great Change of the whole Constitution of the Government of the Church But before I give an account of that I shall first open all the Arguments and reasons upon which I find they proceeded in this Matter The Popes Power had been then for 4 years together much examined and disputed in England in which they went by these steps one leading to another They first controverted his Power of Dispensing with the Law of God From that they went to examine what Jurisdiction he had in England upon which followed the Convicting the Clergy of a Premunire with their Submission to the King And that led them to controvert the Popes right to Annates and other Exactions which they also condemned The Condemning all appeals to Rome followed that naturally And now so many branches of that Power were cut off the Root was next struck at and the Foundations of the Papal Authority were examined For near a year together there had been many publick debates about it and both in the Parliament and Convocation the thing was long disputed and all that could be alledged on both sides was Considered The Reader will be best able to judge of their reasons and thereby of the ripeness of their judgments when they Enacted the Laws that passed in this Parliament when he sees a full account of them which I shall next set down not drawn from the Writings and Apologies that have been published since but from these that came out about that time For then were written the Institution for the Necessary Erudition of a Christian man Concluded in the Convocation and published by Authority and another Book De Differentia Regiae Ecclesiasticae Potestatis The former of these was called the Bishops and the latter the Kings Book Gardiner also wrote a Book De vera Obedientia to which Bonner prefixed a Preface upon the same Subject Stokesly Bishop of London and Tonstal Bishop of Duresm wrote a long
Court had an eye on their Lands made them to be as complyant as could be But Fisher was a man of great reputation and very ancient so that much pains was taken to satisfie him A week before the Parliament sat down the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury proposed to him that he and any Five Doctors such as he should choose and the Bishop of London and Five Doctors with him might confer about it and examine the Authorities of both sides that so there might be an Agreement among them by which the scandal might be removed which otherwise would be taken from their Janglings and Contests among themselves Fisher accepted of this and Stokesley wrote to him on the 8th of Ianuary that he was ready whenever the other pleased and desired him to name time and place and if they could not agree the matter among themselves he moved to refer it to two Learned men whom they should choose in whose determination they would both acquiesce How far this overture went I cannot discover and perhaps Fishers sickness hindred the progress of it But now on the 15th of Ianuary the Parliament sat down by the Journals I find no other Bishops present but the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Winchester Lincoln Bath and Wells Landaffe and Carlisle There were also twelve Abbots present but upon what pretences the rest excused their attendance I do not know perhaps some made a difference between submitting to what was done and being active and concurring to make the change During the Session a Bishop preached every Sunday at Pauls-Cross and declared to the people That the Pope had no Authority at all in England In the two former Sessions the Bishops had preached that the general Council was above the Pope but now they struck a note higher This was done to let the people see what justice and reason was in the Acts that were then passing to which I now turn and shall next give an account of this great Session of Parliament which I shall put rather in the natural Method according to the matter of the Acts than in the order of time as they passed On the 9th of March a Bill came up from the Commons for dischargeing the Subjects of all dependance on the Court of Rome it was read the first time in the House of Lords the 13th of March and on the 14th was read the second time and Committed The Committee reported it on the 19th by which it appears there was no stiff nor long opposition and he that was likest to make it was both obnoxious and absent as will afterwards appear On the 19th it was read the third time and on the 20th the fourth time and then passed without any protestation Some Proviso's were added to it by the Lords to which the Commons agreed and so it was made ready for the Royal assent In the Preamble the intolerable exactions for Peter-pence Provisions Pensions and Bulls of all sorts are complained of which were contrary to all Laws and grounded only on the Popes Power of Dispensing which was Usurped But the King and the Lords and Commons within his own Realm had only power to consider how any of the Laws were to be Dispensed with or Abrogated and since the King was acknowledged the Supreme Head of the Church of England by the Prelates and Clergy in their Convocations Therefore it was Enacted that all Payments made to the Apostolick Chamber and all Provisions Bulls or Dispensations should from thenceforth cease But that all Dispensations or Licences for things that were not contrary to the Law of God but only to the Law of the Land should be granted within the Kingdom by and under the Seals of the two Arch-Bishops in their several Provinces who should not presume to grant any contrary to the Laws of Almighty God and should only grant such Licences as had been formerly in use to be granted but give no Licence for any new thing till it were first examined by the King and his Council whether such things might be dispensed with and that all Dispensations which were formerly taxed at or above 4 l. should be also confirmed under the Great-Seal Then many clauses follow about the Rates of Licences and the ways of procuring them It was also declared that they did not hereby intend to vary from Christ's Church about the Articles of the Catholick Faith of Christendom or in any other things declared by the Scriptures and the word of God necessary for their Salvation confirming withal the exemptions of Monasteries formerly granted by the Bishop of Rome exempting them still from the Arch-Bishops Visitations declaring that such Abbeys whose Elections were formerly confirmed by the Pope shall be now confirmed by the King who likewise shall give Commission under his Great-Seal for visiting them providing also that Licences and other Writs obtained from Rome before the 12 of March in that year should be valid and in force except they were contrary to the Laws of the Realm giving also to the King and his Council power to order and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges or the abuses of them which had been granted by the See of Rome The offenders against this Act were to be punished according to the Statutes of Provisors and Premunire This Act as it gave great ease to the Subject so it cut off that base trade of Indulgences about Divine Laws which had been so gainful to the Church of Rome but was of late fatal to it All in the Religious Houses saw their Priviledges now struck at since they were to be reformed as the King saw cause which put them in no small confusion Those that favoured the Reformation rejoyced at this Act not only because the Popes Power was rooted out but because the Faith that was to be adhered to was to be taken from those things which the Scriptures declared necessary to Salvation so that all their fears were now much qualified since the Scripture was to be the standard of the Catholick Faith On the same day that this Bill passed in the House of Lords another Bill was read for confirming the Succession to the Crown in the Issue of the Kings present Marriage with Queen Anne It was read the second time on the 21 of March and Committed It was reported on the 23th and read the third time and passed and sent down to the Commons who sent it back again to them on the 26th so speedily did this Bill go through both Houses without any opposition The Preamble of it was The distractions that had been in England about the Succession to the Crown which had occasioned the effusion of much Blood with many other mischiefs all which flowed from the want of a clear Decision of the true Title from which the Popes had Usurped a Power of investing such as pleased them in other Princes Kingdoms and Princes had often maintained such Donations for their other ends therefore to avoid the like
the Pope had any other Jurisdiction in England than any other forreign Bishop it was referred to Thirty Doctors and Batchelors who were impowered to set the University-Seal to their Conclusion they all agreed in the Negative and the whole University being examined about it man by man assented to their determination All the difficulty that I find made was at Richmond by the Franciscan Friers where the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield Rowland Lee and Thomas Bedyl tendred some Conclusions to them among which this was one That the Pope if Rome has no greater jurisdiction in this Kingdom of England by the Law of God than any other Forreign Bishop This they told them was already subscribed by the two Arch-Bishops the Bishops of London Winchester Duresm Bath and all the other Prelates and Heads of Houses and all the famous Clerks of the Realm And therefore they desired that the Friers would refer the matter to the Four Seniors of the House and acquiesce in what they should do But the Friers said it concerned their Consciences and therefore they would not submit it to a small part of their House they added that they had sworn to follow the Rule of St. Francis and in that they would live and dy and cited a Chapter of their Rule That their Order should have a Cardinal for their Protector by whose directions they might be governed in their obedience to the Holy See But to this the Bishop answered That St. Francis lived in Italy where the Monks and other Regulars that had Exemptions were subject to the Pope as they were in England to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury And for the Chapter which they cited it was showed them that