following they were dismist with many rich Presents and an annual pension from the Queen conducted honourably by the Lord Aburgavenny to the Port of Dover and there shipped for Calais filling all places in the way betwixt that and Baden with the report of the magnificence of their entertainment in the Court of England And that the Glories of their entertainment might appear the greater it hapned that Rambouillet a French Ambassador came hither at that time upon two solemnities that is to say to be installed Knight of the Garter in the place and person of that King and to present the Order of St Michael the principal Order of that Kingdom to Thomas Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Leicester The one performed with the accustomed Pomps and Ceremonies in the Chapel of St George at Windsor the other with like State and splendour in the Royal Chapel at Whitehall Such a well tempered piety did at that time appear in the Devotions of the Church of England that generally the English Papists and the Ambassadors of forein Princes still resorted to them But true it is that at that time some zealots of the Church of Rome had begun to slacken their attendance not out of any new dislike which they took at the service but in regard of a Decree set forth in the Council of â—rent prohibiting all resort to the Churches of Hereticks Which notwithstanding the far greater part continued in their first obedience till the coming over of that Roaring Bull from Pope Pius the 5th by which the Queen was excommunicated the subjects discharged from their obedience to the Laws and the going or not going to the Church made a sign distinctive to difference a Roman Catholick from an English Protestant And it is possible enough that they might have stood much longer to their first conformity if the discords brought into the Church by the Zuinglian faction together with their many innovations both in Doctrine and Discipline had not afforded them some further ground for the desertion For in this year it was that the Zuinglian or Calvinian faction began to be first known by the name of Puritans if Genebrard Gualier and Spondanus being all of them right good Chronologers be not mistaken in the time Which name hath ever since been appropriate to them because of their pretending to a greater Purity in the service of God than was held forth unto them as they gave it out in the Common Prayer Book and to a greater opposition to the Rites and Usages of the Church of Rome than was agreeable to the constitution of the Church of England But this Purity was accompanied with such irreverence this opposition drew along with it so much licenciousnesse as gave great scandal and offence to all sober men so that it was high time for those which had the care of the Church to look narrowly unto them to give a check to those disorders and confusions which by their practices and their preachings they had brought into it and thereby laid the ground of that woful schism which soon after followed And for a check to those disorders they published the Advertisement before remembred subscribed by the Archbishop of Canâ—erbury the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Lincoln Rochester and other of her Majesties Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical according to the Statute made in that behalf This was the only present remedy which could then be thought of And to prevent the like confusions for the time to come a Protestation was devised to be taken by all Parsons Vicars and Curates in their several stations by which they were required to declare and promise That they would not preach not publickly interpret but only read that which is appointed by publick authority without special Licence of the Bishop under his Seal that they would read the Service plainly distinctly and audibly that all the people might hear and understand that they would keep the Register book according to the Queens Majesties Injunctions that they would use sobriety in apparel and especially in the Church at Common Prayers according to Order appointed that they would move the Parishioners to quiet and concord and not give them cause of offence and help to reconcile them that be at variance to their utmost power that they would read dayly at the least one Chapter of the Old Testament and another of the New with good advisement to the increase of their knowledge that they would in their own persons use and exercise their Office and Place to the honour of God and the quiet of the Queens subjects within their charge in truth concord and unity as also observe keep and maintain such Order and Uniformity in all external Policy Rites and Ceremonies of the Church as by the Lawes good usages and Orders are already well provided and established and finally that they would not openly meddle with any Artificers occupations as covetously to seek a gain thereby having in Ecclesiastical Livings twenty Nobles or above by the year Which protestation if it either had been generally pressed upon all the Clergy as perhaps it was not or better kept by them that took it the Church might questionlesse have been saved from those distractions which by the Puritan Innovators were occasioned in it Anno Reg. Eliz. 8. A. D. 1565 1566. THus have we seen the publick Liturgy confirmed in Parliament with divers penalties on all those who either did reproach it or neglect to use it or wilfully withdrew their attendance from it the Doctrine of the Church declared in the Book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation and ratified in due form of Law by the Queens authority external matters in officiating Gods publick service and the apparel of the Clergy regulated and reduced to their first condition by the Books of Orders and Advertisements Nothing remaineth but that we settle the Episcopal Government and then it will be time to conclude this History And for the setling of this Government by as good authority as could be given unto it by the Lawes of the Land we aâ—e beholden to the obstinacy of Dr Edmond Bonner the late great slaughter-man of London By a Statute made in the last Parliament for keeping her Majesties Subjects in their due obedience a power was given unto the Bishops to tender and receive the oath of Supremacy of all manner of persons dwelling and residing in their several Diocesses Bonner was then prisoner in the Clink or Marshalsea which being in the Burrough of Southwark brought him within the Jurisdiction of Horn Bishop of Winchester by whose Chancellor the Oath was tender'd to him On the refusal of which Oath he is endicted at the Kings Bench upon the Statute to which he appeared in some Term of the year foregoing and desires that counsel be assigned to plead his cause according to the course of the Court The Court assigns him no worse men than Christopher Wâ—ay afterwards chief Justice of the Common Pleas that famous Lawyer Edmond
Noble Men Work the best Nevertheless We are not ignorant of Your Consultations to Vndo the Provisions made for Our Preferment nor of the Great Hands and Provisions forcible wherewith You be Assembled and Prepared by whom and to what end God and You know and Nature cannot but fear some Evil. But be it that some Consideration Politick or whatsoever thing else hath moved You thereto yet doubt ye not My Lords but We can take all these Your doings in Gratious Part being also Right-Ready to remit and fully Pardon the same and that to Eschew Bloodshed and Vengeance against all those that can or will intend the same trusting also assuredly that Ye will take and accept this Grace and Vertue in Good Part as appertaineth and that We shall not be Enforced to use the Service of other Our True Subjects and Friends which in this Our Just and Right Cause Goâ— in whom all Our affiance is shall send Vs. Wherefore My Lords We require You and charge you and every of You of Your Allegiance which You ow to God and Vs and to none other for Our Honour and the Surety of Our Person onely imploy Your Selves and forthwith upon receipt hereof cause Our Right and Title to the Crown and Governance of this Realm to be Proclaimed in Our City of London and other places as to your Wisdoms shall seem Good and as to this Case appertaineth not failing hereof as Our very Trust is in You. And this Our Letter Signed with Our Hand shall be your sufficient Warrant in that behalf Given under Our Signet at Our Mannour of Kenning-Hall the ninth of July 1553. This Letter seemed to give their Lordships no other trouble then the returning of an Answer For well they knew that She could do no less then put up Her Claim and they conceived that She was not in a condition for doing more Onely it was thought fit to let Her know what She was to trust to the better to prevent such Inconveniencies as might otherwise happen And to that end an Answer was presently dispatched under the Hands of the Archâ—Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellour Goodrich Bishop of Ely the Dukes of Northhumberland and Suffâ—lk the Marquesses of Winchester and North-hampton the Earls of Arundel Shrewsbury Huntington Bedford and Pembroke the Lords Cobham and Darcie Sir Thomas Cheny Sir Robert Cotton Sir William Peter Sir William Cecil Sir John Cheek Sir John Mason Sir Edward North Sir Robert Bows The Tenour whereof was as followeth MADAM WE have received Your Letters the ninth of this Instant Declaring Your Supposed Title which You Judg Your Self to have to the Imperial Crown of this Realm and all the Dâ—minions thereunto belonging For Answer whereof this is to Advertise You that for as much as Our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane is after the Death of Our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth a Prince of most Noble Memory Invested and Possessed with the just and Right Title in the Imperial Crown of this Realm not onely by Good Order of Old Antient Laws of this Realm but also by Our late Sovereign Lord's Letters Patents Signed with His Own Hand and Sealed with the Great Seal of England in presence of most part of the Nobles Counsellours Judges with divers others Grave and Sage Personages Assenting and Subscribing the same We must therefore as of most Bound Duty and Allegiance and Assent unto Her said Grace and to none other except we should which Faithfull Subjects cannot fall into grievous and unspeakable Enormities Wherefore We can no less do both for the quiet of the Realm and You also to advertise you that for as much as the Divorce made between the King of Famous Memory King Henry the Eighth and the Lady Katharine Your Mother was necessary to be had both by the Everlasting Laws of God and also by the Ecclesiastical Laws and the most part of the Noble and Learned Vniversities in Christenaâ—m and Confirmed also by the sundry Acts of Parliaments remaining yet in Force and thereby You justly made Illegitimate and Vn-heritable to the Crown Imperial of this Realm and the Rules and Dominions and Possessions of the same You will upon just consideration hereof and of divers other Causes Lawfull to be Alledged for the same and for the just Inheritance of the Right Line and Godly Order taken by the late King Our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth and agreed upon by the Nobles and Greatest Personages aforesaid Surcease by any pretents to vex or molest any of Our Sovereign Lady Queen Jane Her Subjects from their True Faith and Allegiance due unto Her Grace assuring You that if you will for Respect shew Your Self Quiet and Obedient as You ought You shall find Vs all and several ready to do You any Service that We with Duty may and be glad with Your quietness to preserve the Common State of this Realm wherein You may be otherwise grievous Vs to Your Self and to them And thus We bid You most Heartily well to fare c. These Letters being thus dispatched and no further danger seeming to be feared on that side all things are put in Readiness against the coming of the Queen who the same day about three of the Clock in the Afternoon was brought by water to the Tower attended by a Noble Train of both Sexes from Durham House in the Strand where She had been entertained as a part of Dudley's Family ever since Her Marriage She could not be ignorant of that which had been done in Order unto Her Advancement to the Royal Throne and could not but conceive that Her being Conducted to the Tower in that Solemn manner did portend somewhat which looked toward a Coronation But still She hoped that either She should hear some Good News of the King's Recovery or of the Altering of His Purpose and that She might be suffered to enjoy those Divine Contentments which she had found in the Repose of a Studious Life But when She came into the presence of the two Dukes Her Father and Her Father-in-Law She observed their Behaviour towards Her to be very different from that which they had used before To put Her out of which Amazement it was signified to Her by the Duke of Northumberland That The King was Dead and that He had Declared Her for His next Successour in the Crown Imperial That This Declaration was Approved by all the Lords of the Council most of the Peers and all the Judges of the Land which they had Testified by the Subscription of their Names and all this Ratified and Confirmed by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England That The Lord Mayour the Aldermen and some of the Principal Citizens had been spoke withall by whom they were assured of the Fidelity of the rest of the City That There was nothing wanting but Her Gratefull Acceptance of the High Estate which God Almighty the Sovereign Disposer of all Crowns and Scepters never sufficiently to be thanked by Her for so great
her in short time not only to protect her Merchants but command the Ocean Of which the Spaniard found good proof to his great loss and almost to his total ruine in the last 20 years of her glorious government And knowing right well that mony was the â—inew of war she fell upon a prudent and present course to fill her coffers Most of the monies in the Kingdom were of forein coynage brought hither for the most part by the Easterling and Flemish Merchants These she called in by Proclamation â—â—ted the 15th of November being but two dayes before the end of this 3d. year commanding them to be brought to her Majesties Mint there to be coyned and take the stamp of her Royal authority or otherwise not to pass for current within this Realm which counsel took such good effect that monies came flowing into the Mint insomuch that there was weekly brought into the Tower of London for the space of half a year together 8000. 10000. 12000. 16000. 20000. 22000 l. of silver plate and as much more in Pistols and other gold of Spanish coins which were great sums according to the standard of those early dayes and therefore no small profit to be growing to her by the coynage of them The Genevians slept not all this while but were as busily imployed in practising upon the Church as were the Romanists in plotting against the Queen Nothing would satisfie them but the nakedness and simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Franckfort and the Presbyteries of Geneva According to the pattern which they saw in those mounts the Church of England is to be modell'd nor would the Temple of Jerusalem have served their turn if a new Altar fashioned by that which they found at Damascus might not have been erected in it And they drove on so fast upon it that in some places they had taken down the steps where the Aâ—tar stood and brought the Holy Table into the midst of the Church in others they had laid aside the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers in the administration of Baptism and left the answering for the child to the charge of the father The weekly Fasts the time of Lent and all other dayes of abstinence by the Church commanded were looked upon as superstitious observations No fast by them allowed of but occasional only and then too of their own appointing And the like course they took with the Festivals also neglecting those which had been instituted by the Church as humane inventions not fit to be retained in a Church reformed And finally that they might wind in there outlandish Doctrines with such forein usages they had procured some of the inferiour Ordinaries to impose upon their several Parishes certain new books of Sermons and Expositions of the holy Scripture which neither were required by the Queens Injunctions nor by Act of Parliament Some abuses also were discovered in the Regular Clergy who served in Churches of peculiar or exempt jurisdiction Amongst whom it began to grow too ordinary to marry all such as came unto them without Bains or Licence and many times not only without the privity but against the express pleasure and command of their Parents For which those Churches past by the name of Lawlesse Churches in the voice of the people For remedy whereof it was found necessary by the Archbishop of Canterbury to have recourse unto the power which was given unto him by the Queens Commission and by a clause or passage of the Act of Parliament for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church c. As one of the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical he was authorized with the rest of his associates according to the Statute made in that behalf To reform redresse order correct and amend all such Errours Heresies Schisms abuses offences conâ—empts and enormities whatsoever as might from time to time arise in the Church of England and did require to be redressed and reformed to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and conservation of the peace and unity of the Kingdom And in the passage of the Act before remembred it was especially provided That all such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof should be retained and be in use as were in the Church of England by authority of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th until further Order should be therein taken by authority of the Queens Majesty with the advice of her Commissioners Appointed Ordered under the Great Seal of England for Causes Ecclesiastical or of the Metropolitan of this Realm And also if there shall happen any contempt or irreverence to be used in the Ceremonies or Rites of the Church by the misusing of the Orders of the said Book of Common Prayer the Queens Majesty might by the like advice of the said Commissioners or Metropolitan Ordain or publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as should be most for the advance of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Fortified and assured by which double power the Archbishop by the Queens consent and the advice of some of the Bishops Commissionated and instructed to the same intent sets forth a certain book of Orders to be diligently observed and executed by all and singular persons whom it might concern In which it was provided That no Parson Vicar or Curate of any exempt Church commonly called Lawless Churches should from thenceforth attempt to conjoin by solemnization of Matrimony any not being of his or their Parish Church without sufficient testimony of the Bains being ask'd in the several Churches where they dwel or otherwise were sufficiently licenced That there should be no other dayes observed for Holy days or Fasting dayes as of duty and commandment but only such Holy dayes as be expressed for Holy dayes in the Calendar lately set forth by the Queens authority and none other Fasting dayes to be so commanded but as the Lawes and Proclamations of the Queens Majesty should appoint that it should not be lawful to any Ordinary to assign or enjoyn the Parishes to buy any Books of Sermons or Expositions in any sort than is already or shall be hereafter appointed by publick Authority that neither the Curates or Parents of the children which are brought to Baptism should answer for them at the Font but that the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers should be still retained and finally that in all such Churches in which the steps to the Altar were not taken down the said steps should remain as before they did that the Communion Table should be set in the said place where the steps then were or had formerly stood and that the Table of Gods Precepts should be fixed upon the wall over the said Communion Board Which passage compared with that in the Advertisements published in the year 1565. of which more hereafter make up this construction that
of Worcester to which See 〈◊〉 Day and Heath were again restored The like course also followed for the depriving of all Deaâ—â— Dâ—gnâ—â—â—â—â—â—s and Parochial Ministers who had succeeded into any of those preâ—erments during the Reign of the two last Kings the old incumbeâ—ts whereof were then â—ound living and able to supply their places Which though it could not be objected against Dr Cox either in râ—ference to his Deâ—nry of â—hrist Church or that of 〈◊〉 both which he held at the same time yet being brought unto the Marshalâ—ey on the 5th of 〈◊〉 he was unjustly spoiâ—ed of both to make room for Dr Richard Marshall in the one and Dt Hugh Weston in the other And all this done without so much as any shew of legal processe or the conventing of the persons whom it did concern or any satisfaction given unto the Laws which in some cases favour possession more than right so strangely violated But greater was the havock which was made amongst them when there was any colour or pretence of Law as in the case of having wives or not conforming to the Queens pleasure in all points of Religion conâ—idering how forward and pragmatical too many were to run before the Laws in the like particular The Queen was zealous in her way and by her interesse strongly byassed to the Church of Rome But it concerned her to be wary and not to presse too much at once upon the people which generally were well affected to the Reformation Of this she had a stout experiment within very few dayes after her first entrance into London For so it hapned that Dr Bourn Arch-Deacon of London and one of the Prebends of St Paul's preaching a Sermon at the Crosse on the 13th of August inveighed in favour of Bishop Bonner who was present at it against some proceedings in the time of the late King Edward Which so incensed the people that suddenly a great tumult arose upon it some pelting him with stones others crying out aloud pull him down pull him down and one who never could be known flinging a dagger at his head which after was found sticking in a post of the Pulpit And greater had the mischief been upon this occasion if Mr Bradford and Mr Rogers two eminent Preachers in the time of King Edward and of great credit and esteem with the common people had not endeavoured to appease the enraged multitude and with great difficulty secured the Preacher in the School adjoining By reason of which tumult an Order was taken by the Lords of the Counâ—il with the mayor and Aldermen of London that they calling the next day following a Common Council of the City should thereby charge every housholder to cause their children and Apprentices to keep their own Parish Churches upon the Holy dayes and not to suffer them to attempt any thing to the violating of the common peace Willing them also to signifie to the said Assembly the Queens determination uttered to them by her Highnesse the 12th of August in the Tower Which was that albeit her Grace's conscience was staid in matters of Religion yet she gratiously meant to compel or strain other mens otherwise than God should as she trusted put into their hearts a perswasion of that truth which she was in through the opening of his word unto them by godly vertuous and learned Preachers that is to say such Preachers only as were to be hereafter licenced by the Queen's authority But yet for fear that these instructions might not edifie with the common people Order was taken for preventing the like tumult on the Sunday following At what time the Sermon was preached by Dr Watson who afterwards was Bishop of Lincoln but Chaplain only at that time to the Bishop of Winchester For whose security not only many of the Lords of the Council that is to say the Lord Treasurer the Lord Privy Seal the Earl of Bedford the Earl of Pembrook the Lords Wentworth and Rich were severally desired to be there present but Gerningham Captain of the Guard was appointed with two hundred of his stourest Yeomen to stand round about him with their Halberts The Mayor had also taken Order that all the Companies in their Liveries should be present at it which was well taken by the Queen And because the comming of the Guard on the one side affrighted some and the Order of the Lords above mentioned had restrained others from comming to those publick Sermons it was commanded by the Lord Mayor that the Ancients of all Companies should give attendance at those Sermons for the time to come lest otherwise the Preachers might be discouraged at the sight of so thin an Auditory The safety of those publick Preachers being thus provided for by the Lords of the Council there next care was that nothing should be preached in private Churches contrary to the Doctrine which was and should be â—aughâ— at the Cross by them which were appointed to it Whereupon it was further Ordered that every Alderman in his Ward should forthwith send for the Curates of every Church within their Liberties and warn them not only to forbear preaching themselves but also not to suffer any other to preach or make any open or solemn reading of Scripture in their Churches unless the said Preachers were severally licensed by the Queen To which purpose Letters were directed also to the Bishop of Norwich and possibly to all other Bishops in their several Diocesses But nothing more discovers the true state and temper of the present time than a Proclamation published by the Queen on the 18th of August The Tenor of which is as followeth The Queen's Highnesse well remembring what great inconvenience and dangers have grown to this her Reaâ—m in timesâ— past through the diversities of opinions in Questions of Religion and hearing also that now of late sithence the beginning of her most gratious Reign the same contentions be again much revived through certain false and untrue reports and rumoâ—rs spread by some evil-disposed persons hath thought good to give to understand to all Her Highnesse's most loving subjects her most grrtious pleasure in manner following First Her Majesty being presently by the only goodness of God setled in her just possession of the Imperial Crown of this Realm and other Dominions thereunto belonging cannot now hide that Religion which God and the world knoweth she hath ever proâ—essed from her infancy hitherto Which at her Majesty is minded to observe and maintain for her self by God's grace during her time so doth her Highness much desire and would be glad the some were of all her subjects quietly and charitably entertain'd And yet she doth signifie unto all her Majestie 's loving subjects that of Her most gratious disposition and clemency Her Highness mindeth not to â—ompel any Her said subjects thereunto until such time as further Order by common assent may be taken therein Forbidding nevertheless all her subjects of all degrees at their perils to move seditions or stir
