in the Sacrament Pag. 79 Arguments against the Corporal Presence Pag. 81 Anabaptists in England Pag. 85 Two were burnt Pag. 84 The Doctrine of Predestination abused Pag. 87 Tumults in several parts of England ibid The Rebellion in Devonshire Pag. 89 And in Norfolk Pag. 91 The French begin a War ibid The Rebels every where routed Pag. 92 A Visitation at Cambridge Pag. 94 Bonner's Process Pag. 95 And Deprivation Pag. 100 Ill Success of the English Pag. 101 Several Expedients proposed Pag. 105 The Emperour refuses his Assistance Pag. 106 A Faction against the Protector Pag. 108 Which turns to a Publick Breach Pag. 110 The Protector 's Fall Pag. 112 The Emperour will not assist them Pag. 114 A Session of Parliament ibid 1550. The Duke of Somerset fined but restored into Favour Pag. 116 A Progress of the Roformation ibid. The Book of Ordinations put out Pag. 117 Pool chosen Pope but lost it Pag. 120 A Treaty with France Pag. 122 Ridley made Bishop of London Pag. 123 Gardiner 's Process Pag. 124 Latimer preaches at Court Pag. 126 Hooper made Bishop of Glocester has some Scruple concerning the Vestments ibid A review of the Common-Prayer Book Pag. 128 Bucer offers some Advices to the King Pag. 130 The King 's great Knowledg ibid Altars put down Pag. 131 Affairs of Scotland Pag. 132 And Germany Pag. 133 1551. The Popish Party comply generally Pag. 134 Bucer 's Death Pag. 135 Gardiner 's Deprivation Pag. 136 The Articles of Religion agreed on Pag. 138 Changes made in the Com. Prayer Book Pag. 139 Lady Mary in trouble for having Mass said Pag. 142 The Earl of Warwick's Designs Pag. 147 A Treaty for a Marriage to the King Pag. 149 The Duke of Somerset 's Fall Pag. 150 His Tryal Pag. 151 Rich gives up the Great Seal and it was given to the Bishop of Ely Pag. 154 The Duke of Somerset 's Execution Pag. 156 The Affairs of Germany Pag. 158 1552. A Session of Parliament Pag. 161 An Act against Vsury Pag. 164 A Repeal of the Settlement of the Duke of Somerset 's Estate Pag. 165 Tonstall is imprisoned Pag. 166 A Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws Pag. 167 The Heads of it Pag. 169 The Poverty of the Clergy Pag. 174 Affairs in Ireland Pag. 175 A Change in the Garter Pag. 177 Northumberland's Severity Pag. 178 Trade flourishes much Pag. 179 Cardan in England Pag. 180 Affaires in Scotland Pag. 183 The Affairs in Germany Pag. 185 An Account of the Council of Trent Pag. 187 The Emperours Designs are blasted Pag. 189 1553. A Bill proposed that Laymen should not hold Church Dignities Pag. 191 An Act suppressing the Bishoprick of Durham ibid Another Visitation Pag. 192 Bishops made by the King's Patent Pag. 193 Affairs in Germany Pag. 194 The King's Sickness Pag. 196 The Patents for the Succes to the Crown Pag. 197 The King's Death and Character Pag. 199 BOOK III. The Life and Reign of Queen Mary QVeen Mary succeeds Pag. 203 But Lady Jane Gray is proclaimed Pag. 205 Censures past upon that Pag. 206 Many turn to Queen Mary Pag. 208 Northumberland marches against her Pag. 209 The Council declares for her Pag. 210 She comes to London Pag. 212 Her former Life ibid The Councils then laid down Pag. 214 Northumberland 's Trial Pag. 215 And Execution Pag. 216 King Edward 's Funeral Pag. 217 A Tumult at St. Pauls Pag. 218 Severe Proceedings against the Men of Suffolk and others Pag. 220 Particularly against Judge Hales Pag. 221 Cranmer 's Imprisonment Pag. 222 The Strangers driven out of England Pag. 224 The Popular Arts used by Gardiner Pag. 225 A Parliament meets and repeals several Laws Pag. 226 The Queen's Mother's Marriage confirmed Pag. 227 King Edward 's Laws about Religion repealed Pag. 229 The Duke of Norfolk's Attainder repealed Pag. 230 A Treaty for reconciling England to the Pope Pag. 232 And for a Match with the Prince of Spain Pag. 233 Pool 's Advices to the Queen Pag. 234 The Parliament opposes the Match and is dissolved Pag. 236 A Convocation meets and dispute about the Sacrament Pag. 237 1554. The Treaty of Marriage begun Pag. 241 Which provokes some to rebel Pag. 242 Lady Jane Gray's Execution Pag. 245 Several others suffered Pag. 247 The Imposture of the Spirit in the Wall Pag. 248 Iujunctions sent to the Bishops ibid. Many Bishops turned out Pag. 249 A new Parliament Pag. 251 A Proposition to make the Queen absolute Pag. 252 New Disputations at Oxford with Cranmer Pag. 254 The Prince of Spain lands and marries the Queen Pag. 258 The Bishops visit their Diocesses Pag. 261 Another Parliament Pag. 263 The Nation is reconciled to the See of Rome Pag. 264 Gardiner 's Policy in the steps of this Change Pag. 268 Consultations about the way of proceedings against Hereticks Pag. 269 1555. A Persecution is set on foot Pag. 271 Rogers and Hooper condemned and burnt Pag. 272 The Burnings much condemned Pag. 274 Arguments against them and for them Pag. 276 The Queen restores the Church-Lands Pag. 279 Marcellus chosen Pope Paul the 4th succeeds ibid. The English Ambassadors come to Rome Pag. 280 The English grow backward to Persecution Pag. 281 The Queen's Delivery in vain looked for Pag. 282 More Hereticks burnt ibid. Religious Houses set up Pag. 285 Sir Tho. More 's Works published ibid. Ridley and Latimer burnt Pag. 286 Gardiner 's Death Pag. 289 The Parliament ill pleas'd with the Queens conduct Pag. 290 Pool 's Decrees for the Reformation of the Clergie Pag. 293 He refuses to bring the Jesuits into England Pag. 295 More of the Reformed are burnt Pag. 296 Affairs in Germany ibid. Charles the 5th 's Resignation Pag. 297 1556. Cranmer 's Sufferings Pag. 298 He repents and is burnt Pag. 301 His Character Pag. 303 More Burnings Pag. 304 The Reformed encrease upon this Pag. 306 The Troubles at Frankford ibid. Pool made Arch-bishop of Canterbury Pag. 307 More Religious Houses ibid. The Pope sets on a War between France and Spain Pag. 309 1557. A Visitation of the Vniversities Pag. 311 A severe Inquisition of Hereticks Pag. 312 More Burnings Pag. 313 Lord Stourton hanged Pag. 315 The Queen joyns in a War against France Pag. 316 The Battel at St. Quintin Pag. 317 The Pope recals Pool Pag. 318 Affairs of Germany Pag. 320 1558. Calais and other Places taken by the French Pag. 322 Great Discontents in England Pag. 324 The Parliament meets Pag. 325 The Carriage and Vsage of L. Eliz. all this Reign ibid. Ill Success and strange Accidents Pag. 329 The Dauphin and the Q. of Scotland married Pag. 331 A Parliament in England Pag. 332 The Queens Death Pag. 333 Pool 's Death and Character ibid. The Queens Character Pag. 334 BOOK IV. QVeen Elizabeth proclaimed Pag. 337 The Queen came to London Pag. 338 Philip proposes Marriage to the Queen but in vain Pag. 339 The Counsels about changing Religion Pag. 340 A Scheme proposed Pag. 341 The Impatience of some Pag. 342 Parker
instruct their Hearers in the Fundamentals of Religion of which they had known little formerly This made the Nation run after these Teachers with a wonderful Zeal but they mixed too much Sharpness against the Friars in their Sermons which was judged indecent in them to do tho their Hypocrisy and Cheats did in a great measure excuse those Heats and it was observed that our Saviour had exposed the Pharisees in so plain a manner that it did very much justify the treating them with some Roughness yet it is not to be denied but Resentments for the Cruelties they or their Friends had suffered by their means might have too much Influence on them This made it seem necessary to suffer none to preach at least out of their own Parishes without Licence and many were licensed to preach as Itinerants There was also a Book of Homilies on all the Epistles and Gospels in the Year put out which contained a plain Paraphrase of those Parcels of Scripture together with some practical Exhortations founded on them Many Complaints were made of those that were licensed to preach and that they might be able to justify themselves they began generally to write and read their Sermons and thus did this Custom begin in which what is wanting in the heat and force of Delivery is much made up by the strength and solidity of the Matter and has produced many Volumes of as excellent Sermons as have been preached in any Age. Plays and Enterludes were a great Abuse in that time in them Mock-Representations were made both of the Clergy and of the Pageantry of their Worship The Clergy complained much of these as an Introduction to Atheism when things Sacred were thus laught at and said They that begun to laugh at Abuses would not cease till they had represented all the Mysteries of Religion as ridiculous The graver sort of Reformers did not approve of it but political Men encouraged it and thought nothing would more effectually pull down the Abuses that yet remained than the exposing them to the scorn of the Nation A War did now break out between England and Scotland at the Instigation of the King of France A War with Scotland King Henry set out a Declaration pretending that the Crown of Scotland owed Homage to him and cited many Precedents to shew that Homage was done not only by their Kings but by consent of the States for which Original Records were appealed to The Scots on the other hand asserted that they were a free and independent Kingdom that the Homages antiently made by their Kings were only for Lands which they had in England and that those more lately made were either offered by Pretenders in the case of a doubtful Title or were extorted by Force And they said their Kings could not give up the Rights of a free Crown and People The Duke of Norfolk made an In-road into Scotland with 20000 Men in October but after he had burnt some small Towns and wasted Teviotdale he returned back to England In the end of November an Army of 15000 Scots with a good Train of Artillery was brought together They intended to march into England by the Western Road. The King went to it in Person but he was at this time much disturbed in his Fancy and thought the Ghost of one whom he had unjustly put to death followed him continually he not only left the Army but sent a Commission to Oliver Sinclare then called his Minion to command in chief This disgusted the Nobility very much who were become weary of the Insolence of that Favourite so they refused to march and were beginning to separate While they were in this Disorder 500 English appeared and they apprehending it was a fore Party of the Duke of Norfolk's Army refused to fight so the English fell upon them and dispersed them they took all their Ordinance and Baggage and 1000 Prisoners of whom 200 were Gentlemen The chief of these were the Earls of Glencarn and Cassilis The News of this so over-charged the Melancholy King that he died soon after leaving only an Infant Daughter newly born to succeed him The Lords that were taken were brought up to London and lodged in the Houses of the English Nobility Cassilis was sent to Lambeth where he received those Seeds of Knowledg which produced afterwards a great Harvest in Scotland The other Prisoners were also instructed to such a degree that they came to have very different Thoughts of the Changes that had been made in England from what the Scotish Clergy had possessed them with who had encouraged their King to engage in the War both by the assurance of Victory since he fought against an Heretical Prince and the Contribution of 50000 Crowns a Year The King's Death and the Crowns falling to his Daughter made the English Council lay hold on this as a proper Conjuncture for uniting the whole Island in one therefore they sent for the Scotish Lords and proposed to them the marrying the Prince of Wales to their young Queen this the Scots liked very well and promised to promote it all they could And so upon their giving Hostages for the performing their Promises faithfully they were sent home and went away much pleased both with the Splendor of the King's Court and with the way of Religion which they had seen in England A Parliament was called A Parliament called in which the King had great Subsidies given him of six Shillings in the Pound to be paid in three Years A Bill was proposed for the advancement of true Religion by Cranmer and some other Bishops for the Spirits of the Popish Party were much fallen ever since the last Queen's Death yet at this time a Treaty was set on foot between the King and the Emperour which raised them a little for since the King was like to engage in a War with France it was necessary for him to make the Emperour his Friend Cranmer's Motion was much opposed and the timorous Bishops forsook him yet he put it as far as it would go An Act about Religion tho in most Points things went against him By it Tindall's Translation of the Bible was condemned as crafty and false and also all other Books contrary to the Doctrine set forth by the Bishops But Bibles of another Translation were still allowed to be kept only all Prefaces or Annotations that might be in them were to be dashed or cut out All the King's Injunctions were confirmed No Books of Religion might be printed without Licence there was to be no Exposition of Scripture in Plays or Enterludes none of the Laity might read the Scripture or explain it in any publick Assembly But a Proviso was made for publick Speeches which then began generally with a Text of Scripture and were like Sermons Noblemen Gentlemen and their Wives or Merchants might have Bibles but no ordinary Woman Tradesman Apprentice or Husbandman might have any Every Person might have the Book set out by the
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
only as a Paper of News and so ordered their Ambassadours to communicate them to the Emperour But the King's death broke off this Negotiation He had contracted great Colds by Violent Exercises which in January setled in a deep Cough and all Medicines proved ineffectual The Kings sickness There was a suspicion taken up and spred over all Europe that he was poisoned but no certain grounds appear for justifying that During his sickness Ridley preached before him and among other things run out much on works of Charity and the duty of Men of high condition to be Eminent in good works The King was much touched with this so after Sermon he sent for the Bishop and treated him with such respect that he made him sit down and be covered then he told him what Impression his Exhortation had made on him and therefore he desired to be directed by him how to do his duty in that matter Ridley took a little time to consider of it and after some consultation with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London he brought the King a Scheme of several Foundations one for the sick and wounded another for such as were wilfully idle or were mad and a third for Orphans so he endowed St. Bartholomew's Hospital for the first Bridewell for the second and Christ's Church near Newgate for the third and he enlarged the Grant he made the former year for St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark The Statutes and Warrants relating to these were not finished before the 26. of June though he gave order to make all the hast that was possible and when he set his hand to them he blest God that had prolonged his life till he finished his designs concerning them These Houses have by the good Government and great Charities of the City of London continued to be so useful and grown to be so well-endowed that now they may be well reckoned among the Noblest in Europe The King bore his sickness with great submission to the will of God The Patents for the succession to the Crown and seemed concerned in nothing so much as the state that Religion and the Church would be in after his death The Duke of Suffolk had only three Daughters the eldest of these was now married to Lord Guilford Dudley the second to the Earl of Pembroke's eldest Son and the third that was crooked to one Keys The Duke of Northumberland for strengthning his Family married also his own two Daughters the one to Sir Henry Sidney and the other to the Earl of Huntington's eldest Son He grew to be much hated by the People and the jealousie of the King 's being poisoned was fastened on him But he regarded these things little and resolved to improve the fears the King was in concerning Religion to the advantage of Lady Jane The King was easily perswaded to order the Judges and his Learned Council to put some Articles which he had signed for the succession of the Crown in the common form of Law They answered that the Succession being setled by Act of Parliament could not be taken away except by Parliament yet the King required them to do what he commanded them But next time they came to the Council they declared that it was made Treason to change the Succession by an Act past in this Reign so they could not meddle with it Mountague was chief Justice and spake in the name of the rest Northumberland fell out in a great passion against him calling him Traitor for refusing to obey the King's commands for that is always the language of an Arbitrary Minister when he acts against Law But the Judges were not shaken by his threatnings so they were again brought before the King who sharply rebuked them for their delays but they said all that they could do would be of no force without a Parliament yet they were required to do it in the best manner they could At last Mountague desired they might have a Pardon for what they were to do that being granted all the Judges except Gosnald and Hales agreed to the Patent deliver'd their Opinions that the Lord Chancellor might put the Seal to it and that then it would be good in Law yet the former of these two was at last wrought on so Hales was the only Man that stood out to the last who though he was a zealous Protestant yet would not give his Opinion against his Conscience upon any consideration whatsoever The Privy Councellours were next required to set their hand to it Cecyl in a Relation he writ of this transaction says that hearing some of the Judges declare so positively that it was against Law he refused to set his hand to it as a Privy Councellour but signed it only as a Witness to the King's subscription Cranmer stood out long he came not to Council when it was past there and refused to consent to it when he was prest to it for he said he would never have a hand in disinheriting his late Master's Daughters The young dying King was at last set on him and by his Importunity prevailed with him to do it and so the Seal was put to the Patents The King's distemper continued to encrease so that the Physicians despaired of his Recovery A confident Woman undertook his Cure and he was put in her hands but she left him worse than she found him and this heightned the jealousie of the Duke of Northumberland that had introduced her and put the Physicians away At last to Crown his designs he got the King to write to his Sisters to come and divert him in his sickness and the matter of the Exclusion had been carried so secretly that they apprehending no danger had begun their Journey In the 6th of July The Kings death and Character the King felt death approaching and prepared himself for it in a most devout manner He was often heard offering up Prayers and Ejaculations to God Particularly a few Moments before he died he prayed earnestly that God would take him out of this wretched life and committed his Spirit to him he interceded very fervently for his Subjects that God would preserve England from Popery and maintain his true Religion among them soon after that he breathed out his Innocent Soul being in Sir Henry Sidney's arms Endeavours were used to conceal his death for some days on design to draw his Sisters into the snare before they should be aware of it but that could not be done Thus died Edward the VI. in the sixteenth Year of his Age. He was counted the wonder of that time he was not only Learned in the Tongues and the Liberal Sciences but knew well the state of his Kingdom He kept a Table-Book in which he had writ the Characters of all the eminent Men of the Nation he studied Fortification and understood the Mint well he knew the Harbours in all his Dominions with the depth of Water and way of coming into them He understood foreign
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
excessively and did much mischief Hail-stones of a huge bigness fell in some places Intermitting Fevers were so Universal and Contagious that they raged like a Plague so that in many Places there were not People enough to reap the Harvest all which tended to encrease the aversion to the Government and that disposed the Queen to hearken to overtures of Peace This was projected between the Bishop of Arras and the Cardinal of Lorrain who were the chief Favourites to the two Kings and were both much set on extirpating Heresie which could not be done during the continuance of the War the Cardinal of Lorrain was more earnest in it because the Constable who was the Head of the Faction against the House of Guise was suspected to favour it and his three Nephews the Coligny's were known to encline to it The King of France had also lost another Battel this Year at Gravelin which made him desire a Peace for he thought the driving the English out of France did compensate both that and his loss at St. Quintin So both those Princes reckoned they had such advantages that they might make Peace with honour and they being thus disposed to it a Treaty was opened at Cambray Philip in his own disposition was much inclined to extirpate Heresie and the Brothers of Guise possessed the King of France with the same Maximes which seemed more necessary because Heresie had then spread so much in that Court that both the King and Queen of Navarre declared themselves for the Reformation and great numbers in the Publick Walks about Paris used to assemble at Nights and sing David's Psalms in Verse The King of Navarre was the first Prince of the Blood and so was in great consideration for his rank but was a weak Man His Queen was the wonder of her Age both for great Parts Eminent Vertues and a most Extraordinary sense of Religion There was an Edict set out forbiding this Psalmody but the dignity of these crowned Heads and the Numbers of those that were engaged in it made it seem not advisable to punish any for it at least till a general Peace had been first made In April was the Dauphin married to the Queen of Scotland The Dauphin and Queen of Scotland married which was honoured by an Epithalamium writ by Buchanan reckoned to be one of the rarest Pieces of Latine Poetry The Deputies sent from Scotland were desired to offer the Dauphin the Crown of Scotland in the Right of his Wife But they said that exceeded the bounds of their Commission so they only promised to represent the matter to the States of Scotland but could not conceal the aversion they had to it Soon after Four of the Seven that were sent over died and the Fifth escaped narrowly It was generally suspected that they were poisoned when the rest returned to Scotland an Assembly of the States was called in which it was agreed to allow the Dauphin the Title of King but with this Proviso that he should have no power over them and that it was only a bare Title which they offered him This was appointed to be carried to him by the Earl of Argile and the Prior of St. Andrews who had been the chief Sticklers for the French Interest in hopes of the Queen Regents Protection against the rage of the Bishops in matters of Religion In England A Parliament in England a Parliament was called the 5th of November the Queen being ill sent for the Speaker of the House of Commons and laid before him the ill condition of the Nation and the necessity of putting it in a posture of defence But the Commons were so ill satisfied with the Conduct of affairs that they could come to no resolution so on the 14th of that Month twelve of the chief Lords of both Estates came down to the House of Commons and desired them to grant a Subsidy to defend the Nation both against the French and Scots but the Commons came to no conclusion till the Queen's death on the 17th put an end to the Parliament Her false Conception and the Melancholy that followed it The Queens Death which received a surcharge from the loss of Calais brought her into an ill habit of body and that turned to a Dropsie which put an end to her unhappy Reign in the forty-third year of her Age after she had reigned five Years four Months and eleven Days Sixteen hours after her Cardinal Pool died in the fifty ninth year of his Age. He left Priuli a Noble Venetian that had lived twenty six years in an entire friendship with him his Executor but as Pool had not studied to heap up much Wealth so Priuli who had refused a Cardinal's Hat rather than be obliged thereby to lose his Company gave it all away and reserved nothing to himself but his Breviary and Diary Pool was a learned humble Pool's Death and Character prudent and moderate Man and had certainly the best notions of any of his Party then in England but he was almost alone in them so that the Queen whose temper and principles were fierce and severe preferred the bloody Counsels of Gardiner and Bonner to the wiser and better methods which he proposed And though his superstition for the See of Rome continued still with him yet his Eyes were opened in many things his being Legate at Trent and his retirement at Viterbo had both enlightned and composed his mind and that joyned to the Probity and sweetness of his Temper produced great effects in him his Character deserves the more to be enlarged on because there were no others of the Clergy at that time concerning whom even a partial Historian can find much good to relate for their temporising and dissimulation in the changes that were made and their Cruelty when power was put in their hands were so scandalous that it is scarce possible to write of them with that softness of stile that becomes an Historian The Queen had been bred to some more than ordinary knowledge The Queens Character A froward sort of Vertue and a Melancholy Piety are the best things that can be said of her she left the Conduct of Affairs wholly in the hands of her Council and gave her self up to follow all the dictates and humours of the Clergy and though she esteemed Pool beyond them all yet she imputed the moderateness of his Counsels rather to his Temper than to his Judgment and perhaps thought that the Pope who pressed all Princes to set up Courts of Inquisition for extirpating of Heresie was more likely to be Infallible than the Cardinal and as Princes were required by the fourth Council in the Lateran to extirpate Hereticks under the pain of forfeiting their Dominions so the Pope had set out a Decree this Year by the advice of all his Cardinals confirming all Canons against Hereticks declaring that such Princes as fell into Heresie did thereby forfeit all their Rights without any special sentence and that
