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met in August In it A Parliament meets and settles the Reformation all Acts for the former way of Religion were repealed and a confession of Faith penned by Knox afterwards inserted among the Acts of Parliament 1567.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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The Pope promises to satisfy the King ibid But proceeds hastily to a Sentence Pag. 102 Arguments for rejecting the Pope's Power Pag. 103 And for the Kings Supremacy Pag. 106 The Clergy submit to it Pag. 108 1534. The Pope's Power condemned in Parliam Pag. 109 The Act of the Succession Pag. 110 An Act concerning Hereticks Pag. 111 The Submission of the Convocation Pag. 112 An Act for the Election of Bishops Pag. 113 The Attainder of the Nun of Kent Pag. 114 All swear the Oath of Succession Pag. 119 Fisher Bishop of Rochester is in trouble ibid But is very obstinate Pag. 121 More and Fisher refuse the Oath ibid Another Session of Parliament establishes the King's Supremacy Pag. 123 The Progress of the Reformation in Engl. Pag. 125 The Supplication of the Beggars Pag. 127 Frith writes against Purgatory Pag. 128 A Persecution set on by More Pag. 129 Bilney 's Martyrdom ibid Frith 's Sufferings Pag. 133 A stop put to further Cruelties Pag. 135 The Interest the Reformers had at Court Pag. 136 Others oppose them much Pag. 137 The Opinion of some Bishops of a General Council Pag. 138 Heads of a Speech of Cranmer's Pag. 139 The state of England at that time Pag. 141 1535. A General Visitation proposed Pag. 144 Instructions and Injunctions for it ibid The state of the Monasteries in England Pag. 146 Some Houses surrendered to the King Pag. 150 1536. Queen Katherin's Death Pag. 151 The lesser Monasteries suppressed Pag. 152 A Translation of the Bible designed Pag. 153 Queen Ann Boleyn 's Fall Pag. 155 Her Trial Pag. 159 And Execution Pag. 162 Censures past upon it Pag. 164 Lady Mary 's Submission to the King Pag. 165 The Act of the Succession Pag. 167 The Pope desires a Reconciliation with the K. Pag. 168 Acts against the Pope's Power ibid The Convocation examines some Points of Religion Pag. 169 Articles of Religion agreed on Pag. 172 Which are variously censured Pag. 174 Other Alterations proposed Pag. 175 The King protests against all Councils called by the Pope Pag. 178 Card. Pool writes against him Pag. 179 The lesser Monasteries seized on Pag. 181 Which gave a general discontent Pag. 182 Injunctions given by the King Pag. 184 A Rebellion in Lincolnshire Pag. 186 Another in Yorkshire Pag. 187 They are every where quieted Pag. 191 Greater Monasteries surrendered Pag. 193 Some Abbots Attainted Pag. 196 The Impostures of some Images discovered Pag. 200 Becket 's Shrine broken Pag. 201 The Pope thunders against the King Pag. 203 The English Bishops assert the King's Supremacy and explain the Nature of the Power of the Church Pag. 205 The Bible set out in English and new Injunctions Pag. 208 Prince Edward born Pag. 209 Lambert is condemned and burnt for denying the Corporal Presence Pag. 210 Treaties with the German Princes Pag. 213 1539. The Act of the six Articles Pag. 215 Censures past upon it Pag. 219 An Act for the suppressing the Monasteries Pag. 220 An Act for new Bishopricks Pag. 222 An Act for Proclamations Pag. 224 Some Attainted without being heard Pag. 225 The King's kindness to Cranmer Pag. 226 Bishops hold their Sees at the Kings Pleasure Pag. 228 All the Monasteries supprest Pag. 229 A Treaty for a Match with Ann of Cleve Pag. 233 The King marries her but never likes her Pag. 234 The Knights of St. John suppressed Pag. 236 A new Parliament Pag. 235 Cromwel 's Fall Pag. 238 His Attaindor Pag. 240 Censures past upon it Pag. 241 The King's Marriage annull'd Pag. 242 Cromwel 's Death Pag. 246 A Book of Religion set out by the Bishops Pag. 247 The Explanation of Faith Pag. 248 And of the Sacraments Pag. 250 The Book is publisted Pag. 253 Barns ard others fall into Trouble Pag. 255 And burnt Pag. 257 New Sees founded Pag. 260 1541. The Bible set up in Churches Pag. 262 The Affairs of Scotland Pag. 264 A Persecution set on foot in Scotland Pag. 269 The Queen 's ill Life is discovered Pag. 271 1542. A design to suppress the Bible Pag. 274 Bonner's Injunctions ibid The way of Preaching at that time Pag. 275 A War with Scotland Pag. 279 1543. A Parliament called Pag. 280 An Act about Religion ibid Affairs in Scotland Pag. 282 Some burnt at Windsor Pag. 284 Cranmer 's Ruine is designed Pag. 286 1544. The Act of the Succession Pag. 288 The King makes War on France and Scotland Pag. 290 The King takes Bulloign Pag. 291 1545. Wishart burned in Scotland Pag. 292 Cardinal Beaton is murdered Pag. 294 Chantries given to the King Pag. 296 1546. A Peace with France Pag. 297 Ann Aiscough and others burnt Pag. 298 Designs against Cranmer Pag. 300 And against the Queen Pag. 301 The Duke of Norfolk's Fall Pag. 303 1547. The Earl of Surrey executed Pag. 304 The Duke is Attainted in Parliament Pag. 305 The King's Sickness Pag. 307 And Death Pag. 308 His Severities against Papists Pag. 309 The Carthusians in particular Pag. 310 Fisher 's Sufferings Pag. 311 More 's Death and Character Pag. 312 Attainders after the Rebellions Pag. 314 Forrest burnt for Heresy Pag. 315 Cardinal Pool's Friends Attainted Pag. 316 Some Attainted without being heard ibid The Conclusion Pag. 319 BOOK II. Of the Life and Reign of King Edward the Sixth KIng Edward 's Birth and Education Pag. 1 King Henry's Testament Pag. 2 A Protector chosen Pag. 4 Bishops take out Commissions ibid A Creation of Noblemen Pag. 5 Laymen had Ecclesiastical Dignities Pag. 7 Some take down Images Pag. 8 Arguments for and against it Pag. 9 The King's Funeral Pag. 12 Soul Masses examined ibid The Coronation Pag. 14 The Chancellour turned out Pag. 15 Protectors Patent Pag. 17 The Affairs of Germany ibid The Council of Trent Pag. 19 Divisions in England Pag. 20 The Visitation of all Churches Pag. 23 Censures on the Injunctions Pag. 26 The War with Scotland Pag. 28 The Battel of Musselburgh Pag. 31 The Success of the Visitation Pag. 32 A Parliament meets Pag. 35 An Act of Repeal ibid An Act about the Sacrament Pag. 36 An Act concerning the Nomination of Bishops Pag. 37 An Act against Vagabonds Pag. 39 An Act for dissolving the Chantries Pag. 40 The Convocation sits ibid The Affairs of Germany Pag. 43 Differences between the Protector and the Admiral Pag. 45 1548. The M. of Northampton 's Divorce Pag. 48 Some Ceremonies abrogated Pag. 49 A new Office for the Communion Pag. 52 Auricular Confession examined Pag. 54 Gardiner is imprisoned Pag. 56 A new Liturgy composed Pag. 58 The new Offices Pag. 61 Private Communion Pag. 62 Censures past on the Common-Prayer Book Pag. 63 All Preaching was for some time restrained Pag. 64 Affairs in Scotland Pag. 65 Affairs in Germany Pag. 67 1549. A Session of Parliament Pag. 69 An Act for the Marriage of the Clergy ibid An Act confirming the Liturgy Pag. 72 An Act for Fasting Pag. 73 The Admirals Attainder Pag. 74 A new Visitation Pag. 77 Disputes concerning Christs Presence
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
expect Justice there so she went out of the Court and would never return to it any more Upon this the King gave her a great Character for her extraordinary Qualities and protested he was acted by no other Principle then that of Conscience He added that Wolsey did not set him on to this Suit but had opposed it long that he first moved the matter in Confession to the Bishop of Lincoln and had desired the Archbishop of Canterbury to procure him the Resolution of the Bishops of England in his Case and that they had all under their hands declared that his Marriage was unlawful The Bishop of Rochester denied he had signed it but Warham pretended he gave him leave to make another write his Name to it Fisher denied this and it was no way probable The Legates went on according to the forms of Law The Queen appeals to the Pope tho the Queen appealed from them to the Pope and excepted both to the Place to the Judges and her Lawyers Yet they pronounced her Contumax and went on to Examine Witnesses chiefly to that particular of the Consummation of her Marriage with Prince Arthur But now since the Process was thus going on the Emperours Agents prest the Pope vehemently for an Avocation and all possible endeavours were used by the King's Agents to hinder it they spared nothing that would work on the Pope either in the way of perswasion or threatning It was told him that there was a Treaty set on foot between the King and the Lutheran Princes of Germany and that upon the Pope's declaring himself so partial as to grant the Avocation he would certainly imbark in the same Interrests with them But the Pope thought the King was so far ingaged in Honour in the Points of Religion that he would not be prevailed with to unite with Luther's Followers So he did not imagine that the Effects of his granting the Avocation would be so dismal as the Cardinal's creatures represented them He thought it would probably ruine him which might make his Agents use such Threatnings and he did not much consider that for he hated him in his heart So in Conclusion after the Emperour had engaged to him to restore his Family to the Government of Florence he resolved to publish his Treaty with him But that the granting the Avocation might not look like what indeed it was a secret Article he resolved to begin with that and with great signs of sorrow he told the English Embassadours that he was forced to it both because all the Lawyers told him it could not be denied and that he could not resist the Emperours Forces which surrounded him on all hands Their endeavours to gain a little time by delayes were as fruitless as their other Arts had been for on the 15th of July The Pope grants an Avocation the Pope signed it and on the 19th he sent it by an express Messenger to England The Legates Campegio in particular drew out the matter by all the delayes they could contrive and gained much time At last it being brought to that that Sentence was to be pronounced Campegio instead of doing it adjourned the Court till October and said that they being a part of the Consistory must observe their times of Vacation This gave the King and all his Court great offence when they saw what was like to be the Issue of a Process on which the King was so much bent and in which he was so far engaged both in Honour and Interest Campegio had nothing to lose in England but the Bishoprick of Sailisbury for which the Pope or Emperour could easily recompence him but Wolsey was under all the Terrours that an Insolent Favorite is liable to upon a change in his Fortune None being more abject in misfortune than those that are lifted up with Success When the Avocation was brought to England the King was willing that the Legates should declare their Commission void but would not suffer the Letters Citatory to be served for he looked upon it as below his Dignity to be cited to appear at Rome The King governed himself upon this occasion with more temper than was expected He dismissed Campegio civily only his Officers searched his Coffers when he went beyond Sea with design as was thought to see if the Decretal Bull could be found Wolsey was now upon the point of being disgraced tho the King seemed to treat him with the same Confidence he had formerly put in him it being ordinary for many Princes to hide their designs of disgracing their Favourites with higher Expressions of kindnesses than ordinary till their Ruine breaks out the more violently because it is not foreseen At this time Cranmer's Rise Dr. Cranmer a Fellow of Jesus-Colledge in Cambridge meeting accidentally with Gardiner and Fox at Waltham and being put on the Discourse of the King's Marriage proposed a new Method which was That the King should engage the chief Universities and Divines of Europe to examine the lawfulness of his Marriage and if they gave their Resolutions against it then it being certain that the Pope's Dispensation could not derogate from the Law of God the Marriage must be declared null This was new and seemed reasonable so they proposed it to the King who was much taken with it and said he had the Sow by the right Ear He saw this way was both better in it self and would mortify the Pope extreamly so Cranmer was sent for and did so behave himself that the King conceived an high opinion both of his Learning and Prudence and of his Probity and Sincerity which took such root in the King's mind that no Artifices nor Calumnies were ever able to remove it But as he was thus in his Rise Wolsey it disgraced so Wolsey did now decline The Great Seal was taken from him and given to Sir Thomas Moor And he was sued in a Premunire for having held the Legatine Courts by a Forraign Authority contrary the Laws of England He confessed the Indictment and pleaded Ignorance and submitted himself to the King's Mercy so Judgment passed on him Then was his rich Palace now Whitehall and Royal Furniture seized on to the King's use Yet the King received him again into his Protection and restored to him the Temporalities of the Sees of York and Winchester and above 6000 l. in Plate and other Goods And there appeared still great and clear Prints in the King's mind of that entire Confidence to which he had received him of which as his Enemies were very apprehensive so he himself was so much transported with the Messages he had concerning it that once he fell down on his knees in a Kennel before them that brought them Articles were put in against him in the House of Lords it seems for a Bill of Attainder where he had but few Friends which all insolent Favourites may expect in their Disgrace In the House of Commons Cromwel that had been his Secretary did so
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
their Contests about Superiority but never declared in St. Peter's Favour St. Paul withstood him to his Face and reckoned himself not inferour to him If the Dignity of a Person left any Authority with the City in which he sat then Antioch must carry it as well as Rome and Jerusalem where Christ suffered was to be prefererd to all the World for it was truly the Mother-Church Christ said to Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church The Ancients understood by the Rock either the Confession Peter had made or which is all one upon the matter Christ himself and tho it were to be meant of St. Peter all the rest of the Apostles are also called Foundations that of Tell the Church was by many Doctors of the Church of Rome turned against the Pope for a General Council The other Priviledges ascribed to St. Peter were either only a precedence of Order or were occasioned by his Fall as that Feed my Sheep it being a restoring him to the Apostolical Function St. Peter had also a limited Province the Circumcision as St. Paul had the Uncircumcision that was of far greater extent which shewed that he was not considered as the Universal Pastor In the Primitive Church St. Cyprian and other Bishops wrote to the Bishops of Rome as to their fellow Bishop Colleague and Brother they were against Appeals to Rome and did not submit to their Definition and in plain Terms asserted that all Bishops were equal in Power as the Apostles had been It is true the Dignity of the City made the Bishops of Rome to be much esteemed yet in the first Council of Nice the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch were declared to have the same Authority in the Countries about them that the Bishops of Rome had over those that lay about them It is true the East being over-run with Arrianism from which the West was better preserved the oppressed Eastern Bishops did take shelter in the Protection the Bishops of Rome gave them and as is natural to all People they magnified that Authority which was so useful to them But the second General Council indirectly condemned all Appeals to Rome for it decreed that every Province should be governed by its own Synod and allowed no higher Appeal but to the Bishops of the Diocess Constantinople being made the Imperial City the second and fourth General Council gave it equal Priviledges with Rome because it was new Rome which shews that the Dignity of the Sees flowed from the greatness of the Cities The African Churches condemned all Appeals to Rome and the Popes who complained of that pretended only to a Canon of the Council of Nice for it and then they did not talk of a Divine Right but search being made into all the Copies of the Canons of the Council that was found to be a Forgery When the Emperour Mauricius gave the Title Vniversal Bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinple Gregory the Great complained of the Ambition of that Title which he calls equal to the Pride of Lucifer and since England received the Faith by those whom he sent over it appeared from thence what was the Doctrine of that See at that time and by consequence what where the first Impressions made on the English in that matter It is true Boniface the third got the same Title by Phocas's Grant and Boniface the eighth pretended to all Power both spiritual and temporal but the Progress of their Usurpations and the Wars raised to maintain them were very visible in History The Popes swore at their Consecrations to obey the Canons of the eighth first General Councils which are manifested against Appeals and their Universal Jurisdiction small regard is to be had to the Decrees of latter Councils being Cabals pack'd and managed as the Popes pleased Several Sees as Ravenna Milan and Aquileia pretended Exemption from the Papal Authority Many English Bishops had asserted that the Popes had no Authority against the Canons and to that day no Canon the Popes made was binding till it was received which shewed the Pope's Authority was not believed founded on a divine Authority and the Contests that the Kings of England had with the Pope's concerning Investitures Bishops doing the King Homage Appeals to Rome and the Authority of Papal Bulls and Provisions shewed that the Pope's Power was believed subject to Laws and Custom and so not derived from Christ and St. Peter and as Laws had given them some Power and Princes had bin forced in ignorant Ages to submit to their Usurpations so they might as they saw cause change those Laws and resume their Rights The next Point inquired into was And for the King's Supremacy the Authority that Kings had in matters of Religion and the Church The King of Israel judged in all Causes and Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes David made many Rules about the Service at the Temple and declaring to Solomon what his Power was 1 Chron. 28.21 2 Chron. 8.14 15. he told him that the Priests were wholly at his Command and it is also said that Solomon appointed the Priests their Charges in the Service of God and that they departed not from his Commandment in any matter he turned out one High-Priest and put another in his room Jehoshaphat Hezekiah and Josias made also Laws about Ecclesiastical Matters In the New Testament Christ was himself subject to the Civil Powers and charged his Disciples not to affect Temporal Dominion They also wrote to the Churches to be subject to the Higher Powers and call them Supream and charge every Soul to be subject to them so in Scripture the King is called Head and Supream and every Soul is said to be under him which joyn'd together makes up this Conclusion that He is the supream Head over all Persons In the Primitive Church the Bishops only made Rules or Canons but pretended to no compulsive Authority but what came from the Civil Magistrate The Roman Emperours called Councils presided in them and confirmed them and made many Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Matters so did also Charles the Great The Emperours did also either chuse the Popes themselves or confirm their Elections Church-men taking Orders were not thereby discharged from the Obedience they formerly owed their Princes but remained still Subjects And tho the Offices of the Church had peculiar Functions in which the People were subject to them that did not deliver them from their Obedience to the King as a Father's Authority over his Children cuts not off the King's Power over him They found also that in all times the Kings of England had assumed an Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters Ina Alfred Edgar and Canetus had made many Laws about them so had also most of the Kings since the Conquest which appeared particularly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Contests that followed upon them and from the daies of King Ina they had granted Exemptions to Monasteries from the Episcopal Jurisdiction down to William the