it was not written by St. Francis but made since his time and though it were truly a part of his Rule it was told them that no particular Rule ought to be preferred to the Laws of the Land to which all Subjects were bound to give Obedience and could not be excused from it by any voluntary Obligation under which they brought themselves Yet all this could not prevail on them but they said to the Bishop they had professed St. Francis's Rule and would still continue in the Observance of it But though I do not find such resistance made elsewhere yet it appears that some secret practises of many of those Orders against the State were discovered therefore it was resolved that some effectual means must be taken for lessening their credit and Authority with the people and so a general Visitation of all Monasteries and other Religious Houses was resolved on This was chiefly advised by Doctor Leighton who had been in the Cardinals service with Cromwell and was then taken notice of by him as a dextrous and diligent man and therefore was now made use of on this Occasion He by a Letter to Cromwell advertised him that upon a long Conference with the Dean of the Arches he found the Dean was of Opinion that it was not fit to make any Visitation in the Kings name yet for Two or Three years till his Supremacy were better received and that he apprehended a severe Visitation so early would make the Clergy more averse to the Kings Power But Leighton on the other hand thought nothing would so much recommend the Supremacy as to see such good effects of it as might follow upon a strict and exact Visitation And the Abuses of Religious persons were now so great and visible even to the Laity That the Correcting and Reforming these would be a very popular thing He writ further That there had been no Visitation in the Northern parts since the Cardinal Ordered it Therefore he advised one and desired to be employed in York-shire And by another Letter dated the 4th of Iune he wrote to Cromwell desiring that Doctor Lee and he might be imployed in Visiting all the Monasteries from the Diocess of Lincoln Northwards which they could Manage better than any body else having great kindred and a large acquaintance in those parts so that they would be able to discover all the disorders or seditious practises in these Houses He complained that former Visitations had been slight and insignificant and promised great faithfulness and diligence both from himself and Doctor Lee. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was now making his Metropolitical Visitation having obtained the Kings Licence for it which says That he having desired that according to the Custom and the Prerogative of his Metropolitical See he might make his Visitation The King granted him Licence to do it and required all to assist and obey him dated the 28th of April Things were not yet ripe for doing great matters so that which he now look'd to was to see that all should submit to the Kings Supremacy and renounce any dependance on the Pope whose name was to be struck out of all the Publick Offices of the Church This was begun in May 1535. Stokesly Bishop of London submitted not to this Visitation till he had entered Three Protestations for keeping up of Priviledges In October began the great Visitation of Monasteries which was committed to several Commissioners Leighton Lee and London were most imployed But many others were also empowered to Visit. For I find Letters from Robert Southwell Elâ—ice Price Iohn Ap-price Richard Southwell Iohn â—age Richard Bellasis Waltâ—r Hendle and several others to Cromwell giving him an account of the Progress they made in their several Provinces Their Commissions if they were passed under the great Seal and enrolled have been taken out of the Rolls for there are none of them to be found there Yet I encline to think they were not under the great Seal For I have seen an Original Commission for the Visitation that was next year which was only under the Kings hand and Signet From which it may be inferred that the Commissions this year were of the same nature yet whether such Commissions could Authorize them to grant Dispensations and Discharge men out of the Houses they were in I am not skill'd enough in Law to determine And by their Letters to Cromwell I find they did assume Authority for these things So what their Power was I am not able to discover But besides their Powers and Commissions they got Instructions to direct them in their Visitations and Injunctions to be left in every House of which though I could not recover the Originals yet Copies of very good Authority I have seen which the Reader will find in the Collection at the end of this Book The Instructions contain 86 Articles The substance of them was to try Whether Divine Service was kept up day and night in the right hours And how many were commonly present and who were frequently absent Whether the full number according to the Foundation was in every House Who were the Founders What additions have been made since the Foundation And what were their Revenues Whether it was ever changed from one
the fault was in her humor or in the Provocations she met with the Reader may conjecture The King received the news of her death with some regrett But he would not give leave to bury her as she had ordered but made her body be laid in the Abbey Church of Peterborough which he afterwards Converted to an Episcopal Cathedral But Queen Anne did not carry her death so decently for she express'd too much joy at it both in her Carriage and dress On the 4th of February the Parliament sate upon a Prorogation of 14th Months for in the Record there is no mention of any intermedial Prorogation where a great many Laws relating to Civil concerns were passed By the 15th Act the Power that had been given by a former Act to the King for naming thirty two Persons to make a Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws was again confirmed for nothing had been done upon the former Act. But there was no limitation of time in this Act and so there was nothing done in pursuance of it The great business of this Session of Parliament was the suppressing the lesser Monasteries How this went thorough the two Houses we cannot know from the Journals for they are lost But all the Historians of that time tell us that the report which the Visitors made to the King was read in Parliament which represented the manners of these Houses so odiously that the Act was easily carried The Preamble bears That small Religious Houses under the number of twelve Persons had been long and notoriously guilty of vicious and abominable Living and did much consume and waste their Churches Lands and other things belonging to them and that for above two hundred years there had been many Visitations for reforming these Abuses but with no success their vicious living encreasing daily So that except small Houses were dissolved and the Religious put into greater Monasteries there could no Reformation be expected in that matter Whereupon the King having received a full information of these Abuses both by his Visitors and other credible ways and considering that there were divers great Monasteries in which Religion was well kept and observed which had not the full number in them that they might and ought to receive had made a full Declaration of the Premisses in Parliament Whereupon it was Enacted That all Houses which might spend yearly 200 l. or within it should be suppressed and their Revenues converted to better uses and they compelled to reform their Lives The Lord Herbert thinks it strange that the Statute in the printed Book has no Preamble but begins bluntly Fuller tell us that he wonders that Lord did not see the Record and he sets down the Preamble and says The rest follow as in the printed Statute Chap. 27th by a mistake for the 28th This shews that neither the one nor the other ever look'd on the Record For there is a particular Statute of Dissolution distinct from the 28th Chap. And the Preamble which Fuller sets down belongs not to the 28th Chapter as he says but to the 18th Chapter which was never printed and the 28th relates in the Preamble to that other Statute which had given these Monasteries to the King The reasons that were pretended for dissolving these Houses were That whereas there was but a small number of persons in them they entred into Confederacies together and their Poverty set them on to use many ill arts to grow Rich. They were also much abroad and kept no manner of Discipline in their Houses But those Houses were generally much richer than they seemed to be For the Abbots raising great Fines out of them held the Leases still low and by that means they were not obliged to entertain a greater number in their House and so enriched themselves and their Brethren by the Fines that were raised For many Houses then rented at two hundred pounds were worth many thousands as will appear to any that compares what they were then valued at which is Collected by Speed with what their Estates are truely worth When this was passing in Parliament Stokeslâ—y Bishop of London said These lesser Houses were as Thorns soon pluck't up but the great Abbots were like putrified old Oaks yet they must needs follow and so would others do in Christendom before many years were passed By another Act all these Houses their Churches Lands and all their Goods were given to the King and his Heirs and Successors together with all other Houses which within a year before the making of the Act had been dissolved or suppressed And for the gathering the Revenues that belonged to them a new Court was Erected called the Court of the Augmentations of the Kings Revenue which was to consist of a Chancellor a Treasurer an Attourney and Sollicitor and ten Auditors seventeen Receivers a Clerk an Usher and a Messenger This Court was to bring in the Revenues of such Houses as were now dissolved excepting only such as the King by his Letters-Patents continued in their former state appointing a Seal for the Court with full Power and Authority to dispose of these Lands so as might be most for the Kings Service Thus â—ell the lesser Abbeys to the number of 376 and soon after this Parliament which had done the King such eminent Service and had