made between the Duke of Norfolk and the Scots they promised to be the Queen 's perpetual Allies and that after the French were driven out of Scotland The Queen of England assists the Scots they should continue their Obedience to their own Queen upon which 2000. Horse and 6000. Foot were sent to assist the Scots These besieged Lieth during which there were considerable losses on both sides but the losses on the side of the English were more easily made up supplies being nearer at hand The French offered to put Calais again in the Queen of England's hands if she would recall her Forces out of Scotland She answered on the sudden that she did not value that Fish-Town so much as she did the quiet of the Isle of Brittain But she offered to Mediate a Peace between them and the Scots Before this could be effected 〈◊〉 June The Queen Regent dies the Queen Regent of Scotland died she sent for some of the Scottish Lords in her sickness and asked them pardon for the Injuries she had done them She advised them to send both the French and English out of Scotland and prayed them to continue in their Obedience to their Queen She also discoursed with one of their Preachers and declared that she hoped to be saved only by the Merits of Christ She had governed the Nation before the last year of her life with such Justice and Prudence and was so great an Example both in her own Person and in the Order of her Court that if she had died before her Brother's bloody Counsels had involved her in these last passages of her life she had been the most lamented and esteemed Queen that had been in that Nation for many Ages Her own Inclinations were Just and Moderate and she often said that if her Counsels might take place she did not doubt but she should bring all things again to perfect Tranquillity and Peace Soon after a Peace was concluded between England France and Scotland An Oblivion was granted for all that was past The French and English were to be sent out of Scotland and all other things were referred to a Parliament During the Queen's absence the Kingdom was to be governed by a Council of 12. all Natives of these the Queen was to name 7. and the States were to choose 5. So both the English and French were sent out of Scotland and the Parliament met in August In it A Parliament meets and settles the Reformation all Acts for the former way of Religion were repealed and a confession of Faith penned by Knox afterwards inserted among the Acts of Parliament 1567. was confirmed These Acts were opposed only by three Temporal Lords who said they would believe as their Fathers had done but all the Spiritual Lords both Bishops and Abbots consented to them and they did dilapidate the Lands and Revenues of the Church in the strangest manner that was ever known the Abbots converted their Abbies into Temporal Estates and the Bishops though they continued Papists still divided all their Lands among their Bastards or Kindred and procured confirmations of many of the Grants they gave from Rome by which that Church was so impoverished that if King James and King Charles the First had not with much zeal and great endeavours retrieved some part of the Ancient Revenues and provided a considerable maintenance for the Inferiour Clergy all the encouragements to Religion and Learning had been to such a degree withdrawn that Barbarism must have again over-run that Kingdom When these Acts thus agreed on in the Parliament of Scotland were sent over to France they were rejected with great scorn so that the Scots began to apprehend a new War but Francis the second 's death soon after delivered them from all their fears for their Queen having no more the support of so great a Crown was forced to return home and govern in such a manner as that Nation was pleased to submit to Thus had the Queen of England divided Scotland from its ancient dependance on France The Queen of England the Head of all the Protestants and had tied it so to her own Interests that she was not only secure on that side of her Dominions but came to have so great an interest in Scotland that affairs there were for most part governed according to the Directions she sent thither Other Accidents did also concur to give her a great share in all the most Important affairs of Europe In France upon Henry the second 's fatal end great Divisions arose between the Princes of the Blood and the Brothers of the House of Guise Both in France into whose hands the administration of affairs was put during Francis the second 's short Reign It was pretended on the one hand that the King was not of Age till he was 22. and that during his Minority the Princes of the Blood were to Govern by the Advice of the Courts of Parliaments and the Assembly of Estates On the other hand it was said that the King might assume the Government and Imploy whom he pleased at 14. A design was laid in which many of both Religions concurred for taking the Government out of the hands of the strangers and seising on the King's Person but a Protestant moved by a Principle of Conscience discovered it Upon this the Prince of Conde and many others were seised on and if the King had not died soon after they had suffered for it Charles the Ninth succeeding who was under Age the King of Navarre was declared Regent but he though before a Protestant was drawn into the Papist Interest and joyned himself with the Queen Mother and the Constable A severe Edict was made against the Protestants but the Execution of it was like to raise great disorders so another was made in a great Assembly of many Princes of the Blood Privy Councellours and 8. Courts of Parliament allowing the free exercise of that Religion yet after this the Duke of Guise reconciled himself to the Queen Mother and they resolved to break the Edict so the Duke of Guise happening to pass by a Meeting of Protestants his Servants offered violence to them from reproachful words it went to the throwing of stones by one of which the Duke was hurt upon which his Servants killed 60. of the Protestants and wounded 200. and upon this the Edict was every where broken It was said that the Regent's power did not extend so far as that he could break so Publick an Edict and that therefore it was lawful for the Protestants to defend themselves The Prince of Conde set himself at the Head of them and the King of Navarre being killed soon after the breaking out of the War he as the first Prince of the Blood that was of Age ought to have been declared Regent so that the Protestants said their defending themselves was not Rebellion since they had both the Law and the first Prince of the Blood on their side The
unlawful in it self The Sorbon declares against the Marriage At Paris the Sorbon made their Determination with great Solemnity after a Mass of the Holy Ghost all the Doctors took an Oath to study the Question and to give their Judgment according to their Consciences and after three Weeks study the greater part agreed in this That the King's Marriage was unlawful and that the Pope could not dispense with it At Orleans Angiers and Tholouse they determined to the same purpose Erasmus had a mind to live in quiet and so he would not give his Opinion nor offend either party Grineus was implored to try what Bucer Zuinglius and Oecolampadius thought of the Marriage Bucer's Opinion was The Opinion of the Reformed Divines about it that the Laws in Leviticus did not bind and were not moral Because God not only dispensed but commanded them to marry their Brother's Wife when he died without Issue Zuinglius and Oecolampadius were of another mind and thought these Laws were moral But were of Opinion that the Issue by a Marriage de facto grounded upon a received Mistake ought not to be Illegitimated Calvin thought the Marriage was null and they all agreed that the Pope's Dispensation was of no force Osiander was imploied to engage the Lutheran Divines but they were affraid of giving the Emperour new grounds of displeasure Melanctthon thought the Law in Leviticus was dispensable and that the Marriage might be lawful and that in those matters States and Princes might make what Laws they pleased And though the Divines of Leipsick after much disputing about it did agree that these Laws were moral yet they could never be brought to justify the Divorce with the subsequent Marriage that followed upon it even after it was done and that the King appeared very inclinable to receive their Doctrine So steadily did they follow their Consciences even against their Interests But the Pope was more compliant for he offered to Cassali to grant the King a Dispensation for having another Wife with which the Imperialists seemed not disatisfied The King's Cause being thus fortified Many of the Nobility write to the Pope by so many Resolutions in his Favours he made many members of Parliament in a Prorogation time sign a Letter to the Pope complaining that notwithstanding the great merits of the King the Justice of his Cause and the Importance of it to the safety of the Kingdom yet the Pope made still new Delayes they therefore pressed him to dispatch it speedily otherwise they would be forced to see for other Remedies tho they were not willing to drive things to Extremities till it was unavoidable The Letter was signed by the Cardinal the Archbishop of Canterbury four other Bishops 22 Abbots 42 Peers and 11 Commoners To this the Pope wrote an answer The Pope's Answer He took notice of the Vehemence of their Stile He freed himself from the Imputations of Ingratitude and Injustice He acknowledged the King's great Merits and said he had done all he could in his Favour He had granted a Commission but could not refuse to receive the Queen's Appeal all the Cardinals with one consent judged that an Avocation was necessary Since that time the delays lay not at his door but at the Kings that he was ready to proceed and would bring it to as speedy an Issue as the Importance of it would admit of and for their Threatnings they were neither agreeable to their Wisdom nor their Religion Things being now in such a Posture November the King set out a Proclamation against any that should purchase bring over or publish any Bull from Rome contrary to his Authority and after that he made an Abstract of all the Reasons and Authorities of Fathers or modern Writers against his Marriage to be published both in Latin and English The main stress was laid on the Laws in Leviticus The Arguments for the Divorce of the forbidden Degrees of Marriage among which this was one not to marry the Brother's Wife These Marriages are called Abominations that defile the Land and for which the Canaanites were cast out of it The Exposition of Scripture was to be taken from the Tradition of the Church and by the Universal Consent of all Doctors those Laws had been still looked on as Moral and ever binding to Christians as well as Jews Therefore Gregory the Great advised Austin the Monk upon the Conversion of the English among whom the Marriages of the Brother's Wife were usual to dissolve them looking on them as grievous Sins Many other Popes as Calixtus Zacharias and Innocent the Third had given their Judgments for the perpetual Obligation of those Laws They had been also condemned by the Councils of Neocesarea Agde and the second of Toledo Among Wickliff's condemned Opinions this was one that the Prohibitions of marrying in such degrees were not founded on the Law of God For which he was condemned in some English Councils and these were confirmed by the General Council at Constance Among the Greek Fathers both Origen Basil Chrysostom and Hesychius and among the Latins Tertullian Ambrose Jerome and St. Austine do formerly deliver this as the belief of the Church in their time that those Laws were Moral and still in force Anselm Hugo de sancto Victore Hildebert and Ivo argue very fully to the same purpose the last particularly writing concerning the King of France who had married his Brothers Wife says it was inconsistent with the Law of God with which none can dispence and that he could not be admitted to the Communion of the Church till he put her away Aquinas and all the School-men follow these Authorities and in their way of reasoning they argue fully for this Opinion and all that writ against Wickliff did also assert the Authority of those Prohibitions in particular Waldensis whose Books were approved by Pope Martin the Fifth All the Canonists did also agree with them as Johannes Andreas Panormitan and Ostiensis so that Tradition being the only sure Expounder of the Scripture the Case seemed clear They also proved that a Consent without Consummation made the Marriage compleat which being a Sacrament that which followed after in the Right of Marriage was not necessary to make it compleat as a Priest saying Mass consummates his Orders which yet were compleat without it Many Testimonies were brought to confirm this from which it was inferred that the Queen's being married to Prince Arthur tho nothing had followed upon it made her incapable of a lawful Marriage with the King And yet they shewed what violent Presumptions there were of Consummation which was all that in such Cases was sought for and this was expressed both in the Bull and Breve tho but dubiously in the one yet very positively in the other After that they examined the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation It was a received Maxime that tho the Pope had Authority to dispense with the Laws of the Church yet he could not
to his Son Henry which was like to draw in other Princes to a League with him who would have been much better pleased to see a King's younger Son among them than either the Emperour or the King of France The King's Matter was now in a fairer way of being adjusted for the Pope's Conscience being directed by his Interests since he had now broken with the Emperour it was probable he would give the King content He saw the danger of losing England The Interest of the Clergy was much sunk and they were in a great measure subjected to the Crown Lutheranism was also making a great Progress and the Pope was out of any danger from the Emperour on whom the whole Power of the Turkish Empire was now fallen drawn in as was believed by the Practices of Francis at the Port tho that did not well agree with his Title of Most Christian King The Princes of Germany took Advantage from this to make the Emperour consent to some further liberty in matters of Religion and to secure themselves they were then also entered into a League with Francis for preserving the Rights of the Empire unto which King Henry was invited All this raised Francis again very high so he was the fittest Person to mediate an Agreement between the King and the Pope and being himself a Lover of Pleasure he was the more easily engaged to serve the King in the accomplishment of his Amours A new Session of Parliament was held A misunderstanding between the House of Commons in which the Laity complained of the spiritual Courts of their way of proceeding ex Officio and not admitting Persons accused to their Purgation But this was not much considered by reason of an ill understanding that fell in between the King and the House of Commons There was a Custom brought in of making such Settlements of Estates that the Heir was not liable to Wards and the other Advantages to which the King or the Great Lords had otherwise a Right by their Tenures So a Bill for regulating that was sent down by the Lords but the Commons rejected it which gave the King great Offence upon that they addressed to the King for a Dissolution since they had been now obliged to a long Attendance The King answered them sharply He said they had rejected a Bill in which he had offered a great Abatement of that which he might claim by Law and therefore he would execute the Law in its utmost severity He told them he had Patience while his Suit was in dependence and so they must have likewise For this Parliament was made up of Men very ill affected to the Clergy so the King kept it still in being to terrify the Court of Rome so much the more All that was remarkable that past in this Session was an Act against Annats An Act against Annats it sets forth that they were founded on no Law they were first enacted to defend Christendom against Infidels and were now kept up as a Revenue to the Papacy and Bulls were not granted till they were compounded for for 800000 Ducats had bin carried out of England to Rome on that account since the beginning of the former Reign The King was bound by his Royal Care of his Subjects to hinder such Oppressions and therefore all that were provided to great Benefices were required not to pay First Fruits for the future under the pain of forfeiting all their Goods and the profits of their Benefices and those that were presented to Bishopricks were appointed to be consecrated tho their Bulls were denied at Rome and they were required to pay no more but 5 per Cent. of the clear Profits of their Sees If the Pope should upon this proceed to censures they required all the Clergy to perform Divine Offices these notwithstanding But by an extraordinary Proviso they referred it to the King to declare at any time between that and Easter next whether this Act should take place or not and the King by his Letters Patents declared that it should take place being provoked by the Pope In January the Pope The Pope writes to the King upon the motion of the Imperialists wrote to the King complaining that notwithstanding a Suit was depending concerning his Marriage yet he had put away his Queen and kept one Anne as his Wife contrary to a Prohibition served on him therefore he exhorted him to live with his Queen again and to put Anne away Upon this the King sent Dr. Bennet to Rome with a large Dispatch The King's Answer in it he complained that the Pope proceeded in that matter upon the Suggestion of others who were ignorant and rash Men the Pope had carried himself inconstantly and deceitfully in it and not as became Christ's Vicar and the King had now for several Years expected a Remedy from him in vain The Pope had granted a Commission had promised never to recal it and had sent over a Decretal Bull defining the Cause Either these were unjustly granted or unjustly recalled If he had Authority to grant these things where was the Faith which became a Friend much more a Pope since he had recalled them If he had not Authority to grant them he did not know how far he could consider any thing he did It was plain that he acted more with regard to his Interests than according to Conscience and that as the Pope had often confessed his own Ignorance in these matters so he was not furnished with Learned Men to advise him otherwise he would not maintain a Marriage which almost all the Learned Men and Universities in England France and Italy had condemned as unlawful He desired the Pope would excuse the Freedom he used to which his Carriage had forced him He would not question his Authority unless he were compelled to it and would do nothing but reduce it to its first and ancient Limits which was much better than to let high it run on headlong and still do amiss This high Letter made the Pope resolve to proceed and end this matter either by a Sentence or a Treaty The King was cited to answer to the Queen's Appeal at Rome in Person or by Proxy so Sir Edward Karme was sent thither in the new Character of the King 's Excusator to excuse the King's Appearance upon such grounds as could be founded on the Canon Law The King cited to Rome excuses himself and upon the Privileges of the Crown of England Bonner that was a forwad and ambitious Man and would stick at nothing that might contribute to his Preferment was sent over with him The Imperialists pressed the Pope much to give Sentence but all the wise Cardinals who observed by the Proceedings of the Parliament that the Nation would adhere to the King if he should be provoked to shake off the Pope's Yoke were very apprehensive of a Breach and suggested milder Counsels to the Pope and the King's Agents assured him that if he
Author of it would certainly be hanged So when the Secretary came to ask for it and said it was the Arch-bishop's Book the other that was an obstinate Papist refused to give it and reckoned that now Cranmer would be certainly ruined but the Secretary acquainting Cromwell with it he called for him next day and chid him severely for presuming to keep a Privy-Counsellours Book and so he took it out of his Hands thus Cranmer was delivered out of this Danger Shaxton and Latimer not only resigned their Bishopricks but being presented for some Words spoken against the six Articles they were put in Prison where they lay till a recantation discharged the one and the King's Death set the other at liberty There were about 500 others presented on the same account but upon the Intercessions of Cranmer Cromwell and others they were set at liberty and there was a stop put to the further Execution of the Act till Cromwell fell The Bishops of the Popish Party took strange Methods to insinuate themselves into the King's Confidence Bishops hold their Sees at the King's Pleasure for they took out Commissions by which they acknowledged That all Jurisdiction Civil and Ecclesiastical flowed from the King and that they exercised it only at the King's Courtesy and as they had of his Bounty so they would be ready to deliver it up when he should be pleased to call for it and therefore the King did empower them in his stead to ordain give Institution and do all the other parts of the Episcopal Function which was to last during his Pleasure and a mighty charge was given them to ordain none but Persons of great Integrity good Life and well learned for since the Corruption of Religion flowed from ill Pastors so the Reformation of it was to be expected chiefly from good Pastors By this they were made indeed the King's Bishops in this Bonner set an Example to the rest but it does not appear that Cranmer took out any such Commission all this Reign Now came on the total Dissolution of the Abbies All the Monasteries supprest 57 surrenders were made this Year of which 30 are yet extant of these 37 were Monasteries and 20 were Nunneries and among them 12 were Parliamentary Abbies which were in all 28 Abington St. Albans St. Austin's Canterbury Battell St. Bennets in the Holm Bardeny Cirencester Colchester Coventry Croyland St. Edmundsbury Evesham Glassenbury Gloceste Hide Malmsbury St. Mary's in York Peterborough Ramsey Reading Selby Shrewsbury Tavestock Tewkesbury Thorney Waltham Westminster and Winchelcomb When all had thus resigned Commissioners were appointed by the Court of Augmentations to seize on the Revenues and Goods belonging to these Houses to establish the Pensions that were to be given to every one that had been in them and to pull down the Churches or such other parts of the Fabrick as they thought superfluous and to sell the Materials of them When this was done others began to get Hospitals to be surrendred to the King Thirleby being Master of St. Thomas Hospital in Southwark was the first that set an Example to the rest he was soon after made a Bishop and turned with every Change that followed till Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and then he refused to comply tho he had gone along with all the Changes that were made in King Edward's time The valued Rents of the Abby-Lands as they were then let was 132607 l. 6 s. 4 d. but they were worth above ten times so much in true value The King had now in his hand the greatest Advantage that ever King of England had both for enriching the Crown and making Royal Foundations But such was his Easiness to his Courtiers and his Lavishness that all this melted away in a few Years and his Designs were never accomplished he intended to have founded 18 new Bishopricks but he founded only six Other great Projects did also become abortive In particular one that was designed by Sir Nicholas Bacon which was a Seminary for States-men he proposed the crecting a House for Persons of Quality or of extraordinary Endowments for the study of the Civil Law and of the Latine and French Tongues of whom some were to be sent with every Ambassadour beyond Sea to be improved in the Knowledg of Forreign Assairs in which they should be imploied as they grew capable of them And others were to be set to work to write the History of the Trasactions abroad and of Assairs at home This was to supply one Loss that was like to follow on the Fall of Abbies for in most of them there was kept a Chronicle of the Times These were written by Men that were more credulous than judicious and so they are often more particular in the recital of Trifles than of important Affairs and an invincible Humour of lying when it might raise the Credit of their Order or House runs through all their Manuscripts All the Ground that Cranmer gained this Year in which there was so much lost was a Liberty that all private Persons might have Bibles in their House the managing of which was put in Cromwell's Hands by a special Patent Gardiner opposed it vehemently and built much on this that without Tradition it was impossible to understand the meaning of the Scriptures and one day before the King he challenged Cranmer to shew any Difference between the Scriptures and the Apostles Canons It is not known how Cranmer managed the Debate but the Issue of it was this The King judged in his Favours and said He was an old experienced Captain and ought not to be troubled by fresh Men and Novices The King was now resolved to marry again and both the Emperour and the King of France proposed Matches to him but they came to no Effect The Emperour endeavoured by all means possible to separate the King from the Princes of the Smalcaldick League and the Act of the six Articles had done that already in a great measure for they complained much of the King's Severity in those Points which were the principal Parts of their Doctrine such as Communion in both kinds Private Masses and the Marriage of the Clergy Gardiner studied to animate the King much against them he often told him it was below his Dignity to suffer dull Gâ—rrâ—ans to dictate to him and he suggested that they who would not acknowledg the Emperours Supremacy in the matters of Religion could not be hearty Friends to the Authority which the King had assumed in them But the Germans did not look on the Emperour as their Soveraign but only as the Head of the Empire and they did believe that every Prinee in his Dominions and the Diet for the whole Empire had sufficient Authority for making Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs but what other Considerations could not induce the King to was like to be more powerfully carried on by the Match with Anne of Cleve which was now set on foot There had been a Treaty between her Father and
the Duke of Lorrain for the Prince of Lorrain and her but it had gone no farther then a Contract between the Fathers Hans Holbin A Treaty for a Match with Ann of Cleve the Famous Painter of that Age took her Picture very much to her Advantage for the King never liked the Original so well as he had done the Picture The Duke of Saxe diswaded the Match because the King was going backward in the matter of the Reformation but Cromwell set it on vigorously It was said the Lady had great Charms in her Person but she could speak no Language but Dutch which the King understood not nor was she bred to Musick And she had a stifness in her Breeding which was not at all accommodated to the King's Inclinations The Match was at last agreed on and in the end of December she was brought over The King was impatient and so went incognito to Rochester but was struck when he saw her There was a Rudeness in her which did not at all please him He swore they had brought over a Flanders Mare to him and took up an incurable Aversion to her He resolved to break the Match if it were possible but his Affairs made the Friendship of the German Princes to be then very necessary to him so that he did not think it advisable to put any Affront on the Dukes of Saxe and Cleve her Brother and her Brother in Law The Emperour had at this time made a hasty Journey through France and Francis and he had an Interview where as the King was informed a Project was laid down against him which was chiefly set on by the Pope Francis was thinking how to take Calais and the other places the King had in France from him it had been also easy for him to have engaged the King of Scotland against him And the People in the North were thought to retain their former Disposition to rise still so that a War made on the King in such Circumstances was like to find him at a great Disadvantage This made the King more tender of offending the Germans But he tried if that Precontract with the Duke of Lorrains's Son could furnish him with a fair Excuse to break the Match The King expressed the great Trouble he was in both to Cromwel and many of his other Servants and one of them pleasantly told him that Subjects had this Advantage over Princes that they chose Wives for themselves whereas Princes were obliged to take such as were brought them But nothing could be built on that Precontract which was only an Agreement between the Fathers their Children being under Age and that was afterwards annulled and broken by the Parents So Cranmer and Tonstall beiug required to give their Opinions as Divines said there was nothing in it to hinder the King 's Marrying the Lady The King marries her but never liked her On the the 6th of January the King Married her but expressed his dislike of her so visibly that all about him took notice of it And the day after that he told Cromwell that he had not consummated his Marriage and he believed he should never do it He suspected she was not a Virgin and she had ill Smells about her so that his Aversion to her was encreased to such a Degree that he believed he should never be able to change it Cromwell did what he could to overcome these Inclinations but that was not to be done And tho the King lived five Months with her and lay often in the Bed with her yet his Aversion to her rather encreased than abated She seemed little concerned at it and expressed a great readiness to concur in every thing that might disengage him from a Marriage that was so unacceptable to him Instruments were brought over to shew that the Contract between her and the Prince of Lorrain was void But they took some Advantage because it was not declared whether the Contract was in the Words of the Present or of the Future Tense In April there was a Session of Parliament A New Parliament and at the opening of it as the Lord Chancellour declared the matters relating to the State for which the King had called them So the Vicegerent spake to them concerning the matters of Religion He told them there was nothing which the King desired so much as an entire Union among all his Subjects but some Incendiaries opposed it as much as he promoted it and between the rashness on the one hand and Inveterare Superstition on the other great Dissentions had arisen These were inflamed by the reproachful names of Papist and Heretick And tho they had now the Word of God in all their hands yet they studied rather to justify their Passions out of it than to govern their Lives by it In order to the removing this the King resolved to set forth an Exposition of the Doctrine of Christ without any corrupt Mixtures and to retain such Ceremonies as might be of good use and that being done he was resolved to punish all Transgressours of what side soever they might be For that end he had appointed the two Archbishops and the Bishops of London Duresm Winchester Rochester Hereford and St. Davids and 11 Divines Thirleby Robertson Cox Day Oglethorp Redmayn Edgeworth Crayford Symons Robins and Tresham for setling the Doctrine And the Bishops of Bath and Walls Ely Sarum Chichester Worcester and Landaff for the Ceremonies These Committees for Religion sat as often as the Affairs of the Parliament could allow of Two days after the Parliament met Cromwell was made Earl of Essex which shews it was not the King's Dislike of the Queen that wrought his Ruine otherwise he had not now raised his Title The Knights of St. John suppressed A Bill was brought in to the Parliament for suppressing the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem These were at first only an Hospital for entertaining the Pilgrims that went to visit the Holy Grave And after that they became an Order of Knights and they and the Knights-Templars conducted and guarded the Pilgrims It was thought for some Ages one of the highest Expression of Devotion to Christ to go and visit the places where he was crucified buried and ascended to Heaven And it was look'd on as highly Meritorious to go and fight for recovering the Holy-Land out of the hands of Infidels so that almost every one that died either vowed to go to the Holy War or left somewhat to such as should go If they recovered they bought off their Vow by giving some Lands for the Entertainment of those Knights There were great Complaints made of the Templars but whether it was their Wealth that made them a desirable Prey or their Guilt that drew Ruine on them is not certain They were condemned in a Council and all of them that could be found were cruelly put to Death But the other Order was still continued and being beaten out of Judea they setled at Rhodes out
