run so fast that the Bishops themselves were forced to moderate their Heats They all understood how much the Queen was set upon having the Church raised as high as could be and saw there was nothing so effectual to recommend any to her Favour as to move high in these Matters And though their Motions were thought too violent and rejected yet their Affections were thereby discovered so that they knew they should be looked on as Men deeply engaged in these Interests An Act declaring Treasons After this the Bill of Treasons was brought in This was also argued for some days in the House of Commons but at last agreed to By it any who denied the King's Right to the Title of the Crown with the Queen's or endeavoured to put him from it together with them that did several other Offences were to forfeit all their Goods and to be imprisoned during Life and Clergy Men were to be deprived by their Ordinaries In these cases the second Offence was to be Treason But if any should compass the King's Death and utter it by any overt Deed during his Marriage to the Queen the first Offence of this kind should be Treason It was also enacted that the Parliament having petitioned the King that if the Queen died with any Issue he would take on him the Government of them till they came of Age to which he had assented therefore if the Queen died before her Children came to be of Age the Government of the Kingdom should be in the King's Hands if it were a Son till he were eighteen or if a Daughter till she was fifteen Years of Age And in all that time the conspiring his Death was to be Treason The Witnesses were to be brought before the Parties and none was to be tried for any words but within six months after they were spoken Another against seditious words Another Act passed upon a Report made of some Heretical Preachers who had as was informed prayed in their Conventicles that God would turn the Queen's Heart from Idolatry to the true Faith or else shorten her days and take her quickly out of the way All therefore that so prayed for taking away the Queen's Life were to be judged Traitors but if they shewed themselves penitent for such Prayers they were not to be condemned of Treason but put to any Corporal Punishment other than Death at the Judges Discretion This was passed in great haste for it was thrice read in the House of Lords and passed on the 16th of January in which the Parliament was Dissolved There was another Act past against those that spread Lying Reports of any Noblemen Judges or great Officers that such as spread them should be imprisoned till they brought their Authors according to former Acts. If any spread such Reports of the King and Queen they were to be set on a Pillory and pay 100 l. or have their Ears cut off and be three months Prisoners and they were to pay 100 Merks and suffer one months Imprisonment though they had Authors for them if they reported them maliciously But if their Reports tended to the stirring of any Insurrection they were to lose their right Hands and upon a second Offence to suffer Imprisonment during their Lives but they were to be proceeded against within three months after the words so spoken All the Bills being ended the Parliament was dissolved on the 16th of January to Gardiner's Gardiner is in great esteem no small joy He had now performed all that he had undertaken to the Queen or the Emperor Upon which he had the Reputation that he was formerly in of a great Statesman and a dextrous manager of Affairs much confirmed and raised since he had brought about in so small a time so great a change where the Interests of those who consented to it seemed to lead them another wav To those who had apprehended the Tyranny of Rome he had said That as our former Kings had always kept it under in a great measure so there was less danger of that now since they saw that all Princes had agreed to preserve their own Rights entire against the Pope's Pretensions He shewed them that therefore all the Old Laws against Provisions from Rome were still kept in force And so upon Cardinal Pool's being called over there was a Commission sent him under the Great Seal bearing date the 10th of November authorising him to exercise his Legatine Power in England By this he shewed them that no Legat should ever come into England to execute any Power till his Faculties were seen and approved by the Queen Others thought this was but a vain Imagination for if the Papacy were once fully established and People again brought under the old Superstition of esteeming the Popes Christ's Vicars and the infallible Heads of the Church it would not be possible to retain the People in their Obedience since all the assistance that the Princes of Christendom of this time had from their Subjects in their Wars with the Popes flowed chiefly from this that they generally did no more submit implicitly to their Priests But if once that blind Obedience were restored it would be easy for the Priests by their privat dealings in Confession to overturn Governments as they pleased But that which stuck most was That the Church Lands were Great fear about the Church-Lands by the Cannon Law so indissolubly annexed to the Church that they could not be separated from it To this it was answered that they should secure it by a Law at Rome and should confirm all the Alienations that had been made both by consent of the Clergy and by the Pope's Authority committed to the Legat. Yet even that did not satisfy many who found some Laws in the Canon so strict that the Pope himself could not dispence with them If the Legate did it the Pope might refuse to confirm it and then it was nothing and what one Pope did another often recalled So it was said that this Confirmation was but an Artifice to make it pass the more easily Besides all observed that in the Cardinal's Confirmation of those Lands there was a charge given to all to be afraid of the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazar for using the Holy Vessels which was to pardon the thing and yet to call it a Sacrilege for which they might look for the Vengeance of God So that the Cardinal did at the same time both bind and loose and it was plain both by that Clause and the Repeal of the Statute of Mortmain that it was designed to possess People with the Opinion of the Sin of retaining Church-Lands It was thought this Confirmation was rather an Indemnity and Permission to keep them than a declaring the Possessors had any lawful Title to them So that when Men were near Death and could no longer enjoy those Lands themselves it was not to be doubted but the Terrors of Sacrilege and the Punishments due to it with
being read there once it was like to have raised such debates that it being resolved to end the Session before Christmas the Lords laid it aside But while the Parliament was sitting The Convocation meets they were not idle in the Convocation though the Popish Party was yet so prevalent in both Houses that Cranmer had no hopes of doing any thing till they were freed of the trouble which some of the great Bishops gave them The lower House made some Petitions Number 16. The most important thing they did was the carrying up four Petitions to the Bishops which will be found in the Collection 1. That according to the Statute made in the Reign of the late King there might be Persons empow'red for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws The second That according to the ancient Custom of the Nation and the Tenor of the Bishops Writ to the Parliament the inferior Clergy might be admitted again to sit in the House of Commons or that no Acts concerning matters of Religion might pass without the sight and assent of the Clergy The third That since divers Prelates and other Divines had been in the late Kings time appointed to alter the Service of the Church and had made some progress in it that this might be brought to its full perfection The fourth That some consideration might be had for the maintenance of the Clergy the first year they came into their Livings in which they were charged with the First-fruits to which they added a desire to know whether they might safely speak their minds about Religion without the danger of any Law For the first of these four Petitions an account of it shall be given hereafter As to the second it was a thing of great consequence and deserves to be farther considered in this place Anciently all the free Men of England The Inferior Clergy desire to be admited to have Representatives in the House of Commons or at least those that held of the Crown in chief came to Parliament and then the inferior Clergy had Writs as well as the Superior and the first of the three Estates of the Kingdom were the Bishops the other Prelates and the Inferior Clergy But when the Parliament was divided into two Houses then the Clergy made likewise a Body of their own and sate in Convocation which was the third Estate But the Bishops having a double capacity the one of Ecclesiastical Prelature the other of being the Kings Barons they had a Right to sit with the Lords as a part of their Estate as well as in the Convocation And though by parity of reason it might seem that the rest of the Clergy being Freeholders as well as Clarks had an equal Right to choose or be chosen into the House of Commons yet whether they were ever in possession of it or whether according to the Clause Premonentes in the Bishops Writ they were ever a part of the House of Commons is a just doubt For besides this assertion in the Petition that was mentioned and a more large one in the second Petition which they presented to the same purpose which is likewise in the Collection Number 17. I have never met with any good reason to satisfie me in it There was a general Tradition in Queen Elizabeths Reign that the Inferior Clergy departed from their Right of being in the House of Commons when they were all brought into the Praemunire upon Cardinal Wolsey's Legatine Power and made their submission to the King But that is not credible for as there is no footstep of it which in a time of so much writing and printing must have remained if so great a change had been then made so it cannot be thought that those who made this Address but 17 years after that Submission many being alive in this who were of that Convocation Polidore Virgil in particular a curious observer since he was maintained here to write the History of England none of them should have remembred a thing that was so fresh but have appealed to Writs and ancient Practises But though this design of bringing the Inferior Clergy into the House of Commons did not take at this time yet it was again set on foot in the end of Queen Elizabeths Reign and Reasons were offered to perswade her to set it forward Which not being then successful these same Reasons were again offered to King James to induce him to endeavour it The Paper that discovers this was communicated to me by Dr. Borlace the Worthy Author of the History of the Irish Rebellion It is corrected in many places by the Hand of Bishop Ravis then Bishop of London a Man of great Worth This for the affinity of the matter and the curiosity of the thing I have put into the Collection Number 18. with a large Marginal Note as it was designed to be transcribed for King James But whether this Matter was ever much considered or lightly laid aside as a thing unfit and unpracticable does not appear certain it is that it came to nothing Upon the whole matter it is not certain what was the Power or Right of these Proctors of the Clergy in former times Some are of opinion that they were only assistants to the Bishops Coke 4. Inst 3.4 but had no Voice in either House of Parliament This is much confirmed by an Act pass'd in the Parliament of Ireland in the 28th Year of the former Reign which sets forth in the Preamble That though the Proctors of the Clergy were always summoned to Parliament yet they were no part of it nor had they any right to Vote in it but were only Assistants in case Matters of Controversie or Learning came before them as the Convocation was in England which had been determined by the Judges of England after much enquiry made about it But the Proctors were then pretending to so high an Authority that nothing could pass without their consents and it was presumed they were set on to it by the Bishops whose Chaplains they were for the most part Therefore they were by that Act declared to have no right to Vote From this some infer they were no other in England and that they were only the Bishops Assistants and Council But as the Clause Premonentes in the Writ seems to make them a part of the Parliament so these Petitions suppose that they sate in the House of Commons anciently where it cannot be imagined they could sit if they came only to be Assistants to the Bishops for then they must have sate in the House of Lords rather as the Judges the Masters of Chancery and the Kings Council do Nor is it reasonable to think they had no Voice for then their sitting in Parliament had been so insignificant a thing that it is not likely they would have used such endeavours to be restored to it since their coming to Parliament upon such an account must have been only a charge to them There is against this Opinion an
to emply his Money in the way of Trade or Manufacture for which they were sure to have vent since they lay near Tyre and Sidon that were then the chief Places of Traffick and Navigation of the World and without such Industry the Soil of Judea could not possibly have fed such vast numbers as lived on it So that it seemed clear that this Law in the Old Testament properly belonged to that policy Yet it came to be looked on by many Christians as a Law of perpetual obligation It came also to be made a part of the Canon Law and Absolution could not be given to the breakers of it without a special faculty from Rome But for avoiding the severity of the Law the invention of Mortgages was fallen on which at first were only Purchases made and let back to the owner for such Rent as the use of the Money came to so that the use was taken as the Rent of the Land thus bought And those who had no Land to sell thus fell upon another way The Borrower bought their Goods to be payed within a Year for instance an hundred and ten Pound and sold them back for a Sum to be presently laid down as they should agree it may be a hundred Pound by this means the one had a hundred Pound in hand and the other was to have ten Pound or more at a years end But this being in the way of Sale was not called Usury This Law was look'd on as impossible to be observed in a Country like England and it could not easily appear where the immorality lay of lending Money upon moderate gain such as held proportion to the value of Land provided that the perpetual Rule of Christian Equity and Charity were observed which is not to exact above the proportion duly limited by the Law and to be merciful in not exacting severely of Persons who by inevitable accidents have been disabled from making payment This digression I thought the more necessary because of the scruples that many good and strict Persons have still in that matter Another Act passed both Houses against all Simoniacal Pactions A Bill against Simony the reservation of Pensions out of Benefices and the granting Advowsons while the Incumbent was yet alive It was agreed to by the Lords the Earls of Derby Rutland and Sussex the Viscount Hereford and the Lords Mounteagle Sands Wharton and Evers dissenting But upon what reason I do not know the Bill was not assented to by the King who being then sick there was a Collection made of the Titles of the Bills which were to have the Royal Assent and those the King Signed and gave Commission to some Lords to pass them in his Name These abuses have been oft complained of but there have been still new contrivances found out to elude all Laws against Simony either bargains being made by the Friends of the Parties concerned without their express knowledge or Bonds of Resignation given by which Incumbents lie at the mercy of their Patrons and in these the faultiness of some Clergy-men is made the colour of imposing such hard terms upon others and of robbing the Church oftentimes by that means There was a private Bill put in about the Duke of Somersets Estate which had been by Act of Parliament entailed on his Son in the 23d Year of the last Kings Reign A Repeal of the Entail of the Duke of Somersets Estate On the third of March it was sent to the House of Commons Signed by the King it was for the Repeal of that Act. Whether the King was so alienated from his Unkle that this extraordinary thing was done by him for the utter ruine of his Family or not I cannot determine but I rather incline to think it was done in hatred to the Dutchess of Somerset and her Issue For the Estate was entailed on them by that Act of Parliament in prejudice of the Issue of the former Marriage of whom are descended the Seimours of Devon-shire who were disinherited and excluded from the Duke of Somersets Honours by his Patents and from his Estate by Act of Parliament partly upon some jealousies he had of his former Wife but chiefly by the power his second Wife had over him This Bill of Repeal was much opposed in the House though sent to them in so unusual a way by the King himself And though there was on the 8th of March a Message sent from the Lords that they should make hast towards an end of the Parliament yet still they stuck long upon it looking on the breaking of Entails that were made by Act of Parliament as a thing of such consequence that it dissolved the greatest security that the Law of England gives for property It was long argued by the Commons and was fifteen several days brought in At last a new Bill was devised and that was much altered too it was not quite ended till the day before the Parliament was dissolved But near the end of the Session a Proviso was sent from the Lords to be added to the Bill confirming the Attainder of the Duke and his Complices It seems his Enemies would not try this at first till they had by other things measured their strength in that House and finding their interest grew there they adventured on it but they mistook their measures for the Commons would not agree to it In conclusion the Bill of Repeal was agreed to But whereas there had been some Writings for a Marriage between the Earl of Oxfords Daughter and the Duke of Somersets Son and a Bill was put in for voiding these upon a division of the House the 28th of March there were sixty eight that agreed and sixty nine that rejected it so this Bill was cast out By this we see what a thin House of Commons there was at that time the whole being but 137 Members But this was a natural effect of a long Parliament many of those who were at first chosen being infirm and others not willing to put themselves to the charge and trouble of such constant and long attendance It is also from hence clear how great an interest the Duke of Somerset had in the affections of the Parliament The Commons refuse to attaint the Bishop of Duresme by Bill Another Bill gave a more evident discovery how hateful the Duke of Northumberland was to them The Bishop of Duresme was upon some complaint brought against him of misprision of Treason put into the Tower about the end of December last year What the Particulars were I do not find but it was visible that the secret reason was that he being Attainted the Duke of Northumberland intended to have had the Dignities and Jurisdiction of that Principality conferred on himself so that he should have been made Count Palatine of Duresme Tonstall had in all Points given obedience to every Law and to all the Injunctions that had been made but had always in Parliament protested against the changes in
same Writer also informs us that in many places of the Country Men were chosen by Force and Threats in other places those imployed by the Court Great disorder in Elections did by violence hinder the Commons from coming to chuse in many places false Returns were made and that some were violently turned out of the House of Commons upon which reasons he concludes that it was no Parliament since it was under a Force and so might be annulled as the Parliament held at Coventry in the 38th year of King Henry the 6th was upon Evidence of the like Force declared afterwards to be no Parliament The Journals of the House of Lords in this Parliament are lost so there is no light to be had of their proceedings but from the imperfect Journals of the House of Commons On the second day of the Session one moved in the House of Commons for a review of King Edwards Laws But that being a while argued was at this time laid aside and the Bill for Tonnage and Poundage was put in Then followed a Debate upon Dr. Nowell's being returned from Loo in Cornwal whether he being a Prebendary of Westminster could sit in that House and the Committee being appointed to search fot Precedents it was reported that he being represented in the Convocation House could not be a Member of that House so he was cast out The Bill of Tonnage and Poundage was sent up to the Lords who sent it down to the Commons to be reformed in two proviso's that were not according to former Precedents How far this was contrary to the Rights of the Commons who now say that the Lords cannot alter a Bill of Money I am not able to determine The only publick Bill that passed in this short Session was for a Declaration of Treasons and Felonies An Act for moderating some severe Laws by which it was ordained that nothing should be judged Treason but what was within the Statute of Treasons in the twenty fifth of Edward the third and nothing should be so judged Felony that was not so before the 1st year of King Henry the eight excepting from any benefit of this Act all such as had been in Prison before the last of September who were also excepted out of the Qeens Pardon at her Coronation Two private Bills also passed the one for the restoring of the Wife of the late Marquess of Exeter who had been Attainted in the 32 year of King Henry's Reign and the other for her Son Edward Courtney Earl of Devonshire And so the Parliament was Prorogued from the 21 to the 24 of October that their might be a Session of Parliament consisting only of Acts of Mercy though this Repeal of additional Treasons and Felonies was not more than what had passed in the beginning of King Edwards Reign without the clogg of so severe a proviso by which many were cut off from the Favour designed by it Some have thought that since Treasons had been reduced by the second Act of Edward the 6th to the standard of the 25th of Edward the third that therefore there was somewhat else designed by this Act then barely the repealing some late severe Acts which being done the 1st of Edward 6th needed not be now repealed if it imported no more And since this Act as it is worded mentions or rather excepts those Treasons that are declared and expressed in the 25th of Edward the 3d they have inferred that the power of Parliaments declaring of Treasons ex Post facto which was reserved by that Statute is hereby taken away and that nothing is now to be held Treason but what is ennumerated in that Statute Yet this is still liable to Debate since the one may be thought to be declared and expressed in general words as well as the other specialties are in more particular words and is also still in force So nothing seems comprehended within this Repeal but the Acts passed in King Edwards Reign declaring other Crimes to be Treason some are added in the same Act and others in that of the 3d and 4th of his Reign chap. 5. Nor is it likely that if the Parliament had intended to have delivered the Subjects from the apprehensions of all Acts of Attainder upon a Declaration of new Treasons they would not have expressed it more plainly since it must have been very grateful to the Nation which had groaned heavily under Arbitrary Attainders of late years When the Parliament met again the first Bill the Commons entred on was that of Tonnage and Poundage which they passed in two days The Mariage of Queen Katherine to King Henry Confirmed Then was the Bill about King Henry's Marriage with the Queens Mother sent down on the 26th by the Lords and the Commons passed it no the 28th so strangly was the stream turned that a Divorce that had been for seven years much desired by the Nation was now repealed upon fewer days consultation In the Preamble it was said That truth how much soever obscured and born down will in the end break out and that therefore they declared that King Henry the 8th being lawfully married to Queen Katherine by the consent of both their Parents and the advice of the wisest Men in the Realm and of the best and notablest Men for learning in Christendom did continue that state twenty years in which God blessed them with her Majesty and other issue and a course of great happiness but then a very few malicious Persons did endeavour to break that happy agreement between them and studied to possess the King with a scruple in his Conscience about it and to support that caused the Seals of some Vniversities to be got against it a few Persons being corrupted with money for that end They had also by sinistrous ways and secret threatnings procured the Seals of the Vniversities of this Kingdom and finally Thomas Cranmer did most ungodlily and against Law judge the Divorce upon his own unadvised understanding of the Scriptures upon the Testimonies of the Vniversities and some bare and most untrue conjectures and that was afterwards confirmed by two Acts of Parliament in which was contained the Illegitimacy of her Majesty But that Marriage not being prohibited by the Law of God and lawfully made could not be so broken since what God hath joyned together no Man could put asunder all which they considering together with the many miseries that had fallen on the Kingdom since that time which they did esteem Plagues sent from God for it therefore they declare that Sentence given by Cranmer to be unlawful and of no force from the begining and do also repeal the Acts of Parliament that had confirmed it By this Act Gardiner had performed his Promise to the Queen of getting her Illegitimation taken off Which was much Censured without any relation to the Popes Authority But in the drawing of it he shewed that he was past all shame when he could frame such an Act of a