Conquerors time besides many other Acts that clearly imported a Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes But they did at the same time so explain and limit this Power that it was visible they did not intend to subject Religion wholly to the Pleasure of the King for it was declared that his Power was only a Coercive Authority to defend the true Religion to abolish Heresies and Idolatries to cause Bishops and Pastors to do their Duties and in case they were negligent or would not amend their Faults to put others in their room Upon the whole matter they concluded that the Pope had no Power in England and that the King had an intire Dominion over all his Subjects which did extend even to the regulating of Ecclesiastical Matters These things being fully opened in many Disputes The Clergy submitted to it and published in several Books all the Bishops Abbots and Priors of England Fisher only excepted were so far satisfied with them or so much in love with their Preferments that they resolved to comply with the Changes which the King was resolved to make Fisher was in great esteem for Piety and strictness of Life and so much pains was taken on him A little before the Parliament met Cranmer proposed to him that he and any five Doctors he would choose and Stokesly with five on his side should confer on that point and examine he Authorities that were on both sides he accepted of it and Stokesly wrote to him to name time and place but Fisher's Sickness hindered the Progress of that motion The Parliament met the 15th of January A Session of Parliament there were but seven Bishops and twelve Abbots present the rest it seems were unwilling to concur in making this change tho they complied with it when it was made Every Sunday during the Session a Bishop preached at St. Paul's and declared that the Pope had no Authority in England Before this they had only said that a General Council was above him and that the Exactions of that Court and Appeals to it were unlawful but now they went a strain higher to prepare the People for receiving the Acts then in Agitation On the 9th of March The Pope's Power taken away the Commons began the Bill for taking away the Pope's Power and sent it to the Lords on the 14th who past it on the 20th without any dissent In it they set forth the Exactions of the Court of Rome grounded on the Pope's Power of dispensing and that as none could dispense with the Laws of God so the King and Parliament only had the Authority of dispensing with the Laws of the Land and that therefore such Licenses or Dispensations as were formerly in use should be for the future granted by the two Arch-bishops some of these were to be confirmed under the Great Seal and they appointed that thereafter all Commerce with Rome should cease They also declared that they did not intend to alter any Article of the Catholick Faith of Christendome or of that which was declared in the Scripture necessary to Salvation They confirmed all the Exemptions granted to Monasteries by the Popes but subjected them to the King's Visitation and gave the King and his Council power to examine and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges granted by the Pope The Offenders against this Law were to be punished according to the Statutes of Premunire This Act subjected the Monasteries entirely to the King's Authority and put them in no small Confusion Those that loved the Reformation rejoyced both to see the Pope's Power rooted out and to find the Scripture made the Standard of Religion After this Act The Act of the Succession another past in both Houses in six Days time without any Opposition Settling the Succession of the Crown confirming the Sentence of Divorce and the King's Marriage with Queen Anne and declaring all Marriages within the Degrees prohibited by Moses to be unlawful All that had married within them were appointed to be divorced and their Issue illegitimated and the Succession to the Crown was settled upon the King's Issue by the prefent Queen or in default of that to the King 's right Heirs for ever All were required to swear to maintain the Contents of this Act and if any refused to swear to it or should say any thing to the Slander of the King's Marriage he was to be judged guilty of misprision of Treason and to be punished accordingly The Oath is also set down in the Journals of the House of Lords by which they did not only swear Obedience to the King and his Heirs by his present Marriage but also to defend the Act of Succession and all the Effects and Contents in it against all manner of Persons whatsoever by which they were bound to maintain the Divorce both against the Pope's Censures and the Emperour if he went about to execute them At this time An Act regulating the proceedings against Hereticks one Philips complained to the House of Commons of the Bishop of London for using him cruelly in Prison upon Suspicion of Heresy the Commons sent up this to the Lords but received no Answer So they sent some of their Members to the Bishop desiring him to answer the Complaints put in against him But he acquainted the House of Lords with it and they all with one consent voted that none of their House ought to appear or answer to any Complaint at the Bar of the House of Commons So the Commons let this particular Case fall and sent up a Bill to which the Lords agreed regulating the Proceedings against Hereticks That whereas by the Statute made by King Henry the Fourth Bishops might commit Men upon Suspition of Heresy and Heresy was generally defined to be whatever was contrary to the Scriptures or Canonical Sanctions which was liable to great Ambiguity therefore that Statute was repealed and none were to be committed for Heresy but upon a Presentment made by two Witnesses None were to be accused for speaking against things that were grounded only upon the Pope's Canons Bail was to be taken for Hereticks and they were to be brought to their Trials in open Court and if upon Conviction they did not abjure or were Relapses they were to be burnt the King 's Writ being first obtained This was a great check to the Bishop's Tyrrany and gave no smal comfort to all that favoured the Reformation The Convocation sent in a Submission at the same time The Submission of the Clergy by which they acknowledged That all Convocations ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and promised upon the Word of Priests never to make nor execute any Canons without the King's Assent They also desired That since many of the received Canons were found to be contrary to the King's Prerogative and the Laws of the Land there might be a Committee named by the King of 32 the one half out of both Houses of Parliament and the other
and Industry and so was on all accounts well prepared for that Work to which the Providence of God did now call him And tho he was in some things too much subject to the King 's Imperious Temper yet in the matter of the six Articles he shewed that he wanted not the Courage that became a Bishop in so Critical an Affair as that was Cromwel was his great and constant Friend a man of mean Birth but of excellent Qualities as appeared in his adhering to his Master Wolsey after his fall a rare Demonstration of Gratitude in a Court to a disgraced Favourite And in his greatest height he happening to see a Merchant of Lucca who had pitied and relieved him when he was in Italy but did not so much as know him or pretend to any returns for the small Favours he had formerly shewed him and was then reduced to a low condition treated him with such acknowledgments that it became the Subjects of several Pens which strove who should celebrate it most As these set themselves to carry on a Reformation Others oppose it much there was another Party formed that as vigourously opposed it headed by the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner and almost all the Clergy went into it They perswaded the King that nothing would give the Pope or the Emperour such Advantages as his making any Changes in Religion and it would reflect much on him if he who had writ so learnedly for the Faith should in spite to the Pope make any Changes in it Nothing would encourage other Princes so much to follow his Example nor keep his Subjects so much in their Duty to him as his continuing stedfast in the Antient Religion These things made great Impressions on him But on the other hand Cranmer represented to him that if he rejected the Pope's Authority it was very absurd to let such Opinions or Practices continue in the Church that had no other Foundation but Papal Decrees and therefore he desired that this might be put to the Trial he ought to depend on God and hope for good Success if he proceeded in this matter according to the Duty of a Christian Prince England was a compleat Body within its self and tho in the Roman Empire when united under one Prince General Councils were easily assembled yet now that was not to be so much depended on but every Prince ought to reform the Church in his Dominions by a National Synod and if in the Antient Church such Synods condemned Heresies and reformed Abuses that might be much more done when Europe was divided into so many Kingdoms It was visible that tho both the Emperour and the Princes of Germany had for 20 Years desired a Ceneral Council it could not be obtained of the Pope he had indeed offered one at Mantua but that was only an Illusion Upon that the Kiug desired some of his Bishops to give their Opinion concerning the Emperour's Power of calling Councils The Opinion of some Bishops of a General Council So Cranmer Tonstall Clark of Bath and Wells and Goodrick of Ely made answer That tho Ancient Councils were called by the Roman Emperours yet that was done by reason of the Extent of their Monarchy that was now ceased but since other Princes had an entire Monarchy within their Dominions Yet if one or more of those Princes should agree to call a Council to a good Intent and desire the Concurrence of the rest they were bound by the Rule of Charity to agree to it They were also of Opinion that none but Bishops and Priests had Right to a definitive Voice in matters of Doctrine Cranmer also made a long Speech at that time Heads of a Speech of Cranmers setting forth the necessity of a Reformation It is probable it was in the House of Peers for it begins My Lords He begun with the Impostures and Deceit used by the Canonists and other Courtiers at Rome Then he speak to the Authority of a General Councils he shewed that it flowed not from the Number of the Bishops but from the matter of their Decisions which were received with an Universal Consent for there were many more Bishops at the Council of Arimini which was condemned than either at Nice or Constantinople which were received Christ had named no Head of the whole Church as God had named no Head of the World but that grew up for Orders sake as there were Arch-bishops set over Provinces yet some Popes were condemned for Heresy as Liberius and others If Faith must be shewed by Works the ill Lives of most Popes of late shewed that their Faith was to be suspected and all the Priviledges which Princes or Synods granted to that See might be recalled Popes ought to submit themselves to General Councils and were be tried by them he shewed what were the present Corruptions of the Pope and his Court which needed Reformation The Pope according to the Decree of the Council of Basil was the Churches Vicar and not Christ's and so was accountable to it The Churches of France declared the Council to be above the Pope which had been acknowledged by many Popes themselves The Power of Councils had also Bounds nor could they judg of the Rights of Princes or proceed to a Sentence against a King nor were their Canons of any force till Princes added their Sanctions to them Councils ought also to proceed moderately even against those that held Errors and ought not to impose things indifferent too severely The Scriptures and not Men's Traditions ought to be the Standards of their Definitions The Divines of Paris held That a Council could not make a new Article of Faith that was not in the Scriptures and all Christ's Promises to the Church were to be understood with this condition if they kept the Faith therefore there was great reason to doubt concerning the Authority of a Council some of them had contradicted others and many others were never received The Fathers had always appealed to the Scriptures as Superiour in Authority to Councils by which only all Controversies ought to be decided yet on the other hand it was dangerous to be wise in ones own Conceit and he thought when the Fathers all agreed in the Exposition of any place of Scripture that ought to be look'd on as flowing from the Spirit of God He shewed how little Regard was to be had to a Council in which the Pope presided and that if any common Error had past upon the World when that came to be discovered every one was at liberty to shake it off even tho they had sworn to maintain that Error this he applied to the Pope's Authority In conclusion he promised to entertain them with another Discourse of the Authority that all Bishops had in their Sees and that Princes had within their Dominions But I could never recover that and probably it is lost This was the state of the Court after King Henry had shaken off the Pope's Power
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
officious Courtiers are apt to do often without any good Grounds so that Silence was made an Argument of her Guilt and that she could not be defended But perhaps that was an effect of the Wisdom of the Ministers of that time who would not suffer so nice a Point upon which the Queen's Legitimation depended to be brought into dispute The day after Anne Boleyn's Death the King married Jane Scimour who gained more upon him than all his Wives ever did But she was happy that she did not out-live his Love to her Lady Mary was advised upon this turn of Affairs Lady Mary 's Submission oo the King to make her Submission to the King she offered to confess the Fault of her former Obstinacy and in General to give up her Understanding entirely to the King but that would not satisfy unless she would be more particular so at last she was prevailed with to do it in the fullest Terms that could be desired She acknowledged the King to be the Supream Head on Earth under Christ of the Church of England and did renounce the Bishop of Rome's Authority and promised in all things to be obedient to the Laws that were made which she said flowed from her inward Belief and Judgment and in which she would for ever continue and she did also acknowledg that the King's Marriage with her Mother was by God's Law and Man's Law unlawful and incestuous all this she writ with her own Hand and subscribed it upon which she was again received into Favour and an Establishment was made for a Family about her in which 40 l. a quarter was all the Allowance for her Privy Purse so great was the Frugality of that time Lady Elizabeth continued to be educated with great Care and was so forward that before she was four Years old she both wrote a good Hand and understood Italian for there are Letters extant written by her in that Language to Queen Jane when she was with child in which she subscribed Daughter On the 8th of June the Parliament met A Farliament meets which shews that it was summoned before the Justs at Greenwich The Chancellour told them that the King had called them to settle the Succession of the Crown in case he should dye without Children lawfully begotten and to repeal the Act made concerning his Marriage with Queen Anne It seems the Parliament was not at first easily brought to comply with these things and that it was necessary to take some pains to prepare them to it For the Bill of Succession was not put in till the 30th of June but then it was quickly dispatched without any Opposition by it the Attainder of Queen Anne and her Complices is confirmed both the Sentences of Divorces pass'd upon the King 's two former Marriages were also confirmed and the Issue by both was illegitimated and for ever excluded from claiming the Crown by Lineal Descent And the Succession was established on the King's Issue by his present Queen or any whom he might afterwards marry But it not being fit to declare who should succeed in default of that lest the Person so named might be thereby enabled to raise Commotions in Confidence of the King's