received the new Opinions Seaton a Dominican the King's Confessor preaching in Lent set out the Nature of true Repentance and the Method to it without mixing the Directions which the Friars commonly gave on that Subject and when another Friar shewed the defectiveness of what he had taught he defended himself in another Sermon and reflected on those Bishops that did not preach and called them dumb Dogs But the Clergy would not meddle with him till they found him in ill Terms with the King and the freedom he used in reproving him for his Vices quickly alienated the King from him upon which they resolved to fall on him but he withdrew into England and wrote to the King taxing the Clergy for their Cruelty and praying him to restrain it One Forrest an ignorant Benedictine was accused for having spoken Honourably of Patrick Hamilton and was put in Prison In Confession to a Friar he acknowledged he thought he was a good Man and that the Articles for which he was condemned might be defended The Friar discovered this and it was received as Evidence and upon it he was condemned and burnt Divers others were brought into the Bishop's Courts of whom the greatest part abjured but two were more resolute one Gourley denied Purgatory and the Pope's Authority another was David Smiton who being a Fisherman had refused to pay the Tithe of his Fish and when the Vicar came to take them he said the Tithe was taken where the Stock grew and therefore he threw the tenth Fish into the Sea For this and other Opinions he was condemned and they were both burnt at one Stake Several others were accused of whom some fled to England and others went over to Germany The Changes made in England raised in all the People a curiosity of searching into matters of Religion and that was always fatal to Superstition Pope Clement the 7th wrote earnestly to the King of Scotland to continue firm to the Catholick Faith Upon which he called a Parliament and made new Laws for maintaining the Pope's Authority and proceeding against Hereticks yet the Pope could not engage him to make War on England King Henry sent Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to him with some Books that were written in Defence of his Proceedings and desired him to examine them Impartially He also proposed the Enterview at York and a Match between him and Lady Mary the King 's eldest Daughter and promised that he should be made Duke of York and Lord Lieutenant of the whole Kingdom Yet the Clergy diverted him from this and perswaded him to go in Person to France and court the Daughter of that King Magdalene He married her in January 1537 but she died in May. She had been bred in the Queen of Navarre's Court and so was well disposed towards the Reformation Upon her Death the King married Mary of Guise she was a Branch of the Family of all Europe that was most zealously addicted to the old Superstition and her Interest joined with the Clergy's engaged the King to become a violent Persecuter of all that were of another mind The King was very expensive both in his Pleasures and Buildings and had a numerous Race of Bastards A Persecution set on foot in Scotland so that he came to want Mony much The Nobility proposed to him the seizing on the Abbey-Lands as his Uncle had done The Clergy on the other hand advised him to proceed severely against all suspected of Heresy By which means according to the Lists they shewed him he might raise 100000 Crowns a Year They also advised him to provide his Children to Abbies and Priories and represented to him That if he continued stedfast in the old Religion he would still have a great Party in England and might be made the Head of a League which was then in Project against King Henry This so far prevailed with him that as he made four of his Sons Abbots and Priors so he gave way to the persecuting Spirit of the Clergy Upon which many were cited to answer for Heresy of these many abjured and some were banisht A Canon Regular a Secular Priest two Friars and a Gentleman were burnt Forrest the Canon Regular had been reproved by his Ordinary the Bishop of Dunkell for meddling with the Scriptures too much He told him he had lived long and had never known what was in the Old or New Testament but contented himself with his Portoise and Pontifical and that he might come to repent it if he troubled himself with such Fancsies The Archbishop of Glasgow was a very moderate Man and disliked cruel Proceedings Russel a Friar and Kennedy a young Man of 18 Years of Age were brought before him they expressed wonderful Joy and a steady Resolution in their Sufferings And after a long dispute between Russel and the Bishop's Divines Russel concluded This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness go on and fill up the Measures of your Iniquities The Archbishop was unwilling to give Sentence he said he thought these Executions did the Church more Hurt than Good But those about him told him He must not take a Way different from the rest of the Bishops and threatned him so that he pronounced Sentence They were burned but they gave such Demonstrations of Patience and Joy as made no small Impression on all that saw it or heard of it Among those that were in trouble George Buchanan was one who at the King's Instigations had writ a very sharp Poem against the Franciscans but was now abandoned by him He made his Escape and lived 20 Years in Forraign Parts and at last returned to do his Country Honour and what by his Immortal Poems what by his History of Scotland he shewed both how great a Master he was in the Roman Tongue and how true a Judge he was both in Wit and in the Knowledge of Human Affairs if Passion had not corrupted him towards the end of his History that he is justly to be reckoned the greatest and best of the Modern Writers So much of the Affairs of Scotland the Author 's Native Country King Henry stayed not long at York The Queen 's ill Life is discovered since his Nephew came not to him He set out a Proclamation there inviting all that had been of late oppressed to come in and make their Complaints and he promised to repair them This was done to cast the Load of all past Errours upon Cromwel The King was mightily wrought on by the Charms of his Wife so that on the First of November he gave publick thanks to God for the happy Choice he had made But this did not last long for the next day Cranmer came and gave him an account of the Queen 's ill Life which one Lassells had revealed to him as having learnt it from his Sister She had been very lewd before her Marriage both with one Deirham and one Mannock Cranmer by the Advice of the other Privy Counsellors put this in Writing
put in the Tower and then it would appear how many would inform against him The King seemed to consent to this and they resolved to execute it the next day but in the Night the King sent for Cranmer and told him what was resolved concerning him Cranmer thanked the King for giving him notice of it and not leaving him to be surprised He submitted to it only he desired he might be heard answer for himself and that he might have indifferent Judges who understood those matters The King wondered to see him so little concerned in his own Preservation but told him he must take care of him since he took so little care of himself The King therefore gave him Instructions to appear before the Council and to desire to see his Accusers before he should be sent to the Tower and that he might be used by them as they would desire to be used in the like Case And if he could not prevail by the force of Reason then he was to appeal to the King in Person and was to shew the King's Seal-Ring which he took from his Finger and gave him and they knew it all so well that they would do nothing after they once saw that so he being summoned next Morning came over to White-Hall He was kept long in the Lobbey before he was called in But when that was done and he had observed the Method the King had ordered him to use and had at last shewed the Ring they rose all in great Confusion and went to the King He chid them severely for what they had done and expressed his Esteem and Kindness to Cranmer in such Terms that his Enemies were glad to get off by pretending that they had no other Design but to have his Innocence declared in a publick Trial and were now so convinced of the King 's unalterable Favour to him that they never made any more Attempts upon him But what they durst not do in Relation to Cranmer And against the Queen they thought might be more safely tried against the Queen who was known to love the New Learning which was the common Phrase for the Reformation She used to have Sermons in her Privy Chamber which could not be so secretly carried but that it came to the King's Knowledge Yet her Conduct in all other things was so exact and she expressed such a tender care of the King's Person that it was observed she had gained much upon him but his Peevishness growing with his Distempers made him sometimes uneasy even to her They used often to talk of Matters of Religion and sometimes she held up the Argument for the Reformers so stifly that he was offended at it yet as soon as that appeared she let it fall but once the Debate continuing long the King expressed his Displeasure at it to Gardiner when she went away He took hold of this Opportunity to perswade the King that she was a great Cherisher of Hereticks Wriothesly joined with him in the same Artifice and filled the angry King's Head with many Stories in so much that he signed the Articles upon which she was to be Impeached But Wriothesly let that Paper fall from him carelesly and it happened to be taken up by one of the Queen's Friends who carried it to her Upon which she went to the King and brought on a Discourse of Religion and after a little Opposition she yielded and seemed convinced by the King's Reasons and told him That she only held up that Argument to be instructed by him and sometimes to engage him in Discourse and so to make him forget his pains and this she seconded with such Flattery that he was perfectly satisfied and reconciled to her Next day as he was walking with her in the Garden Wriothesly came thither on design to have carryed her to the Tower but the King chid him severely for it and was heard to call him Knave and Fool. The good natured Queen interposed to mitigate his Displeasure but the King told her She had no reason to be concerned for him Thus the Design against her vanished and Gardiner that had set it on lost the King's Favour entirely by it But now the Fall of the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surry The Duke of Norfolk's Fall came on The Father had been long Treasurer and had served the King with great Fidelity and Success His Son was a Man of rare Qualities he had a great Wit and was more than ordinary learned He particularly hated the Earl of Hartford and scorned an Alliance with him which his Father had projected The Duke of Norfolk had intended to unite his Family to the Seimours by marrying his Son to the Earl of Hartford's Daughter and his Daughter the Dutchess of Richmond to Sir Thomas Seimour But both his Children refused to comply with him in it The Seimours were apprehensive of the Opposition they might meet with if the King should die from the Earl of Surry who was a high spirited Man had a vast Fortune and was the Head of the Popish Party It was likewise suspected that he kept himself unmarried in hopes of marrying the Lady Mary The Duke's Family was also fatally divided His Dutchess had been separated from him about four Years and now turned Informer against him His Daughter did also hate her Brother and was a Spy upon him One Holland a Whore of the Duke's did also betray him and discovered all she could yet all amounted to no more than some Complaints of the Fathers who thought the Services he had done the Crown were little regarded and some Threatnings of the Sons It was also said that the Father gave the Coat of Arms that belonged to the Prince of Wales and the Son gave Edward the Confessors Coat but that was only a Pretence to make a noise among the People and to cover the want of more important matter against them One Southwel objected things of a higher Nature to the Earl of Surry He denied them and desired that according to the Martial Law they might have a Trial by Combate and fight in their Shirts But that was not granted yet both Father and Son were put in the Tower The Earl of Surry was tried by a Jury of Commoners The Earl of Surry executed and was found guilty of Treason and executed on the 19th of January He was much lamented and the Blame of his Death being cast on the Seimours raised a General Odium against them The old Duke saw a Parliament called to destroy him by an Act of Attainder for there was not matter enough to ruine him at Common Law so to prevent that he made such humble Submission to the King as would have mollified any that had not Bowels of Brass He wrote to him That he had spent his whole Life in his Service without having so much as a Thought to his Prejudice He had obeyed all the King's Laws and was resolved to obey all that ever he should make He
in particular were condemned of Treason for saying that the King was not Supream Head of the Church of England It was then only a Premunire not to swear to the Supremacy but it was made Treason to deny it or speak against it Hall a Secular Priest was at the same time condemned of Treason for calling the King a Tyrant an Heretick a Robber and an Adulterer and saying that he would die as King John or Richard the Third died and that it would never be well with the Church till the King was brought to Pot And that they looked when Ireland and Wales would rise and were assured that three parts of four in England would join with them All these pleaded not Guilty but being condemned they justified what they had said The Carthusians were hanged in their Habits Soon after that three Carthusians were condemned and executed at London two more at York upon the same account for opposing the King's Supremacy Ten other Monks were shut up in their Cells of whom nine died there and one was condemned and hanged These had been all Complices in the Business of the Maid of Kent and tho that was pardoned yet it gave the Government ground to have a watchful Eye over them and to proceed more severly against them upon the first Provocation After these Fisher's Sufferings Fisher and More were brought to their Trials Pope Clements officious Kindness to Fisher in declaring him a Cardinal did hasten his Ruine tho he was little concerned at that Honour that was done him He was tried by a Jury of Commoners and was found guilty of Treason for having spoken against the King's Supremacy but instead of the Common Death in Cases of Treason the King ordered him to be beheaded On the 22th of June he suffered He dressed himself with more then ordinary Care that day for he said it was to be his Wedding-Day As he was led out he opened the New Testament at a Venture and prayed that such a place might turn up as might comfort him in his last Moments The Words on which he cast his Eyes were This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So he shut the Book and continued meditating on these Words to the last On the Scaffold he repeated the Te Deum and so laid his Head on the Block which was severed from his Body He was a learned and devout Man but much addicted to Superstition and too cruel in his Temper against Hereticks He had been Confessor to the King's Grand-Mother and perswaded her to found two Colledges in Cambridge Christ's and St John's in Acknowledgment of which he was chosen Chancelof the University Henry the Seventh made him Bishop of Rochester He would never exchange that for any other He said his Church was his Wife and he would not part with his Wife because she was Poor He was much esteemed by this King till the Suit of the Divorce was set on foot and then he adhered stifly to the Marriage and the Popes Supremacy and that made him too favourable to the Nun of Kent But the Severities of his long Imprisonment together with this bloody Conclusion of it were universally condemned all the World over only Gardiner imploied his Servile Pen to write a Vindication of the King's Proceedings against him It was writ in Elegant Latin but the Stile was thought too Vehement More 's Death It was harder to find matter against Sir Thomas More for he was very cautious and satisfied his own Conscience by not swearing the Supremacy but would not not speak against it He said the Act had two Edges if he consented to it it would damne his Soul and if he spoke against it it would condemn his Body This was all the Message he sent to Fisher when he desired to know his Opinion about it he had also said the same to the Duke of Norfolk and some Counsellors that came to examine him And Rich then the King's Solicitor coming as a private Friend to perswade him to swear the Oath urged him with the Act of Parliament and asked him if he should be made King by Act of Parliament would not he Acknowledge him He answered he would because a King might be made or deprived by a Parliament But the Matter of the Supremacy was a point of Religion to which the Parliament's Authority did not extend it self All this Rich witnessed against him so these Particulars were laid together as amounting to a Denial of the King's Supremacy and upon this he was judged guilty of Treason He received his Sentence with that equal Temper of Mind which he had shewed in both Conditions of Life He expressed great Contempt of the World and much Weariness in living in it His ordinary Facetiousness remained with him to his last Moment on the Scaffold Some censured that as affected and indecent and as having more of the Stoick than the Christian in it But others said that way of Railery had been so Customary to him that Death did not discompose him nor put him out of his ordinary Humour He was beheaded on the 6th of July in the 52d or 53d Year of his Age. He had great Capacities and eminent Vertues In his Youth he had freer thoughts but he was afterwards much corrupted by Superstition and became fierce for all the Interests of the Clergy He wrote much in Defence of all the old Abuses His Learning in Divinity was but ordinary for he had read little more than some of St. Austin's Treatises and the Canon Law and the Master of the Sentences beyond whom his Quotations do seldom go His Stile was Natural and Pleasant and he could turn things very dextrously to make them look well or ill as it served his Purpose But tho he suffered for denying the Kings Supremacy yet he was at first no Zealot for the Pope For he says of himself That when the King shewed him his Book in Manuscript which he wrote against Luther he advised him to leave out that which he had put in it concerning the Pope's Power for he did not know what Quarrels he might have afterwards with the Pope's and then that would be turned against him But the King was perhaps fond of what he had written and so he would not follow that wise Advice which he gave him There were no Executions after this till the Rebellions of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire gave new Occasions to Severity Attainders after the Rebellion and then not only the Lords of Darcy and Hussy but six Abbots and many Gentlemen the chief of whom was Sir Thomas Piercy Brother to the Earl of Northumberland were attainted They had not only been in the Rebellion but had forfeited the General Pardon by their new Attempts after it was proclaimed Yet some said the King took Advantage on very slight Grounds to break his Indemnity But on the other hand it was no Wonder if he proceeded with the utmost Rigour
Laws and Orders of Council but that he would acknowledge no fault not having committed any The things objected to him were that he refused to set out in his Sermon the King's power when he was under Age and had affronted the Preachers whom the King had sent to his Diocess that he had been negligent in executing the King's Injunctions and refused to confess his fault or ask the King pardon and it was said that the Rebellions raised in England might have been prevented if he had timously set forth the King's authority he answered that he was not required to do it by any Order of Council but only in a private discourse yet Witnesses being examined upon those particulars the Delegates proceeded to sentence of deprivation against him notwithstanding his Appeal to the King in Person and he was appointed to lie still in the Tower where he continued till Queen Mary discharged him Nothing was pretended to excuse the severity of these proceedings but that he having taken out a Commission for holding his Bishoprick only during the King's pleasure he could not complain when that was intimated to him and if he had been turned out meerly upon pleasure without the Pomp of a Process the matter might have been better excused Poinet was put in his See and had 2000. Marks in Lands assigned him for his subsistence Story was put in Rochester and upon Veysy's resignation Coverdale was made Bishop of Exeter The scruples that Hooper made were now so far satisfied that he was content both to be consecrated in his Vestments and to use them when he preached before the King or in his Cathedral but he was dispensed with upon other occasions By this time the greater number of the Bishops were Men that heartily received the Reformation The Articles of Religion agreed on so it was resolved now to proceed to a settlement of the Doctrine of the Church many thought that should have been done in the first place But Cranmer judged it was better to proceed slowly in that matter he thought the Corruptions in the Worship were to be begun with since while they remained the addresses to God were so defiled that thereby all People were involved in unlawful compliances he thought speculative Opinions might come last since errours in them were not of such ill consequence and he judged it necessary to lay these open in many Treatises and Disputes before they should proceed to make alterations that so all People might be before-hand satisfied with what should be done So now they framed a Body of Articles which contained the Doctrine of the Church of England they were cast into forty two Articles and afterwards some few alterations being made in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign they were reduced to XXXIX which being in all Peoples hands need not be much inlarged on In the Ancient Church there was at first a great simplicity in their Creeds but afterwards upon the breaking out of Heresies concerning the Person of Christ equivocal senses being put on the terms formerly used new ones that could not be so easily eluded were invented A humour of explaining Mysteries by similies and niceties and of passing Anathema's on all that did not receive these did much over-run the Church and though the Council of Ephesus decreed that no new additions should be made to the Creed yet that did not restrain those who loved to make all their own conceits be received as parts of the Faith The Fathers were carried too far with this curiosity but the Schoolmen went farther and spun the Thread much finer they condemned every thing that differed from their Notions as Heretical Many of the Lutherans had retained much of that peremptoriness and were not easie to those who differed from them In England great care was taken to frame these Articles in the most comprehensive words and the greatest simplicity possible Changes made in the Common-prayer-book When this was setled they went about the review of the Common-prayer-Book In the daily service they added the Confession and Absolution that so the worship of God might begin with a grave and humble Confession conceived in general words but to which every one ought to joyn a secret confession of his particular sins after which a solemn declaration of the mercy of God according to the terms of the Gospel was to be pronounced by the Priest This was thought much better than the giving Absolution in such formal words as I absolve thee which begat in the undiscerning Vulgar an Opinion that the Priest had authority to pardon sin and that made them think of nothing so much as how to purchase it at his hands and it proved as it was managed the greatest Engine that ever was for overthrowing the power of Religion In the Communion-Service they ordered a recital of the Commandments with a short devotion between every one of them judging that till Church-Discipline were restored nothing could more effectually awaken such as came to receive it to a due seriousness in it than the hearing the Law of God thus pronounced with those stops in it to make the People reflect on their offences against it The Chrism the use of the Cross in consecrating the Eucharist Prayers for the Dead and some expressions that favoured Transubstantiation were laid aside and the Book was put in the same Order and Method in which it continues to this day excepting only some inconsiderable variations that have been made since A Rubrick was added to the Office of the Communion explaining the reason of kneeling in it that it was only as an expression of due reverence and gratitude upon the receiving so particular a mark of the favour of God but that no adoration was intended by it and that they did not think Christ was corporally present in it In Queen Elizabeth's time this was left out that such as conformed in other things but still retained the belief of the Corporal Presence might not be offended at such a Declaration It was again put in the Book upon his present Majesties Restoration for removing the Scruples of those who excepted to that posture Christ did at first institute this Sacrament in the ordinary Table-gesture Moses appointed the Paschal Lamb to be eaten by the People standing with staves in their hands they being then to begin their march yet that was afterwards changed by the Jews who did eat it in the posture common at Meals which our Saviour's practice justifies so though Christ in his state of Humiliation did Institute this Ordinance in so familiar a posture yet it was thought more becoming the reverence due to him in his Exaltation to celebrate it with greater expressions of humility and devotion The Ancient Christians received it standing and bowing their Body downward Kneeling was afterwards used as a higher expression of devout worship but great difference is to be made between the adoration practised in the Church of Rome in which upon lifting up the Host all fall down
