Goods of the Church of which it had been robbed by their Ancestors But â—n this it was necessary to advance slowly since the Nobility and Gentry were much allarumed at it and at the last Parliament many had laid their Hands to their Swords in the House of Commons and said theâ— would not part with their Estates but would defend them yet some that hoped to gain more favour from the Queen by such compliance did Found Chantries for Masses for their Souls In the Records of the last Years of Queen Maries Reign there are many Warrants granted by her for such Endowments for though the Statute of Mortmain was repealed yet for greater security it was thought fit to take out such Licenses This is all I find of our home Affairs this Year Forreign Affairs Forreign Affairs were brought to a quieter state For by the Mediation of England a Truce for five Years was concluded between France and Spain and the new King of Spain was inclined to observe it faithfully that so he might be well setled in his Kingdoms before he engaged in War but the violent Pope broke all this He was much offended with the Decree made at Ausburg for the liberty of Religion and with Ferdinand for ordering the Chalice to be given to his Subjects and chiefly for his assuming the Title of Emperor without his approbation Upon this last provocation the Pope sent him word that he would let him know to his grief how he had offended him He came to talk in as haughty a Stile as any of all his Predecessors had ever done that he would change Kingdoms at his pleasure He boasted that he had made Ireland a Kingdom The Pope is extravagantly insolent that all Princes were under his Feet and as he said that he used to tread with his Feet against the ground and he would allow no Prince to be his Companion nor be too familiar with him nay rather than be driven to a mean Action he would set the whole World on fire But to pretend to do somewhat for a Reformation he appointed a Congregation to gather some Rules for the condemning of Simony These he published and said having now reformed his own Court he would next reform the Courts of Princes and because they had complained much of the corruptions of the Clergy and Court of Rome he resolved to turn the matter on them and said he would gather all the abuses that were in their Courts and reform them But he was much provoked by an Embassy that came from Poland to desire of him that they might have the Mass in their own Tongue and the Communion in both kinds that their Priests might be allowed to marry that they might pay Annates no more to Rome and call a National Council in their own Kingdom These things put him out of all patience and with all the bitterness he could use he expressed how detestable they were to him He then said he would hold a Council not that he needed one for himself was above all but it should never meet in Trent to which it had been a vain thing to send about sixty Bishops of the least able and forty Doctors of the most insufficient as had been twice done already that he would hold it in the Lateran as many of his Predecessors had done he gave notice of this to the Ambassadors of all Princes he said he did that only in curtesie not intending to ask their advice or consent for he would be obeyed by them all He intended in this Council to reform them and their Courts and to discharge all Impositions which they had laid on the Clergy and therefore he would call it whether they would or not and if they sent no Prelates to it he would hold it with those of his own Court and would let the World see what the Authority of that See was when it had a Pope of courage to govern it But after all these Imperious humors of his He breaks the Truce between France and Spain absolving the French King from his Oath which sometimes carried him to excesses that seemed not much different from madness he was heartily troubled at the Truce between the French and the Spaniards He hates the Spaniards most because they supported the Colonesi whom he designed to ruine And therefore he sent his Nephew into France with a Sword and Hat which he had Consecrated to perswade the King to break the Truce offering his assistance for the Conquest of the Kingdom of Naples to the use of one of the younger Sons of France though it was believed he designed it for his own Nephew He also sent the French King an Absolution from his Oath that he had sworn for the maintaining of the Truce and promised to create what Cardinals he pleased that so he might be sure of a Creature of his own to succeed in the Popedom Yet the Pope dissembled his design in this so closely that he perswaded Sir Edward Caru that was then the Queens Ambassador at Rome that he desired nothing so much as a general Peace and he hoped as the Queen had mediated in the Truce she would continue her endeavours till a perfect Peace were made He said he had sent two Legates to procure it and since he was the Common Father of Christendome God would impute to him even his silence in that matter if he did not all he could to obtain it He complained much of the growth of Heresie in Poland and in the King of the Romans's Dominions For the repressing of it he said he intended to have a General Council and in order to that it was necessary there should be a Peace since a Truce would not give sufficient encouragement to those who ought to come to the Council He said he intended to be present at it himself and to hold it in the Church of St. John in the Lateran for he thought Rome being the Common Country of all the World was the meetest Place for such an Assembly and he being so very old could go no where out of Rome therefore he was resolved to hold it there But he said he relied chiefly on the assistance of the Queen whom he called That Blessed Queen and his most Gracious and loving Daughter and holding her Letters in his Hand he said they were so full of respect and kindness to him that he would have them read in the Consistory and made a Cross over her Subscription It was no wonder such discourses with that way of deportment deceived so honest and plain-hearted a Man as Caru was as it will appear from the Letter that he writ over upon this occasion to the Queen Collection Number 32. which I have put in the Collection But it soon appeared on what design he had sent his Legate to France for he pressed that King vehemently to break the Truce and renew the War To this the French King being perswaded by the Cardinal of Lorrain and Duke of
and Queen and be obedient to their Superiors both Spiritual and Temporal according to their duties It is plain this was so contrived that they might have Signed it without either prevaricating or dissembling their Opinions for it is not said That they were to be subject to the Church of Rome but to the Church of Christ and they were to be obedient to their Superiors according to their duties which was a good reserve for their Consciences I stand the longer on this that it may appear how willing the Cardinal was to accept of any shew of submission from them and to stop Bonners rage Upon this they were set at liberty But Bonner got three Men and two Women presented to him in London in January and after he had allowed them a little more time than he had granted others they standing still firm to their Faith were burnt at Smithfield on the 12th of April After that White the new Bishop of Winchester condemned three who were burnt on the third of May in Southwark one of these Stephen Gratwick being of the Diocess of Chichester appealed from him to his own Ordinary whether he expected more favour from him or did it only to gain time I know not but they brought in a Counterfeit who was pretended to be the Bishop of Chichester as Fox has printed it from the account written with the Man 's own Hand and so condemned him On the seventh of May three were burnt a Bristol On the 18th of June two Men and five Women were burnt at Maidston and on the 19th three Men and four Women were burnt at Canterbury fourteen being thus in two days destroyed by Thornton and Harpsfield in which it may seem strange that the Cardinal had less influence to stop the Proceedings in his own Diocess than in London but he was now under the Popes disgrace as shall be afterwards shewn On the 22d of June six Men and four Women were burnt at Lewis in Sussex condemned by White for Christopherson Bishop Elect of Chichester was not yet consecrated On the 13th of July two were burnt at Norwich On the second of August ten were burnt at Colchester six in the Morning and four in the Afternoon they were some of those who had been formerly discharged by the Cardinals Orders but the Priests in the Country complained that the mercy shewed to them had occasioned great disorders among them Hereticks and the favourers of them growing insolent upon it and those who searched after them being disheartned so now Bonner being under no more restraints from the Cardinal new Complaints being made that they came not to Church condemned them upon their Answers to the Articles which he objected to them At this time one George Eagle a Taylor who used to go about from place to place and to meet with those who stood for the Reformation where he prayed and discoursed with them about Religion and from his indefatigable diligence was nicknamed Trudge-over was taken near Colchester and was condemned of Treason for gathering the Queens Subjects together though it was not proved that he had ever stirred them up to Rebellion but did it only as himself always protested to encourage them to continue stedfast in the Faith he suffered as a Traitor On the fifth of August one was burnt at Norwich and on the 20th a Man and a Woman more were burnt at Rochester One was also burnt at Litchfield in August but the day is not named The same Month a Complaint was brought to the Council of the Magistrates of Bristol that they came seldom to the Sermons at the Cathedral so that the Dean and Chapter used to go to their Houses in Procession with their Cross carried before them and to fetch them from thence upon which a Letter was written to them requiring them to conform themselves more willingly to the Orders of the Church to frequent the Sermons and go thither of their own accord On the 17th of September three Men and one Woman were burnt at Islington near London and on the same day two Women were burnt at Colchester On the 20th a Man was burnt at Northampton and in the same Month one was burnt at Laxefield in Suffolk On the 23d a Woman was burnt at Norwich There were seventeen burnt in the Diocess of Chichester about this time one was a Priest thirteen were Lay-men and three Women but the day is not marked On the 18th of November three were burnt in Smithfield On the 12d of December John Rough a Scotchman was burnt whose suffering was on this occasion On the 12th of December there was a private Meeting of such as continued to Worship God according to the Service set out by King Edward at Islington where he was to have administred the Sacrament according to the Order of that Book The new Inquisitors had corrupted one of this Congregation to betray his Brethren so that they were apprehended as they were going to the Communion But Rough being a Stranger it was considered by the Council whether he should be tried as a Native He had a Benefice in York-shire in King Edwards days so it was resolved and signified to the Bishop of London that he should be proceeded against as a Subject Thereupon Bonner objected to him his condemning the Doctrine of the Church and setting out the Heresies of Cranmer and Ridley concerning the Sacrament and his using the Service set out by King Edward that he had lived much with those who for their Heresies had fled beyond Sea that he had spoken reproachfully of the Pope and Cardinals saying That when he was at Rome he had seen a Bull of the Popes that licensed Stews and a Cardinal riding openly with his Whore with him with several other Articles The greatest part of them he confessed and thereupon he with a Woman that was one of the Congregation was burnt in Smithfield And thus ended the Burnings this Year seventy nine in all being burnt These severities against the Hereticks made the Queen shew less pity to the Lord Stourton The Lord Stourton hanged for Murder than perhaps might have been otherwise expected He had been all King Edwards time a most zealous Papist and did constantly dissent in Parliament from the Laws then made about Religion But he had the former Year murdered one Argall and his Son with whom he had been long at variance and after he had knock'd them down with Clubs and cut their Throats he buried them fifteen Foot under ground thinking thereby to conceal the Fact but it breaking out both he and four of his Servants were taken and indicted for it He was found guilty of Felony and condemned to be hanged with his Servants in Wilt-shire where the Murder was committed On the sixth of March they were hanged at Salisbury All the difference that was made in their Deaths being only thus That whereas his Servants were hanged in common Halters one of Silk was bestowed on their Lord. It seemed an indecent thing
their disorders was the Queen's breaking her Word to them in the matters of Religion He carried Melvil to the King and in his presence gave him Instructions to go to Scotland and see what was the true cause of all these disorders and particularly how farre the Prior of St. Andrews afterwards the Earl of Murray was engaged in them and if he by secret Ways could certainly find there was nothing in it but Religion that then he should give them Assurances of the free Exercise of it and press them not to engage any further till he was returned to the French Court where he was promised to find a great Reward for so important a Service but he was not to let the Queen Regent understand his business He found upon his going into Scotland that it was even as he had formerly heard that the Queen Regent was now much hated and distasted by them but that upon an Oblivion of what was passed and the free Exercise of their Religion for the future all might be brought to peace and quiet But before he came back the King of France was dead the Constable in disgrace and the Cardinal of Lorrain governed all But is killed So he lost his Labour and Reward which he valued much less being a generous and vertuous Man than the Ruine that he saw coming on his Country The Lords that were now united against the Queen Mother came and took St. Johnstoun From thence they went to Stirling and Edinburgh and every where they pulled down Monasteries all the Country declared on their side so that the Queen Regent was forced to fly to Dumbar-Castle The Lords sent to England for Assistance which the Queen readily granted them They gave out that they desired nothing but to have the French driven out and Religion settled by a Parliament The Queen Regent seeing all the Country against her and apprehending that the Q. of England would take advantage from these Stirrs to drive her out of Scotland was content to agree to a Truce A Truce agreed to in Scâ—â—lâ—â—d to summon a Parliament to meet on the 10th of January But the new King of France sent over Mr. de Croque with a high threatning Message that he would spend the whole Revenue of France rather then not be revenged on them that raised these Tumults in Scotland The Lords answered that they desired nothing but the Liberty of their Religion and that being obtained they should be in all other things his most obedient Subjects The Queen Regent having gotten about 2000 Men from France fortified Leith and in many other things broke the Truce There came over also some Doctors of the Sorbonne to dispute with the Ministers because they heard the Scotish Clergy were scarce able to defend their own Cause The Lords gathered again and seeing the Queen Regent had so often broke her Word to them they entred into Consultation to deprive her of her Regency Their Queen was not yet of Age and in her Minority they pretended that the Government of the Kingdom belonged to the States and therefore they gathered together many of her Maleadministrations for which they might the more colorably put her out of the Government The Queen Regent is deposed The things they charged on her were chiefly these That she had without Law begun a War in the Kingdom and brought in Strangers to subdue it had governed without the consent of the Nobility embased the Coin to maintain her Souldiers had put Garrisons in five Towns and had broke all Promises and Terms with them Thereupon they declared her to have fallen from her Regency and did suspend her Power till the next Parliament So now it was an irreconciliable Breach The Lords lay first at Edinburgh and from thence retired afterwards to Sterling Upon which the French came and possessed themselves of the Town and set up the Mass again in the Churches Greater Supplies came over from France under the Command of the Marquess of Elbeuf one of the Queen Regent's Brothers who though most of his Fleet were dispersed yet brought to Leith 1000 Foot so that there were now above 4000 French Souldiers in that Town But what Accession of strength soever the Queen Regent received from these she lost as much in Scotland for now almost the whole Country was united against her and the French were equally heavie to their Friends and Enemies They marched about by Sterling to waste Fife where there were some small Engagements between them and the Lords of the Congregation But the Scots The Scots implore the Q. of Englands Aid seeing they could not stand before that force that was expected from France the next Spring sent to Queen Elizabeth to desire her Aid openly for the secret Supplies of Mony and Ammunition with which she hitherto furnished them would not now serve the Turn The Counsel of England apprehended that it would draw on a War with France yet they did not fear that much for that Kingdom was falling into such Factions that they did not apprehend any great Danger from thence till their King was of Age. So the Duke of Norfolk was sent to Berwick to treat with the Lords of the Congregation who were now headed by the Duke of Chattelherhault On the 27th of February they agreed on these Conditions They were to be sure Allies to the Queen of England and to assist her both in England and Ireland as she should need their help She was now on the other hand to assist them to drive the French out of Scotland after which they were still to continue in their obedience to their Natural Queen This League was to last during their Queen's Marriage to the French King and for a Year after and they were to give the Queen of England Hostages who were to be changed every six Months This being concluded and the Hostages given the Lord Gray marched into Scotland with 2000 Horse and 6000 Foot Upon that the Lords sent and offered to the Queen Regent that if she would send away the French Forces the English should likewise be sent back and they would return to their Obedience This not being accepted they drew about Leith Leith is besieged by the English to besiege it In one Sally which the French made they were beaten back with the loss of 300 Men. This made the English more secure thinking the French would no more come out but they understanding the ill order that was kept sallied out again and killed near 500 of the English This made them more watchful for the future So the Seige being formed a Fire broke out in Leith which burnt down the greatest part of the Town the English playing all the while on them distracted them so that the Souldiers being obliged to be on the Walls the Fire was not easily quenched Hereupon the English gave the Assault and were beaten off with some loss but the Duke of Norfolk sent a supply of 2000 Men more with the
Contention Your Answer thereunto our said Servant hath declared unto us in this manner Ye can no wise forbear to speak of the Sacrament neither of the Mass this last being the chief Foundation as ye say of our Religion and that without it we cannot know that Christ is our Sacrifice the other being so spoken of by many that if you should not speak your mind thereof what ye think you know what other Men would think of you in the end concluding generally that you will speak the Truth and that ye doubt not but that we shall be therewith content adding also as our said Servant reporteth unto us That you would not wish that we our selves should meddle or have to do in these Matters of Religion but that the care thereof were committed to you the Bishops unto whom the blame if any should be deserved might well be imputed To this your Answer if so it be we reply very shortly signifying unto you our express Pleasure and Commandment on our Soveraign Lord the King's Majesty's behalf charging you by the Authority of the same to abstain in your said Sermon from treating of any Matter in controversy concerning the said Sacrament and the Mass and only to bestow your Speech in the expert explication of the Articles prescribed unto you and in other wholsome Matter of Obedience of the People and good Conversation and Living the same Matters being both large enough for a long Sermon and not unnecessary for the time And the treatie of other which we forbid you not meet in your private Sermon to be had but necessarily reserved for a publick Consultation and at this present utterly to be forborn for the common Quiet This our express Pleasure wherein we know how reasonably we may command you and you we think know how willingly ye ought to obey us For our intermedling with these Causes of Religion understand you that we account it no small part of our Charge under the King's Majesty to bring his People from Ignorance to Knowledg and from Superstition to true Religion esteeming that the chief Foundation to build Obedience upon and where there is a full consent of others the Bishops and learned Men in a Truth not to suffer you or a few other with wilful headiness to disswade all the rest And although we presume not to determine Articles of Religion by our Self yet from God we knowledg it we be desirous to defend and advance the Truth determined or revealed and so consequently we will not fail but withstand the Disturbers thereof So fare you well From Sion June 28. Anno 1548. Your Loving Friend E. Somerset Number 29. Some of the Collects and Hymns to the Saints in the Hours ad usum Sarum printed at Paris Anno 1520. In which immediate Adoration is offered to them and those things are asked of them which God only gives Folio 4. SAncta Dei Genetrix quae digne meruisti concipere quem totus orbis nequivit comprehendere tuo pio interventu culpas nostras ablue ut perennis sedem gloriae per te redempti valeamus scandere ubi manes cum Filio tuo sine tempore Fol. 11. S. Pauthaleon Sancte Panthaleon Martyr Christi militari ordine fuisti quo promeruisti Demum heremiticam vitam acquisisti Tu vero hydropicum sanum reddidisti Missus in equleo ungues perdidisti Costas cum lampadibus adustus fuisti Collum subdens gladio pronus pertulisti Fundens lac pro sanguine vitam sic finisti Cunctas febres dilue a plebe tam tristi Qui Coelestis Gloriae Regna meruisti Fol. 12. S. Tho. Cant. Tu per Thomae sanguinem quem pro te impendit fac nos Christe scandere quo Thomas ascendit Versicle gloria honore coronasti eum Domino Resp constituisti eum supra opera manuum tuarum Fol. 12. of Pope Nicolaus And so in many other places Ut ejus meritis precibus a gehennae incendiis liberemur Sancta Maria succurre miseris Juva pusillanimes refove flebiles ora pro populo Fol. 30. interveni pro clero intercede pro devoto femineo sexu Fol. 33. Virgo singularis inter omnes mitis nos culpis solutos mites fac castos Vitam presta puram iter para tutum ut videntes Jesum semper collaetemur Fol. 44. A Prayer to the Virgin to the sayers of which Pope Calestine granted 300 days of Pardon a part of which is Consolare peccatorem ne tuum des honorem alieno vel crudeli precor te Regina Coeli Me habeto excusatum apud Christum tuum natum cujus iram expavesco furorem pertimesco nam peccavi tibi soli O Maria Virgo noli esse mihi aliena gratia Coelesti plena esto custos cordis mei signa me timore Dei confer vitae sanitatem da morum honestatem Et da peccata me vitare quod justum est amare O dulcedo Virginalis nunquam fuit nec est talis c. Fol. 77. S. George Georgi Martyr inclite te decet laus gloria praedotatum militia per quem puella Regia existens in tristitia coram Dracone pessimo salvata est animo te rogamus corde intimo ut cum cunctis fidelibus Coeli jungamur civibus nostris abluti sordibus ut simul cum laetitia tecum simus in gloria nostraque reddant labia laudes Christo cum gloria Martyr Christophore pro salvatoris honore fac nos mente fore Ibid. St. Christopher dignos deitatis amore Promisso Christi quia quod petis obtinuisti da populo tristi bona quae moriendo petisti confer solamen mentis tolle gravamen judicis examen fac mite sit omnibus Amen O Willielme Pastor bone Cleri pater patrone Fol. 78. munda nobis in agone confer opem depone vitae sordes Coronae Coelestis da gaudia O vos undena millia puellae gloriosae virginitatis lilia Fol. 80. 11000 Virgins Martyrii Rosae in vita me defendite prebendo mihi juvamen in morte vos ostendite supremum ferendo solamen To St. Alban Te nunc petimus patrone praeco sedule qui es nostra vera gloria solve precum votis servorum scelera To St. Peter and St. Paul Beate Petre qui Maxima reseras claudis verbo Coeli limina sume pius vota fidelia peccati cuncta dissolvendo vincula Sacra Paule ingere dogmata illustrans plebis pectora In die omnium Sanctorum Mariam primam vox sonet nostra per quam nobis vitae sunt data praemia Regina quae es mater casta solve nostra per filium peccamina Angelorum concio sacra Arch-Angelorum turma inclita nostra diluant jam peccata praestando supernam Coeli gloriam Number 30. Dr. Redmayn's Opinion concerning the Marriage of the Clergie An Original I Think that although the Word of God does
