condemned to be burnt as detestable Hereticks in general Words In the same Act by which they were condemned four other were attainted of Treason for being confederated with Reginald Pool and for intending to surprize Calais and as there was a strange mixture in their Condemnation so the like was in their Executions for Abel Featherston and Powell that were attainted in the same Parliament for owning the Pope's Supremacy were executed with them and were coupled together in the Hurdles in which they were carried to Smithfield the King in this affecting an extravagant Appearance of Impartiality in his Justice Barnes being tied to the Stake And burnt went over the Articles of the Creed and declared his Belief of them all and that he abhorred the impious Opinions of some German Anabaptists He asserted the necessity of Good Works but ascribed Justification wholly to the Merits of Christ he professed all due Reverence to the Saints but said he saw no Warrant to pray for them he asked the Sheriff and the People if they knew for what they were condemned and what Heresies they were accused of but none made Answer he prayed God to forgive all that sought their Death and in particular Gardiner if he had done it then prayed for the King and the Prince and expressed his Loyalty to the King that he believed all his just Laws were to be obeyed for Conscience sake and that in no Case it was lawful to resist him he sent some Desires to the King as that he would apply the Abby-Lands to good Uses and the Relief of his poor Subjects that he would punish the Contempt of Marriage that was so common and would put a stop to the Liberty many took of casting off their Wives and living in Whoredom that Swearers might be punished and that since the King had begun to set forth the Christian Religion that he would go on with it for a great deal remained yet to be done he asked the Forgiveness of all People whom he might have at any time offended and so turned and prepared himself for Death then the other two spoke to the same purpose they declared their Faith and exhorted the People to a good Life and mutual Love and they all prayed and embraced one another after that the Fire was set to The Constancy they expressed together with the Gentleness of their Deportment towards their Enemies made great Impressions on the Spectators and cast a heavy Imputation on Gardiner as the Procurer of their Deaths tho he justified himself in an Apology which he printed in which he denied any other Accession to it but giving his Vote to the Bill of Attainder Bonner began now to shew himself in his own Colours He had courted Cromwell more than any Person whatsoever yet the very day after his Disgrace he shewed his Ingratitude for Grafton that had printed the Bible and was much in Cromwell's Favour upon that account meeting Bonner expressed his Sorrow for Cromwell's being sent to the Tower but the other answered that it had been good he had been there much sooner Grafton saw his Error in speaking so freely and went from him but some Verses being printed in Cromwell's Praise Bonner informed the Council what Grafton had said to him and so thought it was probable he had printed them yet he had so many Friends that he was let go He procured many to be indicted upon the Act of the six Articles but an Order came from the King to stop further Proceedings yet he pick'd out one Instance which did equally discover his brutal Cruelty and his want of Judgment One Mekins not above fifteen Years old had said somewhat against the Corporal Presence and in Commendation of Dr. Barnes The Witnesses differed in their Evidence one swore he had said the Sacrament was only a Ceremony the other swore he had said it was only a Signification so two Grand Juries returned an Ignoramus on the Bill upon which he fell into a fit of Cursing and violent Rage and he made the second Grand Jury go aside and consider better of it they being terrified found the Bill and he was condemned to be burnt but hoping to be preserved by what he should say at the Stake he railed at Barnes and praised Bonner much yet that did not save him Two were burnt at Salisbury and two at Lincoln upon the same Statute besides great Numbers that were put in Prison In the end of this Year New Sees founded the King began to endow the new Bishopricks Westminster was the first in which he endowed a Bishoprick a Deanry 12 Prebendaries a Quire and other Officers The Year after this he endowed Chester Glocester and Peterborough but in these Cathedrals he only endowed six Prebendaries two Years after he likewise endowed Oxford and Bristol The Foundations had Preambles are almost the same with that of the Act of Parliament that empowred him to erect them he promoted the Bishops to those Sees by a special Writ tho that was to go thereafter in the way of Election as it was in the other Sees he also converted the Priories of Canterbury Winchester Duresme Worcester Ely Rochester and Carlile into Collegiate Churches consisting of Deans and Prebendaries But as all this came much far short of what the King had at first intended so the Channel in which those Foundations run differed much from what Cranmer had projected whose Interest was so low at Court that his Opinion was not now regarded as it had been formerly He intended to have restored the Cathedrals to what they had been at first to be Colleges and Nurseries for the Diocess and to have set up Readers of the Learned Tongues and of Divinity in them that so a considerable number of young Clerks might have been trained up under the Bishop's Eye both in their Studies and in a Course of Devotion to be by him put afterwards in Livings according to their Merit and Improvements The want of such Houses for the strict Education of those who are to serve in the Church has been the occasion of many fatal Consequences since that time by the Scandals which Men initiated to the Sacred Functions before they were well prepared for them have given the World The Popish Party beyond Sea censured these Endowments both as being a very defective Restitution of the Lands that had been invaded and as an Invasion on the Spiritual Authority when the King divided Diocesses and removed Churches from one Jurisdiction and put them under another To which it was answered That as their Practices against the King had put him to such a charge that he could not execute what he at first intended so both the Roman Emperours and other Christian Kings had regulated and divided the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and made Primates and Patriarchs as they pleased Ely in England was taken out of Lincoln only by the King and his Parliament tho P. Nicolaus did officiously send a Confirmation of it that being an Art of
founding of Monasteries was the fittest Compensation for a King and he turned out all the married Priests and put Monks in their stead From that time the Credit and Wealth of Monastick Orders continued to encrease for several Ages till the Begging Orders succeeded in the esteem of the World to the place which the Monks formerly had for they decreased as much in true worth as the false appearances of it had now raised their Revenues They were not only ignorant themselves but very jealous of the progress Learning was making for Erasmus and the other Restorers of it treating them with much scorn they look'd on the encrease of it as that which would much lessen them and so not only did not contribute to it but rather detracted from it as that which would make way for Heresy The Cardinal designed two noble Foundations the one at Oxford Cardinal Wolsy suppresses many and the other at Ipswich the place of his Birth both for the encouragement of the Learned and the instruction of Youth and for that end he procured a Bull for suppressing divers Monasteries which being executed their Lands by Law fell to the King and thereupon the Cardinal took out Grants of them and endowed his Colledges with them But we shall next consider the state of Religion in England From the dayes of Wickliff there were many that differed from the Doctrines commonly received The growth of Wickliff's Doctrine He writ many Books that gave great Offence to the Clergy yet being powerfully supported by the Duke of Lancaster they could not have their revenge during his Life but he was after his Death condemned and his Body was raised and burnt The Bible which he translated into English with the Preface which he set before it produced the greatest Effects In it he reflected on the ill Lives of the Clergy and condemned the Worship of Saints and Images and the corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament but the most criminal part was the exhorting all People to read the Scriptures where the Testimonies against those Corruptions were such that there was no way to deal with them but to silence them His Followers were not Men of Letters but being wrought on by the easy Conviction of plain Sense were by them determined in their Persuasions They did not form themselves into Body but were contented to hold their Opinions secretly and did not spread them but to their particular Confidents The Clergy sought them out every where and did deliver them after Conviction to the Secular Arm that is to the Fire In the Primitive Church The Cruelty of the Clergy all cruel Proceedings upon the account of Heresy were condemned so that the Bishops who accused some Hereticks upon which they were put to death were excommunicated for it Banishment and Fines with some Incapacities were the highest Severities even upon the greatest Provocations But as the Church grew corrupted in other things so a cruel Spirit being generally the mark of all ill Priests of whatsoever Religion they are they fell under the Influences of it and from the days of the rise of the Albigenses the severities of the Inquisition and Burnings with many other Cruelties were by the means of the Dominicans set up first in France and then in the other parts of Europe A Decree was also made in the Council of the Lateran requiring all Magistrates under the pains of forfeiture and deposition to extirpate Hereticks Burning agreed best with their Cruelty as being the most terrible sort of Death and bearing some resemblance to everlasting Burnings in Hell so they damned the Souls of the Hereticks and burnt their Bodies but the Execution of the former part of the Sentence was not in their power as the latter part was The Canons of that Council being received in England the Proceedings against Hereticks grew to be a part of the Common Law and a Writ for burning them was issued out upon their Conviction But special Statutes were afterwards made The first under Richard the second Laws made in England against Hereticks was only agreed to by the Lords and without its being consented to by the Commons the King assented to it yet all the Severity in it was no more than that Writs should go out to the Sheriffs to hold Hereticks in Prison till they should be judged by the Laws of the Church The Preamble of the Law says They were very numerous that they had a peculiar Habit that they preached in many Churches other Places against the Faith and refused to submit to the Censures of the Church This was sent with the other Acts according to the custom of that Time to all the Sheriffs of England to be proclaimed by them but the Year following in the next Parliament the Commons complained that that Act was published to which they had never consented so an Act passed declaring the former null yet this was suppressed and the former was still esteemed a good Law When Henry the fourth came to the Crown he owing it in great measure to the help of the Clergy passed an Act against all that preached without the Bishop's Licence or against the Faith and it was enacted That all Transgressors of that sort should be imprisoned and within three Months be brought to a Trial If upon Conviction they offered to abjure and were not Relapses they were to be imprisoned and fined at pleasure and if they refused to abjure or were Relapses they were to be delivered to the secular Arm and the Magistrates were to burn them in some publick Place But tho by this Statute no mention is made of sending out a Writ for Execution yet that continued still to be practised And that same Year Sautre a Priest being condemned as a Relapse and degraded by Arundell Arch-bishop of Canterbury a Writ was issued out for it in which Burning is called the Common Punishment which related to the customs of other Nations For this was the first Instance of that kind in England In the beginning of Henry the fifth's Reign there was a Conspiracy against the King discovered tho others that lived not long after say it was only pretended and contrived by the Clergy of Old-Castle and some others of Wickliff's Followers then called Lollards upon which many were condemned both for Treason and Heresy who were first hanged and then burnt and a Law followed that the Lollards should forfeit all that they held in Fee-simple as well as their Goods and Chattels to the King and all Sheriffs and Magistrates were required to take an Oath to destroy all Heresies and Lollardies and to assist the Ordinaries in their proceedings against them Yet the Clergy making ill use of these Laws and vexing all People that gave them any Offence with long Imprisonments the Judges interposed and examined the Grounds of their Commitments and as they saw cause Bailed or Discharged the Prisoners and took upon them to declare what Opinions were Heresies by Law and what were
before the Act of Parliament past for suppressing the lesser Monasteries Q. Katherine was put to much trouble for keeping the Title Queen Queen Katherin's Death but bore it resolutely and said That since the Pope had judged that her Marriage was good she would die rather than do any thing in prejudice of it Her Sufferings begot Compassion in the People and all the Superstitious Clergy supported her Interests zealously But now her Troubles ended with her Life She desired to be buried among the Observant Friers for they had suffered most for her She ordered 500 Masses to be said for her Soul and that one of her Women should go a Pilgrimage to our Lady of Walsingham and give 200 Nobles on her way to the Poor When she found Death coming on her as she writ to the Emperour recommending her Daughter to his care So she writ to the King with this Inscription My dear Lord King and Husband She forgave him all the Injuries he had done her and wish'd him to have regard to his Soul She recommended her Daughter to his Care and desired him to be kind to her three Maids and to pay her Servants a Years Wages and ended thus mine Eyes desire you above all things She died on the Eighth of January at Kimbolt on in the 50th Year of her Age 33 years after she came to England She shas a Devout and Exemplary Woman She used to work with her own hands and kept her Women at work with her The Severities and Devotions that were known to her Priests and her Alms-Deeds joined to the Troubles she fell in begat a high Esteem of her in all sorts of People The King complained often of her Peevishness but that was perhaps to be imputed as much to the Provocations he gave her as to the Sowrness of her Temper He ordered her to be buried in the Abbey of Peterborough and was somewhat touched with her Death But Q. Ann did not carry this so decently as became a happy Rival In February a Parliament met In Parliament the lesser Monasteries suppressed after a Prorogation of 14 Months The Act impowering 32 to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws was confirmed but no time was limited for finishing it so it had no effect The chief business of this Session was the suppressing of the Monasteries under 200 l. a Year The Report the Visitors made was read in the two Houses and disposed them to great easiness in this matter The Act sets forth the great disorders of those Houses and the many unsuccessful Attempts that had been made to reform them so the Religious that were in them were ordered to be put in the greater Houses where Religion was better observed and the Revenues of them were given to the King Those Houses were much richer than they seemed to be for an abuse that had run over Europe of keeping the Rents of the Church at their first Rates and instead of raising them the exacting great Fines for the Incumbent when the Leases were renewed was so gross in those Houses that some rated but at 200 l. were in real value worth many Thousands By another Act a new Court was erected with the Title of the Court of the Augmentations of the King's Revenue consisting of a Chancellor a Treasurer 10 Auditors 17 Receivers besides ofther Officers The King was also empowered to make new Foundations of such of those Houses now suppressed as he pleased which were in all 370 and so this Parliament after six Years Continuance was now dissolved A Convocation sate at this time A Translation of the Bille designed in which a motion was made for Translating the Bible into English which had been promised when Tindal's Translation was condemned but was afterwards laid aside by the Clergy as neither necessary nor expedient So it was said that those whose Office it was to teach People the Word of God did all they could to suppress it Moses the Prophets and the Apostles wrote in the Vulgar Tongue Christ directed the People to search the Scriptures and as soon as any Nation was converted to the Christian Religion the Bible was translated into their Language nor was it ever taken out of the hands of the