now sate six years was dissolved on the 14th of April In the Convocation a motion was made of great consequence That there should be a Translation of the Bible in English to be set up in all the Churches of England The Clergy when they procured Tindalls Translation to be condemned and suppressed it gave out that they intended to make a Translation into the Vulgar-Tongue Yet it was afterwards upon a long Consultation Resolved that it was free for the Church to give the Bible in a Vulgar-Tongue or not as they pleased and that the King was not obliged to it and that at that time it was not at all expedient to do it Upon which those that promoted the Reformation made great complaints and said it was visible the Clergy knew there was an opposition between the Scriptures and their Doctrine That they had first condemned Wickliffs Translation and then Tindalls and though they ought to teach men the Word of God yet they did all they could to suppress it In the times of the Old Testament the Scriptures were writ in the Vulgar-Tongue and all were charged to read and remember the Law The Apostles wrote in Greek which was then the most common Language in the World Christ did also appeal to the Scriptures and sent the people to them And by what St. Paul says of Timothy it appears that children were then early trained up in that study In the Primitive Church as Nations were converted to the Faith the Bible was Translated into their Tongue The Latine Translation was very Ancient the Bible was afterwards put into the Scythian Dalmatian and Gothick Tongues It continued thus for
given by Christ in the Gospel to the Priest and must be believed as if it were spoken by God himself according to our Saviours words and therefore none were to condemn auricular Confession but use it for the comfort of their Consciences The people were also to be instructed that though God pardoned sin only for the satisfaction of Christ yet they must bring forth the Fruits of Penance Prayer Fasting Almsdeeds with restitution and satisfaction for wrongs done to others with other works of Mercy and Charity and Obedience to Gods Commandments else they could not be saved and that by doing these they should both obtain Everlasting Life and mitigation of their Afflictions in this present life according to the Scriptures Fourthly As touching the Sacrament of the Altar people were to be instructed that under the Forms of Bread and Wine there was truly and substantially given the very same Body of Christ that was born of the Virgin Mary and therefore it was to be received with all Reverence every one duly Examining himself according to the words of St. Paul Fifthly The people were to be instructed That Justification signifieth Remission of sins and acceptation into the favour of God that is to say a perfect Renovation in Christ. To the attaining which they were to have Contrition Faith Charity which were both to concur in it and follow it and that the good works necessary to Salvation were not only outward Civil works but the inward motions and graces of Gods Holy Spirit to dread fear and love him to have firm confidence in God to call upon him and to have patience in all adversities to hate sin and have purposes and wills not to sin again with such other motions and vertues consenting and agreeable to the Law of God The other Articles were about the Ceremonies of the Church First of Images The people were to be instructed That the use of them was warranted by the Scriptures and that they served to represent to them good Examples and to stir up Devotion and therefore it was meet that they should stand in the Churches But that the people might not fall into such Superstition as it was thought they had done in time past they were to be taught to reform such Abuses lest Idolatry might ensue and that in censing kneeling offering or worshipping them the people were to be instructed not to do it to the Image but to God and his honour Secondly For the honouring of Saints they were not to think to attain these things at their hands which were only obtained of God but that they were to honour them as persons now in glory to praise God for them and imitate their vertues and not fear to die for the Truth as many of them had done Thirdly For praying to Saints The people were to be taught that it was good to pray to them to pray for and with us And to correct all Superstitious Abuses in this matter they were to keep the days appointed by the Church for their Memories unless the King should lessen the number of them which if he did it was to be obeyed Fourthly Of Ceremonies The people were to be taught That they were not to be condemned and cast away but to be kept as good and laudable having mystical significations in them and being useful to lift up our minds to God Such were the Vestments in the worship of God The sprinkling holy-water to put us in mind of our Baptism and the Blood of Christ Giving holy Bread in sign of our Union in Christ and to remember us of the Sacrament Bearing Candles on Candlemas-day in remembrance that Christ was the spiritual Light Giving Ashes on Ash-wednes-day to put us in mind of Penance and of our Mortality Bearing Palms on Palm-sunday to show our desire to receive Christ in our hearts as he entred into Ierusalem Creeping to the Cross on Good-friday and kissing it in memory of his death with the setting up the Sepulchre on that day The Hallowing the Font and other Exorcisms and Benedictions And lastly As to Purgatory They were to declare it good and charitable to pray for the Souls departed which was said to have continued in the Church from the beginning And therefore the people were to be instructed That it consisted well with the due order of Charity to pray for them and to make others pray for them in Masses and Exequies and to give Alms to them for that end But since the place they were in and the pains they suffered were uncertain by the Scripture we ought to remit them wholly to Gods mercy Therefore all these Abuses were to be put away which under the pretence of Purgatory had been advanced as if the Popes pardons did deliver Souls out of it or Masses said in certain places or before certain Images had such efficiency with other such-like Abuses These Articles being thus conceived and in several places corrected and tempered by the Kings own hand were signed by Cromwell and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and seventeen other Bishops forty Abbots and Priors and fifty Arch-Deacons and Proctors of the lower House of Convocation Among whom Polidor Virgil and Peter Vannes signed with the rest as appears by the Original yet extant They being tendered to the King he confirmed them and ordered them to be published with a Preface in his name It is said in the Preface that he accounting it the chief part of his Charge that the Word and Commandments of God should be believed and observed and to maintain unity and concord in opinion and understanding to his great regret that there was great diversity of opinion arisen among his Subjects both about Articles of Faith and Ceremonies had in his own Person taken great pains and study about these things and had ordered also the Bishops and other Learned men of the Clergy to examine them who after long deliberation had concluded on the most special Points which the King thought proceeded from a good right and true judgment according to the Laws of God these would also be profitable for establishing unity in the Church of England Therefore he had ordered them to be published requiring all to accept of them praying God so to illuminate their hearts that they might have no less zeal and love to unity and concord in reading them than he had in making them to be devised set forth and published which good acceptance should encourage him to take further pains for the future as should be most for the honour of God and the profit and the quietness of his Subjects This being published occasion'd great variety of Censures Those that desired Reformation were glad to see so great a step once made and did not doubt but this would make way for further Changes They rejoyced to see the Scriptures and the ancient Creeds made the Standards of the Faith without mentioning Tradition or the Decrees of the Church Then the Foundation of Christian Faith was truly stated and
to the Commons with words to be put in or put out of it On the 6th the Commons sent it up with some alterations And on the 8th the Lords sent it down again to the Commons where it lay till the 17th and then it was sent up with their agreement And the Kings Assent was given by his Letters Patents on the 29th of March. The Preamble was That whereas untrue accusations and presentments might be maliciously contrived against the Kings Subjects and kept secret till a time were espied to have them by malice convicted Therefore it was Enacted That none should be Endited but upon a presentment by the Oaths of twelve men to at least three of the Commissioners appointed by the King and that none should be Imprisoned but upon an Enditement except by a special Warrant from the King and that all Presentments should be made within one year after the Offences were committed and if words were uttered in a Sermon contrary to the Statute they must be complained of within forty dayes unless a just cause were given why it could not be so soon Admittiâ—g also the parties Endited to all such Challenges as they might have in any other case of Felony This Act has clearly a Relation to the Conspiracies mentioned the former year both against the Arch-Bishop and some of the Kings Servants Another Act passed continuing some former Acts for revising the Canon-Law and for drawing up such a body of Ecclesiastical Laws as should have Authority in England This Cranmer pressed often with great vehemence and to shew the necessity of it drew out a short Extract of some passages in the canon-Canon-Law which the Reader will find in the Collection to shew how undecent a thing it was to let a Volume in which such Laws were be studyed or considered any longer in England Therefore he was earnest to have such a Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws made as might regulate the Spiritual Courts But it was found more for the greatness of the Prerogative