Wisdom and Affection to his People they left it to him nominate his Successors either by Letters Patents or by his last Will signed by his Hand and promised to obey the Persons so nominated by him It was declared Treason to maintain the Lawfulness of his former Marriages or of his Issue by them and it was made not only Treason but a forfeiture of the Right of Succession if any of those whom the King should name in default of others should endeavour to get before them The Scots complained of this Act and said their Queen Dowager being King Henry's Eldest Sister could not be put by her Right after the King 's lawful Issue But by this the King was now made Master indeed and had the Crown put entirely in his Hands to be disposed of at his Pleasure and his Daughters were now to depend wholly on him He had it also in his Power in a great measure to pacify the Emperour by providing that his Kinswoman might succeed to the Crown Pope Clement the 7th Pope Paul the 3d proposes a Recoaciliation with the King was now dead and Farnese succeeded by the Name of Paul the 3d who after an unsuccesful Attempt which he made for reconciling himself with the King when that was rejected and Fisher was beheaded thundered out a most terrible Sentence of Deposition against him Yet now since both Queen Katherine and Queen Anne upon whose account the Breach was made were out of the way he thought it a fit time to try what might be done and ordered Cassali to let the King know that he had always favoured his Cause when he was a Cardinal that he was driven very much against his Mind to pass Sentence against him and that now it would be easy for him to recover the Favour of the Apostolick See But the King instead of hearkening to the Proposition Acts against the Pope's Power got two Acts to be pass'd The one was for the utter extinguishing the Pope's Authority and it was made a Premunire for any to acknowledg it or to perswade others to it And a strict Charge was given to all Magistrates under severe Penalties to enquire after all Offenders By another all Bulls and all Priviledges flowing from them were declared null and void only Marriages or Consecrations made by virtue of them were excepted All who enjoyed Priviledges by these Bulls were required to bring them into the Chancery upon which the Arch-bishop was to make them a new Grant of them and that being confirmed under the Great Seal was to be of full force in Law Another Act pass'd explaining an Exception that was in the Act for the Residence of all Incumbents by which those who were at the Universities were dispensed with upon which many went and lived idlely there It was therefore now declared that none above the Age of fourty except Heads and publick Readers should have the Benefit of that Proviso and that none under that Age should be comprehended in it except they performed their Exercises Another Act pass'd in Favour of the King's Heirs if they should Reign before they were of full Age that they might any time before they were 24 repeal by Letters Patents all Acts made during their Minority All these things being concluded the Parliament after it had sate six Weeks was dissolved The Convocation examines some points of Religion The Convocation sate at the same time and was much imployed for the House of Lords was oft adjourned because the Spiritual Lords were busy in the Convocation Latimer preached the Latine Sermon he was the most celebrated Preacher of that time the Simplicity of his matter and his Zeal in expressing it being preferred to more elaborate Composures They first confirmed the Sentence of the Divorce of
the King's Marriage with Queen Anne Then the lower House made an Address to the upper House complaining of 67 Opinions that they found were much spread in the Kingdom they were either the Tenets of the old Lollards or the new Reformers or of the Anabaptists and many of them were only unsavoury and indiscreet Expressions which might have flowed from the Heat and Folly of some rash Zealots who by petulant Jeers and an Affectation of Wit had endeavoured to disgrace both the received Doctrines and Rites They also complained of some Bishops who were wanting in their Duty to suppress such Abuses which was understood as a Reflection on Cranmer Shaxton and Latimer It was hoped that Cranmer was now declining by Queen Ann's Fall and the other two who were raised by her would not have stood long if he had been once disgraced yet they premised to this a Protestation that they intended to do nothing that might displease the King whom they acknowledged to be their Supream Head and they were resolved to obey his Laws and they renounced the Pope's Authority with all his Laws All these Projects failed for Cranmer was now fully established in the King's Favour Cromwell was sent to them with a Message from the King That they should reform the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the Rules set down in Scripture which ought to be preferred to all Glosses or Decrees of Popes There was one Alesse a Scotch-man whom Cromwell entertained in his House and he being appointed to deliver his Opinion largely shewed that there was no Sacraments instituted by Christ but Baptism and the Lord's Supper Stokesly answered him in a long Discourse upon the Principles of the School-Divinity upon which Cranmer took occasion to shew the Vanity of that sort of Learning and the Uncertainty of Tradition and that Religion had been so corrupted in the latter Ages that there was no finding out the Truth but by resting in the Authority of the Scriptures Fox Bishop of Hereford seconded him and told them the World was now awake and would be no longer imposed on by the Niceties and dark Terms of the Schools for the Laity now did not only read the Scriptures in the vulgar Tongues but searched the Originals themselves therefore they must not think to govern them as they had been in the Times of Ignorance Among the Bishops Cranmer Goodrick Shaxton Latimer Fox Hilsey and Barlow prest a Reformation but Lee Arch-bishop of York Stokesly Tonstall Gardiner Longland and several others opposed it as much But the Contest had been sharper if the King had not sent some Articles to them to be considered of by them so they whose chief Design it was to recommend themselves to Preferment by the easiness of their Compliance with him in all Points did agree on the following Particulars 1. Articles of Religion agreed on That the Bishops and Preachers ought to instruct the People according to the Scripture the three Creeds and the four first General Councils 2. That Baptism was necessary to Salvation and that Children ought to be baptized for the pardon of Original Sin and obtaining the Holy Ghost 3. That Penance was necessary to Salvation and that it consisted in Confession Contrition and Amendment of Life with the External Works of Charity to which a lively Faith ought to be joyned and that Confession to a Priest was necessary where it might be had 4. That in the Eucharist under the forms of Bread and Wine the very Flesh and Blood of Christ was received 5. That Justification was the Remission of Sins and a perfect Renovation in Christ and that not only outward good Works but inward Holiness was absolutely necessary As for the outward Ceremonies the People were to be taught that it was meet to have Images in Churches but they ought to avoid all such Superstition as had been usual in time past and not to worship the Image but only God 2. That they were to honour the Saints but not to expect those things from them which God only gives 3. That they might pray to them for their Intercession but all Superstitious Abuses were to cease and if the King should lessen the number of Saints Days they ought to obey him 4. That the use of the Ceremonies was good and that they contained many Mystical Significations that tended to raise the mind towards God such were Vestments in Divine Worship Holy Water Holy Bread the carrying of Candles and Palms and Ashes and creeping to the Cross and the Hallowing the Font with other Exorcisms 5. That it was good to pray for departed Souls and to have Masses and Exequies said for them but the Scriptures having neither declared in what Place they were nor what Torments they suffered that was uncertain and to be left to God therefore all the Abuses of the Pope's Pardons or saying Masses in such or such Places or before such Images were to be put away These Articles were signed by Cromwel the two Arch-bishops sixteen Bishops fourty Abbots and Priors and fifty of the lower House to them the King added a Preface declaring the Pains that he and the Clergy had been at for the removing the Differences in Religion that were in the Nation and that he approved of these Articles and required all his Subjects to accept them with the like Unanimity with which they were consented to and he would be thereby encouraged to take further Pains in the like Matters for the future When these things were published They are variously censured those that desired a Reformation tho they did not approve of every Particular yet were well pleased to see things brought under Examination and since some things were at this time changed they did not doubt but more Changes would follow they were glad that the Scriptures and the Ancient Creeds were made the Standards of the Faith without adding Tradition and that the nature of Justification and the Gospel-Covenant were rightly stated that the immediate Worship of Images and Saints was condemned and that Purgatory was left uncertain but the necessity of Auricular Confession and the Corporal Presence the doing Reverence to Images and praying to Saints were of hard Digestion to them yet they were glad to see some grosser Abuses removed and a Reformation once set on foot The Popish Party were sorry to see four Sacraments past over in silence and the Trade about Purgatory put down and were very apprehensive of the Precedent of bringing matters of Religion under debate which would bring on other Alterations When these things were known beyond Sea the Court of Rome made great use of them to let all Princes see the necessity of adhering to the Holy See for no sooner did England depart from that than it began to change the Doctrine likewise The Germans on the other hand said This was a Political Daubing for satisfying all Parties and that it savoured not of the Sincerity that became the Professors of True Religion to
he was prevailed with by a Pension of 500 Marks to resign The Inferiour Governours had some 30 20 or 10 l. Pensions and the Monks had generally 6 l. or 8 Marks a piece If any Abbot died the new Abbot they being chosen as the Bishops were upon a Conge delire and a Missive Letter was named for that purpose only to resigne the House And all were made to hope for Advancement that should give good Example to others by a quick and cheerful Surrender by these means 121 of those Houses were this Year resigned to the King In most Houses the Visitor made the Monks sign a Confession of their former Vices and Disorders of which there is only one Original Extant that escaped a general Rasure of all such Papers in Queen Mary's time in which they acknowledged in a long Narrative their former Idleness Gluttony and Sensuaality for which the pit of Hell was ready to swallow them up Others acknowledged that they were sensible that the manner of their former pretended Religion consisted in some dumb Ceremonies by which they were blindly led having no true Knowledg of God's Laws but that they had procured Exemption from their Diocesans and had subjected themselves wholly to a Forreign Power that took no care to reform their Abuses and therefore since the most perfect way of Life was revealed by Christ and his Apostles and that it was fit they should be governed by the King their Supream Head they resigned to him Of this sort I have seen six Some resigned in hopes that the King would found them of new these favoured the Reformation and intended to convert their Houses to better Uses for preaching study and Prayer and Latimer prest Cromwell earnestly that two or three Houses might be reserved for such purposes in every County But it was resolved to suppress all and therefore neither could the Intercessions of the Gentry of Oxfordshire nor of the Visitors preserve the Nunnery at Godstow tho they found great Strictness of Life in it and it was the common place of the Education of young Women of Quality in that County The common Preamble to most Surrenders was That upon full Deliberation and of their own proper Motion for just and reasonable Causes moving their Consciences they did freely give up their Houses to the King Some surrendred without any Preamble to the Visitors as Feofees in trust for the King In short they went on at such a rate that 159 Resignations were obtained before the Parliament met and of these the Originals of 154 are yet extant Some thought that these Resignations could not be valid since the Incumbents had not the Property but only the Trust for life of those Houses But the Parliament did afterwards declare them good in Law It was also said that they being of the Nature of Corporations all Deeds under their Seals were valid and that at least by their Resignation and quitting their Houses they forfeited them to the King But this was thought to subsist rather on a Nicety in Law than natural Equity Others were more roughly handled Some Abbots attainted The Prior of Wooburn was suspected of a Correspondence with the Rebels and of favouring the Pope he was dealt with to submit to the King and he was prevailed on to do it but was not easie in it once nor fixed to it He complained that the new Preachers detracted from the Honour due to the Virgin and Saints he thought the Religion was changed and wondered that the Judgments of God on Q. Anne had not terrified others from going on to subvert the Faith When the Rebellion broke out he joined in it as did also the Abbots of Whaley Garvaux and Sawley and the Prior of Burlington all these were all taken and attainted of Treason and executed The Abbots of Glassenbury and Reading had also sent a great deal of their Plate to the Rebels the former to disguise it the better had made one break into the House where the Plate was kept So he was convicted both of Burglary and Treason and at his Execution he confessed his Crime and begged both God's and the King's Pardon for it The Abbot of Colchester was also attainted and executed but the Grounds of it are not known for the Records of their Attaindors are lost These had over and over again taken the Oaths in which they acknowledged the King to be Supream Head of the Church and were present in those Parliaments in which the several Acts about it were pass'd and did not dissent to them and since they made no Opposition when they might safely and legally do it there is no Reason to think they would have done it afterwards when it was more dangerous and criminal So that all those who have represented them as having suffered for denying the King's Supremacy have therein shewed their Unacquaintedness with the Journals of Parliament The Abbot of Reading had complied so far that he was grown into Favour with Cromwell so that in some Contests between Shaxton Bishop of Salisbury and him the Bishop who was a proud ill-natured Man complained that Cromwell supported the Abbot against him and writ upon that a very Insolent Expostulatory Letter to him which Cromwell answered with great strength of Reason and Decency of Stile by which it appears that heighth of his Condition had no other Effect on him but to make him know himself and others better Upon the Attainders of those Abbots their Abbies were seized on and this was thought a great stretch both in Law and Equity for it seemed not reasonable if an Incumbent was faulty for that to seize on his Benefice which upon his Attainder ought to continue entire and pass to the next Successor as if he were really dead But a Clause was put in the Act of Treason 26 Hen. 8 That whatsoever Lands of Estate of Inheritance any that should be convicted of Treason had in Vse or Possession by any Right or manner should be forfeited to the King By which as intailed Estates were certainly comprehended so it seems they applied it likewise to Church-Benefices yet when the Bishop of Rochester was attainted this was not thought on The words Estate of Inheritance seemed to exclude Church-Lands but the mention that was made of Traitors Successors that were cut off as well as their Heirs seemed on the other hand to include Estates to which Successors might come in a Traitor's room as well as those which descended by Inheritance The Words were ambiguous and were stretched to justify those Seizures and therefore in an Act of Treasons made in the next Reign this was more cautiously worded for it was provided that Traitors should forfeit the Estates which they possessed in their own Right But whatsoever Illegality there might be in these Proceedings they were confirmed by the following Parliament in a special Proviso made concerning those Abbies that were seized on by any Attainders of Treason Many of the Carthusians were executed for denying the
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