vain about it In these distractions some of the Franckfort Schismaticks desire that all divine Offices might be executed according to the order of the Church of Geneva which Knox would by no means yield unto thinking himself as able to make a Rule for his own Congregation as any Calvin of them all But that the mouths of those of Stralsburge and Zuriâ—k might be stopped for ever he is content to make so much use of him as by the authority of his judgment to disgrace that Liturgy which those of Zurick did contend for He knew well how he had bestirred himself in quarrelling the first Liturgy of King Edward the 6th and nothing doubteth but that the second though reviewed on his importunity would give him as little satisfaction as the other did To this intent the Order of the English Liturgy is drawn up in Latine transmitted to him by Knox and Whittingham by this infallible judgment to stand or fall The Oracle returns this answer on the 31 of January In Liturgia Anglâ—cana qualem mihi describitis multas vidâ—o tolerabiles ineptias That in the Book of England as by them described he had observed many tolerable fooleries Whiâ—h last words being somewhat ambiguous as all Oracles are he explicates himself by telling them That there wanted much of that purity which was to be desired in it that it contained many relicks of the dregs of Popery that being there was no manifest impiety in it it had been tolerated for a season because at first it could not otherwise be admitted But howsoever though it was lawful to begin with such beggarly rudiments yet it behoved the learned grave and godly Ministers of Christ to endeavour farther and set forth something more refined from filth and rustinesse This being sent for his determinate sentence unto Knox and Whittingham was of such prevalency with all the rest of that party that such who â—ormerly did approve did afterwards as much dislike the English Liturgy and those who at the first had conceived onely a dislike grew afterwards into an open detestation of it Those who before had been desirous that the Order of Geneva should be entertained had now drawn Knox and Whittingham unto them Mr. John Fox the Author of the Acts and Monuments contributing his approbation amongst the rest But in the end to give content to such as remained affected to the former Liturgy it was agreed upon That a mixt Form consisting partly of the Order of Geneva and partly of the Book of England should be digested and received till the first of April consideration in the mean time to be had of some other course which should be permanent and obliging for the time to come In this condition of affairs Doctor Richard Cox the late Dean of Christ-Church and Westminster first Schoolmaster and after Almoner to King Edward the sixth putteth himself into Franckfort March 13. accompanied with many English Exiles whom the cause of Religion had necessitated to forsake their Country Being a man of great learning of great authority in the Church and one that had a principal hand in drawing up the Liturgy by Law established he could with no patience endure those innovations in it or rather that rejection of it which he found amongst them He thereupon first begins to answer the Minister contrary to the Order there agreed on and the next Sunday after causeth one of his company to go into the Pulpit and read the Letany Against which doings of his Knox in a Sermon the same day inveigheth most bitterly affirming many things in the Book of England not onely to be imperfect but superstitious For the which he is not onely rebuked by Cox but forbidden to preach Wherewith Whittingham being much offended deals with some of the Magistrates from whom he procureth an Order of the 22 of March requiring That the English should conform themselves to the Rules of the French Knox had not long before published a seditious Pamphlet entituled An Admonition to Christians containing the substance of some Sermons by him preached in Engâ—and in one of which he affirmed the Emperor to be no lesse an enemy to Christ that the â—yrant Nero. For this and several other passages of the like dangerous nature he is accused by Cox for Treason against the Emperor the Senate made acquainted with it and Knox commanded thereupon to depart the City who makes hâ—s Farewel-Sermon on the 25th of March and retires himself unto Geneva Following his blow Cox gets an order of the Senate by the means of another of the Glaâ—berges by which Whittingham and the rest of his faction were commanded to receive the Book of England Against which order Whiâ—tingham for a time opposeth encouraged therein by Goodman who for the love of Knox with whom afterwards he associated in all his practices had left the grave soâ—iety of those of Stralsbâ—rge to joyn himself unto the Sectaries of 〈…〉 But finding Cox to be too strong for them in the Senate both they and all the rest who refused conformity resolved to betake themselves to some other place as they shortly did Cox thus made Master of the field begins to put the Congregation into such order as might preserve the face and reputation of an English Church He procures Whitehead to be chosen for the principal Paâ—â—or appoints two Ministers for Elders and four Deacons for aâ—â—istants to him recommends Mr. Robert Horn whom he had drawn from Zurick thither to be Hebrew-Reader Mullings to read the Greek Lecture Trahern the Lecture in Divinity and Chambers to be Treasurer for the Contributions which were sent in from time to time by many godly and wellâ—affected persons both Dutch and English for the use of that Church Having thus setled all things answerable to his own desires he gives an account thereof to Calvin subscribed by fourteen of the chief men in that Congregation partly excusing themselves that they had proceeded so far without his consent and partly rejoycing that they had drawn the greatest part of that Church to their own opinions Calvin returns his Answer on the last of May which puts his party there on another project that is to say to have the whole business referred to some Arbitrators equally chosen on both sides But Cox was already in possession great in esteem with the chief Magistrates of the City and would by no means yield to refer that point which had already been determined to his advantage With these debates the time is taken up till the end of August at what time Whiâ—tingham and the rest of the faction take their leave of Franckfort Fox with some few others go to Basil but the main body to Geneva as their Mâ—ther-City where they make choice of Knox and Goodman for their constant Preachers under which Ministry they reject the whole frame and fabrick of the Reformation made in England conformed themselves wholly to the fashions of the Church of Geneva and therewith entertain
he was not able to resist and thereby gained so much displeasure from the Cardinal Legate that before the end of the next year Anno 1557. he was outed of his Deanry of Windsor and all his other Ecclesiastical promotions upon an information of his being taken in the act of adultery which otherwise perhaps might have been pardoned or connived at in him as in many others But willing or unwilling he had first surrender'd the Church of Westminster which the Queen stocked with a new Convent of Benâ—dictines consisting of an Abbot and fourteen Monks which with their officers were as many as the Lands then left unto it could well maintain And for the first Abbot she made choice of Dr John Fecknam a learned grave and moderate man whom she had formerly made Dean of St Paul's in the place of Dr William May and now made choice of Dr Henry Cole Arch-Deacon of Ely and Prolocutor of the Convocation Anno 1555. to succeed him in it It was upon the 21 of November that the new Abbot and his Monks entred on the possession of their ancient Convent which they held not fully out three years when it was once again dissolved by Act of Parliament of which more hereafter Which fate befel the rest of her foundations also two of which cost her little more than this at Westminster A Convent of Observants being a reformed Order of Franciscan Friers had been founded by King Henry the 7th neer the Mannor of Greenwich and was the first which felt the fury of King Henry the 8th by reason of some open opposition made by some of the Friers in favour of Queen Katherine the mother of the Queen now reigning Which moved her in a pious gratitude to re-edifie that ruined house and to restore as many as could be found of that Order to their old habitations making up their Corporation with some new Observants to a competent number She gathered together also a new Convent of Dominicans or black Friers for whom she provided an house in Smithfield in the City of London â—itting the same with all conveniences both for divine Offices and other necessary uses And having done this she was at no more charges with either of them for both the Observants and Dominicans being begging Fryers might be resembled not unfitly to a swarm of Bees which being provided of an hive are left to make their combs and raise themselves a livelyhood by their natural industry But so she went not off in her other foundations which were to be provided of some proportionable endowment out of the revenues of the Crown towards their support Aâ— Sion nere Brentford in the Country of Middlesex there had been anciently a house of religious women Nuns of the Order of St Bridget dissolv'd as were all teh rest by King Henry the 8th Most of the old ones dead and the younger maried Yet out of such of the old Nuns as remained alive and the addition of some others who were willing to embrace that course of life a competent number was made up for a new Plantation but seated as before at Sion which the Queen repaired and laid unto it a sufficient estate in Lands for their future maintenance Which house being afterwards dissolved also by Queen Elizabeth came first to the possession of Sir Thomas Perrot who gave it to his wife the Lady Dorothy one of the daughters of Walter Divereux Earl of Essex by whom being after married to Henry Lord Percy Earl of Northumberland it was left for a retiring house to that Noble Family who do still enjoy it At Sheen on the other side of the water there had been anciently another religious house not far from a mansion of the Kings to which they much resorted till the building of Richmond This house she stock'd with a new Convent of Carthusians corruptly called the Charter-hoâ—se-Moncks which she endowed with a revenue great enough to maintain that Order which profest more abstemiousness in diet and sparingness of expence in all other things than any others which embraced a Monastical life And the next year having closed up the West end of the Quire or Chancel of the Church of St Johns neer Smithfield which was all the Protector Sommerset had left standing of it she restored the same to the Hospitalry of Knights of St John to whom it formerly belonged assigning a liberal endowment to it for their more honourable subsistence Over whom she placed Sir Thomas Treshaâ—â— for the first Lord Prior a Gentleman of an ancient Family and one that had deserv'd exceeding well of her in defence of her claim against Queen Jane who on the 30th of November 1557. received the Order of the Crosse at Westminster and took possession of his place which having scarce warmed he was taken from it by the stroke of death and left it by the Queen to be disposed of to Sir Râ—chard Shellie the last great Master of that Order in the Realm of England But this expiring with the rest within two years after there remained nothing of all Queen Mary's foundations but her new Hoâ—pital in the Savoy An Hospital had formerly been founded in thaâ— House by her Grandfather King Henry the seventh for the relief of such pilgrims as either went on their Devotions to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury or any other eminent Shrine or Saint in those parts of the Kingdom On a suggestion made to King Edward the sixth that it served onely for a recepracle of vagrant persons it was surrendred to him in the last year of his Reign by the Master and Brethren of the same out of the Lands whereof he assigned the yearly Rent of seven hundred Marks for the maintenance of his new working house of Bridewel which he had given for ever to the Lord Mayor and City of London as hath been signified before in the life of that King together with all the beds bedding and other furniture which were found in this Hospital And though this Grant bare date on the 26 of June in the last year of his Reign Anno 1553. yet the Lord Mayor and Aldermen entred not on the possession of it till the month of February now last past Anno 1555. But having took possession of it and so much of the Lands of this Hospital being setled on it the Hospital in the Savoy could not be restored to its first condition but by a new Endowment from such other Lands belonging to Religious Houses which were remaining in the Crown But the Queen was so resolved upon it that she might add some works of Charity unto those of Piety or else in honour of her Grandfather whose foundation she restored at Greenwich also the Hospital was again refounded on the third of November and a convenient yearly Rent allotted to the Master and Brethren for the entertainment of the Poor according to the tenour and effect of the first Institution Which Prince-like Act so wrought upon the Maids of Honor and other Ladies
they came on shoar This was the sum of what the English did this year in order to the recovery of the honour which they lost at Calais and possibly they might think they had done enough in the spoil of Breâ—agn to satisfie for the loss of a Town in Piccardy whereas in truth the waste which they had made in Breâ—agn might be compared to the cutting off a mans hair which will grow again the loss of Calais to the dismembring of an arm or leg never to be again united to the rest of the body Either by reason of these wars or that men were not then so prompt to Sutes in Law the Lawyers found but little work in Westminster-hall insomuch that at the King's Bench 〈◊〉 there attended but one man of Law called Foster and but one Serjeant onely called Bouloise of the Common-Pleas both having little more to do than to look about them and the Judges not much more to do than the Lawyers had but certainly that great leisure which the Lawyers found for doing nothing proceeded rather from the noise of the wars in which the voice of the Law cannot easily be heard than from the quietness disposition of the times in which the number both of Sutes and Pleaders had been much encreased as may be gathered from the words of Heiwood the old Epigrammatist and one much made of by the Queen who being told of the great number of Lawyers and that the number of them would impoverish the whole Profession made answer No for that always the more Spaniels there were in the field the more was the game Not so much elbow-room in the Hall though possibly not much more business for them in the Term next following by reason of the Parliament which began on the 20th of January and held on till the seventh of March in which I find no Act which concerned Religion noâ— any thing which had relation to the Clergy more than the confirmation of their Grant of Subsidies It was a military time and the Acts had something in them of that temper also that is to say an Act proportioning what number of Horse Arms and Weapons every man should be charged withall in his several station cap. 2. an Act for the due taking and observing of Musters cap. 3. that Accessaries in Murder and such as were found guilty of divers Felonies should not have their Clergy cap. 4. for the quiet behaviour of such French-men as had purchased the privilege of being Denizens cap. 6. and finally for granting a Subsidy and Fifteen by the Temporality towards the defence of the Realm and carrying on the War against those of France Nothing else memorable in this Session but that Fecknam the new Abbot of Westminster and Tresham the new Prior of St. Johns of Jerusalem took place amongst the Lords in the House of Peers At the Convocation then holden for the Province of Canterbury Harpsfield Arch-Deacon of London is chosen and admitted Prolocutor for the House of the Clergy Which done the Cardinal-Archbishop offers it to the confideration of the Bishops and Clergy that some course might be thought upon for the recovery of Calais then lately taken by the French Which whether it were done to spur on the Parliament or to shew their good affections to the publick service is not much material considering that I find nothing acted in pursuance of it As little was there done in order to another of his propositions touching the revieuing and accommodating of the Statutes of the new foundations though a reference thereof was made to the Bishops of Lincoln Chester and Peterborough together with the Deans of Canâ—erbury Worcester and Winchester Some desires also were agreed on to be presented to the Prelate Cardinal in the name of the Clergy as namely 1. That request may be made to the Queens Majesty That no Parson Vicar or Curate be pressed by any Captain to go to the wars 2. That where two Benefices being contiguous are so small that they are not able to find a Priest the Bishop of the Diocess may give them in commendam to some one man to serve them alternâ—s vicibus 3. That the Paâ—ishioners which have Chapels of ease and yet want Priests to serve the Cure may be compelled to come to the Parish Churches until some Curate may be gotten to serve the same And 4. That every Bishop may be authorised by the Pope to give Orders extra tempora praescripta that is to say as well at any other times as on the Sundayes after the four Ember weeks And finally taking into consideration the great necessities of the State and preparation of the enemies they granted first unto the Queen a Subsidy of eight shillings in the pound to be paid in four years beginning after the last payment of the former grant and because the Laity at that time had charged themselves with horse and armour for defence of the Realm the Clergy also did the like according to their several Orders and abilities For the imposing whereof upon the rest of the Clergy they had no recourse at all unto the Midwifry of an Act of Parliament but acted the whole business in their own Synodical way without contradiction But the main business of this year in reference to the concernments of holy Church related to the Caâ—dinal Legate against whom the Pope had borne an inveterate grudge sharpned by the suggestions of Bishop Gardiner as before was signified Being of himself a rigorous man and one that was extreamly wedded to his own opinion he had so passionately espoused the quarrel of the French against the Spaniard that he intended to divest Philip of the Realm of Naples and to confer it on the French For this cause Francis Duke of Guise with a puissant army is drawn into Italy for the subduing of that Kingdom but suddenly recalled again upon the routing of the French before St Quintin wherein the English forces had appeared so serviceable Which gave the Pope so much displeasure that he resolved to let his greatest enemies feel the dint of his spirit But not daring upon second thoughts to fall foul with the Queen he turned his fury against Pole by whose perswasion it was thought that the Queen had broke her league with France to take part with her husband In which humour he deprives him of the Legantinâ— power confers the same on Frier Peitow an English man by birth but of good descent whom he designs also to the See of Salisbury then vacant by the death of Capoâ— Karn the Queens Agent with the Pope advertiseth her Majesty of these secret practices which the Queen concealing from the Cardinal endeavoureth by all fair and gentle means to mitigate the Pope's displeasure and confirm the Cardinal in the place and power which he then enjoyed But the Pope not a man to be easily altered Pole in the mean time understanding how things went at Rome laid by the Cross of his Legation and prudently abstaineth from the