People till the Christian Religion was so corrupted that it was not safe to trust them with such a Book which would have so manifestly discovered those Errours and the Legends as agreeing better with those Abuses were read instead of the Word of God So Cranmer look'd on the putting the Bible in the People's hands as the most effectual means for promoting the Reformation and therefore moved that the King might be prayed to give order for it But Gardiner and all the other Party opposed this vehemently They said All the extravagant Opinions then in Germanny rose from the indiscreet use of the Scriptures Some of those Opinions were at this time disseminated in England both against the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ and the usefulness of the Sacraments for which 19 Hollanders had been burnt in England the former Year It was therefore said That during these Distractions the use of the Scriptures would prove a great Snare So it was proposed that instead of them their might be some short Exposition of the Christian Religion put in the Peoples hands which might keep them in a certain Subjection to the King and the Church But it was carried in the Convocation for the Affirmative At Court Men were much divided in this Point some said if the King gave way to it he would never be able after that to govern his People and that they would break into many Divisions But on the other hand it was said That nothing would make the Difference between the Pope's Power and the King's Supremacy appear more eminently than if the one gave the People the free use of the Word of God whereas the other had kept them in Darkness and ruled them by a blind Obedience It would be also a great mean to extinguish the Interest that either the Pope or the Monks had in England to put the Bible in the People's hands in which it would appear that the World had been long deceived by their Impostures which had no Foundation in the Scriptures These Reasons joyned with the Interest that the Queen had in the King prevailed so far with him that he gave order for setting about this with all possible hast and within three Years the Impression of it was finished At this time the King was in some Treaty with the German Princes not only for a League in Temporal Concerns but likewise in matters of Religion The King thought the Germans should have in all things submitted to him and the Opinion he had of his own Learning which was perhaps heightned a little with his new Title of Head of the Church made him expect that they should in all points comply with him Gardiner was then his Ambassadour in France and diswaded him much from any Religious League with them
King's Supremacy Others were also suspected of favouring them and of receiving Books sent from beyond Sea against the King's Proceedings and were shut up in their Cells in which most of them died The Prior was a Man of extraordinary Charity and Good-Works as the Visitor reported But he was made resign with this Preamble That many of the House had offended the King and deserved that their Lives should be taken and their Goods confiscated and therefore to avoid that they surrendered their Houses Great Complaints were made of the Visitors as if they had used undue Practices to make the Abbots and Monks surrender and it was said that they had in many Places embezell'd much of the Plate to their own Uses and in particular it was complained that Dr. London had corrupted many Nuns They on the other hand published many of the vile Practices that they found in those Houses so that several Books very indecently writ were printed upon this Occasion but on so foul a Subject it is not fit to stand long No Story became so publick as that of the Prior of the crossed Friers in London who was found in bed with a Whore at Noon-day He fell down on his Knees and beg'd that they who surprised him would not discover his shame They made him give them 30 l. which he protested was all he had and he promised them as much more But he not keeping his word to them a Suit followed upon it Yet all these personal Blemishes did not work much on the People It seemed unreasonable to extinguish Noble Foundations for the fault of some Individuals Therefore another way was taken which had a better effect They discovered many Impostures about Relicks The Impostures of Images discovered and wonderful Images to which Pilgrimages had been wont to be made At Reading they had an Angel's Wing which brought over the Spear's Point that pierced our Saviour's Side As many pieces of the Cross were found as joined together would have made a big Cross The Rood of Grace at Boxley in Kent had been much esteemed and drawn many Pilgrims to it It was observed to bow and roul its Eyes and look at times well pleased or angry which the credulous Multitude imputed to a Divine Power But all this was discovered to be a Cheat and it was brought up to St. Paul's Cross and all the Springs were openly shewed that governed its several Motions At Hales in Glocestershire the Blood of Christ was shewed in a Vial and it was believed that none could see it who were in mortal Sin And so after good Presents were made the deluded Pilgrims went way well satisfied if they had seen it This was the Blood of a Duck renewed every Week put in a Vial very thick of one side as thin on the other and either side turned towards the Pilgrim as the Priests were satisfied with their Oblations Several other such like Impostures were discovered which contributed much to the undeceiving the People The richest Shrine in England was Thomac Beckets at Canterbury Becket's Shrine broken whose Story is well known After he had long imbroiled England and shewed that he had a Spirit so turned to Faction that he could not be at quiet some of Henry the Second's Officious Servants killed him in the Church of Canterbury He was presently Canonized and held in greater esteem than any other Saint whatsoever so much more was a Martyr for the Papacy valued than any that suffered for the Christian Religion And his Altar drew far greater Oblations than those that were dedicated to Christ or the blessed Virgin as appears by the accounts of two of their Years In one 3 l. 2 s. 6 d. And in another not a Penny was offered at Christ's Altar There was in the one 63 l. 5 s. 6 d. and in the other 4 l. 1 s. 8 d. offered at the Blessed Virgin 's Altar But in these very Years there was 832 l. 12 s. 3 d. and 964 l. 6 s. 3 d. offered at St. Thomas's Altar The Shrine grew to be of inestimable Value Lewis the Seventh of France came over in Pilgrimage to visit it and offered a Stone valued to be the richest in Europe He had not only one Holy Day the 29th of December called his Martyrdom but also the Day of his Translation the 7th of July was also a Holy Day and every 50th Year there was a Jubily and an Indulgence granted to all that came and visited his Tomb And sometimes there were believed to be 100000 Pilgrims there on that Occasion It is hard to tell whether the Hatred to his seditious Practices or the Love of his Shrine set on King Henry more to Unsaint him His Shrine was broken and the Gold of it was so heavy that it filled two Chests which took Eight men a piece to carry them out of the Church and his Skull which had been so much worshipped was proved to be an Imposture for the true Skull was with the rest of his Bones in his Coffin his Bones were either burnt as it was given out at Rome or so mixed with other Bones as our Writers say that it had been a Miracle indeed to have distinguished them afterwards The King called at this time a Meeting of the Clergy of 10 Bishops 8 Archdeacons and 17 Divines and Canonists and made them finish an Explanation of the Christian Religion But this was afterwards digested into a better form as shall be told in its proper place When all these things were known at Rome all the Eloquent Pens there were imploied to represent King Henry as the most Sacrilegious Tyrant that ever was The Pope thunders against the King that made War with Christs Vicar on Earth and his Saints in Heaven and he was compared to the worst Princes that ever reigned to Pharaoh Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar Nero and Diocletian but the Parallel with Julian the Apostate was most insisted on It was said He copied after him in all things save only that his Maners were worse In many of these Cardinal Pool's Stile was pretended to be known and they were all at least much encouraged by him which provoked the King to hate him most Implacably The Pope went further for now he published all those Thunders with which he had threatned him three Years before He pretended That as God's Vicar he had power to root out and to destroy and had Authority over all the Kings in the World And therefore after he had enumerated all the King's Crimes he required himself to appear within 90 days at Rome either in Person or by Proxy and all his Complices within 60 Days and if he and they did not appear he declared him to have fallen from his Crown and them from their Estates He put the Kingdom under an Interdict and absolved his Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance He declared him and his Complices Infamous and put their Children under Incapacities He required all the Clergy to go out of England within
three were condemned for some Words which they had spoken against the Mass and upon that were burnt Dr. London and Simonds an Attorney had taken some Informations against several Persons of Quality at Court and intended to have carried the Design very high But a great Pacquet in which all their Project was disclosed by them being intercepted they were sent for and examined about it but they denied it upon Oath not knowing that their Letters were taken and were not a little confounded when their own Hand-writing was shewed them So they were convicted of Perjury and were set on a Pillory and made ride about with their Faces to the Horses Tails and Papers on their Breasts in three several Places which did so affect Dr. London that he died soon after Cranmer 's Ruine is designed The chief thing aimed at by the whole Popish Party was Cranmer's Ruine Gardiner imploied many to infuse it into the King that he gave the chief Encouragement to Heresy of any in England and that it was in vain to lop off the Branches and leave the Root still growing The King till then would never hear the Complaints that were made of him But now to penetrate into the depth of this Design he was willing to draw out all that was to be said against him Gardiner reckoned that this Point being gained all the rest would follow And judged that the King was now alienated from him and so more Instruments and Artifices than ever were now made use of A long Paper of many Particulars both against Cranmer and his Chaplains was put in the King's hands So upon this the King sent for him and after he had complained much of the Heresy in England he said He resolved to find out the chief Promoter of it and to make him an Example Cranmer wished him first to consider well what Heresy was that so he might not condemn those as Hereticks who stood for the Word of God against Humane Inventions Then the King told him franckly That he was the Man complained of as most guilty and shewed him all the Informations that he had received against him Cranmer confessed he was still of the same mind that he was of when he opposed the six Articles and submitted himself to a Trial He confessed many things to the King in particular that he had a Wife but he said he had sent her out of England when the Act of the six Articles past and expressed so great a Sincerity and put so entire a Confidence in the King that instead of being ruined he was now better established with him than formerly The King commanded him to appoint some to examine the Contrivance that was laid to destroy him He answered That it was not decent for him to nominate any to judge in a Cause in which himself was concerned Yet the King was positive so so he named some to go about it and the whole secret was found out It appeared that Gardiner and Dr. London had been the chief Sticklers and had encouraged Informers to appear against him Cranmer did not press the King to give him any Reparation for he was so noted for his readiness to forgive Injuries and to do Good for Evil that it was commonly said that the best way to obtain his Favour was to do him an Injury of this he gave signal Instances at this time both in Relation to some of the Clergy and Laity by which it appeared that he was acted by that meek and lowly Spirit that became all the Followers of Christ but more particularly one that was so great an Instrument in reforming the Christian Religion and did in such eminent Acts of Charity shew that he himself practised that which he taught others to do A Parliament was now called The Act of the Succession in which the great Act of Succession to the Crown past By it the Crown was first provided to Prince Edward and his Heirs or the Heirs by the King 's present Marriage after them to Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth and in case they had no Issue or did not observe such Limitations or Conditions as the King should appoint then it was to fall to any other whom the King should name either by his Letters Patents or by his last Will signed with his Hand An Oath was appointed both against the Pope's Supremacy and for the maintaining Succession according to this Act which all were required to take under the pains of Treason It was made Treason to say or write any thing contrary to this Act or to the Slander of any of the King's Heirs named in it By this tho the King did not Legitimate his Daughters yet it was made Criminal for any to object Bastardy to them Another Act past qualifying the Severity of the Act of the six Articles none were to be imprisoned but upon a Legal Presentment except upon the King's Warrant None was to be challenged for Words but within a Year nor for a Sermon but within 40 Days This was made to prevent such Conspiracies as had been discovered the former Year Another Act past renewng the Authority given to 32 to reform the Ecclesiastical Law which Cranmer promoted much and to set it forward he drew out of the Canon Law a Collection of many things against the Regal and for the Papal Authority with several other very Extravagant Propositions to shew how Indecent a thing it was to let a Book in which such things were continue still in any credit in England But he could not bring this to any good Issue during this Reign Another Act past discharging all the King's Debts and they also required such as had received payment to bring back the Money into the Exchequer This was taxed as a piece of gross Injustice and it was thought strange that since the King had done this once before he could have the credit to raise more Mony and be tempted to do it a second time A General Pardon was granted out of which Heresy was excepted The King was now engaged in a War The King makes War on France and Scotland both with France and Scotland and to make his Treasure hold out the longer he embased the Coin in a very Extraordinary manner The Earl of Hartford was sent with an Army by Sea to Scotland he landed at Grantham a little above Leith He burnt both Leith and Edinburgh but he neither staied to take the Castle of Edinburgh nor did he Fortify Leith but only wasted the Country all the Way from that to Berwick He did too much if it was intended to gain the Hearts of that Nation and too little if it was intended to subdue them for this did only inflame their Spirits more by which they were so united in their Aversion to England that the Earl of Lennox who had been cast off by France and was gone over to the English Interest could make no Party in the West but was forced for his own Preservation to fly into