and the Authority of the Civil Courts to keep that undetermined so he could never obtain his desire during this Kings Reign Another Act passed in this Parliament for the remission of a Loan of Money which the King had raised This is almost copied out of an Act to the same effect that passed in the twenty first year of the Kings Reign with this addition That by this Act those who had got payment either in whole or in part of the Sums so lent the King were to repay it back to the Exchequer All business being finished and a general pardon passed with the ordinary exceptions of some Crimes among which Heresie is one the Parliament was Prorogued on the 29th of March to the 4th of November The King had now a War both with France and Scotland upon him And therefore to prepare for it he both enhanced the value of Money and embased it for which he that writes his vindication gives this for the reason That the Coin being generally embased all over Europe he was forced to do it lest otherwise all the Money should have gone out of the Kingdom He resolved to begin the War with Scotland and sent an Army by Sea thither under the command of the Earl of Hartford afterwards Duke of Somerset who landing at Grantham a little above Leith burnt and spoiled Leith and Edenburgh in which they found more riches than they thought could possibly have been there and they went through the Countrey burning and spoiling it every-where till they came to Berwick But they did too much if they intended to gain the hearts of that people and too little if they intended to subdue them For as they besieged not the Castle of Edinburgh which would have cost them more time and trouble so they did not fortifie Leith nor leave a Garrison in it which was such an inexcusable Omission that it seems their Counsels were very weak and ill laid For Leith being fortified and a Fleet kept going between it and Berwick or Tinmouth the Trade of the Kingdom must have been quite stopt Edinburgh ruined the Intercourse between France and them cut off and the whole Kingdom forced to submit to the King But the spoils this Army made had no other effect but to enrage the Kingdom and unite them so entirely to the French Interests that when the Eaâ—l of Lâ—nnâ—x was sent down by the King to the Western parts of Scotland where his Power lay he could get none to follow him And the Governor of Dunbritton Castle though his own Lieutenant would not deliver that Castle to him when he understood he was to put it in the King of Englands hands but drove him out others say he â—â—ed away of himself else he had been taken Prisoner The King was now to cross the Seas but before he went he studied to settle the matters of Religion so that both Parties might have some content Audley the Chancellor dying he made the Lord Wriothesley that had been Secretary and was of the Popish Party Lord Chancellor but made Sir William Petre that was Cranmers great friend Secretary of State He also committed the Government of the Kingdom in his absence to the Queen to whom he joyned the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor the Earl of Hartford and Secretary Petre. And if there was need of any Force to be raised he appointed the Earl of Hartford his Lieutenant under whose Government the Reformers needed not fear any thing But he did another Act that did wonderfully please that whole Party which was the Translating of the Prayers for the Processions and Litaâ—ies into the English tongue This was sent to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the 11th of Iune with an Order that it should be used over all his Province as the Reader will find in the Collection This was not only very acceptable to that Party because of the thing it self but it gave them hope that the King was again opening his ears to motions for Reformation to which they had been shut now about six years And therefore they looked that more things of that nature would quickly follow And as these Prayers werâ— now set out in English so they doubted not but there being the same reason to put all the other Offices in the vulgar tongue they would prevail for that too Things being thus setled at home the King having sent his Forces over before him crossed the Seas with much pomp the Sails of his Ship being of Cloth of Gold He Landed at Calais the 14th of Iuly The Emperor pressed his marching straight to Paris But he thought it of more importance to take Bulloign and after two months Siege it was surrendred to him into which he made his Entry with great Triumph on the 18th of September But the Emperor having thus engaged those two Crowns in a War and designing while they should fight it out to make himself Master of Gâ—rmanâ— concluded a Treaty
pass that he was believed a Prophet as well as a Saint And the Reformation was now so much opened by his Preaching and that was so confirmed by his death that the Nation was generally possessed with the love of it The Nobility were mightily offended with the Cardinal and said Wisharts death was no less than Murder since the Clergy without a Warrant from the Secular Power could dispose of no mans Life So it came universally to be said that he now deserved to die by the Law yet since he was too great for a Legal Tryal the Kingdom being under the feeble Government of a Regency it was fit private persons should undertake it and it was given out that the killing an Usurper was always esteemed a commendable Action and so in that state of things they thought secret practices might be justified This agreeing so much with the temper of some in that Nation who had too much of the heat and forwardness of their Countrey a few Gentlemen of Quality who had been ill used by the Cardinal conspired his death He was become generally hateful to the whole Nation and the Marriage of his Bastard Daughter to the Earl of Crawfords eldest Son enraged the Nobility the more against him and his carriage towards them all was insolent and provoking These offended Gentlemen came to St. Andrews the 29th of May and the next Morning they and their attendants being but twelve in all first attempted the Gate of his Castle which they found open and made it sure and though there were no fewer than an hundred reckoned to be within the Castle yet they knowing the passages of the House went with very little noise to the Servants Chambers and turned them almost all out of doors and having thus made the Castle sure they went to the Cardinals door He who till then was fast asleep suspecting nothing perceived at last by their rudeness that they were not his friends and made his door fast against them So they sent for fire to set to it upon which he treated with them and upon assurance of Life he opened the door but they rushing in did most cruelly and treacherously Murder him A Tumult was raised in the Town and many of his friends came to rescue him but the Conspirators carryed the dead body and exposed it to their view in the same Window out of which he had not long before lookt on when Wishart was burnt which had been universally censured as a most indecent thing in a Churchman to delighâ— in such a Spectacle But those who condemned this Action yet acknowledged Gods Justice in so exemplary a punishment and reflecting on Wisharts last words were the more confirmed in the opinion they had of his Sanctity This Fact was differently censured some justified it and said it was only the killing of a mighty Robber others that were glad he was out of the way yet condemned the manner of it as treacherous and inhumane And though some of the Preachers did afterwards fly to that Castle as a Sanctuary yet none of them were either Actors or Consenters to it it is true they did generally extenuate it yet I do not find that any of them justified it The exemplary and signal ends of almost all the Conspirators scarce any of them dying an ordinary death made all people the more inclined to condemn it The day after the Cardinal was killed about 140 came into the Castle and prepared for a Siege The House was well furnished in all things necessary and it lying so near the Sea they expected help from King Henry to whom they sent a Messenger for his Assistance and declared for him So a Siege following they were so well supplyed from England that after five months the Governor was glad to treat with them apprehending much the footing the English might have if those within being driven to extremities should receive a Garrison from King Henry They had the Governor also more at their mercy for as the Cardinal had taken his Eldest Son into his house under the pretence of educating him but really as his Fathers Hostage designing likewise to infuse in him a violent hatred of the new Preachers so the Conspirators finding him in the Castle kept him still to help them to better terms A Treaty being agreed on they demanded their pardon for what they had done together with an Absolution to be procured from Rome for the killing of the Cardinal and that the Castle and the Governors Son should remain in their hands till the Absolution was brought over Some of the Preachers apprehending the Clergy might revenge the Cardinals death on them were forced to fly into the Castle but one of them Iohn Rough who was afterwards burnt in England in Queen Maries time being so offended at the licentiousness of the Souldiers that were in the Castle who were a reproach to that which they pretended to favour left them and went away in one of the ships that brought Provisions out of England When the Absolution came from Rome they excepted to it for some words in it that called the killing of the Cardinal Crimen irremissibile an unpardonable crime by which they said the Absolution gave them no security since it was null if the Fact could not be pardoned The truth was they were encouraged from England so they refused to stand to the Capitulation and rejected the Absolution But some ships and Souldiers being sent from France the Castle was besieged at Land and shut up also by Sea and which was worst of all a Plague broke out within it of which many died Upon this no help coming suddenly from England they were forced to deliver up the place on no better terms than that their Lives should be spared but they were to be Banisht Scotland and never to return to it The Castle was demolished according to the Canon Law that appoints all places where any Cardinal is killed to be razed This was not compleated this year and not till two years after only I thought it best to joyn the whole matter together and set it down all at once In November following a New Parliament was held where toward the expence of the Kings Wars the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury granted a continuation of the former Subsidy of six shillings in the pound to be payed in two years But for the Temporality a Subsidy was demanded from them of another kind There were in the Kingdom several Colledges Chappels Chantries Hospitals and Fraternities consisting of Secular Priests who enjoyed Pensions for saying Mass for the Souls of those who had endowed them Now the belief of Purgatory being left indifferent by the Doctrine set out by the Bishops and the Trade of redeeming souls being condemned it was thought needless to keep up so many Endowments to no purpose Those Priests were also generally ill-affected to the Kings proceedings since their Trade was so much lessened by them Therefore many of them had been dealt