tempore existentes according to the Laws of the Land which were thâ—n in force whether by Purchase or by Gift or in the way of Exchange which are the words of the Decree And secondly If the said Lands were warranted and confirmed unto them by Letters Patents from the two last Kings qui per literas Patentes easdem Terras Warâ—antizâ—runt as is declared in the Second of the following Reasons For which Consult the Book Entituled No Sacrilege nor Sin to purchase Cathedrâ—l-Lands c. page 52. Where still observe that nothing made a Lawful Title in the Pope's Opinion but the King's Letters Patents grounded on the Laws of the Land as is expressed more clearly in the former Passages But this can no way serve the Turn of some present Purchasers though much insisted on by one of that number to justifie his defacing of an Episcopal Palace and his pretensions to the Wealthy Borough which depended on it For certainly there must needs be a vast disproportion between such Contracts as were founded upon Acts of Parliament Legally passed by the King's Authority with the Consent and Approbation of the Three Estates and those which have no other Ground but the bare Votes and Orders of both Houses onely and perhaps not that And by this Logick he may as well justifie the late horrid Murther committed on the most incomparable Majesty of King CHARLES the First as stand upon the making good of such Grants and Sates as were Contracted for with some of those very Men who Voted to the setting up of the High Court of Justice as most ridiculously they were pleased to call it When I shall see him do the one I must bethink my self of some further Arguments to refute the other And so Queen MARY makes Her Exit and leaves the Stage to Queen ELIZABETH Her younger Sister A Princess which had long been trained up in the Schole of Experience and knew the Temper of the People whom She was to Govern who having generally embraced the Reformed Religion in the Time of Her Brother most passionately desired the Enjoyment of it under Her Protection And She accordingly resolved to satisfie the Piety of their Desire as soon as She had Power and Opportunity to go thorough with it In Prosecution of which Work She raised Her whole Fabrick on the same Foundation which had been lay'd by the Reformers in the Reign of King EDWARD that is to say the Word of God the Practise of the Primitive Times the General Current of the Fathers and the Example of such Churches as seemed to retain most in them of the Antient Forms But then She added thereunto such an equal mixture both of Strengâ—h and Beauty as gave great Lustre to the Church and drew along with it many rare Felicities on the Civil State both Extraordinary in themselves and of long Continuance as the most Excellent King IAMES hath right-well observed So that We may affirm of the Reformation of the Church of England as the Historian doth of the Power and Greatness of the Realm of Macedon that is to say that The same Arts by which the first Foundations of it were laid by PHILIP were practised in the Consummation and Accomplishment of it by the Care of ALEXANDER For in the first Year of Her Reign the Liturgie being first Reviewed and qualified in some Particulars was confirmed by PARLIAMENT in Her first Year the Articles of Religion were agreed upon the Convocation and in the Eight the Government of the Church by Arch-Bishops and Bishops received as strong a Confirmation as the Laws could give it And for this last We are beholden unto BONNER the late Bishop of LONDON who being called upon to take the OATH of Supremacie by HORN of Winton refused to take the OATH upon this Account because HORNs Consecration was not good and valid by the Laws of the Land Which he insisted on because the Ordinal Established in the Reign of King EDWARD by which both HORN and all the rest of Queen ELIZABETH's Bishops received Consecrationâ— had been discharged by Queen MARY and not restored by any Act of Parliament in the present Reign Which being first declared by PARLIAMENT in the Eighth of this Queen to be Casus omissus or rather that the Ordinal was looked upon as a part of the Liturgie which had been solemnly confirmed in the first of this Queen's Reign they next Enacted and Ordained That all such Bishops as were Consecrated by that Ordinal in the Times precedent or should be Consecrated by it in the time to come should be reputed to be lawfully Ordained and Consecrated to all Intents and Purposes in the Law whatever Which added as much Strength to the Episcopal Government as the Authority of Man and an Act of Parliament could possibly Conferr upon it This made the Queen more constant to Her former Principles of keeping up the Church in its Power and Purity without subjecting it to any but Her Self alone She looked upon Her Self as the Sole Fountain of both Jurisdictions which She resolved to keep in their proper Chanels neither permitting them to mingle Waters upon any occasion nor suffering either of them to invade and destroy the other And to this Rule She was so constant that when one Morrice being then Attorney of the Dutchy of Lancaster had offered a Bill ready drawn to the House of Commons in the Thirty Fifth of Her Reign for the Retrenching of the Ecclesiastical Courts in much Narrower Bounds She first commanded Coke then Speaker and afterwards successively Chief Justice of either Bench not to admit of any such Seditious Bills for the time to come And that being done She caused the person of the said Attorney to be seized upon deprived him of his Place in the Dutchy-Court disabled him from Practising as a Common-Lawyer and finally shut him up in Tutbury-Castle where he continued till his Death By which Severity and keeping the like Constant Hand in the Course of Her Government She held so great a Curb on the Puritan Faction that neither Her Parliaments nor Her Courts of Justice were from thenceforth much troubled with them in the rest of Her Reign This is the Sum and Method of the following History in the Particulars whereof thou wilt finde more to satisfie thy Curiosity and inform thy Judgment then can be possibly drawn up in this General View As for my Self and my performance in this Work in the first place I am to tell thee that towards the raising of this Fabrick I have not borrowed my Materials onely out of Vulgar Authors but searched into the Registers of the Convocation consulted all such Acts of Parliament as concerned my Purpose advised with many Foreign Writers of great Name and Credit exemplified some Records and Charters of no common Quality many rare Pieces in the famous Cottonian Library and not a few Debates and Orders of the Council-â—able which I have lai'd together in as good a Form and beautified it with a
the Grant of the said Chanteries Free-Chapels c. came to take Effect In the mean time It will not be amiss to shew that these Chanteries consisted of Salaries allowed to one or more Priests to say daily Mass for the Souls of their deceased Founders and their Friends Which not subsisting on themselves were generally Incorporated and United to some Parochial Collegiate or Cathedral Church No fewer then 47. in Number being found and Founded in Saint Paul's Free-Chapels though Ordained for the same Intent were Independent of themselves of stronger Constitution and Richer Endowment then the Chanteries severally were though therein they fell also short of the Colleges which far exceeded them both in the Beauty of their Building the number of Priests maintained in them and the Proportion of Revenue allotted to them All which Foundations having in them an Admixture of Superstition as Pre-supposing Purgatory and Prayers to be made for Deliverance of the Soul from thence were therefore now suppressed upon that Account and had been granted to the late King upon other Pretences At what time it was Preached at Mercers-Chapel in London by one Doctour Cromer a Man that wished exceeding well to the Reformation That If Trentals and Chantery-Masses could avail the Souls in Purgatory then did the Parliament not well in giving away Colleges and Chanteries which served principally for that purpose But if the Parliament did well in dissolving and bestowing them upon the King which he thought that no man could deny then was it a plain Case that such Chanteries and private Masses did confer no Relief on the Souls in Purgatory Which Dilemma though it were unanswerable yet was the matter so handled by the Bishops seeing how much the Doctrine of the Church was concerned therein that they brought him to a Recantation at Saint Paul's Cross in the June next following this Sermon being Preached in Lent where he confessed himself to have been seduced by naughty books contrary to the Doctrine then received in the Church But the Current of these Times went the other way and Cromer might now have Preached that safely for which before he had been brought into so much trouble But that which made the greatest Alteration and threatened most danger to the State Ecclesiastical was the Act entituled An Act for Election of Bishops and what Seals and Styles shall be used by Spiritual Persons c. In which it was Ordained for I shall onely repeat the Sum thereof That Bishops should be made by the King's Letters Patents and not by the Election of the Deans and Chapters That all their Processes and Writings should be made in the King's Name onely with the Bishop's Teste added to it and sealed with no other Seal but the King 's or such as should be Authorised and Appointed by Him In the Compounding of which Act there was more Danger couched then at first appeared By the last Branch thereof it was plain and evident that the Intent of the Contrivers was by degrees to weaken the Authority of the Episcopal Order by forcing them from their Strong-hold of Divine Institution and making them no other then the King's Ministers onely His Ecclesiastical Sheriffs as a man might say to execute His Will and disperse His Mandates And of this Act such use was made though possibly beyond the true intention of it that the Bishops of those Times were not in a Capacity of conferring Orders but as they were thereunto enpowered by especial Licence The Tenour whereof if Sanders be to be believed was in these words following viz. The King to such a Bishop Greeting Whereas all and all manner of Jurisdiction as well Ecclesiastical as Civil flows from the King as from the Supreme Head of all the Body c. We therefore give and grant to thee full Power and Liceâ—ce to continue during Our Good Pleasure for holding Ordination within thy Diocess of N. and for promoting fit Persons unto Holy Orders even to that of the Priest-hood Which being looked on by Queen Mary not onely as a dangerous Diminution of the Episcopal Power but as an Odious Innovation in the Church of Christ â— She caused this Act to be repealed in the first Year of Her Reign leaving the Bishops to depend on their former claim and to act all things which belonged to their Jurisdiction in their own Names and under their own Seals as in former Times In which Estate they have continued without any Legal Interruption from that time to this But in the first Branch there was somewhat more then what appeared at the first sighâ— For though it seemed to aim at nothing but that the Bishops should depend wholly on the King for their preferment to those great and eminent Places yet the true Drift of the Design was to make Deans and Chapters useless for the time to come and thereby to prepare them for a Dissolution For had nothing else been intended in it but that the King should have the sole Nomination of all the Bishops in His Kingdoms it had been onely a Reviver of an Antient Power which had been formerly Invested in His Predecessour's and in all other Christian Princes Consult the Stories and Records of the Eâ—der Times and it will readily appear not onely that the Romane Emperours of the House of France did nominate the Popes themselves but that after they had lost that Power they retained the Nomination of the Bishops in their own Dominions The like done also by the German Emperours by the Kings of England and by the Antient Kings of Spain the Investiture being then performed Per Annulum Baculum as they used to Phrase it that is to say by delivering of a Ring together with a Crosier or Pastoral Staff to the Party nominated Examples of which Practice are exceeding obvious in all the Stories of those Times But the Popes finding at the last how necessary it was in order to that absolute Power which they ambitiously affected over all Christian Kings and Princes that the Bishops should depend on none but them challenged this power unto themselves declaring it in several Petit Councels for no less then Simony if any man should receive a Bishoprick from the Hands of his own Natural Prince From hence those long and deadly Quarrels begun between Pope Hildebrand and the Emperour Henry the Fourth and continued by their Successours for many years after From hence the like Disputes in England between Pope Vrban the Second and King William Rufus between Pope Innocent and King Iâ—hn till in the end the Popes prevailed both here and elsewhere and gained the point unto themselves But so that to disguise the matter the Election of the future Bishop was committed to the Prior and Convent or to the Dean and Chapter of that Cathedral wherein he was to be Installed Which passing by the Name of Free Elections were wholly in a manner at the Pope's Disposing The Point thus gained it had been little to their Profit if they had
is that upon the very first Reports of a Reformation here intended Calvin had offered his Assistance to Arch-Bishop Craenmer as himself confesseth But the Arch-Bishop knew the Man and refused the Offer And it appears in one of Bishop Latimer's Sermons that there was report about this time of Melancthon's coming but it proved onely a Report And though it was thought necessary for the better seasoning of the Vniversities in the Protestant Reformed Religion that Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two eminent Divines of the Foreign Churches should be invited to come over yet the Arch-Bishop's Letter of Invitation sent to Martin Bucer was not written till the twelfth day of October At what time the Liturgie then in hand being the chief Key to the whole Work of Reformation was in very good forwardness and must needs be compleatly finished before he could so settle and dispose his Affairs in Germany as to come for England And though Peter Martyr being either more at Leasure or less engaged or otherwise more willing to accept of the Invitation came many Moneths before the other yet neither do we finde him here till the end of November when the Liturgie had been approved of by the King and Council if it had not also passed the Approbation of both Houses of Parliament Nor was it likely that they should make use of such a Man in composing a Liturgie wherein they were resolved to retain a great part of the Antient Ceremonies who being made Canon of Christ-Church in Oxford and frequently present at Divine Service in that Church could never be prevailed with to put on the Surplice Being left therefore to themselves they were at the more liberty for following the King 's most Godly and most Wise Directions having in the first place an eye and respect to the most sincere and Pure Religion taught by the Scripture and in the second to the Vsages of the Primitive Church and making out of both one convenient and meet Order Rite and Fashion of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments to be had and used in the Realm of Englâ—nd and the Principality of Wales Which being finished they all subscribed their Names unto it but Day of Chichester who would by no means have his Hand in the Subscription as is related in the Register-Book of the Parish of Petwoâ—th But being subscribed by all the rest it was by them with all due Reverence humbly presented to the King by whom it was received to His great Comfort and Quietness of mind as the Statute telleth us And being by him commended to the Lords and Commons then Assembled in Parliament which Parliament took beginning on the fourth day of November they did not onâ—ly give His Highness most hearty and lowly thanks for his Care therein but on peruâ—aâ— of the Book declared it to be done by the aid of the Holy Ghost And therâ—upoâ— considering the Godly Prayers Orders Rites and Ceremonies in the said Book mentioned and also the reasons of Altering of those things which be altered and the retaining those things which be retained together with the Hoâ—our of God and the great Quietâ—ess which by the Grace of God was likely to ensâ—e on suâ—h an Uâ—iform Order in Common Prayer Rites and External Ceremonies to be used in all England and Wales in Calice and the Marches of the â—ame it was Eâ—acâ—ed That all and singular Ministers in any Cathedral or 〈◊〉 Church or other Place within this Realm of England Wales Calce and the Marches of the same or other the King's Dominions should from and after the Feast of Pentecost next coming that Interval being given for the Printing of it be bounden to say and use the Mattens Even-song Celebration of the Lord's Supper â—â—mmonly caâ—â—ed The Mass and Administration of each of the Sacraments and all their Common and Open Prayer in such Order and Form as is mentioned in the same Book and no otherwise with several Penalties therein mentioned to be imposed on all such in their several places as either should willfully refuse to Officiate by it or hinder the Lawfull Exâ—cution oâ— it or speak any thing in Derogation of the said Book or any thing therein contained The passing of this Act gave great Offence to those of the Romish Paâ—ty not that they could except against it in regard either of the Manner or Matter of it which they acknowledged to be Consonant to the Antient Forms but bâ—cause it was communicated to the People in the Vulgar Tongue And this they charged as a gâ—eat Eâ—rour in those Men who had the chief Hand in the Conduct of that Affâ—iâ— becaâ—se that by the Rules thereof the Scriptures were to be read publâ—ckly in the 〈◊〉 Tongue Which what else was it as they said but the committing so much Heavenly Treasure unto Râ—tten Vessels the trusting so much Excellent 〈◊〉 to such Musty Bâ—ttles And being that there are many things in he Divine Offices of the Church quae secreta esse debent as the Cardinal telleth us which ought to have been kept as Secrets from all Vulgar knowledg it must needs be of very ill Conâ—equence to communicate them to all sorâ—s of People But certainly the Holy Ghost was able to direct the Church in â— betâ—er way then such as should be subject unto Man's Exceptions And he directs the Service of the Church to be Officiated in such a Language to which the ignorant and unlearned may say Amen 1 Cor. xiv 9 16. Upon which Words it is observed by Lyra and Aquinas two as great Clerks as any in the Church of Rome That The Publick Service of the Church in the Primitive Times was in the Common Vulgar Language The like affirmed by Doctour Haâ—aing as great a Stickler for that Church and the Doctrines of it as any other of his Time adding withall That it was necessary in the Primitive Times that it should be so and granting also That it were still better that the People had their Service in their own Vulgar Tongue for their better understanding of it So he in Answer to the Challenge made by Bishop Jewel Art 3. Sect. 28 and 33. And theâ—efore having the confession and acknowledgment of the very Adveâ—saâ—y not onely as to the Antiquity but the Fitness also of Celebrating Divine Offices in the Vulgar Language it may be thought a loss both of Time and Travail to press the Argument any further Which nâ—twithstanding for the more perfect clearing of the Point in question it wâ—ll be found upon a very easie seach that the Jews did Celebrate their Divine Offiâ—es Tractatus and Oblationes as the Father hath it most commonly in the Syriack and sometimes in the Hebrew Tongue the natural Languages of that People as is affirmed by St. Ambrose upon 1 Cor. cap. 14. and out of him by Durand in his Rationale Eckius a great Servant of the Popes affirmeth in his Common Places That the Indians have their Service in the Indian Tongue and
that St. Hierom having Translated the whole Bible into the Dalmatick procured that the Service should be celebrated in that Language also The like St. Hierom himself in his Epistle to Heliodorus hath told us of the Bessi a Sarmatian People The like St. Basil in his Epistle to the Neo-Caesarians assures us for the Egyptians Libâ—ans Palestinians Phoenicians Arabians Syrians and such as dwell about the Bank of the River Euphrates The Aethiopians had their Mâ—ssal the Chaldeans theirs each in the Lanâ—uage of their Countries which they still retain so had the Moscovites of old and all the scattered Chuâ—ches of tâ—e Eastern Parts which they contiâ—â—e to this day Nay rather then the People shâ—uld be kept in Ignorance of the Word of God and the Divine Offices of the Church a signal Miracle should be wrought to command the contrary For we are told of the Sclavonians by Aeneas Sylvius who being afterwards Pope was called Pius the Second that being converted unto the Faith they made suit unto the Pope then being to have their Publick Service in their Natural Tongue but some delay being made therein by the Pope and Cardinals a voice was heard seeming to have come from Heaven saying in the Latine Tongue Omnis Spiritus laudet Dominum omnis lingua confiteatur Ei that is to â—ay Let every Soul praise the Name of God and every Tongue or Language make Profession of it whereupon their Desires were granted without more delay Which probably might be a chief Inducement to Innocent the Third to set out a Decree in the Lateran Councel importing That in all such Cities in which there was a Concourse of divers Nations and consequently of Different Languages as in most Towns of Trade there doth use to be the Service should be said and Sacraments administred Secundum diversitates Nationum Linguarum that is According to the Difference of their Tongues and Nations So that if we consider the Direction of the Holy Ghost the Practice of the Primitive Times the General Vsage of all Nations not inthralled to the Popes of Rome the Confession of the very Adversary the Act and Approbation of the Pope himself and finally the Declaration of God's Pâ—easure by so great a Miracle The Church did nothing in this Case but what was justifiable in the sight both of God and Man But then again it is Objected on the other side That neither the undertaking was advised nor the Book it self approved in a Synodical Way by the Bishops and Clergy but that it was the Act onely of some few of the Prelates imployed therein by the King or the Lord Protectour without the Privity and Approbation of the rest The Consideration whereof shall be referred to another place when we shall come to speake of the King's Authority for the composing and imposing of the Scotish Liturgy In the mean time we must take notice of another Act of as great importance for the Peace and Honour of the Church and the Advancing of the Work of Reformation which took away those positive Laws by which all men in Holy Orders were restrained from Marriage In which 〈◊〉 it is first declared That It were much to be desired that Priests and all others in Holy Orders might abstain from Marriage that thereby being freed from the Cares of Wed-lock and abstracted from the Troubles of Domestical Business they might more diligently attend the Ministery and apply themselves unto their Studieâ— But then withall it is considered That as all men have not the Gift of Continence so many great Scandals and other notable Inconveniencies have been occasioned in the Church by the enforced Necessity of a single Life in those admitted unto Orders Which seeing it was no more imposed on them then on any other by the Word of God but onely such positive Laws and Constitutions as had been made to that Effect by the Church of Rome It was therefore Enacted by the Authority of the present Parliament That All such Positive Laws and Ordinances as prohibited the Marriages of Priests or any other in Holy Orders and Pains and Forfeitures therein contained should be utterly void Which Act permitting them to marry but looked on as a matter of Permission onely made no small Pastime amongst those of the Romish Party reproaching both the Priests and much more their Wives as not lawfully married but onely suffered to enjoy the Company of one another without Fear of Punishment And thereupon it was Enacted in the Parliament of the fifth and sixth of Edw. 6. cap. 12. that The Marriages of the Priests should be reputed lawfull thâ—mselves being made Capable of being Tenants by Courtesie their Wives to be endowed as others at the Common Law aâ—d their Childâ—en Heritable to the Lands of their Fathers or Mâ—thers Which Privileges or Capacities rather notwithstanding the Repeal of this Statute in the Time of Queen Mary they and their Wives and Children still enjoyed without Dâ—sturbance or Dispute And to say truth it was an Act not onely of much Châ—istian Piety but more Civil Prudence the Clergy by this means being taken off from all Dependance on the Popes of Rome and rivited in their Dependance on their Natural Princes to whom their Wives and Children serve for so many Hostages The Consequents whereof was so well known to those of Rome that when it was desired by the Ambassadours of the Emperour and the Duke of Bavaria in the Councel of Trent That Marriage might be permitted to the Priests in their several Territories it would by no means be admitted The Reason was Because that having Houses Wives and Children they would depend no longer upon the Pope but onely on their several Princes that the Love to their Children would make them yield to many things which were prejudicial to the Church and in short time confine the Pope's Authority to the City of Rome For otherwise if the Popeâ— were not rather governed in this business by Reason of State then either by the Word of God or the Rules of Piety they had not stood so stiffly on an Inhibition accompanied with so much Scandal and known to be the onely Cause of too much Lewdness and Impuâ—ity in the Râ—mane Clergy If they had looked upon the Scriptures they would have found that Marriage was a Remedy ordained by God for the preventing of Incontinencies and wandring Lusts extending generally to all as much to those in Holy Orders as to any others as being subject all alâ—ke to Humane Infirmities If they had ruled the Case by the Proceedings oâ— the Councel of Nice or the Examples of many Good and Godly men in the Primitive Times they would have found that when the single Life of Priâ—sts was moved at that great Councel it was rejected by the general Consent of all the Fathers there assembled as a Yoke intolerable that Eupsychius a Cappadâ—cian Prelate was married after he had taken the Degree of a Bishop the like observed of one Phileus an Egyptian Prelate