Transgressors of all Canons and Constitutions The Cardinal first declared what his Designs and Powers were to the King and Queen and then on the 27th a Message was sent to the Parliament to come and hear him deliver his Legation which they doing he made them a long Speech And makes a Speech to the Parliament inviting them to a Reconciliation with the Apostolick See from whence he was sent by the common Pastor of Christendom to reduce them who had long strayed from the Inclosure of tâ—â— Church This made some emotion in the Queen which she fondly thought was a Child quickned in her Belly this redoubled the Joy some not sparing to say The Queen is believed to be with Child that as John Baptist leaped in his Mothers Belly at the Salutation of the Virgin so here a happy Omen followed on this Salutation from Christ's Vicar In this her Women seeing that she firmly believed her self with Child flattered her so far that they fully persuaded her of it Notice was given of it to the Council who that night writ a Letter to Bonner about it ordering a Te Deum to be sung at St. Pauls and the other Churches of London and that Collects should be constantly used for bringing this to a happy perfection All that night and next day there was great joy about the Court and City On the 29th the Speaker reported to the Commons the substance of the Cardinal's Speech and a Message coming from the Lords for a Conference of some of their House with the Lord Chancellor four Earls four Bishops and four Lords to prepare a Supplication for their being reconciled to the See of Rome it was consented to and the Petition being agreed on at the Committee was reported and approved of by both Houses It contained an Address to the King and Queen EFFIGIES REGINALDI POLI CARDINALIS R White sculp Natus Anno 1500. Maij. cc Cardinalis S. Marioe in Cosmedin 1536. Maij 22 Consecr Archiepisc Cantuariensis 1555 6. Mar 22. Obijt 1558. Nov 17. Printed for Rich Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church yard That whereas they had been guilty of a most horrible Defection and Schism from the Apostolick See The Parliaments Petition to be reconciled to the See of Rome they did now sincerely repent of it and in sign of their Repentance were ready to repeal all the Laws made in prejudice of that See therefore since the King and Queen had been no way defiled by their Schism they pray them to be Intercessors with the Legat to grant them Absolution and to receive them again into the Bosom of the Church So this being presented by both Houses on their Knees to the King and Queen they made their Intercession with the Cardinal who thereupon delivered himself in a long Speech He thanked the Parliament for repealing the Act against him The Cardinal makes a long Speech and making him a Member of the Nation from which he was by that Act cut off In recompence of which he was now to reconcile them to the Body of the Church He told them The Apostolick See cherished Britain most tenderly as the first Nation that had publickly received the Christian Faith The Saxons vvere also afterwards converted by the means of that See and some of their King 's had been so devoted to it that Offa and others had gone to visit the Thresholds of the Apostles That Adrian the fourth an English Pope had given Ireland to the Crown of England and that many mutual Marks of reciprocal kindness had passed between that common Father of Christendom and our Kings their most beloved Sons but none more eminent than the bestowing on the late King the Title of Defender of the Faith He told them That in the Unity with that See consisted the happiness and strength of all Churches that since the Greeks had separated from them they had been abandoned by God and vvere now under the Yoke of Mahometans That the Distractions of Germany did further demonstrate this but most of all the Confusions themselves had felt ever since they had broken that Bond of Perfection That it vvas the Ambition and Craft of some who for their privat Ends began it to vvhich the rest did too submissively comply and that the Apostolick See might have proceeded against them for it by the assistance of other Princes but had stayed looking for that Day and for the Hand of Heaven He run out much on the commendation of the Queen and said God had signally preserved her to procure this great Blessing to the Church At last he enjoined them for Penance to repeal the Laws they had made and so in the Pope's Name And grants them Absolution he granted them a full Absolution vvhich they received on their Knees and he also absolved the vvhole Realm from all Censures The rest of the day vvas spent vvith great solemnity and triumph all that had been done vvas published next Sunday at Pauls There vvas a Committee appointed by both Houses to prepare the Statute of Repeal which vvas not finished before the 25th of December and then the Bishop of London only protesting against it because of a Proviso put in for the Lands which the Lord Wentworth had out of his Bishoprick it vvas agreed to and sent to the Commons They made more hast vvith it for they sent it back the 4th of January with a desire that twenty Lines in it vvhich concerned the See of London and the Lord Wentworth might be put out and two new Proviso's added One of their Proviso's vvas not liked by the Lords who drew a new one to vvhich the Viscount Montacute and the Bishops of London and Coventry dissented The twenty Lines of the Lord Wentworth's Proviso vvere not put out but the Lord Chancellor took a Knife and cut them out of the Parchment and said Now I do truly the Office of a Chancellor the word being ignorantly derived by some from Cancelling It is not mentioned in the Journal that this vvas done by the Order of the House but that must be supposed otherwise it cannot be thought the Parliament vvould have consented to so unlimited a Power in the Lord Chancellor as to raze or cut out Proviso's at his pleasure The Act of Repealing all Laws against that See By the Act is set forth their former Schism from the See of Rome and their Reconciliation to it now upon vvhich all Acts passed since the 20th of Henry the Eighth against that See were specially enumerated and repealed There it is said that for the removing of all Grudges that might arise they desired that the following Articles might through the Cardinal's Intercession be established by the Pope's Authority 1. That all Bishopricks Cathedrals or Colleges now established might be confirmed for ever 2. That Marriages made within such degrees as are not contrary to the Law of God but only to the Laws of the Church might be confirmed and the Issue
the Pope he could not answer them having sworn never to acknowledge that Authority What he had done at Pauls was at Bourn's earnest desire who prayed him for the Passion of Christ to speak to the People upon which he stepped up to the Pulpit and had almost been killed with the Dagger that was thrown at Bourn for it touched his Sleeve But in the points of Religion he professed his Faith so constantly that for that cause he was condemned Yet the saving of Bourn was so publickly known that it was thought undecent to proceed against him so quick as they did with the rest So both Heath Arch-Bishop of York and Day Bishop of Chichester Weston Harpsfield and the King's Confessor and Alphonsus a Castro went to see him and endeavoured to gain him but all to no purpose It looks very ill in Bourn that he never interposed for Bradford nor came once to visit him and as when Bradford was before the Council Bourn's Brother the Secretary was very sharp upon him so when he was brought to his Tryal Bourn himself then Bishop of Bath and Wells being present did not open his mouth for him though he appealed to him as to the business of the Tumult With Bradford one John Lease an Apprentice of nineteen years old was lead out to be burnt who was also condemned upon his answers to the Articles exhibited to him When they came to the Stake they both fell down and Prayed Then Bradford took a Fagot in his hands and kissed it and so likewise kissed the Stake expressing thereby the joy he had in his Sufferings and cried O England repent repent beware of Idolatry and false Antichrists But the Sheriff hindring him to speak any more he embraced his Fellow Sufferer and prayed him to be of good comfort for they should Sup with Christ that night His last words were Strait is the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth into eternal Life and few there be that find it Now the Persecution was carried on to other places Bonner stopping in it again But Thornton Suffragan of Dover Harpsfield Arch-Deacon of Canterbury and some others resolved likewise to shew their zeal This Thornton had from the first change made by King Henry been the most officious and forward in every turn and had been the first in this Reign that had set up the Mass at Canterbury He was much despised for it by Cardinal Pool but Pool could not hinder the fury of those men without drawing on himself the Pope's indignation The Pope was his professed and inveterate Enemy but knew not how to vent his hatred to him since he had done such an eminent service to the Church as the reconciling of England Gardiner understanding this sent secretly to Rome to give ill Characters of Pool which the ill-natured Pope was ready enough to receive Gardiner designed to be made a Cardinal and to get Pool recalled and himself made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Pope was resolved on the first occasion to take the Legatine power from Pool and give it to Gardiner but Pool was so much in the Queens favour that this required some time to bring it about This made Gardiner study to preserve Cranmer as long as he lived It seemed more reasonable to have begun with him who had indeed been the chief Author of the Reformation and promoter of that they called Heresie nor had Gardiner such kindness for him as to interpose on his account but he knew that as soon as he was burnt Pool would be presently invested in the See of Canterbury Therefore he suggested that if he could be any way brought off it would be the most effectual means possible to extirpate Heresie for if he who had so much set on these Doctrines did forsake them it would confound the whole Party and bring over at least all that were weak or staggering whereas on the other hand if he died resolutly for it his death would confirm them all very much This was a colour good enough to preserve him But why the See of Canterbury was not declared vacant since he was now pronounced an obstinate Heretick I do not so well apprehend whether there was any thing in the Pall or the latter inventions of the Canonists that made it necessary not to fill his See so long as he lived I know not Pool being in these circumstances durst neither offend those at Rome nor openly hinder the prosecution of Hereticks which it seems he would have done more steadily if it had not been for fear of the Popes taking thereby advantages against him who had before given out in the Conclave that he was a favourer of Heresie and therefore would the more easily be induced to believe any thing that might be written over to Rome to his prejudice Those that sat in Canterbury to judge the Hereticks had four Men brought before them two Priests Bland and Frankesh and Shiterden and Midleton two Laymen They were condemned upon their Answers to the Articles exhibited to them and burnt at Canterbury Some burnt at Canterbury the 25th of June and in July Margery Polley was burnt at Tunbridge on the like account who was the first Woman that suffered in this Reign Christopher Ward was Condemned with her and burnt in Darford On the 22d of July Dirick Carver was burnt at Lewis and on the 23d John Launder was burnt at Stoning They had been taken in London and brought before Bonner but he would not meddle with them and desired they might be sent to their own Ordinaries One of them being of Surrey was within Gardiners Jurisdiction who resolved to proceed no more against the Hereticks so he procured a Letter from the Council to Bonner requiring him to proceed against them who thereupon presently condemned them There were at this time several discoveries of Plottings in several Counties especially in Dorsetshire and Essex Pretended Plots and some put to the Torture to make Discovery but the nature of these Plots is not set down in the Council Books Some were taken and put in the Tower Two or three Privy Councellors were sent thither on the 9th of June with a Letter from the Council to the Lieutenant of the Tower to put them to the Torture according to their discretions yet nothing following upon this it is probable these were only surmises devised by the Clergy to set on the Council more severely against them whose Ruine they were contriving by all the ways they could think on There was also an outrage committed on two Friars Peyto and Elston who were Franciscans of the Observance They had spoken sharply against King Henry in the business of the Divorce and had fled beyond Sea on that account The Qâ— rebuilds the Franciscan's house at Greenwich therefore the Queen had sent for them and not only procured the Attainder that had passed against them to be repealed in the last Parliament but made Peyto her Confessor and being resolved to raise Religious
that would be too little if the Danes and Swedes which they were afraid of should joyn against them There was also great want of Ammunition and Ordnance of which they had lost vast quantities in Calais and Guisnes All this would rise to above 520000 l. and they doubted much whether the People would endure such Impositions who were now grown stubborn and talked very loosely So they did not see how they could possibly enter into any Action this Year One Reason among the rest was suggested by the Bishops they saw a War would oblige them to a greater moderation in their Proceedings at home they had not done their Work which they hoped a little more time would perfect whereas a slack'ning in that would raise the drooping Spirits of those whom they were now pursuing So they desired another Year to prosecute them in which time they hoped so to clear the Kingdom of them that with less danger they might engage in a War the Year after Nor did they think it would be easie to bring new raised Men to the hardships of so early a Campagne and they thought the French would certainly work so hard in repairing the breaches that they would be in a good condition to endure a strait and long Siege All this they wrote over to the King on the first of February as appears from their Letter which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 37. A Parliament is called The Parliament was opened on the 20th of January where the Convocation to be a good Example to the two Houses granted a Subsidy of eight Shillings in the Pound to be paid in four Years In the House of Peers the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem took their Places according to their Writs Tresham that had given great assistance to the Queen upon her first coming to the Crown was now made Prior. But how much was done towards the endowing of that House which had been formerly among the richest of England I do not know On the 24th of January the Lords sent a Message to the Commons desiring that the Speaker with ten or twelve of that House should meet with a Committeâ— of the Lords which being granted the Lords proposed that the Commons would consider of the defence of the Kingdom What was at first demanded does not appear but after several days arguing about it they agreed to give one Subsidy a Fifteenth and a Tenth and ordered the Speaker to let the Queen know what they had concluded who sent them her hearty Thanks for it Then Complaints being made of some French-men that were not Denizens it was carried that they should go out of the Kingdom and not return during the War The Abbot of Westminster finding the Revenues of his House were much impaired thought that if the old Priviledges of the Sanctuary were confirmed it would bring him in a good Revenue from those that fled to it so he pressed for an Act to confirm it He brought a great many ancient Grants of the Kings of England which the Queen had confirmed by her Letters Patents but they did not prevail with the House who proceeded no further in it In this Parliament the Procurers of wilful Murder were denied the Benefit of Clergy which was carried in the House of Lords by the greater number as it is in their Journals The Bishops did certainly oppose it though none of them entred their dissent Sir Ambrose and Sir Robert Dudley two Sons of the late Duke of Northumberland were restored in Blood The Countess of Sussex's Joynture was taken from her for her living in Adultery so publickly as was formerly mentioned In the end of the Session a Bill was put in for the confirming of the Queens Letters Patents It was designed chiefly for confirming the Religious Foundations she had made As this went through the House of Commons one Coxley said He did not approve such a general Confirmation of those she had given or might give lest this might be a colour for her to dispose of the Crown from the right Inheritors The House was much offended at this and expressed such dislike at the imagination that the Queen would alienate the Crown that they both shewed their esteem for the Queen and their resolution to have the Crown descend after her death to her Sister Coxley was made to withdraw and voted guilty of great irreverence to the Queen He asked pardon and desired it might be imputed to his youth yet he was kept in the Serjeants Hands till they had sent to the Queen to desire her to forgive his offence She sent them word that at their sute she forgave it but wished them to examine him from whence that motion sprung There is no more entred about it in the Journal so that it seems to have been let fall The Parliament was on the seventh of March prorogued to the seventh of November Soon after this the King of Sweden sent a Message secretly to the Lady Elizabeth The King of Sweden treats a Marriage with the Lady Elizabeth who was then at Hatfield to propose Marriage to her King Philip had once designed to marry her to the Duke of Savoy when he was in hope of Children by the Queen but that hope vanishing he broke it off and intended to reserve her for himself How far she entertained that motion I do not know but for this from Sweden she rejected it since it came not to her by the Queens direction But to that it was answered the King of Sweden would have them begin with her self judging that fit for him as he was a Gentleman and her good liking being obtained he would next as a King address himself to the Queen But she said as she was to entertain no such Propositions unless the Queen sent them to her so if she were left to her self she assured them she would not change her state of Life Upon this the Queen sent Sir Tho. Pope to her in April to let her know how well she approved of the Answer she had made to them but they had now delivered their Letters and made the Proposition to her in which she desired to know her mind She thanked the Queen for her favour to her but bade Pope tell her that there had been one or two noble Propositions made for her in her Brother King Edwards time and she had then desired to continue in the state she was in which of all others pleased her best and she thought there was no state of Life comparable to it She had never before heard of that King and she desired never to hear of that Motion more She would see his Messenger no more since he had presumed to come to her without the Queens leave Then Pope said he did believe if the Queen offered her some Honourable Marriage she would not be averse to it She answered What she might do afterwards she did not know but protested solemnly that as