Gestures appointed by the Book of Common Prayer and none other so that there do not appear in them any counterfeiting of the Popish Mass Item That none be admitted to receive the Holy Communion but such as will upon request of the Curat be ready with meekness and reverence to confess the Articles of the Creed Item That none make a Mart of the Holy Communion by buying and selling the Receipt thereof for Mony as the Popish Mass in times past was wont to be Item Whereas in divers places some use the Lord's Board after the form of a Table and some of an Altar whereby Dissention is perceived to arise among the unlearned therefore wishing a godly Unity to be observed in all our Diocess and for that the form of a Table may more move and turn the simple from the old superstitious Opinions of the Popish Mass and to the right use of the Lord's Supper We exhort the Curats Church-wardens and Questmen here present to erect and set up the Lord's Board after the form of an honest Table decently covered in such place of the Quire or Chancel as shall be thought most meet by their discretion and agreement so that the Ministers with the Communicants may have their place separated from the rest of the People and to take down and abolish all other by-Altars or Tables Item That the Minister in the time of the Communion immediately after the Offertory shall monish the Communicants saying these words or such-like Now is the time if it please you to remember the poor Mens Chest with your charitable Almes Item That the Homilies be read orderly without omission of any part thereof Item The Common Prayer be had in every Church upon Wednesdays and Fridays according to the King's Grace's Ordinance and that all such as conveniently may shall diligently resort to the same Item That every Curat be diligent to teach the Catechism whensoever just occasion is offered upon the Sunday or Holy-day and at least every six weeks once shall call upon his Parishioners and present himself ready to instruct and examine the Youth of the same Parish according to the Book of Service touching the same Item That none maintain Purgatory Invocation of Saints the Six Articles Bedrowls Images Reliques Rubrick Primars with Invocation of Saints Justification of Man by his own Works Holy Bread Palms Ashes Candles Sepulchre Paschal creeping to the Cross hallowing of the Fire or Altar or any other such-like abuses and superstitions now taken away by the King's Grace's most Godly Proceedings Item That all Ministers do move the People to often and worthy receiving of the Holy Communion Item That every Minister do move his Parishioners to come diligently to the Church and when they come not to talk or walk in the Sermon Communion or Divine Service-time but rather at the same to behave themselves reverently godly and devoutly in the Church and that they also monish the Church-wardens to be diligent Overseers in that behalf Item That the Church-wardens do not permit any buying selling gaming outragious noise or tumult or any other idle occupying of Youth in the Church Church-porch or Church-yard during the time of Common Prayer Sermon or reading of the Homily Item That no Persons use to minister the Sacraments or in open audience of the Congregation presume to expound the Holy Scriptures or to preach before they be first lawfully called and authorized in that behalf God save the King Number 53. Dr. Oglethorp's Submission and Profession of his Faith I Did never Preach or Teach openly any thing contrary to the Doctrine and Religion set forth by the King's Majesty and authorised by his Grace's Laws since the making and publishing of the same I suppose and think his Grace's Proceedings concerning Religion to be good and godly if they be used accordingly as his Grace hath wil'd they should by his Laws and Instructions And further I suppose the Order and Form of Doctrine and Religion now set forth by his Grace and used in many things to be better and much nearer the usage of the Apostolick and Primitive Church than it was before-times if it be used godly and reverently accordingly as I think it to be meant by his Grace's Highness and his most Honourable Council Namely in these things in prohibiting that none should commune alone in making the People whole Communers or in suffering them to Commune under both kinds in the Catechisation of young Chaplains in the Rudiments of our Faith in having the Common Prayer in English in setting forth the Homilies and many other things which I think very good and Godly if they be used as is aforesaid The lately received Doctrine concerning the Sacrament and namely the Attribute of Transubstantiation I do not like and I think it not consonant to the Scriptures and Ancient Writers although I suppose that there is a certain and an ineffable presence of Christ's Body there which I can neither comprehend nor express because it so far passes the compass and reach of my Wit and Reason wherefore I think it ought to be both ministred and received with a godly and reverent fear and not without great premeditation and examination aforesaid as well of the Minister as of the Receiver 1550. Your Grace's poor well-willer with his Prayer and Service as he is bound Owing Oglethorp Number 54. A Letter from Dr. Smith to Arch-Bishop Cranmer An Original Right honourable and my special good Lord. Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. I Commend me to your Grace most humbly giving to the same thanks as I am bound for your Grace's kindness toward my Sureties for the which you have and shall whiles I live my good Word and Prayer Ignatii Epistolae adhuc extant in Gymnasio Magdalenae If it might please your Lordship I would very gladly see some part of your Collection against my Book De Caelibatu Sacerdotum which I wrote then to try the truth out not to the intent it should be printed as it was against my Will Would God I had never made it because I took then for my chief Ground That the Priests of England made a Vow when they were made which now I perceive is not true My Lord I received my Cap-case c. Sed tribus nummorum meorum partibus sublatis Quod damnum aequo animo est ferendum quod furti revinci non possit qui abstulit My Lord I am glad that your Grace is reported both gentle and merciful of all such which have had to do with you for Religion of this University For my part if ever I may do your Graces basest Servant any pleasure I will do it indeed Si aliter atqui sentio loquor dispeream Ignoscat haec Honoranda Dominatio tam diutinum silentium mihi quippe quod crebrioribus literis posthac pensabo Deus optimus maximus tuam amplitudinem diu servet incolumem Christianae Pietati propagandae ac provehendae Oxonii 28. Tibi addictissimus Richardus Smithaeus
Cardinal Pacheco who shewed him of the good inclination of your Majesty my Soveraign Lord to have Peace with him and the Church And that also he had received a Letter from the most Reverend Lord Cardinal's Grace there-hence who had spoken with your Majesty and found the same so well inclined to have Peace with his Holiness as might be desired which his Holiness said he liked very well and held up his hands beseeching Almighty God to continue your Majesty in that good mind And then he began to declare how that God provided and always confirmed you the Queen's Majesty not only to do good to that Realm but to all Christendom also in whom his Holiness had such hope that the same will so help with the King's Majesty that Peace may follow betwixt the Church and him and he of his part coveted nothing more as it should appear if the King's Majesty would treat of it Yea he said though he should sustain great Damage thereby he will win his Majesty if he can And where his Majesty is informed that his Holiness would hear none of those that were sent to him from his Majesty as Francisco Pacheco and one Citizen of Naples he said That he never heard that either the said Francisco or the said Citizen had any Letter or Word to him from his Majesty If they had had he as he said who giveth Audience daily to as many as do seek it at his hands without denial would have heard them or any that had been sent from his Highness and this he said all that be about him can testify and called God to Record of it And yet he said that the King's Majesty is informed of the contrary whereupon he said that his Majesty was brought in belief that it was sufficient for his Highness to offer himself to be heard and seeing he could not he was discharged towards God and so lay the fault in his Holiness from the which Error so his Holiness named it he would and wished that his Majesty should be brought for his Holiness caused to be enquired of them Whether they had any Letters or any thing to say of his Majesty's behalf to him and could hear of none Wherefore his Holiness desired me to write to your Majesty and to signify the same to your Highness and of his Holiness behalf to pray you to advertise the King's Majesty that therein was no lack of his Holiness Saying If his Majesty had sent to him he would have gladly heard him or if it may please his Majesty yet to send no Man will be more glad thereof than he And said further that God who had called him to that place knew that he always hath been of mind to have a General Council for a Reformation throughout Christendom and in such Place as had been meet for it and doubted not but that he would have seen Christendom in such Order that such Enormities as do reign in many Parts should have been reformed if these Wars had not troubled him Saying therewith That the Power of the Church is not able to maintain Wars of it self but that God had provided Aid elsewhere but if he can have Peace he will embrace it he said though it were to his loss And prayed me to desire your Majesty of his behalf to put to your good help towards it To whom after thanks first given to his Holiness for the said good Opinion that he had of your Majesty and also of the Provision made of the said Church of Chichester I said that I was glad to hear of that good inclination of his Holiness to Peace and said that I would gladly signify to you the Queen's Majesty according to his Holiness Pleasure And that I had heard of divers that his Holiness would not give Audience to such as you my Soveraign Lord had sent to him whereof I was sorry and yet nevertheless trusted that betwixt his Holiness and your Majesty should be as great Amity as appertaineth and had not so good hope thereof sithence this War began as now hearing his Holiness to be so well inclined to it not doubting but all the World should perceive no lack of your Majesty's behalf as far as any Reason required Whether this be done for a practice to please least any stir be there against the Frenchmen which is most feared here I am not able to say for there lacketh no practice in this Court that they think may serve for their purpose The truth is that there is jarring betwixt the Pope and the French now with whom the Pope is nothing contented neither they with him as it is credibly reported here All the Italians that the Pope had in the French Camp be all gone the French handled them very ill and vile and especially Don Antonio de Caraffa the Pope's Nephew So that it is thought here that the Pope will turn the Leaf if any were here of your behalf the King's Majesty that had Authority to treat with his Holiness And if it please your Majesty to send any hither for that purpose by the Opinion of all your Majesty's well-willers here there can come but good of it After this Communication I lamented to his Holiness greatly of one thing that I had heard his Holiness pretended to do And forasmuch as your Majesty had placed me here with his Holiness and that the case was such that it touched the maintenance of the Common-Wealth of Christian Religion within your Majesty's Realm there so much that of Duty I could do no less but open it to his Holiness trusting that the same who had always shewed himself most ready with all benignity to do for You the Queen's Majesty and your Realm would so continue still Which thing was I said That his Holiness would revoke his Legat there which should be too great a prejudice to the Church of that Realm to be done before all things were truly stablished there and opened unto his Holiness all the Considerations before rehearsed whereof I had informed the Cardinals in as ample manner as I could Then he said that there was nothing that he could do for you the Queen's Majesty or your said Realm but he would do it most gladly unless occasion should be given there-hence that he might not And as touching the Revocation of the Legat in England he said That it was done already and not for to provide any thing within that Realm but only for because it was not convenient that any Legat of his should be within any of the King's Majesty's Realms or Dominions and therefore he revoked his Nuncio's from Naples from Spain and all other parts of the King's Majesty's Realms and Dominions and of England therefore Nevertheless he said if you the Queen's Majesty would write to him for the continuance of his Legat there he would restore him to his former Authority or any thing else that your Majesty should think expedient for him to do Then I said It would be long time before
for that their Doctrine which they embrace is not allowed and commanded only and all other abolished and disproved shall be discontented and call the Alteration a Cloak'd Papistry or a Mingle-Mangle Quest 3. What Remedy for the same Dangers What shall be the manner of doing of it and what is necessary to be done before Answ 1. First for France to practise a Peace or if it be offered not to refuse it If Controversy of Religion be there amongst them to kindle it Rome is less to be feared from whom nothing is to be feared but evil Will Cursing and Practising Scotland will follow France for Peace but there may be Practice to help forward their Division and especially to augment the Hope of them who inclined them to good Religion For certainty to fortify Barwick and to employ Demilances and Horsemen for safety of the Frontiers and some Expences of Mony in Ireland The fourth divided in five parts 1. The first is of them which were of Queen Mary's Council elected or advanced to Authority only or chiefly for being of the Pope's Religion and earnest in the same Every Augmentation or Conservation of such Men in Authority or Reputation is an encouraging those of their Sect and giveth hope to them that it shall revive and continue although it hath a contrary shew lest seeing the Pillars to stand still untouched it be a confirmation of them that are wavering Papists and a discouraging of such as are but half inclined to this Alteration Dum in dubio est animus parvo momento huc illuc impellitur This must be searched by all Law so far as Justice may extend and the Queen's Majesty's Clemency not to be extended before they do acknowledg themselves to have fallen into the lapse of the Law They must be abased of Authority discredited in their Countries so long as they seem to repugn the true Religion or to maintain the old Proceedings and if they should seem to allow and bear with the new Alteration yet not lightly to be credited quia neophiti and no Man but he loveth that time wherein he did flourish and when he came and as he came those Ancient Laws and Orders he will defend and maintain with whom and in whom he was in Estimation and Authority and a Doer for every Man naturally loveth that which is his own Work and Creature And contrary as those Men be abased so must her Highness old and sure Servants who have tarried with her and not shrunk in the late Storm be advanced with Authority and Credit that the World may see that her Highness is not unkind nor unmindful And throughout all England if such Persons as are known to be sure in Religion and God's Cause shall be slack yet their own Safety and Estate should cause to be vigilant careful and earnest for the conservation of her Estate and maintenance of this Alteration and in all this she shall do but the same that the late Queen Mary did to establish her Religion 2. The second is the Bishops and Clergy being in manner all made and chosen such as were thought the stoutest and mightiest Champions of the Pope's Church who in the late Queen Mary's Times taking from the Crown impoverishing it by extorting from private Men and all other means possible per fas nefas have sought to enrich and advance themselves These her Majesty being inclined to use much clemency yet must seek as well by Parliament as by the just Laws of England in the Premunire or other such Penal Laws to bring again in order and being found in the default not to pardon until they confess their Fault put themselves wholly to her Highness Mercy abjure the Pope of Rome and conform themselves to the new Alteration and by these means well handled her Majesty's necessity of Mony may be somewhat relieved 3. The third is to amended even as all the rest above by such ways as Queen Mary taught That no such as were may be in Commission of Peace in their Shires but rather Men meaner in Substance and younger in Years so that they have discretion to be put in Place A sharp Law made and extended against Assemblies of People without Authority Lieutenants made in every Shire one or two Men known to be sure of the Queen's Devotion In the mean time Musters and Captains appointed Young Gentlemen which do favour her Highness No Office of Jurisdiction or Authority to be in any discontented Man's hands so far as Justice or Law may extend 4. The fourth is to be remedied otherwise than by gentle and dulce handling it is by the Commissioners and by the readiness and good-will of the Lieutenants and Captains to repress them if any should begin a Tumult or murmur or provide any Assembly or stoutness to the contrary 5. The fifth For the Discontentation of such as could be content to have Religion altered but would have it to go for fear the strait Laws upon the Promulgation of the Book and severe execution of the same at the first would so oppress them that it is great hope it shall touch but a few And better it were that they did suffer than her Highness and Common-Wealth should shake or be in danger and to this they must well take heed that draw the Book And herein the Universities must not be neglected and the hurt which the last Visitation in Queen Mary's Time did must be amended Likewise such Colleges where Children be instructed to come to the University as Eaton and Winchester that as well the encrease hereafter as this present time may be provided for Quest 4. What may be done of her Highness for her own Conscience openly before the whole Alteration or if the Alteration must tarry longer Answer This consultation is to be referred to such Learned Men as be meet to shew their Minds therein and to bring a Plot or Book hereof ready drawn to her Highness which being approved by her Majesty may so be put in the Parliament-House To which for the time it is thought that these are apt Men Dr. Bill Dr. Parker Dr. May Dr. Cox Mr. Whitehead Grindall Pilkington and Sir Thomas Smith to call them together and to be amongst them and after the consultation with these to draw in other Men of Learning and grave and apt Men for your Purpose and Credit to have their Assents As for that is necessary to be done before it is thought to be most necessary that a strait Prohibition be made of all Innovation until such time as the Book come forth as well that there should be no often Changes in Religion which would take away Authority in the common Peoples estimation as also to exercise the Queen's Majesty's Subjects to Obedience Quest 5. What Orders be sit to be in the whole Realm as in the interim Answer To alter no further than her Majesty hath except it be to receive the Communion as her Majesty pleaseth at high Feasts and that where there be