and that it is affirmed by Hierom That many Priests in hâ—s Time had their proper Wives Had they consulted with the Stories of the middle Times when Priests were forced to put away their Wives by the Pope's Commandment or else to lose the Benefices which they were possessed of they would have found what horrible Confusions did ensue upon it in all the Kingdoms of the West what Tragical Exclamations were made against the Popes for so great a Tyranny Or finally If they had looked upon the scandalous Effects which this forced Coelibate produced they could not but have heard some News of Gregory's Fish Pond and must have been informed in their own Panormitan that the greatest part of the Clergy were given over to prohibited Lusts and by others of their Canonists that Clerks were not to be deprived for their Incontinency considering how few there were to be found without it so universal was the Mischief that it was thought uncapable of any Remedy If we desire to be further informed in it as a matter Doctrinal we shall finde many eminent men in the Church of Rome to state the point in favour of a married Clergy By Gratian it is said That the Marriage of Priests is neither prohibited by the Law or any precept in the Gospel or any Canon of the Apostles By Cardinal Cajetan That it can neither be proved by Reason nor good Aâ—thority that a Priest committeth any sin by being married By the same Cajetan That Orders neither in themselves nor as they are accompanied by the Title of Holy are any Hinderances or Obstructions in the Way of Marriage By Panormitan The Coelibate or the single Life of Priests is neither of the Essence of Holy Orders nor required by the Law of God By Antoninus That there is nothing in the Episcopal Function which can disable the Bishop from the married life By the Authour of the Gloss upon the Decrees That the Greek Priests neither explicitely nor implicitely do bind themselves to Chastity or a single life By Pope Pius himself in the Councel of Basil That many might be saved in a married Priesthood which are in danger to be damned by living unmarried By Durand That it would be profitable to the Church if Marriage were allowed to Priests from whom it hath been found a very vain thing to look for chastity And finally by Martinus That it seemed fiâ— to many good and Godly men that all Laws for compellâ—ng a single life should be wholly abrogated for the avoiding of those Scandals which ensued upon it For 〈◊〉 which Passages together with the words of the several Authours in the Latine Tongue I shall refer the Reader to the Learned and Laborious Works of Bishop Jewel in the Defence of his Challenge against Doctour Harding cap. 8. 1. 3. And so I shut up this Discourse and therewith the Defence of this Act of Parliament with the most memorable Apophthegm of the said Pope Pius viz. That the Law had taken away Priests Wives and the Devil had given them Concubines to supply their places Two other Acts were passed in this present Parliament exceeding necessary for the Preservation of the Churches Patrimony and the Retaining of good Order The fiâ—st was made for the Encouragement and Support of the Parochial Clergy in the true Payment of their Tithes lately invaded by their Patrons and otherwise in danger to be lost for ever by the avaritiousness of the Parishioners as before was said For Remedy whereof it was Enacted That no Person or Persons should from thenceforth take or carry away any Tithe or Tithes which had been received or paid within the space of fourty years next before the Date thereof or of Right ought to have been paid in the place or places tithable in the same before he hath justly divided or set forth for the Tithe thereof the tenth part of the same or otherwise agree for the same Tithes with the Parson Vicar or other Owner Proprietary or Farmer of the same under the Pain or Forfeiture of the treble Value of the Tithes so taken or carried away To which a Clause was also added enabling the said Parsons Vicars c. to enter upon any man's Land for the due setting out of his Tithes and carrying away the same without Molestation with other Clauses no less beneficial to the injured Clergy And because the Revenue of the Clergy had been much diminished by the Loss of such Offerings and Oblations as had been accustomably made at the Shrines of Certain Images now either defaced or removed it was thought meet to make them some amends in another way And thereupon it was Enacted That every Person exercising Merchandises Bargaining and Selling Cloathing Handy-Craft and other Art and Faculty being such kind of Persons and in such Places as heretofore within the space of fourty years then before passed have accustomably used to pay such Personal Tithes or of right ought to pay other then such as the Common Day-Labourers shall yearly at or before the Feast of Easter shall pay for his Personal Tithes the tenth part of his clear Gains his Charges and Expences according to his Estate and Condition or Degree to be there aâ—owed abated and deducted with a Proviso for some Remedy to be had therein before the Ordinary in the case of Tergiversation or Refusal But the Power of the Bishops and other Ordinaries growing less and less and little or no execution following in that behalf this last Clause proved of little Benefit to those whom it most concerned who living for the most part in Market-Towns and having no Predial Tithes to trust to are thereby in a far worse Condition then the Rural Clergy There also passed another Act for Abstinence from Flesh upon all such Days as had been formerly taken and reputed for Fastingâ—days By which it was enjoyned That for the better subduing of the Body to the Soul and the Flesh to the Spirit as also for the Preservation of the breed of Cattle the Encouragement of Mariners and increase of Shipping all manner of Persons should abstain from eating Flesh upon the days there named that is to say all Frydays and Saturdays in the year the Time of Lent the Ember-Days the Eves or Vigils of such Saints as had been antiently used for Fasts by the Rules of the Church An Act or Ordinance very seasonable as the case then stood the better to beat down the Neglect of all Days and Times of publick Fastings which Doctour Glasier had cryed up and his Followers had pursued in contempt of Law And here I should have closed this year but that I am to remove some Errours about the Time of Doctour Farra'rs Consecration to the See of Saint David's put off by â—ishop Godwin to the following year 1549. and ante-Dated by the Acts and Monuments to the fifth day of December in the year fore-going An. 1547. But by neither rightly For first I finde on good Record that Knight departed not this life
till Michaelmass-Day An. 1547. At what time and for some time after Doctour Barlow who succeeded Knight was actually Bishop of St. Davia's and therefore Farrars could not be Consecrated to that See some weeks before I finde again in a very good Authour that Doctour Farrar was the first Bishop made by Letters Patents without Capitular Election which could not be till after the end of the last years Parliament because till then the King pretended not to any such Power of making Bishops And Thirdly if Bishop Barlow had not been Translated to the See of Wells till the year 1549. as Bishop Godwin saith he was not it must be Barlow and not Farrars who first enjoyed the benefit of such Letters Patents because Barlow must first be removed to Wells before the Church of St. Davia's was made void for Farrars So that the Consecration of Farrars to the See of St. David's being placed by the Canons of that Church in an Information made against him on the fifth of September it must be on the fifth day of September in this present year and neither in the year 1547. as the Acts and Monuments make it nor in the year 1549. as in Bishop Godwin Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 3 o. An. Dom. 1548 1549. THere remains yet one Act of this Parliament which we have not spoke of but of a different nature from all the rest I mean the Act for the Attainder of the Lord Thomas Seimour whose Tragedy came on but now though the Ground thereof was laid in the former year The occasion much like that of the two great Ladies in the Roman Story Concerning whom it is related by Herodian that when the Emperour Commodus was unmarried he permitted his Sister Lucilla whom he had bestowed on Pompeianus a Right Noble Senatour to have a Throne erected for Her on the Publick Theatre Fire to be borne before Hâ—r when she walked abroad and to enjoy all other Privileges of a Princâ—'s Wife But when Commodus had Married Crispina a Lady of as great a Spirit though of lower Birth Lucilla was to lose her place and to grow less in Reputation then before she was This so tormented her proud heart when she perceived that nothing could be gained by disputing the Point that she never lest practicing one mischief on the neck of another till she had endangered the young Emperour's life but utterly destroyed her self and all those friends whom she had raised to advance her Interess VVhich Tragedy the Names of the Actours being onely changed was now again played over in the Court of England Thomas Lord Seimour being a man of lofty Aims and aspiring Thoughts had Married Queen Katharine Parr the Relict of the King deceased who looking on him as the Brother of the Lord Protectour and being looked on as Queen Dowager in the eye of the Court did not conceive that any Lady could be so forgetfull of her former Dignity as to contend about the place But therein she found her self deceived for the Protectour's Wife a Woman of most infinite Pride and of a Nature so imperious as to know no rule but her own Will would needs conceive her self to be the better Woman of the two For if the one were widow to the King deceased the other thought her self to stâ—nd on the Higher ground in having all advantages of Power above her For what said She within Her self Am not I wife to the Protectour who is King in Power though not in Title a Duke in Order and Degree Lord Treasurer and Earl Marshal and what else he pleaseth and one who hath Enâ—obled His highest Honours by his late great Victory And did not Henry Marry Katharine Parr in His doting Days when he had brought himself to such a Condition by His Lusts and Cruelty that no Lady who stood upon Her Honour would adventure on Him Do not all Knees bow before Me and all Tongues celebrate My Praises and all Hands pay the Tribute of Obedience to Me and all Eys look upon Me as the first in State through whose Hands the Principal Offices in the Court and chief Preferments in the Church are observed to pass Have I so long Commanded him who Commands two Kingdoms And shall I now give place to Her who in her former best Estate was but Latimer's Widow and is now fain to cast Her self for Support and Countenance into the despised Bed of a younger Brother If Mr. Admiral teach his Wife no better Manners I am She that will and will choose rather to remove them both whether out of the Court or out of the World shall be no great mâ—tter then be out-shined in My own Sphere and trampled on within the Verge of my Jurisdiction In this Impatiency of Spirit she rubs into the Head of the Duke her Husband over whom she had obtained an absolute Mastery How much he was despised by the Lord Admiral for his Mildness and Lenity What secret Practices were on foot in the Court and Kingdom to bring him out of Credit with all sorts of People What â—tore of Emissaries were imployed to cry up the Lord Admiral as the Abler man And finally that if he did not look betimes about him he would he forthwith dispossessed of his Place and Power and see the same conferred on one of his own preferring This first begat a Diffidence in the Duke of his Brother's Purposes which afterwards improved it self to an estranging of Affection and at last into an open Breach But before Matters could proceed to the last Extremity the Queen died in Child-birth which happened September last 1648 being delivered of a Daughter who afterwards was Christened by the name of Mary A Lady of a mild and obliging Nature honoured by all the Court for her even Behaviour and one who in this Quarrel had been meerly passive rather maintaining what she had then seeking to invade the place which belonged not to her And here the Breach might have been closed if the Admiral had not ran himself into further Dangers by practicing to gain the good Affections of the Princess Elizabeth He was it seems a man of a strange Ambition in the choice of his Wives and could not level his Affections lower then the Bed of a Princess For an Essay whereof he first addressed himself to the Lady Mary Duchess of â—ichmond and Sommerset Daughter of Thomas Duke of Norfolk and Widow of Duke Henry before mentioned the King 's Natural Brother But she being of too high a Spirit to descend so low he next applied himself to the Wâ—dow-Queen whom he beheld as double Jointured one who haâ— filled her Coffers in the late King's Time and had been gratified with a Legacy of four thousand pounds in Plate Jewels and Mony which he had Means enough to compass though all other Debts and Legacies should remain unpaid And on the other side She looked on him as one of the Peers of the Realm Lord Admiral by Office Uncle to the King and Brother to
Shifts on his part and much patience on theirs he is taken pro confesso on the twenty third and in the beginning of October deprived of his Bishoprick To whom succeded Doctour Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rochester a Learned Stout and Resolute Prelate as by the Sequel will appear not actually translated till the twelâ—th of April in the year next following and added not long after to the Lords of the Council The necessary Execution of so many Rebels and this seasonable Severity against Bishop Bonner did much facilitate the King's Proceedings in the Reformation As certainly the Opposition to Aâ—thority when it is suppressed both makes the Subject and the Prince more absolute Howsoever to make sure Work of it there passed an act of Parliament in the following Session which also took beginning on the fourth of November for taking down such Images as were still remaining in the Churches as also for the bringing in of all Antiphonaries Missalls Breviaries Offices Horaries Primers and Processionals with other Books of False and Superstitious Worship The Tenour of which Act was signified to the Subject by the King's Proclamations and seconded by the Missives of Arch-Bishop Cranmer to the Suffragan Bishops requiring them to see it put in execution with all Care and Diligence Which so secured the Church on that side that there was no further Opposition against the Liturgie by the Romish Party during the rest of this King's Reign For what can any workman do when he wants his Tools or how could they Advance the Service of the Church of Rome when the Books by which they should officiate it were thus taken from them But then there started up another Faction as dangerous to the Church as opposite to the Publick Liturgie and as destructive of the Rules of the Reformation then by Law established as were those of Rome The Arch-Bishop and the rest of the Prelates which co-operated with him in the Work having so far proceeded in abolishing many Superstitions which before were used resolved in the next place to go forwards with a Reformation in a Point of Doctrine In Order whereunto Melancthon's coming was expected the year before but he came not then And therefore Letters were directed by the Archâ—Bishop of Canterbury to Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two Great and Eminent Divines but more addicted to the Zuinglian then the Lutheran Doctrines in the point of the Sacrament Martyr accordingly came over in the end of November and having spent some timewith the Arch-Bishop in his House at Lambeth was dispatched to Oxford where he was made the King's Professour for Divinity and about two years after made Canon of Christ-Church In his first Lectures he is said by Sanders if he may be credited to have declared himself so much a Zuinglian in that point as to give great offence to Cranmer and the rest of the Bishops but afterwards upon notice of it to have been more moderate and to conform his Judgment to the Sense of those Learned Prelates Which whether it be true or not certain it is that his Readings were so much disliked by some of that University that a publick Disputation was shortly had betwixt him and some of those who disliked his Doings in which he publickly maintained these two Propositions 1. That the Substance of the Bread and Wine was not changed and 2. That the Body and Blood of Christ was not Carnally and Bodily in the Bread and Wine but united to the same Sacramentally And for the better Governing of the Disputation it was appointed by the King that Doctour Cox Chancellour of that University assisted by one Mr. Morrison a right Learned man should preside as Judges or Moderatours as we call them by whom it was declâ—red in the open Scholes that Martyr had the upper hand and had sufficiently answered all Arguments which were brought against him But Chadsey the chief of the Opponents and the rest of those who disputed with him acknowledged no such Satisfaction to be given unto them their party noising it abroad according to the Fate of such Dispuâ—ations that they had the Victory But Bucer not coming over at the same time also he was more earnestly invited by Pet. Alexander the Arch-Bishop's Secretary whose Letters bear Date March 24. which so prevailed with him at the last that in June we finde him here at Canterbury from whence he writes to Peter Martyr who was then at Oxford And being here he receives Letters from Calvin by which he was advised to take heed of his old fault for a fault he thought it which was to run a moderate course in his Reformations The first thing that he did at his coming hither as he saith himself was to make himself acquainted with the English Liturgie translated for him into Latine by Alexander Alesius a Learned Scot and generally well approved of by him as to the main Frame and Body of it though not well satisfied perhaps in some of the particular Branches Of this he gives account to Calvin and desires some Letters from him to the Lord Protectour with whom Câ—lvin had already began to tamper that he might finde the greater favour when he came before him which was not till the Tumults of the time were composed and quieted Having received a courteous entertainment from the Lord Protectour and being right heartily welcomed by Arch-Bishop Cranmer he is sent to take the Chair at Cambridg Where his first Readings gave no such distast to the Learned Academicks as to put him to the necessity of challenging the Dissentients to a Disputation though in the Ordinary Form a Disputation was there held at his firstâ—coming thither concerning the Sufficiency of Holy Scripture the Fallibility of the Church and the true Nature of Justification But long he had not held the place when he left this life deceasing on the nineteenth of January 1550. according to the computation of the Church of England to the great loss and grief of that University By the chiefest Heads whereof and most of the Members of that Body he was attended to his Grave with all due Solemnity of which more hereafter But so it was that the Account which he had given to Calvin of the English Liturgie and his desiring of a Letter from him to the Lord Protectour proved the occasions of much trouble to the Church and the Orders of it For Calvin not forgetting the Repulse he found at the hands of Cranmer when he first offered his Assistance had screwed himself into the Favour of the Lord Protectour And thinking nothing to be well done which either was not done by him or by his Direction as appears by his Letters to all Princes which did but cast an eye towards a Reformation must needs be meddling in such Matters as belonged not to him He therefore writes a very long Letter to the Lord Protectour in which approving well enough of set Forms of Prayer he descends more particularly to the English Liturgy in canvasing whereof he
the Mass which was not to be Celebrated but upon an Altar The Fourth That the Altars were Erected for the Sacrifices of the Law which being now ceased the Form of the Altar was to cease together with them The Fifth That as Christ did Institute the Sacrament of his Body and Blood at a Table and not at an Altar as appeareth by the three Evangelists so it is not to be found that any of the Apostles did ever use an Altar in the Ministration And finally That it is declared in the Preface to the Book of Common-Prayer That If any Doubt arise in the Use and Practising of the said Book that then to appease all such Diversity the Matter shall be referred unto the Bishop of the Diocess who by his Discretion shall take Order for the quieting of it The Letter with these Reasons being brought to Ridley there was no time for him to dispute the Commands of the one or to examine the Validity and Strength of the other And thereupon proceeding shortly after to his first Visitation he gave out one Injunction amongst others to this Effect That Those Churches in his Diocess where the Altars do remain should conform themselves unto those other Churches which had taken them down and that instead of the multitude of their Altars they should set up one decent Table in every Church But this being done a question afterwards did arise about the Form of the Lords Board some using it in the Form of a Table and others in the Form of an Altar Which being referred unto the Determination of the Bishop he declared himself in favour of that Posture or Position of it which he conceived most likely to procure an Vniformity in all his Diocess and to be more agreeable to the King 's Godly Proceedings in abolishing divers vain and superstitious Opinions about the Mass out of the Hearts of the People Upon which Declaration or Determination he appointed the Form of a Right Table to be used in his Diocess and caused the Wall standing on the back side of the Altar in the Church of Saint Paul's to be broken down for an Example to the rest And being thus a leading Case to all the rest of the Kingdom it was followed either with a swifter or a slower Pase according as the Bishops in their several Diocesses or the Clergie in their several Parishes stood affected to it No Universal Change of Altars into Tables in all parts of the Realm till the Repealing of the First Liturgie in which the Priest is appointed To stand before the middest of the Altar in the Celebration and the establishing of the Second in which it is required That The Priest shall stand on the North side of the Table had put an end to the Dispute Nor indeed can it be supposed that all which is before affirmed of Bishop Ridley could be done at once or acted in so short a Space as the rest of this year which could not give him time enough to Warn Commence and carry on a Visitation admitting that the Inconveniency of the Season might have been dispensed with And therefore I should rather think that the Bishop having received His Majestie 's Order in the end of November might cause it to be put in Execution in the Churches of London and Issue out his Mandates to the rest of the Bishops and the Arch-Deacons of his own Diocess for doing the like iâ— other Places within the compass of their several and Respective Jurisdictions Which being done as in the way of Preparation his Visitation might proceed in the Spring next following and the whole Business be transacted in Form and Mâ—nner as before laid down And this may be beleived the rather because the changing of Altars into Tables is made by Holinshead a Diligent and Painfull Writer to be the Work of the next year as questionless it needs must be in all Parts of the Realm except London and Westminster and some of the Towns and Villages adjoyning to them But much less can I think that the Altar-wall in Saint Paul's Church was taken down by the Command of Bishop Ridley in the Evening of Saint Barnaby's Day this present year as is affirmed by John Stow. For then it must be done five Moneths before the coming out of the Order from the Lords of the Council Assuredly Bishop Ridley was the Master of too great a Judgment to run before Authority in a Business of such Weight and Moment And he had also a more high Esteem of the Blessed Sacrament then by any such unadvised and precipitate Action to render it less Venerable in the Eyes of the Common People Besides whereas the taking down of the said Altar Wall is said to have been done â—n the first Saint Barnâ—â—y's Day which was kept Holy with the Church that Circumstance is alone sufficient to give some Light to the Mistake The Liturgie whâ—ch appointed Saint Barnaby's Day to be kept for an Holy-Day was to be put in Execution in all parts of the Realm at the Feast of Whitsun-tide 1549 and had actually been Officiated in some Churches for some Weeks before So that the first Saint Barnaby's Day which was to be kept Holy by the Rules of that Liturgie must have been kept in that year also and consequently the taking down oâ— the said Altar-Wall being done â—n the Evening of that day must be supposed to have been done above ten Moneths before Bishop Ridley was Translâ—ted to the See of London Let therefore the keeping Holy of the first Saint Barnaby's Day be placed in the year 1549 the Issuing of the Order from the Lords of the Council in the year 1550 and the taking down of the Altar-Wall on the Evening of Saint Barnaby's Day in the year 1551. And then all Inconveniences and Contradictions will be taken away which otherwise cannot be avoided No change this year amongst the Peers of the Realm or Principal Officers of the Court but in the Death of Thomas Lord Wriothesly the first Earl of South-hampton of that Name aâ—d Family who died at Lincoln-Place in Holâ—born on the thirtieth day of July leaving his Son Henry to succeed him in his Lands and Honours A Man Unfortunate in his Relations to the two Great Persons of that Time deprived of the Great Seal by the Duke of Sommerset and removâ—d from his Place at the Council-Table by the Earl of Warwick having first served the Turns of the one in lifting him into the Saddle and of the other in dismounting him from that High Estate Nor finde I any great Change thiâ— year amongst the Bishops but that Doctour Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rechester was Transloted to the See of London on the twelfth of April and Doctoâ—r John Pâ—ynet Consâ—crated Bishop of Rochester on the twenty sixth of June By which Account he must needs be the first Bishop which received Episcopal Consecration according to the Foâ—m of the English Ordinal as Farrars was the fiâ—st who was advanced