the Law of Nature to take the surer way or else he should seem to contemn his own Health which is unnatural Also because we be bound to love God above all things we ought by the same Bond to labour for his Grace and Favour So that because we be bound to love God and to love our selves in an Order to God we be bound to seek the best and surest Remedy to recover Grace for our selves Contrition is one way but because a Man cannot be well assured whether his Contrition Attrition or Displeasure for his sin be sufficient to satisfie or content Almighty God and able or worthy to get his Grace Therefore it is necessary to take that way that will not fail and by which thou mayest be sure and that is Absolution of the Priest which by Christ's promise will not deceive thee so that thou put no step or bar in the way as if thou do not then actually sin inwardly nor outwardly but intend to receive that the Church intendeth to give thee by that Absolution having the efficacity of Christ's promise Quorum Remiseritis c. Now the Priest can give thee no Absolution from that sin that he knoweth not therefore thou art bound for the causes aforesaid to confess thy sin This Scripture as Ancient Doctors expound it bindeth all Men to confess their secret deadly sins I say That such Confession is a thing most consonant to the Law of God and it is a wise point and a wholsome thing so for to do and God provoketh and allureth us thereto in giving the active Power to Priests to assoil in the words Quorum Remiseritis It is also a safer way for Salvation to confess if we may have a Priest Yet I think that confession is not necessarily deduced of Scripture nor commanded as a necessary precept of Scripture and yet is it much consonant to the Law of God as a thing willed not commanded To the fifteenth I think that only such as have not the knowledg of the Scripture whereby they may quiet their Consciences be bound to confess their secret deadly sins unto a Priest Howbeit no Man ought to contemn such Auricular Confession for I suppose it to be a Tradition Apostolical necessary for the unlearned Multitude A Man whose Conscience is grieved with mortal secret sins is bound by these words Quorum Remiseritis c. to confess his sin to a Priest if he may have him conveniently Eboracens Londinens Dayus Oglethorpus Coren Redmayn asserunt obligari Coxus Tresham Robertsonus dicunt non obligari si aliter Conscientiae illorum satisfieri queat Menevens nullo modo obligari Carliolens Symmons aiunt secundum veterum interpretationem hac Scriptura quemvis obligari peccatorem Roffens Herefordens Thirliby non respondent sed dubitant Leightonus solum indoctos obligari ad Confessionem Edgeworth tradit duplicem modum remissionis peccatorum per Contritionem sive Attritionem per Absolutionem quia nemo potest certus esse num attritio dolor pro peccato sufficiat ad satisfaciendum Deo obtinendam gratiam ideo tutissimam viam deligendam scilicet Absolutionem a Sacerdote quae per promissionem Christi est certa Absolvere non potest nisi cognoscat peccata Ergo peccata per Confessionem sunt illi revelanda In the eleventh Concerning Confession of our secret deadly sins The Bishops of York Duresme London Drs. Day Curren Oglethorp Redmayn Crayford say That Men be bound to confess them of their secret Sins Drs. Cox Tresham Robertson say They be not bound if they may quiet their Consciences otherwise The Bishop of St. Davids also saith That this Text bindeth no Man Dr. Leighton saith That it bindeth only such as have not the knowledg of Scripture The Bishop of Carlisle and Symmons say That by ancient Doctors exposition Men be bound by this Text to confess their deadly sins 16. Question Whether a Bishop or a Priest may excommunicate and for what Crimes And whether they only may Excommunicate by God's Law Answers A Bishop or a Priest by the Scripture is neither commanded nor forbidden to Excommunicate but where the Laws of any Region giveth him authority to Excommunicate there they ought to use the same in such Crimes as the Laws have such authority in and where the Laws of the Region forbiddeth them there they have no authority at all and they that be no Priests may also Excommunicate if the Law allow thereunto To the sixteenth The power to Excommunicate that is to dissever the Sinner from the communion of all Christian People and so put them out of the Unity of the Mystical Body for the time donec resipisâ—at is only given to the Apostles and their Successors in the Gospel but for what Crimes altho in the Gospel doth not appear saving only for disobedience against the Commandment of the Church yet we find example of Excommunication used by the Apostles in other cases As of the Fornicator by Paul of Hymeneus and Alexander for their Blaspemy by the same and yet of other Crimes mentioned in the Epistle of the said Paul writing to the Corinthians And again of them that were disobedient to his Doctrine 2 Thess. 3. We find also charge given to us by the Apostle St. Iohn that we shall not commune with them nor so much as salute him with Ave that would not receive his Doctrine By which it may appear that Excommunication may be used for many great Crimes and yet the Church at this day doth not use it but only for manifest disobedience And this kind of Excommunication whereby Man is put out of the Church and dissevered from the Unity of Christ's Mystical Body which Excommunication toucheth also the Soul no Man may use but they only to whom it is given by Christ. To the sixteenth I think that a Bishop may Excommunicate taking example of St. Paul with the Corinthian and also of that he did to Alexander and Hymeneus And with the Lawyers it hath been a thing out of Question That to Excommunicate solemnly appertaineth to a Bishop altho otherwise both inferior Prelates and other Officers yea and Priests too in notorious Crimes after divers Mens Opinions may Excommunicate semblably as all others that be appointed Governors and Rulers over any Multitude or Spiritual Congregation I answer affirmatively to the first part in open and manifest Crimes meaning of such Priests and Bishops as be by the Church authorized to use that power To the second part I answer That it is an hard Question wherein I had rather hear other Men speak than say my own Sentence for I find not in Scripture nor in the old Doctors that any Man hath given Sentence of Excommunication save only Priests but yet I think that it is not against the Law of God that a Lay-man should have authority to do it Divers Texts of Scripture seemeth by the Interpretation
other Enormities so that good and devout Persons be much offended therewith Wherefore I require and command you to declare to such as keepeth Ale-houses or Taverns within your Parishes that at such times from henceforth they shall not suffer in their Houses any such unlawful and ungodly Assemblies neither receive such Persons to Bowling and Drinking at such Seasons into their Houses under pain of Excommunication and otherwise to be punished for their so doing according to the Laws in that behalf Item That all Curats shall declare openly in the Pulpit twice every Quarter to their Parishioners the seven deadly Sins and the Ten Commandments so that the People thereby may not only learn how to obey honour and serve God their Prince Superiors and Parents but also to avoid and eschew Sin and Vice and to live vertuously following God's Commandments and his Laws Item That where I am credily informed that certain Priests of my Diocess and Jurisdiction doth use to go in an unseemly and unpriestly habit and apparel with unlawful tonsures carrying and having upon them also Armour and Weapons contrary to all wholsome and godly Laws and Ordinances more like Persons of the Lay than of the Clergy which may and doth minister occasion to light Persons and to Persons unknown where such Persons come in place to be more licentious both of their Communication and also of their Acts to the great slander of the Clergy Wherefore in the avoiding of such slander and obloquy hereafter I admonish and command all and singular Parsons Vicars Curats and all other Priests whatsoever they be dwelling or inhabiting or hereafter shall dwell and inhabit within my Diocess and Jurisdiction That from henceforth they and every of them do use and wear meet convenient and decent Apparel with their Trussures accordingly whereby they may be known at all times from Lay-People and to be of the Clergy as they intend to avoid and eschew the penalty of the Laws ordained in that behalf Item That no Parson Vicar or other Beneficed Man having Cure within my Diocess and Jurisdiction do suffer any Priest to say Mass or to have any Service within their Cure unless they first give knowledg and present them with the Letters of their Orders to me as Ordinary or to my Officers deputed in that behalf and the said Priest so presented shall be by me or my said Officers found able and sufficient thereunto Item That every Curat not only in his Preachings open Sermons and Collations made to the People but also at all other times necessary do perswade exhort and monish the People being of his Cure