of Portugal's Brother but it was let fall soon after She refused to acknowledge the Laws made when the King was under age and carried herself very high for she knew well that the Protector was then afraid of a War with France and that made the Emperours Alliance more necessary to England Yet the Council sent for the Officers of her houshold and required them to let her know that the Kings Authority was the same when he was a child as at full age and that it was now lodged in them and though as they were single persons they were all inferiour to her yet as they were the Kings Council she was bound to obey them especially when they executed the Law which all Subjects of what rank soever were bound to obey Yet at present they durst go no further for fear of the Emperours displeasure So it was resolved to connive at her Mass The Reformation of the greatest Errours in Divine Worship being thus established Disputes concerning Christs presence in the Sacrament Cranmer proceeded next to establish a form of Doctrine the chief point that hitherto was untouched was the presence of Christ in the Sacrament which the Priests magnified as the greatest Mystery of the Christian Religion and the chief priviledge of Christians with which the simple and credulous vulgar were mightily affected The Lutherans received that which had been for some Ages the Doctrine of the Greek Church that in the Sacraments there was both Bread and Wine and also the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ The Helvetians lookt on it only as a Commemoration of the Death of Christ The Princes of Germany were at great pains to have these reconciled in which Bucer had laboured with great Industry But Luther being a man of a harsh temper did not easily bear contradiction and was too apt to assume in effect that Infallibility to himself which he condemned in the Pope Some took a middle way and asserted a Real Presence but it was not easie to understand what was meant by that expression unless it was a real application of Christs death so that the meaning of Really was Effectually But though Bucer followed this method Pet. Martyr did in his Lectures declare plainly for the Helvetians So Dr. Smith and some others intended publickly to oppose and affront him and challenged him to a dispute about it which he readily accepted on these conditions That the Kings Council should first approve of it and that it should be managed in Scripture terms For the strength of those Doctors lay in a nimble managing of those barbarous and unintelligible terms of the Schools which though they sounded high yet really they had no sense under that So all the Protestants resolved to dispute in Scripture terms which seemed more proper in matters of Divinity than the Metaphysical language of School men The Council having appointed Dr. Cox and some others to preside in the dispute Dr. Smith went out of the way and a little after fled out of England But before he went he wrote a very mean submission to Cranmer Other Doctors disputed with Peter Martyr concerning Transubstantiation but that had the common fate of all publick disputes for both sides gave out that they had the better At the same time there were also disputes at Cambridge which were moderated by Ridley that was sent down thither by the Council He had fallen on Bertrams Book of the Sacrament and wondred much to find so celebrated a Writer in the ninth Century engage so plainly against the Corporal Presence This disposed him to think that at that time it was not the received belief of the Church He communicated the matter to Cranmer and they together made great Collections out of the Fathers on this head and both wrote concerning it The substance of their Arguments was Arguments against the Corporal Presence That as Christ called the Cup the Fruit of the Vine so S. Paul called the other Element Bread after the Consecration which shews that their natures were not changed Christ speaking to Jews and substituting the Eucharist in the room of the Paschal Lamb used such expressions as had been customary among the Jews on that occasion who called the Lamb the Lords Passeover which could not be meant literally since the Passeover was the Angels passing by their Houses when the first born of the Egyptians were killed So it being a commemoration of that was called the Lords Passeover and in the same sense did Christ call the Bread his Body Figurative expressions being ordinary in Scripture and not improper in Sacraments which may be called Figurative actions It was also appointed for a Remembrance of Christ and that supposes absence The Elements were also called by Christ his Body broken and his Blood shed so it is plain they were his Body not as it is glorified in Heaven but as it suffered on the Cross And since the Scriptures speak of Christs continuance in Heaven till the last day from thence they inferred that he was not Corporally present And it was shewed that the eating Christs Flesh mentioned by S. John was not to be understood of the Sacrament since of every one that did eat it is said that he has Eternal life in him So that was to be understood only of receiving Christs doctrine and he himself shewed it was to be meant so when he said that the Flesh profited nothing but his words were Spirit and Life So that all this was according to Christs ordinary way of teaching in Parables Many other Arguments were brought from the nature of a body to prove that it could not be in more places than one at once and that it was not in a place after the manner of a Spirit but was always extended They found also that the Fathers had taught that the Elements were still Bread and Wine and were the Types the Signs and Figures of Christs Body not only according to Tertullian and S. Austin but to the Ancient Liturgies both in the Greek and Roman Churches But that on which they built most was that Chrysostome Gelasius and Theodoret arguing against those who said that the humane nature in Christ was swallowed up by its Union to his Godhead They illustrated the contrary thus as in the Sacrament the Elements are united to the Body of Christ and yet continue to be the same that they were formerly both in Substance Nature and Figure So the Humanity was not destroyed by its Union with the Word From which it appeared that it was then the received opinion that the Elements were not changed and therefore all those high expressions in Chrysostome or others were only strains and figures of Eloquence to raise the devotion of the people higher in that holy action But upon those expressions the following Ages built that opinion which agreeing so well with the Designs of the Priests for establishing the authority of that Order which by its Character was qualified for the greatest performance that
affairs so well that the Ambassadours that were sent into England published very extraordinary things of him in all the Courts of Europe He had great quickness of apprehension but being distrustful of his Memory he took Notes of every thing he heard that was considerable in Greek Characters that those about him might not understand what he writ which he afterwards Copied out fair in the Journal that he kept His Virtues were wonderful when he was made believe that his Unkle was guilty of conspiring the death of the other Counsellours he upon that abandoned him Barnaby Fitzpatrick was his Favourite and when he sent him to travel he writ oft to him to keep good Company to avoid excess and Luxury and to improve himself in those things that might render him capable of Imployment at his return He was afterwards made Lord of Upper Ossory in Ireland by Queen Elizabeth and did answer the hopes that this excellent King had of him He was very merciful in his nature which appeared in his unwillingness to sign the Warrant for burning the Maid of Kent He took great care to have his debts well paid reckoning that a Prince who breaks his Faith and loses his Credit has thrown up that which he can never recover and made himself liable to perpetual distrust and extreme contempt He took special care of the Petitions that were given him by poor and opprest People But his great zeal for Religion crowned all the rest It was not only an angry heat about it that acted him but it was a true tenderness of conscience founded on the love of God his Neighbors These extraordinary qualities set off with great sweetness and affability made him be universally beloved by all his People Some called him their Josias others Edward the Saint and others called him the Phoenix that rise out of his Mothers ashes and all People concluded that the sins of England must have been very great since they provoked God to deprive the Nation of so signal a blessing as the rest of his Reign would have by all appearance proved Ridley and the other good Men of that time made great lamentations of the Vices that were grown then so common that Men had past all shame in them Luxury Oppression and a hatred of Religion had over-run the higher rank of People who gave a countenance to the Reformation meerly to rob the Church but by that and their other practices were become a great scandal to so good a work The inferiour sort were so much in the power of the Priests who were still notwithstanding their outward Compliance Papists in heart and were so much offended at the spoil they saw made of all good endowments without putting other and more useful ones in their room that they who understood little of Religion laboured under great prejudices against every thing that was advanced by such tools And these things as they provoked God highly so they disposed the People much to that sad Catastrophe which is to be the subject of the next Book BOOK III. Book III 1553. THE LIFE and REIGN OF Queen MARY BY King Edward's death Qu. Mary succeeds the Crown devolved according to Law on his Eldest Sister Mary who was within half a days Journey to the Court when she had notice given her by the Earl of Arundel of her Brother's death and of the Patent for Lady Jane's succession and this prevented her falling into the Trap that was laid for her Upon that she retired to Framlingham in Suffolk both to be near the Sea that she might escape to Flanders in case of a misfortune and because the slaughter that was made of Kets People by Northumberland begat him the hatred of the People in that Neighbourhood Before she got thither she wrote on the 9th of July to the Council and let them know she understood that her Brother was dead by which she succeeded to the Crown but wondred that she heard not from them she knew well what Consultations they had engaged in but she would pardon all that was done to such as would return to their duty and proclaim her Title to the Crown By this it was found that the Kings death could be no longer kept secret so some of the Privy Council went to Lady Jane and acknowledged her their Queen The news of the King's death afflicted her much and her being raised to the Throne rather encreased than lessened her trouble She was a very extraordinary Person both for Body and Mind She had learned both the Greek and Latine Tongues to great perfection and delighted much in study She read Plato in Greek and drunk in the Precepts of true Philosophy so early that as she was not tainted with the levities not to say Vices of those of her Age and condition so she seemed to have attained to the practice of the highest notions of Philosophy for in those sudden turns of her condition as she was not exalted with the prospect of a Crown so she was as little cast down when her Palace was made her Prison The only passion she shewed was that of the Noblest kind in the concern she exprest for her Father and Husband who fell with her and seemingly on her account though really Northumberland's ambition and her Father's weakness ruined her She rejected the offer of the Crown when it was first made her she said she knew that of right it belonged to the late King's Sisters and so she could not with a good Conscience assume it but it was told her that both the Judges and Privy Councellours had declared that it fell to her according to Law This joyned with the Importunities of her Husband who had more of his Father's Temper than of her Philosophy in him made her submit to it Upon this XXI Privy Councellours set their hands to a Letter to Queen Mary letting her know that Queen Jane was now their Soveraign and that the Marriage between her Father and Mother was null so she could not succeed to the Crown and therefore they required her to lay down her Pretensions and to submit to the settlement now made and if she gave a ready obedience to these Commands they promised her much favour The day after this they proclaimed Jane But Lady Jane Gray is proclaimed In it they set forth That the late King had by Patent excluded his Sisters that both were illegitimated by sentences past in the Ecclesiastical Courts and confirmed in Parliament and at best they were only his Sisters by the half blood and so not inheritable by the Law of England There was also cause to fear that they might marry strangers and change the Laws and subject the Nation to the Tyranny of the See of Rome Next to them the Crown fell to the Dutchess of Suffolk and it was provided that if she should have no Sons when the King died the Crown should devolve on her Daughter who was born and married in the Kingdom Upon which
Title of Queen she submitted with as much greatness of mind as her Father shewed of abjectness They sent also Orders to Northumberland to dismiss his Forces and to obey the Queen and the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget were sent to carry these welcome tidings to her When Northumberland heard of the Turn that was in London without staying for Orders he discharged his Forces and went to the Market-place at Cambridge where he was at that time and proclaimed the Queen The Earl of Arundel was sent to apprehend him and when he was brought to him he fell at his Feet to beg his favour for a mind that has no ballance in it self turns insolent or abject out of measure with the various changes of fortune He and three of his Sons and Sir Tho. Palmer that was his wicked Instrument against the Duke of Somerset were all sent to the Tower Now all People went to implore the Queen's favour and Ridley among the rest but he was sent to the Tower for she was both offended with him for his Sermon and resolved to put Bonner again in the See of London Some of the Judges and several Noblemen were also sent thither among the rest the Duke of Suffolk but three days after he was set at liberty He was a weak Man and could do little harm so he was pitched on as the first Instance towards whom the Queen should express her Clemency She came to London on the 3d. of August She comes to London and on the way was met by her Sister Lady Elizabeth with a thousand Horse whom she had raised to come to the Queen's assistance When she came to the Tower she discharged the Duke of Norfolk the Dutchess of Somerset and Gardiner of whose Commitment mention has been formerly made as also the Lord Courtney Son to the Marquess of Exeter who had been kept there ever since his Fathers Attainder whom she made Earl of Devonshire And thus was she now peaceably setled on the Throne notwithstanding that great Combination against her which had not been so easily broken if the Head of it had not been a Man so Universally distastful She was a Lady of great Vertues Her former life she was strict in her Religion to superstition her Temper was much corrupted by Melancholy and the many cross accidents of her life increased this to a great degree She adhered so resolutely to her Mothers Interests that it was believed her Father once intended to have taken her Life upon which her Mother wrote a very devout Letter to her charging her to trust in God and keep her self pure and to obey the King in all things except in matters of Religion She sent her two Latine Books for her entertainment Saint Jerome's Epistles and a Book of the Life of Christ which was perhaps the famous Book of Thomas à Kempis The Kings displeasure at her was such that neither the Duke of Norfolk nor Gardiner durst venture to intercede for her Cranmer was the only Man that hazarded on it and did it so effectually that he prevailed with him about it But after her Mothers death she hearkned to other Counsels so that upon Anne Boleyn's fall she made a full submission to him as was mentioned before She did also in many Letters which she writ both to her Father and to Cromwell Protest great sorrow for her former stubornness and declared that she put her Soul in his hand and that her Conscience should be always directed by him and being asked what her Opinion was concerning Pilgrimages Purgatory and Reliques she answered that she had no Opinion but such as she received from the King who had her whole heart in his keeping and might imprint upon it in these and in all other matters whatever his inestimable Vertue high Wisdom and excellent Learning should think convenient for her So perfectly had she learned the stile that she knew was most acceptable to her Father After that she was in all points obedient to him and during her Brothers Reign she set up on that pretence that she would adhere to that way of Religion that was setled by her Father Two different Schemes were now set before her Gardiner and all that had complied in the former times moved that at first she should bring things back to the state in which they were The Counsels then laid down when her Father died and afterwards by easie and slow steps she might again return to the obedience to the See of Rome But she her self was more inclined to return to that immediately she thought she could not be legitimated any other way and so was like to proceed too quick Gardiner finding that Political Maximes made no great Impression on her and that he was lookt on by her as a crafty temporising Man addressed himself to the Emperour who understood Government and Mankind better and undertook that if he might have the Seals he would manage matters so that in a little time he should bring all things about to her mind and that there was no danger but in her precipitating things and being so much governed by Italian Counsels for he understood that she had sent for Cardinal Pool The People had a great Aversion to the Papal authority and the Nobility and Gentry were apprehensive of losing the Abbey Lands therefore it was necessary to remove these prejudices by degrees He also assured the Emperour that he would serve all his Interests zealously and shewed him how necessary it was to stop Cardinal Pool who stood Attainted by Law In this he was the more earnest because he knew Pool hated him The Emperour upon this writ so effectually to the Queen to depend on Gardiner's Counsels that on the 13th of August he was made Lord Chancellour and the conduct of affairs was put in his hands The Duke of Norfolk being now at liberty pretended that he was never truly attainted and that it was no legal Act that had past against him and by this he recovered his Estate all the Grants that had been made out of it being declared void at Common Law He was made Lord Steward for the Trial of the Duke of Northumberland Northumberlands Trial and his Son the Earl of Warwick and the Marquess of Northampton All that they pleaded in their own defence lay in two points the one was whether any thing that was acted by Order of Council and the authority of the Great Seal could be Treason The other was whether those that were as guilty as they were could sit and judge them The Judges answered that the Great Seal or Privy Council of one that was not lawful Queen could give no Authority nor Indemnity and that other Peers if they were not convicted by Record might judge them These Points being determined against them they pleaded Guilty and submitted to the Queens Mercy So Sentence past upon them and the day after that Sir John Gates Sir Tho. Palmer and some others were tried and