they asserted her right and she promised to maintain the true Religion and the Laws of the Land This was not received with the shouts ordinary on such occasions A Vintners Boy expressed some scorn when he heard it for which he was next day set on a Pillory and his Ears were nailed to it to strike terror in the rest Many descanted variously on this Proclamation Censures past upon that Those who thought that the King had his power immediately from God said that then it must descend in the way of Inheritance and since the King 's two Sisters were both under sentences of illegitimation they said the next Heir in blood must succeed and that was the young Queen of Scotland but she being of the Church of Rome claimed nothing upon the sentence against Queen Mary esteeming it unlawful and null yet afterwards she made her claim against Queen Elizabeth Others said that though a Prince were named immediately by God yet upon great reasons he might alter the Succession from its natural course for so David preferred Solomon to Adonijah In England the Kings claimed the Crown by a long Prescription confirmed by many Laws and not from a divine designation and therefore they inferred that the Act of Parliament for the Succession ought to take place and that by vertue of it the two Sisters ought to succeed and it was said that as the King could limit the Prerogative so he could likewise limit the succession It was also said that Charles Brandon's Issue by the French Queen was unlawful because he was then married to one Mortimer yet this was not declared in any Court and so could not take place Others said if the Right of blood could not be cut off why was the Scotch Queen cut off and her being born out of the Kingdom could not exclude her as an Alien for though that held in other cases yet it was only a Provision of Law which could not take away a Divine right and by special Law the King's Children were excepted It was also urged that the Dutchess of Suffolk ought to be preferred to her Daughter who could only claim by her Right and though Maud the Empress and Margaret Countess of Richmond had not claimed the Crown but were satisfied that their Sons two Henries the second and seventh should reign in their right yet it was never heard that a Mother should quit her right to a Daughter that of the half blood was said to be only a rule in Law for private Families and that it did not extend to the Crown The power of limiting the succession by Patent or Testament was said to be only a Personal trust lodged in King Henry the Eighth and that it did not descend to his Heirs so that King Edward's Patents were thought to be of no force The severity against the Vintners Boy in the beginning of a Reign founded on so doubtful a Title Many turn to Queen Mary was thought a great errour in Policy and it seemed to be a well grounded Maxime that all Governments ought to begin with acts of Clemency and affect the love rather than the fear of the People Northumberland's proceeding against the Duke of Somerset upon so soul a Conspiracy and the suspicions that lay on him as the Author of the late Kings untimely death begat a great aversion in the People to him and that disposed them to set up Queen Mary She gathered all in the neighbouring Counties about her The Men of Suffolk were generally for the Reformation yet a great Body of them came to her and asked her if she would promise not to alter the Religion set up in King Edward's days she assured them she would make no changes but should be content with the private Exercise of her own Religion Upon that they all vowed that they would live and dye with her The Earl of Sussex and several others raised Forces for her and proclaimed her Queen When the Council heard this they sent the Earl of Huntington's Brother to raise Men in Buckinghamshire and meet the Forces that should be sent from London at Newmarket The Duke of Northumberland was ordered to Command the Army Northumberland marches against her He was now much distracted in his thoughts It was of equal Importance to keep London and the Privy Councellours steady and to conduct the Army well A misfortune in either of these was like to be fatal to him So he could not resolve what to do there was not a Man of spirit that was firm to him to be left behind and yet it was most necessary once to dissipate the Force that was daily growing about Queen Mary The Lady Jane and the Council were removed to the Tower not only for state but for security for here the Council were upon the matter Prisoners He could do no more but lay a strict charge on the Council to be firm to Lady Jane's Interests and so he marched out of London with 2000. Horse and 6000. Foot on the 14th of July but no acclamations or wishes of success were to be heard as he past through the Streets The Council gave the Emperor notice of the Lady Jane's succession and complained of the disturbance that was raised by Queen Mary and that his Ambassadour had officiously medled in their affairs But the Emperour would not receive their Letters Ridley was appointed to preach up Queen Jane's Title and to animate the People against Queen Mary which he too rashly obeyed But Queen Mary's Party encreased every day Hastings went over to her with 4000. Men out of Buckinghamshire and she was proclaimed Queen in many places And now did the Privy Council begin to see their danger and to think how to get out of it The Earl of Arundel hated Northumberland The Marquess of Winchester was dextrous in shifting sides for his advantage The Earl of Pembroke's Son had married the Lady Jane's Sister which made him think it necessary to redeem the danger he was in by a speedy turn To these many others were joyned They pretended it was necessary to give an Audience to the foreign Ambassadours who would not have it in the Tower And the Earl of Pembroke's House was pitched upon he being least suspected They also said it was necessary to treat with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for sending more Forces to Northumberland concerning which he had writ very earnestly When they got out they resolved to declare for Queen Mary The Council declares for her and rid themselves of Northumberland's uneasie Yoke which they knew they must bear if he were victorious They sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and easily perswaded them to concur with them and so they went immediately to Cheapside and proclaimed the Queen on the 19th of July and from thence they went to St. Paul's where Te Deum was sung They sent next to the Tower requiring the Duke of Suffolk to quit the Government of that place and the Lady Jane to lay down the
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
Crowned Gardiner with ten other Bishops performing that Ceremony with the ordinary solemnity Day being esteemed the best Preacher among them preached the Sermon There was a General Pardon proclaimed and with that the Queen discharged the Subjects of the two Tenths two Fifteenths and a Subsidy that had been granted by the last Parliament and she also declared that she would pay both her Fathers Debts and her Brothers and though her Treasure was much exhausted yet she esteeming the love of her People her best Treasure forgave those Taxes in lieu of which she desired only the hearts of her Subjects and that they would serve God sincerely and pray earnestly for her On the 20th A Parliament meets and repeals several Laws of October a Parliament met There had been great violences used in many Elections and many false Returns were made some that were known to be zealous for the Reformation were forcibly turned out of the House of Commons which was afterwards offered as a ground upon which that Parliament and all Acts made in it might have been annulled There came only two of the Reformed Bishops to the House of Lords The two Arch-bishops and three Bishops were in Prison Two others were turned out the rest stayed at home so only Taylor and Harley the Bishops of Lincoln and Hereford came When Mass began to be said they went out as some report it but were never suffered to come to their places again others say they refused to joyn in that Worship and so were violently thrust out In the House of Commons some of the more forward moved that King Edward's Laws might be reviewed but things were not ripe enough for that Nowell a Prebendary of Westminster was returned Burgess for a Town but the House voted That the Clergy being represented in the lower House of Convocation could not be admitted to sit among the Laity The Commons sent up a Bill of Tonnage and Poundage which the Lords sent down amended in two Proviso's and the Commons did not then insist on their Priviledge that the Lords could not alter a Bill of Money The only publick Bill that was finished this Session was a Repeal of all late Statutes making any Crime Treason that was not so by the 25. of Edward the Third or Felony that was not so before King Henry the Eighth excepting from the benefit of this Act all that were put in Prison before the end of September last who were also excepted out of the General Pardon The Marchioness of Exeter and the Earl of Devonshire her Son were restored in blood by two private Acts and then the Parliament was prorogued for three days that it might be said the first Session under the Queen was meerly for Acts of Mercy At their next Meeting The Qu.'s Mother's marriage confirm'd after the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage was past a Bill past through both Houses in Four days repealing the Divorce of the Queens Mother In which they declared the Marriage to have been lawful and that malicious Persons had possessed the King with scruples concerning it and had by Corruption procured the Seals of Foreign Universities condemning it and had by threatnings and sinistrous Arts obtained the like in England Upon which Cranmer had pronounced the Sentence of Divorce which had been confirmed in Parliament They therefore looking on the miseries that had fallen on the Nation since that time as Judgments from God for that sentence condemn it and repeal the Acts confirming it Gardiner in this performed his promise to the Queen of getting her to be declared Legitimate without taking notice of the Pope's authority but he shewed that he was past shame when he procured such a Repeal of a Sentence which he had so servilely promoted and he particularly knew the falshood of this pretence that the foreign Universities were corrupted He had also set it on long before Cranmer engaged in it and sat in Court with him when it was pronounced By this Act the Lady Elizabeth was upon the matter again illegitimated since the ground upon which her Mothers marriage subsisted was the Divorce of the first Marriage and it was either upon this pretence or on old scores that the Queen who had hitherto treated her as a Sister began now to use her more severely Others suggest that a secret rivalry was the true spring of it It was thought the Earl of Devonshire was much in the Queens favour but he either not presuming so high or liking Lady Elizabeth better who was both more beautiful and was XIX Years younger than the Queen made his addresses to her which provoked the Queen so much that it drew a great deal of trouble on them both The next Bill was a Repeal of all the Laws made in King Edward's reign King Edward's Laws about Religion repealed concerning Religion it was argued six days in the House of Commons and carried without a Division by this Religion was again put back into the state in which King Henry had left it and this was to take place after the 20th of December next but till then it was left free to all either to use the old or the new Service as they pleased Another Act past against all that should disquiet any Preacher for his Sermons or interrupt Divine Offices either such as had been in the last year of King Henry or such as the Queen should set out by which she was empowered to restore the service in all things as it had been before her Father made the breach with Rome Offenders were either to be punished by Ecclesiastical Censures or by an Imprisonment for three Months And the House of Commons was now so forward that they sent up a Bill for the Punishing of all such as would not come to Church or Sacraments after the Old Service should be again set up yet the Lords fearing this might alarm the Nation too much let it fall Another Law was made that if any to the number of Twelve should meet to alter any thing in Religion or for any Riot or should by any publick notice such as Bells or Beacons gather the People together and upon Proclamation made should not disperse themselves they and all that assisted them were declared guilty of Felony and if any more than two met for these ends they should lye a Year in Prison and all People were required under severe Penalties to assist the Justices for repressing such Assemblies So the favour of the former Act of Repeal appeared to be a mockery when so soon after it so severe a Law made by which disorders that might arise upon sudden heats were declared to be Felonies The Marquess of Northampton's second Marriage was also annulled but no Declaration was made against Divorces in general grounded on the Indissolubleness of the Marriage bond only that particular sentence was condemned as pronounced upon false surmises An Act also passed The Duke of Norfolks Attainder repealed annulling the Attainder of the Duke of
being disappointed he turned back and was forsaken by his men so that a Herauld without using any force apprehended him at Temple-bar It was on Ash-Wednesday and the Queen had shewed such Courage that she would not stir from Whitehall nor would she omit the Devotions of that day and this success was looked on as a reward from Heaven on her Piety This raw and ill formed Rebellion was as lucky for the ends of the Court as if Gardiner had projected it for in a weak Government an ill digested Insurrection raises the power of the Prince and adds as much Spirit to his Friends as it depresses the faction against him and it also gives a handle to do some things for which it were not easie otherwise to find either Colours or Instruments The Popish Authors studied to cast the blame of this on the Reformed Preachers but did not name any one of them that was in it so it appears that what some later Writers have said of Poinet's having been in it is false otherwise his name had certainly been put in the number of those that were Attainted for it Upon this it was resolved to proceed against Lady Jane Gray and her Husband Lady Jane Grays Execution she had lived six Months in the daily Meditations of Death so she was not much surprised at it Fecknam who was sent to prepare her for Death acknowledged that he was astonished at her calm behaviour her great knowledge and the extraordinary sence she had of Religion She writ to her Father to moderate his grief for her death since it was great matter of joy to her that she was so near an end of her Miseries and the enjoyment of Eternal glory One Harding that had been her Fathers Chaplain and a zealous Preacher in King Edward's time had now changed his Religion to him she wrote a long and pathetick Letter setting forth his Apostasie and the Judgments of God which he might expect upon it She sent her Greek New Testament to her Sister with a Letter in Greek recommending the study of that Book to her and chiefly the following it in her practice these were the last exercises of this rare young Person She was at first much moved when she saw her Husband led out to his Execution but recovered her self when she considered how soon she was to follow him and when he desired they might take leave of one another she declined it for she thought it would encrease their Grief and disorder and continued so setled in her temper that she saw his beheaded Body carried to the Chappel in the Tower without expressing any visible concern about it She was carried out next to a Scaffold set up within the Tower to hinder great Crouds from looking on a sight which was like to raise much compassion in the Spectators She confessed her sin in taking an honour that was due to another though it was a thing neither procured nor desired by her and acknowledged her other sins against God that she had loved her self and the World too much and thanked God for making her afflictions a means to her repentance she declared she died a true Christian trusting only to the Merits of Christ then she repeated the LI. Psalm and stretched out her Head on the Block which upon the signal given was cut off Her Death was as much lamented as her Life had been admired It affected Judge Morgan that had pronounced the Sentence so much that he run mad and thought she still followed him The Queen her self was troubled at it for it was rather reason of State than private Resentment that set her on to it Her Father was soon after tried by his Peers and Condemned and Executed Several others suffered He was the less pitied because by his means his Daughter was brought to her untimely end Wiat was brought to his Trial he begged his Life in a most abject manner but he was Condemned and Executed and so were Fifty-eight more Six hundred of the Rabble were appointed to come with Ropes about their Necks and beg the Queen's pardon which was granted them A slander was cast on the Earl of Devonshire and Lady Elizabeth as if they had set on the rising that was intended in the West Wiat in hopes of Life had accused them but he did them Justice at his Death yet they were both put in Prison upon it Sir Nicolas Throgmorton was accused of the same crime but after a long Trial he was acquitted yet his Jury were hardly used and severely fined Sir Jo. Cheek was sought for so he fled beyond Sea but both he and Sir Peter Carew hoping that Philip would be glad to signalize his first coming to England with Acts of Grace rendred themselves to him After that Cheek was again taken in Flanders upon a new suspicion and to deliver himself out of his trouble he renounced his Religion But though he got his Liberty upon that yet he could never recover the quiet of his mind so he languished for some time and dyed There was at this time a base Imposture discovered in London The Imposture of the Spirit In the Wall one seemed to speak out of a Wall in a strange tone of Voice Great numbers flockt about the House and several things both relating to Religion and the State were uttered by it but it was found to be one Elizabeth Crofts who by the help of a Whistle spoke those words through a Hole in the Wall There was no other Complice found but one Drake and they both were made to do Penance for it publickly at S. Pauls Injunctions were now given to the Bishops Injunctions sent to the Bishops to execute such Ecclesiastical Laws as had been in force in K. Henry's time That in their Courts they should proceed in their own Names that the Oath of Supremacy should be no more exacted none suspected of Heresie was to be put in Orders they were required to suppress Heresie and Hereticks and to turn out all married Clergymen and to separate them from their Wives If they left their Wives they might put them in some other Cure or reserve a Pension for them out of their Livings none that had vowed Chastity was to be suffered to live with his Wife those that were ordained by the Book set out in King Edward's time were to be confirmed by all the other Rites then left out and that was declared to be no valid Ordination The Queen gave also a special Commission to Bonner Gardiner Tonstall Day Many Bishops turned out and Kitchin to proceed against the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of St. Davids Chester and Bristoll and to deprive them of their Bishopricks for having contracted Marriage and thereby having broken their Vows and defiled their Function She also authorised them to call before them the Bishops of Lincoln Glocester and Hereford who held their Bishopricks only during their good behaviour and since they had done things contrary to the
any that could might seize on their Dominions The Bishops had also this to say for their Severities that by the Oath which they took at their Consecrations they were bound to persecute Hereticks with all their might so that the Principles of that Religion working on sowre and revengeful tempers it was no wonder that Cruel Councils were more acceptable than moderate ones BOOK IV. Book IV 1558. OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE REFORMATION In the beginning of Qu. ELIZABETH's Reign THE Morning after Queen Mary died Qu. Elizabeth Proclaimed the Lord Chancellor went to the House of Lords and communicated to them the News of Her death and then sent for the Commons and declared it to them and added that the Crown was now devolved on their present Queen Elizabeth whose Title they were resolved to proclaim This was Echoed with repeated Acclamations which were so full of Joy that it appeared how weary the Nation was of the Cruel and weak administration of affairs under the former Reign and that they hoped for better times under the next And indeed the Proclaiming the new Queen both at Westminster and in the City of London was received with such unusual transports of Joy as gave the Melancholy Priests just cause to fear a new Revolution in matters of Religion and though the Queen's Death affected them with a very sensible sorrow yet the Joy in this change was so great and so Universal that a sad look was thought Criminal and the Priests were glad to vent their griefs at their forsaken Altars which were now like to be converted again to Communion Tables The Queen came from Hatfield The Queen came to London where she had lived private to London The Bishops met Her at Highgate she received them all kindly only she lookt on Bonner as defiled with so much blood that it seemed indecent to treat him with the sweetness that always attends the beginnings of Reigns for common Civility to a Person so polluted might seem some countenance to his Crimes She past through London in the midst of all the Joys that People delivered from the Terror of Fires and Slavery could express She quickly shewed that she was resolved to retain no Impressions of the hardships she had met with in her Sister's time and treated those that had used her worst with great gentleness Bennefield himself not excepted only with a sharpness of raillery she used to call him her Jaylor She gave notice of her coming to the Crown to all foreign Princes and writ particular acknowledgments to King Philip for the good offices he had done her Among the rest she writ to Sir Edward Karn that was her Sisters Ambassadour at Rome But the Pope in his usual stile told him that England was a Fee of the Papacy and that it was a high Presumption in her to take the Crown without his consent especially she being illegitimate but he said if she would renounce her Pretensions and refer her self wholly to him she might expect from him all the favour that could consist with the dignity of the Apostolick See The Queen hearing this recalled Karn's power but he being a zealous Papist continued still at Rome Philip proposed Marriage to the Queen Philip proposes marriage to the Queen but in vain and undertook to procure a Dispensation for it from Rome But the Queen as she continued all her life averse to that state of life so she knew how unacceptable a stranger and particularly a Spaniard would be to her People She did not much value the Pope's Dispensation and if two Sisters might marry the same Person then two Brothers might likewise marry the same Woman which would have overthrown all the Arguments for her Father's Divorce with Queen Catherine upon which the Validity of her Mothers Marriage and her legitimation did depend Yet though she firmly resolved not to marry King Philip she thought that during the Treaty at Cambray it was not fit to put him quite out of hopes so he sent to Rome for a Dispensation but the French sent to oppose it and set up a Pretension for the young Queen of Scotland as the righteous Heir to the Crown of England The Queen continued to imploy most of her Sisters Privy-Councellours The Counsels about changing Religion and they had turned so often before in matters of Religion that it was not likely they would be Intractable in that point but to these she added divers others the most Eminent of whom were Sir Will. Cecyl and Sir Nicolas Bacon She ordered all that were Imprisoned on the account of Religion to be set at liberty upon which one that used to talk pleasantly told her the four Evangelists continued still Prisoners and that the People longed much to see them at liberty She answered she would talk with themselves and know their own mind Some proposed the annulling all Queen Mary's Parliaments because force was used in the first and the Writs for another were not lawful since the Title of Supream Head was left out in the Summons before it was taken away by Law but it was thought a Precedent of dangerous Consequence to annul Parliaments upon Errors in Writs or particular disorders The Queen desired that all the changes that should be made might be so managed as to breed as little division among her People as was possible She did not like the Title of Supream Head as importing too great an Authority She loved Magnificence in Religion as she affected it in all other things this made her incline to keep Images still in Churches and that the Popish party might be offended as little as was possible she intended to have the manner of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament defined in general terms that might comprehend all sides A Scheme was formed of the Method in which it was most advisable for the Queen to proceed and put in Cecyl's hands It was thought necessary to do nothing till a Parliament were called A Scheme proposed The Queen had reason to look for all the mischief that the Pope could do her who would set on the French and by their means the Scots and perhaps the Irish against her The Clergy and those that were imployed in Queen Mary's time would oppose it and do what they could to inflame the Nation and the greater part of the People loved the Pomp of the old Ceremonies It was therefore proposed that the Queen should on any terms make Peace with France and encourage the Party in Scotland that desired a Reformation The Clergy were generally hated for their Cruelty and it would be easie to bring them within the Statute of Praemunire Care was also to be taken to expose the former Councellours for the ill conduct of affairs in Qu. Mary's time and so to lessen their credit It was also proposed to look well to the Commissions both for the Peace and the Militia and to the Universities Some Learned Men were to be ordered to consider what alterations
that would execute the Sentence Nor would any do so much as sell a Cord to tye him to the Stake so that the Archbishop was forced to send for the Cords of his own Pavilion The old Man expressed great firmness of mind and such chearfulness in his sufferings that the People were much affected at it and this being every where looked on as a Prologue to greater severities that were to follow the Nobility and Gentry began to consider what was fit to be done They had offered a Petition to the Queen Regent the last year that the worship might be in the Vulgar Tongue that the Communion might be given in both kinds and that scandalous Priests might be turned out and worthy Men be put in their places The Queen Regent being unwilling to irritate so great a Party before the Dauphin was declared King of Scotland promised that they should not be punished for having their Prayers in the Vulgar Tongue In Parliament they moved for a Repeal of the Laws for the Bishops proceedings against Hereticks and that nothing might be judged Heresie but that which was condemned by the Word of God but the Queen Regent told them these things could not pass because of the Opposition which was made to them by the Spiritual Estate upon that they made a Protestation that whereas they had modestly moved for a redress of abuses they were not to be blamed for the ill effects of rejecting their Petition and the Violences that might follow But when the Queen had gained her end in relation to the Dauphin she ordered a Citation to be served on all the Reformed Preachers The Earl of Glencawn was upon that sent to put her in mind of her former promises she answered him roughly That maugre all that would take those Mens part they should be banished Scotland and added that Princes were bound only to observe their promises so far as they found it convenient for them to do it To this he replied that if she renounced her Promises they would renounce their obedience to her In St. Johnstown It is first set up in St. Johnstown that Party entred into the Churches and had Sermons publickly in them The Ministers were coming from all parts to appear on the 20th of May for to that day they had been cited and great numbers came along with them The Queen apprehending the ill effects of a great Confluence of People sent them word not to come and upon this many went home again yet upon their not appearance they were all declared Rebels This foul dealing made many leave her and go over to those that were met at St. Johnstown And the heat of the People was raised to that pitch that they broke in upon the Houses of the Monks and Friars and after they had distributed all that they found in them except that which the Monks conveyed away to the Poor they pulled them down to the ground This provoked the Queen so much that she resolved to punish that Town in a most exemplary manner so she gathered the French Souldiers together with such others as would joyn with her but the Earl of Glencairn gathered 2500. Men together and with incredible hast he marched to that place where there were now in all 7000. armed Men. This made the Queen afraid to engage with them so an agreement was made An oblivion was promised for all that was past Matters of Religion were referred to a Parliament and the Queen was to be received into St. Johnstown without carrying her Frenchmen with her But she carried them with her into the Town and as she put a Garrison in it so she punished many for what was past and when her promises were objected to her she answered Princes were not to be strictly charged with their Promises especially when they were made to Hereticks and that she thought it no sin to kill and destroy them all and then would excuse it as well as could be when it was done This turned the Hearts of the whole Nation from her and in many places they began to pull down Images and to rase Monasteries The Queen Regent represented this to the King of France as done on design to shake off the French yoke and desired a great Force to reduce the Countrey On the other hand some were sent over from the Lords to give a true representation of the matter and to let him know that an Oblivion for what was past and the free Exercise of their Religion for the time to come would give full satisfaction The French King began now to apprehend how great a charge the keeping that Kingdom in peace was like to come to and saw the danger of the Scots casting themselves into the Arms of the Queen of England therefore he sent one in whom the Constable put an entire confidence to Scotland to bring him a true report of the state of that matter that was so variously represented But before he could return the King of France was dead and the Constable was in disgrace and all affairs were put in the hands of the Brothers of the House of Guise so that all moderate Councils were now out of doors The people did so universally rise against the Queen Regent that she was forced to retire to Dunbar-Castle She was once willing to refer the whole matter to a Parliament But 2000. Men coming over from France and assurances being sent Her of a greater Force to follow she took heart and came and fortified Leith and again broke her last agreement upon which the Lords pretended that in their Queens Minority the Government was chiefly in the States and that the Regent was only the chief Administrator and accountable to them so they resolved to depose her from her Regency They objected many Maleadministrations to her The Queen Regent is deposed as her beginning a War in the Kingdom and bringing in strangers to subdue it her embasing the Coin governing without consent of the Nobility breaking her Faith and Promises to them upon which they declared that she had fallen from her Regency and suspended her Power till the next Parliament The Lords now called the Lords of the Congregation retired from Edenburgh to Sterlin upon which the French came to Edenburgh and set up the Masse again in the Churches then a new Supply came from France commanded by the Marquess of Elbeufe one of the Queen Regents Brothers so that there were in all 4000. French in Scotland But by her having this foreign Force the whole Nation came to be united against the Queen and to look on her as a common Enemy The Scots who had been hitherto animated and secretly supplied with Money and Ammunition from England were now forced to desire the Queen of England's aid more openly and France was now like to be so much divided within it self that the Queen did not much apprehend a War with that Crown so she was more easily determined to assist the Scots A Treaty was