whatsoever they be to beware and abstain from Swearing and blaspheming of the Holy Name of God or any part of Christ's most precious Body or Blood And likewise to beware and abstain from Cursing Banning Chiding Scolding Backbiting Slandering and Lying And also from talking and jangling in the Church specially in time of Divine-Service or Sermon-time And semblably to abstain from Adultery Fornication Gluttony and Drunkenness And if they or any of them be found notoriously faulty or infamed upon any of the said Crimes and Offences then to detect them at every Visitation or sooner as the case shall require so that the said Offenders may be corrected and reformed to the example of other Item That no Priest from henceforth do use any unlawful Games or frequently use any Ale-houses Taverns or any suspect place at any unlawful times or any light Company but only for their Necessaries as they and any of them will avoid the danger that may ensue thereupon Item That in the Plague-time no dead Bodies or Corpses be brought into the Church except it be brought streight to the Grave and immediately buried whereby the People may the rather avoid infection Item That no Parsons Vicars nor Curats permit or suffer any manner of common Plays Games or Interludes to be played setforth or declared within their Churches or Chappels contrary to this our forbidding and Commandment that then you or either of you in whose Churches or Chappels any such Games Plays or Interludes shall be so used shall immediately thereupon make relation of the names of the Person or Persons so obstinately and disobediently using themselves unto me my Chancellor or other my Officers to the intent that they may be therefore reformed and punished according to the Laws Item That all Priests shall take this order when they Preach first They shall not rehearse no Sermons made by other Men within this 200 or 300 Years but when they shall preach they shall take the Gospel or Epistle of the day which they shall recite and declare to the people plainly distinctly and sincerely from the beginning to the end thereof and then to desire the people to pray with them for Grace after the usage of the Church of England now used And that done we will that every Preacher shall declare the same Gospel or Epistle or both from the beginning not after his own Mind but after the Mind of some Catholick Doctor allowed in this Church of England and in no wise to affirm any thing but that which he shall be ready always to shew in some Ancient Writer and in no wise to make rehearsal of any Opinion not allowed for the intent to reprove the same but to leave that for those that are and shall be admitted to preach by the King's Majesty or by me the Bishop of London your Ordinary or by mine authority In the which Epistle and Gospel ye shall note and consider diligently certain godly and devout places which may incense and stir the Hearers to obedience of good Works and Prayers And in case any notable Ceremony used to be observed in the Church shall happen that day when any preaching shall be appointed it shall be meet and convenient that the Preacher declare and set forth to the people the true meaning of the same in such sort that the people may perceive thereby what is meant and signified by such Ceremony and also know how to use and accept it to their own edifying Furthermore That no Preacher shall rage or rail in his Sermon but coldly discreetly and charitably open declare and set forth the excellency of Vertue and to suppress the abomination of Sin and Vice every Preacher shall if time and occasion will serve instruct and teach his Audience what Prayer is used in the Church that day and for what thing the Church prayeth specially that day to the intent that all the people may pray together with one heart for the same and as occasion will serve to shew and declare to the people what the Sacraments signifieth what strength and efficacy they be of how every Man should use them reverently and devoutly at the receiving of them And to declare wherefore the Mass is so highly to be esteemed and honoured with all the Circumstances appertaining to the same Let every Preacher beware that he do not feed his Audience with any Fable
Mary the French Queen younger Daughter of Hen. 7. and of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk so as it is thought the Queen my Soveraign and all others by course of Inheritance be by these Circumstances excluded and fore-closed So as it does well become all Subjects such as I am so my liking is to speak of Princes of their Reigns and Proceedings modestly and with respect yet I cannot abstain to say that the Chronicles and Histories of that Age and your own printed Statutes being extant do contaminate and disgrace greatly the Reign of that King in that time But to come to our purpose what equity and justice was that to disinherit a Race of Forreign Princes of their possibility and maternal right by a municipal Law or Statute made in that which some would term abrupt time and say that that would rule the Roast yea and to exclude the right Heirs from their Title without calling them to answer or any for them well it may be said that â—he injury of the time and the indirect dealing is not to be allowed â—ut since it is done it cannot be avoided unless some Circumstances material do annihilate the said limitation and disposition of the Crown Now let us examine the manner and circumstances how King Hen. 8. was by Statute inabled to dispose the Crown There is a form in two sorts prescribed him which he may not transgress that is to say either by his Letters Patents sealed with his Great Seal or by his last Will signed with his hand for in this extraordinary case he was held to an ordinary and precise form which being not observed the Letters Patents or Will cannot work the intent or effect supposed And to disprove that the Will was signed with his own hand You know that long before his death he never used his own signing with his own hand and in the time of his Sickness being divers times pressed to put his hand to the Will written he refused to do it And it seemed God would not suffer him to proceed in an Act so injurious and prejudicial to the right Heir of the Crown being his Niece Then his death approaching some as well known to you as to me caused William Clarke sometimes Servant to Thomas Henneage to sign the supposed Will with a stamp for otherwise signed it was never and yet notwithstanding some respecting more the satisfaction of their ambition and others their private commodity than just and upright dealing procured divers honest Gentlemen attending in divers several Rooms about the King's Person to testifie with their hand-writings the Contents of the said pretended Will surmised to be signed with the King 's own hand To prove this dissembled and forged signed Testament I do refer you to such Trials as be yet left First The Attestation of the late Lord Paget published in the Parliament in Queen Mary's time for the restitution of the Duke of Norfolk Next I pray you on my Sovereigns behalf that the Depositions may be taken in this Matter of the Marquess of Winchester Lord Treasurer of England the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Pembroke Sir William Petre then one of King Henry's Secretaries Sir Henry Nevill Sir Maurice Barkley Doctor Buts Edmond Harman Baker Iohn Osborn Groom of the Chamber Sir Anthony Dennis if he be living Terris the Chirurgion and such as have heard David Vincent and others speak in this case and that their Attestations may be enrolled in the Chancery and in the Arches In perpetuam rei memoriam Thirdly I do refer you to the Original Will surmised to be signed with the King 's own hand that thereby it may most clearly and evidently appear by some differences how the same was not signed with the King's hand but stamped as aforesaid And albeit it is used both as an Argument and Calumniation against my Sovereign to some that the said Original hath been embezelled in Queen Mary's time I trust God will and hath reserved the same to be an Instrument to relieve the Truth and to confound false Surmises that thereby the Right may take place notwithstanding the many Exemplifications and Transcripts which being sealed with the great Seal do run abroad in England and do carry away many Mens minds as great presumptions of great variety and validity But Sir you know in cases of less importance that the whole Realm of England Transcripts and Exemplifications be not of so great force in Law to serve for the recovery of any thing either real or personal And in as much as my Soveraign's Title in this case shall be little advanced by taking exceptions to others pretended and crased Titles considering her precedency I will leave it to such as are to claim after the issue of Hen. the 7 th to lay in Bar the Poligamy of Charles Brandon the Duke of Suffolk and also the vitiated and clandestine Contract if it may be so called having no witness nor solemnization of Christian Matrimony nor any lawful matching of the Earl of Hertford and the Lady Katharine Lastly The semblably compelling of Mr. Key and the Lady Mary Sister to the Lady Katherine And now Sir I have to answer your desire said somewhat briefly to the Matter which indeed is very little where so much may be said for to speak truly the Cause speaketh for it self I have so long forborn to deal in this matter that I have almost forgotten many things which may be said for Roboration of her Right which I can shortly reduce to my Remembrance being at Edinburgh where my Notes are So that if you be not by this satisfied upon knowledg from you of any other Objection I hope to satisfy you unto all things may be said against her In the mean time I pray you so counsel the Queen your Soveraign as some effectual reparation may follow without delay of the many and sundry traverses and dis-favorings committed against the Queen my Sovereign as the publishing of so many exemplifications of King Henry's supposed Will the secret embracing of Iohn Halles Books the Books printed and not avowed the last Summer one of the which my Mistris hath sent by Henry Killigrew to the Queen your Soveraign The Disputes and Proceedings of Lincolns-Inn where the Case was ruled against the Queen my Soveraign The Speeches of sundry in this last Session of Parliament tending all to my Soveraigns derision and nothing said to the contrary by any Man but the Matter shut up with silence most to her prejudice and by so much the more as every Man is gone home setled and confirmed in his Error And Lastly The Queen your Soveraign's resolution to defend now by Proclamations all Books and Writings containing any discussion of Titles when the whole Realm hath engendred by these fond proceedings and other favoured practisâ—s a setled opinion against my Soveraigns to the advancement of my Lady Katherines Title I might also speak of an other Book lately printed and set abroad in this last Session containing