but be-like we should have that as it was of late days The Matter of which Service is taken out of the Psalms and other part of the Bible Translated into English wherein are manifest Errors and false Translations which all by depravation of God's Scripture and so verè mendacia Now if the Service be so fram'd then may Men well say upon us That we serve God with Lyes Wherefore we may not so travel and labour to alter the form of our Common Prayer that we lese the Fruit of all Prayer which by this barbarous contention no doubt we shall do And the Church of God hath no such custom as St. Paul alledgeth in such Contentions And may not the whole World say unto us as St. Paul said unto the Corinthians 1 Cor. 14. An à vobis Verbum Dei processit aut in vos solos pervenit As though the whole Church had been ever in Error and never had seen this Chapter of St. Paul before And that the Holy Ghost had utterly forsaken his Office in leading that into all Truth till now of late certain boasting of the Holy Ghost and the sincere Word of God hath enterprised to correct and overthrow the whole Church Augustinus lib. 1. contra Julianum Pelagium à Graecis pro suâ Heresi profugum querentem ad hunc modum respondit Puto inquit tibi eam partem orbis debere sufficere in quâ primum Apostolorum suorum voluit Dominus gloriosissimo Martyrio Coronari Et idem paulo post Te certe Julianum alloquitur Occidentalis Terra generavit Occidentalis Regeneravit Ecclesia Quid ei quaeris inferre quod in eâ non invenisti quando in ejus membra venisti Imò Quid ei quaeris auferre quod in eâ tu quoque accepisti Haec ille A number of Authorities out of the Doctors we could rehearse that maketh for the Unity of the Church and for not disturbing the quiet Government of the same which all impugn this their first Assertion by way of Argument But because they have framed their Assertion so that we be compelled to defend the Negative in the probation whereof the Doctors use not directly to have many words therefore of purpose we leave out a number of the Sayings of the Doctors which all as I said before would prove this first Matter by way of Argument lest we should be tedious and keep you too long in a plain Matter And therefore now to conclude for not changing the Divine Service and the Ministration of the Sacraments from the Learned Tongue which thing doth make a Schism and a Division between us and the Catholick Church of God we have brought in the Scripture that doth forbid all such Schism And also the Consent and Custom of the whole Church which cannot Err and maketh us bold to say as we do with other things as ye have heard for confirmation of the same And in answering to the first Matter we intend God willing to say much more beseeching Almighty God so to inspire the Heart of the Queen's Majesty and her most Honourable Council with the Nobility of this Realm and Us that be the Pastors of the People in these Causes that so we may dispose of the Service of God as we may therein serve God And that we do not by altering the said Service from the Uniform manner of Christ's Church but also highly displease God and procure to Us infamy of the World the Worm of Conscience and Eternal Damnation which God forbid and grant us Grace to acknowledg confess and maintain his Truth To whom be all Glory Amen Number 5. The Declaration of the Proceedings of a Conference begun at Westminster the last of March 1559 concerning certain Articles of Religion and the breaking up of the said Conference by default and contempt of certain Bishops Parties of the said Conference THe Queen 's most Excellent Majesty having heard of diversities of Opinions in certain Matters of Religion Ex Chartophylac Regio amongst sundry of her Loving Subjects and being very desirous to have the same reduced to some Godly and Christian Concord thought it best by advice of the Lords and others of her Privy Council as well for the satisfaction of Persons doubtful as also for the knowledg of the very Truth in certain Matters of difference to have a convenient chosen number of the best Learned of either Part and to confer together their Opinions and Reasons and thereby to come to some good and charitable Agreement And hereupon by her Majesty's Commandment certain of her said Privy Council declared this purpose to the Arch-Bishop of York being also one of the said Privy Council and required him that he would impart the same to some of the Bishops and to make choice of 8 nine or ten of them and that there should be the like number named of the other part and further also declared to him as then was supposed what the Matters should be and as for the time it was thought upon and then after certain days past it was signified by the said Arch-Bishop that there was appointed by such of the Bishops to whom he had imparted this Matter eight Persons that is to say four Bishops and four Doctors who were content at the Queen's Majesty's Commandment to shew their Opinions and as he termed it render account of their Faith in those Matters which were mentioned and that specially in writing Although he said they thought the same so determined as there was no cause to dispute upon them It was hereupon fully resolved by the Queen's Majesty with the Advice aforesaid that according to their desire it should be in writing on both Parts for avoiding of much alteration in words And that the said Bishops should because they were in Authority of Degree Superiours first declare their Minds and Opinions to the Matter with their Reasons in writing And the other number being also eight Men of good degree in Schools and some having been in Dignity in the Church of England if they had any thing to say to the contrary should the same day declare their Opinions in like manner And so each of them should deliver their Writings to the other to be consisidered what were to be improved therein and the same to declare again in Writing at some other convenient day and the like Order to be kept in all the rest of the Matters All this was fully agreed upon with the Arch-Bishop of York and so also signified to both Parties and immediately hereupon divers of the Nobility and States of the Realm understanding that such a Meeting and Conference should be and that in certain Matters thereupon the present Court of Parliament consequently following some Laws might be grounded they made earnest means to her Majesty that the Parties of this Conference might put and read their Assertions in the English Tongue and that in the presence of them the Nobility and others of her Parliament-House for the better satisfaction and
Hostages though that Assurance might be good to preserve her from Violence in Scotland yet it may be doubted how the same will be sufficient to keep her from escaping or governing a-again seeing for her part she will make little Conscience of the Hostages if she may prevail and the punishing of the Hostages will be a small satisfaction to the Queen's Majesty for the Troubles that may ensue And for the doubt of her escape or of Rebellion within this Realm it may be said That if she should not be well guarded but should be left open to practise then her Escape and the other Perils might be doubted of but if the Queen's Majesty hold a stricter hand over her and put her under the Care of a fast and circumspect Man all practice shall be cut from her and the Queen's Majesty free from that Peril And more safe it is for the Queen to keep the Bridle in her own Hand to restrain the Scottish Queen than in returning her home to commit that trust to others which by Death composition or abusing of one Person may be disappointed And if she should by any means recover her Estate the doubt of Rebellion there is not taken away but rather to be feared if she have ability to her Will And if she find strength by her own or Forreign Friends she is not far off to give Aid upon a main Land to such as will stir for her which so long as she is here they will forbear lest it might bring most Peril to her self being in the Queen's Hands The like respect no Doubt will move Forreign Princes to become Requesters and no Threatners for her delivery And where it is said That the Queen's Majesty cannot be quiet so long as she is here but it may breed danger to her Majesty's Health That is a Matter greatly to be weighed for it were better to adventure all than her Majesty should inwardly conceive any thing to the danger of her Health But as that is only known to such as have more inward Acquaintance with her Majesty's disposition than is fit for some other to have So again it is to be thought that her Majesty being wise if the Perils like to follow in returning her Home were laid before her and if she find them greater than the other she will be induced easily to change her Opinion and thereby may follow to her Majesty's great satisfaction and quietness Cautions if she be retained To remove her somewhat nearer the Court at the least within one days Journey of London whereby it shall be the more easie to understand of her Doings To deliver her in custody to such as be thought most sound in Religion and most void of practice To diminish her number being now about forty Persons to the one half to make thereby the Queen's Charges the less and to give her the fewer means of Intelligence To cut from her all Access Letters and Messages other than such as he that shall have the Charge shall think fit To signify to all Princes the occasion of this streight Guard upon her to be her late practice with the Duke of Norfolk which hath given the Queen cause to doubt further assuring them that she shall be used honourably but kept safely from troubling the Queen's Majesty or this State That she be retained here until the Estate of Scotland be more setled and the Estate of other Countries now in garboil be quieted the Issue whereof is like to be seen in a Year or two Number 12. A Letter written by the Earl of Leicester to the Earl of Sussex concerning the Queen of Scots taken from the first Draught of it written with his own hand MY good Lord I received your Letter in the answer of mine Ex M. SS Nob. D. Evelyn and though I have not written sooner again to your Lordship both according to your desire and the necessity of our Cases at this time yet I doubt not but you are fully advertised of her Majesty's Pleasure otherwise For my own part I am glad your Lordship hath prospered so well in your Journey and have Answered in all Points the good Opinion conceived of you And touching her Majesty's further Resolution for these Causes my Lord I assure you I know not well what to write First I see her Majesty willing and desirous as Reason is to work her own Security and the quietness of her State during her time which I trust in God shall be far longer than we shall live to see end of And herein my Lord there be sundry Minds and among our selves I must confess to your Lordship we are not fully agreed which way is best to take And to your Lordship I know I may be bold beside the Friendship I owe you the Place you hold presently doth require all the understanding that may be to the furtherance of her Majesty's good Estate wherefore I shall be the bolder even to let you know as much as I do and how we rest among us Your Lordship doth consider for the State of Scotland her Majesty hath those two Persons being divided to deal with the Queen of Scotland lately by her Subjects deprived and the young King her Son Crown'd and set up in her Place Her Majesty of these two is to chuse and of necessity must chuse which of them she will allow and accept as the Person sufficient to hold the principal Place And here groweth the Question in our Council to her Majesty Which of these two are most fit for her to maintain and join in Amity with To be plain with your Lordship The most in number do altogether conceive her Majesty's best and surest way is to maintain and continue the young King in this his Estate and thereby to make her whole Party in Scotland which by the setling of him with the cause of Religion is thought most easiest most safest and most probable for the perpetual quieting and benefit to her own Estate and great assurance made of such a Party and so small Charges thereby as her Majesty may make account to have the like Authority and assured Amity in Scotland as heretofore she had in the time of the late Regent The Reasons against the other are these shortly The Title that the Queen claimeth to this Crown The overthrow of Religion in that Country The impossibility of any assurance for the observing of any Pact or Agreement made between our Soveraign and her These be Causes your Lordship sees sufficient to dissuade all Men from the contrary Opinion And yet my Lord it cannot be denied upon indifferent looking into the Matter on both sides but the clearest is full enough of Difficulties And then my Lord is the Matter disputable and yet I think verily not for Argument-sake but even for Duty and Conscience-sake to find out Truth and safest means for our Soveraign's best doing And thus we differ The first you have heard touching the young King On the other side this it
were under severe pains follow that Faith which was received by Damasus Bishop of Rome and Peter of Alexandria And why might not the King and Laws of England give the like Authority to the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York When the Empire and especially the Eastern part of it had been during the Reign of Constantius and Valens succeeding him after a short Interval so overspread with Arianisme it is scarce to be imagined how it could have been reformed in any other manner for they durst not at first trust it to the discretion of a Synod and yet the Question then on foot was not so link'd with Interest being a Speculative Point of Divinity as those about which the Contests were in the beginnings of the Reformation It is not to be imagined how any Changes in Religion can be made by Sovereign Princes unless an Authority be lodged with them of giving the Sanction of a Law to the sounder though the lesser part of a Church for as Princes and Law-givers are not tied to an implicite obedience to Clergy-men but are left to the freedom of their own discerning so they must have a Power to choose what side to be of where things are much enquired into The Jurisdiction of Synods or Councils is founded either on the Rules of Expediency and Brotherly Correspondence or on the force of Civil Laws for when the Christian Belief had not the support of Law every Bishop taught his own Flock the best he could and gave his Neighbours such an account of his Faith at or soon after his Consecration as satisfied them and so maintained the Vnity of the Church The formality of Synods grew up in the Church from the division of the Roman Empire and the Dignity of the several Cities which is a thing so well known and so plainly acknowledged by the Writers of all sides that it were a needless imposing on the Readers patience to spend time to prove it Such as would understand it more perfectly will find it in De Marca the late Arch-bishop of Paris's Books de Concordia Imperii Sacerdotii and in Blondells Works De la Primaute de l'Eglise None can imagine there is a Divine Authority in that which sprang from such a beginning The major part of Synods cannot be supposed to be in matters of Faith so assisted from Heaven that the lesser part must necessarily acquiesce in their Decrees or that the Civil Powers must always measure their Laws by their Votes especially where Interest does visibly turn the Scales And this may satisfie any reasonable Man as to this prejudice that if Arch-bishop Cranmer and Holgate the two Primates and Metropolitanes of this Church were in the right in the things that they procured to be reformed though the greater part of the Bishops being biassed by base ends and generally both superstitious and little conversant in the true Theological Learning did oppose them and they were thereby forced to order matters so that at first they were prepared by some selected Bishops and Divines and afterwards Enacted by King and Parliament this is no just exception to what was so managed And such a Reformation can no more be blasted by being called a parliament-Parliament-Religion than the Reformations made by the Kings of Israel without or against the Majority of the Priests could be blemish'd by being call'd the Kings Religion A third Prejudice is that the Persons who governed the Affairs at Court were weak or ill Men that the King being under Age things were carried by those who had him in their Power And for the two great Ministers of that Reign or rather the Administrators of it the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland as their violent and untimely deaths may seem to be effects of the indignation of Heaven for what they did so they were both eminently faulty in their Administration and are supposed to have sought too much their own ends This seems to cast a blemish on their Actions and to give some reason to suspect the things were not good which had such Instruments to advance them But this Prejudice compounded of many Particulars when taken to pieces will appear of no force to blast the credit of what they did By our Law the King never dies and is never young nor old so that the Authority of the King is the same whether administred by himself or by his Governours when he is under Age nor are we to judge of Men by the events that befall them These are the deepest Secrets of Divine Providence into which it is impossible for Men of limited understandings to penetrate and if we make Judgments of Persons and Things by accidents we shall very often most certainly conclude falsely Solomon made the Observation which the Series of Humane Affairs ever since hath fully justified That there are Just Men to whom it happens according to the Work of the Wicked and Wicked Men to whom it happens according to the Work of the Righteous and the enquiring into these seemingly unequal steps of Gods Governing the World is a vanity As for the Duke of Northumberland the Reformation is not at all concerned in him for if we believe what he said when there was the least reason to suspect him on the Scaffold he was all the while a Papist in his Heart And so no wonder if such a Man striking in for his own ambitious ends with that which was popular even against the perswasions of his Conscience did very ill things The Duke of Somerset was indeed more sincere and though he was not without his faults which we may safely acknowledge since the Man of Infallibility is not pretended to be without sin yet these were not such heinous transgressions but rather such as humane infirmity exposes most Men to when they are raised to an high condition He was too vain too much addicted to his own Notions and being a Man of no extraordinary Parts he was too much at the disposal of those who by flatteries and submissions insinuated themselves into him and he made too great hast to raise a vast Estate to be altogether innocent but I never find him charged with any personal disorders nor was he ever guilty of falshood of perverting Justice of Cruelty or of Oppression He was so much against the last of these that he lost the affections of the Nobility for being so careful of the Commons and covering them from the oppression of their Landlords The Business of his Brother though it has a very ill appearance and is made to look worse by the lame account our Books give of it seems to have been forced on him for the Admiral was a Man of most incurable ambition and so inclined to raise disturbance that after so many relapses and such frequent Reconciliations he still breaking out into new disorders it became almost necessary to put him out of a capacity of doing more mischief But if we compare the Duke of Somerset with the great Ministers even in
the best Courts we shall find him better than most of them and if some few have carried their Prosperity better many more even of those who are otherwise recorded for extraordinary Persons have been guilty of far greater faults He who is but a little acquainted with History or with the Courts of Princes must needs know so much of this Argument that he will easily cure himself of any ill effects which this Prejudice may have on him A fourth Prejudice is raised from the great Invasions which were then made upon the Church-Lands and things dedicated to Pious Vses which is a thing hated by Men of all Religions and branded with the odious Names of Sacriledge and robbing of God so that the Spoils of Religious Houses and Churches seem to have been the secret Motives that at first drew in and still engage so many to the Reformation This has more weight in it than the former and therefore deserves to be more fully considered The Light of Nature teaches that those who are dedicated to the Service of God and for instructing the People ought to be so well provided for that they may be delivered from the distractions of Secular Cares and secured from the contempt which follows Poverty and be furnished with such means as may both enable them to know that well wherein they are to instruct others and to gain such an Interest in the affections of those among whom they labour as modest Hospitality and liberal Alms-giving may procure In this all Nations and Religions have so generally agreed that it may be well called a Law of Nations if not of Nature Had Church-men been contented with this measure it is very probable things had never run to the other Extream so much as they have done But as the Pope got to himself a great Principality so the rest of his Clergy defigned to imitate him in that as much as was possible they spared no pains nor thought they any Methods too bad that could set forward these Projects The belief of Purgatory and the redeeming of Souls out of it by Masses with many other publick Cheats imposed on the World had brought the Wealth of this and other Nations into their Hands Vpon the discovery of this imposture it was but a reasonable and just proceeding of the Government to re-assume those Lands and dispose otherwise of them which had been for most part fraudulently drawn from the former Ages for indeed the best part of the Soil of England being in such ill Hands it was the Interest of the whole Kingdom to have it put to better uses So that the Abbies being generally raised and endowed by the efficacy of those false Opinions which were infused into the People I can see no just exception against the dissolution of them with the Chantries and other Foundations of like superstition and the fault was not in taking them away but in not applying a greater part of them to uses truly Religious But most of these Monasteries had been enriched by that which was indeed the Spoil of the Church for in many Places the Tithes which belonged to the Secular Clergy were taken from them and by the Authority of Papal Bulls were given to the Monasteries This was the Original of the greatest mischief that came on this Church at the Reformation The Abbots having possessed themselves of the Tithes and having left to those who served the Cure either some small Donative or Stipend and at best the small Tithes or Viccarage those who purchased the Abbey-Lands from the Crown in the former Reign had them with no other charge reserved for the Incumbents but that small Pittance that the Abbots had formerly given them and this is now a much less allowance than the Curates had in the times of Popery for though they have now the same Right by their Incumbency that they then had yet in the time of Superstition the Fees of Obits Exequies Soul Masses and such other Perquisites did furnish them so plentifully that considering their obligation to remain unmarried they lived well though their certain maintenance was but small but these things falling off by the Reformation which likewise leaves the Clergy at liberty in the matter of Marriage this has occasioned much ignorance and scandal among the Clergy I shall not enter into the debate about the Divine Right of Tithes this I am sure of a decent maintenance of the Clergy is of natural Right and that it is not better looked to is a publick reproach to the whole Nation when in all other Religions and Nations those who serve at the Altar live by it The ancient Allowances for the Curates in Market Towns being generally so small because the Number and Wealth of the People made the Perquisites so considerable has made those Places to be too often but ill supplied and what way this makes for the seducers of all hands when the Minister is of so mean a condition and hath so incompetent a Maintenance that he can scarce secure himself from extream want and great contempt I leave it to every Man to judge This is as high a contempt of Religion and the Gospel as any can be and is one of those things for which this Nation has much to answer to God that now in one hundred and twenty years time so little has been done by publick Authority for the redress of such a crying oppression Some private Persons have done great things this way but the publick has yet done nothing sutable to the occasion Though their Neighbour Nation of Scotland has set them a very good Example where by the great zeal and care of King James and the late blessed King Acts and Orders of Parliament have been made for examining the whole state of the Clergy and for supplying all poor Livings so plentifully that in Glebe and Tithes all Benefices are now raised to at least fifty Pounds Sterling yearly What greater scorn can be put on Religion than to provide so scantly for those that are trusted with the care of Souls that some hundreds of Parishes in England pay not Ten Pounds a year to their Pastors and perhaps some thousands not Fifty This is to be numbred among those crying sins that are bringing down vengeance on us since by this many Souls are left to perish because it is not possible to provide them with faithful and able Shepherds I shall not examine all the particular Reasons that have obstructed the redress of this mischief but those concerned in it may soon find some of them out in themselves And here I acknowledge a great and just prejudice lies against our Reformation which no man can fully answer But how faulty soever we may be in this Particular they of the Church of Rome have little reason to object it to us since the first and true occasion of it was of their own doing Our fault is that at the dissolution of the Monasteries restitution was not made to the Parish Priests of