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
Upon this he was again seized on and condemned for having said That Thomas Becket was a Murderer and was damned if he did not repent And that in the Sacrament Christ's Body was received by Faith and not chewed with the Teeth Sentence past upon him by Stokesly and he was burnt Soon after this More delivered up the Great Seal so the Preachers had some ease Crome and Latimer were accused but abjured Tracy Ancestor to the present Lord Tracy made a Will by which he left his Soul to God in hopes of Mercy through Christ without the help of any other Saint and therefore he declared that he would leave nothing for Soul-Masses This Will being brought to the Bishop of London's Court to be proved after his Death provoked them so much that he was condemned as an Heretick and an Order was sent to the Chancellour of Worcester to raise his Body but he went further and burnt it which could not be justified since he was not a Relapse Tracy's Heirs sued him for it and he was turned out of his place and fined in 400 l. The Clergy proclaimed an Indulgence of fourty days Pardon to any that carried a Faggot to the burning of an Heretick that so Cruelty might seem the more Meritorious And an aged Man Harding being condemned by Longland Bishop of Lincoln as he was tied to the Stake one flung a Faggot with such force at him that it dashed out his Brains After an Intermission of two Years Gardiner represented to the King That it would give him great Advantages against the Pope if he would take hold of some occasion to shew his hatred of Heresy So Frith seemed a fit Person to offer as a Sacrifice to demonstrate his Zeal He was a young Man much famed for Learning Frith's Sufferings and was the first that writ against the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament in England He followed Zuinglius's Doctrine on these Grounds Christ received in the Sacrament gave Eternal Life but this was only to those that believed from which he inferred that he was received only by Faith St Paul said that the Fathers before Christ eat the same Spiritual Food with Christians from which it appears that Christ is now no more corporally present to us then he was to them And he argued from the nature of Sacraments in general and the ends of the Lord's Supper that it was only a Commemoration Yet upon these Premises he built no other Conclusion but that Chist's presence was no Article of Faith Frith put these Reasons in Writing which falling into More 's hands was answered by him but Frith never saw that till he was put in Prison And then tho he was loaded with Irons and had no Books allowed him he replied He insisted much on that Argument That the Israelites did eat the same Food and drank of the same Rock that was Christ and since Christ was only mystically and by Faith received by them he concluded that he was now received only by Faith He shewed that Christ's Words This is my Body were accommodated to the Jewish Phrase of calling the Lamb the Lord 's Passover and confirmed his Opinion with many Passages out of the Fathers in which the Elements were called Signes and Figures of Christ's Body and they said that upon Consecration they did not cease to be Bread and Wine but remained still in their own proper Natures He also shewed That the Fathers were Strangers to all the Consequences of that Opinion as that a Body could be in more places than one at once or could be in a place after the manner of a Spirit Yet he concluded That if that Opinion were held only as a Speculation so that Adoration were not offered to the Elements it might be well tollerated but that he condemned as gross Idolatry This was intended by him to prevent such Heats in England as were raised in Germany between the Lutherans and Helvetians by reason of their different Opinions concerning the Sacrament He was seized on in May 1533 and brought before Stokesly Gardiner and Longland They objected to him his not believing Purgatory nor Transubstantiation He gave his Reasons that determined him to look on neither of these as Articles of Faith but he thought that neither the affirming nor denying them ought to be determined positively The Bishops seemed unwilling to proceed to Sentence but he continuing resolute Stokesly pronounced it and so delivered him to the Secular Arm obtesting that his Punishment might be moderated so that the Rigour might not be too extream nor yet the gentleness of it too much mitigated This Obtestation by the Bowels of Christ was thought a Mockery when all the World knew that it was intended that he should be burnt One Hewet a Prentice of London was also condemned with him on the same account When they were brought to Smithfield Frith expressed great Joy and hugged the Faggots with some Transport Cook a Priest that stood by called to the People not to pray for them more then they would do for a Dog Frith smiled at that and prayed God to forgive him The Fire was kindled which consumed them to ashes This was the last Instance of the Cruelty of the Clergy at this time for the Act formerly mentioned regulating their Proceedings followed soon after Philips at whose Complaint that Bill was begun was committed upon Suspicion of Heresy a Copy of Tracy's Will was found about him and Butter and Cheese being also found in his Chamber in Lent But he being required to abjure appealed to the King as Supream Head and upon that he was set at Liberty but whether he was tried by the King or not is not upon Record The Act that was past A stop put to further Cruelties gave the new Preachers and their Followers some Respite The King was also impowered to reform all Heresies and Idolatries And his Affairs did now oblige him to unite himself to the Princes of Germany that by their means he might so imbroil the Emperour's Affairs asnot to give him leisure to turn his Arms against England and this produced a slackning of all Severities against them For those Princes in that first fervour of the Reformation made it an Article in all their Treaties that none should be persecuted for favouring their Doctrine The Interests the Reformers had at Court The Queen did also openly protect them she took Latimer and Shaxton to be her Chaplains and promoted them to the Bishopricks of Worcester and Salisbury Cranmer was fully convinced of the necessity of a Reformation and that he might carry it on with true Judgment and justify it by good Authorities He made a great Collection of the Opininions of the Antient Fathers and later Doctors in all the Points of Religion of which I have seen two Volumes in Folio But by a Letter of the Lord Burghly's it appears there were then six Volumes of his Collections in his hands He was a Man of great Candor and much Patience
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
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
new Opinions Fox Bishop of Hereford Treaties with the German Princes died at this time He had been much imploied in Germany and had setled a League between the King and the German Princes The King was acknowledged the Patron of their League and he sent them over 100000 Crowns a Year for the support of it There was a Religious League also proposed but upon the turn that followed in the Court upon Queen Ann's Death that fell to the ground and all that was in put their League relating to Religion was That they should joyn against the Pope as the common Enemy and set up the true Religion according to the Gospel But the Treaty about other Points was afterwards set on foot The King desired Melanchthon to come over and several Letters passed between them but he could not be spared out of Germany tho he was then invited both to France and England The Germans sent over some to treat with the King the Points they insisted most on were the granting the Chalice to the People and the putting down private Masses in which the Institution seemed express the having the Worship in a known Tongue which both common sense and the Authority of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians seemed to justify much The third was The Marriage of the Clergy for they being extream sensible of the Honour of their Families reckoned that could not be secured unless the Priests might marry Concerning these things their Ambassadours gave a long and learned Memorial to the King to which an Answer was made penned by Tonstall in which the things they complained of were justified by the ordinary Arguments Upon Fox's Death Bonner was promoted to Hereford and Stokesly dying not long after he was translated to London Cromwell thought that he had raised a Man that would be a faithful Second to Cranmer in his Designs of Reformation who indeed needed help not only to ballance the Opposition made him by other Bishops but to lessen the Prejudices he suffered by the Weakness and Indiscretion of his own Party who were generally rather Clogs than Helps to him Great Complaints were brought to the Court of the rashness of the new Preachers who were flying at many things not yet abolished Upon this Letters were writ to the Bishops to take care that as the People should be rightly instructed so they should not be offended with too many Novelties Thus was Cranmer's Interest so low that he had none to depend on but Cromwell There was not a Queen now in the King's Bosom to support them and therefore Cromwell set himself to contrive how the King should be engaged in such an Alliance with the Princes of Germany as might prevail with him both in Affection and Interest to carry on what he had thus begun And the Beauty of Anne of Cleve was so represented to him that he set himself to bring about that Match A Parliament was summoned to the 28th of April The Act of the six Articles in which twenty of the Abbots sate in Person On the 5th of May a Motion was made that some might be appointed to draw a Bill against Diversity of Opinions in matters of Religion these were Cromwell Cranmer the Bishops of Duresme Ely Bath and Wells Bangor Carlile and Worcester they were divided in their Minds and tho the Popish Party were sive to four yet the Authority that Cromwell and Cranmer were in turned the Ballance a little but after they had met eleven days they ended in nothing Upon that the Duke of Norfolk proposed the six Articles The first was for the Corporal Presence 2. For Communion in one kind 3. For observing the Vows of Chastity 4. For private Masses 5. For the Celibate of the Clergy And the sixth was for Auricular Confession Against most of these Cranmer argued several days It is not like he opposed the first both because of that which he had declared in Lambert's Case so lately and in his own Opinion he was then for it but he had the Words of the Institution and the constant Practice of the Church for twelve Ages to object to the second and for the third since the Monks were set at Liberty to live in the World it seemed hard to restrain them from Marriage and nothing did so effectually cut off their Pretensions to their former Houses as their being married would do For the fourth if private Masses were useful then the King had done very ill to suppress so many Houses that were chiefly founded for that end the Sacrament was also by its first Institution and the Practice of the Primitive Church to be a Communion and all those private Masses were invented to cheat the World For the fifth it touched Cranmer in the quick for it was believed that he was married but the Arguments used for that will be found in the next Book For Auricular Confession Lee Gardiner and Tonstal press'd much to have it declared necessary by the Law of God Cranmer argued against this and said it was only a good and profitable thing The King came often to the House in Person and disputed in these Points for the greatest part he was against Cranmer but in this particular he joyned with him Tonstall drew up all the Quotations brought from Antient Authors for it in a Paper which he delivered to the King the King answered in a long Letter written with his own Hand in which he shewed that the Fathers did only advise Confession but did not impose it as necessary and so it was concluded in general only that it was necessary and expedient On the 24th of May the Parliament was prorogued a few days but by a Vote it was provided that the Bills should continue in the state they were then in At their next meeting two Committees were appointed to draw the Bill of Religion Cranmer was the chief of the one and Lee of the other both their Draughts were carried to the King and were in many places corrected with his own Hand in some Parts he writ whole Periods a new That which Lee drew was more agreeable to the King's Opinion so it was brought into the House Cranmer argued three days against it and when it came to the Vote the King who was much set on having it past desired him to go out but he excused himself for he thought he was bound in Conscience to vote against it But the rest that opposed it were more compliant and it also passed without any considerable Opposition in the House of Commons and was assented to by the King The Substance of it was That the King being sensible of the good of Union and of the mischief of Discord in points of Religion had come to the Parliament in Person and opened many things of high Learning there and that with the assent of both Houses he set forth these Articles 1. That in the Sacrament there was no Substance of Bread and Wine but only the Natural Body and Blood of Christ
thought a vertue might be both in them and in Holy Water as well as there was in Christ's Garments Peter's Shadow or Elisha's Staffe And there might be a Vertue in Holy Water as well as in the Water of Baptism He also mentioned the Vertue that was in the Cramp-Rings blessed by the late King which he had known to be much esteemed and sought after and he hoped their young King would not neglect that gift But to these things which Gardiner wrote in several Letters the Protector perhaps by Cranmer's direction wrote answer that the Bishops had formerly argued much in another strain that because the Scriptures were abused by the vulgar Readers therefore they were not to be trusted to them and so made a pretended abuse the ground of taking away that which by Gods special appointment was to be delivered to all Christians This did hold much stronger against Images that were forbidden by God The Brazen Serpent set up by Moses by Gods own direction was broken when abused to Idolatry for that was the greatest corruption of Religion possible And the Civil respect payed to the Kings Image on a Seal or on the Coyn did not justifie the dotage upon Images But yet the Protector acknowledged he had reason to complain of the forwardness of the people that broke down Images without authority This was the first step that was made in this Reign towards a Reformation of which the sequel shall appear afterwards Orders were sent to the Justices of the Peace to look well to the Peace and Government of the Nation to meet often and every six weeks to advertise the Protector of the state of the County to which they belonged The Funerals of the deceased King were performed with the ordinary Ceremonies at Windsor The Kings Funeral One thing gave those that hated him some advantages his Body was carried the first day to Sheen which had been a Nunnery and there some of the moisture and fat dropt through the Coffin and to make it a compleat accomplishment of Peyto's denunciation that Dogs should lick his Blood it was said the Dogs next day licked it This in a Corpulent man was so far from a wonder that it had been a wonder if it had been otherwise and was a certain sign of nothing but the Plummers carelesness and their weakness and malice that made such Inferences from it The King left six hundred pounds a year to the Church of Windsor for Priests to say Mass for his Soul every day and for four Obits a year and Sermons and distribution of Alms at every one of them and for a Sermon every Sunday and a maintenance for thirteen poor Knights which was setled upon that Church by his Executors in due form of Law The Pomp of this Endowment now in a more Inquisitive Age led people to examine the usefulness of Soul Masses and Obits Soul Masses examined Christ appointed the Sacrament for a commemoration of his Death among the living but it was not easie to conceive how that was to be applied to departed Souls For all the good that they could receive seemed only applicable to the prayers for them but bare Prayers would not have wrought so much on the people nor would they have payed so dear for them It was a clear project for drawing in the wealth of the World into their hands In the Primitive Church there was a Commemoration of the Dead or an Honourable Remembrance of them made in the daily Offices and for some very small faults their names were not mentioned which would not have had done if they had looked upon that as a thing that was really a relief to them in another state But even this custome grew to be abused and some inferred from it that departed Souls unless they were signally pure passed through a Purgation in the next life before they were admitted to Heaven Of which St. Austin in whose time the opinion was beginning to be received says that it was taken up without any sure ground in Scripture But what was wanting in Scripture proof was supplied by Visions Dreams and Tales till it was generally received King Henry had acted like one that did not much believe it for he was to expect no good usage in Purgatory from those Souls whom he had deprived of the Masses that were said for them in Monasteries by destroying those Foundations Yet it seems he intended to make sure work for himself so that if Masses could avail the departed Souls he resolved to have his share of it and as he gratified the Priests by this part of his Endowment so he pleased the people by appointing Sermons and Alms to be given on such days Thus he died as he had lived swimming between both perswasions And it occasioned no small debate when men sought to find out what his opinions were in the controverted points of Religion For the esteem he was in made both sides study to justifie themselves by seeming to follow his sentiments the one party said he was resolved never to alter Religion but only to cut off some abuses and intended to go no further than he had gone They did therefore vehemently press the others to innovate nothing but to keep things in the state in which he left them till his Son should come of Age But the opposite party said that he had resolved to go a great way further and particularly to turn the Mass to a Communion and therefore Religion being of such consequence to the Salvation of Souls it was necessary to make all the haste in Reformation that was fitting and decent The Coronation But now the diversions of the Coronation took them off from more serious thoughts The Protector was made Duke of Somerset the Earl of Essex Marquess of Northampton the Lords Lisle and Wriothesley Earls of Warwick and Southampton Seimour Rich Willoughby and Sheffield were made Barons In order to the Kings Coronation the Office for that Ceremony was reviewed and much shortned One remarkable alteration was that formerly the King used to be presented to the people at the corners of the Scaffold and they were asked If they would have him to be their King Which looked like a rite of an Election rather than a Ceremony of Investing one that was already King This was now changed and the people were desired only to give their assents and good will to his Coronation as by the duty of Allegiance they were bound to do On the twentieth of February he was Crowned and a General Pardon was proclaimed out of which the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pool and some others were excepted The Chancellour The Chancellour turned out who was lookt on as the head of the Popish party gave now an advantage against himself which was very readily laid hold on He granted a Commission to the Master of the Rolls and three Masters of Chancery of whom two were Civilians to execute his Office in the Court of Chancery as if he were
all who gave Livings by Simoniacal bargains were declared to have forfeited their right of Patronage to the King A great charge was also given for the strict observation of the Lords Day which was appointed to be spent wholly in the service of GOD it not being enough to hear Mass or Mattins in the Morning and spend the rest of the Day in drunkenness and quarrelling as was commonly practised but it ought to be all imployed either in the duties of Religion or in acts of Charity only in time of Harvest they were allowed to work on that and other Festival days Direction was also given for the bidding of Prayers in which the King as Supreme head the Queen and the Kings Sisters the Protector and Council and all the Orders of the Kingdom were to be mentioned they were also to pray for departed souls that at the last day we with them might rest both body and soul There were also Injunctions given for the Bishops that they should preach four times a year in their Diocesses once in their Cathedral and thrice in any other Church unless they had a good excuse to the contrary that their Chaplains should preach often and that they should give Orders to none but those that were duly qualified These were variously censured The Clergy were only impowered to remove the abused Images Censures on ths Injunctions and the People were restrained from doing it but this authority being put in their hands it was thought they would be slow and backward in it It had been happy for this Church if all had agreed since that time to press the Religious observation of the Lords Day without starting needless questions about the Morality of it and the obligation of the fourth Commandment which has occasioned much dispute and heat and when one Party raised the obligation of that duty to a pitch that was not practicable it provoked others to slacken it too much and this produced many sharp reflections on both sides and has concluded in too common a neglect of that day which instead of being so great a bond and instrument of Religion as it ought to be is become generally a day of idleness and loosness The Corruptions of Lay Patrons and Simoniacal Priests have been often complained of but no Laws nor Provisions have ever been able to preserve the Church from this great mischief which can never be removed till Patrons look on their right to nominate one to the charge of Souls as a trust for which they are to render a severe account to God and till Priests are cured of their aspiring to that charge and look on it with dread and great caution The bidding of Prayers had been the custome in time of Popery for the Preacher after he had named his Text and shewed what was to be the method of his Sermon desired the People to joyn with him in a Prayer for a blessing upon it and told them likewise whom they were to pray for and then all the People said their Beads in silence and he kneeling down said his and from that this was called the bidding of the Beads In this new direction for them Order was given to repeat always the Kings Title of Supream Head that so the People hearing it often mentioned might grow better accustomed to it but when instead of a bidding Prayer an immediate one is come generally to be used that enumeration of Titles seems not so decent a thing nor is it now so necessary as it then was The prayer for departed souls was now moderated to be a prayer only for the consummation of their happiness at the last day whereas in King Henry's time they prayed that God would grant them the fruition of his presence which implied a Purgatory The Injunctions to the Bishops directing them to give Orders with great caution pointed out that by which only a Church can be preserved from Errors and Corruptions for when Bishops do easily upon recommendations or emendicated Titles confer Orders as a sort of favour that is at their disposal the ill effects of that must be fatal to the Church either by the Corruptions that those vicious Priests will be guilty of or by the Scandals which are given to some good minds by their means who are thereby disgusted at the Church for their sakes and so are disposed to be easily drawn into those Societies that separate from it The War with Scotland was now in consultation The War with Scotland but the Protector being apprehensive that France would engage in the quarrel sent over Sir Fr. Brian to congratulate with the new King to desire a confirmation of the last Peace and to complain of the Scots who had broken their Faith with the King in the matter of the Marriage of their Queen The French King refused to confirm the Treaty till some Articles should be first explained and so he disowned his Fathers Embassadour and for the Scots he said he could not forsake them if they were in distress The English alledged that Scotland was subject to England but the French had no regard to that and would not so much as look on the Records that were offer'd to prove it and said they would take things as they found them and not look back to a dispute of two hundred years old This made the English Council more fearful of engaging in a War which by all appearance would bring a War on them from France The Castle of St. Andrews was surrendred and all their Pensioners in Scotland were not able to do them great fervice The Scots were now much lifted up for as England was under an Infant King so the Court of France was governed by their Queen Dowagers Brothers The Scots began to make Inroads on England and Descents on Ireland Commissioners were sent to the Borders to treat on both sides and the Protector raised a great Army which he resolved to command in person But the meeting on the Borders was soon broke up for the Scots had no Instructions to treat concerning the Marriage and the English were ordered to treat of nothing else till that should be first agreed to And the Records that were shewed of the Homage done by the Scottish Kings to the English had no great effect for the Scots either said they were forged or forced from some weak Princes or were only Homages for their Lands in England as the Kings of England did Homage to the Crown of France for their Lands there They also shewed their Records by which their Ancestors had asserted that they were free and independent of England The Protector left Commissions of Lieutenancy to some of the Nobility August and devolved his own power during his absence on the Privy Council and came to the Borders by the end of August The Scots had abandoned the Passes so that he found no difficulty in his March and the small Forts that were in his way were surrendred upon Summons When the English advanced to
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