on the Dead or cast the burthen of it wholly upon her Sister But she assured them if ever she married she would make such a Choice as should be to the satisfaction and good of her People She did not know what credit she might yet have with them but she knew well she deserved to have it for she was resolved never to deceive them Her People were to her in stead of Children and she reckoned her self married to them by her Coronation They would not want a Successor when she died and for her part she should be well contented that the Marble should tell Posterity HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN She took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her hearty thanks for the care the Commons had of her The Journals of the House of Lords are imperfect so that we find nothing in them of this matter yet it appears that they likewise had it before them for the Journals of the House of Commons have it marked that on the fifteenth of February there was a Message sent from the Lords desiring that a Committee of thirty Commoners might meet with twelve Lords to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen should marry The Committee was appointed to treat concerning it but it seems the Queen desired them to turn to other things that were more pressing for I find nothing after this entred in the Journals of this Parliament concerning it On the ninth of February the Lords past a Bill for the Recognizing of the Queens Title to the Crown They recognize her Title to the Crown It had been considered whether as Queen Mary had procured a former Repeal of her Mothers Divorce and of the Acts that passed upon it declaring her Illegitimate the like should be done now The Lord Keeper said The Crown purged all defects and it was needless to look back to a thing which would at least cast a reproach on her Father the enquiring into such things too anxiously would rather prejudice than advance her Title So he advised that there should be an Act passed in general words asserting the lawfulness of her descent and her Right to the Crown rather than any special Repeal Queen Mary and her Council were careless of King Henry's Honour but it became her rather to conceal than expose his Weakness This being thought both Wise and Pious Council the Act was conceived in general Words That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and of the Realm she was their lawful Queen and that she was rightly lineally and lawfully descended from the Royal Blood and that the Crown did without all doubt or ambiguity belong to her and the Heirs to be lawfully begotten of her Body after her and that they as representing the Three Estates of the Realm did declare and assert her Title which they would defend with their Lives and Fortunes This was thought to be very wise Council for if they had gone to repeal the Sentence of Divorce which passed upon her Mothers acknowledging a Precontract they must have set forth the force that was on her when she made that Confession and that as it was a great dishonour to her Father so it would have raised discourses likewise to her Mothers prejudice which must have rather weakned than strengthened her Title And as has been formerly observed this seems to be the true reason why in all her Reign there was no Apology printed for her Mother There was another Act passed for the restoring of her in Blood to her Mother by which she was qualified as a private Subject to succeed either to her Grand-fathers Estate or to any others by that Blood But for the matters of Religion the Commons began The Acts that were passed concerning Religion and on the fifteenth of February brought in a Bill for the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church On the 21st a Bill was read for annexing the Supremacy to the Crown again and on the 17th of March another Bill was brought in confirming the Laws made about Religion in King Edwards time and on the 21st another was brought in That the Queen should have the Nomination of the Bishops as it had been in King Edwards time The Bill for the Supremacy was past by the Lords on the 18th of March the Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute and the Bishops of London Winchester Worcester Landaffe Coventry and Litchfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting But afterwards the Commons annexed many other Bills to it as that about the Queens making Bishops not according to the Act made in King Edwards time but by the old way of Elections as it was Enacted in the 25th Year of her Fathers Reign with several Provisoes which passed in the House of Lords with the same dissent By it all the Acts past in the Reign of King Henry for the abolishing of the Popes Power are again revived and the Acts in Queen Maries time to the contrary are repealed There was also a Repeal of the Act made by her for proceeding against Hereticks They revived the Act made in the first Parliament of King Edward against those that spoke irreverently of the Sacrament and against private Masses and for Communion in both kinds And declared the Authority of Visiting Correcting and Reforming all things in the Church to be for ever annexed to the Crown which the Queen and her Successors might by her Letters Patents depute to any Persons to exercise in her Name All Bishops and other Ecclesiastieal Persons and all in any Civil Imployment were required to swear that they acknowledged the Queen to be the Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions that they renounced all Forreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and true Allegiance Whosoever should refuse to swear it was to forfeit any Office he had either in Church or State and to be from thenceforth disabled to hold any Imployment during Life And if within a Month after the end of that Session of Parliament any should either by discourse or in writing set forth the Authority of any Forreign Power or do any thing for the advancement of it they were to forfeit all their Goods and Chattels and if they had not Goods to the value of twenty Pounds they were to be Imprisoned a whole year and for the second offence they were to incur the Pains of a Praemunire and the third offence in that kind was made Treason To this a Proviso was added That such Persons as should be Commissioned by the Queen to Reform and Order Ecclesiastical Matters should judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so Judged by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or by any other General Council in which such Doctrines
had been left out in his second Liturgy as favouring the Corporal Presence too much and in stead of them these words were ordered to be used in the distribution of that Sacrament Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving and Drink this in remembrance that Christs Blood was shed for thee and be thankful They now joyned both these in one Some of the Collects were also a little altered and thus was the Book presented to the House But for the Book of Ordination it was not in express terms named in the Act which gave an occasion afterwards to question the lawfulness of the Ordinations made by that Book But by this Act the Book that was set out by King Edward and confirmed by Parliament in the fifth Year of his Reign was again authorized by Law and the Repeal of it in Queen Maries time was made void So the Book of Ordinations being in that Act added to the Book of Common-Prayer it was now legally in force again as was afterwards declared in Parliament upon a Question that was raised about it by Bonner The Bill that was put in on the 15th of February concerning the new Service being laid aside a new one was framed and sent up by the Commons on the 18th of April and debated in the House of Lords Debates about the Act of Ueiformity Heath made a long Speech against it rather Elegant than Learned He enlarged much on the several Changes which had been made in King Edward's time he said that both Cranmer and Ridley changed their Opinions in the matter of Christ's presence he called Ridley the most notably learned Man that was of that way These Changes he imputed to their departing from the Standard of the Catholick Church he complained much of the robbing of Churches the breaking of Images and the Stage-Plays made in mockery of the Catholick Religion Upon all these Reasons he was against the Bill The Bishop of Chester spake also to it He said the Bill was against both Faith and Charity that Points once defined were not to be brought again into question nor were Acts of Parliament Foundations for a Churches Belief he enlarged on the Antiquity of their Forms and said it was an insolent thing to pretend that our Fathers had lived in Ignorance The Prophets oftentimes directed the Israelites to ask of their Fathers Matters of Religion could not be understood by the Laity It was of great consequence to have their Faith well grounded Jeroboam made Israel to Sin when he set up a new way of Worship and not only the Orthodox but even the Arrian Emperours ordered that points of Faith should be examined in Councils Gallio by the light of Nature knew that a Civil Judge ought not to meddle with matters of Religion In the Service-Book that was then before them they had no Sacrifice for their Sins nor were they to adore Christ in the Host and for these reasons he could not agree to it but if any thought he spoke this because of his own concern or pittied him for what he might suffer by it he would say in the words of our Saviour Weep not for me Weep for your selves After him spake Fecknam Abbot of Westminster He proposed three Rules by which they should judge of Religion it 's Antiquity its constancy to it self the influence it had on the Civil Government he said the old Religion began in the time of King Lucius according to Gildas the Book now proposed was not used before the two last years of King Edward the one was always the same the other was changed every second year as appeared in the point of the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament there had been great Order and Obedience in Queen Maries Reign but now every where great Insolences were committed by the People with some very indecent Prophanations of the most holy things he recommended to them in St. Austines words the adhering to the Catholick Church the very name Catholick which Hereticks had not the confidence to assume shewed their Authority The Consent of the whole Church in all Ages with the perpetual Succession of Pastors in St. Peter's Chair ought to weigh more with them than a few new Preachers who had distracted both Germany and England of late Thus I have given the substance of their Speeches being all that I have seen of that side I have seen none at all on the other side tho it is not probable but some were made in defence of the Service as well as these were against it But upon this Occasion I shall set down the substance of the second Paper which the Reformed Divines had prepared on the second point for the Conference about the Authority of every particular Church to change or take away Ceremonies I do not put it in the Collection because I have not that which the Papists prepared in Opposition to it But the heads of this Paper were as followeth Arguments for the Changes made in the Service It is clear by the Epistles which St. Paul writ to the Corinthians and other Churches that every Church has Power in it self to order the Forms of their Worship and the administration of the Sacraments among them so as might best tend to Order Edification and Peace The like Power had also the seven Angels of the Churches to whom St. John writ And for the first three Ages there was no General Meeting of the Church in Synods but in those times the neighbouring Pastors and Bishops by mutual advice rather than Authority ordered their affairs and when Heresies sprung up they condemned them without staying for a General Determination of the whole Church There were also great differences among them in their Customs as about observing Lent and Easter Ceremonies grew too soon to a great number When Errors or Abuses appeared private Bishops reformed their own Diocesses So those who came in the room of Arrian Bishops even when that Heresie was spread over all the East and the See of Rome it self was defiled with it yet reformed their own Churches Ambrose finding the custom of Feasting in Churches on the Anniversaries of the Martyrs gave occasion to great Scandals took it away Even in Queen Maries time many of the old Superstitions of Pilgrimages and Reliques which had been abolish'd in King Henry's time were not then taken up again from which they argued that if some things might be altered why not more So that if there was good reason to make any Changes it could not be doubted but that as Hezekiah and Josiah had made by their own power so the Queen might make Reformations which were not so much the setting up of new things as the restoring of the state of Religion to what it was anciently which had been brought in by consent of Parliament and Convocation in King Edward's time The Rules they offer'd in this Paper about Ceremonies were that
never defame them so much to be seen to fear it And of what strength an Act of Parliament is the Realm was taught in the case of her that we called Queen Ann where all such as spake against her in the Parliament-House although they did it by special Commandment of the King and spake that was truth yet they were fain to have a Pardon because that speaking was against an Act of Parliament Did you never know or here tell of any Man that for doing that the King our late Soveraign Lord willed devised and required to be done He that took pains and was commanded to do it was fain to sue for his Pardon and such other also as were doers in it and I could tell who it were Sure there hath been such a Case and I have been present when it hath been reasoned That the doing against an Act of Parliament excuseth not a Man even from the Case of Treason although a Man did it by the King's Commandment You can tell this to your remembrance when you think further of it and when it cometh to your remembrance you will not be best content with your self I believe to have advised me to enter the breach of an Act of Parliament without surety of Pardon although the King command it and were such indeed as it were no matter to do it at all And thus I answer the Letters with worldly civil Reasons and take your Mind and Zeal towards me to be as tender as may be and yet you see that the following of your Advice might make me lose my Bishoprick by mine own Act which I am sure you would I should keep and so would I as might stand with my Truth and Honesty and none otherwise as knoweth God who send you heartily well to fare Number 14. The Conclusion of Gardiner's Letter to the Protector against the lawfulness of the Injunctions Cotton Libr. Vesp D. 18. VVHether the King may command against the Common Law or an Act of Parliament there is never a Judg or other Man in the Realm ought to know more by experience of that the Lawyers have said than I. First My Lord Cardinal had obtained his Legacy by our late Soveraign Lord's Request at Rome yet being it was against the Laws of the Realm the Judges censured the Offence of Premunire which Matter I bore away and take it for a Law of the Realm because the Lawyers said so but my Reason digested it not The Lawyers for the confirmation of their Doings brought in a Case of my Lord Typtest an Earl he was and learned in Civil Laws who being Chancellor because in execution of the King's Commission he offended the Laws of the Realm he suffered on Tower-Hill they brought in the Examples of many Judges that had Fines set on their Heads in like case for transgression of the Laws by the King's Commandment and this I learned in this Case Since that time being of the Council when many Proclamations were devised against the Carriers out of Corn when it came to punishing the Offenders the Judges would answer it might not be by the Laws because the Act of Parliament gave liberty Wheat being under a price Whereupon at the last followed the Act of Proclamations in the passing whereof were many large words When the Bishop of Exeter and his Chancellor were by one Body brought into a Premunire I reasoned with the Lord Audley then Chancellor so far as he bad me hold my peace for fear of entring a Premunire my self But I concluded that although I must take it as of their Authority that it is Common Law yet I could not see how a Man authorised by the King as since the King's Majesty hath taken upon him the Supremacy every Bishop is that Man could fall in a Premunire I reasoned once in the Parliament House where was free Speech without danger and there the Lord Audley Chancellor then to satisfie me because I was in some secret estimation as he knew Thou art a good Fellow Bishop quoth he look the Act of the Supremacy and there the King's doings be restrained to Spiritual Jurisdiction And in an other Act No Spiritual Law shall have place contrary to a Common Law or an Act of Parliament And if this were not quoth he the Bishops would enter in with the King and by means of his Supremacy order the Law as you listed but we will provide quoth he that the Premunire shall never go off your Heads This I bare away there and held my peace Since that time in a Case of Jewels I was fain with the Emperor's Ambassador Chapinius when he was here and in the Emperor's Court also to defend and maintain by Commandment that the King's Majesty was not above his Laws and therefore the Jeweller although he had the King's Bill signed yet it would not serve because it was not obtained after the Order of the Law in which Matter I was very much troubled Even this time twelve-month when I was in Commission with my Lord great Master and the Earl of Southampton for the altering of the Court of Augmentations there was my Lord Montague and other of the King 's Learned Council of whom I learned what the King might do against an Act of Parliament and what danger it was to them that medled It is fresh in my Memory and they can tell whether I say true or no and therefore being learned in so notable Causes I wrote in your absence therein as I had learned by hearing the Common Lawyers speak whose Judgments rule these Matters howsoever my reason can digest them When I wrote thereof the Matter was so reasonable as I have been learned by the Lawyers of the Realm that I trusted my Lords would have staied till your Graces return Number 15. A Letter from the Duke of Somerset to the Lady Mary in the beginning of King Edward's Reign Madam my humble Commendations to your Grace premised THese may be to signify unto the same Cotton Libr. Faustin C. 2. that I have received your Letters of the second of this present by Jane your Servant reknowledging my self thereby much bound unto your Grace nevertheless I am very sorry to perceive that your Grace should have or conceive any sinister or wrong Opinion in me and others which were by the King your late Father and our most gracious Master put in trust as Executors of his Will albeit the truth of our doings being known to your Grace as it seemeth by your said Letter not to be I trust there shall be no such fault found in us as in the same your Grace hath alleadged and for my part I know none of us that will willingly neglect the full execution of every Jot of his said Will as far as shall and may stand with the King our Master's Honour and Surety that now is otherwise I am sure that your Grace nor none other his Faithful Subjects would have it take place not doubting but our Doings and
Proceedings therein and in all things committed to our Charge shall be such as shall be able to answer the whole World both in honour and discharge of our Consciences And where your Grace writeth that the most part of the Realm through a naughty Liberty and Presumption are now brought into such a Division as if we Executors go not about to bring them to that stay that our late Master left them they will forsake all Obedience unless they have their own Will and Phantasies and then it must follow that the King shall not be well served and that all other Realms shall have us in an Obloquy and Derision and not without just cause Madam as these words written or spoken by you soundeth not well so can I not perswade my self that they have proceeded from the sincere mind of so vertuous and so wise a Lady but rather by the setting on and procurement of some uncharitable and malicious Persons of which sort there are too many in these days the more pity but yet we must not be so simple so to weigh and regard the Sayings of ill-disposed People and the Doings of other Realms and Countries as for that Report we should neglect our Duty to God and to our Soveraign Lord and Native Country for then we might be justly called evil Servants and Masters and thanks be given unto the Lord such hath been the King's Majesty's Proceedings our young Noble Master that now is that all his faithful Subjects have more cause to render their hearty thanks for the manifold Benefits shewed unto his Grace and to his People and Realm sithence the first day of his Reign until this hour than to be offended with it and thereby rather to judg and think that God who knoweth the Hearts of all Men is contented and pleased with his Ministers who seek nothing but the true Glory of God and the Surety of the King's Person with the Quietness and Wealth of his Subjects And where your Grace writeth also That there was a Godly Order and Quietness left by the King our late Master your Graces Father in this Realm at the time of his Death and that the Spiritualty and Temporalty of the whole Realm did not only without compulsion fully assent to his Doings and Proceedings specially in Matters of Religion but also in all kind of Talk whereof as your Grace wrote ye can partly be witness your self at which your Graces Sayings I do something marvel For if it may please you to call to your remembrance what great Labours Travels and Pains his Grace had before he could reform some of those stiff-necked Romanists or Papists yea and did not they cause his Subjects Rise and Rebel against him and constrained him to take the Sword in his hand not without danger to his Person and Realm Alas why should your Grace so shortly forget that great Outrage done by those Generations of Vipers unto his Noble Person only for God's Cause Did not some of the same ill kind also I mean that Romanist Sect as well with his own Realm as without conspire oftentimes his Death which was manifestly and oftentimes proved to the confusion of some of their privy Assisters Then was it not that all the Spiritualty nor yet the Temporalty did so fully assent to his Godly Orders as your Grace writeth of Did not his Grace also depart from this Life before he had fully finished such Orders as he minded to have established to all his People if death had not prevented him Is it not most true that no kind of Religion was perfected at his Death but left all uncertain most like to have brought us in Parties and Divisions if God had not only helpt us And doth your Grace think it convenient it should so remain God forbid What regret and sorrow our late Master had the time he saw he must depart for that he knew the Religion was not established as he purposed to have done I and others can be witness and testify and what he would have done further in it if he had lived a great many know and also I can testifie And doth your Grace who is learned and should know God's Word esteem true Religion and the knowledg of the Scriptures to be new-fangledness and fantasie For the Lord's sake turn the Leaf and look the other while upon the other side I mean with another Judgment which must pass by an humble Spirit through the Peace of the Living God who of his infinite Goodness and Mercy grant unto your Grace plenty thereof to the satisfying of your Soveraign and your most noble Hearts continual desire Number 16. Certain Petitions and Requests made by the Clergie of the Lower House of the Convocation to the most Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Grace and the residue of the Prelats of the Higher House for the furtherance of certain Articles following FIrst Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet That Ecclesiastical Laws may be made and established in this Realm by thirty two Persons or so many as shall please the King's Majesty to name and appoint according to the effect of a late Statute made in 35th Year of the most noble King and of most famous Memory King Henry the 8th So that all Judges Ecclesiastical proceeding after those Laws may be without danger and peril Also that according to the Ancient Custom of this Realm and the Tenour of the King 's Writ for the summoning of the Parliament which be now and ever have been directed to the Bishops of every Diocess the Clergy of the Lower House of the Convocation may be adjoined and associate with the Lower House of the Parliament or else That all such Statutes and Ordinances as shall be made concerning all Matters of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical may not pass without the sight and assent of the said Clergy Also that whereas by the Commandment of King Henry the 8th certain Prelats and learned Men were appointed to alter the Service in the Church and to devise other convenient and uniform Order therein Who according to the same Appointment did make certain Books as they be informed Their Request is That the said Books may be seen and perused by them for a better expedition of Divine Service to be set forth accordingly Also that Men being called to Spiritual Promotions or Benefices may have some Allowance for their necessary Living and other Charges to be sustained and born concerning the same Benefices in the first Year wherein they pay the first Fruits Whether the Clergy of the Convocation may liberally speak their Minds without danger of Statute or Law Number 17. A second Petition to the same purpose Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet WHere the Clergy in this present Convocation assembled have made humble suit unto the most Reverend Father in God my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the other Bishops That it may please them to be a Mean to the King's Majesty and Lord Protector 's Grace