so unreasonably presâ—'d and the Bishops thinking themselves neglected because unseasonably denied Thus stood they siâ—ent for a time each Party looking sadly on the apprehension of those Extremities which this Dispute had brought upon them as certainly the Picture of Unkindness is never represented in more lively Colours then when it breaks out betwixt those who are most tenderly affected unto one another The Bishops thereupon withdrew admiring at such great Abilities in so young a King and magnified the Name of God for giving them a Prince of such Eminent Piety This being made known unto the Council it was thought necessary to dismiss the Emperour's Embassadour with such an Answer as should both give the English time to fetch off their Goods and let his Master have the â—â—st of the Winter to allay his Heats It was therefore signified unto him That The King would shortly send an Ageâ—t to reside with the Emperour Authourised and â—â—strâ—cted in all particulars which might beget a right Vnderstanding between both Princes Thus answered he returns to the Emperour's Court whom Wotton shortly after followeth â—ufficiently Instructed To desire the Emperour to be less violent in his requests and to Advertise him That The Lady Mary as She was His Couâ—sin so She was the King's Sister and which is more His Subject â— That seeing the King was a Sovereign Prince without dependency upon any but God it was not reason that the Emperour should intermeddle either with Ordering His Subjects or directing the Affairs of His Realm But so far he was Authourised to offer That whatsoever favour the King's Subjects had in the Emperour 's Dominions for their Religion the same should the Emperour 's Subjects receive in England Further then this as the King his Master would not go so it would be a lâ—st labour to desire it of him This was enough to let the Emperour see how little his Threats were feared which made him the less forward in sending more Which Passages relating to the Princess Mary I have lai'd together for the better understanding how all matters stood about this time betwixt Her and the King though possibly the sending of Wotton to the Emperour might be the Work of the next year when the King's Affairs were better setled then they were at the present For the King finding the extraordinary Coldness of the Emperour when his assistance was required for Defence of Bulloign and the hot Pursuit of his Demands of a Toleration for the Family of the Lady Mary conceived it most expedient for His Affairs to unite Himself more strongly and entirely in a League with France For entrance whereunto an Hint was taken from some Words which fell from Guidolti at the Treaty of Bulloign when he propounded That in stead of the Queen of Scots whom the English Commissioners demanded for a Wife to their King a Daughter of the French King might be joyned in Mariage with Him affirming merrily That If it were a dry Peace it would hardly be durable These Words which then were taken onely for a Slight or Diversion are now more seriously considered as Many times the smallest Overtures produce Conclusions of the greatest Consequence A Solemn Embassie is thereupon directed to the Court of France the Marquess of Northhampton nominated for the Chief Embassadour associated with the Bishop of Ely Sir Philip Hobby Gentleman-Usher of the Order Sir William Pickering Sir Thomas Smith Principal Secretary of State and Sir John Mason Clerk of the Council as Commissioners with him And that they might appear in the Court of France with the greater Splendour they were accompanied with the Earls of Arundel Rutland and Ormond and the Lords L'isle Fitz-water Abergavenny Bray and Evers with Knights and Gentlemen of Note to the number of six and twenty or thereabouts Their Train so limited for avoiding of contention amongst themselves that no Earl should have above four Attendants no Baron above three nor any Knight or Gentleman above two a piece the Commissioners not being limited to any number as the others were Setting forwards in the Moneth of June they were met by the Lord Constable Chastition and by him Conducted to the Court lying at Chasteau Bryan the nearer to which as they approached theÌ„ greater was the concourse of the French Nobility to attend upon them Being brought unto the King then being in his Bed-chamber the Marquess first presented him in the name of his King with the Order of Saint George called The Garter wherewith he was presently Invested by Sir Philip Hobby who being an Officer of the Order was made Commissioner as it seemed for that purpose chiefly rewarded for it by that King with a Chain of Gold valued at two hundred pounds and a Gown richly trimmed with Ayglets which he had then upon his back This Ceremony being thus performed the Bishop of Ely in a short Speech Declared How desirous his Master was not onely to continue but to encrease Amity with the French King that for this end He had sent the Order of The Garter to be both a Testimony and Tye of Love between them to which purpose principally those Societies of Honour were first devised Declaring that they had Commission to make Overtures of some other matters which was like to make the Concord betwixt the Kings and their Realms not onely more durable but in all expectation perpetual and thereupon desired the King to appoint some persons enabled with Authourity to Treat with them To which it was Answered by the Cardinal of Lorrain in the name of that King That his Master was ready to apprehend and embrace all Offers tending to encrease of Amity and the rather for that long Hostility had made their new Friendship both more weak in it self and more obnoxious unto Jealousies and Distrusts and therefore promised on the King's behalf that Commissioners should be appointed to Treat with them about any matters which they had in Charge In pursuance whereof the said Cardinal the Constable Chastilion the Duke of Guise and others of like Eminent note being appointed for the Treaty the English Commissioners first prosecute their Old Demand for the Queen of Scots To which it was Answered by the French That they had parted with too much Treasure and spent too many Lives upon any Conditions to let Her go and that Conclusion had been made long before for her Marriage with the Daulphin of France The English upon this proposed a Marriage between their King and the Lady Elizabeth the Eldest Daughter of France who after was Married to Philip the Second to which the French Commissioners seemed very inclinable with this Proviso notwithstanding That neither Party should be bound either in Conscience or Honour untill the Lady should accomplish twelve years of Age. And so far Matters went on smoothly but when they came to talk of Portion there appeared a vast difference between them The English Commissioners ask no more then fifteen hundred thousand Crowns but fell by one hundred thousand
after another till they sunk to eight The French on the other side began as low at one hundred thousand but would be drawn no higher then to Promise two that being as they affirmed the greatest Portion which ever any of the French Kings had given with a Daughter But at the last it was accorded that the Lady should be sent into England at the French King's Charges when She was come within three Moneths of the Age of Marriage sufficiently appointed with Jewels Apparel and convenient Furniture for Her House That at the same time Bonds should be delivered for Performance of Covenants at Paris by the French and at London by the King of England and That in case the Lady should not consent after She should be of Age for Marriage the Penalty should be one hundred and fifty thousand Crowns The perfecting of the Negotiation and the settling of the Ladie 's Joynture referred to such Ambassadours as the French King should send to the Court of England Appointed whereunto were the Lord Marshal of France the Duke of Guise the President Mortuillier the Principal Secretary of that King and the Bishop of Perigeux who being attended by a Train of 400. men were conducted from Graves-end by the Lord Admiral Clinton welcomed with Great Shot from all the Ships which lay on the Thames and a Vollie of Ordnance from the Tower and lodged in Suffolk-Place in South-wark From whence attended the next day to the King's House at Richmond His Majesty then remaining at Hampton-Court by reason of the Sweating Sickness of which more anon which at that time was at the Highest Having refreshed themselves that night they were brought the next day before the King to whom the Marshal presented in the name of his Master the Collar and Habit of St. Michael being at that time the Principal Order of that Realm in testimony of that dear Affection which he did bear unto him greater then which as he desired him to believe a Father could not bear unto his Natural son And then Addressing himself in a short Speech unto His Highness he desired him amongst other things not to give entertainment to Vulgar Rumours which might breed Jealousies and Distrusts between the Crowns and that if any difference did arise between the Subjects of both Kingdoms they might be ended by Commissioners without engaging either Nation in the Acts of Hostility To which the King returned a very favourable Answer and so dismissed them for the present Two or three days being spent in Feasting the Commissioners on both sides settled themselves upon the matter of the Treaty confirming what had passed before and adding thereunto the Proportioning of the Ladie 's Jointure Which was accorded at the last to the yearly value of ten thousand Marks English with this Condition interposed that if the King died before the Marriage all her Pretensions to that Jointure should be buried with him All Matters being thus brought unto an happy Conclusion the French prepared for their Departure at which Time the Marshal presented Monsieur Boys to remain as Legier with the King and the Maâ—quess presented Mr. Pickering to be his Majestie 's Resident in the Court of France And so the French take leave of England rewarded by the King in such a Royal and Munificent Manner as shewed he very well understood what belonged to a Royal Suitour those which the French King had designed â—or the English Ambassadours not actually bestowed till all things had been fully settled and dispatched in England hardly amounting to a fourth part of that Munificence which the King had shewed unto the French Grown confident of his own Security by this new Alliance the King not onely made less Reckoning of the Emperour 's Interposings in the Case of Religion but proceeded more vigorously then before in the Reformation the Building up of which upon a surer and more durable Bottom was contrived this year though not established till the next Nothing as yet had been concluded positively and Dogmatically in Points of Doctrine but as they were to be collected from the Homilies and the Publick Liturgie and those but few in Reference to the many Controversies which were to be maintained against the Papists Anabaptists and other Sectaries of that Age. Many Disorders had grown up in this little time in the Officiating the Liturgie the Vestures of the Church and the Habit of Church-Men began by Calvin prosecuted by Hooper and countenanced by the large Immunities which had been given to John a Lasco and his Church of Strangers And unto these the change of Altars into Tables gave no small Encrease as well by reason of some Differences which grew amongst the Ministers themselves upon that Occasion as in regard of of that Irreverence which it â—bred in the People to whom it made the Sacrament to appear less Venerable then before it did The People had been so long accustomed to receive that Sacrament upon their Knees that no Rule or Canon was thought necessary to keep them to it which thereupon was not imprudently omitted in the Publick Rubricks The Change of Altars into Tables the Practise of the Church of Strangers and Lasco's Book in Maintainance of sitting at the Holy Table made maâ—y think that Posture best which was so much countenanced And what was like to follow upon such a Liberty the Proneness of those Times to Heterodoxies and Prophaness gave just cause to fear Somewhat was therefore to be done to prevent the Mischief and nothing could prevent it better then to reduce the People to their Antient Custome by some Rule or Rubrick by which they should be bound to receive it kneeling So for the Ministers themselves they seemed to be as much at a Loss in their Officiating at the Table as the People were in their Irreverences to the Blessed Sacrament Which cannot better be expressed then in the words of some Popish Prelats by whom it was objected unto some of our chief Reformers Thus White of Lincoln chargeth it upon Bishop Ridley to omit his prophane calling of the Lord's Table in what Posture soever scituated by the Name of an Oyster-Board That when their Table was Constituted they could never be content iâ—placing the same now East now North now one way now another untill it pleased God of his Goodness to place it quite out of the Church The like did Weston the Prolocutour of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary in a Disputation held with Latimer telling him with Reproach and Contempt enough that the Protestants having turâ—ed their Table were like a Company of Apes that knew not which way to turn their Tails looking one day East and another West one this way and another that way as their Fancies lead them Thus finally one Miles Hubbard in a Book called The Display of Protestants doth report the Business How long say they were they learning to set their Tables to minister the Communion upon First they placed it aloft where the High
work of his Hands or had been agitated and debated in no Head but his So did the Emperour Justinian in the Book of Institutes and Theodosins in the Code Boâ—iface in the Decretals and John the 22th in that part of the Canon Law which they call the Extravagants the honour of which Works was severally arrogated by them because performed by their Encouragement and at their Appointment But whosoever laboured in the Preparation of these Articles certain it is that they were onely a Rude Draught and of no signification till they had passed the Vâ—te of the Convocation and there we shall hear further of them In Reference to the Polity and good Order of the Common-Wealth there were two things done of great Importance the one redounding to the Present the other to the Future Benefit of the English Nation Of which last sort was the suppressiâ—g of the Corporation of Merchant-Strangers the Merchants of the Steel-Yard as they commonly called them Concerning which we are to know that the English in the Times foregoing being neither strong in Shipping nor much accustomed to the Seas received all such Commodities as were not of the growth of their own Country from the hands of Strangers resorting hither from all Parts to upbraid our Laziness Amongst which the Merchants of the East-Land â—arts of Almain or High Germany well known in former Stories by the Name of Easterlings used to bring hither yearly great quantities of Wheat Rye and other Grain as also Cables Ropes Masts Pitch Tar Flax Hemp Linen Cloth Wainâ—coats Wax Steel and other profitable Merchandises for the use of this Kingdom For their Encouragement wherein they were amply Privileged exempt from many Impositions which Merchant-Strangers use to pay in all other Countries erected into a Corporation by King Henry the Third commonly called Guilda Aula Theutonicorum permitted first to carry out Wools unwrought and afterwards a certain number of Cloaths when the English were grown skilfull in that Manufacture Their Court kept in a fair large House built near the Thames which from an open place wherein Steel had formerly been sold took the Name of the Steel-Yard Grown Rich and driving a great Trade they drew upon themselves the Envy as all other Merchant-Strangers did of the Londoners chiefly but generally of all the Port Towns of England who began now to think the Seas as open to them as to any others It was considered also by the Lords of the Council that by suffering all Commodities of a Foreign growth and a great part of the Commodities of the growth of England to be imported and exported in Out-landish Bottoms the English Merchants were discouraged from Navigation whereby the Shipping of the Realm was kept low and despicable It was therefore thought expedient in Reason of State to make void their Privileges and put the Trade into the hands of the English Merchant For the doing whereof the Easterlings or Merchants of the Steel-Yard had given cause enough For whereas they had antiently been permitted to ship away but eighty Cloaths afterwards one hundred and at last one thousand it was found that at this time they had transported in their own Bottoms 44000 English Cloatâ—â— there being but 1100 ship'd away by all Strangers else It was also found that besides the Native Commodities of their own growth they had brought in much Strangers goods of other Countâ—ies contrary to their agreement made with King Edward the Fâ—urtâ— and that upon a further search their Corporation was found imperfect their Numbers Names and Nations not sufficiently known This gave the Council ground enough for seising all their Liberties into the hands of the King and never after to restore them notwithstanding the great Embassies and Solicitations of the Cities of Hamborough and Lubeck and many other of the Hans-Towns in Germany who had seen their Factories and Factours And hereunto the seasonable coming of Sebastian Cabot of which more anon gave no small Advantage by whose Encouragement and Example the English Nation began to fall in Love with the Seas to try their Fortunes in the Discovery of unknown Regions and consequently to encrease their Shipping till by degrees they came to drive a wealthy Trade in most parts of the World and to be more considerable for their Naval Power then all their Neighbours But because all things could not be so well settled at the first as not to need the Help and Correspondencies of some foreign Nations it was thought fit to â—earken to an Entercourse with the Crown of Sweden which was then Opportunely offered by Gustavus Ericus the first of the Family now reigning By which it was agreed First That if the King of Sweden sent Bullion into England He might carry away English Commodities without Custom Secondly That He should carry Bullion to no other Prince Thirdly That if He sent Ozimus Steel Copper c. He should pay Custom for English Commodities as an English-man Fourthly That if He sent other Merchandise He should have free Intercourse paying Custom as a Stranger Whâ—reupon the Mint was set on work which brought the King for the first year the sum of twenty four thousand Pounds of which the sum of fourteen thouâ—and pounds was designed for Ireland and the rest lay'd up in the Exchequer some other waies were devised also that the Mint might be kept going and some agreement made with the Mint-Masters in the Point of Coynage which proved more to the Advantage of the King then the present profit of the Subject For hereupon on the ninth of July the base Money Coyned in the time of the King deceased was publickly decryed by Proclamation the Shilling to go for Nine Pence onely and the Groat for Three Pence And on the seventeenth of August then next following the Nine-Peny-piece was decryed to Six Pence the Groat to Two Pence the Half-Groat to a Peny By means whereof he that was worth one thousand pound on the eighth of July without any ill-husbandry in himself or diminution of his stock was found before the eighteenth day of August to be worth no more then half that Sum and so proportionably in all other Sums both above and under Which though it caused many an heavy heart and much repining at the present amongst all those whose Wealth lay most especially in Trade and Money yet proved it by degrees a chief Expedient for reducing the Coyn of England to it's antient Valew For on the thirtieth of October the Subjects had the taft of the future benefit which was to be expected from it there being then some Coyns Proclaimed both in Gold and Silver Pieces of thirty shillings ten shillings and five shillings of the finest Gold pieces of five shillings two shillings six pence one shilling six pence c. of the pureâ—t Silver Which put the Merchant in good hope that he should drive as rich a Trade under this young King as in the happiest dayes of his Predecessours before the Mony was debased And now we come
Miles Partridge on whom also passed the Sentence of Death but the certain Day and Time of their Triall I have no where found Most probable it is that they were not brought to their Triall till after the Ax had done its part on the Duke of Sommerset which was on the twenty third of January because I finde they were not brought to their Execution till the twenty sixth of February then next following the two first being then beheaded and the two last hanged at what time they severally Protested taking God to witness that they never practised Treason against the King or against the Lives of any of the Lords of his Council Vane adding after all the rest that his Blood would make Northumberland's Pillow uneasie to him None of them less lamented by the Common People then Sir Miles Partridge against whom they had an old Grudge for depriving them of the best Ring of Bells which they had at that time called Jesus-Bells which winning of King Henry at a Cast of Dice he caused to be taken down and sold or melted for his own Advantage If any Bell tolled for him when he went to his Death or that the sight of an Halter made him think of a Bell-Rope it could not but remember him of his Fault in that Particular and mind him of calling upon Christ Jesus for his Grace and Mercy But in the mean time Care is taken that the King should not be too apprehensive of these Misfortunes into which his Uncle had been cast or enter into any Enquiries whether he had been cast into them by his own Fault or the Practises of others It was therefore thought fit to Entertain him frequently with Masks and Dancings brave Challenges at Tilts and Barriers and whatsoever Sports and Exercises which they conceived most pleasing to him But nothing seemed more delightfull to him then the appearing of His Lords and others in a General Muster performed on the twenty third of December in Saint James his Fields At what time sitting on Horse-back with the Lords of His Council the Band of Pensioners in compleat Arms with four Trumpeters and the King's Standard going before them first appeared in sight each Pensioner having two Servants waiting on him with their several Spears Next followed in distinct Companies of one hundred apiece the Troops of the Lord Treasurer Paulet the Duke of Northumberland the Lord Privy Seal the Marquess of North-hampton the Earl of Pembroke and the Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports a Trumpet and a Standard carried before each Troop fourty of the Duke of Northumbeland's Men and as many of the Earl of Pembroke's having Velvet Goats upon their Harness with these were mingled in like Equipage as to the Trumpets and the Standards the distinct Troops of the Earls of Rutland and Hâ—ntington and the new Lord Darcy consisting each of fifty Horse and Rancked according to the Order and Precedency of their several Lords All which rode twice before the King by five in a Ranck all excellently well Armed and bravely Mounted to the great Contentment of the King the Delight of the People and as much to the Honour of the Nation in the Eye of all such Strangers as were present at it But then the Lords of England were Lords indeed and thought it not consistent with a Title of Honour to walk the Streets attended by a Lacquie onely and perhaps not that The Particulars of which Glorious Muster had not been specified but for supplying the Place of Musick as the Solemn Reception of the Queen Regent did before betwixt the two last Acts of this Tragedy to the last whereof we shall now come and so end this year Two Moneths had passed since the Pronouncing of the Fatal Sentence of Condemnation before the Prisoner was brought out to his Execution In all which time it may be thought that he might easily have obtained his Pardon of the King who had passed the first years of His Reign under his Protection and could not but behold him with the Eye of Respect as hisâ—nearest Kinsman by the Mother But first his Adversaries had so possessed the King with an Opinion of his Crimes and Misdemeanours that he believed him to be guilty of them as appears by his Letter to Fitz-Patrick for which Consult the Church Historian Lib. 7. fol. 409 410. wherein he Summarily repeateth the Substance of the Charge the Proofs against him the Proceedings of the Lords in the Arraignment and his Submiss Carriage both before and after the Sentence They also filled his Ears with the Continual Noise of the Unnatural Prosecuting of the late Lord Admiral inculcating how unsafe it was to trust to the Fidelity of such a Man who had so lately washed his Hands in the Blood of his Brother And that the King might rest himself upon these Perswasions all ways were stopped and all the Avenues blocked up by which it might be possible for any of the Duke's Friends to finde access either for rectifying the King's Opinion or obtaining his Pardon So that at last upon the twenty second of January before-remembred the King not being sufficiently possessed before of his Crimes and Cruelties he was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill Where he avouched to the People That His Inâ—tentions had been not onely harmless in regard of particular Persons but driving to the Common Benefit both of the King and of the Realm Interrupted in the rest of his Speech upon the suddain â—ear of a Rescue by the coming in of the Hamlets on the one side aâ—d the Hopes of a Pardon which the People conceived to have been brought him by Sir Anthony Brown who came speedily galloping on the other he composed himself at last to make a Confession of his Faith heartily praying for the King exhorting the People to Obedience and humbly craving Pardon both of God and Man Which said he chearfully submitted his Head to the stroke of the Ax by which it was taken off at a Blow putting an end thereby to his Cares and Sorrows Such was the End of this Great Person whose Power and Greatness may be best discerned by this following Style used by him in the Height of his former Glories that is to say Edward by the Grace of God Duke of Sommerset Earl of Hertford Viscount Beauchamp Baron Seimour Uncle to the King's Highness of England Governour to the King's Highness Person Protectour of all his Realms Dominions and Subjects Lieutenant General of His Majestie 's Armies both by Sea and Land Lord High Treasurer and Earl Marshal of England Captain of Isles the of Garnsey and Jarsey and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter As to his Parts Person and Abilitie there needs no other Character of him then what was given in the beginning and may be gathered from the Course of this present History More Moderate in carrying on the Work of Reformation then those who after had the Manageing and Conduct of it as one that in himself was