Saturdays and Ember days should be Fish days under several penalties excepting the weak or those that had the Kings Licence Christ had told his Disciples that when he was taken from them they should fast So in the Primitive Church they fasted before Easter but the same number of days was not observed in all places afterwards other rules and days were set up but S. Austin complained that many in his time placed all their Religion in observing them Fast-days were turned to a mockery in the Church of Rome in which they both dined and did eat Fish drest exquisitely and drank Wine This made many run to another extream against all Fasts or distinction of days which certainly if rightly managed and without superstition is a great means for keeping up a seriousness of mind which is necessary for maintaining the power of Religion Other Bills were proposed but not past one for making it Treason to marry the Kings Sisters without the consent of the King and Council But the forfeiture of Succession in that case was thought sufficient The Bishops did also complain of their want of power to repress vice which so much abounded But the Laity were so apprehensive of coming again under an Ecclesiastical Tyranny that they would not consent to it A Proposition was also made for bringing the Common Law into a body in imitation of Justinians Digests But it fell being too great a design to be finished under an Infant King In this Parliament the Admiral was Attainted The Admirals Attainder The Queen Dowager died in September last not without suspicion of Poison upon that he renewed his Addresses to Lady Elizabeth but finding it in vain to expect that his Brother and the Council would consent to it and that her right to the Succession would be cut off if he married her without their consent he resolved to make sure of the Kings Person till he made a change in the Government He fortified his House he laid up a Magazine and made a party among the Nobility The Protector imployed many to divert him from those desperate designs but his Ambition being incurable he was forced to proceed to extremities against him He sent him Prisoner to the Tower in January with his Confederate Sharington who being Vice-Treasurer of the Mint at Bristol had supplied him with Money and had coined much base Money for his use Many were sent to perswade him to a better mind and his Brother was willing to be again reconciled to him if he would retire from the Court and business but he was intractable So many Articles were objected to him both of his designs against the State and of his Malversation in his Office several Pyrates having been entertained by him Many Witnesses and Letters under his own hand were brought against him Almost the whole Council went to the Tower and examined him but he refused to make any Answers and said he expected an open Tryal The whole Council upon this acquainted the King with it and desired him to refer the matter to the Parliament which he granted Upon that some Counsellors were again sent to see what they could draw from him but he was sullen and after he had answered to three of the Articles denying some particulars and excusing others he refused to go any further The business was next brought into the House of Lords The Judges and the Kings Council delivered their opinions That the Articles objected to him were Treason Then the Evidence was given upon which the whole House past the Bill the Protector only withdrawing They dispatched it in two days In the House of Commons many argued against Attainders without a Trial or bringing the party to make his Answers But a Message was sent from the King desiring them to proceed as the Lords had begun So the Lords that had given Evidence against him in their own House were sent down to the Commons Upon which they past the Bill and the Royal Assent was given the fifth of March And afterwards the King being prest to it by the Council gave order for the Execution which was done the twentieth of March. This was the only cure that his Ambition seemed capable of Yet it was thought against nature that one Brother should fall by the hand of another And the Attainting a man without hearing him was condemned as contrary to Natural Justice so that the Protector suffered almost as much by his death as he could have done by his life The Laity and Clergy both gave the King Subsidies and so the Parliament was Prorogued The first thing taken into care was the receiving the Act of Uniformity A new Visitation Some Complaints were made of the Priests way of officiating that they did it with such a tone of voice that the people did not understand what was said no more than when the Prayers were said in Latine so this Temper was found Prayers were ordered to be said in Parish Churches in a plain voice but in Cathedrals the old way was still kept up as agreeing better with the Musick used in them Though this seemed not very decent in the Confession of sins nor in the Litany where a simple voice gravely uttered agreed better with those devotions than those Cadences and unmusical notes do Others continued to use all the Gesticulations Crossings and Kneelings that they had formerly been accustomed to The people did also continue the use of their Beads which were brought in by Peter Hermit in the eleventh Century by which the repeating the Angels Salutation to the Virgin was made a great part of their devotion and was ten times said for one Pater Noster Instructions were given to the Visitors to put all these down in a new Visitation and to enquire if any Priests continued to drive a trade by Trentals or Masses for departed Souls Order was also given that there should be no Private Masses at Altars in the corners of Churches and that there should be but one Communion in a day unless it were in great Churches and at high Festivals in which they were allowed to have one Communion in the morning and another at noon The Visitors made their Report That they found the Book of Common Prayer received universally over all the Kingdom only Lady Mary continued to have Mass said according to the abrogated forms Upon this the Council wrote to her to conform to the Laws for the nearer she was to the King in blood she was so much the more obliged to give a good Example to the rest of the Subjects She refused to comply with their desires and sent one to the Emperour for his Protection upon which the Emperour pressed the English Embassadours and they promised that for some time she should be dispensed with The Emperour pretended afterwards that they made him an absolute Promise that she should never be more troubled about it but they said it was only a Temporary Promise A Match was also proposed for her with the King
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
the other Executors had treated with Ambassadours apart had made Bishops and Lord-Lieutenants without their knowledge had held a Court of Requests in his House had embased the Coin had neglected the Places the King had in France had encouraged the Commons in their late Insurrections and had given out Commissions and proclaimed a Pardon without their consent that he had animated the King against the rest of the Council and had proclaimed them Traitors had put his own Servants armed about the King's Person By these it appears the Crimes against him were the effects of his sudden exaltation that had made him too much forget that he was a subject but that he had carried his greatness with much Innocence since no acts of Cruelty Rapine or Bribery were objected to him for they were rather errours and weaknesses than Crimes His embasing the Coin was done upon a common mistake of weak Governments who flye to that as their last refuge in the necessity of their affairs In his Imprisonment he set himself to the study of Moral Philosophy and Divinity and writ a Preface to a Book of Patience which had made great Impressions on him His fall was a great affliction to all that loved the Reformation and that was increased because they had no reason to trust much to the two chief Men of the party against him Southampton and Warwick the one was a known Papist and the other was lookt on as a Man of no Religion and both at the Emperor's Court and in France it was expected that upon this revolution matters of Religion would be again set back into the posture in which King Henry had left them The Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner hoped to be discharged and Bonner lookt to be re-established in his Bishoprick again and all People began to fall off much from the new service but the Earl of Warwick finding the King was zealously addicted to the Reformation quickly forsook the Popish party and seemed to be a mighty promoter of that work A Court of Civilians was appointed to examine Bonner's Appeal and upon their report the Council rejected it and confirmed the Sentence that was past upon him But next The Emperor will not assist them foreign affairs come under their care They suspected that Paget had not dealt effectually with the Emperour to assist them in the preservation of Bulloign so they sent over Sir Tho. Cheyney to try what might be expected from him they took also care of the Garrison and both encreased it and supplied it well Cheyney found the same reception with the Emperour and had the same answer that Paget got The Emperor prest him much that matters of Religion might be again considered and confest that till that were done he could not assist them so effectually as otherwise he would do so now the Council found it necessary to apply to the Court of France for a Peace The Earl of Southampton left the Court in great discontent he was neither restored to his Office of Chancellour nor was he made one of the six Lords that were appointed to have the charge of the King's Person this touched him so much that he died not long after of grief as was believed In November A Session of Parliament a Session of Parliament met in which an Act was past declaring it Treason to call any to the number of Twelve together about any matter of State if being required they did not disperse themselves other Riotous Assemblies were also declared felonious the giving out of Prophecies concerning the King or Council was also made Penal Another Law was made against Vagabonds the former Statute was repealed as too severe and Provisions were made for the relief of the Sick and Impotent and Imploying such as could work The Bishops made a heavy complaint of the growth of Vice and Impiety and that their power was so much abridged that they could not repress it so a Bill was read enlarging their Authority but it was thought that it gave them too much power yet it was so moderated that the Lords past it But the Commons rejected it and instead of it sent up a Bill that impowered XXXII who were to be named by the King the one half of the Temporalty and the other of Spiritualty to compile a body of Ecclesiastical Laws within three years and that these not being contrary to the Common or Statute Law and approved of by the King should have the force of Ecclesiastical Laws of the 32. Four were to be Bishops and as many to be Common Lawyers Six Bishops and six Divines were impowered to prepare a new form of Ordination which being confirmed under the Great Seal should take place after April next Articles were also put in against the Duke of Somerset with a Confession signed by him But some objected that they ought not to proceed The Duke of Somerset fined but restored to favour till they knew whether he had signed it voluntarily or not and some were sent to examine him he acknowledged he had done it freely but protested that his errours had flowed rather from Indiscretion than Malice and denied all treasonable designs against the King or the Realm he was fined in 2000 l. a year in Land and in the loss of all his Goods and Offices He complained of the heaviness of this Censure and desired earnestly to be restored to the Kings favour and promised to carry himself so humbly and obediently that he should make amends for his past follies which was thought a sign of too abject a mind others excused it since the power and malice of his Enemies was such that he was not safe as long as he continued in Prison he was discharged in the beginning of February soon after he had his pardon and did so manage his interest in the King that he was again brought both to the Court and Council in April But if these submissions gained him some favour at Court they sunk him as much in the esteem of the World The Reformation was now A Progress in the Reformation after this confusion was over carried on again with vigour The Council sent Orders over England to require all to conform themselves to the new service and to call in all the Books of the old Offices An Act past in Parliament to the same effect one Earl six Bishops and four Lords only dissenting all the old Books and Images were appointed to be defaced and all prayers to Saints were to be struck out of the Primers published by the late King A Subsidy was granted and the King gave a General Pardon out of which all Prisoners on the account of the State and Anabaptists were excepted In this Session the Eldest Sons of Peers were first allowed to sit in the House of Commons The Committee appointed to prepare the Book of Ordination finished their work with common consent only Heath Bishop of Worcester refused to sign it for which he was called before the
down all the Churches as for laying aside those Habits Cranmer desired Bucer's opinion concerning the lawfulness of those Habits and the obligation lying on Subjects to obey the Laws about them His opinion was that every creature of God was good and that no former abuse could make a thing indifferent in its self become unlawful He thought ancient customes ought not to be lightly changed and that there might be a good use made of those Garments that they might well express the purity and candour that became all who ministred in Holy things and that it was a sin to disobey the Laws in such matters Yet since those Garments had been abused to Superstition and were like to become a subject of Contention he wished they might be taken away by Law and that Ecclesiastical Discipline and a more compleat Reformation might be set up and that a stop might be put to the robbing of Churches otherwise they might see in the present State of Germany a dreadful prospect of that which England ought to look for He also writ to the same effect to Hooper and wished that all good men would unite against the greater Corruptions and then lesser abuses would easily be redressed Peter Martyr did also deliver his opinion to the same purpose and was much troubled at Hooper's stiffness and at such contests among the professors of true Religion Hooper was suspended from Preaching but the Earl of Warwick writ to Cranmer to dispense with him in that matter He answered That while the Law continued in force he could not do it without incurring a Praemunire Upon that the King writ to him allowing him to do it and dispensing with the Law Yet this matter was not setled till a year after John à Lasco with some Germans of the Helvetian Confession came this year into England being driven out of Germany by the Persecution there They were erected by Letters Patents into a Corporation and à Lasco was their Superintendent he being a stranger medled too much in English affairs and wrote both against the Habits and against kneeling in the Sacrament Polydore Virgil was this year suffered to go out of England and still to hold the preferments he had in it Pomet was made Bishop of Rochester and Caverdale Co-adjutor to Veysy in Exeter There was now a design set on foot A review of the Common-Prayer-Book for a review of the Common-Prayer-Book In order to which Bucer's opinion was asked He approved the main parts of the former Book he wished there might be not only a denunciation against scandalous persons that came to the Sacrament but a discipline to exclude them That the Habits might be laid aside that no part of the Communion Office might be used except when there was a Sacrament that Communions might be more frequent that the Prayers might be said in a plain voice that the Sacrament might be put in the peoples hands and that there might be no Prayers for the Dead which had not been used in Justin Martyr's time He advised a change of some phrases in the Office of the Communion that favoured Transubstantiation too much and that Baptism might be only in Churches He thought the hallowing the Water the Chrisme and the White garment were too scenical nor did he approve of adjuring the Devil nor of the Godfathers answering in the Childs name He thought Confirmation should be delayed till the person was of Age and came sincerely to renew the Baptismal Covenant He advised Catechizing every Holy-day both of Children and the Adult he disliked private Marriages Extream Unction and offering Chrisomes at the Churching of Women And thought there ought to be greater strictness used in the examining of those who came to receive Orders At the same time he understood that the King expected a New-years gift from him of a Book written particularly for his own use So he made a Book for him concerning the Kingdom of Christ He prest much the setting up a strict discipline the Sanctification of the Lords day Bucer offers some advices to the King the appointing many days of Fasting and that Pluralities and Non-residence might be effectually condemned that Children might be Catechized that the Reverence due to Churches might be preserved that the Pastoral function might be restored to what it ought to be that Bishops might throw off Secular affairs and take care of their Diocesses and govern them by the advice of their Presbyters that there might be Rural Bishops over twenty or thirty Parishes and that Provincial Councils might meet twice a year that Church-lands should be restored and that a fourth part should be assigned to the poor that Marriage without consent of Parents should be annulled that a second Marriage might be declared lawful after a Divorce for Adultery and some other Reasons that care should be taken of the education of youth and for repressing luxury that the Law might be reformed that no Office might be sold but given to the most deserving that none should be put in Prison upon slight offences and that the severity of some Laws as that which made Theft capital might be mitigated The young King was much pleased with these advices The Kings great understanding and upon that began himself to form a Scheme for amending many things that were amiss in the Government which he writ with his own hand and in a stile and manner that had much of a Child in it though the thoughts were manly It appears by it that he intended to set up a Church discipline and settle a method for breeding of youth but the discourse is not finished He also writ a Journal of every thing that past at home and of the news that came from beyond Sea It has clear marks of his own Composing as well as it is written with his own hand He wrote another discourse in French being a Collection of all the places of Scripture against Idolatry with a Preface before it dedicated to the Protector At this time Ridley made his first Visitation of his Diocess Altars put down the Articles upon which he proceeded were chiefly relating to the Service and Ceremonies that were abolished whether any continued to use them or not and whether there were any Anabaptists or others that used private Conventicles He also carried some Injunctions with him against some remainders of the former superstition and for exhorting the people to give Alms and to come oft to the Sacrament and that Altars might be removed and Tables put in their room in the most convenient place of the Chancel In the Ancient Church their Tables were of Wood But the Sacrament being called a Sacrifice as Prayers Alms and all Holy Oblations were they came to be called Altars This gave the rise to the Opinion of Expiatory Sacrifice in the Mass and therefore it was thought fit to take away both the name and form of Altars Ridley only advised the Curates to do this but upon some contests arising
concerning it the Council interposed and required it to be done and sent with their Order a Paper of Reasons justifying it Shewing that a Table was more proper than an Altar especially since the opinion of an Expiatory Sacrifice was supported by it Sermons began to be preached in some Churches on working-days this occasioned great running about and idleness and raised emulation among the Clergy upon which the Council ordered them all to be put down Since that time there has been great contention concerning these they were factiously kept up by some and too violently suppressed by others But now that matter is quieted and they are in many places still continued to the great edification of the people The Government was now free of all disturbance the Coyn was reformed and Trade was encouraged The faction in the Court seemed also to be extinguisht by a Marriage between the Earl of Warwick's Son and the Duke of Somerset's Daughter The Duke of Lunenburgh made a Proposition of Marriage with Lady Mary but the Treaty with the Infant of Portugal did still depend Affairs of Scotland so it was not entertained In Scotland the Governor now made Duke of Chastelherault in France was wholly led by his base Brothers Counsels who though he was Arch-bishop of St. Andrews yet gave himself up without any disguise to his pleasures and kept another mans Wife avowedly by such means were the people more easily disposed to hearken to the new Teachers and prepared for the changes that followed The Queen Mother went to France on design to procure the Government of Scotland to be put in her hands A Diet was called in Germany And Germany the Town of Magdeburg was proscribed But they published a Manifesto expressing their readiness to obey the Emperour according to Law and that they only stood to the defence of their liberties without doing acts of Hostility to others It was now visible that the design of the late War was to extinguish the Protestant Religion and to set up Tyranny It was better to obey God than Man And they were resolved to put all to hazard rather than give up their Religion Tumults were raised in Strasburg and other Towns when the Mass was again set up and all Germany was disposed to a Revolt only they wanted a Head Severe Edicts were also set out in Flanders but the execution of them was stopt at the intercession of the English in Antwerp who were resolved otherwise to remove the Trade to another place The Emperour prest the Diet to submit to the Council when it should be brought back to Trent But Maurice of Saxe to whom all the Protestants joyned refused to do it unless all their former decrees should be reviewed and their Divines heard and admitted to Vote and that the Pope would dispense with the Oath which the Bishops sware to him Yet he so far insinuated himself into the Emperours confidence that he was made General of the Empire for the reduction of Magdeburg and resolved to manage that matter so as to draw great advantages from it The Emperour reckoned that he might well trust him as long as he had John Duke of Saxe in his hands But he had provoked him too much in the matter of the Landgrave of Hesse his Father-in-Law to repose such consequence in him so that this proved a fatal errour to him by which he lost the power he had then in Germany and Maurice proved too hard for him in dissimulation in which he was so great a Master The Popish Clergy did now generally comply to every Change that was made The Popish Clergy comply generally Oglethorp afterwards Bishop of Carlisle being informed against as favouring the old Superstition did under his hand declare that he thought the Order of Religion then setled was nearer the use of the Primitive Church than that which was formerly received and that he condemned Transubstantiation as a late Invention and approved the Communion in both kinds and the Peoples receiving always with the Priest Smith who had written against the Marriage of the Clergy and was upon some complaints put in Prison being discharged by Cranmer's Intercession writ a submission to him acknowledging the mistakes he had committed in his Book and the Arch-bishops gentleness towards him and wished he might perish if he did not write sincerely and called God a witness against his Soul if he lied Day Bishop of Chichester did also preach a Sermon at Court against Transubstantiation The Principle by which most of that Party governed themselves was this they thought they ought to oppose all the changes before they were established by Law yet that being done that they might afterwards comply with them Cranmer was a moderate and prudent Man and willing to accept of any thing they offered reckoning that whether they acted sincerely or not yet their compliance would be a means to quiet the Nation he was also of so compassionate a nature that he would never drive things to extremities against Men that were grown old in their errours and could not be easily weaned from them only Gardiner and Bonner were such deceitful and cruel Men that he thought it might be more excusable to make stretches for ridding the Church of them Martin Bucer dyed in the beginning of this Year of the Stone Bucer's death and griping of the Guts He had great apprehensions of a fatal revolution in England by reason of the ill lives of the People occasioned chiefly by the want of Ecclesiastical Discipline and the neglect of the Pastoral charge Orders were sent from the Court to Cambridge to bury him with all the Publick honour to his Memory that could be devised Speeches and Sermons were made both by Haddon the University Orator and Parker and Redmayn The last of these was one of the most extraordinary Men both for Learning and a true Judgment of things that was in that time he had also in many things differed from Bucer and yet he acknowledged that there was none alive of whom he hoped now to learn so much as he had done by his conversation with him Bucer was inferior to none of all the Reformers in Learning but superior to most of them in an excellent temper of mind and a great zeal for preserving the Unity of the Church a rare quality in that Age in which Melancthon and he were the most eminent He had not that nimbleness of disputing for which Peter Martyr was more admired and the Popish Doctors took advantage from that to carry themselves more insolently towards him Soon after this Gardiner's deprivation Gardiner's Process was put to an end A Commission was issued out to Cranmer and three Bishops and some Civilians to proceed against him for his contempt in refusing to sign the Articles offered to him he complained that all that was done against him was out of malice that he had been long imprisoned and nothing was objected to him that he was resolved to obey the
to God On the 22. The Duke of Somerset's Execution day of January the Duke of Somerset was executed at Tower-Hill the substance of his Speech was a Vindication of himself from all ill designs he confessed his private sins and acknowledged the mercies of God in granting him time to Repent he declared that he had acted sincerely in all he did in matters of Religion while he was in power and rejoyced for his being Instrumental in so good a work he exhorted the People to live sutably to the doctrine received among them otherwise they might look for great Judgments from God As he was going on there was an unaccountable Noise heard which so frighted the People that many run away Sir Anthony Brown came up riding towards the Scaffold which made the Spectators think that he brought a Pardon and this occasioned great shouts of Joy but they soon saw their mistakes so the Duke went on in his Speech He declared his chearful submission to the will of God and desired them likewise to acquiesce in it he prayed for the King and his Council and exhorted the People to continue obedient to them and asked the forgiveness of all whom at any time he had offended Then he turned to his private devotions and fitted himself for the blow which upon the signal given severed his Head from his Body He was a Man of extraordinary Virtues of great candor and eminent Piety he was always a promoter of Justice and a Patron of the oppressed He was a better Captain than a Counsellor and was too easie and open-hearted to be so cautious as such times and such Imployments required It was generally believed all this Conspiracy for which he and the other Four suffered was only a forgery all the other Complices were quickly discharged and Palmer the chief Witness became Northumberlands particular confident and the indiscreet words which the Duke of Somerset had spoken and his gathering armed Men about him was imputed to Palmer's artifices who had put him in fear of his life and so made him do and say those things for which he lost it His four friends did all end their Lives with the most solemn protestations of their Innocence and the whole matter was lookt on as a contrivance of Northumberlands by which he lost the affections of the People entirely Some reflected on the Attainder of the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Surrey's death occasioned likewise by a Conspiracy of their own Servants in which it was thought this Duke was too active He was also much censured for his Brothers death He had raised much of his Estate out of the spoils of Bishops Lands and his Palace out of the Ruines of some Churches and to this some added a remark that he did not claim the benefit of his Clergy which would have saved him and since he had so spoiled the Church they imputed it to a particular Judgment on him that he forgat it But in this they were mistaken for in the Act by which he was condemned it was provided that no Clergy should purge that Felony In Germany The affairs of Germany Maurice began this year to form a great design He enter'd into correspondences not only with the Princes of Germany but also with France and England and having given intimations of his designs for the liberty of Germany and the security of the Protestant Religion to some that had great credit in Magdeburg he brought that Town to a surrender and having made himself sure of the Army he quartered his Troops in the Territories of the Popish Princes by which they were all much alarmed only the Emperour did not apprehend the danger till it was too late for him A quarrel fell in between the Pope and the King of France about Parma The Pope threatned if that King would not restore Parma he would take France from him Upon that the Council being now again opened at Trent the King of France protested against it and declared that he would call a National Council in France and would not obey nor receive their Decrees The Emperor still pressed the Germans to send Embassadours and Divines to Trent The Council began with the points about the Eucharist and it was ordered that these should be handled according to the Scriptures and Ancient Authors the Italians did not like this and said the bringing many quotations was only an Act of Memory and that way would give the Lutherans great advantages The sublime speculations of the Schools together with their terms were much safer Weapons to deal with A Safe-Conduct was demanded from the Council for the Emperours Conduct was not thought sufficient since at Constance John Hus and Jerome of Prague were burnt though they had the Emperours Safe-Conduct The Council of Basil had granted a very full one to the Bohemians so the Lutherans demanded one in the same form but though one was granted yet it was in many things short of that The Elector of Brandenburg sent an Embassadour to Trent who made a general Speech of the respect his Master had for them The Legates answered and thanked him for submitting to their Decrees of which the Embassadour had not said a word but when he expostulated about it the Legates said they answered him according to that he ought to have said and not to that he did say The Council decreed the manner of Christs presence to be ineffable and yet added that Transubstantiation was a fit term for it for that was a notion as unconceivable as any that could be thought on Then they decreed the necessity of Auricular Confession that thereby Priests might keep a proportion between Penances and Sins which was thought a mockery for the trade of slight Penances and easie Absolutions for the greatest sins shewed there was no care taken to adjust the one to the other The Embassadour of the Duke of Wirtemberg came and moved for a Safe-Conduct to their Divines to come and maintain their Doctrine The Legates answered they would enter into no disputes with them but if they came with an humble mind and proposed their scruples they would satisfie them Embassadours from some Towns arrived at Trent and those sent by the Duke of Saxe were on their way upon which the Emperour ordered his Agents to gain time and hinder the Council to proceed in their decisions till those were heard but all he could prevail in was that the Article concerning the Communion in both kinds was postponed till they should come The day after the Duke of Somerset's execution a Session of Parliament was assembled A Session of Parliament The first Act they past was about the Common-Prayer-Book as it was now amended To it only one Earl two Bishops and two Lords dissented The Book was appointed to be every where received after All-hallows next The Bishops were required to proceed by the censures of the Church against such as came not to it they also authorized the Book of Ordinations and