enquiry into them it will be found that some of them are of no force at all and that the other which are better Grounded can amount to no more than this that things were not managed with that care or brought to that Perfection that were to be desired so that all the use we ought to make of these Objections is to be directed by them to do those things which may compleat and adorn that Work which was managed by Men subject to Infirmities who neither could see every thing nor were able to accomplish all that they had Projected and saw fit to be done But from the matter of the following History another Objection of another sort may arise which tho it has no Relation to the Reformation yet leaves no small Imputation on the Nation as too apt to change and be carryed about with every Religion in Vogue since in little more than 20 years time there were four great changes made in Religion and in all these the main Body of the Nation turned with the Stream and it was but a small number that stood firm and suffered for their Consciences But if the State of the Nation be well considered there will be nothing in all this so strange as at first view it may perhaps appear for in the times of Popery the People were kept in such profound ignorance that they knowing nothing of Religion beyond the outward Forms and Pageantry and being highly dissatisfied with the ill Lives of the Clergy and offended with their Cruelty against those that contradicted their Opinions it is no wonder that they were inclined to hear Preachers of any sort who laid out to them the reasons of the Doctrine they delivered and did not impose it on them in gross as the others had done These Teachers being also Men of Innocent tempers and good Lives and being recommended to the Compassion of the Nation by their sufferings and to their esteem by their zeal and readiness to run all hazards for their Consciences had great advantages to gain on the Belief and affections of the People And to speak freely I make no doubt but if the Reformation had been longer a hatching under the heat of Persecution it had come forth perfecter than it was This disposition of the People and King Henry's Quarrelling with the Pope made the way easie for the first Change But then the severities about the Supremacy on one hand and the six Articles on the other made People to stagger and reel between the two Religions And all People being fond of new things and the discoveries of the Impostures of the Priests and lewdness of the Monks encreasing their dislike of them it was no wonder the Reformation went on with so little Tumult and Precipitation till King Edward's time But tho there were then very Learned and Zealous Divines who Managed and carryed on the changes that were made yet still the greater part of the Clergy was very Ignorant and very Corrupt which was occasioned by the Pensions that were reserved out of the Rents of the suppressed Monasteries to the Monks during their Lives or till they were provided with livings The Abbey Lands that were sold with the Charge of these annexed to them coming into the Hands of Persons who had no mind to have that Burden lie longer on them they got these Monks Provided with Benefices that so they might be eased of that Charge And for the other Abbies that still remained with the Crown the same Course was taken for the Monks were put into all the small Benefices that were in the Kings gift So that the greatest part of the Clergy were such as had been formerly Monks or Fryers very Ignorant for most part and generally addicted to their former Superstition tho otherwise Men that would Comply with any thing rather than forfeit their Livings Vnder such Incumbents nothing but Ignorance and Vnconcernedness in Religion could prevail By this means it was that the greater part of the Nation was not well Instructed nor Possessed with any warmth and sincere Love to the Reformation which made the following change under Queen Mary more easily effected The Proceedings in King Edward's time were likewise so gentle and Moderate flowing from the calm temper of Arch-Bishop Cranmer and the policy of others who were willing to accept of any thing they could obtain hoping that time would do the business if the overdriving it did not precipitate the whole affair that it was an easie thing for a Concealed Papist to weather the difficulties of that Reign There were also great scandals given by the Indiscretion of many of the New Preachers The misgovernment of Affairs under the Duke of Somerset with the restless Ambition of the Duke of Northumberland did alienate the Nation much from them and a great aversion commonly begets an universal dislike of every thing that is done by those whom we hate All these things concurred to prepare the minds of the People to the change made by Queen Mary but in her Reign Popery did more plainly discover it self in the many repeated Bâ—rnings and the other Cruelties then openly exercised The Nation was also in such danger of being brought under the uneasie Yoak of Spanish Government and they were many of them in fear of losing their new gotten Church Lands These things together with the loss of Calais in the end of her Reign which was Vniversally much resented as a lasting dishonour to the Nation raised in them a far greater aversion to her Government and to every thing that had been done in it than they had to the former The Genius of the English leads them to hate Cruelty and Tyranny and when they saw these were the necessary Concomitants of Popery no wonder it was thrown out with so general an agreement that there was scarce any considerable Opposition made to it except by some few of their Clergy who having changed so oft were ashamed of such repeated recantations and so resolved at last to stand their ground which was the more easie to resolve on under so merciful a Prince who punisht them only by a Forfeiture of their Benefices and that being done took care of their Subsistence for the rest of their Lives Bonner himself not being excepted tho so deeply dyed in the Blood of so many Innocents All these things laid together it will not seem strange that such great Alterations were so easily brought about in so short a time But from the days of Queen Elizabeth that the Old Monks were worn out and New Men better Educated were placed in Churches things did generally put on a new Visage and this Church has since that time continued to be the Sanctuary and shelter of all Forreigners and the chief Object of the Envy and Hatred of the Popish Church and the great Glory of the Reformation and has wisely avoided the splitting asunder on the high Points of the Divine Decrees which have broken so many of the Reformed beyond Sea but
to a secular course of life had little of a Church-man but the Habit and Name and yet used to rail against Sacriledge in others not considering how guilty themselves were of the same crime enriching their Families with the Spoils of the Church or with the Goods of it which were put into their Hands for better uses And it was no wonder that when Clergy-men had thus abused these Endowments Secular Men broke in upon them observing plainly that the Clergy who enjoyed them made no better use of them than Laicks might do Though in stead of reforming an abuse that was so generally spread they like Men that minded nothing more than the enriching of themselves took a certain course to make the mischief perpetual by robbing the Church of those Endowments and Helps it had received from the Munificence of the Founders of its Cathedrals who were generally the first Christian Kings of this Nation which had it been done by Law would have been a thing of very bad consequence but as it was done was directly contrary to the Magna Charta and to the Kings Coronation Oath But now they that were weary of the Popish Superstitions observing that Arch-bishop Cranmer had so great a share of the young Kings affection and that the Protector and he were in the same Interests began to call for a further Reformation of Religion and some were so full of zeal for it that they would not wait on the slow motions of the State Images removed without Authority out of one Church in London So the Curate and Church-wardens of St. Martins in Ironmonger-lane in London took down the Images and Pictures of the Saints and the Crucifix out of their Church and painted many Texts of Scripture on the Walls some of them according to a perverse Translation as the Complaint has it and in the place where the Crucifix was they set up the Kings Arms with some Texts of Scripture about it Upon this the Bishop and Lord-Major of London complained to the Council And the Curate and Church-wardens being cited to appear answered for themselves That the Roof of their Church being bad they had taken it down and that the Crucifix and Images were so rotten that when they removed them they fell to powder That the charge they had been at in repairing their Church was such that they could not buy new Images That they had taken down the Images in the Chancel because some had been guilty of Idolatry towards them In conclusion they said what they had done was with a good intention and if they had in any thing done amiss they asked pardon and submitted themselves Some were for punishing them severely for all the Papists reckoned that this would be a leading Case to all the rest of this Reign and if this was easily passed over others would be from that remisness animated to attempt such things every where But on the other hand those at Court who had designed to set forward a Reformation had a mind only so far to check the heat of the People as to keep it within compass but not to dishearten their Friends too much Cranmer and his Party were for a general removing of all Images and said that in the late Kings time order being given to remove such as were abused to Superstition Upon that there were great Contests in many Places what Images had been so abused and what not and that these Disputes would be endless unless all were taken away In the purest Times of Christianity they had no Images at all in their Churches One of the first Councils namely that at Elvira in Spain An account of the Progress of Image-worship made a Canon against the painting what they worshiped on the Walls Epiphanius was highly offended when he saw a Vail hanging before the door of a Church with a Picture on it which he considered so little as not to know well whose Picture it was but thought it might be Christs or some other Saints yet he tore it and gave them of that Place Money to buy a new Vail in its room Afterwards with the rest of the pomp of Heathenism Images came to be set up in Churches yet so as that there was no sort of Worship payed to them But in the time of Pope Gregory the first many went into extremes about them some were for breaking them and others worshiped them That Pope thought the middle way best neither to break nor to worship them but to keep them only to put the People in mind of the Saints Afterwards there being subtle Questions started about the Unity of Christs Person and Will the Greek Emperours generally inclined to have the animosities raised by these removed by some comprehensive words to which all might consent which the Interest of State as well as Religion seemed to require for their Empire every day declining all methods for uniting it were thought good and prudent But the Bishops were stiff and peremptory So in the sixth general Council they condemned all who differed from them Upon this the Emperours that succeeded would not receive that Council but the Bishops of Rome ordered the Pictures of all the Bishops who had been at that Council to be set up in the Churches Upon which the Emperours contended against these or any Pictures whatsoever in Churches And herein that happened which is not usual that one Controversie rising occasionally out of another the Parties forsake the first Contest and fall into sharp Conflicts about the occasional differences For now the Emperours and Popes quarrelled most violently about the use of Images and ill Names going a great way tomards the defaming an Opinion the Popes and their Party accused all that were against Images as favouring Judaism or Mahometanism which was then much spread in Asia and Africk The Emperours and their Party accusing the others of Gentilism and Heathenish Idolatry Upon this occasion Gregory the third first assumed the Rebellious Pretension to a Power to depose Leo the Emperour from all his Dominions in Italy There was one General Council at Constantinople that condemned the use or worship of Images and soon after another at Nice did establish it and yet at the same time Charles the Great though not a little linked in Interest to the Bishops of Rome holding both the French and Imperial Crowns by the favour of the Popes wrote or imployed Alcuinus a most learned Country-man of ours as these times went to write in his Name against the Worship of Images And in a Council at Frankfort it was condemned which was also done afterwards in another Council at Paris But in such Ages of Ignorance and Superstition any thing that wrought so much on the senses and imaginations of the People was sure to prevail in conclusion And this had in a Course of seven more Ages been improved by the craft and impostures of the Monks so wonderfully that there was no sign of Divine Adoration that could be invented that was
prayed in general for their quiet Rest and their speedy Resurrection Yet these Prayers growing as all superstitious devices do to be more considered some began to frame an Hypothesis to justifie them by that of the Thousand Years being generally exploded And in St. Austin's time they began to fancy there was a state of punishment even for the Good in another Life out of which some were sooner and some later freed according to the measure of their Repentance for their Sins in this Life But he tells us this was taken up without any sure ground and that it was no way certain Yet by Visions Dreams and Tales the belief of it was so far promoted that it came to be generally received in the next Age after him and then as the People were told that the Saints interceded for them so it was added that they might intercede for their departed Friends And this was the Foundation of all that Trade of Souls-Masses and Obits Now the deceased King had acted like one who did not believe that these things signified much otherwise he was to have but ill reception in Purgatory having by the subversion of the Monasteries deprived the departed Souls of the benefit of the many Masses that were said for them in these Houses yet it seems at his death he would make the matter sure and to shew he intended as much benefit to the Living as to himself being dead he took care that there should be not only Masses and Obits but so many Sermons at Windsor and a frequent distribution of Alms for the relief of the Poor But upon this occasion it came to be examined what value there was in such things Yet the Arch-bishop plainly saw that the Lord Chancellor would give great opposition to every motion that should be made for any further alteration for which he and all that Party had this specious pretence always in their Mouths That their late Glorious King was not only the most learned Prince but the most learned Divine in the World for the flattering him did not end with his Life and that therefore they were at least to keep all things in the condition wherein he had left them till the King were of Age. And this seemed also necessary on Considerations of State For Changes in matter of Religion might bring on Commotions and Disorders which they as faithful Executors ought to avoid But to this it was answered That as their late King was infinitely learned for both Parties flattered him dead as well as living so he had resolved to make great Alterations and was contriving how to change the Mass into a Communion that therefore they were not to put off a thing of such consequence wherein the Salvation of Peoples Souls was so much concerned but were immediately to set about it But the Lord Chancellor gave quickly great advantage against himself to his Enemies who were resolved to make use of any Error he might be guilty of so far as to ease themselves of the trouble he was like to give them The Kings Funeral being over The Creation of Peers order was given for the Creation of Peers The Protector was to be Duke of Somerset the Earl of Essex to be Marquess of Northampton the Viscount Lisle to be Earl of Warwick the Lord Wriothesley Earl of Southampton beside the new Creation of the Lords Seimour Rich Willoughby of Parham and Sheffield the rest it seems excusing themselves from new Honours as it appeared from the Deposition of Paget that many of those on whom the late King had intended to confer Titles of Honour had declined it formerly 1547. Feb. 20. Coronation On the 20th of Feb. being Shrove-Sunday the King was Crowned by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury according to the form that was agreed to The Protector serving in it as Lord Steward the Marquess of Dorset as Lord Constable and the Earl of Arundel as Earl Marshal deputed by the Protector A Pardon was proclaimed out of which the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pole and some others were excepted The first Business of importance after the Coronation The Lord Chancellor is removed from his Office was the Lord Chancellors fall Who resolving to give himself wholly to Matters of State had on the 18th of Feb. put the Great Seal to a Commission directed to Sir Richard Southwell Master of the Rolls John Tregonnel Esq Master of Chancery and to John Oliver and Anthony Bellasis Clerks Masters of Chancery setting forth that the Lord Chancellor being so employed in the Affairs of State that he could not attend on the hearing of Causes in the Court of Chancery these three Masters or any two of them were empowered to execute the Lord Chancellors Office in that Court in as ample manner as if he himself were present only their Decrees were to be brought to the Lord Chancellor to be Signed by him before they were Enrolled This being done without any Warrant from the Lord Protector and the other Executors it was judged a high presumption in the Lord Chancellor thus to devolve on others that Power which the Law had trusted in his Hands The Persons named by him encreased the offence which this gave two of them being Canonists so that the common Lawyers looked upon this as a President of very high and ill consequence And being encouraged by those who had no good will to the Chancellor they petitioned the Council in this Matter and complained of the evil consequences of such a Commission and set forth the fears that all the Students of the Law were under of a Change that was intended to be made of the Laws of England The Council remembred well they had given no Warrant at all to the Lord Chancellor for the issuing out any such Commission so they sent it to the Judges and required them to examine the Commission with the Petition grounded upon it Who delivered their Opinions on the last of Feb. That the Lord Chancellor ought not without Warrant from the Council to have set the Seal to it Feb. 28. and that by his so doing he had by the Common Law forfeited his Place to the King and was liable to Fine and Imprisonment at the Kings pleasure March 6. This lay sleeping till the sixth of March and then the Judges Answer being brought to the Council Signed with all their Hands they entred into a debate how far it ought to be punished The Lord Chancellor carried it very high and as he had used many Menaces to those who had petitioned against him and to the Judges for giving their Opinions as they did so he carried himself insolently to the Protector and told him he held his Place by a better Authority than he held his That the late King being empow'red to it by Act of Parliament had made him not only Chancellor but one of the Governours of the Realm during his Sons Minority and had by his Will given none of them Power over the rest to throw