which see page 224. which being so openly discovered nothing that had shame in it could speak of them as our Author does 101. He says Six and twenty Carts drawn with Oxen were loaded with the Riches taken from Becket's Shrine whom he makes a most glorious Martyr that died for the defence of the Faith and was honoured by many Miracles after his death Other Writers have sufficiently shewed what a perfidious ingrateful and turbulent Priest he was All these were Vertues in our Author's Opinion and Ingredients in his Faith But he has in this accompt of the Riches of that Shrine gone beyond himself having by a figure of speech very familiar to him called Lying increased two Chests see page 224. to 26 Cart Loads 102. He says The Sentence which P. Paul gave out against the King was affixed in some Towns both in France Flanders and Scotland from which he infers that both the Emperor the French and the Scotch King did consent to that Sentence In this he designed an eminent piece of service to the Apostolick See to leave on Record an Evidence that three Sovereign Princes had acknowledged the Pope's Power of deposing Kings But he did ill to name the proofs of his Assertion and had done better to have said simply that it was so than to have founded it on so ill grounds as if the affixing Papal Bulls in a place were an evidence that the Princes in whose Dominions it was done consented to it He might with the same reason have concluded that Q. Elizabeth consented to the Sentence against her self which it is very like will not be easily believed tho the Bull was affixed in London But all those very Princes whom he names continuing to keep up their correspondence with the King as well after as before this Sentence is a much clearer demonstration that they despised the Pope's Sentence 103. He says The King by his own Authority threw all the â—egging Orders out of their Houses The falshood of this has appeared already for they resigned their Houses to the King and of these Resignations tho many were destroyed yet near an hundred are still extant 104. He says The Parliament in the year 1539 gave the King all the great Monasteries The Parliament passed no such Act all that they did was only to confirm the Grants made or to be made by these Houses to the King It was their Surrenders that cloathed the King with the Right to them All the Tragical Stories he tells us that followed upon this are founded on a false Foundation 105. He sets down a Form of a Resignation which he says All the Abbots and many Religious Persons were made to Sign and set their Seals to it Among all the Resignations which are yet extant there is not one in this Form for which see page 238. 106. He says The King's Commissioners who went about getting Hands to that Form made them believe in every House that all the rest had signed it and so by that and other persuasions prevailed with many to set their Hands to it If all the Subscriptions had been procured about the same time such Arts might be suspected but in a thing that was three years a-doing these tricks could not have served their turn 107. He says They told the Monks that tho the King might by virtue of the Act of Parliament seize on their Houses and Rents yet he desired rather to do it with their good-will In this there are two Errors First Most of these Houses were resigned to the King before the Act of Parliament see page 235. and next the Act of Parliament only confirmed their Deeds but did not give their Houses to the King 108. He says The Abbots of Glassenbury Colchester and Reading suffered Martyrdom because they refused to set their hands to that Writing There was no such Writing ever offered to them nor was there any Law to force them to resign so they could not suffer on that account but they were Martyrs for Sander's Faith for they were attainted by a legal Trial of High Treason 109. He tells a long Story of Whitting Abbot of Glassenbury's being brought up to London to be prevailed with to set his hand to the Surrender Which he still refusing to do was sent back and tho a Book against the King's Divorce was found among his Papers which was laid there by those who searched for it yet that was past over in a chiding but as he went home hearing there was a meeting of the County at Wells he went thither and as he was going up to his place on the Bench he was called to the Bar to answer some things that were to be objected to him He was amazed at it and asked what the matter was but one told him he needed fear nothing for some-what was only to be done for form to terrify others Upon which he was condemned and sent away to his Abbey little thinking he was so near his end but when he came near it a Priest was sent to him to take his Confession for they told him he must die immediately he beg'd a day or two's respite but in vain so they hanged him up in his Habit on the top of the Hill near his Abbey and quartered him and all this was done in one day This Book came out in Forreign Parts and was printed at Rome in the Reign of Sixtus the Fifth who took great pleasure in such Executions as he describes this to have been which may fall oft out where the lives of the Subjects are wholly at the Prince's Mercy But to tell such tales of England which is so famed over the World for the safety and security the Subjects enjoy and for the regular and legal proceedings in all Trials especially of Life and Death was a great Error in the Poet for the decorum of the Laws and Customs of a place must be observed when any Nation is made the Scene of a Fable But as nothing like this can be done by the Law of England so there was nothing of it in this Case The Jury that sate on him were Men of great credit in the Country when he died he acknowledged his Offences and with appearance of repentance begged God's Pardon and the King 's see page 239. 110. After many bitter Invectives against Cromwel for which I could never see good evidence tho I cannot disprove them by any convincing Arguments he says That he advised the King to make a Law that Persons might be Convented and Condemned in absence and without being heard and that this Law first of all fell upon himself There was no such Law ever made only the Parliament by their Supream Authority did Attaint some in that manner but no other Court might do it Nor was this first applied to Cromwel for an year before his Attainder the Countess of Sarum with a great many more were so attainted tho she did not Suffer till a year
well And whereas for the Vertue Learning and good Qualities which we saw and perceived heretofore in you judging you thereby a Personage that would sincerely devoutly purely and plainly set forth the Word of God and instruct our People in the truth of the same after a simple and plain sort for their better instruction unity quiet and agreement in the points thereof we advanced you to the room and office of a Bishop within this our Realm and so endowed you with great Revenues and Possessions perceiving after by the contrariety of preaching within this our Realm our said People were brought into a diversity of Opinion whereby there ensued contention amongst them which was only engendred by a certain contemptuous manner of speaking against honest laudable and tolerable Ceremonies Usages and Customs of the Church we were enforced by our sundry Letters to admonish and command you amongst others to preach God's Word sincerely to declare abuses plainly and in no wise contentiously to treat of matters indifferent which be neither necessary to our Salvation as the good and vertuous Ceremonies of Holy Church ne yet to be in any wise contemned and abrogated for that they be incitements and motions to Vertue and allurements to Devotion all which our travail notwithstanding so little regard was by some taken and adhibited to our advertisements therein that we were constrained to put our own Pen to the Book and to conceive certain Articles which were by all you the Bishops and whole Clergy of this our Realm in Convocation agreed on as Catholick meet and necessary to be by our Authority for avoiding of all contention set forth read and taught to our Subjects to bring the same in unity quietness and good concord supposing then that no Person having Authority under us would either have presumed to have spoken any word that might have offended the sentence and meaning of the same or have been any thing remiss slack or negligent in the plain setting forth of them as they be conceived so as by that mean of abstinence such quiet and unity should not grow thereupon as we desired and looked for of the same and perceiving eft-soons by credible report that our labours travail and desire therein is nevertheless defeated and in manner by general and contemptuous words spoken by sundry light and seditious Persons contemned and despised so that by the abstinence of direct and plain setting-forth of the said Articles and by the fond and contentious manner of speaking that the said light Personages do still use against the honest Rites Customs Usages and ceremonial Things of the Church our People be much more offended than they were before and in a manner exclaim that we will suffer that injury at any Man's hand whereby they think both God us and our whole Realm highly offended insomuch that principally upon that ground and for the Reformation of those Follies and Abuses they have made this commotion and insurrection and have thereby grievously offended us dammaged themselves and troubled many of our good Subjects We be now enforced for our discharge towards God and for the