Southampton brought him the Keys of the Town which he took from him and gave them back without the least shew of his being pleased with this expression of that respect done him This not being sutable to the Genius of the Nation that is much taken with the gracious looks of their Princes was thought a sign of vast pride and moroseness The Queen met him at Winchester where they were married he being then in the XXVII and she in the XXXVIII Year of her Age. The Emperour resigned to him his Titular Kingdom of Jerusalem and his more valuable one of Naples so they were proclaimed with a Pompous Enumeration of their Titles The Kings gravity was very unacceptable to the English who love a mean between the stiffness of the Spaniards and the gaiety of the French But if they did not like his temper they were out of measure in love with his Bounty and Wealth for he brought over a vast Treasure with him the greatest part of which was distributed among those who for his Spanish Gold had sold their Countrey and Religion At his coming to London he procured the Pardon of many Prisoners and among others of Holgate Archbishop of York of whom I find no mention made after this It is very likely he changed his Religion otherwise it is not probable that Philip would have interceded for him He also interposed for preserving Lady Elizabeth and the Earl of Devonshire Gardiner was much set against them and thought they made but half work as long as she lived Wiat had accused them in hopes of saving his life but when that did not preserve him he did publickly vindicate them on the Scaffold The Earl of Devonshire to be freed from all jealousie went beyond Sea and dyed a Year after in Italy as some say of Poison Philip at first took care to preserve Lady Elizabeth on a generous account pitying her Innocence and hoping by so acceptable an act of favour to recommend himself to the Nation but Interest did soon after fortifie those good and wise Inclinations for when he grew to be out of hope of issue by the Queen he considered that the Queen of Scotland who was soon after married to the Dolphin was next in succession after Lady Elizabeth so if she should be put out of the way the Crown of England would have become an Accession to the French Crown and therefore he took care to preserve her and perhaps he hoped to have wrought so much on her by the good offices he did her that if her Sister should dye without Children she might be induced to marry him But this was the only grateful thing he did in England He affected so extravagant a state and was so sullen and silent that it was not easie for any to come within the Court and Access to him was not to be had without demanding it with almost as much formality as Ambassadours used when they desired an Audience So that a General discontent was quickly spread into most places of the Kingdom only Gardiner was well pleased for the Conduct of affairs was put entirely in his hands Many malicious reports were spread of the Queen particularly in Norfolk at one of these the Queen was much concerned which was that she was with Child before the King came over but after great examinations nothing could be made out of it The Bishops went to make their Visitations this Summer The Bishops visit their Diocesses to see whether the old Service with all its Rites was again set up they also enquired concerning the lives and labours of the Clergy of their Marriage and their living chastly whether they were suspected of Heresie or of favouring Hereticks whether they went to Taverns or Alehouses whether they admitted any to officiate that had been Ordained schismatically before they were reconciled or to preach if they had not obtained a Licence whether they visited the sick and administred the Sacraments reverently whether they were guilty of Merchandise or Usury and whether they did not once every Quarter at least expound to the People the Elements of the Christian Religion in the Vulgar Tongue They did not proceed steadily in relation to the Ordinations made in King Edward's time for at this time all that they did was to add the Ceremonies that were then left out in the Book of Ordinations but afterwards they carried themselves as if they had esteemed those Orders of no force and therefore they did not degrade those Bishops or Priests that had been ordained by it Nor has the Church of Rome been steady in this matter for though upon some Schisms they have annulled all Ordinations made in them yet they have not annulled the Ordinations of the Greek Church though they esteem the Greeks both Hereticks and Schismaticks Thus there were many questions put in among the Articles of the Visitation yet these were asked only for form the main business was Heresie and the performing all Offices according to the old customes and the least failing in these matters was more severely enquired after and more exemplarily punished than far greater offences Bonner carried himself like a Madman and it was said by his friends to excuse the Violences of his rage that his brains were a little disordered by his long Imprisonment for if either the Bells had not rung when he came near any Church or if he had not found the Sacrament exposed he was apt to break out into the foulest language and not content with that he was accustomed to beat his Clergy when he was displeased with any thing for he was naturally cruel and brutal He took care to have those places of Scripture that had been painted on the Walls of the Churches to be washed off and upon this it was said that it was necessary to dash out the Scripture to make way for Images for they agreed so ill that they could not decently stand together Many mock Poems and Satires were flying up and down but none was more provoking than one that followed on an Accident at Saint Pauls on Easter-Day The custom was to lay the Host in the Sepulchre at Even-Song on Good-Friday and to take it out on Easter Morning and the Quire Sung these words He is risen he is not here when it was taken out but when they lookt to take it out they found it was not there indeed for one had stollen it away but another was quickly brought so a Ballad was made that their God was lost but a new one was put in his room Great pains were taken to discover the Author of this but he was not found The Queens third Parliament met on the 11th of November Another Parliament In the Writ of Summons the Queens Title of Supream Head was left out though she had hitherto not only used the name but had assumed the power Imported by it to a high degree Pool was now suffered to come so near as Flanders and the Temper of the Parliament being quickly found
THE HISTORY of the REFORMATION Abridged Popes Suprem Popes Decrees holy Bible Ridley Latimer Cranmer Holy Bible London Printed for Ric Chiswell THE ABRIDGMENT OF THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE Church of ENGLAND By GILBERT BURNET D.D. LONDON Printed for R. C. and to be sold by John Lawrence at the Angel in Cornhill MDCLXXXII THE PREFACE THe Bulk and Price of the two Volumes of the History of our Reformation which I have published being such that every one cannot find the Mony to buy them or the Leisure to read them I have been desired by many to contract what I prosecuted more largly in that Work and bring it into a less Compass I know Abridgments are generally hurtful In them Men receive such a slight Tincture of Knowledge as only feeds Vanity and furnishes Discourse but does not give so clear a View of things nor so solid an Instruction as may be bad in more copious Writings And as it is a grievous Imposition on that time which ought to be imploied to better uses to draw out that which might be expressed in few words to such a length that it frights some from the study of Books which might have been of excellent use if they had not been too Voluminous and oppresses the Patience of those who are resolved to acquire Knowledge in the most labourious Methods so it is on the other hand a great Prejudice to the Improvement of Learning when things are too much contracted and such hints are only given as may be the Seeds of excellent Notions perhaps in very rich and fruitful Minds for copious Enlargements are often necessary to make the greatest part who are generally slow and heavy in their Apprehensions enter into those Notions which we set before them It is a true Judgment of Men and Things that must direct us to seek and keep that Mean betwixt those Extreams that may be of the greatest Advantage to the World What is said of Notions and Matters of Science is likewise applicable to Matters of Fact History is of little use if we consider it only as a Tale of what was transacted in former times Then it becomes most profitable when the Series and Reasons of Affairs and secret Councils and Ends together with the true Characters of Eminent Men are rightly presented to us that so upon the light which is given us of past times we may form Prudent Judgments of the present time and probable Conjectures of what is to come and may frame such a true Idea of Men and Parties as may both enlighten our Vnderstandings more by giving us a freer Prospect of Humane Affairs and may better direct us in our conduct This made me judge it necessary to open things in my History as largely as my Materials could serve me and because I writ upon a subject that had been much contradicted I was obliged not only to add a great Collection of Records for my Justification which makes the half of each Volume but likewise in the History it self to give often an account of the grounds on which I went I also added an Appendix containing the more remarkable Calumnies by which the Writers of the Roman Communion have endeavoured to corrupt the History of that time together with a Confutation of them I was likewise careful to set down many particular Curiosities relating to the Proceedings of Parliament of the Importance of which every Reader will not be aware at first I gave also a large account of all the Arguments that prevailed with the Divines as well as the Reasons that wrought on States-men in the changes that were made in which the Reader may find an Apology for the Reformation interwoven with its History In all these particulars there was matter enough for an Abridger to cut off a great deal and yet to give such an account of the whole Transaction as might in a great measure satisfy even Inquisitive Persons I understood that another was about this which made me resolve on doing it my self for none can so truly comprehend and by consequence abridge any Book as the Author himself who as he knows his own meaning best so he who has fixed his Thoughts long upon my Argument will be best able to judge what are the things and Circumstances that are of the greatest Importance and are most necessary to be rightly understood In compiling this Abridgment I have wholly waved every thing that belonged to the Records and the Proof of what I relate or to the Confutation of the falshoods that run through the Popish Historians All that is to be found in the History at large and therefore in this Abridgment every thing is to be taken upon trust and those that desire a fuller Satisfaction are to seek it in the Volums which I have already published The Particularities relating to the Proceedings of both Houses os Parliament could not be brought within so short an Abstract Many Digressions and the Deductions of Arguments are either past over or but shortly touched He that desires to be particularly informed in any or all of these must resort to the History it self All that I pretend to have done in this Abridgment is that I have given a true and clear account of the Progress of the Reformation in all those Windings and Advances and Declinings through which it was carried from its first beginnings till it was brought to a compleat setlement under Queen Elizabeth and this is done in such a manner that I hope the Reader shall not find much cause to complain that the endeavouring to be short has made me either obscure or defective In the Prefaces to the two Volumes I endeavoured to clear the Readers mind of the Prejudices which may be apt to arise either from a slight and general View of this matter or from the false Relations that have been formerly made of it I shall not undertake to abridge them for I brought them there into as narrow a compass as the weight of the matter did admit of Therefore I refer the Reader that Labours under the ill Effects of such Impressions to the Prefaces themselves and I shall add here that which is the last part of the Preface to the second Volume because it may be of more general use and is accommodated to all that as may be supposed will have the curiosity to read this Abridgment that so they may come to it with a true Idea of the Nature of Religion in general and of the Christian Religion in particular That Religion is chiefly designed for perfecting the nature of Man for improving his Faculties governing his Actions and securing the Peace of every mans Conscience and of the Societies of Mankind in common is a truth so plain that without further arguing about it all will agree to it Every part of Religion is then to be judged by its Relation to the main ends of it And since the Christian Doctrine was revealed from Heaven as the most perfect and proper
The State of England and assumed a Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs The Nobility and Gentry were generally well satisfied with the Change but the Body of the People was more under the Power of the Priests and they studied to infuse in them great Fears of a Change in Religion It was said the King was now joyning himself to Hereticks that both the Queen Cranmer and Cromwell favoured them It was left free to dispute what were Articles of Faith and what were only the Decrees of Popes and Changes would be made under this Pretence that they only rejected those Opinions which were supported by the Papal Authority The Monks and Friars saw themselves left at the King's Mercy Their Bulls could be no longer useful to them The trade of new Saints or Indulgences was near an end they had also some Intimations that Cromwell was forming a Project for suppressing them so they thought it necessary for their own Preservation to imbroil the King's Affairs as much as was possible therefore both in Confessions and Discourses they were infusing into the People a dislike of the King's Proceedings and this did so far work on them that if the Emperour's Affairs had been in such a condition that he could have made War on the King he might have done it with great Advantage and found a strong Party in England on his side But the Practices of the Clergy at home and of Cardinal Pool abroad the Libels that were published and the Rebellions that were afterwards raised in England wrought so much on the King's Temper that was naturally imperious and boisterous that he became too apt to commit Acts of the highest Severity and to bring his Subjects into Trouble upon the slightest Grounds and his new Title of Head of the Church seemed to have encreased his former Vanity and made him fancy that all his Subjects were bound to regulate their Belief by the measures he set them He had now raigned 25 Years in all which time none had suffered for Crimes against the State but Pool Earl of Suffolk and Stafford Duke of Buckingham the former was executed in Obedience to his Father's last Commands the latter fell by Cardinal Wolsey's Malice he had also been inveigled by a Priest to imagine he had a Right to the Crown but in the last ten Years of his Life Instances of Severity returned more frequently The Bishops and Abbots did what they could to free the King of any Jealousies that might be raised in him concerning them and of their own accord before any Law was made about it they swore to maintain the King's Supremacy The first Act of it was the making Cromwell Vicar General and Visitor of all the Monasteries and Churches of England with a Delegation of the King's Supremacy to him he was also empowered to give Commissions subaltern to himself and all Wills where the Estate was in value above 200 l. were to be proved in his Court This was afterwards enlarged and he was made the King's Vicegerent in Ecclesiastical Matters and had the Precedence of all next the Royal Family and his Authority was in all Points the same that the Legates had in time of Popery for as the King 's came in the Popes room so the Vicegerent was what the Legates had been Pains was taken to engage all the Clergy to declare for the Supreamacy At Oxford a publick Determination was made to which every Member assented that the Pope had no more Authority in England than any other Forreign Bishop The Franciscans at Richmond made some more Opposition they said by the Rule of St. Francis they were bound to obey the Holy See