2. That Christ was entirely in each kind and so Communion in both was not necessary 3. That Priests by the Law of God ought not to marry 4. That Vows of Chastity taken after the Age of 21 ought to be kept 5. That Private Masses were lawful and useful 6. That Auricular Confession was necessary and ought to be retained Such as did speak or write agaist the first of these were to be burned without the benefit of Abjuration and it was made Felony to dispute against the other five and such as did speak against them were to be in a Premunire for the first Offence the second was made Felony Married Priests that did not put away their Wives were to be condemned of Fellony in those that lived incontinently the first Offence was a Premunire and the second Felony Women that offended were to be punished as the Priests were Those that contemned Confession and the Sacrament and abstained from it at the accustomed times were for the first Offence in a Premunire the second was Felony Proceedings were to be made in the Forms of Common Law by Presentments and a Jury and all Church-men were charged to read the Act in their Churches once a Quarter This Act was received with great Joy by all the Popish Party Censures past upon it they reckoned that now Heresy would be extirpated and that the King was as much engaged against it as he was when he writ against Luther this made the Suppression of the Monasteries pass much the easier The poor Reformers were now exposed to the Rage of their Enemies and had no Comfort from any part of it but one that they were not delivered up to the Cruelty of the Ecclesiastical Courts or the Trials ex Officio but were to be tried by Juries yet the denying the benefit of Abjuration was a Severity without a Precedent and was a forcing Martyrdom on them since they were not to be the better for their Apostacy It was some Satisfaction to the married Clergy that the incontinent Priests were to be so severely punished which Cromwell put in and the Clergy knew not how they could decently oppose it Upon the passing the Act the German Ambassadours being set on to it by those that favoured their Doctrine in England desired an Audience of the King and told him of the Grief with which their Masters would receive the News of this Act and therefore earnestly press'd him to stop the Execution of it The King answered that he found it necessary to have the Act made for repressing the Insolence of some People but assured them it should not be put in Execution except upon great Provocation When the Princes heard of the Act they writ to the King to the same purpose they warned him of many Bishops that were about him who in their Hearts loved Popery and all the old Abuses and took this method to force the King to return back to the former Yoke hoping that if they once made him cruel to all those they called Hereticks it would be easy to bring him back to submit to that Tyranny which he had shaken off and therefore they proposed a Conference between some Divines of both sides in order to an Agreement of Doctrine The King was only concerned upon State Maxims to keep up their League in Opposition to the Emperour but they still press'd a Religious as well as a Civil League After the Act of the six Articles An Act for suppressing the Monasteries the Act for suppressing the Monasteries was brought in and tho there were so many Abbots sitting in the House none of them protested against it By it no Monastery was suppressed but only the Resignations made or to be made were confirmed and the King 's Right founded either on their Surrenders Forfeitures or Attainders of Treason was declared good in Law Houses surrendred were to be managed by the Court of Augmentations but those seized on by Attainders were to come to the Exchequer All Persons except the Founders and Donors were to have the same Rights to the Lands belonging to these Houses that they had before this Act was made All Deeds and Leases made for a Year before this to the prejudice of these Houses were annulled and all the Churches belonging to them and formerly exempted were put under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop or of such as should be appointed by the King This last Proviso has produced a great Mischief in this Church for many that purchased Abby-Lands had this Clause put in their Grants that they should be the Visitors of the Churches and by this they continue still exempted from the Episcopal Jurisdiction and this has emboldened many to break out into great Scandals which have been made use of by prejudiced Men to cast an Obloquy on the Church tho this Disorder proceeds only from the want of Authority in the Bishops to censure them A Question was raised upon this Suppression whether the Lands should have reverted to the Donors or been escheated to the Crown By a Judgment of the Roman Senate in Theodosius's time all the Endowments of the Heathenish Temples were given to the Fisc and tho the Heirs of the Donors pretended to them yet it was said that by the Gifts that their Ancestors made they were totally alienated from them and their Heirs When the Order of the Templers was suppressed their Lands went to the Lord by an Escheat This might seem reasonable in Endowments that were simple Gifts without any Conditions But the Grants to Religious Houses were of the nature of Covenants given in consideration of the Masses that were to be said for them and their Families and therefore it was inferred that when the Cheat of redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was discovered and these Houses were suppress'd then the Lands ought to revert to the Heirs of the Donors and upon that account it was thought necessary to exclude them by a special Proviso Another Bill was brought in An Act for new Bishopricks empowering the King to erect new Bishopricks by his Letters Patents it was read three times in one day in the House of Lords The Preamble set forth that the ill Lives of those that were called Religious made it necessary to change thir Houses to better Uses for teaching the Word of God instructing of Children educating of Clerks relieving of old infirm People the endowing of Readers for Greek Latine and Hebrew mending of High-ways and the bettering the Condition of the Parish Priests and for this end the King was empowered to erect new Sees and to assign what Limits and Divisions and appoint them what Statutes he pleased I have seen the first Draught of this Preamble all written with the King 's own Hand and indeed he used extraordinary Care in corecting both Acts of Parliament and Proclamations with his own Hand All Papers in matters of Religion that were set out by publick Authority in this Reign were revised by him and in many places large
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
could never gain much Ground after this and indeed many hoped that he should be quickly sent after Cromwell some complained of him in the House of Commons and Informations were brought the King that the chief Encouragement that the Hereticks had came from him The Ecclesiastical Committees imployed by the King A Book of Religion set out by Bishops were now at work and gave the last finishing to a Book formerly prepared but at this time corrected and explained in many Particulars They began with the Explanation of Faith which according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome was thought an implicit believing whatever the Church proposed But the Reformers made it the chief Subject of their Books and Sermons to perswade People to believe in Christ and not in the Church and made great use of those Places in which it was said That Christians are justified by Faith only tho some explained this in such a manner that it gave their Adversaries Advantages to charge them that they denied the necessity of Good Works but they all taught that tho they were not necessary to Justification yet they were necessary to Salvation They differed also in their Notion of Good Works The Church of Rome taught that the Honour done to God in his Images or to the Saints in their Shrines and Relicks or to the Priests were the best sort of Good Works Whereas the Reformers prest Justice and Mercy most and discovered the Superstition of the other The Opinion of the Merit of Good Works was also so highly raised that many thought they purchased Heaven by them This the Reformers did also correct and taught the People to depend meerly upon the Death and Intercession of Christ Others moved subtiller Questions As whether Obedience was an essential part of Faith or only a Consequent of it This was a Nicety scarce becoming Divines that built only on the Simplicity of the Scriptures and condemned the Subtilties of the Schools and it was said that Men of ill Lives abused this Doctrine and thought that if they could but assure themselves that Christ died for them they were safe enough So now when they settled the Notion of Faith The Explanation of Faith they divided it into two sorts The one was a Perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel but the other carried with it a Submission to the Will of God and both Hope Love and Obedience belonged to it which was the Faith professed in Baptism and so much extoll'd by St. Paul It was not to be so understood as if it were a Certainty of our being predestinated which may be only a Presumption since all God's Promises are made to us on Conditions but it was an entire receiving the whole Gospel according to our Baptismal Vows Cranmer took great Pains to state this matter right and made a large Collection of many places all written with his own Hand both out of Antient and Modern Authors concerning Faith Justification and the Merit of Good Works and concluded with this That our Justification was to be ascribed only to the Merits of Christ and that those who are justified must have Charity as well as Faith but that neither of these was the meritorious Cause of Justification After this was stated they made next a large and full Explanation of the Apostles Creed with great Judgment and many excellent practical Inferences the Definition they gave of the Catholick Church runs thus It comprehended all Assemblies of Men in the whole World that received the Faith of Christ who ought to hold an Unity of Love and Brotherly Agreement together by which they became Members of the Catholick Church After this they explained the seven Sacraments In opening these there were great Debates for as was formerly mentioned the method used was to open the Point enquired into by proposing many Queries And of the Sacramenss and every one was to give in his Answer to these with the Reasons of it and then others were appointed to make an Abstract of those things in which they all either agreed or differed The Original Papers relating to these Points are yet preserved which shew with how great Consideration they proceeded in the Changes that were then made Cranmer had at this time some particular Opinions concerning Ecclesiastical Offices That they were delivered from the King as other Civil Offices were and that Ordination was not indispensibly necessary and was only a Ceremony that might be used or laid aside but that the Authority was conveyed to Church-men only by the King's Commission yet he delivered his Opinion in this matter with great Modesty and he not only subscribed the Book in which the contrary Doctrine was established but afterwards published it in a Book which he writ in King Edward's days from whence it appears that he changed his Mind in this Particular Baptism was explained as had been done formerly Penance was made to consist in the Absolution of the Priests which had been formerly declared only to be desirable where it could be had In the Communion both Transubstantiation Private Masses and Communion in one kind were asserted They asserted the Obligation of the Levitical Law about the Degrees of Marriage and the Indissolubleness of that Bond. They set out the Divine Institution of Priests and Deacons and that no Bishop had Authority over another they made a long Excursion against the Pope's Pretensions and for justifying the King's Supremacy They said Confirmation was instituted by the Apostles and was profitable but not necessary to Salvation and they asserted extream Unction to have been commanded by the Apostles for the Health both of Soul and Body Then were the Ten Commandments explained the second was added to the first but the Words For I am the Lord thy God c. were left out It was declared that no Godly Honour was to be done unto Images and that they ought only to be reverenced for their sakes whom they represented therefore the preferring of one Image to another and the making Pilgrimages and Offerings to them was condemned but the censing them or kneeling before them was permitted yet the People were to be taught that these things were done only to the Honour of God Invocation of Saints as Intercessors was allowed but immediate Addresses to them for the Blessings that were prayed for was condemned The strict rest from Labour on the seventh day was declared to be Ceremonial but it was necessary to rest from Sin and Carnal Pleasure and to follow Holy Duties The other Commandments were explained in a very plain and practical way Then was the Lord's Prayer explained and it was asserted that the People ought only to pray in their Vulgar Tongues for exciting their Devotion the more The Angels Salutation to the Virgin was also paraphrased They handled Free-will and defined it to be a Power by which the Will guided by Reason did without constraint discern and choose Good and Evil the former by the help of God's Spirit and
condemned to be burnt as detestable Hereticks in general Words In the same Act by which they were condemned four other were attainted of Treason for being confederated with Reginald Pool and for intending to surprize Calais and as there was a strange mixture in their Condemnation so the like was in their Executions for Abel Featherston and Powell that were attainted in the same Parliament for owning the Pope's Supremacy were executed with them and were coupled together in the Hurdles in which they were carried to Smithfield the King in this affecting an extravagant Appearance of Impartiality in his Justice Barnes being tied to the Stake And burnt went over the Articles of the Creed and declared his Belief of them all and that he abhorred the impious Opinions of some German Anabaptists He asserted the necessity of Good Works but ascribed Justification wholly to the Merits of Christ he professed all due Reverence to the Saints but said he saw no Warrant to pray for them he asked the Sheriff and the People if they knew for what they were condemned and what Heresies they were accused of but none made Answer he prayed God to forgive all that sought their Death and in particular Gardiner if he had done it then prayed for the King and the Prince and expressed his Loyalty to the King that he believed all his just Laws were to be obeyed for Conscience sake and that in no Case it was lawful to resist him he sent some Desires to the King as that he would apply the Abby-Lands to good Uses and the Relief of his poor Subjects that he would punish the Contempt of Marriage that was so common and would put a stop to the Liberty many took of casting off their Wives and living in Whoredom that Swearers might be punished and that since the King had begun to set forth the Christian Religion that he would go on with it for a great deal remained yet to be done he asked the Forgiveness of all People whom he might have at any time offended and so turned and prepared himself for Death then the other two spoke to the same purpose they declared their Faith and exhorted the People to a good Life and mutual Love and they all prayed and embraced one another after that the Fire was set to The Constancy they expressed together with the Gentleness of their Deportment towards their Enemies made great Impressions on the Spectators and cast a heavy Imputation on Gardiner as the Procurer of their Deaths tho he justified himself in an Apology which he printed in which he denied any other Accession to it but giving his Vote to the Bill of Attainder Bonner began now to shew himself in his own Colours He had courted Cromwell more than any Person whatsoever yet the very day after his Disgrace he shewed his Ingratitude for Grafton that had printed the Bible and was much in Cromwell's Favour upon that account meeting Bonner expressed his Sorrow for Cromwell's being sent to the Tower but the other answered that it had been good he had been there much sooner Grafton saw his Error in speaking so freely and went from him but some Verses being printed in Cromwell's Praise Bonner informed the Council what Grafton had said to him and so thought it was probable he had printed them yet he had so many Friends that he was let go He procured many to be indicted upon the Act of the six Articles but an Order came from the King to stop further Proceedings yet he pick'd out one Instance which did equally discover his brutal Cruelty and his want of Judgment One Mekins not above fifteen Years old had said somewhat against the Corporal Presence and in Commendation of Dr. Barnes The Witnesses differed in their Evidence one swore he had said the Sacrament was only a Ceremony the other swore he had said it was only a Signification so two Grand Juries returned an Ignoramus on the Bill upon which he fell into a fit of Cursing and violent Rage and he made the second Grand Jury go aside and consider better of it they being terrified found the Bill and he was condemned to be burnt but hoping to be preserved by what he should say at the Stake he railed at Barnes and praised Bonner much yet that did not save him Two were burnt at Salisbury and two at Lincoln upon the same Statute besides great Numbers that were put in Prison In the end of this Year New Sees founded the King began to endow the new Bishopricks Westminster was the first in which he endowed a Bishoprick a Deanry 12 Prebendaries a Quire and other Officers The Year after this he endowed Chester Glocester and Peterborough but in these Cathedrals he only endowed six Prebendaries two Years after he likewise endowed Oxford and Bristol The Foundations had Preambles are almost the same with that of the Act of Parliament that empowred him to erect them he promoted the Bishops to those Sees by a special Writ tho that was to go thereafter in the way of Election as it was in the other Sees he also converted the Priories of Canterbury Winchester Duresme Worcester Ely Rochester and Carlile into Collegiate Churches consisting of Deans and Prebendaries But as all this came much far short of what the King had at first intended so the Channel in which those Foundations run differed much from what Cranmer had projected whose Interest was so low at Court that his Opinion was not now regarded as it had been formerly He intended to have restored the Cathedrals to what they had been at first to be Colleges and Nurseries for the Diocess and to have set up Readers of the Learned Tongues and of Divinity in them that so a considerable number of young Clerks might have been trained up under the Bishop's Eye both in their Studies and in a Course of Devotion to be by him put afterwards in Livings according to their Merit and Improvements The want of such Houses for the strict Education of those who are to serve in the Church has been the occasion of many fatal Consequences since that time by the Scandals which Men initiated to the Sacred Functions before they were well prepared for them have given the World The Popish Party beyond Sea censured these Endowments both as being a very defective Restitution of the Lands that had been invaded and as an Invasion on the Spiritual Authority when the King divided Diocesses and removed Churches from one Jurisdiction and put them under another To which it was answered That as their Practices against the King had put him to such a charge that he could not execute what he at first intended so both the Roman Emperours and other Christian Kings had regulated and divided the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and made Primates and Patriarchs as they pleased Ely in England was taken out of Lincoln only by the King and his Parliament tho P. Nicolaus did officiously send a Confirmation of it that being an Art of