presently left the Army and took Post with one of his Secretaries and a small Retinue after a Days riding he complained of a pain in his side so that he could not go on but sent his Secretary with his excuses This appearance of confidence made the Emperour lay down all his jealousies of him He had also sent his Ambassadours to Trent and had ordered Melancthon and some Divines to follow them slowly and as soon as a safe conduct was obtained to go to Trent The Emperour's Agents had a hard task between the Legats and the Lutherans they dealt with the Legates to hear the other but they answered that it was against the rules of the Church to treat with professed Hereticks The Lutherans on the other hand made such high demands that they had as much to do to moderate them they prest them not to ask too much at once and promised that if they would proceed prudently the Emperour would concur with them to pull down the Popes power and to reform abuses A Safe-Conduct was demanded such as had been granted by the Council of Basil that their Divines might have a decisive voice and the free exercise of their Religion and that all things might be examined according to the Scriptures But the Legates abhorred the name of that Council that had acted so much against the Papal authority and had granted such a Conduct that so they might unite Germany and engage the Empire to joyn with them against the Pope The Ambassadours from the Lutherans were heard in a General Congregation where they gave the Council a very cold Complement and desired a Safe-Conduct The Pope understood that the Emperor was resolved to set on the Spanish Bishops to bear down the power of the Court of Rome therefore he united himself to France and resolved to break the Council on the first occasion upon which he ordered the Legates to proceed to settle the doctrine hoping the Protestants would upon that despair of favour and go away But while these things were in agitation the War of Germany broke out and the Legates suspended the Council for two Years After this An Account of the Council of Trent I shall have no occasion to speak more of this Council so I shall offer this remark here that this Council had been much desired both by Princes and Bishops in hopes that differences of Religion would have been composed in it and that the Corruptions of the Court of Rome would have been reformed by it and that had made the Popes very apprehensive of it but such was the cunning of the Legates the number of Italian Bishops and the dissensions of the Princes of Europe that it had effects quite contrary to what all sides expected The breach in Religion was put past reconciling by the positive decisions they made the abuses of the Court of Rome were confirmed by the Proviso's made in favours of the Priviledges of the Apostolick See and the World was so cured of their longings for a General Council that none has been desired since that time The History of that Council was writ with great exactness and Judgment by Father Paul of Venice while the thing was yet fresh in all Mens memories and though it discovered the whole secret of transactions there yet none set himself to write against it for Forty Years after of late then Pallavicini undertook it and upon the credit of many Memorials he in many things contradicts Father Paul but as many of these are likely enough to be forged so in the main of the History they both agree so far that it is manifest things were not fairly carried and that all matters were managed by Intreagues and secret practices in which it will be very hard to discern such a particular conduct of the Holy Ghost as should induce the World to submit to their authority and indeed Pallavicini was aware of this and therefore he lays down this for a foundation That there must be a Principality in the Church supported by great Wealth and Dignity and many practices are now necessary that are contrary to what were in the Primitive time which was the Infancy of the Church and ought not to be a rule to it now when it is grown up to its full state Maurice declared for the liberty of Germany and took Ausburg The Emperour's designs are blasted and several other Towns The King of France fell also in upon the Empire with a great Force and by surprise made himself Master of Metz Toul and Verdun and thought to have got Strasburg Maurice sent his demands to the Emperour for the Landgrave's liberty and for restoring the freedom of the Empire and the Emperour being slow in making answer he marched on to Inspruck where he surprised a Post and was within two Miles of him before he was aware of it so that the Emperor was forced to fly away by Torch-light and from thence went to Italy Thus that very Army and Prince that had been chiefly Instrumental in the ruine of the Empire did now again assert its freedom and all the Emperor 's great design on Germany was now so blasted that he could never after this put any life in it he was forced to discharge his Prisoners and to call in the Proscriptions and after some Treaty at last the Edict of Passaw was made by which the free exercise of the Protestant Religion was granted to the Princes and Towns and so did that storm which had almost overwhelmed the Princes of that Perswasion end without any other considerable effect besides the Translation of the Electoral dignity from John to Maurice The Emperour's misfortunes encreased on him for against all reason he besieged Metz in December but after he had ruined his Army in it he was forced to raise the Siege Upon that he retired into Flanders in such discontent that for some time he would admit none to come to him Here it was believed he first formed that design which some years after he put in execution of forsaking the World and exchanging the Pomp of a Court with the retirement of a Monastery This strange and unlookt for turn in his affairs gave a great demonstration of an over-ruling Providence that governs all humane affairs and of that particular care that God had of the Reformation in recovering it when it seemed to be gone without all hope in Germany In the beginning of this Year there was a regulation made of the Privy Council Several Committees had proper work assigned them and directions given them for their conduct of which there is an account extant corrected with King Edward's hand A new Parliament was called and sat down the first of March a motion was made for a Subsidy of two tenths and two fifteenths to be paid in two years at the passing of the Bill there was a great debate about it in the House of Commons which seems to have been concerning the Preamble for it contained a high accusation of the
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
Norfolk those who had purchased some parts of his Estate from the Crown opposed it much in the House of Commons but the Duke came down to the House and desired them earnestly to pass it and assured them that he would refer all differences between him and the Patentees either to Arbiters or to the Queen and so it was agreed to It set forth the pretences that were made use of to Attaint him as that he used Coats of Arms which he and his Ancestors had lawfully used There was a Commission given to some to declare the Royal assent to it but that was not signed but only stamped by the King's mark and that not at the upper end as was usual but beneath nor did it appear that the Royal Assent was ever given to it and they declared that in all time coming the Royal assent should be given either by the King in Person or by a Commission under the Great Seal signed by the King's hand and publickly declared to both Houses Cranmer Guilford Dudley and his Wife the Lady Jane and two of his Brothers were tryed for Treason they all confessed their Indictments only Cranmer appealed to the Judges who knew how unwillingly he had consented to the Exclusion of the Queen and that he did it not till they whose profession it was to know the Law had signed it They were all Attainted of Treason for levying War against the Queen and their Attainders were confirmed in Parliament so was Cranmer legally divested of his Archbishoprick but since he was put in it by the Pope's authority it was resolved to degrade him by the forms of the Canon-Law and the Queen was willing to pardon his Treason that it might appear she did not act upon revenge but Zeal she was often prevailed with to pardon Injuries against her self but was always inexorable in matters of Religion But now her Treaty with the Pope began to take vent which put the Parliament in some disorder When she came first to the Crown A Treaty for reconciling England to the Pope the Popes Legate at Brussels sent over Commendone to see if he could speak with her and to perswade her to reconcile her Kingdom to the Apostolick See The management of the matter was left to his discretion for the Legate would not trust this secret to Gardiner nor any of the other Bishops Commendone came over in the disguise of a Merchant and by accident met with one of the Queens Servants who had lived some years beyond Sea and was known to him and by his means he procured access to the Queen She assured him of her firm resolution to return to the obedience of that See but charged him to manage the matter with great prudence for if it were too early discovered it might disturb her affairs and obstruct the design By him she wrote both to the Pope and to Cardinal Pool and instructed Commendone in order to the sending over Pool with a Legatine power She also asked him whether the Pope might not dispence with Pool to marry since he was only in Deacons Orders This was a welcome Message to the Court of Rome and proved the foundation of Commendone's advancement There was a publick rejoicing for three days and the Pope said Mass himself upon it and gave a largess of Indulgences in which he might be the more liberal because they were like to come into credit again and to go off at the old rates Yet all that Commendone said in the Consistory was That he understood from good hands that the Queen was well disposed to a re-union Some of the stiffer Cardinals thought it was below the Popes dignity to send a Legate till an Embassie should come first from the Queen desiring it Yet the secret was so whispered among them that it was generally known It was said they ought to imitate the Shepherd in the Parable who went to seek the stray Sheep And therefore Pool was appointed to go Legate with ample powers Gardiner was in fear of him and so advised the Emperour to stop him in his journey and to touch the Emperour in a tender part it is said that he let him know that the Queen had some Inclinations for the Cardinal And for a Match with the Prince of Spain The Emperour had now proposed a Match with her for his Son though he was nine years younger than she was yet she being but thirty seven there was reason enough to hope for Children and the uniting England to the Spanish Monarchy seem'd to be all that was wanting to strengthen it on all hands so as to ruine the French Kingdom The Queen saw reasons enough to determine her to entertain it She found it would be hard to bring the Nation about in matters of Religion without the assistance of a soreign power Yet it is more reasonable to think that Gardiner who was always governed by his Interests would have rather promoted the match with Pool for then he had been Infallibly made Arch-bishop of Canterbury and had got Pool's Hat and the Government would have been much easier if the Queen had married a Subject than it could be under a Stranger especially one whose greatness made all people very apprehensive of him The restoring the Papal power Pool's advices to the Queen and the Match with the Prince of Spain were things of such uneasie digestion that it was not fit to adventure on both at once therefore the Emperour prest the Queen to begin with her Marriage and by that she would be powerfully assisted to carry on her other designs and at last the Queen her self was perswaded to send to Pool to advise him to stop his Journey for some time She sent over the Acts of this Parliament to let him see what progress she was making and to assure him she would make all convenient haste in the Re-union But the Parliament had expressed so great an aversion to the restoring the Popes power and were so apprehensive of losing the Abbey-Lands that it would prejudice her affairs much if he should come over before the peoples minds were better prepared She also desired him to send her a List of those that were fit to be made Bishops in the room of those that were turned out To this he writ a long and tedious answer he rejoiced at the Acts that were passed but observed great defects in them In that concerning her Mothers Marriage there was no mention made of the Popes Bull of Dispensation by which only it could be a lawful Marriage The other for setting up the Worship as it was in the end of her Fathers reign he censured more for they were then in a state of Schism and so this established Schism by a Law And he said that while the Interdict lay on the Nation it was a sin to perform Divine Offices He had been very frankly dispatched by the Pope and the Consistory with many favourable Instructions but if these were so despised and he still
stopt it might provoke him to recal his power He knew all this flowed from the Emperour who would perhaps advise her to follow such Political Maximes as himself was governed by but his ill success in the business of the Interim might well frighten others from following such Counsels And he was afraid that Carnal Policy might govern her too much and that so she would fall from her simplicity in Christ He desired her to take Courage and to depend on God and advised her to go her self to the Parliament having before-hand prepared some to second her and to tell them that she was touched in Conscience with a sense of the sin of Schism and that therefore she desired the Act of Attainder that stood against him might be Repealed and that he might be invited to come over and reconcile them to the Apostolick See And she might assure them that all necessary caution should be used to prevent the Nations being brought under a thraldome to the Papacy But the Queen was now possest with Gardiner's Counsels and look'd on Pool's advices as more candid than prudent Gardiner perswaded her that though he was a good and learned man yet he understood not the present genius of the Nation and Pool lookt on Gardiner as a man of no Conscience and that he was more conversant in Intrigues of State than touched with any sense of Religion But the Emperour was convinced that Gardiner's Methods were surer and preferred them to Pool's When the Treaty of the Queens Marriage came to be known The Parliament opposes the match and is dissolved the House of Commons was much alarmed at it and they sent their Speaker with twenty of their Members with an Address to her not to marry a stranger And they were so inflamed that the Court judged it necessary to dissolve the Parliament Gardiner upon this let the Emperour know that the jealousies which were taken up on the account of the Match were such that except very extraordinary conditions were offered it would occasion a general Rebellion He also writ to him that great sums must be sent over both to gratifie the Nobility and to enable them to carry the Elections to the next Parliament in opposition to such as would stand against them As for Conditions it was resolved to grant any that should be demanded for the Emperour reckoned that if his Son were once married to her it would be easie for him to govern the Councils as he pleased And for Money there was 400000 pound ordered to be divided up and down the Nation at the discretion of Gardiner and the Emperours Ambassadours A great part of it was payed in hand and the rest was brought over with the Prince This the Emperour borrowed from some of the Free Towns of Germany and when they were pressing him for the re-payment of it about a year after he for his excuse told them the charge he had been at for his Sons Marriage but that he hoped to be re-imbursed from England which was thus bought and sold by a practising Bishop and a corrupted House of Commons Gardiner did also make use of his power as Chancellour to force all people to comply with him for there was no favour nor common Justice shewed in his Court of Chancery to any others With the Parliament a Convocation met Harpsfield preached to them A Convocation meets and disputes about the Sacrament he flattered the Queen and the Bishops that had been deprived in the late times with a zeal that shewed how fervently he aspired to preferment He inveighed against the late times with great sharpness so that his Sermon was divided between Satyr and Panegyrick Six of the Reformed Divines were qualified by their dignities to sit in the lower House being either Deans or Arch-Deacons Deacons who were Philpot Philips Haddon Cheyney Ailmer and Young They made a vigorous opposition to a motion that was proposed for condemning the Catechism and Common-Prayer-Book that had been set out in King Edward's time and particularly the Articles against Transubstantiation To this all agreed except those six It was pretended that the Catechism was not set out by authority of Convocation To which Philpot answered That the Convocation had deputed some to compose it and so it was on the matter their work A disputation was proposed concerning the Sacrament though all the rest of the Convocation subscribed the Conclusion first which was complained of as a preposterous method The six desired that Ridley and Rogers with some others might be suffered to come and join with them but that was refused since they were no members and were then in Prison On the twenty third of October the dispute began many of the Nobility and others being present Weston was Prolocutor he opened it with a Protestation that they went not to dispute as calling the Truth in question but only to satisfie the objections of a few Haddon Ailmer and Young foresaw that it was resolved to run them down with numbers noise so at first they refused to dispute and the last of them went away Cheyney argued from St. Paul's calling the Sacrament Bread Origen's saying that it nourished the Body and Theodoret's saying that the Elements did not depart from their former substance form and shape Moreman answered that Theodoret's words were to be understood of an accidental substance It was replied that form and shape belonged to the accidents but substance belonged to the nature of the Elements Philpot shewed that the occasion of his using these words was to prove against the Entychians that there was a true humane nature in Christ notwithstanding its union with the Godhead which he proved by this simile that the Elements in the Eucharist remained in their nature so this must be understood of the substance of Bread and Wine But to this no answer was made and when he seemed to press it too far he was commanded to be silent Haddon cited many passages out of the Fathers to shew that they believed Christ was still in Heaven and that the Sacrament was a memorial of him till his second coming He also asked whether they thought that Christ did eat his own natural Body and when that was confessed he said it was needless to dispute with men who could swallow down such an absurdity The disputation continued several days Philpot made a long Speech against the Corporal presence but was oft interrupted for they told him that he might propose an Argument but they would not hear him make Harangues He undertook to prove before the Queen and her Council that the Mass as they had it was no Sacrament at all and that the body of Christ was not present in it and if he failed in it he would be content to be burnt at the Court Gate After some short time spent in citing passages out of the Fathers Philpot was commanded to hold his peace otherwise they would send him to Prison He claimed the priviledge of the House for
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
but magnified his Conversion much and ascribed it wholly to the workings of God's Spirit he gave him great hopes of Heaven and promised him all the relief that Diriges and Masses could give him in another state All this while Cranmer was observed to be in great Confusion and Floods of Tears run from his Eyes at last when he was called on to speak he began with a Prayer in which he expressed much inward remorse and horrour then after he had exhorted the People to good Life Obedience and Charity he in most pathetick expressions confessed his sin that the hopes of Life had made him sign a Paper contrary to the Truth and against his Conscience and he had therefore resolved that the hand that signed it should be burnt first he also declared that he had the same belief concerning the Sacrament which he had published in the Book he writ about it Upon this there was a great Consternation on the whole Assembly but they resolved to make an end of him suddenly so without suffering him to go further they hurried him away to the Stake and gave him all the disturbance they could by their reproaches and clamours But he made them no answer having now turned his thoughts wholly towards God When the Fire was kindled he held his right Hand towards the Flame till it was consumed and often said that unworthy hand he was soon after quite burnt only his heart was found entire among the ashes from which his Friends made this Inference that though his Hand had erred yet it appeared his Heart had continued true They did not make a Miracle of it though they said the Papists would have made a great matter of it if such a thing had fallen out in any that had dyed for their Religion Thus did Thomas Cranmer end his days His Character in the LXVII Year of his Age He was a Man of great Candor and a firm Friend which appeared signally in the misfortunes of Anne Boleyn Cromwell and the Duke of Somerset He rather excelled in great Industry and good Judgment than in a quickness of apprehension or a closeness of stile He employed his Revenues on pious and charitable uses and in his Table he was truly hospitable for he entertained great numbers of his poor Neighbours often at it The Gentleness and Humility of his deportment were very singular His last fall was the greatest blemish of his Life yet that was expiated by a sincere repentance and a patient Martyrdom and those that compared Ancient and Modern times did not stick to compare him not only to the Chrysostomes the Ambroses and the Austins that were the chief Glories of the Church in the fourth and fifth Centuries but to those of the first Ages that immediately followed the Apostles and came nearest to the Patterns which they had left the World to the Ignatius's the Policarps and the Cyprians And it seemed necessary that the Reformation of the Church being the restoring of the Primitive and Apostolical Doctrine should have been chiefly carried on by a Man thus Eminent for Primitive and Apostolical Vertues More burnings In January five Men and two Women were burnt at one Stake in Smithfield and one Man and four Women were burnt at Canterbury In March two Women were burnt at Ipswich and three Men at Salisbury In April six Men of Essex were burnt in Smithfield a Man and a Woman were burnt at Rochester and another at Canterbury and six who were sent from Colchester were condemned by Bonner without giving them longer time to consider whether they would recant than till the Afternoon for he was now so hardned in his Cruelty that he grew weary of keeping his Prisoners some time and of taking pains on them to make them recant he sent them back to Colchester where they were burnt He condemned also both a blind Man and an aged Criple and they were both burnt in the same Fire at Stratford In May three Women were burnt in Smithfield the day after that two were burnt at Glocester one of them being blind Three were burnt at Beckles in Suffolk five were burnt at Lewis and one at Leicester But on the 27th of June Bonner gave the signallest Instance of his Cruelty that England ever saw for 11. Men and two Women were burnt in the same Fire at Stratford The horror of this Action it seems had some Operation on himself for he burnt none till April next year In June three were burnt at Saint Edmondsbury and three were afterwards burnt at Newbury This cruelty was not kept within England but it extended as far as to the adjacent Islands In Guernsey a Mother and her two Daughters were burnt at the same stake one of them was a married Woman and big with Child The violence of the Fire bursting her Belly the Child that proved to be a Boy fell out into the Flame He was snatched out of it by one that was more merciful than the rest but the other barbarous Spectators after a little Consultation threw it back again into the Fire This was Murder without question for no Sentence against the Mother could excuse this Inhumane piece of Butchery which was thought the more odious because the Dean of Guernsey was a Complice in it yet so merciful was the Government under Queen Elizabeth that he and Nine others that were accused for it had their Pardons Two were after this burnt at Greenstead and a blind Woman at Darby Four were burnt at Bristoll and as many at Mayfield in Sussex and one at Nottingham so that in all LXXXV were this Year burnt without any regard had either to Age or Sex to young or old or the Lame and the Blind which raised so extream an aversion in this Nation to that Religion that it is no wonder if the apprehensions of being again brought under so Tyrannical a Yoke break out into most Violent and Convulsive Symptoms By these means the Reformation was so far from being extinguished that it spread daily more and more and the Zeal of those that professed it grew quicker The Reformed increase upon this They had frequent Meetings and several Teachers that instructed them and their Friends that went beyond Sea and setled in Strasburg Frankfort Embden and some other places in Germany took care to send over many Books for their Instruction and Comfort An unhappy difference was begun at Frankford The troubles at Frankford which has had since that time great and fatal Consequences some of the English thought it was better to use a Liturgy agreeing with the Geneva forms whereas the rest thought that since they were a part of the Church of England that fled thither they ought to adhere to the English Liturgy and that the rather since those who had compiled it were now sealing it with their Blood This raised much heat but Doctor Cox that lived in Strasburg being held in great esteem went thither and procured an Order from the Senate that