that the said Clergy according to the Tenour of the King 's Writ and the Ancient Laws and Customs of this Noble Realm might have their Room and Place and be associated with the Commons in the Nether House of this present Parliament as Members of the Common-Wealth and the King 's most humble Subjects And if this may not be permitted and granted unto them that then no Statutes nor Laws concerning the Christian Religion or which shall concern especially the Persons Possessions Rooms Livings Jurisdictions Goods or Chattels of the said Clergy may pass nor be enacted the said Clergy not being made privy thereunto and their Answers and Reasons not heard The said Clergy do most humbly beseech an Answer and Declaration to be made unto them what the said most Reverend Father in God and all other the Bishops have done in this their humble Suit and Request to the end that the said Clergy if need be may chuse of themselves such able and discreet Persons which shall effectually follow the same Suit in the Name of them all And whereas in a Statute ordained and established by Authority of Parliament at Westminster in the 25th Year of the Reign of the most excellent Prince King Henry the 8th The Clergy of this Realm submitting themselves to the King's Highness did knowledg and confess according to the Truth That the Convocations of the same Clergy have been and ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and did promise farther in Verbo Sacerdotii that they never from thenceforth would presume to attempt alledg claim or put in use or enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances Provincials or other or by whatsoever other Name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the King 's most Royal Assent and License may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same And his Majesty to give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf upon pain of every one of the Clergy doing the contrary and being thereof Convict to suffer Imprisonment and make Fine at the King 's Will. And that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm which Statute is eft-soons renewed and established in the 27th Year of the Reign of the most noble King as by the Tenour of both Statutes more at large will appear The said Clergy being presently assembled in Convocation by Authority of the King 's Writ do desire that the King's Majesty's License in writing may be for them obtained and granted according to the effect of the said Statutes authorising them to attempt entreat and commune of such Matters and therein freely to give their Consents which otherwise they may not do upon pain and peril premised Also the said Clergy desireth that such Matters as concerneth Religion which be disputable may be quietly and in good order reasoned and disputed among them in this House whereby the Verities of such Matters shall the better appear and the Doubts being opened and resolutely discussed Men may be fully perswaded with the quietness of their Consciences and the time well spent Number 18. A Paper offered to Q. Elizabeth and afterwards to K. James concerning the Inferior Clergies being brought to the House of Commons Reasons to induce her Majesty that Deans Arch-Deacons and some other of her grave and wise Clergie may be admitted into the Lower House of Parliament 1. IN former Times when Causes Ecclesiastical were either not at all Ex M.S. Dr. Borlace or else very rarely treated of in that Assembly the Clergy were thought Men most meet to consult and determine of the Civil Affairs of this Realm 2. The Supream Authority in Church Causes is not newly granted but reunited and restored to the Crown and an Order is by Law already established how all Abuses in the Church are to be reformed so as no cause concerning Religion may be handled in that House without her Majesty's special leave but with the manifest impeaching of her Prerogative Royal and contempt of the said Order 3. If it shall please her Highness to give way to this Course that Church-Matters be there debated and in part concluded How much more necessary is it now than it was in former Times that some of the Clergy should be there present at the same * In the same Paper written over to be presented to K. James this Article is thus varied It is thought the Clergie falling into a Premunire and so not in the King's Protection it did afterwards please the King to pardon them but not to restore them So began this Separation as far forth as can be collected then the Wisdom of a great Politician meeting with the Ambition of as great a Prelat wrought the continuance of the said Separation under this pretence That it should be most for the Honour of him and his Clergie to be still by themselves in two Assemblies of Convocation answerable in proportion to the two Houses of Parliament There are many other inconsiderable Amendments made by Bishop Ravis 's own hand It doth not appear why they were excluded but as it is thought either the King offended with some of them did so grievously punish the whole Body or else the Ambition of one of them meeting with the subtilty of an undermining Politick did occasion this causeless Separation 5. They are yet to this day called by several Writs directed into their several Diocesses under the Great Seal to assist the Prince in that High Court of Parliament 6. Though the Clergy and the Universities be not the worst Members of this Common-Wealth yet in that respect they are of all other in worst condition for in that Assembly every Shire hath their Knights and every incorporate Town their Burgesses only the Clergy and the Universities are excluded 7. The Wisdom and Justice of this Realm doth intend That no Subject should be bound to that Law whereunto he himself after a sort hath not yielded his Consent but the Clergy and the Universities may now be concluded by Law without their Consent without their just Defence without their Privity 8. The many Motions made so prejudicial to the State and being of the Clergy and Universities followed now with so great eagerness in that House would then be utterly silenced or soon repressed with the sober and sufficient Answers of the Clergy present 9. It would much repair the Reputation and Credit of the Clergy which now is exposed to great contumely and contempt as generally abroad in this Land so particularly in that House And whoso is religious and wise may observe That the Contempt of the Clergy is the high way to Atheism and all Prophaneness Men are Flesh and not Spirit led by ordinary outward Means and not usually overwrought by extraordinary Inspirations and therefore do easily
what the Popes had sacrilegiously taken from them And now that we are upon the utter extirpation of Popery let us not retain this Relique of it And I pray God to inspire and direct His Majesty and His two Houses of Parliament effectually to remove this just and for ought I know only great scandal of our English Reformation A fifth Prejudice which seems to give ill impressions of our Reformation is that the Clergy have now no interest in the Consciences of the People nor any inspection into their manners but they are without yoke or restraint All the Ancient Canons for the publick Pennance of scandalous offenders are laid aside and our Clergy are so little admitted to know or direct the Lives and Manners of their Flocks that many will scarce bear a reproof patiently from them Our Ecclesiastical Courts are not in the Hands of the Bishops and their Clergy but put over to the Civilians where too often Fees are more strictly look'd after than the correction of Manners I hope there is not cause for so great a Cry but so it is these Courts are much complained of and publick vice and scandal is but little enquired after or punished Excommunication is become a kind of Secular Sentence and is hardly now considered as a Spiritual Censure being judged and given out by Lay-men and often upon Grounds which to speak moderately do not merit so severe and dreadful a Sentence There are besides this a great many other Abuses brought in in the worst Times and now purged out of some of the Churches of the Roman Communion which yet continue and are too much in use among us such as Pluralities Non-residencies and other things of that nature so that it may be said that some of the manifest corruptions of Popery where they are recommended by the advantages that accompany them are not yet throughly purged out notwithstanding all the noise we have made about Reformation in matters much more disputable and of far less consequence This whole Objection when all acknowledged as the greatest part of it cannot be denied amounts indeed to this that our Reformation is not yet arrived at that full perfection that is to be desired The want of publick Pennance and Penitentiary Canons is indeed a very great defect our Church does not deny it but acknowledges it in the Preface to the Office of Commination It was one of the greatest Glories of the Primitive Church that they were so governed that none of their number could sin openly without publick Censure and a long separation from the Holy Communion which they judged was defiled by a promiscuous admitting of all Persons to it Had they consulted the Arts of Policy they would not have held in Converts by so strict a way of proceeding lest their discontent might have driven them away at a time when to be a Christian was attended with so many discouragements that it might seem dangerous by so severe a Discipline to frighten the World out of their Communion But the Pastors of that time resolved to follow the Rules delivered them by the Apostles and trusted God with the success which answered and exceeded all their expectations for nothing convinced the World more of the truth of that Religion than to see those trusted with the care of Souls watch so effectually over their Manners that for some sins which in these loose Ages in which we live pass but for common effects of humane frailty Men were made to abstain from the Communion for many years and did cheerfully submit to such Rules as might be truly medicinal for curing those Diseases in their Minds But alas the Church-men of the latter Ages being once vested with this Authority to which the World submitted as long as it saw the good effects of it did soon learn to abuse it and to bring the People to a blind subjection to them It was one of the chief Arts by which the Papacy swelled to its height for Confessors in stead of bringing their Penitents to open Penance set up other things in the room of it pretending they could commute it and in the Name of God accept of one thing for another and they accepted of a Penitents going either to the Holy War or which was more Holy of the two to one of the Popes Wars against Hereticks or deposed Princes and gave full Pardons to those who thus engaged in their designs Afterwards when the Pope had no great occasion to kill Men or the People no great mind to be killed in his Service they accepted of Money as an Alms to God and so all publick Penance was laid down and Murder or Merchandise was set up in its room This being the state of things at the Keformation it is no wonder if the People could not be easily brought to submit to publick Pennance which had been for some Ages entirely laid aside and there was reason why they should not be forward to come under the Yoke of their Priests lest they should have raised upon that Foundation such a Tyrannical Dominion over them as others had formerly exercised This made some Reformed Churches beyond Sea bring in the Laity with them into their Courts which if they had done meerly as a good Expedient for removing the jealousie which the World then had of Ecclesiastical Tyranny there was no great Objection to have been made to it but they made the thing liable to very great exception when they pretended a Divine Institution for those Lay-Elders Here in England it is plain the Nation would not bear such Authority to be lodged with the Clergy at first but it will appear in the following Work that a Platform was made of an Ecclesiastical Discipline though the Bishops had no hope of reducing it into practise till the King should come to be of Age and pass a Law for the authorizing of it but he dying before this was effected it was not prosecuted with that zeal that the thing required in Queen Elizabeths time and then those who in their Exile were taken with the Models beyond Seas contending more to get it put in the method of other Churches than to have it set up in any other Form that contention begat such heat that it took Men off from this and many other excellent designs and whereas the Presbyters were found to have had anciently a share in the Government of the Churches as the Bishops Council and Assistants some of them that were of hot tempers demanding more than their share they were by the immoderate use of the Counterpoise kept out of any part of Ecclesiastical Discipline and all went into those Courts commonly called the Spiritual Courts without making distinction between those Causes of Testaments Marriages and such other sutes that require some learning in the Civil and Canon Law and the other Causes of the Censures of the Clergy and Laity which are of a more Spiritual Nature and ought indeed to be tried only by the Bishops and Clergy
Objection of great force from the Acts pass'd in the 21st Year of Richard the second 's Reign In the second Act of that Parliament it is said That it was first prayed by the Commons and that the Lords Spiritual and the Proctors of the Clergy did assent to it upon which the King by the assent of all the Lords and Commons did enact it The 12th Act of that Parliament was a Repeal of the whole Parliament that was held in the 11th Year of that Reign and concerning it it is expressed That the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Proctors of the Clergy and the Commons being severally examined did all agree to it From hence it appears that these Proctors were then not only a part of the Parliament but were a distinct Body of Men that did severally from all the rest deliver their Opinions It may seem strange that if they were then considered as a part of either House of Parliament this should be the only time in which they should be mentioned as bearing their share in the Legislative Power In a matter that is so perplexed and dark I shall presume to offer a Conjecture which will not appear perhaps improbable In the 129th Page of the former part I gave the Reasons that made me think the lower House of Convocation consisted at first only of the Proctors of the Clergy So that by the Proctors of the Clergy both in the Statute of Ireland and in those made by Richard the second is perhaps to be understood the lower House of Convocation and it is not unreasonable to think that upon so great an occasion as the annulling a whole Parliament to make it pass the better in an Age in which the People payed so blind a Submission to the Clergy the concurrence of the whole Representative of the Church might have been thought necessary It is generally believed that the whole Parliament sate together in one House before Edward the thirds time and then the Inferior Clergy were a part of that Body without question But when the Lords and Commons sate a-part the Clergy likewise sate in two Houses and granted Subsidies as well as the Temporalty It may pass for no unlikely conjecture that the Clause Premonentes was first put in the Bishops Writ for the summoning of the lower House of Convocation consisting of these Proctors and afterwards though there was a special Writ for the Convocation yet this might at first have been continued in the Bishops Writ by the neglect of a Clark and from thence be still used So that it seems to me most probable that the Proctors of the Clergy were both in England and Ireland the lower House of Convocation Now before the Submission which the Clergy made to King Henry as the Convocation gave the King great Subsidies so the whole business of Religion lay within their Sphere But after the Submission they were cut off from medling with it except as they were authorized by the King So that having now so little power left them it is no wonder they desired to be put in the state they had been in before the Convocation was separated from the Parliament or at least that Matters of Religion should not be determined till they had been consulted and had reported their Opinions and Reasons The Extreme of raising the Ecclesiastical Power too high in the Times of Popery had now produced another of depressing it too much For seldom is the Counterpoise so justly ballanced that Extremes are reduced to a well-tempered Mediocrity For the third Petition it was resolved that many Bishops and Divines should be sent to Windsor to labour in the Matter of the Church-Service But that required so much consideration that they could not enter on it during a Session of Parliament And for the fourth what Answer was given to it doth not appear On the 29th of November a Declaration was sent down from the Bishops concerning the Sacraments being to be received in both kinds To which Jo. Tyler the Prolocutor and several others set their Hands and being again brought before them it was agreed to by all without a contradictory Vote 64 being present among whom I find Polidore Virgil was one And on the 17th of December the Proposition concerning the Marriage of the Clergy was also sent to them and subscribed by 35 affirmatively and by 14 negatively so it was ordered that a Bill should be drawn concerning it I shall not here digress to give an account of what was alledged for or against this reserving that to its proper place when the thing was finally setled And this is all the account I could recover of this Convocation I have chiefly gathered it from some Notes and other Papers of the then Dr. Parker afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury which are carefully preserved with his other MSS. in Corpus Christi Colledge Library at Cambridge To which Library I had free access by the favour of the most learned Master Dr. Spencer with the other Worthy Fellows of that House and from thence I collected many remarkable things in this History The Parliament being brought to so good a Conclusion the Protector took out a new Commission in which all the Addition that is made to that Authority he formerly had is that in his absence he is empow'red to substitute another to whom he might delegate his Power The state of Affairs in Germany And thus this Year ended in England but as they were carrying on the Reformation here it was declining apace in Germany The Duke of Saxe and the Landgrave were this Year to command their Armies apart The Duke of Saxe kept within his own Country but having there unfortunately divided his Forces the Emperor overtook him near the Alb at Mulberg where the Emperors Soldiers crossing the River and pursuing him with great fury after some resistance in which he himself performed all that could be expected from so great a Captain was taken Prisoner 1547. Apr. 24. Duke of Saxe taken and his Country all possessed by Maurice who was now to be invested with the Electoral Dignity He bore his misfortunes with a greatness and equality of mind that is scarce to be parallel'd in History Neither could the insolence with which the Emperor treated him nor the fears of death to which he adjudged him nor that tedious imprisonment which he suffered so long ever shake or disorder a Mind that was raised so far above the inconstancies of Humane Affairs And though he was forced to submit to the hardest Conditions possible of renouncing his Dignity and Dominions some few Places being only reserved for his Family yet no Entreaties nor Fears could ever bring him to yield any thing in Matters of Religion He made the Bible his chief Companion and Comfort in his sharp Afflictions which he bore so as if he had been raised up to that end to let the World see how much he was above it It seemed unimitable and therefore engaged Thuanus with the other
Dutchess of Somerset should be so foolish as to think that she ought to have the precedence of the Queen Dowager Therefore I look upon this Story as a meer Fiction though it is probable enough there might upon some other accounts have been some Animosities between the two high-spirited Ladies which might have afterwards be thought to have occasioned their Husbands quarrel It is plain in the whole thread of this Affair that the Protector was at first very easie to be reconciled to his Brother and was only assaulted by him but bore the trouble he gave him with much patience for a great while though in the end seeing his factious temper was incurable he laid off Nature too much when he consented to his Execution Yet all along till then he had rather too much encouraged his Brother to go on by his readiness to be after every breach reconciled to him When the Protector was in Scotland the Admiral then began to act more avowedly and was making a Party for himself of which Paget took notice and charged him with it in plain terms He asked him why he would go about to reverse that which himself and others had consented to under their Hands Their Family was now so great that nothing but their mutual quarrelling could do them any prejudice But there would not be wanting officious Men to inflame them if they once divided among themselves and the Breaches among near Friends commonly turn to the most irreconcilable Quarrels Yet all was ineffectual for the Admiral was resolved to go on and either get himself advanced higher or to perish in the Attempt It was the knowledge of this which forced the Protector to return from Scotland so abruptly and disadvantageously for the securing of his Interest with the King on whom his Brothers Artifices had made some impression Whether there was any reconciliation made between them before the Parliament met is not certain But during the Session the Admiral got the King to write with his own Hand a Message to the House of Commons for the making of him the Governour of his Person and he intended to have gone with it to the House and had a Party there by whose means he was confident to have carried his business He dealt also with many of the Lords and Counsellors to assist him in it When this was known before he had gone with it to the House some were sent to him in his Brothers Name to see if they could prevail with him to proceed no further He refused to hearken to them and said That if he were cross'd in his attempt he would make this the blackest Parliament that ever was in England Upon that he was sent for by Order from the Council but refused to come Then they threatned him severely and told him the Kings Writing was nothing in Law but that he who had procured it was punishable for doing an Act of such a nature to the disturbance of the Government and for engaging the young King in it So they resolved to have sent him to the Tower and to have turned him out of all his Offices But he submitted himself to the Protector and Council and his Brother and he seemed to be perfectly reconciled Yet as the Protector had reason to have a watchful Eye over him so it was too soon visible that he had not laid down but only put off his high Projects till a fitter conjuncture For he began the next Christmas to deal Money again among the Kings Servants and was on all occasions infusing into the King a dislike of every thing that was done and did often perswade him to assume the Government himself But the sequel of this Quarrel proved fatal to him as shall be told in its proper place And thus ended the Year 1547. On the 8th of Jan. 1548. Jan. 8. next year Gardiner was brought before the Council Where it was told him that his former Offences being included in the Kings general Pardon he was thereupon discharged a grave admonition was given him to carry himself reverently and obediently and he was desired to declare whether he would receive the Injunctions and Homilies and the Doctrine to be set forth from time to time by the King and Clergy of the Realm He answered he would conform himself as the other Bishops did and only excepted to the Homily of Justification and desired four or five days to consider of it What he did at the end of that time does not appear from the Council-Book no farther mention being made of this matter for the Clerks of Council did not then enter every thing with that exactness that is since used He went home to his Diocess where there still appeared in his whole behaviour great malignity to Cranmer and to all motions for Reformation yet he gave such outward compliance that it was not easie to find any advantage against him especially now since the Councils great Power was so much abridged The Marquess of Northampton sues a Divorce for Adultery In the end of Jan. the Council made an Order concerning the Marquess of Northampton which will oblige me to look back a little for the clear account of it This Lord who was Brother to the Queen Dowager had married Anne Bourchier Daughter to the Earl of Essex the last of that Name But she being convicted of Adultery he was divorced from her which according to the Law of the Ecclesiastical Courts was only a separation from Bed and Board Upon which Divorce it was proposed in King Henry's time to consider what might be done in favour of the Innocent Person when the other was convicted of Adultery So in the beginning of King Edward's Reign on the 7th of May a Commission was granted to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Duresme and Rochester this was Holbeack who was not then translated to Lincoln to Dr. Ridley and six more ten in all of whom six were a Quorum to try whether the Lady Anne was not by the Word of God so lawfully divorced that she was no more his Wife and whether thereupon he might not marry another Wife This being a new Case and of great importance Cranmer resolved to examine it with his ordinary diligence and searched into the Opinions of the Fathers and Doctors Ex MSS. D. Stillingfleet so copiously that his Collections about it grew into a large Book the Original whereof I have perused the greatest part of it being either written or marked and interlined with his own Hand This required a longer time than the Marquess of Northampton could stay and therefore presuming on his great Power without waiting for Judgment he solemnly married Eliz. Daughter to Brooke Lord Cobham On the 28th of Jan. Information was brought to the Council of this which gave great scandal since his first Marriage stood yet firm in Law So he being put to answer for himself said he thought that by the Word of God he was discharged of his tie to