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
Bishops and the Psalter and other Rudiments of Religion in English All Church-men that preached contrary to that Book for the first Offence were only required to recant for the second to abjure and carry a Faggot but were to be burnt for the third the Laity for the third Offence were only to forfeit their Goods and Chattels and to be liable to perpetual Imprisonment but they were to be proceeded against within a Year The Parties accused were not allowed Witnesses for their Purgation The Act of the six Articles was confirmed and it was left free to the King to change this Act or any Proviso in it There was also a new Act past giving Authority to the King's Proclamations and any nine Privy Counsellours were empowered to proceed against Offenders To this the Lord Mountjoy dissented and it is the only Instance of any Protestation against any of the publick Acts that past in this whole Reign By the Act about Religion as the Laity were delivered from the fear of Burning so the Clergy might not be burnt but upon the third Conviction The Act being also put entirely in the King's Power he had now the Reformers all at mercy for he could bind up the Act or execute it as he pleased and he affected this much to have his People depend entirely upon him The League offensive and defensive for England and Calais and for the Netherlands was sworn by the King and the Emperour and Assurances were given that tho the King would not declare Lady Mary legitimate upon which the Emperour insisted much yet she should be put in the Succession to the Crown next Prince Edward The Emperour was glad thus to engage the Kings of England and France in a War by which the Germans were left without Support and so he resolved to carry on his great design of making himself Master of Germany In Scotland the Earl of Arran Affairs in Scotland Hamilton next in Blood to the young Queen was established in the Government during the Queen's Minority he was a Man of great Vertue and much inclined to the Reformation but was soft and easie to be wrought on King Henry sent Sir Ralph Sadler to him to induce him to set forward the Match and to offer him Lady Elizabeth to his Son It was agreed and confirmed in Parliament that the Young Queen should be bred in Scotland till she was ten Years old the King of England sending a Nobleman and his Lady with others not exceeding twenty to wait on her and after that Age she was to be sent to England and in the mean while six Hostages were to be given but all the Clergy headed by Cardinal Beaton set themselves much against this The Queen-Mother opposed it much and it was also said a Match with the French would be more for the Interest of the Nation who being at so great a distance could not oppress them so easily as the English might for if the French opprest them the English would be ready to protect them but if they came under the Yoke of England they could expect no Protection from any other Prince This meeting with that Antipathy that was then formed between the two Nations and being inflamed by the Clergy turned the People generally to prefer a Match with France to that which was proposed for the Prince of Wales The French sent over the Earl of Lennox to make a Party against the Governour they sent also over the Governour 's Base-Brother afterwards made Arch-bishop of St. Andrews to take him out of the hands of the English and he made him apprehend great danger if he went on in his Opposition to the Interests of Rome that he would be declared illegitimate as being begotten in a second Marriage while the first that was annulled because of a Precontract did subsist for if the annulling the first should be reversed then the second could be of no force and if that were once done the Earl of Lennox who was next to him in blood would be preferred to him These threatnings joyned with his Brother 's Artifices had their full Effect on him for he turned off wholly from the Interests of England and gave himself up to the French Councils When it was thus resolved to break the Match with England the Lords that had left Hostages for their faithful performing the Promises they made to King Henry were little concerned either in their own Honour or in the safety of their Hostages only the Earl of Cassilis thought it was unworthy of him to break his Faith in such a manner so he came into England and put himself in King Henry's Hands who upon that called him another Regulus but used him better for he gave him his Liberty and a Noble Present and sent him back with his Hostages but resolved to take a severe Reparation of those who had failed him in that Kingdom At the same time he began the War with France one of the Reasons he gave for it was that Francis had failed in the matter of shaking off the Pope's Authority and advancing a Reformation in which he had promised to second him The King married Katherine Parre Some burnt at Windsor Widow to Nevill Lord Latimer She secretly favoured the Reformation but could not divert a Storm which fell then on a Society at Windsor Person a Priest Testwood and Marbeck two Singing-men and Filmer one of the Town were informed against by Dr. London who had insinuated himself much into Cromwel's Favour and was eminently zealous in the Suppression of the Monasteries But now he made his Court no less dextrously to the Popish Party Gardiner moved in Council That a Commission might be granted for searching all suspected Houses for Books written against the six Articles So the four before mentioned were found to have some of them and upon that account were seized on Sir Philip Hobbey and Dr. Hains Dean of Exeter were also put in Prison There was a Concordance of the Bible and some Notes upon it in English found written by Marbeck which was look'd on as the Work of some learned Man for it was known that he was illiterate Marbeck said the Notes were his own gathered by him out of such Books as he fell on And for the Concordance he said he compiled it by the help of a Latin Concordance and an English Bible tho he understood little Latin He had brought it to the Letter L. This seemed so incredible that it was look'd on only as a Pretence to conceal the true Author so to try him they gave him some Words of the Letter M and shut him up with a Latin Concordance and an English Bible and by his Performance in that they clearly saw that the whole Work was his own and were not a little astonished at the Ingeniousness and Diligence of so poor a Man When the King heard of it he said Marbeck was better imployed than they were that examined him So he was preserved tho the other
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
they did cruelly and treacherously murder him and laid out his Body in the same Window from which he had looked on Wisharts Execution Some few justified this Fact as the killing of a Robber and Murderer but it was more generally condemned by all sorts of People even by those who hated him most yet the Accomplishment of Wishart's Prediction made great Impressions on many On the other hand it was afterwards observed that scarce any of the Conspirators died an ordinary Death They kept out the Castle and about 140 came in to them and they held it near two Years being assisted both by Mony and Provisions that were sent from England They had also the Govenour at their Mercy for they kept his eldest Son whom the Cardinal had taken into his Care for his Education An Absolution was brought from Rome and a Pardon was offered them and at last being straitned both at Sea and Land they rendred the Place upon Assurance of Life This Infamous Action was a great Blemish upon the Reformers who tho they did not directly justify it yet extenuated it and gave it some Countenance for two of them went in and preached to the Garrison in the Castle In England a Parliament met Chantries given to the King in which as the Spiritualty gave a Subsidy of six Shillings in the Pound payable in two Years so the Temporalty not only gave a Subsidy for the War but confirmed all the Surrenders that had been made of Chantries Chappels Colledges Hospitals and other Foundations for saying Masses for departed Souls and they empowered the King during his Life to grant Commissions for seizing on the rest of them Yet the King found this was like to give new Discontent to the Gentry to whom these belonged so he made but a small Progress in it and many were reserved to his Sons Courtiers to feed on The King dismissed the Parliament with a long Speech In which after he had thanked them for their Bills he exhorted them to Charity and Concord in matters of Religion and to forbear all Terms of Reproach such as Papist and Heretick he complained much of the Stifness of some Church-men and of the Indiscretion of others who both gave ill Example and sowed the Seeds of Discord among the Laity He as God's Vicar thought himself bound to see these things corrected he reproved the Temporalty for the ill use they made of the Scripture for instead of being taught out of it to live better and to be more charitable to one another they only railed at one another and made Songs out of it to disgrace those that differed from them so he exhorted them to serve God and love one another which he would esteem the best Expression of their Duty and Obedience to him The King had appointed a Distribution of 550 l. a year in several Cathedrals for the Poor and about 400 l. for High-ways so this Year some Bishops were appointed to see whether those Payments were made as he had ordered or not The Universities were now in danger of having their Colledges supprest but upon their Applications to the King they were delivered from their Fears Now came on the last Year of this Reign A Peace with France the War with France was this Year unsuccesful but upon the Earl of Surrey's being recalled and the Earl of Hartford's being sent in his room things turned a little This raised such Animosity between those two Lords that they became fatal to the former The two Kings were at last brought to consent to a Peace the main Article of it was that within eight Years Bulloigne should be delivered up the taking and keeping of which cost England 1300000 l. Upon this Peace Annebault the French Admiral was sent over Ambassadour The Council of Trent was now sitting Pool was made a Legate to do the King the more Spite the Emperour and the Pope governed it as they pleased so the two Crowns resolved to unite more firmly particularly it was proposed that the Mass should be turned to a Communion and Cranmer was ordered to prepare the Office for it But this was too great a Design for two old Kings to accomplish There was at this time a new Prosecution of those that denied the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament Anne Aiscough and others burnt Shaxton was accused of some Words about it but he abjured and complied so entirely that soon after he preached the Sermon at the burning of Anne Aiscough he made no noise all King Edward's time yet in Queen Mary's Reign he was a Persecutor of Protestants but was so little esteemed that tho he had been Bishop of Salisbury he was raised no higher than to be Bishop Suffragan of Ely Several other Persons were at this time endicted upon the same Statute but most of them recanted Anne Aiscough stood firm she was descended from a good Family and had been well educated but was unhappily married for her Husband being a violent Papist drove her out of his House when he discovered her Inclinations to the Reformation she was put in Prison on the account of the Sacrament but signed a Recantation and so was set at Liberty yet not long after she was committed again upon a new Complaint and was examined before the Privy Council but answered with extraordinary Resolution yet it was thought by some that she was too forward in her manner of speaking she had been much at Court and it was believed she was supported by some Ladies there so in order to the Discovery of this she was carried to the Tower and rack'd yet she confess'd nothing Wriothesly was present and commanded the Lieutenant of the Tower to draw the Rack a little more but he refused to do it upon which the Chancellour laid aside his Gown and drew it himself with so much Force as if he had intended to rend her Body asunder and the Effects of this were so violent that she was not able to go to Smithfield but was carried thither in a Chair when she was burnt Two others were also condemned on the same account and Shaxton to compleat his Apostacy after he had in vain endeavoured to perswade them to abjure preached the Sermon at their Burning in which he inveighed severely against their Errors The Lord Chancellour came to Smithfield and offered them their Pardons if they would recant but they chose rather to glorify God by their Deaths than to dishonour him by so foul an Apostacy There were two burnt in Suffolk and one in Norfolk on the same account this Year But the Popish Party hoped to have greater Sacrifices offered up to their Revenge Designs against Cranmer They had laid a Train last Year for Cranmer and they had laid one now for the Queen They perswaded the King that Cranmer was the Source of all the Heresy that was in England but the King's Partiality to him was such that none would come in against him So they desired that he might be once
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
of Age he was put into the hands of Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheek the one was to form his mind and to teach him Philosophy and Divinity the other was to teach him the Tongues and Mathematicks other Masters were also appointed for the other parts of his Education He discovered very early a good disposition to Religion and Vertue and a particular Reverence for the Scriptures for he took it very ill when one about him laid a great Bible on the Floor to step up on it to somewhat which was out of his reach without such an advantage He profited well in Letters and wrote at eight Years old Latin Letters frequently both to the King to Q. Katherine Parre to the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Uncle the Earl of Hartford who had been first made Viscount Beauchamp being the Heir by his Mother of that Family and was after that advanced to be an Earl In the end of his Fathers life it had been designed to create him Prince of Wales for that was one of the reasons given to hasten the attainder of the D. of Norfolk because he held some places during life which the King intended to put in other hands in order to that Ceremony Upon his Fathers death the E. of Hartford and Sir Anth. Brown were sent to bring him up to the Tower of London and when King Henry's death was published he was proclaimed King At his coming to the Tower his Fathers Will was opened K. Hen. testament by which it was found that he had named 16. to be the Governors of the Kingdom and of his Sons person till he should be eighteen Years of Age. These were the Archbishops of Canterbury the Lord Wriothesly Lord Chancellor Lord St. John Great Master Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal Earl Hartford Lord Great Chamberlain Vis Lisle Lord Admiral Tonstall B. of Duresme Sir Anth. Brown Master of the Horse Sr Will. Paget Secretary of State Sr Ed. North Chancellour of the Augmentations Sir Ed. Mountague L d Chief Just of the Common Pleas Judge Bromley Sir Anth. Denny and Sir Will. Herbert Chief Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Sr Ed. Wotton Treasurer of Callis Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York They were also to give the Kings Sisters in Marriage and if they married without their consent they were to forfeit their right of succession for the King was Impowered by Act of Parliament to leave the Crown to them with what limitations he should think fit to appoint There was also a Privy Council named to be their Assistants in the Government if any of the 16. died the Survivers were to continue in the Administration without a power to substitute others in their rooms who should die It was now proposed that one should be chosen out of the 16. to whom Ambassadours should address themselves and who should have the chief direction of affairs but should be restrained to do nothing but by the consent of the greater part of the other Co-executors The Chancellor who thought the Precedence fell to him by his Office since the Archbishop did not meddle much in secular Affairs opposed this much and said it was a change of the Kings will who had made them all equal in power and dignity and if any were raised above the rest in Title it would not be possible to keep him within due bounds since great Titles make way for High Power but the Earl of Hartford had so prepared his Friends that it was carried that he should be declared the Governour of the Kings Person and the Protector of the Kingdom A Protector chosen with this restriction that he should do nothing but by the advice and consent of the rest Upon this advancement and the opposition made to it two Parties were formed the one headed by the Protector and the other by the Chancellour the favourers of the Reformation were of the former and those that opposed it were of the latter The Chancellor was ordered to renew the Commissions of the Judges and Justices of Peace and King Henry's great Seal was to be made use of till a new one should be made The day after this all the Executors took their Oaths to execute their trust faithfully the Privy Councellors were also brought into the Kings presence who did all express their satisfaction in the choice that was made of the Protector and it was ordered that all dispatches to foreign Princes should be signed only by him All that held Offices were required to come and renew their Commissions Bishops take out Commissions and to swear Allegiance to the King among the rest the Bishops came and took out such Commissions as were granted in the former Reign only by those they were subaltern to the Kings Vicegerent but there being none now in that Office they were immediately subaltern to the King and by them they were to hold their Bishopricks only during the Kings pleasure and were impowered in the Kings name as his Delegates to perform all the parts of the Episcopal function Cranmer set an Example to the rest in taking out one of those It was thought fit thus to keep the Bishops under the terror of such an Arbitrary power lodged in the King that so it might be more easie to turn them out if they should much oppose what might be done in points of Religion but the ill consequences of such an unlimited power being well foreseen the Bishops that were afterwards promoted were not so fettered but were provided to hold their Bishopricks during life The late King had in his Will required his Executors to perform all the promises he had made A Creation of Noblemen so Paget was required to give an account of the Promises the late King had made and he declared upon Oath that upon the prospect of the attainder of the D. of Norfolk the King intended a Creation of Peers and to divide his Lands among them the Persons to be raised were Hartford to be a Duke Essex a Marquess Lisle Russel St. John and Wriothesly to be Earls Sir Tho. Seimour Cheyney Rich Willoughby Arundell Sheffield St. Leger Wymbish Vernon and Danby to be Barons and a division was to be made of the Duke of Norfolks Estate among them some shares were also set off for others who were not to be advanced in Title as Denny and Herbert and they finding Paget had been mindful of them but had not mentioned himself had moved the King for a share to him The King appointed Paget to give notice of this to the Persons named but many excused themselves and desired no addition of honor since the Lands which the King intended to give them were not sufficient to support that dignity The Duke of Norfolk prevented all this for being apprehensive of the ruine of his Family if his Estate were once divided he sent a message to the King desiring him to convert it all to be a Revenue to the Prince of Wales This wrought so much on the