tender love and zeal we bear unto the tranquillity and loving unity of our said People and Subjects again to readdress these our Letters to all the Bishops of our Realm and amongst other unto you as a peremptory warning to admonish you to demean and use your self for the redobbying of these things as shall be hereafter declared upon pain of deprivation from the Bishoprick and further to be punished for your contempt if you shall offend in the contrary as Justice shall require for your own Trespass And first we straitly charge and command you that plainly and distinctly without any additions ye shall every Holy day wheresoever ye shall be within your Diocess when ye may so do with your health and convenient commodity openly in your Cathedral Church or the Parish Church of the place where ye shall for time be read and declare our Articles and in no wise in the rest of your words which ye shall then speak of your self if you speak any thing utter any word that shall make the same or any word in the same doubtful to the People Secondly We will and command you That you shall in your Person travel from place to place in all your Diocess as you may with your commodity and endeavour your selves every Holy-day to make a Collation to the People and in the same to set forth plainly the Texts of Scripture that you shall treat of and with that also as well to declare the obedience due by God's Laws to their Prince and Soveraign Lord against whose commandment they ought in no wise though the same were unjust to use any violence as to commend and praise honest Ceremonies of the Church as they be to be praised in such plain and reverent sort that the People may perceive they be not contemned and yet learn how they were instituted and how they ought to be observed and esteemed using such a temperance therein as our said People be not corrupted by putting over-much affiance in them which a part should more offend than the clear silencing of the same and that our People may thereto the better know their duties to us being their King and Soveraign Lord. Thirdly We straitly charge and command you That neither in your private communications you shall use any words that may sound to the contrary of this our Commandment ne you shall keep or retain any Man of any degree that shall in his words privatly or openly directly or indirectly speak in these matters of the Ceremonies contentiously or contemptously but we will that in case ye have or shall have towards you any such Person that will not better temper his Tongue you shall as an Offender and a Seductor of our People send the same in sure custody to us and our Council to be punished as shall appertain and semblably to do with other Strangers whom ye shall hear to be notable offenders in that part Fourthly Our pleasure and commandment is That you shall on your behalf give strait commandment upon like pain of deprivation and further punishment to all Parsons Vicars Curats and Governors of Religious Houses Colledges and other places Ecclesiastical within your Diocess that they and every of them shall touching the indifferent praise of Ceremonies the avoiding of contentious and contemptous Communication concerning any of the same and the distinct and plain reading of our said Articles observe and perform in their Churches Monasteries and other Houses Ecclesiastical aforesaid the very same order that is before to you prescribed And further that you permit nor suffer any Man of what degree soever in learning Strangers or other to preach in any place within your said Diocess out of his own Church by virtue of any License by us or any other of our Ministers granted before the fifteenth day of this month neither in your presence nor elsewhere unless he be a
Bishops and Divines concerning the Functions and Divine Institution of Bishops and Priests 321 365 6. A Letter of Melanthons to perswade the King to a further Reformation 329 367 7. A Letter written by the German Ambassadors to the King against the taking away of the Chalice and against private Masses and the Celibate of the Clergie 332 ibid 8. The King's Answer to the former Letter 396 ibid 9. A Letter written by the King to his Bishops directing them how to instruct the People 360 368 10. Arguments given by Tonstal to the King to prove Auricular Confession to be of a Divine Institution with some Notes on the Margent written with the King 's own hand 363 369 11. A Letter of the King 's to Tonstall in Answer to the former Paper 366 ibid 12. A Definition of the Catholick Church corrected with the King 's own hand 367 370 FINIS Errata in the Collection of Records PAge 21. Line 4. compendio read Compendio P. 19. l. 32. huic r. hic P. 21. l. 23. datum r. datam P. 65. l. 30. before to r. than P. 38. l. 5. and take r. to take l. 22. gentily r. generally P. 111. the Marginal Note should stand 6 lines higher P. 1 4. l. 14. for r. her l. 15. Word r. were P. 128. l. 12 13 14 15 the Comma's are all wrong placed P. 137. l. 42. other r. Oath P. 154. l. 19. as if dele as P. 157. l. 12. here r. have P. 190. l. 18. our r. your P. 220. l. 5. Quest. 3. r. Quest. 9. P. 269. l. 47. Variety r. Verity P. 285. l. 19 28 r. 18. P. 305. l. 30. in any r. many P. 311. l. 41. and r. that P. 317. l. 26. say-men r. Lay-men l. 45. refuge r. refuse P. 322. l. 30. only r. every P. 335. l. 35 36. fides lis r. fidelis Literal Faults or escapes in the Punctuation are left to the Reader 's Correction King Henry's Succession to the Crown Apr. 22. 1509. He proceeds against Dudley and Empson * Hall says the same day L. Herbert says the day following Hall He holds a Parliament Ian. 21. 1510. Aug. 18. His great Expence His Affairs beyond Sea A War with France Aug. 24. Octob. 2. 1513. Aug. 7. 1514. A Peace and a Match with France Oct. 9. Lewis dies Ian. 1. 1515. Lady Mary Betrothed to the Dolphin Octob. 8. 1518. Emperour dies Ian. 12. 1519. Charles Elected Iune 28. 1520. The Emperor comes to England May. 26. Iune 7. Iuly 10. A second War with France Leo. 10. dies Dec. 1. 1521. Adrian chosen Pope Ian. 9. 1522. He dyed Septemb. 14. 1523. Clement the 7th chosen Novemb. 19. 1522. Emperor Landed at Dover May. 26. The Emperor contracted to the Kings Daughter Iune 19. May 6. 15â—7 Mar. 18. 1526. The Clementine League May. 22. 1526. September 20 1527. Rome taken and sack't May 16. Iuly 11. Decemb. 9. The Kings success against Scotland Sept. 9. 1513. His Counsels at home 1509. Ian. 21. 1510. Feb. 4. 1512. Cardinal Wolseys rising Cavendish life of Wolsey MSS. in Biblioth Nob. D.G. Pierpoint Octob. 1513. a Rest. temp 4. March 5 Regni 1 part Rot pat b Novemb. 6 Regni 1. part R. P. c Aug. 28.10 Regni 1 part R. P. d Decemb. 7.13 Regni 3 part R. P. e April 30.15 Reg. 2 part R. P. f May 4.20 Reg. 1. part R. P. May 15 5â—â— Reg. 1. Part. Rot. pat April 1515. Lady Mary died Iun. 23. 1533. Iâ—n 17.18 Reg. Rot. Paâ— Duke Rich. died Iâ—n 22. â—536 He was bred a Scâ—olar The Kings Prerogative in Ecclesiastical matters Cusâ—odia Temporalitatis Râ—stitutâ—o Temporalitatis Collect Numb 15. License to the Prior of Peterburg Novemb 3.1 Part. 5 â—â— Reg. Rot. Pat. A Contest about the EcclesiasticalImmunity Killways Reports Made Clerke Octob. 29. 1. Reg. Rot. Pat. Part. 1o. Iournal Procerum 7 Hâ—n 8. Parliamentumâ—2 â—2 Dâ—â—e 1515. Iohanne Tylor Iâ—râ—s Pontificii Doct. Clerico Parliamentorum Domini Râ—gis â—â—dem tempore Prolocutore Convocationis Cleri quod raro accidit Iâ— hoc Parliamento Convocatione periculosi â—imâ— seditiones exortâ—â—â—ent inter Clâ—â—um Secâ—lâ—râ—m pâ—tâ—â—tatem â—â—per libertatiâ—â—s Ecclesiasticis quodam Fratre Minore nomine Standish omniam malorum miniâ—â—ro ac stimulatore Hali. and Fox * Hunne hanged in Prison And his body burned Dec. 20. 1514. April 3. The King obliged the Popes highly and was much courâ—ed by them Collect. Numb 2 d. Treaty-Rolls 3 Reg. 19 April 1512. 1521. October 11. L. Herbert A Bull for Reforming the Clergy 10 Iune 1519. L. Herbert and Article 29. of his Impeachment The Cardinal's Pride Polydore Virgil He designs a Reformation And a Suppression of Monasteries The Calling of Convocations Collect. Numb 3 d. Collect. Numb 4 th Regist. Tonst Fol. 33 34. Collect. Numb 5th Of the State of the Monasteries Rot. Pat. 11. Hen. 8. Part. 1. The Cardinal's Colledges The Bull and Royal Assent 14. Reg. 2. Part. Rot. Pat. The Firsâ— beginning of Reformation in England The Cruelties of the Church of Rome Fitz-Herbert de Nat. Breviâ—â— The Laws of England against Hereticks Under Rich. the 2d Cook 's Institutes 3. part chap. 5. of Heresie 6 to Rich. 2. 1 Part. Numb 52. Rot. parl Another Law under King Henry the 4th Herbert's Natura Brevium Hall 5th year of Edw. 4th Warham's Proceedings against Hereticks Regist. Warham Fol. 164. Fitz-Iames Bishop of London his proceeding against Hereticks Fol. 4. The Progress of Luther's Doctrin Fox The King writes against Luther 1522. October 23. Reg. Tonstall Fol. 45. with which that in Fox agrees exactly Collect. numb 6th The beginning of the Suit of Divorce The Marriage of Prince Arthur to the Infanta of Spain 1501. See the Depositâ—ons of Witnesses in L. Herbert Prince Arth. his Death Apr 2. 1502. Bacons Henry the 7th Consultations about a second Marriage of the Infanta to his Brother Warham's Deposition in L Herbert It is allowed by the Pope Collections Numb first Upon political reasons L. Herbert Henry Protests against it Iun. 27. 1505. Collect. Num. 2d Morison His Father also disswaded it Apr. 22. 1509 K. Henry VII dies Henry being come to the Crown Marries her Iun. 3 They are Crowned Iune 24. Son born Ian. 1. 1511. dies Feb. 22. another born and dies Nov. 1514. Lady Mary born Feb. 19. 1516. 1â—27 1518. Treaty Rolls 10. Reg. His Daughter Mary Contracted to the Dolphin October 11. Afterwards to the Emperor Iun. 22. 1522. Offer'd to Scotland Sept. 1524. again to France April 30. 1527. For K. Francis himself or for his Son the Duke of Orleance The Kings Marriage questioned by Forreigners The King himself Scruples it Sanderus de Schism Angl. In his Letter to Bucer Sept. 10. 1531. in MSS. R. Smith The grounds of his Scruples All his Bishops except Fisher declare it unlawful Cavendish his liâ—e of Wolsey The dangers that were like to follow from it Wolsâ—y went into France 1527. Iuly 11. The Kings fears hopes about it L.