The Bishop of Litchfield told them that all the Bishops in England all the Heads of Houses and the most learned Divines had signed that Proposition St. Francis made his Rule in Italy where the Bishop of Rome was Metropolitan but that ought not to extend to England and it was shewed that the Chapter cited by them was not written by him but added since yet they continued positive in their refusal to sign it It was well known that all the Monks and Friars A general Visitation proposed tho they complied with the Time yet they hated this new Power of the King 's the People were also startled at it so one Dr. Leighton that had been in the Cardinal's Service with Cromwell proposed a General Visitation of all the Religious Houses in England and thought that nothing would reconcile the Nation so much to the King's Supremacy as to see some good Effect flow from it Others thought this was too hardy a Step and that it would provoke the Religious Orders too much Yet it was known that they were guilty of such Disorders that nothing could so effectually keep them in awe as the enquiring into these Cranmer led the way to this by a Metropolitical Visitation for which he obtained the King's Licence he took care to see that the Pope's Name was struck out of all the Offices of the Church and that the King's Supremacy was generally acknowledged In October the General Visitation of the Monasteries was begun Instructions and Injunctions for it which was cast into several Precincts Instructions were given them directing them what things to enquire after as whether the Houses had the full number according to their Foundation and if they performed Divine Worship in the appointed Hours what Exemptions they had what were their Statutes how their Heads were chosen and how their Vows were observed Whether they lived according to the Severities of their Orders how the Master and other Officers did their Duties how their Lands and their Revenues were managed what Hospitality was kept and what care was taken of the Novices what Benefices were in their Gift and how they disposed of them how the Inclosures of the Nunneries were kept whether the Nuns went abroad or if Men were admitted to come to them how they imploied their time and what Priests they had for their Confessors They were also ordered to give them some Injunctions in the King's Name That they should acknowledge his Supremacy and maintain the Act of Succession and declare all to be absolved from any Rules or Oaths that bound them to obey the Pope and that all their Statutes tending to that should be razed out of their Books That the Abbots should not have choice Dishes but plain Tables for Hospitality and that the Scriptures shoul be read at Meals that they should have daily Lectures of Divinity and maintain some of every House at the University The Abbot was required to instruct the Monks in true Religion and to shew them that it did not consist in outward Ceremonies but in Cleanness of Heart and Purity of Life and the worshiping of God in Spirit and Truth Rules were given about their Revenues and against admitting any under 20 Years of Age. The Visitors were empower'd to punish Offenders or to bring them to answer before the Visitor General What the Ancient
allow of so many Errours To this it was answered That our Saviour did not deliver all things to his Disciples till they were able to bear them And the Apostles did not abolish all the Rites of Judaism at once but by a gentle Progress intended to wean those that were converted to the Christian Religion from them The Clergy were to be drawn by slow and easy Steps out of their Ignorance and Superstition whereas the driving on things with precipitated hast might spoil the whole Design and alienate those who by slower Methods might be gained and it might also much endanger the Peace of the Nation At the same time other things were in Consultation tho not finished Other Alterations proposed Cranmer offered some Queries to shew the Cheats that had been put on the World as that Priestly Absolution without Contrition was of more efficacy than Contrition was without it and that the People trusted wholly to outward Ceremonies in which the Priests encouraged them because of the gain they made by them That the exemption of Clergy-men was without good ground that Bishops did ordain without due care and previous trial and that the dignified Clergy misapplied their Revenues and did not reside on their Benefices he also desired that the other four Sacraments might be enquired into but these things were not at this time taken under any further consideration It is true Confirmation seems to have been examined The Method in which they made their Enquiries was this the Point to be examined was brought under so many Heads in the form of Queries and to these every one gave his Answer with his Reasons so I find two Papers the one of Cranmer's the other of Stokesly's on this Head the former runs wholly upon Scripture-Authority and he thinks it was not instituted by Christ but was done by the Apostles by that extraordinary Effusion of the Holy Ghost that rested on them The other founds his Opinion for its being a Sacrament on the Tradition of the Church but nothing was determined in this point Cranmer did at this time offer another Paper to the King exhorting him to proceed to a further Reformation and that nothing should be determined without clear Proofs from Scripture for the departing from that Rule had been the Occasion of all the Errours that had been in the Church Many things were now acknowledged to be Errours for which some not long before had suffered Death He therefore proposed several points to be discussed as whether there was a Purgatory Whether departed Saints ought to be invocated or Tradition be believed Whether Images ought to be considered only as Representations of History And whether it was lawful for the Clergy to marry He prayed the King not to give Judgment in these points till he heard them well examined And for the last he offered that if those who would defend the lawfulness of it should not in the Opinion of indifferent Judges prove their Opinion to be true they should be willing to suffer Death but if they proved it all that they desired was that the King would leave them to the Liberty which God had allowed them in that matter But all this was carried no further at this time The Pope had issued out a Summons for a General Council at Mantua and had cited the King to it From this the King did appeal to a General Council rightly constituted So a motion being made by Fox that the Convocation should deliver their Sense in this Particular They drew up a Paper in which they set forth the great Good that might follow in a General Council rightly called but that nothing could be more mischievous than one called on private malice according to what Nazianzen observed of the Councils in his time And they thought neither the Pope nor any one Prince had sufficient Authority to call one but that all Princes who had an entire and supream Government over all their Subjects ought to concur to it This was signed by them all on the 20th of July and so was the Convocation dismiss'd Two days before it brake up Cromwel was made the King's Vicegerent in Ecclesiastical Matters of which some Account was formerly given Soon after this The King protests against a Council called by the Pope the King published a long and sharp Protestation against the Council summoned by the Pope he denied that he had any Authority to summon any of his Subjects He shewed that the place was neither proper nor safe and that no good could be expected from any Council in which the Pope presided since the regulating his Power was one of the chief occasions that the World had for a Council And while Christendom was in such Distractions and the Emperour and the King of France were engaged in War it was not a fit time for one to be called The Pope had refused it long and this Conjuncture was chosen in which the Bishops could not come to it that so a packt meeting of Italian Bishops might do what they pleased under the name of a General Council But the World would be no longer cozened No credit was due to a Pope's safe Conduct for they had often broken their Oaths as to himself in particular And notwithstanding his former kindness to that See they had been for three Years stirring up all the Princes in Christendom against him He protested against all Councils called by the Pope but declared He would be ready to concur with other Christian Princes for calling one when it should be convenient And in the mean while he would maintain all the Articles of the Faith and lose his Life and Crown sooner than suffer any of them to be put down Three Years after this the King made a new Protestation to the same effect when the Council was summoned to meet at Vincenza Reginald Pool began at this same time to raise that Opposition to the King Cardinal Pool writes against the King which proved so fatal to all his Family He was by his Mother descended from the Duke of Clarence Brother to Edward the Fourth and was by his Father likewise the King 's near Kinsman To this high Quality there was joined a great Sweetness of Temper and a Disposition for Letters which the King cherished much and gave him the Deanry of Exeter and some other Preferments in order to the carrying on of his Studies being resolved to advance him to the highest Dignities in the Church He lived many Years both at Paris and Padua In the latter of these he joined himself to a Society of Learned Men that gave themselves much to the Study of Eloquence and of the Roman Authors among whom were Contareno Bembo Caraffa and Sadoletti all afterwards honoured with the Scarlet but Pool was esteemed the most Eloquent of of them all When he was at Paris he first incurred the King's Displeasure for he refused to joyn with those whom he imploied in order to the procuring the Determinations of the
and delivered it to the King not knowing how to open it in Discourse The King was struck with it and at first inclined to believe it was a Forgery yet he ordered a strict enquiry to be made into it but he quickly found Proof enough for the Queen had so far cast off both Modesty and the Fear of a Discovery that several Women had been Witnesses to her Lewdness It also appeared that she had intended to continue in that ill Course for she had brought Deirham into her Service and at Lincoln by the Lady Rochford's means one Culpeper was brought to her in the Night and stayed many Hours with her in a Cellar and at his going away she gave him a Gold Chain The Queen after a slight denial which she made at first did at last confess all Deirham and Culpeper were executed and a Parliament was called upon it When it met a Committee was sent to examine the Queen Their Report is recorded only in General That she confessed but no Particulars are mentioned Upon that they pass'd an Act in the Form of a Petition In it they prayed the King that the Queen and her Complices with her Bawd the Lady Rochford might be attainted of Treason And that all those who knew of the Queen's Vicious Course before her Marriage might be attainted of Misprision of Treason for not revealing it to the King before he married her Among those were her Father and Mother and her Grand-Mother the Dutchess of Norfolk It was also declared Treason to know any thing of the Incontinence of any Queen for the future and not to reveal it And it was made Treason in any whom the King intended to marry judging they were Maids not to reveal it if they were not such The Queen and the Lady Rochford were beheaded on the 14th of February She confessed her Incontinence before her Marriage but denied to the last that she had broken her Wed-lock tho the Lasciviousness of her former Life made the World easy to believe the worst things of her All observed the Judgments of God on the Lady Rochford who had been so instrumental in the Ruine of Ann Bolleyn and of her Husband And when she to whose Artifices their Fall was in a great Measure ascribed was found to be so vile a Woman it tended much to raise their Reputation again The attainting her Kindred and Parents for not discovering her former Lewdness was thought extream Severity for it had been a hard piece of Duty to the King in them to have discovered such a Secret Yet tho they lay some time in Prison the King pardoned them all afterwards when his Rage was a little qualified That other Proviso obliging a young Woman to discover her own Faultiness if the King should make Love to her was thought a Piece of grievous Tiranny And upon this those that rallied that Sex took occasion to say that after this none who was reputed a Maid could be induced to marry the King So that it was not so much choice as necessity that made him marry a Widow two Years after Some Hospitals were this Year resigned to the King but there was good ground to question the Validity of those Deeds because by their Statutes it was provided that the Consent of all the Fellows was necessary to make their Deeds good in Law So those Statutes were now by a special Act annulled and this made way for the Dissolution of many Hospitals The Bishops sitting in Convocation A Design to suppress the Bible took great pains to suppress the English Bible but the King could not be prevailed on directly to call it in So they complained much of the Translation then set out and intended to procure a Condemnation of that and then to set about a new one in which it would be easy to put such Delayes that it should not be finished in many Years Gardiner did also propose a singular Conceit that many of the Latin Words should be still retained in the English for he thought they had either such a Majesty or so peculiar a Signification that they could not be fitly rendered He proposed an hundred of those and it seems hoped that if this could be carried the Translation would be so full of Latine Words that the People should not understand it for all its being in English Cranmer perceiving that the Bible was the great Eye-sore of that Party and that they were resolved to suppress it by all the means they could think of procured an Order from the King referring the Correction of the Translation to the two Universities The Bishops took this very ill and all of them except the Bishops of Ely and St. Davids protested against it Bonner 's Injunctions At this time Bonner gave some Injunctions to his Clergy which had a strain in them so far different from the other parts of his Life that it is probable he drew them not himself He required his Clergy to read every day a Chapter in the Bible with some Gloss upon it and to study the Book set out by the Bishops That they should imploy no Curats but such as he approved of That they should take care to instruct young Children well in the Principles of the Christian Religion That they should not go to Taverns nor use unlawful Games chiefly on Sundays or Holy-days That they should perform all the Duties of their Function decently and seriously That they should suffer no Plays nor Enterludes in Churches And that in their Sermons they should explain the Gospel and Epistle for the Day and study to stir up the People to Good Works and to Prayer and should explain all the Ceremonies of the Church but should forbear all railing or the reciting of fabulous Stories and should chiefly set forth the Excellencies of Vertue and the Vileness of Sin and that none under the degree of a Bishop should preach without a License In the former times there had been few or no Sermons except in Lent The way of preaching in that time for on Holy Days the Sermons were Panegyricks on the Saints and on the virtue of their Relicks But in Lent there was a more solemn way of preaching and the Friars maintained their Credit much by the pathetick Sermons they preached in that time by which they wrought much on the Affections of the People yet these for the most part tended most to extol some of the Laws of the Church as Fasting Confession and other Austerities with the making Pilgrimages but they were careful to acquaint the People as little as was possible with the true Simplicity of Christianity or the Scriptures and they seemed to design rather to raise a sudden Heat than to work a real Change in their Auditors They had also mixt so much out of Legends with their Sermons that the People came to disbelieve all that they said for the sake of those Fabulous things with which their Sermons were embased The Reformers took great care to