the German Princes and yet it was very dangerous to begin a War of such Consequence under an Infant King At present they promised within three Months to send by the Merchants of the Still-yard 50000 Crowns to Hamburgh and resolved to do no more till new Emergents should lead them to new Councels The Nation was in an ill condition for a War Divisions in England with such a mighty Prince labouring under great distractions at home the People generally cried out for a Reformation they despised the Clergy and loved the new Preachers The Priests were for the most part both very ignorant and scandalous in their lives many of them had been Monks and those that were to pay them the pensions that were reserved to them at the destruction of the Monasteries till they should be provided took care to get them into some small Benefice The greatest part of the Parsonages were Impropriated for they belonged to the Monasteries and the Abbots had only granted the Incumbents either the Vicarage or some small Donative and left them the Perquisites raised by Masses and other Offices At the suppression of those Houses there was no care taken to provide the Incumbents better so they chiefly subsisted by Trentals other Devices that brought them in some small relief though the Price of them was scandalously low for Masses went often at 2 d. a Groat was a great bounty Now these saw that a Reformation of those abuses took the Bread out of their mouths so their Interests prevailing more with them than any thing else they were zealously engaged against all changes but that same Principle made them comply with every change that was made rather than lose their Benefices Their poverty made them run into another abuse of holding more Benefices at the same time a Corruption of so crying and scandalous a nature that where ever it is practised it is sufficient to possess the People with great prejudices against the Church that is guilty of it there being nothing more contrary to the plainest impressions of reason than that every Man who undertakes a Cure of Souls whom at his Ordination he has vowed that he would instruct feed govern ought to discharge that trust himself which is the greatest and most important of all others The Clergy were incouraged in their Opposition to all changes by the protection they expected from Gardiner Bonner and Tonstall who were Men of great reputation as well as set in high places and above all Lady Mary did openly declare against all Changes till the King should be of Age. But on the other hand Cranmer whose greatest weakness was his over-obsequiousness to King Henry being now at liberty resolved to proceed more vigorously The Protector was firmly united to him so were the young Kings Tutors and he was as much engaged as could be expected from so young a Person for both his knowledge and zeal for true Religion were above his Age. Several of the Bishops did also declare for a Reformation but Dr. Ridley now made Bishop of Rochester was the Person on whom he depended most Latimer was kept by him at Lambeth and did great service by his Sermons which were very popular but he would not return to his Bishoprick choosing rather to serve the Church in a more disengaged manner Many of the Bishops were very ignorant and poor spirited Men raised meerly by Court-favour who wee little concerned for any thing but their Revenues Cranmer resolved to proceed by degrees and to open the reasons of every advance that was made so fully that he hoped by the blessing of God to possess the Nation of the fitness of what they should do and thereby to prevent any dangerous opposition that might otherwise be apprehended The power of the Privy Council had been much exalted in King Henry's time by Act of Parliament and one Proviso in it was that the King's Council should have the same Authority when he was under Age that he himself had at full Age A Visitation of all the Churches so it was resolved to begin with a General Visitation of all England which was divided into six Precincts and two Gentlemen a Civilian a Divine and a Register were appointed for every one of these But before they were sent out May. there was a Letter written to all the Bishops giving them notice of it suspending their Jurisdiction while it lasted and requiring them to preach no where but in their Cathedrals and that the other Clergy should not preach but in their own Churches without Licence by which it was intended to restrain such as were not acceptable to their own Parishes and to grant the others Licences to Preach in any Church of England The greatest difficulty that the Reformers found was in the want of able and prudent Men the most zealous were too hot and indiscreet and the few they had that were Eminent were to be imployed in London and the Universities Therefore they intended to make those as common as was possible and appointed them to preach as Itinerants and Visitors The only thing by which the People could be universally instructed was a Book of Homilies so the twelve first Homilies in the Book still known by that name were compiled in framing which the chief design was to acquaint the People aright with the nature of the Gospel Covenant in which there were two extreams equally dangerous the one was of those who thought the Priests had an infallible secret of saving their souls if they would in all things follow their directions the other was of those who thought that if they magnified Christ much and depended on his Merits they could not perish which way soever they led their lives So the mean between these was observed and the People were taught both to depend on the sufferings of Christ and also to lead their lives according to the rules of the Gospel without which they could receive no benefit by his death Order was also given that a Bible should be in every Church which though it was commanded by King Henry yet had not been generally obeyed and for understanding the New Testament Erasmus's Paraphrase was put out in English and appointed to be set up in every Church His great reputation and learning and his dying in the Communion of the Roman Church made this Book to be preferred to any other since there lay no prejudice to Erasmus which would have been objected to any other Author They renewed also all the Injunctions made by Cromwel in the former Reign which after his fall were but little looked after as those for instructing the people for removing Images and putting down all other customes abused to superstition perstition for reading the Scriptures and saying the Litany in English for frequent Sermons and Catechising for the Exemplary lives of the Clergy and their labours in visiting the sick and the other parts of their function such as reconciling differences and exhorting their people to Charities and
and Equity and said that all people even those who complained most of arbitrary power were apt to usurp it when they were in authority And some thought the delivering the doctrine of Justification in such nice terms was not sutable to the plain simplicity of the Christian Religion Lady Mary was so alarmed at these proceedings that she wrote to the Protector that such changes were contrary to the honour due to her Fathers Memory and it was against their duty to the King to enter upon such points and endanger the publick Peace before he was of Age. To which he wrote answer That her Father had died before he could finish the good things he had intended concerning Religion and had expressed his regret both before himself and many others that he left things in so unsetled a state and assured her that nothing should be done but what would turn to the Glory of God and the Kings Honour He imputed her Writing to the importunity of others rather than to her self and desired her to consider the matter better with an humble Spirit and the assistance of the Grace of God The Parliament was opened the fourth of November A Parliament meets and the Protector was by Patent authorized to sit under the Cloath of State on the Right hand of the Throne and to have all the Honours and Priviledges that any Unkle of the Crown either by Father or Mothers side ever had Rich was made Lord Chancellour The first Act that past five Bishops only dissenting An Act of Repeal was A Repeal of all Statutes that had made any thing Treason or Felony in the late Reign which was not so before and of the six Articles and the authority given to the Kings Proclamations as also of the Acts against Lollards All who deni'd the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes for the first offence were to forfeit their goods for the second were to be in a Pramunire and were to be attainted of Treason for the third But if any intended to deprive the King of his Estate or Title that was made Treason none were to be accused of Words but within a month after they were spoken they also repealed the power that the King had of annulling all Laws made till he was twenty four years of age and restrained it only to an annulling them for the time to come but that it should not be of force for the declaring them null from the beginning Another Act past with the same dissent An Act about the Sacrament for the Communion in both kinds and that the people should always communicate with the Priest and by it irreverence to the Sacrament was condemned under severe penalties Christ had instituted the Sacrament in both kinds and S. Paul mentions both In the Primitive Church that custome was universally observed but upon the belief of Transubstantiation the reserving and carrying about the Sacrament were brought in this made them first endeavour to perswade the World that the Cup was not necessary for Wine could neither keep nor be carried about conveniently but it was done by degrees the Bread was for some time given dipt as it is yet in the Greek Church but it being believed that Christ was entirely under either kind and in every crumb the Council of Constance took the Cup from the Laity yet the Bohemians could not be brought to submit to it so every where the use of the Cup was one of the first things that was insisted on by those who demanded a Reformation At first all that were present did communicate and censures past on such as did it not And none were denied the Sacrament but Penitents who were made to withdraw during the Action But as the devotion of the World slackned the people were still exhorted to continue their Oblations and come to the Sacrament though they did not receive it and were made believe that the Priest received it in their stead The name Sacrifice given to it as being a holy Oblation was so far improved that the World came to look on the Priests officiating as a Sacrifice for the dead and living From hence followed an infinite variety of Masses for all the accidents of humane life and that was the chief part of the Priests trade but it occasioned many unseemly jests concerning it which were restrained by the same Act that put these down Another Act past without any dissent An Act concerning the nomination of Bishops That the Conge d'elire and the Election pursuant to it being but a shadow since the person was named by the King should cease for the future and that Bishops should be named by the Kings Letters Patents and thereupon be consecrated and should hold their Courts in the Kings name and not in their own excepting only the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Court And they were to use the Kings Seal in all their Writings except in Presentations Collations and Letters of Orders in which they might use their own Seals The Apostles chose Bishops and Pastors by an extraordinary gift of discerning Spirits and proposed them to the approbation of the people yet they left no rules to make that necessary In the times of Persecution the Clergy being maintained by the Oblations of the people they were chosen by them But when the Emperours became Christians the Town Councils and eminent men took the Elections out of the hands of the Rabble And the Tumults in popular Elections were such that it was necessary to regulate them In some places the Clergy and in others the Bishops of the Province made the choice The Emperours reserved the Confirmation of the Elections in the great Sees to themselves But when Charles the Great annexed great Territories and Regalities to Bishopricks a great change followed thereupon Church-men were corrupted by this undue greatness and came to depend on the humours of those Princes to whom they owed this great encrease of their wealth Princes named them and invested them in their Sees But the Popes intended to separate the Ecclesiastical State from all subjection to Secular Princes and to make themselves the heads of that State at first they pretended to restore the freedom of Elections but these were now ingrossed in a few hands for only the Chapters chose The Popes had granted thirty years before this to the King of France the nomination to all the Bishopricks in that Kingdome so the King of Englands assuming it was no new thing and the way of Elections as King Henry had setled it seemed to be but a Mockery so this change was not much condemned The Ecclesiastical Courts were the Concessions of Princes in which Trials concerning Marriages Wills and Tithes depended so the holding those Courts in the Kings name was no Invasion on the Spiritual Function since all that concerned Orders was to be done still in the Bishops name only Excommunication was still left as the Censure of those Courts which being a Spiritual Censure ought to have been reserved to
the Bishop to be proceeded in by him only with the assistance of his Clergy and this fatal errour then committed has not yet met with an effectual regulation Another Act was made against idle Vagabonds An Act against Vagabonds that they should be made slaves for two years by any that should seize on them This was chiefly designed against some Vagrant Monks as appears by the Proviso's in the Act for they went about the Countrey infusing in the People a dislike of the Government The severity of this Act made that the English Nation which naturally abhors slavery did not care to execute it and this made that the other Proviso's for supplying those that were truly indigent and were willing to be imployed had no effect But as no Nation has better and more merciful Laws for the supply of the Poor so the fond pity that many shew to the common Beggars which no Laws have been able to restrain makes that a sort of dissolute and idle Beggars intercept much of that Charity which should go to the relief of those that are indeed the only proper objects of it An Act for dissolving the Changries After this came the Act for giving the King all those Chantries which the late King had not seized on by Vertue of the Grant made to him of them Cranmer opposed this much for the poverty of the Clergy was such that the State of Learning and Religion was like to suffer much if it should not be relieved and yet he saw no probable Fond for that but the preserving these till the King should come to be at Age and allow the selling them for buying in of at least such a share of the Impropriations as might afford some more comfortable subsistence to the Clergy yet though he and seven other Bishops dissented it was past After all other Acts a General Pardon but clogged with some Exceptions came last some Acts were proposed but not past one was for the free use of the Scriptures others were for a Court of Chancery in Ecclesiastical Causes for Residence and for a Reformation of the Courts of Common Law The Convocation fits The Convocation sat at the same time and moved that a Commission begun in the late Reign of thirty two Persons for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws might be revived and that the inferiour Clergy might be admitted to sit in the House of Commons for which they alledged a Clause in the Bishops Writ and Ancient Custome and since some Prelates had under the former Reign begun to alter the form of the Service of the Church they desired it might be brought to perfection and that some care might be had of supplying the poor Clergy and relieving them from the Taxes that lay on them This concerning the inferiour Clergy's sitting in the House of Commons was the subject of some debate and was again set on foot both under Queen Elizabeth and King James but to no effect Some pretended that they always sat in the House of Commons till the submission made in the former Reign upon the suit of the Praemunire but that cannot be true since in this Convocation 17. years after that in which many that had been in the former were present no such thing was alledged It is not clear who those Proctors of the Clergy that sat in Parliament were if they were the Bishops