his aid and assistance he did by the advice of his Unkle and others Nobles Prelates and wise Men accept of these Persons for his Councellors the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Lord St. John President the Lord Russel Lord Privy-Seal the Marquess of Northampton the Earls of Warwick and Arundel the Lord Seimour the Bishop of Duresme the Lord Rich Sir Thomas Cheyney Sir Joh. Gage Sir Anth. Brown Sir Anthony Wingfield Sir William Paget Sir William Petre Sir Ralph Sadler Sir John Baker Doctor Wotton Sir Anth. Denny Sir William Herbert Sir Edw. North Sir Ed. Montague Sir Ed. Wotton Sir Edm. Peckham Sir Tho. Bromley and Sir Richard Southwell giving the Protector Power to swear such other Commissioners as he should think fit and that he with so many of the Council as he should think meet might annul and change what they thought fitting restraining the Council to act only by his Advice and Consent And thus was the Protector fully setled in his Power and no more under the curb of the Co-executors who were now mixed with the other Councellors that by the late Kings Will were only to be consulted with as they saw cause But as he depressed them to an equality with the rest of the Councellors so he highly obliged the others who had been formerly under them by bringing these equally with them into a share of the Government He had also obtained to himself an high Authority over them since they could do nothing without his consent but he was only bound to call for so many of them as he thought meet and was not limited to act as they advised but cloathed with the full Regal Power and had it in his Hands to oblige whom he would and to make his Party greater by calling into the Council such as he should nominate How far this was legal I shall not enquire It was certainly contrary to King Henry's Will And that being made upon an Act of Parliament which empowred him to limit the Crown and the Government of it at his pleasure this Commission that did change the whole Government during the Kings Minority seems capable of no other defence but that it being made by the consent of the major part of the Executors it was still warrantable even by the Will which devolved the Government on them or the major part of them All this I have opened the more largely both because none of our Historians have taken any notice of the first Constitution of the Government during this Reign and being ignorant of the true account of it they have committed great errors and because having obtained by the favour of that most industrions Collector of the Transactions of this Age Mr. Rushworth the Original Council-Book for the two first years of this Reign I had a certain Authority to follow in it the exactness of that Book being beyond any thing I ever met with in all our Records For every Council-day the Privy-Councellors that were present set their Hands to all that was ordered judging so great caution necessary when the King was under Age. And therefore I thought this a Book of too great consequence to lie in private Hands so the owner having made a Present of it to me I delivered it to that Noble and Vertuous Gentleman Sir John Nicolas one of the Clerks of the Council to be kept with the rest of their Books And having now given the Reader a clear Prospect of the state of the Court I shall next turn to the Affairs that were under their consideration The state of Affairs in Germany That which was first brought before them was concerning the state of Germany Francis Burgartus Chancellor to the Duke of Saxe with others from the other Princes and Cities of the Empire were sent over upon the news of the former Kings death to sollicit for Aids from the new King toward the carrying on the War with the Emperor In order to the clearing of this and to give a just account of our Councils in reference to Forreign Affairs especially the cause being about Religion I shall give a short view of the state of Germany at this time The Emperor having formed a design of an Universal Monarchy laid hold on the differences of Religion in Germany as a good mean to cover what he did with the specious pretence of punishing Heresie and protecting the Catholicks But before he had formed this design 1531. Jan. 11. Ferdinand Crown'd King of the Romans he procured his Brother to be chosen King of the Romans and so declared his Successor in the Empire which he was forced to do being obliged to be much in Spain and his other hereditary Dominions and being then so young as not to enter into such deep Counsels as he afterwards laid But his Wars in Italy put him oft in ill terms with the Pope and being likewise watched over in all his Motions by Francis the I. and Henry VIII and the Turk often breaking into Hungary and Germany he was forced to great compliances with the Princes of the Empire Who being animated by the two great Crowns did enter into a League for their mutual defence against all Aggressors And at last in the Year 1544. 1544. Feb. 20. Diet began at Spire in the Diet held at Spire the Emperour being engaged in War with France and the Turk both to secure Germany and to obtain Money of the Princes was willing to agree to the Edict made there which was That till there was a free Council in Germany or such an Assembly in which Matters of Religion might be setled there should be a general Peace and none was to be troubled for Religion the free exercise of both Religions being allowed and all things were to continue in the state they were then in And the Imperial Chamber at Spire was to be reformed for the Judges of that Court being all Papists there were many Processes depending at the Suit of the Ecclesiasticks against the Protestant Princes who had driven them out of their Lands and the Princes expecting no fair dealing from them all these Processes were now suspended and the Chamber was to be filled up with new Judges that should be more favourable to them They obtaining this Decree contributed very liberally to the Wars the Emperour seemed to be engaged in 1544. Sept. 24. Emperor has Peace with France Who having his Treasure thus filled presently made Peace both with France and the Grand Seigniour and resolved to turn his Wars upon the Empire and to make use of that Treasure and Force they had contributed 1545. Oct. Peace with Turk to invade their Liberties and to subdue them entirely to himself Upon this he entred into a Treaty with the Pope that a Council should be opened in Trent upon which he should require the Princes to submit to it which if they refused to do he should make War on them The Pope was to assist him with 10000 Men besides levy Taxes hard on his
Principality which his Unkle George had left him only on condition that he turned Papist notwithstanding which he got him to be possessed of it was made use of by the Emperor as the best Instrument to work his ends To him therefore he promised the Electoral Dignity with the Dominions belonging to the Duke of Saxe if he would assist him in the War against his Kinsman the present Elector and gave him assurance under his Hand and Seal That he would make no change in Religion but leave the Princes of the Ausburg Confession the free exercise of their Religion And thus the Emperor singled out the Duke of Saxe and the Landgrave from the rest reckoning wisely that if he once mastered them he should more easily overcome all the rest He pretended some other quarrels against them as that of the Duke of Brunswick who having begun a War with his Neighbours was taken Prisoner and his Dominions possessed by the Landgrave That with some old Quarrels was pretended the ground of the War Upon which the Princes published a Writing to shew that it was Religion only and a secret design to subdue Germany that was the true cause of the War and those alledged were sought Pretences to excuse so infamous a breach of Faith and of the publick Decrees that the Pope who designed the destruction of all of that Confession had set on the Emperor to this who easily laid hold on it that he might master the liberty of Germany Therefore they warned all the Princes of their danger The Emperors Forces being to be drawn together out of several Places in Italy Flanders Burgundy and Boheme they whose Forces lay nearer had a great advantage if they had known how to use it 1546. June The Elector and Landgrave arm For in June they brought into the Field 70000 Foot and 15000 Horse and might have driven the Emperor out of Germany had they proceeded vigorously at first But the divided Command was fatal to them for when one was for Action the other was against it So they lost their opportunity and gave the Emperor time to gather all his Forces about him which were far inferior to theirs in strength but the Emperor gained by time whereas they who had no great Treasure lost much All the Summer and a great deal of the Winter was spent without any considerable Action though the two Armies were oft in view one of another 1546. Jul. 20. Duke of Saxe and Landgrave proscribed But in the beginning of the Winter the Emperor having proscribed the Duke of Saxe and promised to bestow the Principality on Maurice he fell into Saxony and carried a great many of the Cities which were not prepared for any such impression Nov. 23. The Elector returns into Saxony This made the Duke separate his Army and return to the defence of his own Country which he quickly recovered and drove Maurice almost out of all his own Principality The States of Boheme also declared for the Elector of Saxony This was the state of Affairs there The Princes thought they had a good Prospect for the next Year having mediated a Peace between the Crowns of England and France 1546. Jan. 7. Peace concluded between England and France whose Forces falling into Flanders must needs have bred a great distraction in the Emperors Councils But King Henry's death gave them great apprehensions and not without cause For when they sent hither for an Aid in Money to carry on the War the Protector and Council saw great dangers on both hands if they left the Germans to perish the Emperor would be then so lifted up that they might expect to have an uneasie Neighbour of him on the other hand it was a thing of great consequence to engage an Infant King in such a War Therefore their Succours from hence were like to be weak and very slow Howsoever the Council ordered Paget to assure them that within three or four Months they should send 50000 Crowns to their assistance which was to be covered thus The Merchants of the Still-yard were to borrow so much of the King and to engage to bring home Stores to that value they having the Money should send it to Hamburg and so to the Duke of Saxe But the Princes received a second Blow in the loss of Francis the first of France Who having lived long in a familiarity and friendship with King Henry not ordinary for Crowned Heads was so much affected with the news of his death that he was never seen cheerful after it He made Royal Funeral Rites to be performed to his memory in the Church of Nostredame to which the Clergy who one would have thought should have been glad to have seen his Funerals Celebrated in any fashion were very averse But that King had emancipated himself to a good degree from a servile subjection to them and would be obeyed He out-lived the other not long 1557. Mar. 31. Francis I. died for he died the last of March He was the chief Patron of Learned Men and advancer of Learning that had been for many Ages He was generally unsuccessful in his Wars and yet a great Commander At his death he left his Son an Advice to beware of the Brethren of Lorain and to depend much on the Councellors whom he had employed But his Son upon his coming to the Crown did so deliver himself up to the charms of his Mistress Diana that all things were ordered as Men made their Court to her which the Ministers that had served the former King scorning to do and the Brothers of the House of Lorain doing very submissively the one were discharged of their employments and the other governed all the Councils Francis had been oft fluctuating in the business of Religion Sometimes he had resolved to shake off the Popes Obedience and set up a Patriarch in France and had agreed with Henry the 8th to go on in the same Councils with him But he was first diverted by his Alliance with Clement the 7th and afterwards by the Ascendant which the Cardinal of Tournon had over him who engaged him at several times into severities against those that received the Reformation Yet he had such a close Eye upon the Emperors motions that he kept a constant good understanding with the Protestant Princes and had no doubt assisted them if he had lived But upon his death new Councils were taken the Brothers of Lorain were furiously addicted to the Interests of the Papacy one of them being a Cardinal who perswaded the King rather to begin his Reign with the recovery of Bulloine out of the hands of the English So that the state of Germany was almost desperate before he was aware of it And indeed the Germans lost so much in the death of these two Kings upon whose assistance they had depended that it was no wonder they were easily over-run by the Emperor Some of their Allies the Cities of Vlm and Frankfort and the Duke of
Wittemberg submitting themselves to the Emperors mercy the rest were much disheartned which is a constant forerunner of the ruine of a Confederacy Such was the state of Religion abroad The design laid for a further Reformation at home At home Mens minds were much distracted The People especially in Market Towns and Places of Trade began generally to see into many of the corruptions of the Doctrine and Worship and were weary of them Some preached against some abuses Glasier at Pauls Cross taught that the observance of Lent was only a Positive Law others went further and plainly condemned most of the former abuses But the Clergy were as much engaged to defend them They were for the most part such as had been bred in Monasteries and Religious Houses For there being Pensions reserved for the Monks when their Houses were surrendred and dissolved till they should be otherwise provided The Court of Augmentations took care to ease the King of that Charge by recommending them to such small Benefices as were at the Kings disposal and such as purchased those Lands of the Crown with that Charge of paying the Pensions to the Monks were also careful to ease themselves by procuring Benefices for them The Benefices were generally very small so that in many Places three or four Benefices could hardly afford enough for the maintenance of one Man And this gave some colour for that abuse of one Man's having many Benefices that have a care of Souls annexed to them and that not only where they are so contiguous that the duty can be discharged by one and so poor that the maintenance of both will scarce serve for the encouragement of one Person but even where they are very remote and of considerable value This Corruption that crept in in the dark Ages of the Church was now practised in England out of necessity By an Act made in King Henry the 8th's time none might hold two Benefices without a Dispensation but no Dispensation could enable one to hold three yet that was not at this time much considered The excuses made for this were That in some Places they could not find good Men for the Benefices but in most Places the Livings were brought to nothing For while the Abbies stood the Abbots allowed those whom they appointed to serve the Cure in the Churches that belonged to them which were in value above the half of England a small Stipend or some little part of the Vicarage Tithes and they were to raise their subsistence out of the Fees they had by the Sacraments and other Sacramentals and chiefly by the singing Masses for the Poor that died for the Abbies had the profit of it from the Rich. And Masses went generally for 2 d. a Groat was thought a great Bounty So they all concluded themselves undone if these things were withdrawn This engaged them against any Reformation since every step that was made in it took their Bread out of their Mouths But they being generally very ignorant could oppose nothing with the force of Reason or Learning So although they were resolved to comply with any thing rather than forfeit their Benefices yet in their hearts they abhorred all Reformation and murmured against it where they thought they might do it safely some preached as much for the old abuses as others did against them Dr. Peru at St. Andrews Vndershaft justified the Worship of Images on the 23d of April yet on the 19th of June he preached a Recantation of that Sermon Besides these there were great Prelates as Gardiner Bonner and Tonstall whose long experience in Affairs they being oft employed in Forreign Ambassies together with their high preferment gave them great Authority and they were against all Alterations in Religion But that was not so decent to profess therefore they set up on this pretence That till the King their Supream Head were of Age so as to consider things himself all should continue in the state in which King Henry had left them and these depended on the Lady Mary the Kings eldest Sister as their Head who now professed her self to be in all Points for what her Father had done and was very earnest to have every thing Enacted by him but chiefly the six Articles to continue in force On the other hand Crvnmer being now delivered from that too awful subjection that he had been held under by King Henry resolved to go on more vigorously in purging out abuses He had the Protector firmly united to him in this design Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheek who were about the young King were also very careful to infuse right Principles of Religion into him and as he was very capable of understanding what was laid before him so he had an early liking to all good and generous Principles and was of so excellent a temper of mind that as he naturally loved Truth so the great probity of his Manners made him very inclinable to love and cherish true Religion Cranmer had also several Bishops of his side Holgate of York Holbeach of Lincoln Goodrick of Ely and above all Ridley Elect of Rochester designed for that See by King Henry but not Consecrated till September this Year Old Latimer was now discharged of his Imprisonment but had no mind to return to a more publick Station and did choose rather to live private and employ himself in Preaching He was kept by Cranmer at Lambeth where he spent the rest of his days till he was imprisoned in Queen Maries time and attained the glorious end of his innocent and pious Life But the apprehensions of his being restored again to his old Bishoprick put Heath then Bishop of Worcester into great anxieties sometimes he thought if he consented to the Reformation then Latimer who left his Bishoprick on the account of the six Articles must be restored and this made him joyn with the Popish Party at other times Journal of the House of Commons when he saw the House of Commons moved to have Latimer put in again then he joyned in the Councils for the Reformation to secure Friends to himself by that compliance Others of the Bishops were ignorant and weak Men who understood Religion little and valued it less and so although they liked the old Superstition best because it encouraged Ignorance most and that was the only sure Support of their Power and Wealth yet they resolved to swim with the Stream It was designed by Cranmer and his Friends to carry on the Reformation but by slow and safe degrees not hazarding too much at once They trusted in the Providence of God that he would assist them in so good a Work They knew the corruptions they were to throw out to be such that they should easily satisfie the People with what they did and they had many Learned Men among them who had now for divers years been examining these matters There were also many that declared they had heard the late King express his great regret for leaving the state
of Religion in so unsetled a condition and that he had resolved to have changed the Mass into a Communion besides many other things And in the Act of Parliament which he had procured see Pag. 263. first Part for giving force and Authority to his Proclamations a Proviso was added That his Sons Councellors while he should be under Age might set out Proclamations of the same Authority with these which were made by the King himself This gave them a full Power to proceed in that Work in which they resolved to follow the method begun by the late King of sending Visitors over England with Injunctions and Articles A Visitation is made over England They ordered them six several Circuits or Precincts The first was London Westminster Norwich and Ely The second Rochester Canterbury Chichester and Winchester The third Sarum Exeter Bath Bristol and Glocester The fourth York Durham Carlisle and Chester The fifth Peterborough Lincoln Oxford Coventry and Litchfield And the sixth Wales Worcester and Hereford For every Circuit there were two Gentlemen a Civilian a Divine and a Register They were designed to be sent out in the beginning of May as appears by a Letter to be found in the Collection Collection Number 7. written the fourth of May to the Arch-bishop of York There is also in the Registers of London another of the same strain Yet the Visitation being put off for some Months this Inhibition was suspended on the 16th of May till it should be again renued The Letter sets forth That the King being speedily to order a Visitation over his whole Kingdom therefore neither the Arch-bishop nor any other should exercise any jurisdiction while that Visitation lasted And since the minds of the People were held in great suspence by the Controversies they heard so variously tossed in the Pulpits that for quieting these the King did require all Bishops to preach no where but in their Cathedrals and that all other Clergy-men should not preach but in their Collegiate or Parochial Churches unless they obtained a special Licence from the King to that effect The design of this was to make a distinction between such as preached for the Reformation of abuses and such as did it not The one were to be encouraged by Licences to preach where-ever they desired to do it but the others were restrained to the Places where they were Incumbents But that which of all other things did most damp those who designed the Reformation was the misery to which they saw the Clergy reduced and the great want of able Men to propagate it over England For the Rents of the Church were either so swallowed up by the suppression of Religious Houses to whom the Tithes were generally appropriated or so basely alienated by some lewd or superstitious Incumbents who to preserve themselves being otherwise obnoxious or to purchase Friends had given away the best part of their Revenues and Benefices that there was very little encouragement left for those that should labour in the Work of the Gospel And though many Projects were thought on for remedying this great abuse yet those were all so powerfully opposed that there was no hope left of getting it remedied till the King should come to be of Age and be able by his Authority to procure the Church-men a more proportioned maintenance Two things only remained to be done at present The one was to draw up some Homilies for the instruction of the People which might supply the defects of their Incumbents Some Homilies compiled together with the providing them with such Books as might lead them into the understanding of the Scripture The other was to select the most eminent Preachers they could find and send them over England with the Visitors who should with more Authority instruct the Nation in the Principles of Religion Therefore some were appointed to compile those Homilies and Twelve were at first agreed on being about those Arguments which were in themselves of the greatest importance The 1st was about the use of the Scriptures The 2d of the misery of Mankind by sin 3d. Of their Salvation by Christ 4th Of True and Lively Faith 5th Of Good Works 6th Of Christian Love and Charity 7th Against Swearing and chiefly Perjury 8th Against Apostacy or declining from God 9th Against the fear of Death 10th An Exhortation to Obedience 11th Against Whoredom and Adultery setting forth the state of Marriage how necessary and honourable it was And the 12th against Contention chiefly about Matters of Religion They intended to set out more afterwards but these were all that were at this time finished The chief design in them was to acquaint the People with the method of Salvation according to the Gospel in which there were two dangerous Extremes at that time that had divided the World The greatest part of the ignorant Commons seemed to consider their Priests as a sort of People who had such a secret trick of saving their Souls as Mountebanks pretend in the curing of Diseases and that there was nothing to be done but to leave themselves in their hands and the business could not miscarry This was the chief Basis and support of all that superstition which was so prevalent over the Nation The other Extreme was of some corrupt Gospellers who thought if they magnified Christ much and depended on his Merits and Intercession they could not perish which way soever they led their Lives In these Homilies therefore special care was taken to rectifie these errors And the Salvation of Mankind was on the one hand wholly ascribed to the Death and Sufferings of Christ to which Sinners were taught to fly and to trust to it only and to no other devices for the pardon of sin They were at the same time taught that there was no Salvation through Christ but to such as truly repented and lived according to the Rules of the Gospel The whole matter was so ordered to teach them that avoiding the hurtful errors on both hands they might all know the true and certain way of attaining Eternal Happiness For the understanding the New Testament Erasmus's Paraphrase which was translated into English was thought the most profitable and easiest Book Therefore it was resolved that together with the Bible there should be one of these in every Parish-Church over England They next considered the Articles and Injunctions that should be given to the Visitors The greatest part of them were only the renewing what had been ordered by King Henry during Cromwel's being Vicegerent which had been much neglected since his fall For as there was no Vicegerent so there was few Visitations appointed after his death by the Kings Authority but the executing former Injunctions was left to the several Bishops who were for the most part more careful about the six Articles than about the Injunctions So now all the Orders about renouncing the Popes Power and asserting the Kings Supremacy about Preaching teaching the Elements of Religion in the Vulgar