were fit to be made and by what steps they should proceed It was thought fit to begin with the Communion in both kinds Now did the Exiles The Impatience of some that had fled beyond Sea return again and some zealous People began in many places to break Images and set up King Edward's Service again Upon this the Queen ordered that the Litany and other parts of the Service should be said in English and that no Elevation should be used in the Mass but required her Subjects by Proclamation 27 Decemb. to avoid all Innovations and use no other forms but those that she kept up in her Chappel till it should be otherwise appointed in Parliament She ordered her Sister's Funeral to be performed with the ordinary Magnificence White Bishop of Winchester that Preached the Sermon not only extolled her Government much but made severe Reflections on the present state of affairs for which he was confined to his House for some time Many Sees were now vacant So one of the first things that came under Consultation was the finding out fit Men for them Dr. Parker was pitched on as the fittest for the See of Canterbury He had been Chaplain to Anne Boleyn Parker refuses the See of Canterbury long and had been imployed in instructing the Queen in the Points of Religion when she was young He was well known to Sir Nicolas Bacon and both he and Cecyl gave so high a Character of him that it meeting with the Queen 's particular esteem made them resolve on advancing him but as soon as he knew it he used all the Arguments he possibly could against it both from the weakness of his Body and his unfitness for so great a charge He desired that he might be put in some small Benefice of 20. Nobles a Year So far was he from aspirings to great Wealth or high Dignities and as Cranmer had done before him he continued for many Months so averse to it that it was very hard to overcome him Such Promotions are generally if not greedily sought after yet at least willingly enough undertaken but this looked liker the practises in Ancient than Modern times In the best Ages of the Church instead of that Ambitus which has given such scandal to the World in later times it was ordinary for Men to flye from the offer of great Preferments and to retire to a Wilderness or a Monastery rather than undertake a charge which they thought above their Merit or Capacity to discharge And this will still shew it self in all such as have a just sense of the Pastoral care and consider the discharging that more than the raising or enriching themselves or their Families And it was thought no small honour to the Reformation that the two chief Instruments that promoted it Cranmer and Parker gave such evidences of a Primitive Spirit in being so unwillingly advanced The Seals were taken from Heath and put in Bacon's hands Bacon made Lord Keeper who was declared Lord Keeper and had all the Dignity and Authority of the Chancellors Office without the Title which was perhaps an effect of his great Modesty that adorned his other great qualities As he was Eminent in himself so he was happy in being Father to the Great Sir Francis Bacon one of the chief Glories of the English Nation On the 13th The Queen is Crowned of January the Queen was Crowned When she entred into her Chariot at the Tower she offered up an humble acknowledgment to God for delivering her out of that Lions Den and preserving her to that Joyful Day She passed through London in great Triumph and received all the expressions of Joy from her People with so much sweetness as gained as much on their Hearts as her Sisters sowrness had alienated them from her Under one of the Triumphal Arches a Child came down as from Heaven representing Truth with a Bible in his hand which she received on her Knees and kissed it and said she preferred that above all the other Presents that were that Day made her She was Crowned by Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle for all the other Bishops refused to assist at it and he only could be prevailed on to do it They perceived that she intended to make changes in Religion and though many of them had changed often before yet they resolved now to stick firmer to that which they had so lately professed and for which they had shed so much Blood The Parliament was opened on the 25th A Parliament is called of January Bacon made a long Speech both concerning matters of Religion and the State of the Nation He desired they would examine the former Religion without heat or partial affection and that all reproaches might be forborn and extreams avoided and that things might be so setled that all might agree in an Uniformity in Divine Worship He laid open the errours of the former Reign and aggravated the loss of Calais but shewed that it could not be easily recovered He made a high Panegyrick of the Queen but when he shewed the necessities she was in he said she would desire no supply but what they should freely and chearfully offer The House of Commons began at a Debate Whether the want of the Title of Supream Head in the enumeration of the Queen's Titles made a Nullity in the Writs by which this and some former Parliaments had been summoned but they concluded in the Negative The Treaty at Cambray stuck chiefly at the restitution of Calais and King Philip for a great while insisted so positively on it that he refused to make Peace on other terms The Peace at Cambray England had lost it by a War in which they engaged on his account so in honour he was bound to see to it But when the hopes of his marrying the Queen vanished and when he saw she was going to make changes in Religion he grew more careless of her Interests and told the English Ambassadours that unless they would enter into a League for keeping up the War six Years longer he must submit to the necessity of his affairs and make Peace So the Queen listned to Propositions sent her from France She complained of the Queen of Scotland's assuming the Title and Arms of England It was answered that since she carried the Title and Arms of France she had no reason to quarrel much on that account She saw she could not make War with France alone and knew that Philip had made a separated Peace She had no mind to begin her Reign with a War that would probably be unsuccessful or demand Subsidies that would be so grievous as that thereby she might lose the affections of her People The loss of Calais was no reproach on her but fell wholly on her Sister's Memory and since she intended to make some changes in matters of Religion it was necessary to be at quiet with her Neighbours Upon this she resolved to make Peace with France on the best terms
that could be obtained It was agreed that at the end of eight Years Calais should either be restored or 500000. Crowns should be payed the Queen yet if during that time she made War either on France or Scotland she was to forfeit her right to Calais Aymouth in Scotland was to be rased and all differences on the Borders there were to be determined by some deputed on both sides this being adjusted a General Peace between the Crowns of England France and Spain was concluded and thus the Queen being freed from the dangerous consultations that the continuance of a War might have involved her in was the more at liberty to settle matters at home The first Bill Acts past in Parliament that was brought to try the Temper of the Parliament was for the Restitution of the Tenths and First-fruits to the Crown against this all the Bishops protested but that was all the opposition made to it By it not only that Tax was of new laid on the Clergy but all the Impropriated Benefices which Queen Mary had surrendred were restored to the Crown After this The Commons pray the Queen to marry the Commons made an Address to the Queen desiring her to choose such a Husband as might make both her self and the Nation happy She received this very kindly since they had neither limited her to time nor Nation but declared that as hitherto she had lived with great satisfaction in a single state and had refused the Propositions that had been made her both in her Brothers and Sisters reign so she had no Inclination to change her course of life If ever she did it she would take care that it should be for the good and to the satisfaction of her People She thought she was married to the Nation at her Coronation and looked on her People as her Children and she would be well contented if her Tombstone might tell Posterity Here lies a Queen that reigned so long and lived and dyed a Virgin There was little more progress made in this matter save that a Committee was appointed by both Houses to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen might happen to marry but she sent them a Message to proceed to other affairs and let that alone A Bill for the Recognition of her Title to the Crown was put in Her Title to the Crown acknowledged It was not thought necessary to Repeal the Sentence of her Mothers Divorce for the Crown purged all defects and it was thought needless to look back unto a thing which could not be done without at least casting some reproach on her Father so it was in general words Enacted That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and the Realm she was their lawful Queen and was rightly and lineally descended This was thought a much wiser way than if they examined the Sentence of Divorce that past upon the Confession of a Precontract which must have revived the remembrance of things that were better left in silence Bills were put in for the English Service Acts concerning Religion for reviving King Edward's Laws and for annexing the Supremacy again to the Crown To that concerning the Supremacy two Temporal Lords and nine Bishops with the Abbot of Westminster dissented It was proposed to revive the Law for making the Bishops by Letters-Patents as was in King Edward's time but they choosed rather to revive the Act for Electing them made in the 25. Hen. 8. They revived all Acts made against the Pope's power in King Henry's time and repealed those made by Queen Mary They enacted an Oath for acknowledging the Queen Supream Governour in all causes and over all Persons Those that refused it were to forfeit all Offices that they held either in Church or State and to be under a disability during life If any should advance the authority of a Foreign Power for the first offence they were to be fined or imprisoned for the second to be in a Praemunire and the third was made Treason The Queen was also impowered to give Commissions for Judging and Reforming Ecclesiastical matters who were limited to judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so judged by the authority of the Scriptures or the first four General Councils All Points that were not decided either by express words of Scripture or by those Councils were to be referred to the Parliament and Convocation The Title of Supream Head was changed partly because the Queen had some scruples about it and partly to moderate the opposition which the Popish party might otherwise make to it and the refusing the Oath was made no other way Penal but that all Offices or Benefices were forfeited upon it which was a great mitigation of the severity in King Henry's time The Bishops are said to have made several Speeches against this in the House of Lords but that which goes under the name of Heath's Speech must be a forgery for in it the Supremacy is called a new and unheard of thing which could not have flowed from one that had sworn it so often both under King Henry and King Edward Tonstall came not to this Parliament and he was so offended with the Cruelties of the last Reign that he had withdrawn himself into his Diocess where he burnt none himself upon that it was now thought that he was so much alienated from those Methods that some had great hopes of his declaring for the Reformation Heath had been likewise very moderate nor were any burnt under him Upon the power given the Queen to appoint some to Reform and direct all Ecclesiastical matters was the Court called the High Commission Court founded which indeed was nothing but the sharing that authority which was in one Person in King Henry's time into many hands for that Court had no other authority but that which was lodged formerly in Cromwell as the King's Vicegerent and was now thought too great to be trusted to one Man Great complaints were made of seditious Sermons preached by the Popish Clergy Preaching without Licence forbidden upon which the Queen followed the Precedent that her Sister had made and forbid all Preaching excepting only by such as obtained a Licence under the Great Seal for it She likewise sent an Order to the Convocation requiring them under the pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet the lower House in an Address to the upper House declared for the Corporal Presence and that the Mass was a Propitiatory Sacrifice and for the Supremacy and that matters of Religion fell only under the Cognisance of the Pastors of the Church The greatest part of both Universities had also set their hands to all these Points except the last This it seems A publick Conference about Religion was the rather added by the Clerks of Convocation to hinder a publick Conference which the Queen had appointed between the Bishops and the Reformed Divines It was first
Service but only that she had the soveraignty over all Persons and that no foreign Power was to be acknowledged and such as had scruples about it might declare that they took it only in that sense A Communion Table was to be set where the Altars stood formerly but on Sacrament Days it was to be brought into the most convenient place in the Chancel The Bread for the Sacrament was to have no figure on it and to be thicker than Wafers The bidding Prayer was appointed to be the same that had been used in King Edward's time only an Expression that imported a Prayer for the Dead was changed The obliging Church-men to go always in their Habits was thought a good mean to make them observe the Decencies of their Function when their Habit declared what they were and would be a reproach to them if they behaved themselves unsutably to it The bowing at the name Jesus was considered as such an acknowledgment of his Divinity as was made by standing up at the Creed or the Gloria Patri The liberty given to explain in what sense the Oath of Supremacy was taken gave a great Evidence of the Moderation of the Queen's Government that she would not lay snares for her People which is always a sign of a wicked and Tyrannical Prince But the Queen reckoned that if such Comprehensive Methods could be found out as would once bring her People under an Union though perhaps there might remain a great diversity of Opinion that would wear off with the present Age and in the next Generation all would be of one mind And this had the good effect that was expected from it till the Pope and the King of Spain began to open Seminaries beyond Sea for a Mission to England which have since that time been the occasion of almost all the distractions this Nation has laboured under The Queen granted Commissions for the two Provinces of Canterbury and York The High-Commission Courts consisting most of the Laity some few of the Clergy being mixed with them Impowering them to visit the Churches to suspend or deprive unworthy Clergymen to proceed against scandalous Persons by Imprisonment or Church-censures to reserve Pensions for such as resigned their Benefices and to restore such as had been unlawfully put out in the late Reign By these reserved Pensions as the Clergy that were turned out were kept from extream want so they were in great measure bound to their good behaviour by them The Impowering Laymen to deprive Church-men or Excommunicate could not be easily excused but was as justifiable as the Commissions to Lay-chancellours for those things were There are 9400. Benefices in England but of all these the number of those who chose to resign rather than to take the Oath was very inconsiderable Fourteen Bishops six Abbots twelve Deans twelve Archdeacons fifteen Heads of Colledges fifty Prebendaries eighty Rectors was the whole number of those that were turned out But it was believed that the greatest part complied against their Consciences and would have been ready for another turn if the Queen had died while that Race of Incumbents lived and the next Successor had been of another Religion The See of Canterbury was now to be filled but Parker stood out long Parker is very unwillingly made Archbish of Canterbury before he would submit to a burden which he thought disproportioned to his strength He said he was afraid of incurring God's Indignation for accepting a trust which he could not discharge as he ought having neither strength of body nor mind equal to it he was threatned with Imprisonment in case of refusal but he said he would suffer it chearfully rather than engage in a station that was so far above him and he had such a sense of the Episcopal Function that he resolved never to aspire to it He thought he had but two or three years more of life before him and desired to imploy these well and not to be advanced to a place in which he knew he could not answer the expectations that some had of him he wished the Queen would seek out a Man that were neither Arrogant Faint-hearted nor Covetous and expressed the great apprehensions he had that some Men who he perceived were Men still notwithstanding all the Trials they past through of late would revive those heats that were begun beyond Sea and that they would fall a quarrelling among themselves which would prove a pleasant diversion to the Papists But when by many repeated commands he was required to accept of that great advancement he at last writ to the Queen her self and protested that out of regard to God and the good of her service he held himself bound in Conscience to declare to her his great unworthiness for so high a Function and so as prostrate at her feet he begged her to press it on him no further for that Office did require a Man of more Learning Vertue and Experience than he perfectly knew was in himself But as these denials so earnestly and frequently repeated shewed that he had certainly some of the necessary qualifications which were true humility and a contempt of the World so they tended to increase the esteem which the Queen and her Ministers had of him And they persisting in their Resolution he was at last forced to yield to it He was upon the sending of the Conge d'eslire chosen by the Chapter of Canterbury and in September the Queen issued out a Warrant for his Consecration which was directed to Tonstall Bourn and Pool the last was Cardinal Pool's Brother and was Bishop of Peterborough and to Kitchin Barlow and Scory by which it appears that there was then some hope of gaining the former three to obey the Laws and to continue in their Sees but they refusing to execute this there was a second Warrant directed to Kitchin Barlow Scory and Coverdale and to Bale Bishop of Ossory and two suffragan Bishops to Consecrate Parker and on the 17th of December he was Consecrated by four of these according to the Book of Ordination set out under King Edward only the giving the Pastoral Staff was now omitted After this Parker ordained Grindall for the See of London Cox for Ely The other Bishops consecrated Horn for Winchester Sandys for Worcester Merick for Bangor Young for St. Davids Bullingham for Lincoln Jewell for Salisbury Davis for St. Asaph Guest for Rochester Berkley for Bath and Wells Bentham for Coventry and Litchfield Alley for Exeter and Parre for Peterborough Barlow and Scory were put in the Sees of Chichester and Hereford The Sees of York and Duresme were kept vacant a Year upon some hopes that Heath and Tonstall would have conformed but in the Year 1561. Young was translated from St. Davids to York and Pilkinton was put in Duresme All this is opened the more particularly The Fable of the Naggs-head confuted for discovering the Impudence of the Contrivance of the Naggs-Head Ordination which was
boasted of their Numbers and strength and in some Places brake out into Tumults then it appeared that it was Faction and not Zeal that animated them Upon that the Queen found it necessary to restrain them more than she had done formerly yet she did it with all the Moderation that could consist with the Peace of the Church and State And thus from this Letter an Idea of this whole Reign may be justly formed The Conclusion Thus have I prosecuted what I at first undertook the Progress of the Reformation from its first and small beginnings in England till it came to a compleat settlement in the time of this Queen Of whose Reign if I have adventured to give an Account it was not intended so much for a full Character of Her and her Councils as to set out the great and visible Blessings of God that attended on her the many Preservations she had and that by such signal Discoveries as both sav'd her Life and secured her Government and the unusual happiness of her whole Reign which raised Her to the Esteem and envy of that Age and the wonder of all Posterity It was wonderful indeed that a Virgin Queen could rule such a Kingdom for above 44 Years with such constant succefs in so great Tranquillity at home with a vast increase of Wealth and with such Glory abroad All which may justly be esteemed to have been the Rewards of Heaven crowning that Reign with so much Honour and Triumph that was begun with the Reformation of Religion FINIS A Catalogue of Books sold by John Lawrence at the Angel in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange THe Works of the famous Nicholas Machiavel Citizen and Secretary of Florence containing his History of Florence Art of War discourses on Titus Livius c. Written originally in Italian and thence newly and faithfully Translated into English Folio Gells Remains being sundry Pious and Learned Notes and Observations on the New Testament opening and explaining it wherein Jesus Christ as yesterday to day and the same for ever is illustrated by that Learned and Judicious man D. R. Gell late Rector of Saint Mary Aldermary London Folio Price 1 l. 10 s. Christian Religions Appeal from the groundless prejudice of the Scepticks to the Bar of Common Reason wherein is proved 1. That the Apostles did not delude the World 2. Nor were themselves deluded 3. Scripture matters of Faith have the best evidence 4. The Divinity of the Scriptures is as demonstrable as the Being of the Deity by John Smith Rector of St. Maries in Colchester Folio 12 s. The Admired Piece of Physiognomy and Chyromancy Metoposcopy the symetrical Proportion and signal moles of the Body fully explained with their Natural predictive significations being delightful and profitable with the subject of Dreams made plain whereunto is added the Art of Memory by Rich. Saunders Illustrated with Cuts and Figures Folio 12 s. The Jesuits Catechism according to St. Ignatius Loyola Quarto 1 s. The Priviledges and Practises of Parliaments in England Collected out of the Common Laws of the Land Commended to the High Court of Parliament Quarto 6. d. A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and intended to be still continued by John Houghton Fellow of the Royal Society Quarto The Merchant Royal a Sermon preached before the King at the Nuptials of an Honourable Lord and his Lady Quarto 6 d. The Admired Satyr against Hypocrites Quarto 6. d. The Ruine of Papacy or a clear display of Simony of the Romish Clergy with a circulatory Letter to the Fathers of those Virgins that desert their Families to turn Nuns by the Learned pen of that famous Divine Peter du Moulin Octavo Indiculus Vniversalis or the Universe in Epitome wherein almost all the Works of Nature of all arts and sciences with their most necessary terms are in English Latine and French Methodically and distinctly digested and composed at first in French and Latin for the use of the Dauphin of France by the Learned T. Pomey and now made English by A. Lovel M. A. Oct. De suico Pancreatico or a Physical and Anatomical Treatise of the Nature and Office of the Pancreatick Juice shewing it Generation in the Body what Diseases arise by its Visitation from whence in particular by plain and familiar Examples is accurately demonstrated the cause andcures of Agues or intermitting Feavers hitherto so difficult and uncertain with sundry other things worthy of Note written by that Famous Physitian D. Reg. de Graaf of Delph and Translated by C. Pack Med. Lond. Illustrated with divers Copper Plates Octavo 2 s. 6. d. Praxis Catholica or the Country-mans Universal Remedy wherein is plainly and briefly laid down the Nature Matter Manner Place and cure of most diseases incident to the Body of Man not hitherto discovered by Chr. Pack Operator in Chymistry Octavo 1 s. 6 d. English Military Discipline or the way of Exercising Horse and Foot according to the practise of this present time with a Treatise of all sorts of Armes and Engines of War of fire works Ensigns and other Military Instruments both Antient and Modern Octavo 3. s. The Military Duties of the Officers of Cavalry containing the way of Exercising the Horse according to the practise of this present time the Motions of Horse the Functions of the several Officers from the Cheif Captain to the Brigadeer Written originally in French by the Sieur de la Fontain Ingineer in Ordinary to the most Christian King and transcribed for the use of those who are desirous to be informed of the Art of War as it is practised in France by A. L. Octavo 2 s. The Life and Actions of the late renouned Prelate and Soldier Christopher Bernard van Gale Bishop of Munster Prince of the holy Empire Administrator of Corvay Maquess of Stremberg c. In which is an account of the most considerable Actions of Europe in his time Octavo 1 s. 6. d. Clavis Grammatica or the ready way to the Latin tongue containing most plain demonstrations for the regular translating of English into Latin fitted to help such as begin to attain the Latin tongue by F. B. Schoolmaster in London Octavo 1 s. The Abridgment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England by Gilbert Burnet D. D. with several Copper Plates Octavo A Mathematical Compendium or useful Practises in Arithmetick Geometry Astronomy Navigation Embatelling and Quartering of Armies Fortification and Gunnery c. by Sir Jonas Moor late Surveyor of his Majesties Ordinance the second Edition with many large Additions Twelves 3. s. Humane Prudence or the Art by which a man may raise himself and fortune to Grandeur by A.B. The second Edition with the Addition of a Table Twelves 1 s.
refuses the See of Canterbury Pag. 343 1559. Bacon made Lord Keeper The Queen is crowned Pag. 344 ibid. A Parliament is called The Peace at Cambray Pag. 345 346 Acts past in Parliament Pag. 347 The Commons pray the Queen to marry ibid. Her Title to the Crown acknowledged Pag. 348 Acts concerning Religion Pag. 349 Preaching without Licence forbidden Pag. 351 A publik Conference about Religion ibid. Arguments for and against Worship in an unknown Tongue Pag. 352 The English Service is again set up Pag. 355 Speeches against it by some Bishops Pag. 356 Many Bishops turned out Pag. 358 The Queen enclined to keep Images in Churches Pag. 360 A general Visitation ibid. The high Commission Court Pag. 362 Parker is very unwillingly made Arch-bishop of Canterbury Pag. 363 The other Bishops consecrated Pag. 365 The Fable of the Nags-Head confuted Pag. 366 The Articles of the Church published Pag. 367 A Translation of the Bible Pag. 368 The Want of Church Discipline Pag. 369 The Reformation in Scotland Pag. 370 It is first set up in St. Johnstown Pag. 372 The Queen-Regent is deposed Pag. 375 The Queen of England assists the Scots Pag. 376 The Queen-Regent dies ibid. A Parliment meets and settles the Reformation Pag. 377 The Q of England the Head of all the Protestants Pag. 378 Both in France and the Netherlands Pag. 379 381 The excellent Administration of Affairs in England ibid. Severities against the Papists were necessary Pag. 285 Sir F. walsingh Account of the steps in which she proceeded ibid. The Conclusion Pag. 386 ERRATA BOOK I. PAge 20. line 5. stop read step Page 45 l. 17. if he said read he said if P. 47. l. 6. dele any P. 60. l. 18. after determine dele l. 19. after same d. P. 61. l. implored r imployed P. 64 l. 9. formerly r. formally P. 81. mar l. 4. after the r. King and the. P. 82. l. 2. enacted r. exacted P. 89. l. 23. King the r. the King P. 92. l. 6. or r. of P. 93. l. 3.9 r. 11. P. 95. l. 8. big a r. a big P. 99. l. 19. new r. now l. 29. after this r. was P. 109. l. 6. he r. the. P. 121. l. 2. after so r. was P. 130. l. 3. for r. but. P. 131. l. 16. after and r. he with P. 133. l. 9. after was r. given P. 135. l. 22. being r. were P. 139. l. 30. after were r. to P. 141. l. ult near r. now at P. 181. mar l. 3. cited in r. seized on P. 184. l. 2. had it r. it had P. 196. l. 26. del once P. 205. l. 12. before the r. as P. 217. l. 11. before the r. this P. 237. l. 31. some r. since P. 242. l. 25. her will r. his will P. 243. l. 5. after for r. since P. 257. l. 14. after Abel r. P. 260. l. 16. del are P. 291. l. 11. corrupting r. reforming Book 2. P. 13. l. 15. had r. been P. 30. l. 34. 20th r. 10th P. 53. l. 22. so r. for P. 103. l. 25. not r. nor P. 111. l. 13. after all r. his P. 188 l. 15. del then P. 199. l. 31. in r. on Book 3. P. 301. l. 20. hew r. new P. 321. l. 16. after most r. part P. 312. l. 2. Peru r. Pern l. some r. the same P. 317. l. 12. 80000 r. 8000. Book 4. P. 354. l. 28. and P. 356. l. 7. Ferknam r. Fecknam AN A BRIDGMENT OF THE History of the Reformation OF THE Church of ENGLAND LIB I. Of the Beginnings of it and the Progress made in it by King Henry the Eighth THe Wars of the two Houses of York and Lancaster The Vnion of the two Houses of York Lancast in K H. VIII had produced such dismal Revolutions and cast England into such frequent and terrible Convulsions that the Nation with great joy received Henry the Seventh Book I. who being himself descended from the House of Lancaster by his marriage with the Heir of the House of York did deliver them from the fear of any more Wars by new Pretenders But the covetousness of his Temper the severity of his Ministers his ill conduct in the Matter of Britaign and his jealousy of the House of York not only gave occasion to Impostors to disturb his Reign but to several Insurrections that were raised in his time By all which he was become so generally odious to his People that as his Son might have raised a dangerous competition for the Crown during his Life as devolved on him by his Mother's death who was indeed the Righteous Heir so his death was little lamented April 22 1509. He disgraces Empson and Dudley And Henry the Eighth succeeded with all the Advantages he could have desired and his disgracing Empson and Dudley that had been the cruel Ministers of his Fathers Designs for filling his Coffers his appointing Restitution to be made of the Sums that had been unjustly exacted of the People and his ordering Justice to be done on those rapacious Ministers gave all People hopes of happy Times under a Reign that was begun with such an Act of Justice that had indeed more Mercy in it than those Acts of Oblivion and Pardon with which others did usually begin And when Ministers by the King's Orders were condemned and executed for invading the Liberties of the People under the Covert of the King's Prerogative it made the Nation conclude that they should hereafter live secure under the Protection of such a Prince and that the violent Remedies of Parliamentary Judgments should be no more necessary except as in this case to confirm what had been done before in the ordinary Courts of Justice The King also either from the Magnificence of his own Temper He is very liberal or the Observation he had made of the ill Effects of his Father's Parsimony did distribute his Rewards and Largesses with an unmeasured Bounty so that he quickly emptied his Treasure 1800000 l which his Father had left the fullest in Christendom But till the ill Effects of this appeared it raised in his Court and Subjects the greatest Hopes possible of a Prince whose first Actions shewed an equal mixture of Justice and Generosity At his first coming to the Crown the Successes of Lewis the Twelth in Italy made him engage as a Party in the Wars with the Crown of Spain His Success in the Wars He went in Person beyond Sea and took both Terwin and Tournay in which as he acquired the Reputation of a good and fortunate Captain so Maximillion the Emperor put an unusual Complement on him for he took his pay and rid in his Troops But a Peace quickly followed upon which the French King married his Younger Sister Mary but he dying soon after Francis the first succeeded and he renewing his Pretensions upon Italy Henry could not be prevailed on to ingage early in the War till the Successes of either Party should discover which of the sides was 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