1282. that they had a Synodal Authority unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as to them seemed to be nâ—câ—ssary or convenient for the use of the Church Had it been otherwise King Edward a most Pious and Religious Prince must needs be looked on as a Wicked and most Lewd Impostour in putting such an horrible Cheat upon all His Subjects by Fathering these Articles on the Convocation which begat them not nor ever gave consent unto them And yet it is not altogether improbable but that these Articles being debated and agreed upon by the said Commitee might also pass the Vote of the whole Convocation though we finde nothing to that purpose in the Acts thereof which either have been lost or were never Registred Besides it is to be observed that the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publick Tenents of the Church in point of Doctrine which certainly She had not done had they been commended to Her by a less Authority then a Convocation Such hand the Convocation had in canvasing the Articles prepared for them and in concluding and agreeing to so much or so many of them as afterwards were published by the King's Authority in the name thereof But whether they had any such hand in Reviewing the Liturgie and passing their Consent to such Alterations as were made therein is another Question That some necessity appeared both for the Reveiwing of the whole and the altering of some Parts thereof hath been shew'd before And it was shewed before by whose Procurement and Sollicitation the Church was brought to that necessity of doing somewhat to that Purpose But being not sufficiently Authorised to proceed upon it because the King 's sole Authority did not seem sufficient they were to stay the Leasure and Consent of the present Parliament For being the Liturgie then in force had been confirmed and imposed by the King in Parliament with the Consent and Assent of the Lords and Commons it stood with Reason that they should not venture actually on the Alteration but by their permission first declared And therefore it is said expresly in the Act of Parliament made this present year That The said Order of Common Service Entituled The Book of Common-Prayer had been Perused Explained and made fully perfect not single by the King's Authority but by the King with the Assent of the Lords and Commons More then the giving of their Assent was neither required by the King nor desired by the Prelats and less then this could not be fought as the Case then stood The signifying of which Assent enabled the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy whom they had taken for their Assistants to proceed to the Digesting of such Alterations as were before considered and resolved on amongst themselves and possibly might receive the like Authority from the Convocation as the Articles had though no such thing remaining upon Record in the Registers of it But whether it were so or not certain it is that it received as much Authority and Countenance as could be given unto it by an Act of Parliament by which imposed upon the Subject under certain Penalties Imprisonments Pecuniarie Mulcts c. which could not be inflicted on them by Synodical Acts. The Liturgie being thus Settled and Confirmed in Parliament was by the King's Command translated into French for the Use of the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and such as lived within the Marches and Command of Calais But no such Care was taken for Wales till the fifth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth nor of the Realm of Ireland from that time to this King Henry had so far prepared the Way to a Reformation as His own Power and Profit was concerned in it to which Ends he excluded the Pope's Authority and caused Himself to be declared Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland by Act of Parliament And by like Acts he had annexed to the Crown the Lands of all Monasteries and Religious Orders together with thetwentieth Part of all the Ecclesiastical Promotions within that Kingdom and caused the like Course to be settled for the Electing and Consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops as had been done before in England Beyond which as he did not go so as it seems King Edward's Council thought not fit to adventure further They held it not agreeable to the Rules of Prudence to have too many Irons in the Fire at once nor safe in Point of Policy to try Conclusions on a People in the King's Minority which were so far tenacionsly addicted to the Superstitions of the Church of Rome and of a Nature not so tractable as the English were And yet that Realm was quiet even to Admiration notwithstanding the frequent Embroilments and Commotions which so miserably disturbed the Peace of England which may be reckoned for one of the greatest Felicities of this King's Reign and a strong Argument of the Care and Vigilancy of such of His Ministers as had the chief Direction of the Irish Affairs At the first Payment of the Money for the Sale rather then the Surrendry of Bulloign eight thousand pounds was set apart for the Service of Ireland and shortly after out of the Profits which were raised from the Mint four hundred men were Levied and sent over thither also with a Charge given to the Governours that the Laws of England should be Carefully and Duly administred and all such as did oppose suppressed by Means whereof great Countenance was given to those who embraced the Reformed Religion there especially within those Counties which are called commonly by the name of the English Pale The Common-Prayer-Book of England being brought over thither and used in most of the Churches of the English Plantation without any Law in their own Parliaments to impose it on them But nothing more conduced to the Peace of that Kingdom then that the Governours for the most part were men of such Choice that neither the Nobility disdained to endure their Commands nor the inferiour sort were oppressed to supply their Wants Besides which as the King drew many men from thence to serve him in his Wars against France and Scotland which otherwise might have disturbed the common Peace so upon notice of some great Preparations which were made in France for the Assistance of the Scots he sent over to guard the Coast of Ireland four Ships four Barks four Pinnaces and twelve Victuallers By the Advantage of which Strength He made good three Havens two on the South-side toward France and one toward Scotland which afterwards made themselves good Booties out of such of the French as were either cast away on the Coast of Ireland or forced to save themselves in the Havens of it For the French making choice rather of their Passage by Saint George's Chanel then by the ordinary Course of Navigation from France to Edenborough fell from one Danger to another and for fear of being
and to deâ—se how they might extricate themselves out of those perplexities into which they had been brought by his Ambition Amongst which none more forward then the Earl of Pembroke in whom he had placed more Confidence then in all the others Who together with Sir Thomas Cheyny Lord Warden of the â—inque-Ports with divers others endeavoured to get out of the Tower that they might hold some secret Consultation with their Friends in London but were so narrowly watched that they could not do it On Sunday the sixteenth of the Moneth Doctour Nicholas Ridley Bishop of London is ordered by the Lords of the Council to Preach at St. Paul's-Cross and in his Sermon to Advance the Title of Queen Jane and shew the invalidity of the Claim of the Lady Mary Which he performed according to such Grounds of Law and Polity as had been lai'd together in the Letters Patents of King Edward by the Authority and Consent of all the Lords of the Council the greatest Judges in the Land and almost all the Peers of the Kingdom But then withall he press'd the Incommodities and Inconveniencies which might arise by receiving Mary for their Queen prophecying that which after came to pass Namely that She would bring in a Foreign Power to Reign over this Nation and that She would subvert the True Religion then Established by the Laws of this Reaâ—m He also shewed that at such time as She lived in his Diocess he had Travailed much with Her to reduce Her to the True Religion but that though otherwise She used him with great Civility She shewed Her self so stiff and obstinate that there was no hope to be conceived but that She would disturb and destroy all that which with such great Labour had been settled in the Reign of Her Brother For which Sermon he incurred so much displeasure that it could never be forgiven him when the rest were Pardoned by whose Encouragement and Command he had undertook it But this Sermon did not work so much on the People as the ill News which came continually to the Tower had prevailed on many of the Lords For presently upon that of the six Ships which were Revolted from the Queen Advertisement is given that the Princess Mary was Proclaimed Queen in Oxfordâ—Shirâ— â—Shirâ— by Sir John Williams and others in Buckingham-Shire by the Lord Windsore Sir Edward Hastings c. and in North-hampton-Shire by Sir Thomas Tresham And which was worse then all the other that the Noble-Mens Tenants refused to serve their Lords against Her Upon the first bruit of which Disasters the Lord Treasurer Pawlet gets out of the Tower and goes unto his House in Broâ—d-street which made sâ—ch a powerfull apprehension of sâ—me dangerous practises to be suddenly put in Execution that the Gates of the Tower were locked about seven of the Clock and the Keys carried to the Queen And though the Lord Treasurer was brought back about twelve at night yet now the knot of the Confederacy began apparently to break For finding by intelligence from so many Parts of the Realm but chiefly by the Lord Treasurer's return that generally the People were affected to the Title of the Princess Mary they thought it most expedient for them to Declare themselves in Her Favour also and not to run themselves their Friends and Families on a certain Ruin But all the Difficulty was in finding out a way to get out of the Tower the Gates whereof were so narrowly watched that no man could be suffered to go in and out but by the Knowledg and Permission of the Duke of Suffolk But that which their own Wisdom could not the Duke of Northumberland's Importunity effected for them who failing of the Supplies which the Lords had promised to send after him as before is said had pressed them earnestly by his Letters not to be wanting to their own Honour and the Publick Service This gave them a fair Colour to procure their Liberty from that Restraint by representing to the Queen and the Duke Her Father that the Supplies expected and all things necessary to the same could not be raised unless they were permitted personally to attend the Business both for the Pressing of the Men providing them of all things needfull and choosing fit Commanders to Conduct them in good Order to the Duke of Northhumberland Which seemed so reasonable to the Duke of Suffolk a Man of no great Depth himself and so not like to penetrate into the bottom of a deep Design that he gave way to their Departure for the present little conceiving that they never meant to come back again till the State was altered Being thus at their desired Liberty the Earls of Shrewsbury and Pembroke together with Sir Thomas Cheyny and Sir John Mason betake themselves immediately to Baynard's Castle an House belonging then as now to the Earls of Pembroke To which Place they were followed not long after by almost all the rest of the Lords of the Council bringing with them as many of the Nobility then about the Town as they conceived to â—tand fair for the Princess Mary And that the Meeting might be held with the less Suspicion it was given out to be upon a Conference with Laval the French Ambassadour about Affairs of great Importance for the Weal of both Kingdoms No sooner had they took their Places but the Earl of Arundel who had held Intelligence with the Princess ever since the first Extremities of Her Brother's Sickness inveighed most bitterly against the Duke of Northumberland And after he had ripped up the Acts of his former Life and burthened him with all that had been done unjustly cruelly or amiss in King Edward's Time he at last descends to the Treacherous Act of the Disherison of the Children of the late King Henry professing that he wondred how he had so enthralled such persons as the Lords there present as to make them Instruments of his Wickedness For was it not saith he by Our Consent and Suffrages that the Duke of Suffolk 's Daughter the same Northumberland 's Daughter-in-Law hath took upon Her the Name and Title of Queen of England though it be nothing but the Title the Sovereign Power remaining wholly in the Hands of Dudly who contrived the Plot that â—e might freely exercise his Tyranny on our Lives and Fortunes Religion is indeed the thing pretended But suppose we have no regard to these Apostolical Rules Evil must not be done that Good may come thereof and We must obey even evil Princes not for Fear but for Conscience-sake Yet how doth it appear that the Princess Mary intends any Alteration in Religion Certainly having been lately Petitioned to in this Point by the Suffolk men She gave them a very hopefull Answer And what a mad Blindness is it for the avoidance of an uncertain Danger to precipitate Our selves into a most certain Destruction I would we had not erred in this kind But Errours past cannot be recalled some may peradventure be amended wherein speedy
with Excommunication in that publick Audience for which they were committed to the Tower on the fifth of April The rest of the Bishops were commanded to abide in London and to give bond for their appearance at the Council-Table whensoever they should be râ—quired And so the whole Assembly was dismist and the conference ended before it had been well begun the Lord Keeper giving to the Bishops this sharp remembrance Sincâ— said he you are not wâ—lling that we should hear you you shall very shortly hear from us Which notwithstanding produced this good effect in the Lords and Commons that they conceived the Bishops were not able to defend their Doctrin in the points disputed which made the way more easie for the passing of the publick Liturgy when it was brought unto the Vote Two Speeches there were made against it in the House of Peers by Scot and Fecknam and one against the Queens Supremacy by the Archbishop of York but they prevailed as little in both points by the power of their Eloquence as they had done in the first by their want of Arguments It gave much matter of discourse to most knowing men that the Bishops should so wilfully fall from an appointment to which they had before agreed and thereby forfeit their whole Cause to a Condemnation But they pretended for themselves that they were so straightned in point of time that they could not possibly digest their Arguments into form and order that they looked upon it as a thing too much below them to humble themselves to such a Conference or Disputation in which Bacon a meer lay-man and of no great learning was to sit as Judge and finally that the points had been determined already by the Catholick Church and therefore were not to be called in question without leave from the Pope Which last pretence if it were of any weight and moment it must be utterly impossible to proceed to any Reformation in the state of the Church by which the power and pride of the Popes of Rome may be any thing lessened or that the corruptions of the Church should be redressed iâ— it consist not with their profit For want of time they were no more straightned than the opposite party none of them knowing with what arguments the other side would fortifie and confirm their cause nor in what forms they would propose them before they had perused â—heir reciprocal Papers But nothing was more weakly urged than their exception against the Presidency of Sir Nicholas Bacon which could not be considered as a matter either new or strange not strange because the like Presidency had been given frequently to Cromwel in the late Reign of King Henry the 8th and that not only in such general Conferences but in several Convocations and Synodical meetings Not new because the like had been frequently practised by the most godly Kings and Emperors of the Priâ—â—itive times for in the Council of Chalceâ—on the Emperor appointed certain Noblemen to sit as Judges whose names occur in the first Action of that Counâ—il The like we find exemplified in the Ephesine Council in which by the appointment of Theodosius and Vulentinian then Roman Emperors Candidianus a Count Imperial sate as Judge or President who in the managing of that trust over-acted any thing which was done by Cromwel as Vicar-General to that King or Bacon was impowered to do as the Queens Commissioner No such unreasonable condescention to be found in this as was pretended by the Bishops and the rest of that party to save themselves from the guilt and censure of a Tergiversation for which and other their contempts we shall find them called to a reckoning within few months after In the Convocation which accompanied the present Parliament there was little done and that little which they did was to little purpose Held under Bonner in regard of the Vacancy of the See of Canterbâ—ry it began without the ordinary preamble of a Latine Sermon all preaching being then prohibited by the Queens command The Clergy for their Prolocutor made choice of Doctor Nicholas Harâ—sâ—ield Archdeacon of Canterbâ—ry a man of more ability as his works deâ—lare than he had any opportunity to make use of in the present service The Aâ—t of the submission of the Clergy to King Henry the 8th and his Successors Kings of England had been repealed in the first year of Queen Mary so that the Clergy might have acted of their own authority without any license from the Queen and it is much to be admired that Bonner White or Watson did not put them to it but such was either their feaâ— or modesty or a despair of doing any good to themselves and the cause that there was nothing done by the Bishops at all and not much more by the lower Clergy than a declaration of their judgment in some certain points which at that time were conceived fit to be commended to the sight of the Parliament that is to say 1. That in the Sacrament of the Altar by vertue of Christs assisting after the word is duly pronounced by the Priest the natural body of Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary is really present under the species of Bread and Wine as also his natural Blood 2. That after the Câ—nsecration there remains not the substance of Bread and Wine not any substance save the substance of God and Man 3. That the true body of Christ and his Blood is offered for a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead 4. That the supream power of feeding and governing the militant Church of Christ and of confirming their brethren is given to Peter the Apostle and to his lawful Successors in the See Apostolick as unto the Vicars of Christ. 5. That the authority to handle and define such things which belong to Faith the Sacraments and Discipline Ecclesiastical hath hitherto ever belonged and onely ought to belong unto the Pastors of the Church whom the holy Spirit hath placed in the Church and not unto Lay-men These Articles they caused to be engrossed so commended them to the care and consideration of the Higher House By Bonner afterwards that is to say on the 3d. of March presented to the hands of the Lord Keeper Bacon by whom they were candidly received But they prevailed no further with the Queen or the House of Peers when imparted to them but that possibly they might help forwards the disputation which not long after was appointed to be held at Westminster as before was said It was upon the 8th of May that the Parliament ended and on the 24th of June that the publick Liturgy was to be officiated in all the Churches of the Kingdom In the performanâ—e of which service the Bishops giving no encouragement and many of the Clergy being backward in it it was thought fit to put them to the final test and either to bring them to conformity or to bestow their places and preferments on more tractable persons The Bishops at that time