than to make a new one which might give occasion to more Objections and he was the most indifferent Writer they knew Afterwards Cranmer knowing what was likely to work most on him let fall some words as Gardiner writ to the Protector of bringing him into the Privy-Council if he would concur in what they were carrying on But that not having its ordinary effect on him he was carried back to the Fleet. There were also many complaints brought by some Clergy-men of such as had used them ill for their obeying the Kings Injunctions and for removing Images Many were upon their submission sent away with a severe rebuke others that offended more hainously were put in the Fleet for some time and afterwards giving Bond for their good behaviour were discharged But upon the Protectors return the Bishop of Winchester writ him a long Letter in his own vindication He complained of the Visitors proceeding in his absence in so great a matter He said the Injunctions were contrary to themselves for they appointed the Homilies to be read and Erasmus's Paraphrase to be put in all Churches so he selected many passages out of these that were contrary to one another He also gathered many things out of Erasmus's Paraphrase that were contrary to the Power of Princes and several other censurable things in that Work which Erasmus wrote when he was young being of a far different strain from what he writ when he grew older and better acquainted with the World But he concluded his Letter with a discourse of the extent of the King and Councils Power Collection Number 14. which is all I transcribed of it being very long and full of things of no great consequence He questions how far the King could command against Common or Statute Law of which himself had many occasions to be well informed Cardinal Wolsey had obtained his Legatine Power at the Kings desire but notwithstanding that he was brought into a Praemunire and the Lawyers upon that Argument cited many Precedents of Judges that were fined when they transgressed the Laws though commanded by Warrants from the King and Earl Typteft who was Chancellor lost his Head for acting upon the Kings Warrant against Law In the late Kings time the Judges would not set Fines on the breakers of the Kings Proclamations when they were contrary to Law till the Act concerning them was passed about which there were many hot words when it was debated He mentions a Discourse that passed between him and the Lord Audley in the Parliament concerning the Kings Supremacy Audley bid him look the Act of Supremacy and he would see the Kings doings were restrained to Spiritual Jurisdiction and by another Act no Spiritual Law could take place against the Common Law or an Act of Parliament otherwise the Bishops would strike in with the King and by means of the Supremacy would order the Law as they pleased but we will provide said he that the Praemunire shall never go off of your backs In some late Cases he heard the Judges declare what the King might do against an Act of Parliament and what danger they were in that medled in such matters These things being so fresh in his memory he thought he might write what he did to the Lords of Council But by this it appears that no sort of Men is so much for the Kings Prerogative but when it becomes in any instance uneasie to them they will shelter themselves under the Law He continued afterwards by many Letters to the Protector to complain of his ill usage That he had been then seven weeks in the Fleet without Servants a Chaplain or a Physician that though he had his Writ of Summons he was not suffered to come to the Parliament which might be a ground afterwards of questioning their Proceedings He advised the Protector not to make himself a Party in these matters and used all the insinuations of decent flattery that he could invent with many sharp reflections on Cranmer and stood much on the force of Laws that they could not be repealed by the Kings Will. Concerning which he mentions a Passage that fell out between Cromwel and himself before the late King Cromwel said That the King might make or repeal Laws as the Roman Emperors did and asked his opinion about it whether the Kings Will was not a Law To which he answered facetiously That he thought it was much better for the King to make the Law his Will than to make his Will a Law But notwithstanding all his Letters which are printed in the second Volume of Acts and Monum Edit 1641. yet he continued a Prisoner till the Parliament was over and then by the Act of Pardon he was set at liberty This was much censured as an invasion of Liberty and it was said these at Court durst not suffer him to come to the House lest he had confounded them in all they did And the explaining Justification with so much nicety in Homilies that were to be read to the People was thought a needless subtilty But the former abuses of trusting to the Acts of Charity that Men did by which they fancied they bought Heaven made Cranmer judge it necessary to express the matter so nicely though the expounding those Places of St. Paul was as many thought rather according to the strain of the Germans than to the meaning of these Epistles And upon the whole matter they knew Gardiners haughty temper and that it was necessary to mortifie him a little though the pretence on which they did it seemed too slight for such severities But it is ordinary when a thing is once resolved on to make use of the first occasion that offers for effecting it The Party that opposed the Reformation The Lady Mary dissatisfied with the Reformation finding these attempts so unsuccessful engaged the Lady Mary to appear for them She therefore wrote to the Protector that she thought all changes in Religion till the King came to be of Age were very much contrary to the respect they owed the memory of her Father if they went about to shake what he had setled and against their duty to their young Master to hazard the Peace of his Kingdom and engage his Authority in such Points before he was capable of judging them The Protector writ to her Collection Number 15. I gather this to have been the substance of her Letter from the Answer which the Protector wrote which is in the Collection In it he wrote That he believed her Letter flowed not immediately from her self but from the instigation of some malicious Persons He protests they had no other design but the Glory of God and the Honour and Safety of the King and that what they had done was so well considered that all good Subjects ought rather to rejoyce at it than find fault with it And whereas she had said That her Father had brought Religion to a godly order and quietness to which both Spiritualty
Objection of great force from the Acts pass'd in the 21st Year of Richard the second 's Reign In the second Act of that Parliament it is said That it was first prayed by the Commons and that the Lords Spiritual and the Proctors of the Clergy did assent to it upon which the King by the assent of all the Lords and Commons did enact it The 12th Act of that Parliament was a Repeal of the whole Parliament that was held in the 11th Year of that Reign and concerning it it is expressed That the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Proctors of the Clergy and the Commons being severally examined did all agree to it From hence it appears that these Proctors were then not only a part of the Parliament but were a distinct Body of Men that did severally from all the rest deliver their Opinions It may seem strange that if they were then considered as a part of either House of Parliament this should be the only time in which they should be mentioned as bearing their share in the Legislative Power In a matter that is so perplexed and dark I shall presume to offer a Conjecture which will not appear perhaps improbable In the 129th Page of the former part I gave the Reasons that made me think the lower House of Convocation consisted at first only of the Proctors of the Clergy So that by the Proctors of the Clergy both in the Statute of Ireland and in those made by Richard the second is perhaps to be understood the lower House of Convocation and it is not unreasonable to think that upon so great an occasion as the annulling a whole Parliament to make it pass the better in an Age in which the People payed so blind a Submission to the Clergy the concurrence of the whole Representative of the Church might have been thought necessary It is generally believed that the whole Parliament sate together in one House before Edward the thirds time and then the Inferior Clergy were a part of that Body without question But when the Lords and Commons sate a-part the Clergy likewise sate in two Houses and granted Subsidies as well as the Temporalty It may pass for no unlikely conjecture that the Clause Premonentes was first put in the Bishops Writ for the summoning of the lower House of Convocation consisting of these Proctors and afterwards though there was a special Writ for the Convocation yet this might at first have been continued in the Bishops Writ by the neglect of a Clark and from thence be still used So that it seems to me most probable that the Proctors of the Clergy were both in England and Ireland the lower House of Convocation Now before the Submission which the Clergy made to King Henry as the Convocation gave the King great Subsidies so the whole business of Religion lay within their Sphere But after the Submission they were cut off from medling with it except as they were authorized by the King So that having now so little power left them it is no wonder they desired to be put in the state they had been in before the Convocation was separated from the Parliament or at least that Matters of Religion should not be determined till they had been consulted and had reported their Opinions and Reasons The Extreme of raising the Ecclesiastical Power too high in the Times of Popery had now produced another of depressing it too much For seldom is the Counterpoise so justly ballanced that Extremes are reduced to a well-tempered Mediocrity For the third Petition it was resolved that many Bishops and Divines should be sent to Windsor to labour in the Matter of the Church-Service But that required so much consideration that they could not enter on it during a Session of Parliament And for the fourth what Answer was given to it doth not appear On the 29th of November a Declaration was sent down from the Bishops concerning the Sacraments being to be received in both kinds To which Jo. Tyler the Prolocutor and several others set their Hands and being again brought before them it was agreed to by all without a contradictory Vote 64 being present among whom I find Polidore Virgil was one And on the 17th of December the Proposition concerning the Marriage of the Clergy was also sent to them and subscribed by 35 affirmatively and by 14 negatively so it was ordered that a Bill should be drawn concerning it I shall not here digress to give an account of what was alledged for or against this reserving that to its proper place when the thing was finally setled And this is all the account I could recover of this Convocation I have chiefly gathered it from some Notes and other Papers of the then Dr. Parker afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury which are carefully preserved with his other MSS. in Corpus Christi Colledge Library at Cambridge To which Library I had free access by the favour of the most learned Master Dr. Spencer with the other Worthy Fellows of that House and from thence I collected many remarkable things in this History The Parliament being brought to so good a Conclusion the Protector took out a new Commission in which all the Addition that is made to that Authority he formerly had is that in his absence he is empow'red to substitute another to whom he might delegate his Power The state of Affairs in Germany And thus this Year ended in England but as they were carrying on the Reformation here it was declining apace in Germany The Duke of Saxe and the Landgrave were this Year to command their Armies apart The Duke of Saxe kept within his own Country but having there unfortunately divided his Forces the Emperor overtook him near the Alb at Mulberg where the Emperors Soldiers crossing the River and pursuing him with great fury after some resistance in which he himself performed all that could be expected from so great a Captain was taken Prisoner 1547. Apr. 24. Duke of Saxe taken and his Country all possessed by Maurice who was now to be invested with the Electoral Dignity He bore his misfortunes with a greatness and equality of mind that is scarce to be parallel'd in History Neither could the insolence with which the Emperor treated him nor the fears of death to which he adjudged him nor that tedious imprisonment which he suffered so long ever shake or disorder a Mind that was raised so far above the inconstancies of Humane Affairs And though he was forced to submit to the hardest Conditions possible of renouncing his Dignity and Dominions some few Places being only reserved for his Family yet no Entreaties nor Fears could ever bring him to yield any thing in Matters of Religion He made the Bible his chief Companion and Comfort in his sharp Afflictions which he bore so as if he had been raised up to that end to let the World see how much he was above it It seemed unimitable and therefore engaged Thuanus with the other
be found in the Collection In end Sentence was given allowing the second Marriage in that Case and by consequence confirming the Marquess of Northampton's Marriage to his second Wife who upon that was suffered to cohabit with him Yet four years after he was advised to have a special Act of Parliament for confirming this Sentence of which mention shall be made in its due time and Place Some further advance in the Reformation The next thing that came under consideration was the great contradiction that was in most of the Sermons over England Some were very earnest to justifie and maintain all the old Rites that yet remained and others were no less hot to have them laid aside So that in London especially the People were wonderfully distracted by this variety among their Teachers The Ceremonies of Candlemass and their observance of Lent with the Rites used on Palm-Sunday Good-Friday and Easter were now approaching Those that were against them condemned them as superstitious Additions to the Worship of God invented in the dark Ages when an outward Pageantry had been the chief thing that was looked after But others set out the good use that might be made of these things and taught that till they were abolished by the Kings Authority they ought to be still observed In a Visitation that had been made when I cannot learn only it seems to have been about the end of King Henry's Reign it had been declared that Fasting in Lent was only a Positive Law Several Directions were also given about the use of the Ceremonies and some hints as if they were not to be long continued and all Wakes and Plough-Mondays were suppressed since they drew great Assemblies of People together which ended in drinking and quarrelling These I have also inserted in the Collection Number 21. having had a Copy of the Articles left at the Visitation of the Deanry of Doncaster communicated to me by the favour of a most learned Physitian and curious Antiquary Dr. Nathaniel Johnston who sent me this with several other Papers out of his generous zeal for contributing every thing in his power to the perfecting of this Work The Country People generally loved all these Shews Processions and Assemblies as things of diversion and judged it a dull business only to come to Church for Divine Worship and the hearing of Sermons therefore they were much delighted with the gayity and cheerfulness of those Rites But others observing that they kept up all these things just as the Heathens did their Plays and Festivities for their Gods judged them contrary to the gravity and simplicity of the Christian Religion and therefore were earnest to have them removed This was so effectually represented to the Council by Cranmer that an Order was sent to him about it He sent it to Bonner who being Dean of the Colledge of Bishops in the Province of Canterbury was to transmit all such Orders over the whole Province By it the carrying of Candles on Candlemass day of Ashes on Ash-Wednesday and Palms on Palm-Sunday were forbid to be used any longer And this was signified by Bonner to Thirleby Bishop of Westminster on the 28th of June as appears by the Register After this on the 6th of February A Proclamation against those who Innovated without Authority a Proclamation was issued out against such as should on the other hand rashly innovate or perswade the People from the old accustomed Rites under the Pains of Imprisonment and other Punishments at the Kings pleasure excepting only the formerly mentioned Rites to which are added the creeping to the Cross on Good-Friday taking Holy Bread and Water and any other that should be afterwards at any time certified by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the other Bishops in the Kings Name to be laid aside And for preventing the mischiefs occasioned by rash Preachers none were to preach without Licence from the King or his Visitors the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of the Diocess where they lived excepting only Incumbents preaching in their own Parishes Those who preached otherwise were to be imprisoned till Order were given for their punishment and the inferior Magistrates were required to see to the execution of these Orders This Proclamation which is in the Collection Number 22. was necessary for giving Authority to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Letters which were censured as a great presumption for him without any publick Order to appoint changes in Sacred Rites Some observed that the Council went on making Proclamations with arbitrary Punishments though the Act was repealed that had formerly given so great Authority to them To this it was answered That the King by his Supremacy might still in matters of Religion make new Orders and add Punishments upon the Transgressors yet this was much questioned though universally submitted to The general taking away of all Images Number 23. On the 11th of Feb. there was a Letter sent from the Council to the Arch-bishop for a more considerable Change There were every where great Heats about the removing of Images which had been abused to superstition Some affirming and others denying that their Images had been so abused There were in the Churches some Images of so strange a nature that it could not be denied that they had been abused Such was the Image of the Blessed Trinity which was to be censed on the day of the Innocents Processionale in Festo Innocentium by him that was made the Bishop of the Children This shews it was used on other days in which it is like it was censed by the Bishop where he was present How this Image was made can only be gathered from the Prints that were of it at that time In which the Father is represented sitting on the one hand as an old Man with a Triple Crown and Rayes about him the Son on the other hand as a young Man with a Crown and Rayes and the Blessed Virgin between them and the Emblem of the Holy Ghost a Dove spread over her Head So it is represented in a fair Book of the Hours according to the use of Sarum printed Anno 1526. The impiety of this did raise horror in most Mens Minds when that unconceivable Mystery was so grosly expressed Besides the taking the Virgin into it was done in pursuance to what had been said by some blasphemous Friars of her being assumed into the Trinity In another Edition of these it is represented by three Faces formed in one Head These things had not been set up by any publick Warrant but having been so long in practice they stood upon the general Plea that was for keeping the Traditions of the Church for it was said that the Promises made to the Church were the same in all Ages and that therefore every Age of the Church had an equal Right to them But for the other Images it was urged against them that they had been all consecrated with such Rites and Prayers that it was certain