assistants it is more proper to think they sat in the House of Lords No mention is made of them as having a share in the Legislative Authority in our Records except in the 21. of Richard the 2d In which mention is made both of the Commons the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Proctors of the Clergy concurring to the Acts then made which makes it seem most probable that they were the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation When the Parliament met antiently all in one Body the inferiour Clergy had their Writs and came to it with the other Freeholders but when the two Houses were separated the Clergy became also a distinct body and gave their own Subsidies and medled in all the concerns and represented all the grievances of the Church But now by the Act made upon the submission of the Clergy in the last Reign their power was reduced almost to nothing so they thought it reasonable to desire that either they might have their Representatives in the House of Commons or at least that matters of Religion should not pass without the assent of the Clergy But the raising the Ecclesiastical authority too high in former times made this turn that it was now depressed as much below its just limits as it was before exalted above them as commonly one extreme produces another It was resolved that some Bishops and Divines should be sent to Windsor to finish some Reformations in the publick Offices for the whole lower House of Convocation without a contradictory Vote agreed to the Bill about the Sacrament But it is not known what opposition it met with in the Upper House A Proposition being also set on foot concerning the lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy thirty five subscribed to the affirmative and only fourteen held the Negative And thus ended this Session both of Parliament and Convocation And the Protector being now established in his power and received by a Parliament without contradiction took out a new Commission in which besides his former authority he was impowered to substitute one in his room during his absence In Germany the Princes of the Smalcaldick League were quite ruined The affairs of Germany the Duke of Saxe was defeated and taken Prisoner and used with great severity and scorn which he bare with an invincible greatness of mind The Landgrave was perswaded to submit and had assurances of liberty given him but by a trick unbecoming the greatness of the Emperour he was seized on and kept Prisoner contrary to faith given upon this all the Princes and Towns except Magdeburg and Brome submitted and purchased their pardon at what terms the Conquerour was pleased to impose The Bishop and Elector of Colen withdrew peaceably to a retirement in which after four years he died and now all Germany was at the Emperours mercy Some Cathedrals as that at Ausburg were again restored to the Bishops and Mass was said in them A Diet was also held in which the Emperor obtain'd a Decree to pass by which matters of Religion were referred wholly to his care The Pope instead of rejoycing at this blow given the Lutherans was much troubled at it for the Emperour had now in one Year made an end of a War which he hoped would have Imbroiled him his whole life so that Italy was now more at his mercy than ever and it seemed the Emperour intended to inlarge his Conquests there for the Pope's Natural Son being killed by a Conspiracy the Governour of Milan seized on Placentia which gave the Pope some jealousie as if the Emperour had been privy to
of the soyl among the Tenants The Protector was a great friend to the Commons and complained much of the Oppression of the Landlords There was a Commission issued out to enquire concerning Inclosures and Farms and whether those who purchased the Abbey Lands and were obliged to keep up Hospitality performed it or not and what encouragement they gave to Husbandry but this turned to nothing So the Commons rose every where yet in most of the Inland Counties they were easily dispersed and it was promised that their grievances should be redressed The Protector against the Councils mind set out a Proclamation against all new Inclosures and for indemnifying the People for what was past Commissioners were also sent every where to hear and determine all Complaints but the power that was given to them was so arbitrary that the Landlords called it an Invasion of Property when their Rights were thus subjected to the pleasure of such Men. The Commons understanding that the Protector was so favourable to them were thereby the more encouraged and it was afterwards objected to him that the Convulsions England fell in soon after was chiefly occasioned by his ill Conduct in which he was the more blamed because he acted against the mind of the greatest part of the Council The Rebellion in Devonshire June 10. In Devonshire the Insurrection was more formidable the superstition of the Priests joining with the rage of the Commons so they became quickly 10000. strong The Lord Russel was sent against them with a small force and was ordered to try if the matter could be composed without blood but Arundel a Man of Quality commanding the Rebels they were not a loose body of People easily dissipated They sent their Demands to Court That the old Service and Ceremonies might be set up again that the Act of the six Articles and the Decrees of General Councils might be again in force that the Bible in English should be called in that Preachers should pray for the Souls in Purgatory that Cardinal Pool should be restored that the half of the Abbey Lands should be restored to found two Abbeys in every County and that Gentlemen of 100. Marks a Year might have but one Servant and they desired a safe Conduct for their Chief Leaders in order to the Redress of their particular Grievances afterwards they moderated their desires only to points of Religion Cranmer writ a large Answer to these shewing the Novelty and Superstition of those Rites and Ceremonies and of that whole way of worship of which they were so fond and that the amendments and changes had been made according to the Scriptures and the Customes of the Primitive Church and that their being fond of a Worship which they understood not and being desirous to be kept still in ignorance without the Scriptures shewed their Priests had greater power over them than the common reason of all Mankind had as for the six Articles that Act had never past if the King had not gone in Person to the Parliament and argued for it yet he soon saw his error and was slack in executing it After that there was a high threatning Answer sent them in the King's name charging them for their Rebellion and blind obedience to their Priests In it the King's authority under Age was largely set forth for by the pretence of the Kings Minority the People generally were made believe that their rising in Arms was not Rebellion In Conclusion they were earnestly invited to submit to the Kings mercy as others had done whom the King had not only pardoned but had redressed their just Grievances At the same time the like spirit of rage inflamed the Commons in Norfolk they pretended nothing of Religion And in Norfolk but only to destroy the Gentry and put new Counsellors about the King they were led by one Ket a Tanner and in a few days grew to be 20000. They encamped near Norwich and committed great out-rages Parker afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury went in among them and with great freedom inveighed against their Rebellion and Cruelty and warned them of the Judgments of God that would fall on them for which he was in great danger of his life Ket was now their Prince and in imitation of the ancient Druids he did Justice upon complaints brought before him under an Oak called from thence the Oak of Reformation The Marquess of Northampton was sent against them with Orders to keep at a distance and cut off their provisions There was at the same time a rising likewise in Yorkshire where the Commons being incouraged by some pretended Prophecies run together and committed acts of great barbarity on some Gentlemen The French begin a War The French King hearing of all this resolved to take his advantage and regain Bulloigne three days before he marched with his Army the English Embassadour pressing him upon the Intimations that were given him of his designs he assured him on the faith of a Gentleman that he would not begin a War till he first gave warning But many Princes reckon it a part of their Prerogative to be exempted from such ties by which only poor Subjects ought to be fettered All these things falling upon the Government at once it may be easily imagined they were under no small consternation A Fast was proclaimed at Court where Cranmer preached with great freedom and vehemence he laid out before them their vitious and ill lives particularly of those who pretended a love to the Gospel and set before them the Judgments of God that they might look for and inlarged on the fresh example of the Calamities of Germany and intimated the sad apprehensions he had of some terrible stroke if they did not repent and amend their lives The Rebels in Devonshire besieged Exeter The Rebels every where routed the Citizens resisted their assaults but could not so easily resist the assaults that hunger made on them for they were not provided for a Siege They were reduced at last to great extremities which made the Lord Russel after he had got such supplies as he judged necessary resolve to fall upon them They possessed themselves of a Bridge behind him both to inclose him and to hinder others from joyning with him but he marched back and did quickly beat them from it with the loss of 600. of their Men and by that essay he perceived how easie a work it would be to disperse them he upon that marched forward to Exeter and beat the Rebels from a Bridge that opened his way to their Camp killing a 1000. of them upon which they raised the Siege and retired in great disorder to Lanceston he pursued them as long as they kept in a body and great numbers of them were killed some of their Leaders and Priests were taken and hanged So happily was that Rebellion subdued without any loss on the Kings side But the Marquess of Northampton was not so successful in Norfolk he marched into Norwich The Rebels
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
and worship and our being during the whole action in one continued posture of devotion and if the Jews who were more bound up to Ceremonies made a change in the posture at the Memorial of their deliverance without any warrant mentioned in the Old Testament it must be acknowledged that the Christian Church which is more at liberty in such matters had authority to make the like change of the posture in this Memorial of Christ's sufferings At this time six of the most eminent Preachers were appointed to wait on the Court by turns two at a time and the other four were sent as Itinerant Preachers into all the Counties of England in a Circuit for supplying the defects of the Clergy who were generally very weak and faulty The Mass said in Lady Mary's Chappel Lady Mary in trouble for having Mass said was now again challenged The Court was less afraid of the Emperours displeasure than formerly and so would no longer bear with so publick a breach of Law And the Promise they had made being but Temporary and never given in Writing they thought they were not bound by it But the Emperour assured her that he had an absolute Promise for that Priviledge to her This encouraged her so much that when the Council wrote to her she said she would follow the Catholick Church and adhere to her Fathers Religion Answer was writ in the Kings name requiring her to obey the Law and not to pretend that the King was under age since the late Rebels had justified themselves by that The way of Worship then established was also vindicated as most consonant to the word of God But she refused to engage into any disputes only she said she would continue in her former courses And she was thinking of going out of England insomuch that the Emperour ordered a Ship to lie near the Coast for her Transportation which was strange advice for it is probable if she had gone beyond Sea she had been effectually shut out from succeeding to the Crown The Emperour espoused her quarrel so warmly that he threatned to make War if she should be hardly used and the Merchants having then great effects at Antwerp it was not thought fit to give him a colour for breaking with them and seizing on these so the Council were willing to let the matter fall and only advised her to have her Mass privately said yet the young King could not be easily induced to yield to that for he said he ought not to connive at Idolatry The Council ordered Cranmer Ridley and Poinet to satisfie him in it And they convinced him that though he ought not to consent to any sin yet he was not at all times obliged to punish it He burst out in weeping lamenting his Sisters obstinacy and his own circumstances that obliged him to comply with such an impious way of Worship Dr. Wotton was sent over to the Emperour to convince him that no absolute Promise was ever made For Paget and Hobbey whom the Emperour vouched for it declared upon Oath that they made not any but what was Temporary and since the King did not meddle in the concerns of the Emperours Family it was not reasonable for him to interpose in this The Emperor pretended that he had promised to her Mother at her death to protect her and so he was bound in honour to take care of her But now when the Council were not in such fear of the Emperours displeasure as formerly they sent to seize on two of her Chaplains that had said Mass in her House when she was absent they kept out of the way and she writ to the Council to stop the prosecution and continued to stand upon the Promise made to the Emperour A long answer was returned to her by the Council in which after the matter of the Promise was cleared they urged her with the absurdity of Prayers in an unknown tongue offering the Sacrament for the dead and worshipping Images All the Ancients appealed upon all occasions to the Scriptures by these she might easily discover the errours and cheats of the old Superstition that were supported only by false Miracles and lying Stories They concluded that they being trusted with the execution of the Laws were obliged to proceed equally Mallet one of the Chaplains was taken and she earnestly desired that he might be set at liberty but it was denied her The Council sent for the chief Officers of her House and required them to let her know the Kings pleasure that she must have the new Service in her Family and to give the like charge to her Chaplains and Servants This vexed her much and did almost cast her into sickness She said she would obey the King in every thing in which her Conscience was not touched But charged them not to deliver the Councils Message to her Servants Upon that the Lord Chancellour Petre and Wyngfield were sent with the same orders to her and carried to her a Letter from the King which she received on her knees but when she read it she cast the blame of it on Cecyl then Secretary of State The Chancellour told her the whole Council were of one mind that they could not suffer her to use a form of Worship against Law And had ordered them to intimate this both to herself and her Family She made great protestations of duty to the King but said she would die rather than use any form of Worship but that which was left by her Father only she was afraid she was not worthy to suffer on so good an account When the King was of age she would obey his Commands in Religion and though he now knew many things above his age yet as they did not think him yet capable of matters of War or Policy so much less could he judge in points of Divinity If her Chaplains refused to say Mass she could have none but for the new Service she was resolved against it and if it were forced on her she would leave her house She desired her Officers might be sent back to her whom they had put in the Tower for not intimating the Councils order to her Servants which had been strange for them to have done when she forbid it She charged them to use her well for her Fathers sake who had raised them all out of nothing She was sick by reason of their ill usage and if she died she would lay it at their door She insisted on the Promise made to the Emperour who writ of it to her and she believed him more than them all She gave them a token to be carried to the King and so dismist them When they had laid a charge on her Chaplains and Servants to the same effect and were going away she called after them and desired they would send her Comptroller to her for she was weary of receiving her accounts and examining how many Loaves were made of a Bushel of Meal Upon this resolution that she exprest