Religion which he thought he might with a good Conscience submit to and obey though he could not consent to them Only in the matter of the Corporal Presence he was still of the old Perswasion and writ about it But the Latine Stile of his Book is much better than the Divinity and Reasonings in it So what he would have done if he had been required to subscribe the Articles that were now agreed on did not appear for he was all this while Prisoner There was a constant good correspondence between Cranmer and him Though in many things they differed in opinion yet Tonstall was both a Man of candor and of great moderation which agreed so well with Cranmers temper that no wonder they lived always in good terms So when the Bill for Attainting him as guilty of Misprision of Treason was passed in the House of Lords on the 31st of March being put in on the 28th Cranmer spake so freely against it that the Duke of Northumberland and he were never after that in friendship together What his Arguments were I could not recover but when he could do no more he protested against it being seconded only by the Lord Stourton How it came to pass that the other Popish Lords and Bishops that protested against the other Acts of this Parliament did not joyn in this I cannot imagine unless it was that they were the less concerned for Tonstall because Cranmer had appeared to be so much his friend or were awed by their fear of offending the Duke of Northumberland But when the Bill was carried down to the Commons with the Evidences against him which were some Depositions that had been taken and brought to the Lords they who were resolved to condemn that practise for the future would not proceed upon it now So on the fifth of April they ordered the Privy-Counsellors of their House to move the Lords that his Accusers and he might be heard face to face and that not being done they went no further in the Bill By these Indications the Duke of Northumberland saw how little kindness the House of Commons had for him The Parliament is Dissolved The Parliament had now sate almost five years and being called by the Duke of Somerset his Friends had been generally chose to be of it So that it was no wonder if upon his Fall they were not easie to those who had destroyed him nor was there any motion made for their giving the King a Supply Therefore the Duke of Northumberland thought it necessary for his Interest to call a new Parliament And accordingly on the 15th of April the Parliament was dissolved and it was resolved to spend this Summer in making Friends all over England and to have a new Parliament in the opening of the next Year The Convocation at this time agreed to the Articles of Religion that were prepared the last Year which though they have been often printed yet since they are but short and of so great consequence to this History I have put them into the Collection as was formerly told Thus the Reformation of Doctrine and Worship were brought to their perfection and were not after this in a tittle mended or altered in this Reign nor much afterwards only some of the Articles were put in more general words under Queen Elizabeth Another part of the Reformation was yet unfinished A Reformation of Ecclesiastical Courts considered and it was the chief work of this year that was the giving Rules to the Ecclesiastical Courts and for all things relating to the Government of the Church and the exercise of the several Functions in it In the former Volume it was told that an Act had passed for this effect yet it had not taken effect but a Commission was made upon it and these appointed by King Henry had met and consulted about it and had made some progress in it as appears by an Original Letter of Cranmers to that King in the Year 1545. in which he speaks of it as a thing then almost forgotten and quite lâ—id aside for from the time of the six Articles till then the design of the Reformation had been going backward At that time the King began to re-assume the thoughts of it and was resolved to remove some Ceremonies such as the creeping to the Cross the ringing of Bells on St. Andrews Eve with other superstitious Practises for which Cranmer sent him the draught of a Letter to be written in the Kings Name to the two Arch-bishops and to be by them communicated to the rest of the Clergy In the Postscript of his Letter he complains much of the sacrilegious wast of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury where the Dean and Prebendaries had been made to alienate many of their Mannours upon Letters obtained by Courtiers from the King as if the Lands had been desired for the Kings use upon which they had surrendred those Lands which were thereupon disposed of to the Courtiers that had an Eye upon them This Letter should have come in in the former Volume but I had not seen it then so I took hold on this Occasion to direct the Reader to it in the Collection Collection Number 61. It was also formerly told that an Act had passed in this Reign to empower thirty two Persons who should be named by the King to make a Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws which was to be finished within three years But the revolutions of Affairs and the other more pressing things that were still uncompleated had kept them hitherto from setting to that work On the first of November last year a Commission was given to eight Persons to prepare the matter for the review of the two and thirty that so it might be more easily compiled being in a few hands than could well be done if so many had been to set about it These eight were the Arch bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely Dr. Cox and Peter Martyr two Divines Dr. May and Dr. Taylor two Doctors of the Law and John Lucas and Richard Goodrick two Common Lawyers But on the 14th of November the Commission was renewed and the Bishop of London was named in the room of the Bishop of Ely one Traheron in the room of May and Gosnald in Goodrick's room These it seems desiring more time than one year to finish it in for two of the years were now lapsed in the last Session of the Parliament they had three years more time offered them But it seems the Work was believed to be in such a forwardness that this continuation was not judged necessary for the Royal Assent was not given to that Act. After the Parliament was ended they made hast with it But I find it said in the Preface to the Book as it was printed in Queen Elizabeths Reign that Cranmer did the whole Work almost himself which will justifie the Character some give of him that he was the greatest Canonist then in England Dr. Haddon that was
were to exercise the Episcopal Function in their Diocess and were once to visit their whole Province and to oversee the Bishops to admonish them for what was amiss and to receive and judge Appeals to call Provincial Synods upon any great occasion having obtained Warrant from the King for it Every Bishop was to have a Synod of his Clergy some time in Lent so that they might all return home before Palm-Sunday They were to begin with the Letany a Sermon and a Communion then all were to withdraw into some private place where they were to give the Bishop an account of the state of the Diocess and to consult of what required advice every Priest was to deliver his opinion and the Bishop was to deliver his Sentence and to bring matters to as speedy a Conclusion as might be and all were to submit to him or to appeal to the Arch-bishop The 21st 22d 23d 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th and 29th Titles are about Church-wardens Universities Tithes Visitations Testaments Ecclesiastical Censures Suspension Sequestration Deprivation The 30th is about Excommunication of which as being the chief Ecclesiastical Censure I shall set down their Scheme the more fully Excommunication they reckon an Authority given of God to the Church for removing scandalous or corrupt Persons Their design concerning the use of Excommunication from the use of the Sacraments or fellowship of Christians till they give clear signs of their repentance and submit to such Spiritual punishments by which the Flesh may be subdued and the Spirit saved This was trusted to Church-men but chiefly to Arch-bishops Bishops Arch-deacons Deans and any other appointed for it by the Church None ought to be excommunicated but for their obstinacy in great faults but it was never to be gone about rashly and therefore the Judge who was to give it was to have a Justice of Peace with him and the Minister of the Parish where the Party lived with two or three learned Presbyters in whose Presence the matter was to be examined and Sentence pronounced which was to be put in writing It was to be intimated in the Parish where the Party lived and in the neighbouring Parishes that all Persons might be warned to avoid the company of him that was under Excommunication and the Minister was to declare what the nature and consequences of Exmunication were the Person so censured being cut off from the Body of Christ after that none was to eat or drink or keep company with him but those of his own Family whosoever did otherwise if being admonished they continued in it were also to be Excommunicated If the Person censured continued forty days without expressing any repentance it was to be certified into the Chancery and a Writ was to issue for taking and keeping him in Prison till he should become sensible of his offences and when he did confess these and submitted to such punishments as should be enjoyned the Sentence was to be taken off and the Person publickly reconciled to the Church And this was to take place against those who being condemned for capital Offences obtained the Kings Pardon but were notwithstanding to be subject to Church-censures Then follows the Office of receiving Penitents They were first to stand without the Church and desire to be again received into it and so to be brought in the Minister was to declare to the People the hainousness of sin and the mercies of God in the Gospel in a long Discourse of which the Form is there prescribed Then he was to shew the People that as they were to abhor hard'ned sinners so they were to receive with the Bowels of true Charity all sincere Penitents he was next to warn the Person not to mock God and deceive the People by a feigned Confession he was thereupon to repeat first a general Confession and then more particularly to name his sin and to pray to God for mercy to himself and that none by his ill example might be defiled and finally to beseech them all to forgive him and to receive him again into their Fellowship Then the Minister was to ask the People whether they would grant his desires who were to answer they would Then the Pastor was to lay his Hand on his Head and to absolve him from the punishment of his offences and the bond of Excommunication and so to restore him to his place in the Church of God Then he was to lead him to the Communion-Table and there to offer up a Prayer of Thanks-giving to God for reclaiming that sinner For the other Titles they relate to the other parts of the Law of those Courts for which I refer the Reader to the Book it self How far any of those things chiefly the last about Excommunication may be yet brought into the Church I leave to the Consultations of the Governors of it and of the two Houses of Parliament It cannot be denied that Vice and Immorality together with much impiety have over-run the Nation and though the charge of this is commonly cast on the Clergy who certainly have been in too many places wanting to their duty yet on the other hand they have so little power or none at all by Law to censure even the most publick sins that the blame of this great defect ought to lie more universally on the whole Body of the Nation that have not made effectual provision for the restraining of vice the making ill Men ashamed of their ways and the driving them from the Holy Mysteries till they change their course of Life A Project for relieving the Clergy reduced to great Poverty There was another thing proposed this Year for the correcting the great disorders of Clergy-men which were occasioned by the extream misery and poverty to which they were reduced There were some motions made about it in Parliament but they took not effect so one writ a Book concerning it which he dedicated to the Lord Chancellor then the Bishop of Ely He shewed that without Rewards or Encouragements few would apply themselves to the Pastoral Function and that those in it if they could not subsist by it must turn to other employments so that at that time many Clergy-men were Carpenters and Taylors and some kept Ale-houses It was a reproach on the Nation that there had been so profuse a zeal for superstition and so much coldness in true Religion He complains of many of the Clergy who did not maintain Students at the Universities according to the Kings Injunctions and that in Schools and Colledges the poor Scholars Places were generally filled with the Sons of the Rich and that Livings were most scandalously sold and the greatest part of the Country-Clergy were so ignorant that they could do little more than read But there was no hope of doing any thing effectually for redressing so great a calamity till the King should be of Age himself to set forward such Laws as might again recover a competent maintenance for the Clergy This Year both
the Emperor conceive at last a jealousie of him and he writ for him to come and clear himself Then he refined it higher for having left Orders with the Officers whom he had made sure to him to follow with the Army in all the hast they could he himself took Post with as small a Train as his Dignity could admit of and carried one of those corrupted Secretaries with him but on the way he complained of pains in his side so that he could not hold on his Journey but sent forward his Secretary who gave such an account of him that it together with his coming so readily a great part of his way in so secure a manner made the Emperor now lay down all his former distrusts The Emperor writ to Trent and to many other Places that there was no cause of fear from Maurice And Maurice to colour the matter more compleatly had sent his Ambassadors to Trent and had ordered Melancthon and his other Divines to follow them slowly that as soon as the safe Conduct was obtained they might go on and defend their Doctrine Upon their coming to Trent and proposing their desires Proceedings at Trent that all might be again considered the Legates rejected the Proposition with much scorn The Emperors Ambassadors and Prelates pressed that they might be well received The Arch-bishop of Toledo shew'd how much Christ had born with the Scribes and Pharisees and that in imitation of him they ought to leave nothing undone that might gain upon them So it was resolved that the Council should make a Protestation that the usage they gave them was out of Charity which is above all Law since it was against the Decretals to have any Treaty with professed Hereticks At the same time the Imperialists dealt no less earnestly with the Ambassadors from the Protestant Princes not to ask too much at once but to go on by degrees and assured them they had a mind to lessen the Popes greatness as much as they had The Ambassadors first step was to be for obtaining a safe Conduct They excepted to that which the Council had given as different from that the Council of Basil had sent to the Bohemians in four material Points The first was That their Divines should have a decisive Voice 2. That all Points should be determined according to the Scriptures and according to the Fathers as they were conformable to those The third That they should have the exercise of their Religion within their own Houses 4. That nothing should be done in contempt of their Doctrine So they desired that the safe Conduct might be word for word the same with that of Basil But the Legates abhorred the Name of that Council that had endeavoured so much to break the Power of the Popedom and had consented to that extraordinary safe Conduct only to unite Germany and to gain them by such compliance to be of their side against the Pope Yet the Legates promised to consider of it The Ambassadors were received in a Congregation which differed from a Session of the Council just as a Committee of a whole House of Parliament differs from the House when set according to its Forms They began their Speech with this Salutation Most Reverend and most Mighty Fathers and Lords they added a cold Complement and desired a safe Conduct At this time the Pope hearing that the Emperor was resolved to bring on the old designs of some Councils for lessening his greatness and that the Spanish Bishops were much set on it united himself to France and resolved to break the Council as soon as it was possible and therefore he ordered the Legates to proceed in the decision of the Doctrine hoping that the Protestants would despair of obtaining any thing and so go away So the safe Conduct they had desired was not granted them and another was offered in its room containing only full security for their Persons Upon this security such as it was Divines came both from Wirtenberg and the Town of Strasburg But as they were going on to treat of Matrimony the War of Germany broke out and the Bishops of the Empire with the other Ambassadors immediately went home The Legates laid hold on this so readily that though the Session was to have been held on the second of May they called an extraordinary one on the 28th of April and suspended the Council for two years An Account of the Council of Trent And being to have no other occasion to say any thing more of this Council I shall only add that there had been a great expectation over Christendome of some considerable event of a General Council for many years The Bishops and Princes had much desired it hoping it might have brought the differences among Divines to a happy composure and have setled a Reformation of those abuses which had been long complained of and were still kept up by the Court of Rome for the ends of that Principality that they had assumed in Sacred things The Popes for the same reasons were very apprehensive of it fearing that it might have lessened their Prerogatives and by cutting off abuses that brought in a great Revenue to them have abridged their Profits But it was by the cunning of the Legates the dissensions of Princes the great number of poor Italian Bishops and the ignorance of the greatest part of the other so managed that in stead of composing differences in Religion things were so nicely defined that they were made irreconcilable All those abuses for which there had been nothing but practise and that much questioned before were now by the Proviso's and Reservations excepted for the Priviledges of the Roman See made warrantable So that it had in all Particulars an Issue quite contrary to what the several Parties concerned had expected from it and has put the World ever since out of the humour of desiring any more General Councils as they are accustomed to call them The History of that Council was writ with as much Life and Beauty and Authority as had been ever seen in any humane Writing by Frier Paul of Venice within half an Age of the time in which it was ended when the thing was yet fresh in Mens Memories and many were alive who had been present and there was not one in that Age that engaged to write against it And a Judgment of the Histories of it But about forty years after when Father Paul and all his friends who knew from what Vouchers he writ were dead Pallavicini a Jesuit who was made a Cardinal for this Service undertook to answer him by another History of that Council which in many matters of Fact contradicts Father Paul upon the credit as he tells us of some Journals and Memorials of such as were present which he perused and cites upon all occasions We see that Rome hath been in all Ages so good at forging those things which might be of use to its Interests that we know not how to
were yet in a State of Schism and Schismaticks have no right to the Sacraments the Pope's Interdict still lay on the Nation and till that were taken off none could without Sin either administer or receive them He told her that Commendone had said nothing in her Name to the Consistory but had spoken to them only on the Reports which he said he had heard of her from good hands and it was necessary to say somewhat in order to the sending a Legate That many in the Consistory had opposed the sending of him because there was no express Desire sent about it but it was carried that he should come over with very full Graces and Power to reconcile the Kingdom on very easy Terms He also told her he was afraid that when the Pope and Cardinals should hear that he was stopp'd they would repent their Benignity and take this as an Affront and recall him and his Powers and send another that would not be so tender of the Nation or bring with him such full Powers That to prevent this he had sent one to the Pope and Cardinals to mitigate their displeasure by letting them know he was only stopp'd for a little while till the Act of Atttainder that stood against him was repealed and to make a shew of going forward he had sent his Houshold-Stuff to Flanders but would stay where he was till he had further Orders He said he knew this flowed chiefly from the Emperor who was for using such Political Courses as himself had followed in the Business of the Interim and was earnest to have the State setled before she meddled with Religion he had spoke with his Confessor about it and had convinced him of the Impiety of such Courses and sent him to work on him He also told the Queen he was afraid carnal Policy might govern her too much and that she might thereby fall from her simplicity in Christ in which she had hitherto lived He encouraged her therefore to put on a Spirit of Wisdom and Courage and to trust in God who had preserved her so long and had setled her on the Throne in so unlook'd for a manner He desired she would shew as much Courage in rejecting the Supremacy as her Father had done in acquiring it He confessed he knew none in either House of Parliament fit to propose that matter the Spiritualty had all complied so far had written and declared for it so much that it could not flow from them decently and the Temporalty being possessed of the Church Lands would not willingly move it therefore he thought it best for her self to go to the Parliament having before-hand acquainted some few both of the Spiritualty and Temporalty with her Design and that she should tell both Houses she was touched in her Conscience that she and her People were in a Schism from the Catholick-Church and the Apostolick See and that therefore she had desired a Legate to come over to Treat about it and should thereupon propose that the Attainder might be taken off from him that he might be capable to come on that Message And he protested that he had never acted against the King or Kingdom but only with design to reduce them to the Unity of the Church neither before nor after the Attainder and whereas some might apprehend a thraldom from the Papacy she might give them assurance that they should see all things so well secured that there should no danger come to the Nation from it and he assured them that he for his part should take as much care of that as any of all the Temporalty could desire What Recomendations he sent for the Sees that were to be declared vacant I do not know When this Dispatch of his was brought into England Gardiner But Gardiners methods are preferred to him by the assistance of the Emperor convinced the Queen that his method was unpracticable and that the Marriage must be first dispatched and now Gardiner and he did declare open Enmity to one another Gardiner thought him a weak man that might have some speculative knowledge of abstracted Ideas but understood not the World nor the genious of the English Nation Pool on the other hand thought him a false Man that made Conscience of nothing and was better at Intrigues and Dissimulation than the Government of the Church But the Emperor saw Gardiner had so prudently managed this Parliament that he concluded his measures were rather to be followed than the Cardinals In the House of Commons it was given out that it was necessary to gain the Queen to the Interest of the Nation and to turn her from forreign Councils and Aid by being easy to her in the matter of Religion and therefore they were ready both to repeal the Divorce The House of Commons displeased with the Marriage with Spain and King Edwards Laws But when they saw the design of the Marriage and uniting with Rome was still carried on they were all much allarm'd so they sent their Speaker and twenty of their House with him with an earnest and humble Address to her not to marry a Stranger This had so inflamed the House that the Court saw more could not be expected from them unless they were satisfied in that point So on the 6th of December the Parliament was dissolved The Parliament is dissolved Upon that Gardiner sent to the Emperor to let him know that the Marriage was like to meet with such opposition that unless extraordinary Conditions were offered which all should see were much to the advantage of the English Crown it could not be carried without a general Rebellion He also assured him that if great sums of money were not sent over to gratifie the chief Nobility and leading men in the Country both for obliging them to his Interest and enabling them to carry Elections for the next Parliament the opposition would be such that the Queen must lay down all thoughts of marrying his Son Upon this the Emperor and his Son resolved to offer what Conditions the English would demand for Philip reckoned if he once had the Crown on his Head it would be easie for him with the assistance which his other Dominions might give him to make all these signifie little And for Money the Emperor borrowed twelve hundred thousand Crowns which in English Money was four hundred thousand pounds for the Crown was then a Noble and promised to send it over to be distributed as Gardiner and his Embassadors should think fit 1200000 Crowns sent into England to procure the consent of the Nation to the Marriage but made his Son bind himself to repay him that sum when he had once attained the Crown of England And this the Emperour made so little a secret that when a year after some Towns in Germany that had lent a part of this money desired to be repaid he answered them that he had lent his Son 1200000 Crowns to marry him to the Queen of England and