thy Forehead and in thy Heart and take the Faith of the Heavenly Precepts Thus a Sacramental Vertue was pretended to be affixed to it which the Reformers thought could not be done without a Warrant from a Divine Institution of which it is plain there was none in Scripture But they thought the use of it only as an expression of the Belief of the Church and as a Badge of Christianity with such words added to it as could import no more was liable to no exception This seems more necessary to be well explained by reason of the Scruples that many have since raised against significant Ceremonies as if it were too great a presumption in any Church to appoint such since these seem to be of the nature of Sacraments Ceremonies that signifie the Conveyance of a Divine Grace and Vertue are indeed Sacraments and ought not to be used without an express Institution in Scripture but Ceremonies that only signifie the sense we have which is sometimes expressed as significantly in dumb shows as in words are of another kind and it is as much within the power of the Church to appoint such to be used as it is to order Collects or Prayers words and signs being but different ways of expressing our thoughts The belief of Christs Corporal Presence was yet under consideration And they observing wisely how the Germans had broken by their running too soon into Contests about that resolved to keep up still the old general Expressions of the Sacraments being the whole and true Body of Christ without coming to a more particular explanation of it The use of Oyl on so many occasions was taken from the Ancient Christians who as Theophilus says began early to be anointed and understood those words of St. Paul of Gods anointing and sealing literally It was also anciently applied to the receiving of Penitents But it was not used about the Sick from the Apostles times till about the 10th Century And then from what St. James writ to those in the Dispersion of sending for the Elders to come to such as were sick who should anoint them with Oyl and their sins should be forgiven them and they should recover they came to give it to those that were dying but not while there was any hope of Life left in them Though it is clear that what St. James writ related to that extraordinary Gift of Healing by imposition of Hands and anointing with Oyl which yet continued in the Church when he writ that Epistle And it is plain that this Passage in St. James was not so understood by the Ancients as it is now in the Roman Church since the Ancients though they used Oyl on many other occasions yet applied it not at all to the Sick till after so many Ages that gross Superstition had so disposed the World to new Rites that there could be no discovery or invention more acceptable than the addition of a new Ceremony though they were then much oppressed with the old ones The Changes that were made and those that were designed to be made occasioned great heats every where And the Pulpits generally contending with one another to restrain that clashing the power of granting Licences to Preach was taken from the Bishops of each Diocess so that none might give them but the King and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Yet that not proving an effectual restraint on the 23d of September a Proclamation is said to have come out setting forth All Preaâ—hing was for a time restrained That whereas according to former Proclamations none was to preach but such as had obtained Licenses from the King or the Arch-bishop yet some of those that were so licensed had abused that permission and had carried themselves irreverently contrary to the Instructions that were sent them Therefore the King intending to have shortly an uniform Order over all the Kingdom and to put an end to all Controversies in Religion about which some Bishops and other Learned Men were then assembled and though many of the Preachers so licensed had carried themselves wisely to the Honour of God and the Kings great contentation yet till the Order now preparing should be set forth he did inhibit all manner of Persons to preach in any publick Audience to the intent that the Clergy might apply themselves to Prayer for a Blessing on what the King was then about to do not doubting but the People would be employed likewise in Prayer and hearing the Homilies read in their Churches and be ready to receive that uniform Order that was to be set forth and the inferior Magistrates were required to see to the execution of this I never met with any footstep of this Proclamation neither in Records nor in Letters nor in any Book written at that time But Mr. Fuller has printed it and Dr. Heylin has given an Abstract of it from him If Fuller had told how he came by it it might have been further examined But we know not whether he saw the printed Proclamation or only a Copy of it And if he saw but a Copy we have reason to doubt of it for that might have been only the Essay of some projecting Man's Pen. But because I found it in those Authors I thought best to set it down as it is and leave the Reader to judge of it Having thus given an account of the Progress of the Reformation this Summer I shall now turn to transactions of State The Affairs in Scotland this Year and shall first look towards Scotland The Scots gaining time the last Winter and being in daily expectation of Succours from France were resolved to carry on the War The Governour began the Year with the Siege of Broughty Castle a little below Dundee But the English that were in it defended themselves so well that after they had been besieged three Months the Siege was raised and only so many were left about it as might cover the Country from their excursions The English on the other side had taken and fortified Hadingtoun and were at work also at Lauder to make it strong The former of these lying in a Plain and in one of the most fruitful Counties of Scotland within twelve Miles of Edenburgh was a very fit Place to be kept as a Curb upon the Country About the end of May 6000 Men were sent from France under the Command of Dessie 3000 of these were Germans commanded by the Rhinegrave 2000 of them were French and a Thousand were of other Nations They landed at Lieth and the Governour having gathered 8000 Scots to joyn with them they sate down before Hadingtoun and here the Scotish Nobility entred into a long Consultation about their Affairs The Protector had sent a Proposition to them that there might be a Truce for Ten Years But whether he offered to remove the Garisons does not appear This he was forced to upon many accounts He saw the War was like to last long and to draw on great expence and would
certainly end in another War with France he durst not any more go from Court and march himself at the Head of the Army and leave the King to the Practices of his Brother There were also great discontents in England many were offended with the Changes made in Religion the Commons complained generally of oppression and of the enclosing of Grounds of which the sad effects broke out next Year He began to labour under the envy of the Nobility the Clergy were almost all displeased with him and the state of Affairs in Germany made it necessary to joyn with the King of France against the Emperour All this made him very desirous of such a Peace with Scotland as might at least preserve the Queen from being disposed of for Ten Years In that time by Treaty and Pensions they might hope to gain their ends more certainly than by a War which only inflamed the Scots against them according to the witty Saying of one of the Scots who being asked what he thought of the Match with England said he knew not how he should like the Marriage but he was sure he did not like the way of wooing On the other hand the French pressed the Scots to send their young Queen into France in the Ships that had brought over their Forces who should be married to the Dolphin and then they might depend on the Protection of France Many were for accepting the Proposition from England particularly all those who secretly favoured the Reformation they thought it would give them present quiet and free them from all the distractions which they either felt or might apprehend from a lasting War with so powerful an Enemy whereas the sending away of their Queen would put them out of a capacity of obtaining a Peace if the War this year proved as unsuccessful as it was the last and the defence they had from France was almost as bad as the Invasions of the English for the French were very insolent and committed great disorders But all the Clergy were so apprehensive of their ruine by the Marriage with England that they never judged themselves safe till the thing was out of their power by the sending their Queen into France And it was said that when once the English saw the hopes of the Marriage irrecoverably lost they would soon grow weary of the War for then the King of France would engage in the defence of Scotland with his whole Force so that nothing would keep up the War so much as having their Queen still among them To this many of the Nobility yielded being corrupted by Money from France and the Governour consented to it for which he was to be made Duke of Chastelherault in France The Scotish Queen is sent to France and to have an Estate of 12000 Livres a year And so it was agreed to send their Queen away This being gained the French Ships set sail to Sea as if they had been to return to France but sailed round Scotland by the Isles of Orkney and came into Dunbriton Frith near to which the Queen was kept in Dunbriton Castle and receiving her from thence August Queen of Scots sent into France with an Honourable Convoy that was sent to attend on her they carried her over to Britaigne in France and so by easie Journeys she was brought to Court where her Unkles received her with great joy hoping by her means to raise and establish their Fortunes in France In the mean time the Siege of Hadingtoun The Siege of Hadingtoun was carried on with great valour on both sides The French were astonished at the courage the nimbleness and labours of the Scotch Highlanders who were half naked Thuanus but capable of great hardships and run used to on with marvellous swiftness In one Sally which the Besieged made one of those got an English Man on his Shoulders and carried him away with that quickness that nothing could stop him and though the English Man bit him so in the Neck that as soon as he had brought him into the Camp he himself fell down as dead yet he carried him off for which he was nobly rewarded by Dessie The English defended themselves no less couragiously and though a Recruit of about 1000 Foot and 300 Horse that was sent from Berwick led by Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Tho. Palmer was so fatally intercepted that they were almost all to a Man killed yet they lost no Heart Another Party of about 300 escaped the Ambush laid for them and got into the Town with a great deal of Ammunition and Provisions of which the Besieged were come to be in want But at the same time both Home Castle and Fascastle were lost The former was taken by treachery for some coming in as deserters seeming to be very zealous for the English quarrel and being too much trusted by the Governour and going often out to bring intelligence gave the Lord Home notice that on that side where the Rock was the English kept no good Watches trusting to the steepness of the Place so they agreed that some should come and climb the Rock to whom they should give assistance which was accordingly done and so it was surprized in the night The Governour of Fascastle had summoned the Country People to bring him in Provisions upon which by a common Stratagem Soldiers coming as Country-men threw down their Carriages at the Gates and fell on the Sentinels and so the Signal being given some that lay concealed near at hand came in time to assist them and took the Castle The Protector till the Army was gathered together A Fleet sent against Scotland sent a Fleet of Ships to disturb the Scots by the descents they should make in divers places and his Brother being Admiral he commanded him to go to his charge He landed first in Fife at St. Minins but there the Queens natural Brother James afterwards Earl of Murray and Regent of Scotland gathered the Country People together and made Head against them The English were 1200 and had brought their Canon to Land but the Scots charged them so home that they forced them to their Ships Many were drowned and many killed the Scots reckoned the number of the slain to be 600 and a hundred Prisoners taken The next descent they made was no more prosperous to them For landing in the night at Mountrose Aerskin of Dun gathered the Country together and divided them in three Bodies ordering one to appear soon after the former had engaged the Enemy seeing a second But was not successful and a third Body come against them apprehending greater numbers run back to their Ships but with so much loss that of 800 who had landed the third Man got not safe to the Ships again So the Admiral returned having got nothing but loss and disgrace by the Expedition But now the English Army came into Scotland commanded by the Earl of Shrewsbury though both the Scotch Writers and Thuanus say
Melanchthon thought that the Ceremonies of Popery might be used since they were of their own nature indifferent Others as Amstorfius Illiricus with the greatest part of the Lutherans thought the receiving the Ceremonies would make way for all the errors of Popery and though they were of their own nature indifferent yet they ceased to be so when they were enjoyned as things necessary to Salvation But the Emperor going on resolutely many Divines were driven away some concealed themselves in Germany others fled into Switzerland and some came over into England When the news of the Changes that were made here in England were carried beyond Sea and after Peter Martyr's being with Cranmer were more copiously written by him to his friends Calvin and Mar. Bucer who began to think the Reformation almost opprest in Germany now turned their Eyes more upon England Calvin writ to the Protector Calvin writ to the Protector on the 29th of October encouraging him to go on notwithstanding the Wars as Hezekias had done in his Reformation He lamented the heats of some that professed the Gospel but complained that he heard there were few lively Sermons preached in England and that the Preachers recited their discourses coldly He much approves a set form of Prayers whereby the consent of all the Churches did more manifestly appear But he advises a more compleat Reformation he taxed the Prayers for the Dead the use of Chrisme and Extream Vnction since they were no where recommended in Scripture He had heard that the reason why they went no further was because the Times could not bear it but this was to do the Work of God by Political Maximes which though they ought to take place in other things yet should not be followed in Matters in which the Salvation of Souls was concerned But above all things he complained of the great impieties and vices that were so common in England as Swearing Drinking and Vncleanness and prayed him earnestly that these things might be looked after Bucer writ against Gardiner Martin Bucer writ also a Discourse congratulating the Changes then made in England which was translated into English by Sir Philip Hobbey's Brother In it he answered the Book that Gardiner had written against him which he had formerly delayed to do because King Henry had desired he would let it alone till the English and Germans had conferr'd about Religion That Book did chiefly relate to the Marriage of the Clergy Bucer shewed from many Fathers that they thought every Man had not the Gift of Chastity which Gardiner thought every one might have that pleased He taxed the open lewdness of the Romish Clergy who being much set against Marriage which was Gods Ordinance did gently pass over the impurities which the forbidding it had occasioned among themselves He particularly taxed Gardiner himself that he had his Rents payed him out of Stews He taxed him also for his state and pompous way of living and shewed how indecent it was for a Church-man to be sent in Ambassies and that St. Ambrose though sent to make Peace was ashamed of it and thought it unbecoming the Priesthood Both Fagius and he being forced to leave Germany upon the business of the Interim Cranmer invited them over to England and sent them to Cambridge as he had done Peter Martyr to Oxford But Fagius not agreeing with this Air died soon after a Man greatly learned in the Oriental Tongues and a good Expounder of the Scripture This being the state of Affairs both abroad and at home a Session of Parliament was held in England on the 24th of November Nov. 24. Parliament sits to which day it had been prorogued from the 15th of October by reason of the Plague then in London The first Bill that was finished was that about the Marriage of the Priests It was brought into the House of Commons the 3d of December read the second time on the 5th and the third time the 6th But this Bill being only that married Men might be made Priests a new Bill was framed that besides the former Provision Priests might marry This was read the first time the 7th the second time the 10th and was fully argued on the 11th and agreed on the 12th and sent up to the Lords on the 13th of December In that House it stuck as long as it had been soon dispatched by the Commons It lay on the Table till the 9th of February Then it was read the first time and the 11th the second time on the 16th it was committed to the Bishops of Ely and Westminster the Lord Chief-Justice and the Attorney-General and on the 19th of Feb. it was agreed to the Bishops of London Duresme Norwich Carlisle Hereford Worcester Bristol Chichester and Landaff and the Lords Morley Dacres Windsor and Wharton dissenting It had the Royal Assent and so became a Law The Preamble sets forth An Act about the Marriage of the Clergy That it were better for Priests and other Ministers of the Church to live chast and without Marriage whereby they might better attend to the Ministry of the Gospel and be less distracted with secular cares so that it were much to be wished that they would of themselves abstain But great filthiness of living with other inconveniencies had followed on the Laws that compelled Chastity and prohibited Marriage so that it was better they should be suffered to marry than be so restrained Therefore all Laws and Canons that had been made against it being only made by humane Authority are repealed So that all Spiritual Persons of what degree soever might lawfully marry providing they married according to the Order of the Church But a Proviso was added that because many Divorces of Priests had been made after the six Articles were enacted and that the Women might have thereupon married again all these Divorces with every thing that had followed on them should be confirmed There was no Law that passed in this Reign with more contradiction and censure than this and therefore the Reader may expect the larger account of this matter The unmarried state of the Clergy had so much to be said for it Which was much enquired into as being a course of life that was more disengaged from secular cares and pleasures that it was cast on the Reformers every where as a foul reproach that they could not restrain their appetites but engaged in a life that drew after it domestick cares with many other distractions This was an Objection so easie to be apprehended that the People had been more prejudiced against the Marriage of the Clergy if they had not felt greater inconveniencies by the debaucheries of Priests who being restrained from Marriage had defiled the Beds and deflow'red the Daughters of their Neighbours into whose Houses they had free and unsuspected access and whom under the Cloak of receiving Confessions they could more easily entice This made them that they were not so much wrought on by the noise of
of late there had been great difference in the Administration of the Sacraments and other parts of Divine Worship and that the most effectual endeavours could not stop the Inclinations of many to depart from the former Customs which the King had not punished believing they flowed from a good zeal But that there might be an uniforme way over all the Kingdom the King by the advice of the Lord Protector and his Council had appointed the Arch-bishop of Canterbury with other learned and discreet Bishops and Divines to draw an Order of Divine Worship having respect to the pure Religion of Christ taught in the Scripture and to the practice of the Primitive Church which they by the Aid of the Holy Ghost had with one uniforme agreement concluded on wherefore the Parliament having considered the Book and the things that were altered or retained in it they gave their most humble thanks to the King for his care about it and did pray that all who had formerly offended in these matters except such as were in the Tower of London or the Prison of the Fleet should be pardoned and did Enact that from the Feast of Whit-Sunday next all Divine Offices should be performed according to it and that such of the Clergy as should refuse to do it or continue to officiate in any other manner should upon the first conviction be imprisoned six Months and forfeit a years Profit of their Benefice For the second offence forfeit all their Church Preferments and suffer a years Imprisonment And for the third offence should be imprisoned during life And all that should write or put out things in print against it or threaten any Clergy-men for using it were to be fined in 10 l. for the first offence 20 for the second and to forfeit all their Goods and be imprisoned for life upon a third offence Only at the Vniversities they might use it in Latin and Greek excepting the Office of the Communion It was also lawful to use other Psalms or Prayers taken out of the Bible so these in the Book were not omitted This Act was variously censured by those who disliked it The Censures passed upon it Some thought it too much that it was said the Book was drawn by the Aid of the Holy Ghost But others said this was not to be so understood as if they had been inspired by extraordinary assistance for then there had been no room for any correction of what was now done and therefore it was only to be understood in that sense as all good Motions and Consultations are directed or assisted by the secret influences of Gods Holy Spirit which do oft help good Men even in their imperfect actions where the good that is done is justly ascribed to the Grace of God Others censured it because it was said to be done by uniform agreement though four of the Bishops that were employed in the drawing of it protested against it These were the Bishops of Norwich Hereford Chichester and Westminster but these had agreed in the main parts of the Work though in some few Particulars they were not satisfied which made them dissent from the whole Singing of Psalms brought in The Proviso for the Psalms and Prayers taken out of the Bible was for the Singing Psalms which were translated into Verse and much sung by all who loved the Reformation and were in many Places used in Churches In the Ancient Church the Christians were much exercised in repeating the Psalms of David many had them all by heart and used to be reciting them when they went about their Work and those who retired into a Monastical course of life spent many of their hours in repeating the Psalter Apollinaris put them in verse as being easier for the memory Other devout Hymns came to be also in use Nazianzen among the Greeks and Prudentius among the Latines laboured on that Argument with the greatest success There were other Hymns that were not put in verse the chief of which were that most ancient Hymn which we use now after the Sacrament and the Celebrated Ambrosian Hymn that begins Te Deum Laudamus But as when the Worship of the departed Saints came to be dressed up with much pomp Hymns were also made for their honour and in Latin Tongue as well as Prosody being then much decayed these came to be cast into Rithmes and were written generally in a fantastical affected Style So now at the Reformation some Poets such as the times afforded translated Davids Psalms into verse and it was a sign by which Mens affections to that Work were every where measured whether they used to sing these or not But as the Poetry then was low and not raised to that justness to which it is since brought so this Work which then might pass for a tolerable composure has not been since that time so reviewed or changed as perhaps the thing required hence it is that this piece of Divine Worship by the meanness of the Verse has not maintained its due esteem Another thing that some thought deserved to be considered in such a Work was that many of the Psalms being such as related more specially to Davids Victories and contained Passages in them not easily understood it seemed better to leave out these which it was not so easie to sing with Devotion because the meaning of them either lay hid or did not at all concern Christians The Parliament was adjourned from the 22d of December to the second of Jan. On the 7th of Jan. the Commons sent an Address to the Protector to restore Latimer to the Bishoprick of Worcester 1549. but this took no effect for that good old Man did choose rather to go about and preach than to engage in a matter of Government being now very ancient A Bill was put in by the Lords for appointing of Parks Jour Proc. and agreed to the Earl of Arundel only dissenting but being sent down to the Commons it was upon the second reading thrown out yet not so unanimously but that the House was divided about it On the fourth of Feb. a Bill was put in against eating Flesh in Lent and on Fasting days it was committed to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Ely Worcester and Chichester and sent to the Commons on the 16th who sent it up on the 7th of March with a Proviso to which the Lords agreed In the Preamble it is said An Act about Fasts That though it is clear by the Word of God that there is no Day nor kind of Meat purer than another but that all are in themselves alike yet many out of sensuality had contemned such abstinence as had been formerly used and since due abstinence was a mean to vertue and to subdue Mens Bodies to their Soul and Spirit and was also necessary to encourage the Trade of Fishing and for saving of Flesh therefore all former Laws about Fasting and Abstinence were to be after the first of May