had been reduced into a narrower number than at any other time before The Sees of Salisbâ—ry and Oxon had been made vacant in the year 1557. by the death of Capâ—n in the one and of King in the other neither of which Churches had since been filled and that of Oxon not in ten years after Pacefew of Hereford Holyman of Bâ—istow and Glyn of Bangor died some few weeks before the Queen Cardinal Poâ—e of Canterbury on the same day with her Hopton of Norwich and Broâ—ks of Glâ—cester within few weeks after Gryssin of Rochester departed this life about the beginning of the Parliament about which time also Paâ—es of Worcester forsook the Kingdom and was followed by Goldwel of St Asaph in the end of May so that there were no more than fifteen living of that sacred Order And they being called in the beginning of July by certain of the Lords of the Council commissionated thereunto in due form of Law were then and there required to take the oath of Supremacy according to the law made in that behalf Kitchin of Landaff only takes it who having formerly submitted unto every change resolved to shew himself no Changling in not conforming to the pleasure of the Higher Powers By all the rest it was refused that is to say by Dr Heath Archbishop of York Bonner of London Tonstall of Duâ—ham White of Winchester Thirlby of Ely Watson of Lincoln Pool of Peteâ—borough Christopherson of Chichester Bourn of Wels Turbervile of Exeter Morgan of St Davids Bain of Lichfield Scot of Chester and Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle And yet these men which makes it seem the greater wonder had either taken the like oath as Priests or Bishops in some part or other of the Reign of the two last Kings But now they had hardened one another to a resolution of standing out unto the last and were thereupon deprived of their several Bishopricks as the Law required A punishment whiâ—h came not on them all at once some of them being borne withall in hope of their conformity and submission till the end of September And when it came it came accompanied with so much mercy that they had no reason to complain of the like extremity as they had put upon their brethren in the late Queens time So well were they disposed of and accommodated with all things necessary that they lived more at ease and in as prosperous a condition as when they were possessed of their former dignities Archbishop Heâ—th was suffered to abide in one of his own purchased houses never restrained to any place and died in great favour with the Queen who bestowed many gratious visits on him during this retirement Tonstall of Durham spent the remainder of his tâ—â—e with Archbishop Parker by whom he was kindly entertained and honourably buried The like civility afforded also in the same house to â—hirlby of Ely and unto Bourn of Wâ—lls by the Dean of Exon in which two houses they both dyed about ten years after White though at first imprisoned for his hauts and insolencies after some cooling of himself in the Tower of London was suffered to enjoy his liberty and to retire himself to what friend he pleased Which favour was vouchsafed unto Tuâ—bervile also who being by birth a Gentleman of an ancient Family could not want friends to give him honest entertainment Wâ—tson of Lincoln having endured a short restraint spent the remainder of his time with the Bishops of Rochester and Ely till being found practising against the State he was finally shut up in Wisbich Castle where at last he died Oglethorp died soon after his deprivation of an Apoplexy Bayne of the Stone and Morgan of some other disease in December following but all of them in their beds and in perfect liberty Poole by the clemency of the Queen injoyed the like freedom courteously treated by all persons amongst whom he lived and at last died upon one of his own Farms in a good old age And as for Christopherson he had been in his time so good a Benefactor to Trinity College in Cambridge whereof he had been sometimes Master that he could not want some honest and ingenuous retribution if the necessity of his estate had required the same Bonner alone was doomed to a constant imprisonment which was done rather out of care for his preservation than as a punishment of his crimes the prison proving to that wretch his safest sanctuary whose horrid tyrannies had otherwise exposed him to the popular fury So loud a lie is that of Genebrard though a good Chronologer that the Bishops were not only punished with imprisonment and the loss of their livelihoods but that many of them were destroyed by poyson famine and many other kinds of death The Bishops being thus put to it the Oath is tendered next to the Deans and Dignitaries and by degrees also to the Rural Clergy refused by some and took by others as it seemed most agreeable to their consciences or particular ends For the refusal whereof or otherwise for not conforming to the publick Liturgy I find no more to have been deprived of their preferments than fourteen Bishops six Abbots Priors and Governours of Religious Orders twelve Deans and as many Arch-Deacons fifteen Presidents or Masters of Colleges fifty Prebendaries of Cathedral Churches and about eighty Parsons of Vicars The whole number not amounting to 200 men which in a Realm consisting of nine thousand Parishes and 26 Cathedral Churches could be no great matter But then we are to know withall that many who were cordially affected to the interess of the Church of Rome dispensed with themselves in these outward conformities which some of them are said to do upon a hope of seeing the like revolution by the death of the Queen as had before hapned by the death of King Edward and otherwise that they might be able to relieve their brethren who could not so readily frame themselves to a present compliance Which notwithstanding so it was that partly by the deprivation of these few persons but principally by the death of so many in the last years sickness there was not a sufficient number of learned men to supply the cures which filled the Church with an ignorant and illiterate Clergy whose learning went no further than the Liturgy or the Book of Homilies but otherwise conformable which was no small felicity to the Rules of the Church And on the other side many were raised to great preferments who having spent there time of exile in such forein Churches as followed the platform of Geneva returned so disaffected to Episcopal Government unto the Rites and Ceremonies here by law established as not long after filled the Church with most sad disorders not only to the breaking of the bond of peace but to the grieving and extinguishing of the spirit of Unity Private opinions not regarded nothing was more considered in them than their zeal against Popery and their abilities in learning to confirm that zeal On which account
for his favour in it of whom they after served themselves upon all occasions Upon the news of which success divers both French and Dutch repaired into England planting themselves in the Sea-towns and openly professing the Reformed Religion under which covert they disguised their several Heterodoxies and blasphemous Dotages some of them proving to be Anabaptists others infected with unfound opinions of as ill a nature but all endeavouring to disperse their Heretical Doctrines and by invenoming the good people amongst whom they lived to encrease their Sects Which being made known unto the Queen she presently commands them all by her Proclamation to depart the Kingdom whether they were Aliens or natural born English and not to stay above the tearm of twenty days upon pain of imprisonment and forfeiture or loss of all their goods Which Proclamation notwithstanding too many of them lurked in Engâ—and without fear of discovery especially after the erecting of so may French and Dutch Churches in the Maritime parts as at this time they did in London infecting the French and Dutch Churches there with some of their frenzies and occasioneâ— such disputes amongst them upon that account that Peâ—er Marâ—yr found it necessary to interpose his authority with them to the composing of those Heats and differences which had grown amongst them for which consult his Letter bearing date at Zurick on the 15th of February next following after the date of the said Proclamation and superscribed Unto the Church of Sâ—rangers in the City of London Now for the date of the said Proclamation it seemeth to have been about the 19th of September at which time it pleased the Queen to set forth another no less conducing to the honour than did the other to the preservation of the Churches purity She had given command by her Injunctions in the year foregoing for destroying and taking away all Shrines and coverings of Shrines all Tables Candlesticks Trindals and Rolls of Wax together with all Pictures Paintings and other monuments of â—eigned Miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry and Superstition so that there remain no memory of the same in walls glass-windows or else-where whether it were in Churches or mens private houses But some perverting rather than mistaking her intention in it guided by covetousness or over-ruled by some new fangle in Religion under colour of conforming to this command defaced all such Images of Christ and his Apostles all Paintings which presented any History of the holy Bible as they found in any windows of their Churches or Chapels They proceeded also to the breaking down of all Coats of Arms to the tearing off of all the Brasses on the Tombs and Monuments of the dead in which the figures of themselves their wives or children their Ancestors or their Arms had been reserved to posterity And being given to understand that Bells had been bapâ—ized in the times of Popery and that even the Churches themselves had been abused to Superstition and Idolatry their zeal transported them in fine to sell their Bells to turn the Steeples into Dove-coats and to rob the Churches of those sheets of Lead with which they were covered For the restraining of which Sacrilege and prophane abuses she gave command in her said Proclamation of the 19th of September That all manner of men should from thenceforth forbear the breaking or defacing of any parcel of any Monument or Tomb or Grave or other Inscription and Memory of any person deceased being in any manner of place Or to break any Image of Kings Princes or Nobles Estates of this Realm or of any other that have been in times past erected and set up for the onely memory of them to their posterity in common Churches and not for any Religious honor Or to break down or deface any Image in glass-windows in any Church without the consent of the Ordinary upon pain of being committed to the next Gaol without Bail or Mainprize and there to remain till the next comming of the Justices for Gaol-delivery and then to be further punished by Fine or Imprisonment besides the restitution or re-edification of the thing broken as to the said Justices shall seem meet and if need shall be to use the advice of her Majesties Council in her Star-chamber It was also signified in the said Proclamation That some Patrons of Churches and others who were possessed of Impropriations had prevailed with the Parson and Parishioners to take or throw down the Bells of Churches or Chapels and the Lead of the same and to convert the same to their private gain by which ensued not onely the spoil of the said Churches but even a slanderous desolation of the places of Prayer And thereupon it was commanded that no manner of person should from thenceforth take away any Bells or Lead off any Church or Chapel under pain of Imprisonment during her Majesties pleasure and such further Fine for the contempt as shall be thought meet With a charge given to all Bishops and other Ordinaries to enquire of all such contempts done from the beginning of her Majesties Reign and to enjoyn the persons offending to repair the same within a convenient time and of their doing therein to certifie the Privy Council or the Council in the Star-chamber that order may be taken therein And in persute of this most seasonable and religions Act she did not onely signe the said Proclamation one for all to authorise it for the Press as the custom is but signed them every one apart amounting to a very great number with her own Royal Hand that so it might be known rather for her own proper act than an act of the council With like care also she provided for the honor and prosperity of her estate in affairs Politick and Civil The monies of the Realm had been much debased by King Henry the 8th to the great disprofit of the Merchant and reproach of the Kingdom for which no remedy had been taken by her Brother or Sister though they had better opportunities and more advantages to go thorow with it But this brave Queen endeavouring nothing more than the restoring of her Kingdom to its antient splendor first caused all such base monies as were coined by any of her Predecessors to be decryed to a less value according to the fineness or alloy thereof and that being done by vertue of her Proclamation bearing date the 28th of September she caused all the said base monies so reduced to a lower value to be brought in to her Majesties Mint for which she gave them mony of the purest silver such as passed commonly by the name of Easterling or Sterling mony since which time no base mony hath been coyned in England but onely of pure Gold and Silver to pass for current in the same save that of late times in relation to the necessity of poor people a permission hath been given to the coyning of Farthings which no man can be forced to accept in satisfaction of a Rent or Debt which as it could
required subscription of the rest in their several places threatning no less than deprivation to such as wilfully refused and obstinately persisted in that refusal Many there were whoâ— bogled at it as they all did but did it not so perversely nor in such great numbers as when their faction was grown strong and improved to multitudes Some stumbled at it in regard of the first clause added to the 20th Article about the Authority of the Church others in reference to the 36th touching the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops some thought they attributed more authority to the Supream Magistrate over all persons and causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil than could consist with that Autocratie and Independency which Calvin arrogated unto his Presbyteries and other Churches of that platform And others looked upon the Homil es as beggarly rudiments scarce milk for Babes but by no means to be served in for a stronger stomach In general thought by the Genevians and Zuinglian Gospellers to have too much in them of the Pope or too little of Calvin and therefore not to be subscribed by any who desired the reputation of keeping a good conscience with faith unfeigned Of which number none so much remarkable as father John Fox the Marâ—yrologist who had before appeared in the Schism at Franckfort and left that Church when Cox had got the better in it to retire to Geneva being now called on to subscribe that the opinion which was had of his parts and piety might advance the service he is said to have appeared before the Bishop but whether before the Archbishop or his own Diocesan is not much material with the New-Testament in Greek To this said he I will subscribe and it this will not serve take my Prebend of Salisbury the onely preferment which I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you This refractory answer for it was no better might well have moved the Bishop to proceed against him as he did against some others who had stood on the same refusal but kissing goes by kindness as the saying is and so much kindness was shewed to him that he both kept his resolution and his place together which whether it might not do more hurt to the Church than that preferment in the Church did advantage him I think no wise man will make a question for commonly the exemption or indemnity of some few particulars confirms the obstinacy of the rest in hope of being privileged with the like indemnity And therefore it was well observed by Bishop Bancroft when King James proposed the writing of a Letter to the Bishop of Chester for respiting some Ministers of his Diocess from a present conformity That if this purpose should proceed the copy of those Letters would fly over the Kingdom and then others would make the same request for some friends of theirs and so no fruit would follow of the present Conference but that all things would be worse than before they were But Queen Elizabeth was not drawn so easily to the like indulgencies for which she received her own just praises from the Pen of an Adversary Harding by name in his Epistle Dedicatory prefixed before his Answer to the Bishops Apology commends her earnest zeal and travail in bringing those disordered Ministers into some order of decent apparel which yet some of them wanted reason to apply themselves to And Sanders who seldom speaks well of her first informs his Reader What bickerings there were in England about the Rochet and other Vestments of the Clergy that many of the opposite party regarded not the Queens judgment in it but sent for counsel and advice to Germany France Savoy and Switzerland but specially to Theodore Beza and Peter Martyr but finally that notwithstanding the advice of the one and the addresses of the other the Queen proceeded vigorously to the deprivation of all such persons as wilfully opposed her order made in that behalf It seems by this that our Genevians for the greater countenancing of their inconformity had stirred up the most eminent Divines of the Gallick and Helvetian Churches to declare in favour of their doings And it appears also by remembrances in some Authors that Calvin apprehending some neglect from Mr. Secretary Cecil in making either no return or a return which signified nothing to his first addresses had laid aside his care of the Church of England for which he could expect no thanks from the Bishops or had received so little from the greaâ— men of the Court But Peter Martyr while he lived conceived himself to have some interess in this Church in which he had enjoyed such a good preferment but more in some particular persons and members of it who seemed to depend upon his judgment and to ask counsel of him as their surest Oracle In which how much he countenanced that faction in King Edward's time both by his practice and his pen and what encouragement he gave them in this present Reign hath been shewn before how much out-gone by Theodore Beza who next usurped a super-intendency over all the Churches of this Island may be seen hereafter All that shall now be said of either of them or of all together shall be briefly this that this poor Church might better have counted their best helps in points of Doctrine than have been troubled with their intermedlings in matter of Discipline More modestly then so dealt Bullinger and Gualter two Divines of Suitzerland as eminent in all points of learning as the best amongst them who being sollicited by some some zealous brethren to signifie their judgment in the present controversie about the Aparel of the Clergy return an approbation of it but send the same inclosed in several Letters to Sandys Horn and Gryndal that they might see that neither of them would engage in the affairs of this Church without the privity of the Governors and Rulers of it To bring this quarel to an end or otherwise to render all opponents the more inexcusable the Queen thought fit to make a further signification of her Royall pleasure not grounded onely on the Soveraign Power and Prerogative Royal by which she published her Injunctions in the first year of her Reign but legally declared by her Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical according to the Acts and Statutes made in that behalf for then it was to be presumed that such as had denyed obedience to her sole commands would at least give it to the Laws The Archbishop is thereupon required to consult together with such Bishops and Commissioners as were next at hand upon the making of such Rules and Orders as they thought necessary for the peace of the Church with reference to the present condition and estate thereof Which being accordingly performed presented to the Queen and by her approved the said Rules and Orders were set forth and published in a certain book entituled Advertisements partly for due order in the publick Administration of the Common-Prayers and using the
holy Sacraments and partly for the Apparel of all persons Ecclesiastical by vertue of the Queens Majesties Letters commanding the same the 15th day of January c. And that they might be known to have the stamp of Royal Authority a Preface was prefixed before them in which it was expressed That the Queen had called to her remembrance how necessary it was for the advancement of God's glory c. for all her loving subjects of the state Ecclesiastical not onely to be knit together in the bonds of Uniformity touching the ministration of Gods Word and Sacraments but also to be of one decent behaviour of outward aparel that by their distinct habits they might be known to be of that holy vocation whereby the greater reverence might beâ— given unto them in their several Offices that thereupon she had required the Metropolitan by her special Letters that upon conference had with such other Bishops as were authorised by her Commission for causes Ecclesiastical some order might be took whereby all diversities and varieties in the premises might be taken away And finally that in obedience unto her commands the said Metropolitan and the rest there named had agreed upon the Rules and Orders ensuing which were by her thought meet to be used and followed Now in these Articles or Advertisements it was particularly enjoyned amongst other things That all Archbishops and Bishops should continue their accustomed Aparel that all Deans of Cathedral Churches Masters of Colleges all Archdeacons and other dignitaries in Cathedral Churches Doctors Batchelors of Divinity and Law having any Ecclesiastical Living should wear in their common apparel abroad a side Gown with sleeves streight at the hand without any cuts in the same and that also without any falling cape and to wear tippets of â—arsnet as was lawful for them by Act of Parliament 24 Hen. 8. That all Doctors of Physick or any other faculty having any Living Ecclesiastical or any other that may dispend by the Church 100 Marks he to be esteemed by the fruits or tenths of their Promotions or all Prebendaries whose promotions are vallued at 20 l. and upward to wear the like habit that they or all Ecclesiastical persons or other having any Ecclesiastical Living do wear the cap appointed by the Injunctions and no hats but in their journeyings that they in their journeys do wear the cloaks with sleeves put on and like in fashion to their Gowns without gards welts or cuts that in their private houses or studies they use their own liberty of comely apparel that all inferiour Ecclesiastical persons shall wear long gowns of the fashion aforesaid and caps as before is described that all poor Parsons Vicars and Curaâ—s do endeavour themselves to conform their aparel in like sort so soon and as conveniently as their abilities will serve for the same provided that their ability be judged by the Bishop of the Diocess and if their ability will not suffer them to buy them long gowns of the form aforesaid prescribed that then they shall wear their short gowns as before expressed that all such peâ—â—ons as have been or be Ecclesiastical and serve not the Ministry or have not accepted or shall refuse to accept the Oath of obedience to the Queens Majesty do from henceforth wear none of the said aparel but to go as meer lay-men till they be reconciled to obedience and who shall obstinately refuse to do the same be presented by the Ordinary to the Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical and by them to be reformed accordingly But this belongs more properly to the year next following To return therefore where we left the next considerable action which followed on the Queens reception at Cambridge but more considerable in the consequents than in the act it self was the preferring of Sir Robert Dudley the second son then living to the Duke of Northumberland to the Titles of Lord Denbigh and Earl of Leicester which honour she conferred on him on Michaelmas day with all the Pomps and ceremonies thereunto accustomed She had before elected him into the Order of the Garter made him the Master of her Horse and Chancellor of the University of Oxon suffered him to carry a great sway in all affairs both of Court and Council and given unto him the fair Mannor of Denbigh being conceived to be one of the goodliest Territories in England as having more Gentlemen of quality which owes sure and service thereunto than any other whatsoever in the hands of a subject And now she adds unto these honors the goodly Castle and Mannor of Kenelworth part of the patrimony and possession of the Dutchy of Lancaster Advanced unto which heighth he ingrossed unto himself the disposings of all Offices in Court and State and of all preferments in the Church proving in fine so unappeasable in his malice and unsatiable in his lusts so sacrilegious in his rapines so false in promises and trecheâ—ous in point of trust and finally so destructive of the rights and properties of particular persons that his little finger lay far heavier on the English subjects than the loins of all the Favorites of the two last Kings And that his monstrous vices most insupportable in any other than himself might either be connived at or not complained of he cloaks them with a seeming zeal to the true Religion and made himself the head of the Pâ—ritan faction who spared no pains in setting forth his praises upon all occasions making themselves the Tromparts to this Bragadocio Nor was he wanting to caresse them after such a manner as he found most agreeable to those holy hypocrites using no other language in his speech and letters than pure-scripture phrase in which he was become as dextrous as if he had received the same inspirations with the sacred Pen-men Of whom I had not spoke so much but that he seemed to have been born for the destruction of the Church of England as may appear further in the prosecution of the Presbyterian or Puritan History whensoever any able Pen shall be exercised in it But leaving this Court-Meteor to be gazed on by unknowing men let us aâ—tend the Obsequies of the Emperor Ferdinand who died on the 〈…〉 of 〈…〉 in the year now being leaving the Empire and the rest of his Dominions to Mâ—xâ—milian his eldest son whom he had before made King of the Râ—mans A Pâ—ince he was who had deserved exceeding well of the Queen of England and she resolved not to be wanting to the due acknowledgment of so great a merit the after-noon of the second day of October and the fore-noon of the third are set apart by her command for this great solemnity for which there was erected in the upper part of the Quire of the said Church a goodly Heâ—se richly garnished and set forth all the Quire being hanged with black cloth adorned with rich Scutcheons of his Arms of sundry sorts At the solemnization of which Funeral there were twelve Mourners and one that presented the Queens