of Age he was put into the hands of Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheek the one was to form his mind and to teach him Philosophy and Divinity the other was to teach him the Tongues and Mathematicks other Masters were also appointed for the other parts of his Education He discovered very early a good disposition to Religion and Vertue and a particular Reverence for the Scriptures for he took it very ill when one about him laid a great Bible on the Floor to step up on it to somewhat which was out of his reach without such an advantage He profited well in Letters and wrote at eight Years old Latin Letters frequently both to the King to Q. Katherine Parre to the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Uncle the Earl of Hartford who had been first made Viscount Beauchamp being the Heir by his Mother of that Family and was after that advanced to be an Earl In the end of his Fathers life it had been designed to create him Prince of Wales for that was one of the reasons given to hasten the attainder of the D. of Norfolk because he held some places during life which the King intended to put in other hands in order to that Ceremony Upon his Fathers death the E. of Hartford and Sir Anth. Brown were sent to bring him up to the Tower of London and when King Henry's death was published he was proclaimed King At his coming to the Tower his Fathers Will was opened K. Hen. testament by which it was found that he had named 16. to be the Governors of the Kingdom and of his Sons person till he should be eighteen Years of Age. These were the Archbishops of Canterbury the Lord Wriothesly Lord Chancellor Lord St. John Great Master Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal Earl Hartford Lord Great Chamberlain Vis Lisle Lord Admiral Tonstall B. of Duresme Sir Anth. Brown Master of the Horse Sr Will. Paget Secretary of State Sr Ed. North Chancellour of the Augmentations Sir Ed. Mountague L d Chief Just of the Common Pleas Judge Bromley Sir Anth. Denny and Sir Will. Herbert Chief Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Sr Ed. Wotton Treasurer of Callis Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York They were also to give the Kings Sisters in Marriage and if they married without their consent they were to forfeit their right of succession for the King was Impowered by Act of Parliament to leave the Crown to them with what limitations he should think fit to appoint There was also a Privy Council named to be their Assistants in the Government if any of the 16. died the Survivers were to continue in the Administration without a power to substitute others in their rooms who should die It was now proposed that one should be chosen out of the 16. to whom Ambassadours should address themselves and who should have the chief direction of affairs but should be restrained to do nothing but by the consent of the greater part of the other Co-executors The Chancellor who thought the Precedence fell to him by his Office since the Archbishop did not meddle much in secular Affairs opposed this much and said it was a change of the Kings will who had made them all equal in power and dignity and if any were raised above the rest in Title it would not be possible to keep him within due bounds since great Titles make way for High Power but the Earl of Hartford had so prepared his Friends that it was carried that he should be declared the Governour of the Kings Person and the Protector of the Kingdom A Protector chosen with this restriction that he should do nothing but by the advice and consent of the rest Upon this advancement and the opposition made to it two Parties were formed the one headed by the Protector and the other by the Chancellour the favourers of the Reformation were of the former and those that opposed it were of the latter The Chancellor was ordered to renew the Commissions of the Judges and Justices of Peace and King Henry's great Seal was to be made use of till a new one should be made The day after this all the Executors took their Oaths to execute their trust faithfully the Privy Councellors were also brought into the Kings presence who did all express their satisfaction in the choice that was made of the Protector and it was ordered that all dispatches to foreign Princes should be signed only by him All that held Offices were required to come and renew their Commissions Bishops take out Commissions and to swear Allegiance to the King among the rest the Bishops came and took out such Commissions as were granted in the former Reign only by those they were subaltern to the Kings Vicegerent but there being none now in that Office they were immediately subaltern to the King and by them they were to hold their Bishopricks only during the Kings pleasure and were impowered in the Kings name as his Delegates to perform all the parts of the Episcopal function Cranmer set an Example to the rest in taking out one of those It was thought fit thus to keep the Bishops under the terror of such an Arbitrary power lodged in the King that so it might be more easie to turn them out if they should much oppose what might be done in points of Religion but the ill consequences of such an unlimited power being well foreseen the Bishops that were afterwards promoted were not so fettered but were provided to hold their Bishopricks during life The late King had in his Will required his Executors to perform all the promises he had made A Creation of Noblemen so Paget was required to give an account of the Promises the late King had made and he declared upon Oath that upon the prospect of the attainder of the D. of Norfolk the King intended a Creation of Peers and to divide his Lands among them the Persons to be raised were Hartford to be a Duke Essex a Marquess Lisle Russel St. John and Wriothesly to be Earls Sir Tho. Seimour Cheyney Rich Willoughby Arundell Sheffield St. Leger Wymbish Vernon and Danby to be Barons and a division was to be made of the Duke of Norfolks Estate among them some shares were also set off for others who were not to be advanced in Title as Denny and Herbert and they finding Paget had been mindful of them but had not mentioned himself had moved the King for a share to him The King appointed Paget to give notice of this to the Persons named but many excused themselves and desired no addition of honor since the Lands which the King intended to give them were not sufficient to support that dignity The Duke of Norfolk prevented all this for being apprehensive of the ruine of his Family if his Estate were once divided he sent a message to the King desiring him to convert it all to be a Revenue to the Prince of Wales This wrought so much on the
King that he resolved to reward those he intended to raise another way and he appointed that Estate to be kept entire and the Kings distemper increasing on him he at last came to a resolution that the E. of Hartford should be made a Duke be made both Earl Marshal and Lord Treasurer the Earl of Essex a Marquess Lisle and Wriothesly Earls and Seimour Rich Sheffield St. Leger Willoughby and Danby Barons with Revenues in Lands to every one of them and the Earl of Hartford was to have the first good Deanery and Treasurership and the four best Prebends that should fall in any Cathedral But though the King had resolved on this and had ordered Paget to propose it to the Persons concerned yet his Disease increased so fast on him that he never finished it and therefore he ordered his Executors to perform all that should appear to have been promised by him The greatest part of this was also confirmed by Denny and Herbert to whom the King had talked of it and had shewed the design of it in writing as it had been agreed between Paget and him So the Executors being concerned in this themselves it may be easily supposed that they determined to execute this part of their trust very faithfully Yet the King being then like to be engaged in Wars they resolved neither to lessen his Treasure nor Revenue but to find another way for giving the Rewards intended by the King which was afterwards done by the sale and distribution of the Chantry Lands The Castle of St. Andrews was then much pressed so they sent down by Balnaves the Agent of that party 1180 l. for the pay of the Garrison they gave also pensions to the chief supporters of their Interest in Scotland to some 250 to others 200 l. or less according to their interest in the Countrey The King received the Ceremony of Knighthood from the Protector and Knighted the Mayor of London the same day The grant of so many Ecclesiastical Dignities to the Earl of Hartford Lay-men had Ecclesiastical Dignities was no extraordinary thing at that time for as Cromwel had been Dean of Wells so diverse other Lay-men were provided to them which was thus excused because there was no cure of Souls belonging to them and during vacancies even in times of Popery the Kings had by their own Authority by the Right of the Regale given Institution to them so that they seem'd to be no Spiritual imployments and the Ecclesiasticks that had enjoyed them had been a lazy and sensual sort of men so that their abusing those Revenues either to luxury or to the enriching their kindred by the spoils of the Church had this effect that the putting them in Lay hands gave no great scandal and that the rather because a simple tonsure qualified a man for them by the Canons These foundations were at first designed for a Nursery to the Diocess in which the young Clergy were to be educated or for a retreat to those who were more speculative and not so fit for the service of the Church in the active parts of the Pastoral care so it had been an excellent design to have reformed them and restored them to the purposes for which they were at first intended And it was both against Magna Charta and all Natural Equity to take them out of the hands of Church-men and give them to those of the Laity But it was no wonder to see men yet under the influence of the Canon Law commit such errors At the same time an accident fell out Some take down Images that made way for great changes the Curate and Church-wardens of St. Martins in London were brought before the Council for removing the Crucifix and other Images and putting some Texts of Scripture on the Walls of their Church in the places where they stood They Answered That they going to repair their Church removed the Images and they being rotten they did not renew them but put places of Scripture in their room They had also removed others which they found had been abused to Idolatry Great pains was taken by the Popish party to punish them severely for striking terrour into others but Cranmer was for the removing of all Images which were set up in Churches expressly contrary both to the Second Commandment and to the practice of the Christians for diverse ages Arguments for and against it And though in compliance with the gross abuses of Paganism there was very early much of the Pomp of their worship brought into the Christian Church yet it was long before this crept in At first all Images were condemned by the Fathers then they allowed the use of them but condemned the worshipping of them and afterwards in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries the worshipping of them was after a long contest both in the East and West in which there were by turns General Councils that both approved and condemned them at last generally received and then the reverence for them and for some in particular that were believed to be more wonderfully enchanted was much improved by the cheats of the Monks who had enriched themselves by such means And it was grown to such a height that Heathenism it self had been guilty of nothing more absurd towards its Idols and the singular vertues in some Images shewed they were not worshipp'd only as Representations for then all should have equal degrees of veneration paid to them And since all these abuses had risen meerly out of the bare use of them and the setting them up being contrary to the command of God and the nature of the Christian Religion which is simple and Spiritual it seemed most reasonable to cure the disease in its root and to clear the Churches of Images that so the people might be preserved from Idolatry These Reasons prevail'd so far that the Curate and Wardens were dismissed with a Reprimand they were required to beware of such rashness for the future and to provide a Crucifix and till that could be had they were ordered to cause one to be painted on the Wall Upon this Dr. Ridley being to preach before the King inveighed against the superstition towards Images and Holy Water and there was a general disposition over all the Nation to pull them down which was soon after effected in Portsmouth Upon that Gardiner made great complaints he said the Lutherans themselves went not so far for he had seen Images in their Churches he argued from the Kings face on the Coyn and Great Seal for the use of Images and that the Law of Moses did no more bind in this particular than in that of abstaining from Blood He distinguished between Image and Idol as if the one which he said was only condemned was the representation of a False God and the other of the True and he thought that as words conveyed by the Ear begat devotion so Images by the conveyance of the Eye might have the same effect on the mind He also
and Equity and said that all people even those who complained most of arbitrary power were apt to usurp it when they were in authority And some thought the delivering the doctrine of Justification in such nice terms was not sutable to the plain simplicity of the Christian Religion Lady Mary was so alarmed at these proceedings that she wrote to the Protector that such changes were contrary to the honour due to her Fathers Memory and it was against their duty to the King to enter upon such points and endanger the publick Peace before he was of Age. To which he wrote answer That her Father had died before he could finish the good things he had intended concerning Religion and had expressed his regret both before himself and many others that he left things in so unsetled a state and assured her that nothing should be done but what would turn to the Glory of God and the Kings Honour He imputed her Writing to the importunity of others rather than to her self and desired her to consider the matter better with an humble Spirit and the assistance of the Grace of God The Parliament was opened the fourth of November A Parliament meets and the Protector was by Patent authorized to sit under the Cloath of State on the Right hand of the Throne and to have all the Honours and Priviledges that any Unkle of the Crown either by Father or Mothers side ever had Rich was made Lord Chancellour The first Act that past five Bishops only dissenting An Act of Repeal was A Repeal of all Statutes that had made any thing Treason or Felony in the late Reign which was not so before and of the six Articles and the authority given to the Kings Proclamations as also of the Acts against Lollards All who deni'd the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes for the first offence were to forfeit their goods for the second were to be in a Pramunire and were to be attainted of Treason for the third But if any intended to deprive the King of his Estate or Title that was made Treason none were to be accused of Words but within a month after they were spoken they also repealed the power that the King had of annulling all Laws made till he was twenty four years of age and restrained it only to an annulling them for the time to come but that it should not be of force for the declaring them null from the beginning Another Act past with the same dissent An Act about the Sacrament for the Communion in both kinds and that the people should always communicate with the Priest and by it irreverence to the Sacrament was condemned under severe penalties Christ had instituted the Sacrament in both kinds and S. Paul mentions both In the Primitive Church that custome was universally observed but upon the belief of Transubstantiation the reserving and carrying about the Sacrament were brought in this made them first endeavour to perswade the World that the Cup was not necessary for Wine could neither keep nor be carried about conveniently but it was done by degrees the Bread was for some time given dipt as it is yet in the Greek Church but it being believed that Christ was entirely under either kind and in every crumb the Council of Constance took the Cup from the Laity yet the Bohemians could not be brought to submit to it so every where the use of the Cup was one of the first things that was insisted on by those who demanded a Reformation At first all that were present did communicate and censures past on such as did it not And none were denied the Sacrament but Penitents who were made to withdraw during the Action But as the devotion of the World slackned the people were still exhorted to continue their Oblations and come to the Sacrament though they did not receive it and were made believe that the Priest received it in their stead The name Sacrifice given to it as being a holy Oblation was so far improved that the World came to look on the Priests officiating as a Sacrifice for the dead and living From hence followed an infinite variety of Masses for all the accidents of humane life and that was the chief part of the Priests trade but it occasioned many unseemly jests concerning it which were restrained by the same Act that put these down Another Act past without any dissent An Act concerning the nomination of Bishops That the Conge d'elire and the Election pursuant to it being but a shadow since the person was named by the King should cease for the future and that Bishops should be named by the Kings Letters Patents and thereupon be consecrated and should hold their Courts in the Kings name and not in their own excepting only the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Court And they were to use the Kings Seal in all their Writings except in Presentations Collations and Letters of Orders in which they might use their own Seals The Apostles chose Bishops and Pastors by an extraordinary gift of discerning Spirits and proposed them to the approbation of the people yet they left no rules to make that necessary In the times of Persecution the Clergy being maintained by the Oblations of the people they were chosen by them But when the Emperours became Christians the Town Councils and eminent men took the Elections out of the hands of the Rabble And the Tumults in popular Elections were such that it was necessary to regulate them In some places the Clergy and in others the Bishops of the Province made the choice The Emperours reserved the Confirmation of the Elections in the great Sees to themselves But when Charles the Great annexed great Territories and Regalities to Bishopricks a great change followed thereupon Church-men were corrupted by this undue greatness and came to depend on the humours of those Princes to whom they owed this great encrease of their wealth Princes named them and invested them in their Sees But the Popes intended to separate the Ecclesiastical State from all subjection to Secular Princes and to make themselves the heads of that State at first they pretended to restore the freedom of Elections but these were now ingrossed in a few hands for only the Chapters chose The Popes had granted thirty years before this to the King of France the nomination to all the Bishopricks in that Kingdome so the King of Englands assuming it was no new thing and the way of Elections as King Henry had setled it seemed to be but a Mockery so this change was not much condemned The Ecclesiastical Courts were the Concessions of Princes in which Trials concerning Marriages Wills and Tithes depended so the holding those Courts in the Kings name was no Invasion on the Spiritual Function since all that concerned Orders was to be done still in the Bishops name only Excommunication was still left as the Censure of those Courts which being a Spiritual Censure ought to have been reserved to