Recorder of London told the Earl of Leicester the secret of this in Queen Elizabeth's Time who writ down his Discourse and from thence I have copied it There was one that had been Cromwell's Servant and much employed by him in the suppression of Monasteries he was a Man of great Notions but very busy and factious so having been a great stickler for the Lady Jane he was put in the Fleet upon the Queen's first coming to the Crown yet within a month he was discharged but upon the last Rising was again put up and indicted of High Treason He had great Friends and made application to one of the Emperor's Ambassadors that was then the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Milan and by his means he obtained his Liberty Being brought to him he shewed him a new Plat-form of Government which he had contrived for the Queen She was to declare her self a Conqueror or that she having succeeded to the Crown by Common Law was not at all to be limited by the Statute Laws since those were only restrictions upon the Kings but not on the Queens of England and that therefore all those Limitations of the Prerogative were only binding in the Persons of Kings but she was free from them Upon this he shewed how she might establish Religion set up the Monasteries raise her Friends and ruin her Enemies and Rule according to her Pleasure The Ambassador carried this to the Queen and seemed much pleased with it but desired her to read it carefully and keep it as a great Secret As she read it she disliked it and judged it contrary to the Oath she had made at her Coronation and thereupon sent for Gardiner and charged him as he would answer before the Judgment-Seat of God at the general Day of the Holy Doom that he would consider the Book carefully and bring her his Opinion of it next day which fell to be Maundy Thursday So as the Queen came from her Maundy he waited on her into her Closet and said these words My good and most gracious Lady I intend not to pray your Highness with any humble Petitions to name the Devisers of this new invented Plat-form but here I say That it is pity that so noble and vertuous a Lady should be endangered with the pernicious Devices of such lewd and subtil Sycophants for the Book is naught and most horrible to be thought on Upon this the Queen thanked him and threw the Book into the Fire and charged the Ambassador that neither he nor any of his Company should receive more such Projects from any of her People This made Gardiner apprehended that if the Spaniards began so soon to put such Notions into the Queen's Head they might afterwards when she was in their Hands make somewhat of them and therefore to prevent such Designs for the future he drew the Act in which though he seemed to do it as an Advantage to the Queen for the putting of her Title beyond dispute yet he really intended nothing by it but that she should be restrained by all those Laws that the former Kings of England had consented to And because King Henry the Seventh though his best right to the Crown flowed from his Marriage to the Heir of the House of York had yet taken the Government wholly into his own hands he fearing lest the Spaniards should pretend to such a Power by the Authority which Marriage gives the Husband over the Wife got the Articles of the Marriage to be ratified in Parliament by which they not only confirmed those agreed on but made a more full explanation of that part of them which declared the entire Government of the Kingdom to belong only to the Queen To this the Spaniards gave too great an occasion Great Jealousies of the Spanish Power by publishing King Philip's Pedigree whom they derived from John of Gaunt They said this was only done to conciliate the favour of the Nation by representing him not a stranger but a Native But this gave great offence concerning which I have seen a little Book that vvas then printed It was there said That King Henry the Seventh came in pretending only to marry the Heir of the House of York But he was no sooner on the Throne than he declared his own Title and kept it his whole Life So it vvas said the Spaniard vvould call himself Heir of the House of Lancaster and upon that Pretension would easily wrest the Power out of the Queen's hands who seemed to mind nothing but her Devotions This made Gardiner look the better to the securing of the Liberties of the Crown and Nation so that it must be acknowledged that the preserving of England out of the hands of the Spaniards at that time seems to be almost vvholly owing to him In this Parliament the Marquess of Northampton vvas restored in Blood And the Act for restoring the Bishoprick of Duresm The Bishoprick of Duresm restored not having gone through the last Parliament vvhen it vvas dissolved vvas now brought in again The Town of Newcastle opposed it much vvhen it came down to the Commons But the Bishop of Duresm came to them on the 18th of April and gave them a long account of all his Troubles from the Duke of Northumberland and desired that they would dispatch his Bill There vvere many Proviso's put into it for some that vvere concerned in Gateside but it vvas carried in the House That instead of these Proviso's they should send a Desire to him recommending those Persons to his Favour So upon a Division there vvere 120 against it and 201 for it After this came the Bill confirming the Attainders of the Duke of Suffolk and fifty eight more vvho vvere attainted for the late Rebellion The Lords put in a Proviso excepting Entailed Lands out of their Forfeitures but the Commons rejected the Proviso and passed the Bill Then did the Commons send up a Bill for reviving the Statutes made against Lollardy vvhich being read twice by the Lords vvas laid aside The Commons intended next to have revived the Statute of the Six Articles but it did not agree vvith the Design at Court to take any notice of King Henry's Acts so this vvas let fall Then they brought in another Bill to extirpate Erroneous Opinions and Books but that vvas at the third reading laid aside After that they passed a particular Bill against Lollardy in some Points as the eating of flesh in Lent but that also being sent up to the Lords was at the third reading laid aside by the major part of the House so forward were the Commons to please the Queen or such Operation had the Spanish Gold on them that they contrived four Bills in one Session for the prosecution of those they called Hereticks But to give some content on the other hand they passed a Bill that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any other should have any Power to Convene or trouble any for possessing Abbey Lands This was sent up to
Ridley and Latimer could send to one another yet it was not easy for them to send to him without giving Mony to their Keepers In one of Ridley's Letters to Cranmer he said he heard they intended to carry down Rogers Crome and Bradford to Cambridg and to make such a Triumph there as he had lately made of them at Oxford He trusted the day of their deliverance out of all their Miseries and of their entrance into perpetual Rest and perpetual Joy and Felicity drew nigh He prayed God to strengthen them with the mighty Spirit of his Grace He desired Cranmer to pray for him as he also did for Cranmer As for the Letters which these and the other Prisoners writ in their Imprisonment Fox gathered the Originals from all People that had them and Sir Walter Mildmay the Founder of Emanuel College procured them from him and put them into the Library of that College where I saw them but they are all printed by Fox so that the Reader who desires to see them may find them in his Acts and Monuments Of them all Ridley writ with the greatest connexion and force both in the Matter and in the way of Expression The Prisoners in London set out in writing their Reasons against disputing by word of mouth This being now over there was great boasting among all the Popish Party as if the Champions of the Reformation had been foiled The Prisoners in London hearing they intended to insult over them as they had done over those at Oxford set out a Paper to which the late Bishops of Exeter St. Davids and Glocester with Taylor Philpot Bradford Crome Sanders Rogers and Lawrence set their Hands on the 8th of May. The substance of it was That they being Prisoners neither as Rebels Traitors nor Transgressors of any Law but meerly for their Conscience to God and his Truth hearing it was intended to carry them to Cambridg to dispute declared they would not dispute but in Writing except it were before the Queen and her Council or before either of the Houses of Parliament and that for these Reasons 1. It was clear that the Determinations of the Universities were already made they were their open Enemies and had already condemned their Cause before they had heard it which was contrary both to the Word of God and the Determinations they had made in King Edward's Time 2. They saw the Prelats and Clergy were seeking neither to find out the Truth nor to do them good otherwise they would have heard them when they might have declared their Consciences without hazard but that they sought only their destruction and their own glory 3. They saw that those who were to be the Judges of these Disputes were their inveterate Enemies and by what passed in the Convocation House last Year and lately at Oxford they saw how they must expect to be used 4. They had been kept long Prisoners some nine or ten months without Books or Papers or convenient places of study 5. They knew they should not be heard to speak their minds fully but should be stopt as their Judges pleased 6. They could not have the nomination of their Notaries who would be so chosen that they would write and publish what their Enemies had a mind to Therefore they would not engage in publick Disputes except by Writing but they would give a Summary of their Faith for which they would be ready to offer up their Lives to the Halter or the Fire as God should appoint They declared That they believed the Scriptures to be the true Word of God and the Judg of all Controversies in the Matters of Religion and that the Church is to be obeyed as long as she follows this Word That they believed the Apostles Creed and those Creeds set out by the Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon and by the first and fourth Councils of Toledo and the Symboles of Athanasius Ireneus Tertullian and Damasus That they believed Justification by Faith which Faith was not only an Opinion but a certain persuasion wrought by the Holy Ghost which did illuminate the Mind and suppled the Heart to submit it self unfeignedly to God That they acknowledged an Inherent Righteousness yet Justification and the Pardon of Sins they believed came only by Christ's Righteousness imputed to them They thought the Worship of God ought to be in a Tongue understood by the People that Christ only and not the Saints were to be prayed to that immediately after Death the Souls pass either to the State of the Blessed or of the Damned without any Purgatory between that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the Sacraments of Christ which ought to be administred according to his Institution and therefore they condemned the denying the Chalice Transubstantiation the Adoration or the Sacrifice of the Mass and asserted the lawfulness of Marriage to every Rank of Men. These things they declared they were ready to defend as they often had before offered and concluded charging all People to enter into no Rebellion against the Queen but to obey her in all Points except where her Commands were contrary to the Law of God In the end of this Month the Lady Elizabeth was taken out of the Tower and put into the Custody of the Lord Williams who waited on her to Woodstock and treated her with great civility and all the respect due to her Quality but this not being so acceptable to those who governed she was put under the Charge of Sir Hen. Benefield by whom she was more roughly handled On the 20th of July Prince Philip landed at Southampton Prince Philip Lands When he set foot to Land first he presently drew his Sword and carried it a good way naked in his Hand Whether this was one of the Forms of his Country I know not but it was interpreted as an Omen that he intended to Rule England with the Sword though others said it shewed he intended to draw his Sword in defence of the Nation The Mayor of Southampton brought him the Keys of the Town an expression of Duty always paid to our Princes he took them from him and gave them back without speaking a word or expressing by any sign that he was pleased with it His stiffness amazed the English who use to be treated by their Kings with great sweetness on such occasions and so much gravity in so young a Man was not understood but was look'd on as a sign of vast pride and moroseness The Queen met him at Winchester And is married to the Queen where on the 25th of July Gardiner married them in the Cathedral the King being then in the 27th and the Queen in the 38th Year of her Age. They were presented from the Emperor by his Ambassador with a resignation of his Titular Kingdom of Jerusalem and his more valuable one of Naples which were Pledges of that total resignation that followed not long after So on the 27th of July they were proclaimed by their
by them declared legitimate 3. ' That all Institutions into Benefices might be confirmed 4. ' That all Judicial Processes might be also confirmed A Proviso for Church-Lands And finally That all the Settlements of the Lands of any Bishopricks Monasteries or other Religious Houses might continue as they were without any trouble by the Ecclesiastical Censures or Laws And to make this pass the better a Petition was procured from the Convocation of Canterbury A Petition from the Convocation about it setting forth That whereas they being the Defenders and Guardians of the Church ought to endeavour with all their strength to recover those Goods to the Church which in the Time of the late Schism had been alienated yet having considered well of it they saw how difficult and indeed impossible that would prove and how much it would endanger the publick Peace of the Realm and the Unity of the Church therefore they preferring the publick Welfare and the Salvation of Souls to their own privat Interests did humbly pray the King and Queen to intercede with the Legat that according to the Powers given him by the Pope he would settle and confirm all that had been done in the alienation of the Church and Abbey Lands to which they for their Interests did consent and they added an humble Desire That those things which concerned the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Liberty might be re-establish'd that so they might be able to discharge the Pastoral Cure committed to them Upon this the Cardinal granted a full Confirmation of those things ending it with a heavy charge on those who had the Goods of the Church in their hands that they would consider the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazar for his prophane using the Holy Vessels though they had not been taken away by himself but by his Father And he most earnestly exhorted them that at least they would take care that out of the Tithes of Parsonages or Vicarages those who served the Cures might be sufficiently maintain'd and encouraged This was confirmed in Parliament where also it was declared That all Suits about these Lands were only to be in the Queen's Courts and not in the Ecclesiastical Courts and if any should upon the pretence of any Ecclesiastical Authority disturb the Subjects in their possession they were to fall into a Premunire It was also declared that the Title of Supream Head never of right belonged to the Crown yet all Writings wherein it was used were still to continue in force but that hereafter all Writings should be of force in which either since the Queen 's coming to the Crown or afterwards that Title should be or had been omitted It was also declared that Bulls from Rome might be executed that all Exemptions that had belonged to Religious Houses and had been continued by the Grants given of them were repealed and these Places were made subject to the Episcopal Jurisdiction excepting only the Privileges of the two Universities the Churches of Westminster and Windsor and the Tower of London But for encouraging any to bestow what they pleased on the Church the Statutes of Mortmain were repealed for twenty Years to come provided always that nothing in this Act should be contrary to any of the Rights of the Crown or the Ancient Laws of England but that all things should be brought to the State they were in at the 20th Year of her Father's Reign and to continue in that condition For understanding this Act more perfectly An Address made by â—he Inferior Clergy I shall next set down the Heads of the Address which the Lower House of Convocation made to the Upper for most of the Branches of this Act had their first rise from it I have put it in the Collection Coll. Numb 16. having found it among Arch-Bishop Parker's Papers In it they petitioned the Lords of the Upper House of Convocation to take care that by their consent to the settlement of the Church Lands nothing might be done in prejudice of any just Title they had in Law to them as also it being said in the Grant of Chantries to King Edward that Schools and Hospitals were to be erected in several parts of the Kingdom they desired that some regard might be had to that Likewise that the Statutes of Mortmain might be repealed and whereas Tithes had been at all times appointed for the Ecclesiastical Ministry therefore they prayed that all Impropriations might be dissolved and the Tithes be restored to the Church They also proposed 27 Articles of things meet to be considered for the Reformation of the Church Namely That all who had preached any Heretical Doctrine should be made openly to recant it that Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament the late Service Books with all Heretical Books should be burnt and all that had them should be required to bring them in otherwise they should be esteemed the favourers of Heresy That great care should be had of the Books that were either printed or sold That the Statutes made against Lollards might be revived and the Church restored to its former Jurisdiction That all Statutes for Pluralities and Non-residence might be repealed that so Beneficed Men might attend on their Cures That Simoniacal Pactions might be punished not only in the Clergy that made them but in the Patrons and in those that mediated in them that the Liberties of the Church might be restored according to the Magna Charta and the Clergy be delivered from the heavy Burdens of First-Fruits Tenths and Subsidies That there might be a clear explanation made of all the Articles of the Premunire and that none should be brought under it till there were first a Prohibition issued out by the Queen in that Particular and that disobedience to it should only bring them within that Guilt That all Exemptions should be taken away all Usury be forbid all Clergy Men obliged to go in their Habits The last was That all who had spoiled Churches without any Warrant might be obliged to make restitution The Laws against Hereticks revived The next Act that was brought in was for the reviving the Statutes made by Richard the Second Henry the Fourth and Henry the Fifth against Hereticks of which an account was given in the first Book of the former Part. The Act began in the House of Commons who as was observed in the former Parliament were much set on Severities It was brought in on the 12th of December and sent up to the Lords on the 15th who pasied it on the 18th of that month The Commons put in also another Bill for voiding all Leases made by married Priests It was much argued among them and the first Draught being rejected a new one was drawn and sent up to the Lords on the 19th of December but they finding it would shake a great part of the Rights of the Church Lands that were made by Married Priests or Bishops laid it aside Thus did the servile and corrupted House of Commons