Ploydon whose learned Commentaries do sufficiently set forth his great abilities in that Profession and one Mr. Lovelace of whom we find nothing but the name By them and their Advice the whole pleading chiefly is reduced to these two heads to omit the nicities and punctilioes of lesser moment the first whereof was this That Bonner was not at all named in the indictment by the stile and title of Bishop of London but only by the name Dr. Edmond Bonner Clerk Dr. of the Lawes whereas at that time he was legally and actually Bishop of London and therefore the Writ to be abated as our Lawyers phrase it and the cause to be dismissed our of the Court But Ploydon found here that the Case was altered and that this Plea could neither be allowed by Catiline who was then Chief Justice nor by any other of the Bench and therefore it is noted by Chief Justice Dyer who reports the Case with a Non allocatur The second principle Plea was this That Horn at the time when the Oath was tender'd was not Bishop of Winchester and therefore not impowred by the said Statute to make tender of it by himself or his Chancellor And for the proof of this that he was no Bishop it was alleged that the form of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops which had been ratified by Parliament in the time of King Edward had been repealed in the first year of Queen Mary and so remained at Horn's pretended consecration The Cause being put off from Term to Term comes at the last to be debated amongst the Judges at Serjeants Inne By whom the cause was finally put upon the issue and the tryal of that issue Ordered to be committed to a Jury of the County of Surry But then withall it was advised that the decision of the Point should rather be referred to the following Parliament for fear that such a weighty matter might miscarry by a contrary Jury of whose either partiality insufficiency there had been some proof made before touching the grants made by King Edward's Bishops of which a great many were made under this pretence that the Granters were not actually Bishops nor legally possessed of their several Sees According to this sound advice the business comes under consideration in the following Parliament which began on the 30th of September where all particulars being fully and considerately discoursed upon it was first declared That their not restoring of that Book to the former power in terms significant and express was but Casus omissus and Secondly That by the Statute 5th and 6th Edw. 6th it had been added to the Book of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments as a member of it or at least an appendant to it and therefore by 1. Eliz. was restored again together with the said Book of Common Prayer intentionally at the least if not in terminis But being the words in the said Statute were not cleer enough to remove all doubts they did therefore revive it now and did accordingly Enact that all persons that had been or should be made Ordered or Consecrate Archbishops Bishops Priests Ministers of Gods Holy Word and Sacraments or Deacons after the form and order prescribed in the said Book be in very deed and also by authority hereof declared and enacted to be and shall be Archbishops Bishops Priests Ministers and Deacons rightly made Consecrate and Ordered Any Statute Law Canon or any thing to the contrary notwithstanding Nothing else done in this Parliament which concerned the Church not any thing at all in the Convocation by which it was of course accompanied more than the granting of a Subsidy of six shillings in the pound out of all their Benefices and promotions And as for Bonner who was the other party to the cause in question it was determined that neither he nor any other person or persons should be impeached or molested in regard of any refusal of the said Oath heretofore made and hereafter to be made before the end of that Parliament Which favour was indulged unto them of the Laity in hope of gaining them by fair means to a sence of their duty to Bonner and the rest of the Bishops as men that had sufficiently suffered upon that account by the loss of their Bishopricks By this last Act the Church is strongly setled on her natural pillars of Doctrine Government and Worship not otherwise to have been shaken than by the blind zeal of all such furioâ—s Sampsons as were resolved to pull it on their own heads rather than suffer it to stand in so much glory And here it will be time to conclude this History having taken a brief view of the State of the Church with all the abberrations from its first constitution as it stood at this time when the Puritan faction had began to disturb her Order and that it may be done with a greater certainty I shall speak it in the words of one who lived and writ his knowledge of it at this time I mean John Rastel in his answer to the Bishops challenge Who though he were a Papist and a fugitive Priest yet I conceive that he hath faithfully delivered to many sad truths in these particulars Three books he writ within the compass of three years now last past against Bishop Jewel in one of which he makes this address unto him viz. And though you Mr. Jewel as I have heard say do take the bread into your hands when you celebrate solemnly yet thousands there are of your inferiour Ministers whose death it is to be bound to any such external fashion and your Order of celebrating the Communion is so unadvisedly conceived that every man is left unto his private Rule or Canon whether he will take the bread into his hands or let it stand at the end of the table the Bread and Wine being laid upon the table where it pleases the Sexton or Parish-Clerk to set them p. 28. In the Primitive Church Altars were allowed amongst Christians upon which they offered the unbloody sacrifice of Christs body yet your company to declare what followers they are of antiquity do account it even among one of the kinds of Idolaâ—ry if one keep an Altar standing And indeed you follow a certain Antiquity not of the Catholicks but of desperate Hereticks Optatus writing of the Donatists that they did break raze and remove the Altars of God upon which they offered p. 34. and 165. Where singing is used what shall we say to the case of the people that kneel in the body of the Church yea let them hearken at the Chancel dore it self they shall not be much wiser Besides how will you provide for great Parishes where a thousand people are c p. 50. Then to come to the Apostles where did you ever read that in their external behaviour they did wear Frocks or Gowns or four-cornered Caps or that a company of Lay-men-servants did follow them all in one Livery or that at their Prayers
rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX Of Both Kinds 32 The Cup of the Lord is not to be denyed to the Lay People For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs Ordinance and Commandment ought to be ministred to all Christian People alike _____ XXX Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Crosse. The Offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for sin but that alone Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said that the Priests did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt were fables and dangerous deceits XXXI Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Crosse. The offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption c. were blasphemous fables and 33 dangerous deceits XXXI A single Life is imposed on none by the Word of God Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the estate of a single life or to abstain from Marriage XXXII Of the Marriage of Priests Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by Gods Law c. Therefore it is lawful also for them 34 as for all other Christian men to marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to godlinesse XXXII Excommunicated Persons are to be avoided That person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an Heathen and Publican untill he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Judge which hath authority thereunto XXXIII Of Excommunicated Persons how they are to be avoided That person which by open Denunciation of the Church c. XXXIII Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one and utterly like for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countries Times and mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren XXXIV Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies c. Every particular or National Church 35 hath Authority to ordain change or aboâ—ish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Man's Authority so that all things be done to edifying XXXIV Of the Homilies The Homilies lately delivered 36 and commended to the Church of England by the Kings Injunctionâ— do contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and fit to be embraced by all men and for that cause they are diligently plainly and distinctly to be read to the People XXXV Of Homilies The second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joyned under this Article doth contain a godly and wholsome Doctrin and necessary for the times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People The names of the Homilies Of the Right use of the Church Of Repairing Churches Against the Peril of Idolatry Of Good Works c. XXXV Of the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England The Book lately delivered to the Church of England by the Authority of the King and Parliament 37 containing the manner and form of publick Prayer and the ministration of the Sacraments in the said Church of England as also the Book published by the same Authority for Ordering Ministers in the Church are both of them very pious as to â—uth of Doctrine in nothing contrary but agreeable to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel which they do very much promote and illustrate And for that cause they are by all faithful Members of the Church of England but chiefly of the Ministers of the Word with all thankfulness and readiness of mind to be received approved and commended to the People of God XXXVI Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers The Book of Consecration of 38 Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of King Edward the sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering Neither hath it any thing that of it self is superstitious and ungodly And therfore whosoever are Consecrated or ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second year of the afore-named King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully Consecrated and Ordered XXXVI Of the Civil Magistrates The King of England is after Christ 39 the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and Ireland The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Civil Magistrate is ordained and approved by God and therefore are to be obeyed not onely for fear of wrath but for conscience sake Câ—vil or temporal Laws may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences It is lawful for Christian men at the commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars XXXVII Of the Civil Magistrates The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Forein Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government 40 by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended We give not to our Princess the Ministry either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that onely Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptutes by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of this Realm may punish Christian men with death
the same to the great Perill of his Souls health 25. And that no Curate admit to the Communion such who are in Ranchor and Malice with their Neighbours till such controversies be reconciled That to avoid Contentions and strife which heretofore have risen amongst the King's Subjects by challenging of places in Procession no Procession hereafter be used about the Church or Church-yard but immediately before High-Mass the Letany shall be distinctly said or sung in English none departing the Church without just cause and all ringing of Bells save one utterly forborn That they take away and destroy all Shrines Covering of Shrines Tables Candlesticks Trindils and Rolls of Wax Pictures Paintings and other Monuments of feigned Miracles so that no Memory of them remain in Walls or Windows exhotting their Parishioners to do the like in their several houses That the Holy-day at the first beginning Godly-Instituted and ordained be wholly given to God in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publique Prayers in acknowledging their Offences to God and amendment in reconciling themselves to their Neighbours receiving the Communion Visiting the sick c. Onely it shall be lawfull for them in time of Harvest to labour upon Holy and Festival days and save that thing which God hath sent and that scrupulosity to abstain from working upon those days doth grievously offend God That a Register Book be carefully kept in every Parish for Weddings Christenings and Burials 29. That a strong Chest with an hole in the upper part thereof with three keys thereunto belonging be provided to receive the Charity of the People to the Poor and the same at convenient times be distributed unto them in the presence of the Parish And that a comely Palpit be provided in a convenient place That because of the lack of Preachers Curates shall read Homilies which are or shall be set forth by the King's Authority 36. That when any such Sermon or Homily shall be had the Primes and Hours shall be omitted That none bound to pay Tithes detain them by colour of Duty omitted by their Curates and so redoub one wrong with another 33. And whereas many indiscrete persons do incharitably condemn and abuse Priests having small Learning His Majesty chargeth His Subjects That from henceforth they be reverently used for their Office and Ministration sake 31. And that to avoid the detestable sin of Simonie the Seller shall lose his right of Patronage for that time and the Buyer to be deprived and made unable to receive Spiritual Promotion That to prevent sick persons in the damnable vice of Despair They shall learn and have always in readiness such comfortable places and Sentences of Scripture as do set forth the Mercies Benefits and Goodness of God Almighty towards all penitent and believing persons 30. But that Priests be not bound to go visit women in Child-bed except in times of dangerous sickness and not to fetch any Coars except it be brought to the Church yard 34. That all persons not understanding Latine shall pray on no other Primer but what lately was set forth in English by King Henry the Eighth and that such who have knowledge in the Latine use no other also that all Graces before and after Meat be said in English and no Grammar taught in Scholes but that which is set forth by Authority 39. That Chantry-Priests teach Youth to read and write And finally That these Injunctions be read once a Quarter Besides these general Injunctions for the whole Estate of the Realm there were also certain others particularly appointed for the Bishops onely which being delivered unto the Commissioners were likewise by them in their Visitations committed unto the said Bishops with charge to be inviolably observed and kept upon pain of the King's Majesties displeasure the effect whereof is as in manner followeth 1. That they should to the utmost of their power wit and understanding sâ—e and cause all and singular the King's Injunctions heretofore given or after to be given from time to time in and through their Diocess duly faithfully and truly to be kept observed and accomplished And that they should Personally Preach within their Diocess every Quarter of a year once at the least that is to say once in their Cathedral Churches and thrice in other several places of their Diocesses whereas they should see it most convenient and necessary except they had a reasonable excuse to the contrary Likewise that they should not retain into their Service or Houshold any Chaplain but such as were Learned and able to Preach the Word of God and those they should also cause to Exercise the same 2. And Secondly That they should not give Orders to any Person but such as were Learned in Holy Scripture neither should deny them to such as were Learned in the same being of honest conversation or living And Lastly That they should not at any time or place Preach or set forth unto the People any Doctrine contrary or repugnant to the effâ—ct and intent contained or set forth in the King's Highnesse's Homilies neither yet should admit or give Licence to Preach to any within their Diocess but to such as they should know or at least assuredly trust would do the same And if at any time by hearing or by report proved they should perceive the contrary they should then incontinent not only inhibit that Person so offending but also punish him and revoke their Licence There was also a Form of Bidding Prayer prescribed by the Visitours to be used by all Preachers in the Realm eiâ—her before or in their Sermons as to them seemed best Which Form of Bidding Prayer or Bidding of the Beads as it was then commonly called was this that followeth You shall Pray for the whole Congregation of Christ's Church and specially for this Church of England and Ireland wherein first I commend to your devout Prayers the King 's most Excellent Majesty Supreme Head immediately under God of the Spirituality and Temporality of the same Church And for Queen Katharine Dowager and also for my Lady Mary and my Lady Elizabeth the King's Sisters Secondly You shall Pray for my Lord Protectour's Grace with all the rest of the King's Majesty His Council for all the Lords of His Realm and for the Clergy and the Commons of the same beseeching God Almighty to give â—very of them in his degree grace to use themselves in such wise as may be to God's Glory the King's Honour and the VVeal of this Realm Thirdly You shall Pray for all them that be departed out of this VVorld in the Faith of Christ that they with us and we with them at the day of Judgement may rest both body and soul with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Such were the Orders and Injunctions wherewith the King's Commissioners were furnished for their Visitation Most of them such as had been formerly given out by Cromwell or otherwise published and pursued but not
without some intermissions by the King deceased and therefore to be put in Execution with the greater safety For though the young King by Reason of his tender Age could not but want a great proportion of His Father's Spirit for carrying on a work of such weight and moment yet he wanted nothing of that power in Church-concernment which either Naturally was inherent in the Crown Imperial or had been Legally vested in it by Acts of Parliament Neither could His Being in Minority nor the Writings in His Name by the Lord Protectour and the Rest of the Council make any such difference in the Case as to invalidate the Proceedings or any of the Rest which followed in the Reformation For if they did the Objection would be altogether as strong against the Reformation made in the Minority of King Josias as against this in the Minority of the present King That of Josias being made as Josephus telleth us by the Advice of the Elders as this of King EDVVARD the Sixth by the Advice of the Council And yet it cannot be denyed but that the Reformation made under King Iâ—sias by Advice of His Council was no less pleasing unto God nor less valid in the Eys of all His Subjects then those of Jeboshaphat and Hezekiah in their Riper years who perhaps acted singly on the strength of their Own Judgements onely without any Advice Now of Josias we are told by the said Historian That When He grew to be twelve years old He gave manifest Approbation of His Piety and Justice For He drew the People to a conformable Course of Life and to the Detestation and Abolishing of Idols that were no Gods and to the Service of the Onely True God of their Fore-Fathers And considering the Actions of His Predecessours He began to Rectifie them in that wherein they were deficient with no less Circumspection then if He had been an Old Man And that which He found to be Correspondent and Advisedly done by them that did He both maintain and imitate All which things He did both by Reason of His Innated Wisdom as also by the Aâ—moâ—shment and Council of His Elders in following orderly the Laws not onely in matters of Religion but of Civil Politie Which puts the Parallel betwixt the two young Kings in the Case before us above all Exception and the Proceedings of King Edward or His Council rather beyond all Dispute Now whereas Question hath been made whether the twenty fourth Injunction for Labouring on the Holy Day in time of Harvest extend as well to the Lord's Day as the Annual Festivals The matter seems to any well-discerning eye to be out of Question For in the third Chapter of the Statute made in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the Sixth when the Reformation was much more advanced then it was at the present the Names and Number of such Holy Days as were to be observed in this Church are thus layed down That is to say All Sundaies in the year the Feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphany c. with all the Rest still kept and there named particularly And then it followeth in the Act That it shall and may be lawfull for every Husband-man Labourer Fisher-man and to all and every other person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be upon the Holy-Days afore-said in Harvest or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require to Labour Ride Fish or Work any kind of work at their free-will and Pleasure any thing in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding The Law being such there is no question to be made in point of practice nor consequently of the meaning of the King's Injunction For further opening of which Truth we finde that not the Country onely but the Court were indulged the Liberty of attending business on that day it being Ordered by the King amongst other things That the Lords of the Council should upon Sundays attend the publique Affairs of this Realm dispatch Answers to Letters for good order of State and make full dispatches of all things concluded the Week before Provided alwaies That they be present at Common Prayer and that on every Sunday-Night the King's Secretary should deliver him a Memorial of such things as are to be debated by the Privy Council in the week ensuing Which Order being compared with the words of the Statute may serve sufficiently to satisfie all doubts and scruples touching the true intent and meaning of the said Injunction But as this Question was not startled till the Later Times when the Lord's Day began to be advanced into the Reputation of the Jewish Sabbath so was there nothing in the rest of the said Injunctions which required a Commentary Some words and Passages therein which seem absurd to us of this present Age being then clearly understood by all and every one whom they did concern Published and given in charge by the Commissioners in their several Circuits with great Zeal and Chearfullness and no less readily Obeyed in most parts of the Realms both by Priests and People who observed nothing in them either new or strange to which they had not been prepared in the Reign of the King deceased None forwarder in this Compliance then some Learned men in and about the City of London who not long since had shewed themselves of a contrary Judgement Some of them running before Authority and others keeping even pase with it but few so confident of themselves as to lagg behind It was Ordered in the twenty first That at the time of High Mass the Epistle and Gospel should be read in the English Tongue and That both at the Mattens and Even-Song a Chapter out of the New Testament should be also read And for Example to the rest of the Land the Complime being a part of the Evening Service was sung in the King 's Chapel on Mâ—nday in the Easter-week then falling on the eleventh of April in the English Tongue Doctour Smith Master of Whittington-College in London and Reader in Divinity at the King's-College at Oxford afterwards better known by the name of Christ-Church had before published two Books One of them written In Defence of the Mass The other endeavouring to prove That unwritten Verities ought to be believed under pain of Damnation But finding that these Doctrines did not now beat according to the Pulse of the Times he did voluntarily retract the said Opinions declaring in a Sermon at Saint Paul's Cross on Sunday the fifteenth of May that his said former Books and Teachings were not only erroneous but Heretical The like was done in the Moneth next following by Doctour Pern afterwards Master of Peter-House in Cambridge who having on Saint George's day delivered in the Parish-Church of Saint Andrew Vndershaft for sound Catholick Doctrine That the Pictures of Christ and of the Saints were to be adored upon the seventeenth day of June declared himself in the