the Bishop to be proceeded in by him only with the assistance of his Clergy and this fatal errour then committed has not yet met with an effectual regulation Another Act was made against idle Vagabonds An Act against Vagabonds that they should be made slaves for two years by any that should seize on them This was chiefly designed against some Vagrant Monks as appears by the Proviso's in the Act for they went about the Countrey infusing in the People a dislike of the Government The severity of this Act made that the English Nation which naturally abhors slavery did not care to execute it and this made that the other Proviso's for supplying those that were truly indigent and were willing to be imployed had no effect But as no Nation has better and more merciful Laws for the supply of the Poor so the fond pity that many shew to the common Beggars which no Laws have been able to restrain makes that a sort of dissolute and idle Beggars intercept much of that Charity which should go to the relief of those that are indeed the only proper objects of it An Act for dissolving the Changries After this came the Act for giving the King all those Chantries which the late King had not seized on by Vertue of the Grant made to him of them Cranmer opposed this much for the poverty of the Clergy was such that the State of Learning and Religion was like to suffer much if it should not be relieved and yet he saw no probable Fond for that but the preserving these till the King should come to be at Age and allow the selling them for buying in of at least such a share of the Impropriations as might afford some more comfortable subsistence to the Clergy yet though he and seven other Bishops dissented it was past After all other Acts a General Pardon but clogged with some Exceptions came last some Acts were proposed but not past one was for the free use of the Scriptures others were for a Court of Chancery in Ecclesiastical Causes for Residence and for a Reformation of the Courts of Common Law The Convocation fits The Convocation sat at the same time and moved that a Commission begun in the late Reign of thirty two Persons for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws might be revived and that the inferiour Clergy might be admitted to sit in the House of Commons for which they alledged a Clause in the Bishops Writ and Ancient Custome and since some Prelates had under the former Reign begun to alter the form of the Service of the Church they desired it might be brought to perfection and that some care might be had of supplying the poor Clergy and relieving them from the Taxes that lay on them This concerning the inferiour Clergy's sitting in the House of Commons was the subject of some debate and was again set on foot both under Queen Elizabeth and King James but to no effect Some pretended that they always sat in the House of Commons till the submission made in the former Reign upon the suit of the Praemunire but that cannot be true since in this Convocation 17. years after that in which many that had been in the former were present no such thing was alledged It is not clear who those Proctors of the Clergy that sat in Parliament were if they were the Bishops assistants it is more proper to think they sat in the House of Lords No mention is made of them as having a share in the Legislative Authority in our Records except in the 21. of Richard the 2d In which mention is made both of the Commons the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Proctors of the Clergy concurring to the Acts then made which makes it seem most probable that they were the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation When the Parliament met antiently all in one Body the inferiour Clergy had their Writs and came to it with the other Freeholders but when the two Houses were separated the Clergy became also a distinct body and gave their own Subsidies and medled in all the concerns and represented all the grievances of the Church But now by the Act made upon the submission of the Clergy in the last Reign their power was reduced almost to nothing so they thought it reasonable to desire that either they might have their Representatives in the House of Commons or at least that matters of Religion should not pass without the assent of the Clergy But the raising the Ecclesiastical authority too high in former times made this turn that it was now depressed as much below its just limits as it was before exalted above them as commonly one extreme produces another It was resolved that some Bishops and Divines should be sent to Windsor to finish some Reformations in the publick Offices for the whole lower House of Convocation without a contradictory Vote agreed to the Bill about the Sacrament But it is not known what opposition it met with in the Upper House A Proposition being also set on foot concerning the lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy thirty five subscribed to the affirmative and only fourteen held the Negative And thus ended this Session both of Parliament and Convocation And the Protector being now established in his power and received by a Parliament without contradiction took out a new Commission in which besides his former authority he was impowered to substitute one in his room during his absence In Germany the Princes of the Smalcaldick League were quite ruined The affairs of Germany the Duke of Saxe was defeated and taken Prisoner and used with great severity and scorn which he bare with an invincible greatness of mind The Landgrave was perswaded to submit and had assurances of liberty given him but by a trick unbecoming the greatness of the Emperour he was seized on and kept Prisoner contrary to faith given upon this all the Princes and Towns except Magdeburg and Brome submitted and purchased their pardon at what terms the Conquerour was pleased to impose The Bishop and Elector of Colen withdrew peaceably to a retirement in which after four years he died and now all Germany was at the Emperours mercy Some Cathedrals as that at Ausburg were again restored to the Bishops and Mass was said in them A Diet was also held in which the Emperor obtain'd a Decree to pass by which matters of Religion were referred wholly to his care The Pope instead of rejoycing at this blow given the Lutherans was much troubled at it for the Emperour had now in one Year made an end of a War which he hoped would have Imbroiled him his whole life so that Italy was now more at his mercy than ever and it seemed the Emperour intended to inlarge his Conquests there for the Pope's Natural Son being killed by a Conspiracy the Governour of Milan seized on Placentia which gave the Pope some jealousie as if the Emperour had been privy to
besides Adultery as for procuring Abortions treating for another Marriage being guilty of Treason or a Wifes going to Plays without her Husbands leave Nor did the Fathers in those times complain of those Laws This was also allowed by the Canons upon several occasions but after the State of Coelibate came to be magnified out of measure second Marriages were more generally condemned And this was heightned when Marriage was lookt on as a Sacrament Yet though no Divorces were allowed in the Church the Canonists found out many shifts for annulling Marriages from the beginning to those that could pay well for them All these things being considered the Delegates gave sentence confirming the second Marriage and dissolving the first Candlemass and Lent were now approaching Some Ceremonies abrogated so the Clergy and People were much divided with relation to the Ceremonies usual at those times By some Injunctions in K. Henry's Reign it had been declared that Fasting in Lent was only binding by a positive Law Wakes and Plough Moondays were also suppressed and hints were given that other customes which were much abused should be shortly put down The gross Rabble loved these things as matters of diversion and thought Divine Worship without them would be but a dull business But others lookt on these as Relicts of Heathenism since the Gentiles worshipped their Gods with such Festivities and thought they did not become the gravity and simplicity of the Christian Religion Cranmer upon this procured an Order of Council against the carrying of Candles on Candlemass day of Ashes on Ash-Wednesday and Palms on Palm-Sunday which was directed to Bonner to be intimated to the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury and was executed by him But a Proclamation followed against all that should make changes without Authority The creeping to the Cross and taking Holy Bread and Water were by it put down and power was given to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to certifie in the Kings name what Ceremonies should be afterwards laid aside and none were to preach out of their own Parishes without licence from the King or the Visitors the Arch-bishop or the Bishop of the Diocess Some questioned the Councils power to make such Orders the Act that gave authority to their Proclamations being repealed but it was said the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters might well justifie their making such ' Rules Febr. 8. Soon after this a General Order followed for a removal of all Images out of Churches There were every where great contests whether the Images had been abused to Superstition or not Some thought the consecration of them was an abuse common to them all Those also that represented the Trinity as a man with three faces in one head or as an old man with a young man before him and a Dove over his head and some where the Blessed Virgin was represented as assumed into it gave so great scandal that it was no wonder if men as they grew to be better enlightned could no longer endure them The only occasion given to censure in this order was that all Shrines and the Plate belonging to them were appointed to be brought in to the Kings use A Letter was at that time writ to all Preachers requiring them to exhort the people to amend their lives and forsake Superstition but for things not yet changed to bear with them and not to run before those whom they should obey Some hot men condemned this temper as savouring too much of carnal Policy but it was said that though the Apostles by the gift of Miracles had sufficient means to convince the World of their authority Yet they did not all at once change the customes of the Mosaical Law but proceeded by degrees and Christ forbid the pulling up the Tares lest good Wheat should be pulled up with them so it was fit to wean people by degrees from their former superstition and not to run too fast Eighteen Bishops and some Divines were now imployed to examine the Offices of the Church to see which of them needed amendment A new Office for the Communion They began with the Eucharist They proceeded in the same manner that was used in the former Reign For every one gave in his opinion in Writing in answer to the questions that were put to them Some of these are still preserved which were concerning the Priests sole communicating and Masses satisfactory for the dead the Mass in an unknown tongue the hanging it up and exposing it and the Sacrifice that was made in it In most of those Papers it appears that the greatest part of the Bishops were still leavened with the old superstition at least to some degree It was clearly found that the plain Institution of the Sacrament was was much vitiated with a mixture of many Heathenish Rites and Pomps on design to raise the credit of the Priests in whose hands that great performance was lodged This was at first done to draw over the Heathens by those splendid Rites to Christianity but Superstition once begun has no bounds nor measures and ignorance and barbarity encreasing in the darker ages there was no regard had to any thing in Religion but as it was set off with much Pageantry And the belief of the Corporal presence raised this to a great height The Office was in an unknown tongue all the Vessels and Garments belonging to it were consecrated with much devotion a great part of the Service was secret to make it look like a wonderful charm the Consecration it self was to be said very softly for words that were not to be heard agreed best with a change that was not to be seen The many Gesticulations and the magnificent Processions all tended to raise this Pageantry higher Masses were also said for all the turns and affairs of humane life Trentals a custome of having thirty Masses a year on the chief Festivities for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was that which brought the Priests most Money for these were thought Gods best days in which aecess was easier to him On Saints days in the Mass it was prayed that by the Saints Intercession the Sacrifice might become the more acceptable and procure a larger Indulgence which could not be easily explained if the Sacrifice was the death of Christ besides a numberless variety of other Rites so many of the Relicts of Heathenism were made use of for the corrupting of the holiest institution of the Christian Religion The first step that was now made was a new Office for the Communion that is the distribution of the Sacrament for the Office of Consecration was not at this time touched It differs very little from what is still used In the Exhortation Auricular Confession to a Priest is left free to be done or omitted and all were required not to judge one another in that matter There was also a denunciation made requiring impenitent sinners to withdraw The Bread was to be still of the same form that had been formerly used