the Council went no further only after this her Mass was said so secretly that she gave no publick scandal From Copthall where this was done she removed and lived at Hunsden and thither Ridley went to see her She received him very civilly and ordered her Officers to entertain him at dinner But when he begged leave to Preach before her she at first blusht but being further prest she said he might Preach in the Parish Church but neither she nor her Family would be there He asked her if she refused to hear the word of God She answered they did not call that Gods word now that they had called so in her Fathers days and that in his time they durst not have said the things which they then Preached And after some sharp and reproachful discourse she dismist him Wharton one of her Officers as he conducted him out made him drink a little but he reflecting on that blamed himself for it for he said when the Word of God was rejected he ought to have shaken off the dust of his Feet and gone away The Kings Sister Elizabeth did in all things conform to the Laws for her Mother at her death recommended her to Dr. Parker's care who instructed her well in the Principles of Christian Religion The Earl of Warwick began now to form great designs of bringing the Crown into his Family The Earl of Warwick's designs The King was alienated from his Sister Mary and the Privy Council had imbroiled themselves with her and so would be easily engaged against her The pretence against both the Sisters was the same that they stood illegitimated by two Sentences in the Spiritual Courts confirmed in Parliament So that it would be a disgrace to the Nation to let the Crown devolve on Bastards And since the fears of the Eldests revenge made the Council willing to exclude her the only reason on which they could ground that must take place against the second likewise And therefore though the Crown was provided to them both by Act of Parliament and the late Kings Will yet these being founded on an Errour that was indispensable which was the baseness of their descent they ought not to take place They being laid aside the Daughters of the French Queen by Charles Brandon stood next in the Act and yet it was generally believed that they were Bastards For it was given out that Brandon was secretly married to one Mortimer at the time that he married the French Queen and that Mortimer out-lived her so that the issue by her was Illegitimate The Sweating Sickness did this year break out in England with such Contagion that eight hundred died in one week of it in London those that were taken with it were inclined much to sleep and all that slept died but if they were kept awake a day they did sweat it out Charles Brandon's two Sons by his last Wife died within a day one of another His eldest Daughter by the French Queen was married to the Marquess of Dorset a good but weak man and so he was made Duke of Suffolk They had no Sons their eldest Daughter Jane Gray was thought the wonder of the age So the Earl of Warwick projected a Match between her and his fourth Son Guilford his three elder Sons being then married And because the Lady Elizabeth was like to stand most in the way care was taken to send her out of England and a Match was treated for her with the King of Denmark A splendid Message was sent to France A Treaty for a Marriage to the King with the Order of the Garter The Marquess of Northampton carried it three Earls the Bishop of Ely and five Lords were sent with him and above two hundred Gentlemen accompanied them They were to make a Proposition of Marriage for the King with a Daughter of France The Bishop of Ely made the first Speech and the Cardinal of Lorrain answered him it was soon agreed on yet neither Party was to be bound either in Honour or Conscience till the Lady should be of Years to give consent A noble Embassy was sent in return from France to England with the Order of Saint Michael They desired in their Master's name the continuance of the King's friendship and that he would not be moved by Rumors that might be raised to break their Alliance The young King answered on the sudden that Rumours were not always to be believed nor always to be rejected for it was no less vain to fear all things than to doubt of nothing if any differences hapned to arise he should be always ready to determine them rather by reason than by force so far as his Honour should not be thereby diminished This was thought a very extraordinary answer to be made by one of Fourteen on the sudden There was at this time a great Creation of Peers The Duke of Somerset's fall Warwick was made Duke of Northumberland the blood of the Piercies being then under an Attainder Pawlet was made Marquess of Winchester Herbert was made Earl of Pembroke and a little before this Russel had been made Earl of Bedford and Darcy was made a Lord. There was none so likely to take the King out of Northumberlands hands as the Duke of Somerset who was beginning to form a new Party about the King so upon some Informations both the Duke of Somerset his Dutchess Sir Ralph Vane Sir Tho. Palmer Sr Tho. Arundel several others of whom some were Gentlemen of Quality and others were the Dukes servants were all committed to the Tower The committing of Palmer was to delude the World for he had betrayed the Duke and was clapt up as a Complice and then pretended to discover a Plot He said the Duke intended to have raised the People and that Northumberland Northampton and Pembroke having been invited to dine at the Lord Pagets he intended to have set on them by the way or have killed them at Dinner that Vane was to have 2000. Men ready Arundel was to have seized on the Tower and all the Gendarmoury were to have been killed All these things were told the young King with such Circumstances that he too easily believed them and so was much alienated from his Uncle judging him guilty of so foul a Conspiracy It was added by others that the Duke intended to have raised the City of London one Crane confirmed Palmers testimony and both the Earl of Arundel and Paget were also committed as Complices On the first of December His Trial the Duke was brought to his Trial The Marquess of Winchester was Lord Steward and 27. Peers sat to judge him among whom were the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland and the Earl of Pembroke The particulars charged on him were a design to seize on the King's Person to imprison the Duke of Northumberland and to raise the City of London it seemed strange to see Northumberland sit a Judge when the crime objected was a design against his life
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
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
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
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
Laws of God and the Practice of the Universal Church to declare their Bishopricks void as they were indeed already void And thus were seven of the Reformed Bishops turned out at a dash It was much censured that those who had married according to a Law then in force which was now only repealed for the future should be deprived for it and this was a new severity for in former times when the Popes were most set against the Marriage of the Clergy it was put to their option whether they would part with their Wives or with their Benefices but none were summarily deprived as was now done The other Bishops without any form of Process or special matter objected to them were turned out by an Act of meer Arbitrary Government And all this was done by vertue of the Queens being Head of the Church which though she condemned as a sinful and sacrilegious power yet she now imployed it against those Bishops whose Sees were quickly filled with Men in whom the Queen confided Goodrick died this Year It seems he complied with the change now made otherwise he that put the Seal to Lady Jane's Patents could not have escaped the being questioned for it He was an ambitious Man and so no wonder if earthly considerations prevailed more with him than a good Conscience Scory that was Bishop of Chichester renounced his Wife and did Penance for his Marriage but soon after he fled beyond Sea and returned in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign so that his Compliance was the effect of his weakness and fears Barlow resigned Bath and Wells and a Book of recantation was published in his name containing severe reflections both on the Reformers and on the Reformation it self but it is not certain whether it was writ by him or was only a forgery put out in his Name for if he turned so heartily as the strain of that Book runs it is not likely that he would have been put from his Bishoprick but he fled beyond Sea yet it seems both Scory and he gave great offence by their behaviour for though they were the only surviving Reformed Bishops when Queen Elizabeth succeeded yet they were so far from being promoted that they were not so much as restored to their former Sees but put in meaner ones By all these deprivations and resignations there were sixteen new Bishops made which made no small change in the face of the English Church Now the Old Service was every where set up in which Bonner made such hast that before the Royal Assent was given to the Bill for it he began the Old Service and Processions The first opening of it was somewhat strange for it being on Saint Katherine's day the Quiristers went up to the Steeple and sung the Anthem there according to the Custom for that Day Great numbers of the Clergy were summarily deprived for being Married they were estimated by Parker to be 12000. and most of them were judged upon common fame without any Process but a Citation and many being then in Prison yet were Censured and put out for Contumacy and held guilty Many Books were written against the Marriage of the Clergy and the accusing them of Impurity and sensuality on that account was one of the chief Topicks used by the Popish Clergy to disgrace the Reformers which made some recriminate too indecently and lay open the filthiness of the Unmarried Clergy and those that were called Religious who led most irregular lives in particular it was said Bonner had no reason to be a friend to that state for he was the Bastard of a Bastard and his Father though a Priest begat him in Adultery On the 2d of April a Parliament met A new Parliament but the most considerable Members were before-hand corrupted by Gardiner who gave them Pensions some 200. and others 100 l. a Year for their Voices The first Act that past was declaratory that all the Prerogatives and Limitations which by Law belonged to the Kings of England were the same whether the Crown fell into the hands of a Male or a Female The secret of this was little known some were afraid there was an ill design in it and that it being declared that she had all the authority which any of her Progenitors ever had it might be inferred from thence that she might pretend to a right of Conquest A proposition to make the Queen absolute and so seize on the Estates of the English as William the Conqueror had done But it was so conceived that the Queen was put under the fame limitations as well as acknowledged to have the same Prerogatives with her Progenitors The secret of this was afterwards discovered A projecting Man that had served Cromwell and loved to meddle much had been deeply engaged both in Lady Jane's business and in the late Insurrection and was now in danger of his life so he made application to the Emperour's Ambassadour and by his means obtained his Pardon He offered a Project that the Queen should declare that she succeeded to the Crown by the Common-Law but was not tied by the Statute-Law which did only bind Kings and therefore a Queen was not obliged by it thus she might pretend to be a Conqueror and rule at pleasure and by this means might restore both Religion and the Abbey-Lands and be under no restraint This the Ambassadour brought to the Queen and prayed her to keep it very secret But she disliked it yet she sent for Gardiner and charged him to give her his Opinion of it sincerely as he would answer to God for it at the Great Day He read it carefully and told her it was a most pernicious contrivance and beg'd her not to listen to such Plat-forms which might be brought her by base Sycophants Upon that she burnt the Paper and charged the Ambassadour not to bring her any more such Projects This gave Gardiner great apprehensions of the mischiefs that Spanish Counsels might bring on the Nation and so he procured the Act to be made by which the Queen was bound by the Law as much as her Ancestors were He also got an Act to be past ratifying the Articles of the Marriage with strong clauses for keeping the Government entirely in the Queen's hands that so Philip might not take it on him as Henry the VII had done when he married the Heir of the House of York for as he set up a Title in his own Name and kept the Government in his own hands so the Spaniards began to reckon a descent from John of Gaunt which made Gardiner the more cautious and it must be confessed that the preserving the Nation out of the hands of the Spaniards was almost only owing to his care and wisdom The Bishoprick of Durham was again restored after a vigorous resistance made by those of Gateside near Newcastle The Attainders of the Duke of Suffolk and Fifty-eight more for the late Rebellion were confirmed The Commons sent up four several Bills
not esteem Hooper a Bishop so he was only degraded from the Order of Priesthood Rogers was not suffered to see his Wife nor his Children yet so little did this terrible sentence fright him that the morning of his Execution he was so fast asleep that he was not easily awakened He was carried from Newgate to Smithfield on the 4th of February a Pardon was offered him at the stake if he would recant but he refused it on such terms and said he would not exchange a quick fire for Everlasting burnings but declared that he resigned up his Life with joy as a testimony to the Doctrine which he had preached Hooper was sent to Glocester at which he rejoyced for he hoped by his death to confirm many there He spake to several whom he had formerly known some of them in compassion to him wept by him which made him shed tears but he said all he had suffered in his Imprisonment had not moved him to do so much he was burnt on the 9th of February a Pardon was also offered him at the Stake but to no effect A great Wind blew while he was burning and hindred the Flame to rise up and choke him or destroy his Vitals so that he was near three quarters of an hour in great Torment but he continued still calling on God his last words were Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Sanders that had been Minister at Coventry and Taylor that was Minister at Hadly were at the same time condemned and sent to be burnt at the places where they had served The former was first committed for preaching without Licence after the Queens Prohibition and the latter for making opposition to some Priests that broke violently into his Church and said Mass in it Gardiner was in hope that these four Executions being made in several parts of England would have struck so general a terrour in the whole Party that there would have been little occasion for further severities but when he saw six more were soon after apprehended on the same account and that the spirits of those call'd Hereticks were now rather inflam'd than depressed he resolved to meddle no more in those Trials and turned over that Invidious matter to Bonner whose temper was so cruel that he undertook it cheerfully These severities were very hateful to the Nation The burnings much condemned It was observed that in King Edward's time those that opposed the Laws were only turned out of their Benefices and some few of them were put in Prison but now Men were put in Prison on trifling pretences and kept there till Laws were made by which they were condemned meerly for their Opinion for they had acted nothing contrary to Law One Piece of Cruelty was also singular when the Council sent away those that were to be burnt in the Countrey they threatned to cut out their Tongues if they would not promise to make no Speeches to the People which they to avoid that butchery were forced to promise Some made reflections on the length and sharpness of Hooper's Torment as a punishment on him for the contest he had raised in the Church about the Vestments Ridley and he had been entirely reconciled and writ very affectionate Letters to one another The sense they had of those differences when they were preparing for another World and that bitter passage through which they were to go to it ought to inspire all others with more moderate thoughts in such matters Those that loved the Reformation were now possessed with great aversion to the Popish Party and the whole Body of the Nation grew to dislike this Cruelty and came to hate King Philip for it Gardiner and the other Councellours had openly said that the Queen set them on to it so the blame of it was laid on the King the sowreness of whose temper together with his bigottry in matters of Religion made it seem reasonable to charge him with it He finding that this was like to raise such prejudices against him as might probably spoil his design of making himself Master of England took care to vindicate himself So his Confessor Alphonsus a Franciscan preached a Sermon at Court against the taking of Peoples lives for Opinions in Religion and Inveighed against the Bishops for doing it By this the blame of it was turned back on them and this made them stop for some Weeks but at last they resolved rather to bear the blame of the Persecution avowedly than not to go on in it At this time a Petition was printed beyond Sea Arguments against them and for them by which the Reformers addressed themselves to the Queen they set before her the danger of her being carried by a blind zeal to destroy the Members of Christ as St. Paul had done before his Conversion they remembred her of Cranmer's interposing to preserve her Life in her Fathers time they cited many Passages out of the Books of Gardiner Bonner and Tonstall by which she might see that they were not acted by true Principles of Conscience but were turned as their Fears or Interests led them They shewed her how contrary Persecution was to the spirit of the Gospel that Christians tolerated Jews and that Turks notwithstanding the barbarity of their tempers and the Cruelty of their Religion yet tolerated Christians They remembred her that the first Law for burning in England was made by Henry the IV. as a reward to the Bishops who had helped him to depose Richard the second and so to mount to the Throne They represented to her that God had trusted her with the Sword which she ought to imploy for the protection of her People was not to abandon them to the Cruelty of such Wolves The Petition also turned to the Nobility and rest of the Nation and the dangers of a Spanish Yoke and a bloody Inquisition were set before them Upon this the Popish Authors writ several Books in Justification of those proceedings They observed that the Jews were commanded to put blasphemers to death and said the Hereticks blasphemed the Body of Christ and called it only a piece of Bread It became Christians to be more zealous for the true Religion than Heathens were for the false Saint Peter by a Divine Power struck Ananias and Saphira dead Christ in the Parable said Compel them to enter in Saint Paul said I would they were cut off that trouble you Saint Austin was once against all severities in such cases but changed his mind when he saw the good effects that some Banishments and Fines had on the Donatists That on which they insisted most was the burning of Anabaptists in King Edward's time So they were now fortified in their cruel Intentions and resolved to spare none of what Age Sex or condition soever they might be Bonner kept one Tomkins a Weaver some Months in his House who was found to doubt of the Presence in the Sacrament he used divers Violences to him as the tearing out the Hair of his
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
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 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
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