gave at his Visitation chiefly of the Monasteries will give a good Evidence and therefore I have put them in the Collection Coll. Num. 24. as they were copied from the Register of Worcester by that Ingenious and worthy Counsellor Mr. Summers who out of his Zeal to the Reformation searched all the Books there that he might gather from them such things as he thought could be of use to this Work Bonner had made an ill Retribution to Ridley for the kindness he had shewed his Friends when he was in possession at London for he had made Boâ—ner's Mother always dine with him when he lived in his Country-House of Fulham and treated her as if she had been his own Mother besides his kindness to his other Friends Heath then Bishop of Worcester had bin kept Prisoner a Year and a half in Ridley's House where he lived as if he had bin at his own and Heath used always to call him the best learned of all the Party yet he so far forgot gratitude and humanity that though he went through Oxford when he was a Prisoner there he came not to see him When they lay in the Tower both Cranmer and they were by reason of the number of Prisoners put into one Chamber for some months but after they came to Oxford they could scaâ—câ— send Messages to one another and men had laid off humanity so much that all the while they lay there none of the University waited on them that favoured their Doctrine were then left and of the rest it is no wonder that none came to visit them nor did they supply them with any thing they needed for all the Charity that was sent to them came from London This Summer there was a strict search made after all the Goods of the Church that had bin embezelled and all that had bin Visiters either in King Henry or K. Edward's time Suits about the spoils of Churches were brought into Suits about it but many compounded and so purchased their quiet by an off r to the Church of some large Gratuity and according to the greatness thereof their affection to the Church was measured Many of those did favour the Reformation which made them give the more bountifully that so they might come under good Characters and be the less suspected EFFIGIES STEPHANI GARDINERI EPISCOPI WINTONIENSIS H. Holben pinxit R. White sculp HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE Natus Burioe fit Episcopus Wintoniensis 1531. Dec. 5. Cancellarius Anglioe 1553. Aug. 23. Obijt 1555. Nov 12. Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in St. Pauls Church yard Heath Archbishop of York had the Seals in February after they having been during that interval in the hands of Sir Nicholas Hare then Master of the Rolls and he was made Chancellor during the Queen's pleasure The Queen also considering that Whitehall had been taken from the See of York had a scruple in her Conscience against living in it but Heath and she agreed it thus Suffolk-Place by the Duke's Attainder was now in the Queen's hands so she gave that to the See of York which Heath sold and converted it to Tenements and purchased another House near Charing-Cross which from thence forward was called york-York-House The temper of the Parliament is much changed But for the Parliament it was now much changed Mens minds were much alienated from the Clergy and also from the Queen who minded nothing else but to raise them to great wealth and power again On the 28th of October it was moved in the House of Commons to give a Subsidy and two Fifteenths for paying the Debts of the Crown but it was opposed with great vehemence It was said that the Queen had profusely given away the Riches of the Crown and then turned to the Laity to pay her Debts why did she not rather turn it to the Spiritualty But it was answered that the Convocation had given her a Subsidy of six shillings in the pound and the Queen asked now after almost three years Reign nothing but what she had discharged her Subjects of at her first coming to the Crown Yet the heats grew such that on the 1st of November Secretary Petre brought a Message from her that she thanked them that had moved for two Fifteenths for her but she refused it so the Subsidy was agreed on On the 29th of November the Queen sent for the House of Commons The Queen discharges the Clergy of Tenths and First-fruits When they were come she said to them she could not with a good Conscience take the Tenths and First-fruits of Spiritual Benefices It was a Tax her Father laid on the Clergy to support his Dignity of Supream Head of which since she was devested she would also discharge that Then the Legate made a speech to shew that Tithes Impropriations of spiritual Benefices were the Patrimony of the Church and ought to return to it The Queen upon that declared that she would surrender them up likewise to the Church Then one Story of the House of Commons kneeled down and said to the Queen That the Speaker did not open to her their Desire that Licences might be restrained This was a great Affront to the Speaker so he returning to the House complained of Story This Member thought he might assume more liberty for in Edward the 6th's time when the Bill for the first Book of the English Service passed he spoke so freely against it with such reflections on the King and the Protector that he was put in the Serjeants hands and sent to the Tower The words he had said were Wo unto thee O England when thy King is a Child Eccles 10.16 and an Impeachment was drawn against him But upon his Submission the House ordered the Privy Councellors to declare to the Protector that it was their Resolution that he should be enlarged and they desired that the King would forgive his Offence against him and his Council now he had indiscreetly appeared against all Licenses from Rome thinking he had a priviledg to talk more freely Journ Dom. Com. but he confessed his Fault and the House knowing that he spake from a good zeal forgave him He was afterwards condemned for Treason in Queen Elizabeths Reign On the 23d of November the Bill for suppressing the First-Fruits and Tenths and the resigning up all Impropriations that were yet in the Queens Gift to the Church to be disposed of as the Legate pleased for the relief of the Clergy was brought into the House It was once thought fit to have the surrender of Impropriations left out for it was said the Queen might do that as well by Letters Patents and if it were put into the Bill it would raise great Jealousies since it would be understood that the Queen did expect that the Subjects should follow her example but it was resolved by all means possible to recover the Tithes to the Church so it was put into the
to meet and consider of the Book of Service In the mean while the People were to be restrained from Innovating without Authority and the Queen to give some hope of a Reformation might appoint the Communion to be given in both kinds The Persons that were thought fit to be trusted with the Secret of these Consultations were the Marquess of Northampton the Earls of Bedford and Pembroke and the Lord John Gray The Place that was thought most convenient for the Divines to meet in was Sir Thomas Smiths House in Channon-Row where an Allowance was to be given for their Entertainment The forwardness in many to the Reformation As soon as the News of the Queens coming to the Crown was known beyond Sea all those who had fled thither for shelter did return into England and those who had lived in Corners during the late Persecution now appeared with no small assurance and these having notice of the Queens Intentions could not contain themselves but in many Places begun to make Changes to set up King Edwards Service to pull down Images and to affront the Priests Upon this the Queen to make some discovery of her own Inclinations gave order that the Gospels and Epistles and the Lords Prayer the Apostles Creed and the Ten Commandements should be read in English and that the Letany should be also used in English and she forbade the Priests to Elevate the Host at Mass Having done this on the 27th of December she set out a Proclamation against all Innovations requiring her Subjects to use no other Forms of Worship than those she had in her Chappel till it should be otherwise appointed by the Parliament which she had summoned to meet on the 23d of January The Writs were issued out by Bacon into whose Hands she had delivered the Great Seal On the fifth of December she performed her Sisters Funeral Rites with great Magnificence at Westminster The Bishop of Winchester being appointed to preach the Sermon did so mightily extoll her and her Government and so severely taxed the disorders which he thought the Innovators were guilty of not without reflections on the Queen that he was thereupon confined to his House till the Parliament met Parker designed to be Archbishop of Canterbury One of the chief things under consultation was to provide Men fit to be put into the Sees that were now vacant or that might fall to be so afterwards if the Bishops should continue intractable Those now vacant were the Sees of Canterbury Hereford Bristol and Bangor and in the beginning of the next Year the Bishops of Norwich and Glocester died so that as Cambden hath it there were but fourteen Bishops living when the Parliament met It was of great importance to find Men able to serve in these Imployments chiefly in the See of Canterbury For this Dr. Parker was soon thought on Whether others had the offer of it before him or not I cannot tell but he was writ to by Sir Nicholas Bacon on the ninth of December to come up to London and afterwards on the 30th of December by Sir William Cecil and again by Sir Nicholas Bacon on the fourth of January He understood that it was for some high preferment and being a Man of an humble Temper distrustful of himself that loved privacy and was much disabled by sickness he declined coming up all he could he begged he might not be thought of for any publick Imployment but that some Prebend might be assigned him where he might be free both from Care and Government since the Infirmities which he had contracted by his flying about in the Nights in Queen Maries time had disabled him from a more publick station That to which he pretended shews how moderate his desires were for he professed an Imployment of twenty Nobles a year would be more acceptable to him than one of two hundred Pound He had been Chaplain to Queen Anne Bullen and had received a special charge from her a little before she died to look well to the Instruction of her Daughter in the Principles of the Christian Religion and now the Queen had a grateful Remembrance of those Services This joyned with the high Esteem that Sir Nicholas Bacon had of him soon made her resolve to raise him to that great Dignity And since such high Preferments are generally if not greedily sought after yet very willingly undertaken by most Men it will be no unfit thing to lay open a modern Precedent which indeed savours more of the Ancient than the latter Times for then in stead of that Ambitus which has given such offence to the World in the latter Ages it was ordinary for Men to fly from the offer of great Preferments Some run away when they understood they were to be Ordained or had been Elected to great Sees and fled to a Wilderness This shewed they had a great sense of the Care of Souls and were more apprehensive of that weighty Charge than desirous to raise or enrich themselves or their Families It hath been shewed before that Cranmer was very unwillingly engaged in the See of Canterbury and now he that succeeded him in that See with the same designs was drawn into it with such unwillingness that it was almost a whole year before he could be prevailed upon to accept of it The account of this will appear in the Series of Letters both written to him and by him on that Head which were communicated to me by the present most Worthy and most Reverend Primate of this Church I cannot mention him in this place without taking notice that as in his other great Vertues and Learning he has gone in the steps of those most eminent Arch-bishops that went before him so the whole Nation is witness how far he was from aspiring to high Preferment how he withdrew from all those opportunities that might be steps to it how much he was surprized with his unlooked-for advancement how unwillingly he was raised and how humble and affable he continues in that high Station he is now in but this is a Subject that I must leave for them to enlarge on that shall write the History of this present Age. 1559. Bacon made Lord Keeper In the beginning of the next Year the Queen having found that Heath Arch-bishop of York then Lord Chancellor would not go along with her as he had done in the Reigns of her Father and Brother and having therefore taken the Seals from him and put them into Sir Nicholas Bacon's Hand did now by Patent create him Lord Keeper Formerly those that were Keepers of the Seal had no Dignity nor Authority annexed to their Office they did not hear Causes nor preside in the House of Lords but were only to put the Seals to such Writs or Patents as went in course and so it was only put in the Hands of a Keeper but for some short Interval But now Bacon was the first Lord Keeper that had all the Dignity and Authority of
they should not be made necessary parts of Worship that they should not be too many nor dumb and vain nor should be kept up for gain and advantage These were the Arguments used on both sides But the Reformed being superiour in number the Bill passed in the House of Lords the Archbishop of York the Marquess of Winchester the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute the Bishops of London Worcester Ely Coventry Chester and Carlisle and the Lords Morley Stafford Dudley Wharton Rich and North and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting By this Act the new Book was to take place by St. John Baptist's day Another Act passed That the Queen might reserve to her self the Lands belonging to Bishopricks as they fall void giving the full value of them in Impropriated Tithes in lieu of them To this the Bishops dissented on the 7th of April when it passed in the House of Lords But when this came to the Commons there was great opposition made to it Many had observed that in Edward the 6th's time under a pretence of giving some Endowments to the Crown the Courtiers got all the Church-Lands divided amongst themselves so it was believed the use to be made of this would be the robbing of the Church without enriching the Crown After many days Debate on the 17th of April the House divided and 90 were against it but 133 were for it and so it passed On the 5th of May another Bill passed with the like opposition It was for annexing of all Religious Houses to the Crown After that there followed some private Acts for declaring the deprivation of the Popish Bishops in K. Edward's Time to have been good When they were restored by Q. Mary the Sentences passed against them were declared to have been void from the beginning and so all Leafes that were made by Ridley Poinet and Hooper and the Patents granted by the King of some of their Lands were annulled It was particularly remembred in the House of Commons that Ridley had made the confirming of these Leases his last desire when he was going to be tied to the Stake The ground on which the Sentences were declared void was because the Parties had appealed though in the Commission by virtue of which the Delegates deprived them they were impowered to proceed notwithstanding any Appeal To this not only the Bishops but the Marquess of Winchester and the Lords Stafford Dudley and North dissented It shews the great Moderation of this Government that this Marquess notwithstanding his adhering to the Popish Interest in the House of Lords was still continued Lord Treasurer which employment he held fourteen Years after this and died in the 97th Year of his Age leaving 103 issued from his own Body behind him He was the greatest instance of good Fortune and Dexterity that we find in the English History who continued Lord Treasurer in three such different Reigns as King Edward's Queen Mary's and Queen Elizabeth's were There was a Subsidy and two Tenths and two Fifteenths given by the Parliament with the Tonnage and Poundage for the Queen's Life and so on the 8th of May it was dissolved There were three Bills that did not pass in the House of Commons Bills that were proposed but not passed but upon what account they were laid aside it does not appear The one was for the Restoring of the Bishops that had been deprived by Q. Mary There were but three of these alive Barlow Scory and Coverdale the first of these had resigned and the last being old had no mind to return to his Bishoprick So perhaps it was not thought worth the while to make an Act for one Man's sake especially since there were so many vacant Bishopricks in the Queen's hands and more were like to fall The other Bill was for the restoring of all Persons that were deprived from their Benefices because they were married This the Queen odered to be laid aside of which Sands complained much in his Letter to Parker But yet the Queen took no notice of the Laws formerly made against their Marriage and promoted many married Priests particularly Parker himself There was no Law now in force against Clergy-mens marrying for Queen Mary had only repealed the Laws of Edward the 6th which allowed it but had made none concerning that Matter So there was nothing but the Canon Law against it and that was resolved to be condemned by continuing that Article of Religion concerning the Lawfulness of their Marriage among those that should be set out The next Bill that came to nothing was a new Act for giving Authority to 32 Persons to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws and digest them into a Body it was laid aside at the second Reading in the House of Commons and has slept ever since The Bishops refuse the Oath of Supremacy When the Parliament was over the Oath of Supremacy was soon after put to the Bishops and Clergy They thought if they could stick close to one another in refusing it the Queen would be forced to dispence with them Vita Parkeri and would not at one stroke turn out all the Bishops in England It does not appear how soon after the Dissolution of the Parliament the Oath was put to them but it was not long after for the last Collation Bonner gave of any Benefice was on the 6th of May this Year The Oath being offered to Heath Arch-Bishop of York to Bonner of London Thirleby of Ely Bourn of Bath and Wells Christopherson of Chichester Bain of Litchfield White of Winchester and Watson of Lincoln Oglethorpe of Carlisle Turbervile of Exeter Pool of Peterburgh Scot of Chester Pates of Worcester and Goldwell of St. Asaph they did all refuse to take it So that only Kitchin Bishop of Landaff took it There was some hope of Tonstall so it was not put to him till September but he being very old chose to go out with so much Company more for the decency of the thing than out of any scruple he could have about the Supremacy for which he had formerly writ so much They were upon their refusal put in Prison for a little while but they had all their Liberty soon after except Bonner White and Watson There were great Complaints made against Bonner that he had in many things in the prosecution of those that were presented for Heresy exceeded what the Law allowed so that it was much desired to have him made an Example But as the Queen was of her own nature Merciful so the Reformed Divines had learned in the Gospel not to render Evil for Evil nor to seek Revenge and as Nazianzen had of old exhorted the Orthodox when they had got an Emperor that favoured them not to retaliate on the Arrians for their former Cruelties So they thought it was for the honour of their Religion to give this real demonstration of the Conformity of their Doctrine to the Rules of the Gospel and of the Primitive Church by avoiding all Cruelty and
Queen declares she will force no Conscience pag. 245. A Tumult at Pauls ibid. A Proclamation against Preaching ibid. Censures passed upon it pag. 246. She uses those of Suffolk ill ibid. Consultations among the Reformed pag. 247. Judge Hales barbarously used ibid. Cranmer declares against the Mass pag. 248. Bonners insolence ibid. Cranmer and Latimer sent to the Tower pag. 250. Forreigners sent out of England ibid. Many English fly beyond Sea ibid. The Queen rewards those who had served her pag. 251. She is Crowned and discharges a Tax ibid. A Parliament summoned pag. 252. The Reformed Bishops thrust out of the House of Lords ibid. Great disorders in Elections ibid. An Act moderating severe Laws pag. 253. The Marriage of the Queens Mother Confirmed ibid. Censures passed upon it pag. 254. The Queen is severe to the Lady Elis. ibid. King Edwards Laws about Religion repealed pag. 255. An Act against injuries to Priests ibid. An Act against unlawful assemblies ibid. Marquess of Northamptons 2d Marriage broken pag. 256. The Duke of Norfolks Attaindor annulled ibid. Cranmer and others attainted pag. 257. But his See is not declared void ibid. The Queen resolves to reconcile with Rome ibid. Cardinal Pool sent Legate pag. 258. But is stopt by the Emperor pag. 259. The Queen sends to him ibid. His advice to the Queen pag. 260. Gardiners methods are preferred pag. 261. The House of Commons offended with the Queens Marriage then treated about ibid. The Parliament is dissolved ibid. 1200000 Crowns sent to corrupt the next Parliament pag. 262. Proceedings in the Convocation ibid. Disputes concerning the Sacrament ibid. Censures passed upon them pag. 283. 1554. Ambassadors treat with the Queen for her Marriage ibid. Articles agreed on ibid. The Match generally disliked p. 284. Plots to oppose it are discovered ibid. Wiat breaks out in Kent ibid. His Demands p. 286. He is defeated and taken ibid. The Lady Jane and her Husband Executed p. 271. Her preparations for Death ibid. The Duke of Suffolk is Executed p. 272. The Lady Elis is unjustly suspected p. 273. Many severe proceedings ibid. The Imposture in the Wall ibid. Instructions for the Bishops p. 274. Bishops that adhere to the Reform deprived ibid. The Mass every where set up pag. 276. Books against the married Clergy pag. 277. A New Parliament ibid. The Queens Regal Power asserted ibid. The secret Reasons for that Act. ibid. Great jealousies of the Spaniards pag. 279. The Bishoprick of Duresm restored ibid. Disputes at Oxford pag. 280. With Cranmer pag. 281. And Ridley pag. 282. And Latimer pag. 283. Censures passed upon them ibid. They are all Condemned ibid. The Prisoners in London give reasons why they would not dispute pag. 284. King Philip Lands pag. 286. And is Married to the Queen ibid. He brings a great Treasure with him ibid. Acts of favour done by him pag. 287. He preserves the Lady Elizabeth ibid. He was little beloved pag. 288. But much Magnifyed by Gardiner ibid. Bonners carriage in his Visitation ibid. No reordination of those Ordained in King Edward's time pag. 289. Bonners rage pag. 290. The Sacrament stollen pag. 291. A New Parliament ibid. Cardinal Pools Attaindor repealed ibid. He comes to London pag. 292. And makes a speech to the Parliament ibid. The Queen is believed with Child ibid. The Parliament petition to be reconciled pag. 293. The Cardinal absolves them ibid. Laws against the See of Rome repealed pag. 294. A Proviso for Church Lands ibid. A Petition from the Convocation ibid. An Address from the inferior Clergy pag. 295. Laws against Hereticks revived pag. 296. An Act declaring Treasons ibid. Another against seditious words ibid. Gardiner in great esteem pag. 297. The fear of losing the Church Lands ibid. Consultations how to deal with Hereticks pag. 298. Cardinal Pool for moderate courses pag. 299. But Gardiner is for violent ones ibid. To which the Queen is inclined pag. 300. 1555. They begin with Rogers and others ibid. Who refusing to comply are judged pag. 301. Rogers and Hooper burnt pag. 302. Sanders and Taylor burnt pag. 303. These cruelties are much censured pag. 304. Reflections made on Hoopers Death ibid. The Burnings much disliked pag. 305. The King Purges himself ibid. A Petition against persecution ibid. Arguments to defend it pag. 306. More are Burnt pag. 307. Ferrar and others Burnt pag. 308. The Queen gives up the Church Lands ibid. Pope Julius dies and Marcellus succeeds pag. 309. Paul the 4th succeeds him pag. 310. English Ambassadors at Rome ibid. Instructions sent for persecution pag. 311. Bonner required to Burn more pag. 312. The Queens delivery in vain expected ibid. Bradford and others Burnt pag. 313. Sir Thomas Mores works Published pag. 316. His Letter of the Nun of Kent ibid. Ridley and Latimer Burnt pag. 318. Gardiners Death and Character pag. 320. The temper of the Parliament is much changed pag. 322. The Queen discharges tenths and first fruits ibid. An Act against those that fled beyond Sea rejected pag. 323. An Act debarring a Murderer from the benefit of Clergy opposed ibid. Sir Anthony Kingston put in the Tower pag. 324. Pool holds a Convocation ibid. The heads of his Decrees ibid. Pools design for Reforming of abuses pag. 326. Pool will not admit the Jesuits to England pag. 327. Philpots Martyrdome pag. 328. Forreign affairs ibid. Charles the 5ths Resignation pag. 329. Cranmers Tryal pag. 332. He is degraded pag. 333. He recants ibid. He repents of it pag. 334. His Martyrdome pag. 335. His Character ibid. Others suffer on the like account pag. 337. A Child born in the Fire and burnt ibid. The Reformation grows pag. 338. Troubles at Frankfort among the English there pag. 339. Pool is made Arch-bishop of Canterbury pag. 340. Some Religious Houses are endowed ibid. Records are razed pag. 341. Endeavours for the Abbey of Glassenburg ibid. Forreign Affairs pag. 342. The Pope is extravagantly proud ibid. He dispenses with the French Kings Oath pag. 343. And makes War with Spain pag. 344. 1557. A Visitation of the Vniversities pag. 345. The Persecution set forward pag. 346. A Design for setting up the Inquisition pag. 347. Burnings for Religion pag. 348. Lord Stourton hanged for Murder pag. 350. The Queen is jealous of the French pag. 351. The Battel at St. Quintin pag. 352. The Pope offended with Cardinal Pool ibid. He recalls him pag. 353. The Queen refuses to receive Cardinal Peito ibid. A Peace between the Pope and Spain pag. 354. A War between England and Scotland ibid. The Affairs of Germany pag. 355. A Persecution in France pag. 356. 1558. Calais is besieged ibid. And it and Guisnes are taken pag. 357. Sark taken by the French pag. 358. And retaken strangely pag. 359. Great discontents in England ibid. A Parliament is called pag. 360. King of Sweden courts the Lady Elizabeth pag. 361. But is rejected by her ibid. She was ill used in this Reign pag. 362. The Progress of the Persecution pag. 363. The Methods of it pag.