the Council went no further only after this her Mass was said so secretly that she gave no publick scandal From Copthall where this was done she removed and lived at Hunsden and thither Ridley went to see her She received him very civilly and ordered her Officers to entertain him at dinner But when he begged leave to Preach before her she at first blusht but being further prest she said he might Preach in the Parish Church but neither she nor her Family would be there He asked her if she refused to hear the word of God She answered they did not call that Gods word now that they had called so in her Fathers days and that in his time they durst not have said the things which they then Preached And after some sharp and reproachful discourse she dismist him Wharton one of her Officers as he conducted him out made him drink a little but he reflecting on that blamed himself for it for he said when the Word of God was rejected he ought to have shaken off the dust of his Feet and gone away The Kings Sister Elizabeth did in all things conform to the Laws for her Mother at her death recommended her to Dr. Parker's care who instructed her well in the Principles of Christian Religion The Earl of Warwick began now to form great designs of bringing the Crown into his Family The Earl of Warwick's designs The King was alienated from his Sister Mary and the Privy Council had imbroiled themselves with her and so would be easily engaged against her The pretence against both the Sisters was the same that they stood illegitimated by two Sentences in the Spiritual Courts confirmed in Parliament So that it would be a disgrace to the Nation to let the Crown devolve on Bastards And since the fears of the Eldests revenge made the Council willing to exclude her the only reason on which they could ground that must take place against the second likewise And therefore though the Crown was provided to them both by Act of Parliament and the late Kings Will yet these being founded on an Errour that was indispensable which was the baseness of their descent they ought not to take place They being laid aside the Daughters of the French Queen by Charles Brandon stood next in the Act and yet it was generally believed that they were Bastards For it was given out that Brandon was secretly married to one Mortimer at the time that he married the French Queen and that Mortimer out-lived her so that the issue by her was Illegitimate The Sweating Sickness did this year break out in England with such Contagion that eight hundred died in one week of it in London those that were taken with it were inclined much to sleep and all that slept died but if they were kept awake a day they did sweat it out Charles Brandon's two Sons by his last Wife died within a day one of another His eldest Daughter by the French Queen was married to the Marquess of Dorset a good but weak man and so he was made Duke of Suffolk They had no Sons their eldest Daughter Jane Gray was thought the wonder of the age So the Earl of Warwick projected a Match between her and his fourth Son Guilford his three elder Sons being then married And because the Lady Elizabeth was like to stand most in the way care was taken to send her out of England and a Match was treated for her with the King of Denmark A splendid Message was sent to France A Treaty for a Marriage to the King with the Order of the Garter The Marquess of Northampton carried it three Earls the Bishop of Ely and five Lords were sent with him and above two hundred Gentlemen accompanied them They were to make a Proposition of Marriage for the King with a Daughter of France The Bishop of Ely made the first Speech and the Cardinal of Lorrain answered him it was soon agreed on yet neither Party was to be bound either in Honour or Conscience till the Lady should be of Years to give consent A noble Embassy was sent in return from France to England with the Order of Saint Michael They desired in their Master's name the continuance of the King's friendship and that he would not be moved by Rumors that might be raised to break their Alliance The young King answered on the sudden that Rumours were not always to be believed nor always to be rejected for it was no less vain to fear all things than to doubt of nothing if any differences hapned to arise he should be always ready to determine them rather by reason than by force so far as his Honour should not be thereby diminished This was thought a very extraordinary answer to be made by one of Fourteen on the sudden There was at this time a great Creation of Peers The Duke of Somerset's fall Warwick was made Duke of Northumberland the blood of the Piercies being then under an Attainder Pawlet was made Marquess of Winchester Herbert was made Earl of Pembroke and a little before this Russel had been made Earl of Bedford and Darcy was made a Lord. There was none so likely to take the King out of Northumberlands hands as the Duke of Somerset who was beginning to form a new Party about the King so upon some Informations both the Duke of Somerset his Dutchess Sir Ralph Vane Sir Tho. Palmer Sr Tho. Arundel several others of whom some were Gentlemen of Quality and others were the Dukes servants were all committed to the Tower The committing of Palmer was to delude the World for he had betrayed the Duke and was clapt up as a Complice and then pretended to discover a Plot He said the Duke intended to have raised the People and that Northumberland Northampton and Pembroke having been invited to dine at the Lord Pagets he intended to have set on them by the way or have killed them at Dinner that Vane was to have 2000. Men ready Arundel was to have seized on the Tower and all the Gendarmoury were to have been killed All these things were told the young King with such Circumstances that he too easily believed them and so was much alienated from his Uncle judging him guilty of so foul a Conspiracy It was added by others that the Duke intended to have raised the City of London one Crane confirmed Palmers testimony and both the Earl of Arundel and Paget were also committed as Complices On the first of December His Trial the Duke was brought to his Trial The Marquess of Winchester was Lord Steward and 27. Peers sat to judge him among whom were the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland and the Earl of Pembroke The particulars charged on him were a design to seize on the King's Person to imprison the Duke of Northumberland and to raise the City of London it seemed strange to see Northumberland sit a Judge when the crime objected was a design against his life
day before the dissolution of the Parliament The Lords added a Proviso confirming the Duke of Somerset's Attainder but that was cast out by the Commons Some Writings had been sealed with relation to a Marriage between the Earl of Hartford the Dukes Son and the Earl of Oxford's Daughter and the Lords sent down a Bill voiding these but upon a division in the House of Commons 68. were for it and 69. were against it so it was cast out The House was now thin when we find but 137. Members in it but that is one of the effects of a long Parliament many grow infirm and many keep out of the way on design and those who at their first Election were the Representatives of the People after they have sat long become a Cabal of Men that pursue their own Interests Tonstall is imprisoned more than the Publick Service Tonstall Bishop of Durham upon some Informations was put in Prison in the former year The Duke of Northumberland intended to erect a great Principality for his Family in the North and the accession of the Jurisdiction of the County Palatine which is in that See seemed so considerable that he resolved to ruine Tonstall and so make way for that He complied in all the changes that were made though he had protested against them in Parliament he writ also for the Corporal Presence but with more Eloquence than Learning He was a candid and moderate Man and there was always a good correspondence between Cranmer and him and now when the Bill was put in against him he opposed it and protested against it by which he absolutely lost the Duke of Northumberland but all the Popish complying Bishops went along with it There were some Depositions read in the House of Lords to justifie it but when the Bill with these was sent down to the Commons they resolved to put a stop to that way of condemning Men without hearing them so they sent a Message to the Lords that he and his Accusers might be heard face to face and that not being done they let the Bill fall By these Indications it appeared that the House of Commons had little kindness for the Duke of Northumberland Many of them had been much obliged to the Duke of Somerset so it was resolved to have a new Parliament and this which had sat almost five years was on the 15th of April dissolved The Convocation did confirm the Articles of Religion A Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws prepared that had been prepared the former year and thus was the Reformation of Worship and Doctrine now brought to such perfection that since that time there has been very little alteration made in these But another Branch of it was yet unfinished and was now under consultation touching the Government of the Church and the rules of the Ecclesiastical Courts Two Acts had passed in the former reign and one in this impowering XXXII to revise all the Laws of the Church and digest them into a body King Henry issued out a Commission and the Persons were named who made some progress in it as appears by some of Cranmer's Letters to him In this Reign it had been begun several times but the Changes in the Government made it be laid aside Thirty two were found to be too many for preparing the first draught so Eight were appointed to make it ready for them These were Cranmer and Ridley Cox and Peter Martyr Traheron and Taylor and Lucas and Gosnold two Bishops two Divines two Civilians and two Common Lawyers but it was generally believed that Cranmer drew it all himself and the rest only corrected what he designed Haddon and Cheek were imployed to put it in Latine in which they succeeded so well and arrived at so true a purity in the Roman stile that it looks like a work of the best Ages of that State before their Language was corrupted with the mixture of barbarous terms and phrases with which all the later Writings were filled but none were more nauseously rude than the Books of the Canon-Law The Work was cast into fifty one Titles perhaps it was designed to bring it near the number of the Books into which Justinian digested the Roman Law The Eight finished it and offered it to the XXXII who divided themselves into Four Classes every one was to offer his Corrections and when it had past through them all it was to be offered to the King for his Confirmation but the King died before it was quite finished nor was it ever afterwards taken up yet I shall think it no useless part of this work to give an account of what was intended to be done in this matter as well as I relate what was done in other things The first Title of it was concerning the Catholick Faith The heads of it it was made Capital to deny the Christian Religion The Books of Scripture were reckoned up and the Apocrypha left out The four first General Councils were received but both Councils and Fathers were to be submitted to only as they agreed with the Scriptures The second enumerates and condemns many Heresies extracted out of the Opinions of the Church of Rome and the Tenets of the Anabaptists and among others those who excused their lives by the pretence of Predestination are reckoned up 3. The judgment of Heresie was to lye in the Bishops Court except in exempted places Persons suspected might be required to purge themselves and those who were convicted were to abjure and do Penance but such as were obstinate were declared Infamous and not to have the benefit of the Law or of making Testaments and so all Capital proceedings for Heresie were laid aside 4. Blasphemy against God was to be punished as obstinate Heresie 5. The Sacraments and other parts of the Pastoral Charge were to be decently performed 6. All Magick Idolatry or Conjuring was to be punished arbitrarily and in case of obstinacy with Excommunication 7. Bishops were appointed once a Year to call all their Clergy together to examine them concerning their Flocks and Itinerant Preachers were to be often imployed for visiting such Precincts as might be put under their care 8. All Marriages were to be after asking of Banes and to be annulled if not done according to the Book of Common Prayer Corrupters of Virgins were to marry them or if that could not be done to give them the third part of their Goods and suffer Corporal punishment Marriages made by force or without consent of Parents were declared null Polygamy was forbid and Mothers were required to suckle their Children 9. The degrees of Marriage were setled according to the Levitical Law but spiritual kindred was to be no barr 10. A Clergy-man guilty of Adultery was to forfeit his Goods and Estate to his Wife and Children or to some pious use and to be banished or Imprisoned during life a Layman guilty of it was to forfeit the half and be banished or Imprisoned during life Wives that were
condemned But of all these it was resolved that only Northumberland Gates and Palmer should suffer Heath was appointed to attend on Northumberland And Execution and to prepare him for death He then professed he had been always of the old Religion in his heart and had complied against his Conscience in the former times but whether that was true or whether it was done in hopes of life as it cannot be certainly known so it shews he had little regard to Religion either in his life or at his death But he was a Man of such a temper that it was resolved to put him out of a capacity of revenging himself on his Enemies On the 22. of August he and the other two were beheaded There past some expostulation between Gates and him each of them accusing the other as the Author of their ruine But they were seemingly reconciled and professed they forgave one another He made a long Speech confessing his former ill life and the Justice of the Sentence against him He exhorted the People to stand to the Religion of their Ancestors to reject all Novelties and to drive the Preachers of them out of the Nation and declared he had temporised against his Conscience and that he was always of the Religion of his Fore-fathers He was an extraordinary Man till he was raised very high but that transported him out of measure and he was so strangely changed in the last passages of his life that it encreased the Jealousies that were raised of his having hastned King Edward's death and that the horrors of that Guilt did so haunt him that both the Judgment and Courage he had expressed in the former parts of his life seemed now to have left him Palmer was little pitied for he was believed the betrayer of his former Master the Duke of Somerset and was upon that service taken into Northumberland's confidence There was no strict enquiry made into King Edward's death King Edwards Funeral all the honour done his Memory was that they allowed him Funeral Rites On the 8th of August he was buried at Westminster and the Queen had an Exequie and Masses for him at the Tower Day was appointed to preach the Sermon in it he praised the King but inveighed severely against the administration of affairs under him It had been resolved to bury him according to the old Forms but Cranmer opposed that and prevailed that he should be buried according to the form then setled by Law and he himself did officiate and ended the solemnity with a Communion all which it may be supposed he did with a very lively sorrow having both loved the King beyond expression and looking on his Funeral as the Burial of the Reformation and as a step to his own On the 22. of August the Queen declared in Council That though she was fixed in her own Religion yet she would not Compel others to it but would leave that to the motions of God's Spirit and the labours of good Preachers The day after that Bonner went to Saint Pauls and Bourn that was his Chaplain preached he extolled Bonner much and inveighed against the sufferings he was put to Upon this a Tumult was raised for the People could not hear reflections made on King Edward some flung stones at him and one threw a Dagger at the Pulpit with such force that it stuck fast in the wood Rogers and Bradford were present who were in great esteem with the People so they stood up and quieted them and conveyed Bourn safe home This was a very welcome Accident to the Papists and gave them a colour to prohibit preaching by a Publick Inhibition in the Queen's Name in which she declared That her Religion was the same that it had been from her Infancy but that she would compel none of her Subjects in matters of Religion till publick Order should be taken in it by common Assent She required her People to live quietly not to use the terms of Papist or Heretick or other reproachful speeches and that none should Preach without Licence she also charged them not to punish any on the account of the late Rebellion but as they should be authorised by her She would be sorry to be driven to execute the severity of the Law but was resolved not to suffer Rebellious doings to go unpunished This gave great occasion to censure and was thought a Declaration not for her Fathers Religion but for Popery since it was that which she professed from her Infancy It was also observed that she limited her promise of not compelling others till Publick Order should be taken in it the meaning of which was till a Parliament could be brought to concur with her The restraint upon Preaching without Licence was justified from what had been done in King Edward's time though then at first all might preach in their own Churches without it It was only necessary if they preached any where else Bishops had also the power of Licensing in their Dioceses and the total restraint that followed afterwards lasted but a short while But now all the Pulpits were put under an Interdict till the Preachers should obtain a Licence from Gardiner and that he resolved to grant to none but those that would Preach as he should direct them The Queen 's threatning to proceed against such as were guilty of the late Rebellion struck a general terrour in the City of London for the greatest part had been in some measure concerned in it In Suffolk the people thought their Services and the Queens promises gave them a Title to own their Religion more avowedly Severe proceedings against the men of Saffolk and others But orders were sent to the Bishop of Norwich to execute the Queens Injunctions and to see that none should preach that had not obtained a Licence Upon this some of those that had merited most came and put the Queen in mind of her Promise But she sent them home with a cold Answer and told them they must learn to obey her and not pretend to govern her And one that had spoken more confidently than the rest was set in a Pillory for it three days as having said words that tended to defame the Queen This was a sad Omen of a severe Government in which the claiming of Promises went for a crime Bradford and Rogers were also seized on and it was pretended that the authority they shewed in quieting the Tumult was a sign that they had raised it Gardiner Bonner Tonstal Heath and Day were restored to their Bishopricks they had all Appealed to the King before Sentence had past against them so Commissions were given to some Civilians to examine the grounds of these Appeals and they made report that they were good and so that the Sentences against them were null Gardiner had authority given him to grant Priests Licences to preach in any Church as he should appoint By this the Reformed were not only silenced but their Churches and Pulpits were cast open to