the Stream to sink it but or ere it sunk it came near to one Bank where the Bulloners took it out and brought the Stones to reinforce the Peer Also at Guines was a certain Skirmish in which there was about an 100 Frenchmen slain of which some were Gentlemen and Noblemen In the mean season in England rose great Stirs like to increase much if it had not been well foreseen The Council about nineteen of them were gathered in London thinking to meet with the Lord Protector and to make him amend some of his Disorders He fearing his state caused the Secretary in My Name to be sent to the Lords to know for what Cause they gathered their Powers together and if they meant to talk with him that they should come in a peaceable manner The next morning being the 6th of October and Saturday he commanded the Armour to be brought down out of the Armoury of Hampton-Court about 500 Harnesses to Arm both his and My Men with all the Gates of the House to be Rampeir'd People to be raised People came abundantly to the House That night with all the People at nine or ten of the Clock of the night I went to Windsor and there was Watch and Ward kept every night The Lords sat in open Places of London calling for Gentlemen before them and declaring the Causes of Accusation of the Lord Protector and caused the same to be proclaimed After which time few came to Windsor but only Mine own Men of the Guard whom the Lords willed fearing the Rage of the People so lately quieted Then began the Protector to treat by Letters sending Sir Philip Hobbey lately come from his Ambassage in Flanders to see to his Family who brought in his return a Letter to the Protector very gentle which he delivered to him another to Me another to my House to declare his Faults Ambition Vain-Glory entring into rash Wars in my Youth negligent looking on New-Haven enriching of himself of my Treasure following of his own Opinion and doing all by his own Authority c. Which Letters were openly read and immediately the Lords came to Windsor took him and brought him through Holborn to the Tower Afterward I came to Hampton-Court where they appointed by My consent six Lords of the Council to be Attendant on Me at least two and four Knights Lords the Marquess of Northampton the Earls of Warwick and Arundel the Lords Russel St. John and Wentworth Knights Sir Andr. Dudley Sir Edw. Rogers Sir Tho. Darcy and Sir Tho. Wroth. After I came through London to Westminster The Lord of Warwick made Admiral of England Sir Thomas Cheiney sent to the Emperor for Relief which he could not obtain Master Wotton made Secretary The Lord Protector by his own Agreement and Submission lost his Protectorship Treasureship Marshalship all his Moveables and more 2000 l. Land by Act of Parliament The Earl of Arundel committed to his House for certain Crimes of suspicion against him as plucking down of Bolts and Locks at Westminster giving of My Stuff away c. and put to fine of 12000 l. to be paid 1000 l. Yearly of which he was after relieved Also Mr. Southwell committed to the Tower for certain Bills of Sedition written with his Hand and put to fine of 500 l. Likewise Sir Tho. Arundel and six then committed to the Tower for Conspiracies in the West Places A Parliament where was made a manner to Consecrate Priests Bishops and Deacons Mr. Paget surrendring his Comptrolership was made Lord Paget of Beaudesert and cited into the Higher House by a Writ of Parliament Sir Anthony Wingfield before Vicechamberlain made Comptroller Sir Thomas Darcy made Vicechamberlaine Guidotty made divers Errands from the Constable of France to make Peace with us upon which were appointed four Commissioners to Treat and they after long Debatement made a Treaty as followeth Anno 1549. Mart. 24. Peace concluded between England France and Scotland By our English side John Earl of Bedford Lord Privy Seal Lord Paget de Beaudesert Sir William Petre Secretary and Sir John Mason On the French side Monsieur de Rochepot Monsieur Chastilion Guilluart de Mortier and Boucherel de Sany upon these Conditions That all Titles Tribute and Defences should remain That the Faults of one Man except he be punished should not break the League That the Ships of Merchandize shall pass to and fro That Pirats shall be called back and Ships of War That Prisoners shall be delivered of both sides That we shall not War with Scotland That Bollein with the pieces of New Conquest and two Basilisks two Demy-Cannons three Culverines two Demy-Culverins three Sacres six Faulcons 94 Hagbutts a Crook with Wooden Tailes and 21 Iron Pieces and Lauder and Dunglass with all the Ordnance save that that came from Haddington shall within six months after this Peace proclaimed be delivered and for that the French to pay 200000 Scutes within three days after the delivery of Bollein and 200000 Scutes on our Lady Day in Harvest next ensuing and that if the Scots raizd Lauder and we should raze Roxburg and Heymouth For the performance of which on the 7th of April should be delivered at Guisnes and Ardres these Hostages Marquess de Means Monsieur Trimoville Monsieur D'anguien Monsieur Montmorency Monsieur Henandiere Vicedam de Chartres My Lord of Suffolk My Lord of Hartford My Lord Talbot My Lord Fitzwarren My Lord Martavers My Lord Strange Also that at the delivery of the Town Ours should come home and at the first Payment three of theirs and that if the Scots raze Lauder and Dunglass We must raze Roxburgh and Heymouth and none after fortify them with comprehension of the Emperor 25. This Peace Anno 1550 proclaimed at Calais and Bollein 29. In London Bonefires 30. A Sermon in Thanksgiving for Peace and Te Deum sung 31. My Lord Somerset was delivered of his Bonds and came to Court April 2. The Parliament prorogued to the second day of the Term in October ensuing 3. Nicholas Ridley before of Rochester made Bishop of London and received his Oath Thomas Thirlby before of Westminster made Bishop of Norwich and received his Oath 4. The Bishop of Chichester before a vehement affirmer of Transubstantiation did preach against it at Westminster in the preaching place Removing to Greenwich from Westminster 6. Our Hostages passed the Narrow Seas between Dover and Calais 7. Monsieur de Fermin Gentleman of the King 's Privy Chamber passed from the French King by England to the Scotch Queen to tell her of the Peace An Ambassador came from Gustave the Swedish King called Andrew for a surer Amity touching Merchandize 9. The Hostages delivered on both the sides for the Ratification of the League with France and Scotland for because some said to Monsieur Rochfort Lieutenant that Monsieur de Guise Father to the Marquess of Means was dead and therefore the delivery was put over a day 8. My Lord Warwick made General Warden of
Gocoza and that Fort abide 80 Cannon-shot at length came to a Parley where the Frenchmen got in and won it by Assault slew all saving 115 with the Captain whom he hanged 9. He took a Fort called Maranges and razed it 12. The French King came to Nancy to go to the Army and there found the Dutchess and the young Duke of Lorrain 13. The Mareschal St. Andrew with 200 Men of Arms and 2000 Foot-men carried away the young Duke accompanied with few of his old Men toward France to the Dolphin which lay at Rhemes to the no little discontentation of his Mother the Dutches. He fortified also divers Towns in Lorrain and put in French Garisons 14. He departed from Nancy to the Army which lay at Metz. 7. Monsieur Senarpon gave an overthrow to the Captain of St. Omers having with him 600 Foot-men and 200 Horse-men 15. The Parliament broke up and because I was sick and not able to go well abroad as then I signed a Bill containing the Names of the Acts which I would have pass which Bill was read in the House Also I gave Commission to the Lord Chancellor two Arch-Bishops two Bishops two Dukes two Marquesses two Earls and two Barons to dissolve wholly this Parliament 18. The Earl of Pembrook surrendred his Mastership of the Horse which I bestowed on the Earl of Warwick 19. Also he left 50 of his Men of Arms of which 25 were given to Sir Philip Hobbey and 25 to Sir John Gates 21. It was agreed that Commissions should go out for to take certificate of the superfluous Church Plate to Mine use and to see how it hath been embezeled The French Ambassador desired That forasmuch as it was dangerous carrying of Victual from Bolleign to Ard by Land that I would give license to carry by Sea to Calais and from Calais to Ard in my Ground 22. The Lord Paget was degraded from the Order of the Garter for divers his Offences and chiefly because he was no Gentleman of Blood neither of Father-side nor Mother-side Sir Anthony St. Leiger which was accused by the Bishop of Dublin for divers brawling Matters was taken again into the Privy-Chamber and sat among the Knights of the Order 23. Answer was given to the French Ambassador that I could not accomplish his Desire because it was against my League with the Emperor 24. The Order of the Garter was wholly altered as appeareth by the new Statutes There were elected Sir Andrew Dudley and the Earl of Westmoreland 26. Monsieur de Couriers came from the Regent to desire that her Fleet might safely upon occasion take harbour in my Havens Also he said he was come to give order for redressing all Complaints of our Merchants 25. Whereas it was appointed that the 14000 l. that I owed in the last of April should be paied by the anticipation of the Subsidy of London and of the Lords because to change the same over-Sea was loss of the sixth part of the Mony I did so send over Stay was made thereof and the paiment appointed to be made over of 20000 l. Flemish which I took up there 14 per Cent. and so remained 6000 l. to be paid there the last of May. 30. Removing to Greenwich 28. The Charges of the Mints were diminished 1400 l. and there was left 600 l. 18. King Ferdinando Maximilian his Son and the Duke of Bavaria came to Linx to treat with Duke Maurice for a Peace where Maurice declared his Griefs 16. Duke Maurice's Men received an overthrow at Vlms Marquess Albert spoiled the Country and gave them a day to answer 31. A Debt of 14000 l. was paied to the Foulcare May. 1. The Stilyard-men received their Answer which was to confirm the former Judgment of my Council 2. A Letter was sent to the Foulcare from my Council to this effect That I have paied 63000 l. Flemish in February and 14000 in April which came to 77000 l. Flemish which was a fair Sum of Mony to be paied in one Year chiefly in this busy World whereas it is most necessary to be had for Princes Besides this That it was thought Mony should not now do him so much pleasure as at another time peradventure Upon these Considerations they had advised Me to pay but 5000 l. of the 45000 I now owe and so put over the rest according to the old Interest 14 per Cent. with which they desired him to take patience 4. Monsieur de Couriers received his Answer which was That I had long agoe given order that the Flemish Ships should not be molested in my Havens as it appeareth because Frenchmen chasing Flemings into my Havens could not get them because of the rescue they had but that I thought it not convenient to have more Ships to come into my Havens than I could well rule and govern Also a note of divers Complaints of my Subjects was delivered to him 10. Letters were sent to my Ambassadors That they should move to the Princes of Germany to the Emperor and to the French King That if this Treaty came to any effect or end I might be comprehended in the same Commission was given to Sir John Gates Sir Robert Bowes the Chancellor of the Augmentation Sir Walter Mildmay Sir Richard Cotton to sell some part of the Chauntry Lands and of the Houses for the paiment of my Debts which was 251000 l. Sterling at the least Taylor Dean of Lincoln was made Bishop of Lincoln Hooper Bishop of Glocester was made Bishop of Worcester and Glocester Story Bishop of Rochester was made Bishop of Chichester Sir Robert Bowes was appointed to be made Master of the Rolls Commandment was given to the Treasurers that nothing of the Subsidy should be disbursed but by Warrant from the Board and likewise for our Lady-day Revenues 14. The Baron of the Exchequer upon the surrender made by Justice Lecister was made Chief-Justice the Attorney Chief-Baron the Sollicitor-General Attorney and the Sollicitor of the Augmentation Gosnold General-Sollicitor and no more Sollicitor to be in the Augmentation Court Also there were appointed eight Serjeants of the Law against Michaelmass next coming Gaudy Stamford Carell c. 16. The Muster was made of all the Men at Arms saving 50 of Mr. Sadlers 25 of Mr. Vicechamberlains and 25 of Sir Philip Hobbey's and also of all the Pensioners 17. The Progress was appointed to be by Dorchester to Pool in Dorsetshire and so through Salisbury homeward to Windsor 18. It was appointed Mony should be cried down in Ireland after a Pay which was of Mony at Midsummer next in the mean season the thing to be kept secret and close Also the Pirry the Mint-masters taking with him Mr. Brabamon chief Treasurer of the Realm should go to the Mines and see what profit may be taken of the Oar the Almains had digged in a Mine of Silver and if it would quit cost or more to go forward withal if not to leave off and discharge all the Almains
200 went away as themselves published it but our Author was generous and free-hearted so that he would make the Exiles to bear some proportion to the Ministers that were burnt and as he made some hundreds of the one so 30000 was but a moderate number to be exiled 200 would have sounded pitifully in such an Heroical Work Ibid. 66. He says It was brought under Debate whether Peter Martyr should be burnt but because he came into England upon the Publick Faith he was let go yet his Wives Body was raised out of the Church-yard and cast into a Dunghil and Bucer and Fagius's Bodies were burnt It could not be debated whether Peter Martyr should be burnt for the Laws of Burning were not made till a Year after he went out of England and the raising his Wives Body and the burning the other Bodies was done almost four Years after this though our Author relates it as done at the same time 67. He says Ibid. The Queen at first could not repeal the Laws then in force for Heresy but she suspended them all and exhorted her Subjects to return to the Catholick Rites upon which the People did universally return to them The Queen could neither repeal nor suspend the Laws then in force and she did neither When she was in Suffolk she promised the Religion established by Law should not be changed When she came to London she declared she would force no Consciences but soon after she added a Limitation to this Till the Parliament should order it After that all People were encouraged to set up the Mass every-where and it did spread into most parts of the Kingdom but this was done both against Law and the Queen 's Royal Word 68. He says ' All Pulpits were opened to Catholick Preachers Ibid. and the Hereticks were not suffered to preach This he relates as if it had been the effect of the Peoples Zeal but it flowed from a Proclamation of the Queen's that none should preach unless he obtained a License under the Great Seal which was as high an Act of Supremacy as ever her Father did 69. He says Ibid. She made first of all Funeral Rites to be performed for her Brother after the form of the Catholicks though he had died in Heresy and intended to have had such Rites from her Father but being better instructed she found it could not be done for him that had been the chief Author of the Schism and of all the evil that followed it King Edward was buried according to the Rites of the English Liturgy so that the Funeral Rites were not according to the old Forms It is true the Queen had in her own Chappel such Rites for him As for her Father some of the Writers of that Time say it was much pressed to have his Body at least raised and carried out of the Consecrated Ground if not burnt and in this she is said to have stood upon the Dignity of a Crowned Head and the decency of a Daughters Duty to her Fathers Ashes so that she would not consent to so barbarous a thing 70. He condemns those who having been defiled with Heresy Pag. 233 and thereby under Censures did notwithstanding that administer the Sacraments and do the other Offices of Priesthood before they were reconciled to the See of Rome This he says was such a Sin that it may be reckoned one of the Causes of that Queen's dying so soon and he sets down as a Caution for the future that if we should come to be again reconciled to that See we might not relapse into the like Error This was indeed Cardinal Pool's Advice that the whole Kingdom ought to have been put under an Interdict and that all Holy Offices were to cease till they were reconciled to the See of Rome but the whole Clergy not only many as he says being involved in those Censures if they had staied for officiating till they had been reconciled to the See of Rome perhaps it had not been done at all Ibid. 71. He says The Queen partly by her Authority partly by the concurrence of the Parliament got the ancient way of the Service to be again restored the Hereticks not daring to oppose it much All that was done in the first Parliament was the restoring things to the same state they had been in when King Henry died which was indeed the setting up that they called Schisme by Law It was no wonder those he calls Hereticks could not oppose it much when so many of their Bishops had been turned out and imprisoned others were violently thrust out of the House of Lords and the Elections of the Members of Parliament had been so managed that in many places Force was used and false Returns were made in other Places Pag. 234. 72. He says Only one that was bolder than the rest threw a Dagger at him who preached the first Catholick Sermon at St. Pauls and another discharged a Pistol at another preaching in the same place This one would think by his Relation was done after the Parliament had set up the Mass again whereas it was soon after the Queen came to the Crown long before the Parliament and that of the Pistol was some months after the Parliament But if he had designed to deliver a true History to the World he should have added that upon the Tumult that was raised against the Preacher he prayed Mr. Bradford and Mr. Rogers two afterwards burnt for the Reformed Religion to speak to the People and perswade them to be quiet upon which they both exhorted the People to behave themselves more peaceably and reverently and Bradford went into the Pulpit that he might be the better heard and so near was he to the Danger that the Dagger pierced his Sleeve yet these two were had in such esteem that the Tumult was quieted and they carried the Preacher safe home One of them being to preach in the Afternoon exhorted the People to be peaceable and quiet and severely condemned the Tumult that had been in the morning But such was the gratitude and justice of the Popish Party that it was pretended because they had appeased the Tumult that therefore they had also raised it so they were upon that pretence put in Prison where they lay a Year and a half till the Laws for burning were revived and were then burnt for Heresy Pag. 235. 73. He says Commendone was sent by Order from the Pope into England who obtained a Writing from the Queen wherein she promised Obedience to the See of Rome upon which Pool was appointed Legat. It is no wonder our Author understood not the Affairs of the Reformation aright when he was so ill informed about the Transactions of his own Party Commendone was not sent by the Pope to England The Legat at Brussels sent him over from thence without staying for Orders from Rome Page 239. 74. He says William Thomas Clerk of the Council had conspired to