lose their Degree in the Church This was soon received over all the Western Church and Arguments were found out afterwards by the Canonists to prove the necessity of continuing it from Davids not being suffered to build the Temple since he was a Man of Blood and from the qualification required by St. Paul in a Bishop That he should be no striker since he seemed to strike that did it either in Person or by one whom he deputed to do it But when afterwards Charles the Great and all the Christian Princes in the West gave their Bishops great Lands and Dominions they obliged them to be in all their Councils and to do them such Services as they required of them by vertue of their Tenures The Popes designing to set up a Spiritual Empire and to bring all Church-lands within it required the Bishops to separate themselves from a dependance on their Princes as much as it was possible And these Laws formerly made about Cases of Blood were judged a Colour good enough why they should not meddle in such Trials so they procured these Cases to be excepted But it seems Cranmer thought his Conscience was under no tie from those Canons and so judged it not contrary to his Function to Sign that Order The Parliament was on the 14th of March Prorogued to the 4th of Nov. the Clergy having granted the King a Subsidy of 6 s. in the Pound to be paid in three Years Subsidies granted by the Clergy and Laity In the Preamble of the Bill of Subsidy they acknowledged the great quietness they enjoyed under him having no Let nor Impediment in the Service of God But the Laity set out their Subsidy with a much fuller Preamble of the great happiness they had by the true Religion of Christ declaring that they were ready to forsake all things rather than Christ as also to assist the King in the Conquest of Scotland which they call a part of his Dominion therefore they give 12 d. in the Pound of all Mens Personal Estates to be paid in three Years But now to look into Matters of Religion there was A New Visitation immediately after the Act of Vniformity pass'd a new Visitation which it is probable went in the same Method that was observed in the former There were two things much complained of the one was that the Priests read the Prayers generally with the same tone of Voice that they had used formerly in the Latin Service so that it was said the People did not understand it much better than they had done the Latin formerly This I have seen represented in many Letters and it was very seriously laid before Cranmer by Martin Bucer The course taken in it was that in all Parish Churches the Service should be read in a plain audible Voice but that the former way should remain in Cathedrals where there were great Quires who were well acquainted with that Tone and where it agreed better with the Musick that was used in the Anthems Yet even there many thought it no proper way in the Letany where the greatest gravity was more agreeable to such humble Addresses than such a modulation of the Voice which to those unacquainted with it seemed light and for others that were more accustomed to it it seemed to be rather use that had reconciled them to it than the natural decency of the thing or any fitness in it to advance the devotion of their Prayers But this was a thing judged of less importance It was said that those who had been accustomed to read in that Voice could not easily alter it but as those dropt off and died others would be put in their places who would officiate in a plainer Voice Some of the old Abuses coninued in the new Service Other Abuses were more important Some used in the Communion-Service many of the old Rites such as kissing the Altar crossing themselves lifting the Book from one place to another breathing on the Bread shewing it openly before the distribution with some other of the old Ceremonies The People did also continue the use of their praying by Beads which was called an Innovation of Peter the Hermite in the 12th Century By it ten Aves went for one Pater Noster and the reciting these so oft in Latin had come to be almost all the devotion of the Vulgar and therefore the People were ordered to leave that unreasonable way of Praying it seeming a most unaccountable thing that the reciting the Angels Salutation to the Blessed Virgin should be such a high piece of Divine Worship And that this should be done ten times for one Prayer to God looked so like preferring the Creature to the Creator that it was not easie to defend it from an appearance of Idolatry The Briests were also ordered to exhort the People to give to the Poor The Curates were required to preach and declare the Catechism at least every sixth Week And some Priests continuing secretly the use of Soul Masses in which for avoiding the censure of the Law they had one to communicate with them but had many of these in one day It was ordered that there should be no selling of the Communion in Trentals and that there should be but one Communion in one Church except on Easter-day and Christmas in which the People coming to the Sacrament in greater numbers there should be one Sacrament in the Morning and another near Noon And there being great abuses in Churches and Church-yards in which in the times of Popery Markets had been held and Bargains made that was forbid chiefly in the time of Divine Service or Sermon Collection Number 33. These Instructions which the Reader will find in the Collection were given in charge to the Visitors Cranmer had also a Visitation about the same time in which the Articles he gave out are all drawn according to the Kings Injunctions By some Questions in them they seem to have been sent out before the Parliament because the Book of Service is not mentioned but the last Question save one being of such as contemned married Priests and refused to receive the Sacrament at their hands I conceive that these were compiled after the Act concerning their Marriage was past but before the Feast of Whit-Sunday following for till then the Common-Prayer-Book was not to be received There were also Orders sent by the Council to the Bishop of London to see that there should be no special Masses in St. Pauls Church which being the Mother-Church in the chief City of the Kingdom would be an example to all the rest and that therefore there should be only one Communion at the great Altar and that at the time when the high Mass was wont to be celebrated unless some desired a Sacrament in the Morning and then it was to be celebrated at the high Altar Bonner who resolved to comply in every thing sent the Councils Letter to the Dean and Residentiaries of St. Pauls to see it obeyed
and indeed all England over the Book was so universally received that the Visitors did return no complaint from any corner of the whole Kingdom All received the new Service except the Lady Mary Only the Lady Mary continued to have Mass said in her House of which the Council being advertised writ to her to conform her self to the Laws and not to cast a reproach on the Kings Government for the nearer she was to him in Blood she was to give the better example to others and her disobedience might encourage others to follow her in that contempt of the Kings Authority So they desired her to send to them her Comptroller and Dr. Hopton her Chaplain by whom she should be more fully advertised of the King and Councils Pleasure Upon this she sent one to the Emperor to interpose for her that she might not be forced to any thing against her Conscience At this time there was a Complaint made at the Emperours Court The Ambassador at the Emperors Court not suffered to use it of the English Ambassador Sir Philip Hobby for using the new Common-Prayer-Book there To which he answered He was to be obedient to the Laws of his own Prince and Country and as the Emperors Ambassador had Mass at his Chappel at London without disturbance though it was contrary to the Law of England so he had the same reason to expect the like liberty But the Emperor espousing the Interest of the Lady Mary both Paget who was sent over Ambassador Extraordinary to him upon his coming into Flanders and Hobby promised in the Kings Name that he should dispense with her for some time as they afterwards declared upon their Honours when the thing was further questioned though the Emperor and his Ministers pretended that without any Qualification it was promised that she should enjoy the free exercise of her Religion The Emperor was now grown so high with his success in Germany A Treaty of Marriage for the Lady Mary and that at a time when a War was coming on with France that it was not thought advisable to give him any offence There was likewise a Proposition sent over by him to the Protector and Council Cotton lib. Galba B. 12. for the Lady Mary to be married to Alphonso Brother to the King of Portugal The Council entertained it and though the late King had left his Daughters but 10000 l. a-piece yet they offered to give with her 100000 Crowns in Money and 20000 Crowns worth of Jewels The Infant of Portugal was about her own Age and offered 20000 Crowns Jointure But this Proposition fell on what hand I do not know She writ to the Council concerning the new Service The Lady Mary writ on the 22d of June to the Council that she could not obey their late Laws and that she did not esteem them Laws as made when the King was not of Age and contrary to those made by her Father which they were all bound by Oath to maintain She excused the not sending her Comptroller Mr. Arundel and her Priest the one did all her business so that she could not well be without him the other was then so ill that he could not travel Upon this the Council sent a peremptory Command to these requiring them to come up and receive their Orders The Lady Mary wrote a second Letter to them on the 27th of June in which she expostulated the matter with the Council She said She was subject to none of them and would obey none of the Laws they made but protested great Obedience and Subjection to the King When her Officers came to Court they were commanded to declare to the Lady Mary that though the King was young in Person yet his Authority was now as great as ever that those who have his Authority and act in his Name are to be obeyed and though they as single Persons were her humble Servants yet when they met in Council they acted in the Kings Name Who required her to obey as other Subjects did and so were to be considered by all the Kings Subjects as if they were the King himself they had indeed sworn to obey the late Kings Laws but that could bind them no longer than they were in force and being now repealed they were no more Laws other Laws being made in their room There was no exception in the Laws all the Kings Subjects were included in them and for a Reformation of Religion made when a King was under Age one of the most perfect that was recorded in Scripture was so carried on when Josiah was much younger than their King was therefore they gave them in charge to perswade her Grace for that was her Title to be a good example of obedience and not to encourage peevish and obstinate Persons by her stiffness But this Business was for some time laid aside And now the Reformation was to be carried on to the establishing of a Form of Doctrine which should contain the chief Points of Religion In order to which there was this Year great enquiry made into many particular Opinions The manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament examined and chiefly concerning the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament There was no Opinion for which the Priests contended more ignorantly and eagerly and that the People generally believed more blindly and firmly as if a strong Belief were nothing else but winking very hard The Priests because they accounted it the chief support now left of their falling Dominion which being kept up might in time retrieve all the rest For while it was believed that their Character qualified them for so strange and mighty a Performance they must needs be held in great reverence The People because they thought they received the very Flesh of Christ and so notwithstanding our Saviours express Declaration to the contrary that the Flesh profiteth nothing looked on those who went about to perswade them otherwise as Men that intended to rob them of the greatest Priviledge they had And therefore it was thought necessary to open this fully before there should be any change made in the Doctrine of the Church The Lutherans seemed to agree with that which had been the Doctrine of the Greek Church that in the Sacrament there was both the Substance of Bread and Wine and Christs Body likewise Only many of them defended it by an Opinion that was thought a-kin to the Eutychian Heresie that his humane Nature by vertue of the union of the God-head was every where though even in this way it did not appear that there was any special Presence in the Sacrament more than in other things Those of Switzerland had on the other hand taught that the Sacrament was only an Institution to commemorate the Sufferings of Christ This because it was intelligible was thought by many too low and mean a thing and not equal to the high expressions that are in the Scripture of its being the Communion of the Body
Philosophical Subtilties and only pretended to be deduced from Scripture as almost all Opinions of Religion were and therefore they rejected them Among these the Baptism of Infants was one They held that to be no Baptism and so were re-baptiz'd but from this which was most taken notice of as being a visible thing they carried all the general Name of Anabaptists Of whom there were two sorts Of these there were two sorts most remarkable The one was of those who only thought that Baptism ought not to be given but to those who were of an Age capable of Instruction and who did earnestly desire it This Opinion they grounded on the silence of the New Testament about the Baptism of Children they observed that our Saviour commanding the Apostles to baptize did joyn Teaching with it and they said the great decay of Christianity flowed from this way of making Children Christians before they understood what they did These were called the gentle or moderate Anabaptists But others who carried that Name denied almost all the Principles of the Christian Doctrine and were Men of fierce and barbarous tempers They had broke out into a general revolt over Germany and raised the War called The Rustick War and possessing themselves of Munster made one of their Teachers John of Leyden their King under the Title of the King of the new Jerusalem Some of them set up a fantastical unintelligible way of talking of Religion which they turned all into Allegories These being joyned in the common Name of Anabaptists with the other brought them also under an ill Character On the 12th of April there was a Complaint brought to the Council that with the Strangers that were come into England some of that Perswasion had come over and were disseminating their Errours and making Proselites Rot. Pat. Par. 6. â— Râ—g So a Commission was ordered for the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Ely Worcester Westminster Chichester Lincoln and Rochester Sir William Petre Sir Tho. Smith Dr. Cox Dr May and some others three of them being a Quorum to examine and search after all Anabaptists Hereticks or contemners of the Common-Prayer They were to endeavour to reclaim them to enjoyn them Penance and give them Absolution or if they were obstinate to excommunicate and imprison them and to deliver them over to the Secular Power to be farther proceeded against Some Tradesmen in London were brought before these Commissioners in May and were perswaded to abjure their former Opinions which were That a Man regenerate could not sin that though the outward Man sinned the inward Man sinned not That there was no Trinity of Persons That Christ was only a Holy Prophet and not at all God That all we had by Christ was that he taught us the way to Heaven That he took no Flesh of the Virgin and that the Baptism of Infants was not profitable One of those who thus abjured was commanded to carry a Faggot next Sunday at St. Pauls where there should be a Sermon setting forth his Heresie But there was another of these extream obstinate Joan Bocher commonly called Joan of Kent She denied that Christ was truly incarnate of the Virgin whose Flesh being sinful he could take none of it but the Word by the consent of the inward Man in the Virgin took Flesh of her these were her words They took much pains about her and had many Conferences with her but she was so extravagantly conceited of her own Notions that she rejected all they said with scorn whereupon she was adjudged an obstinate Heretick and so left to the Secular Power The Sentence against her will be found in the Collection Collection Number 3â— This being returned to the Council the good King was moved to Sign a Warrant for burning her but could not be prevailed on to do it he thought it a piece of cruelty too like that which they had condemned in Papists to burn any for their Consciences And in a long Discourse he had with Sir Jo. Cheek he seemed much confirmed in that Opinion Cranmer was employed to perswade him to Sign the Warrant He argued from the Law of Moses by which Blasphemers were to be stoned He told the King he made a great difference between Errors in other Points of Divinity and those which were directly against the Apostles Creed that these were impieties against God which a Prince as being Gods Deputy ought to punish as the Kings Deputies were obliged to punish offences against the Kings Person These Reasons did rather silence than satisfie the young King who still thought it a hard thing as in truth it was to proceed so sevâ—rely in such Cases so he set his hand to the Warrant with Tears in his Eyes saying to Cranmer That if he did wrong since it was in submission to his Authority he should answer for it to God This struck the Arch-bishop with much horror so that he was very unwilling to have the Sentence executed And both he and Ridley took the Woman then in custody to their Houses to see if they could perswade her But she continued by Jeers and other Insolencies to carry her self so contemptuously that at last the Sentence was executed on her the second of May the next Year An Anabaptist burnt Bishop Scory preaching at her burning she carried her self then as she had done in the former parts of her Process very undecently and in the end was burnt This Action was much censured as being contrary to the clemency of the Gospel and was made oft use of by the Papists who said it was plain that the Reformers were only against Burning when they were in fear of it themselves The Womans carriage made her be look'd on as a frantick Person fitter for Bedlam than a Stake People had generally believed that all the Statutes for burning Hereticks had been repealed but now when the thing was better considered it was found that the burning of Hereticks was done by the Common Law so that the Statutes made about it were only for making the Conviction more easie and the Repealing the Statutes did not take away that which was grounded on a Writ at Common Law To end all this matter at once two years after this one George Van Pare a Dutch-man being accused for saying that God the Father was only God and that Christ was not very God he was dealt with long to abjure but would not so on the 6th of April 1551. he was condemned in the same manner that Joan of Kent was and on the 25th of April was burnt in Smithfield Another burnt He suffered with great constancy of mind and kissed the Stake and Faggots that were to burn him Of this Pare I find a Popish Writer saying That he was a Man of most wonderful strict Life that he used not to eat above once in two days and before he did eat would lie sometime in his devotion prostrate on the ground All this they made use of to
Flemings were much disgusted with the Queen Regents Government who when there was need of Money sent to Bruges and Antwerp ordering Deputies to be sent her from Flanders and Brabant and when they were come she told them what Money must be raised and if they made any objections she used to bid them give over merchandizing with the Emperor for he must and would have the Money he asked so that nothing remained to them but to see how to raise what was thus demanded of them rather than desired from them This as the English Ambassador writ from Bruges seemed to be the reason that moved the Emperor to make his Son swear to such Rules of Government which the Sequel of his Life shewed he meant to observe in the same manner that his Father had done before him At the same time in May this year I find a secret Advertisement was sent over from France to the English Court that there was a private Treaty set on foot between that King and the Princes of Germany for restoring the liberty of the Empire but that the King of France was resolved to have Bulloigne in his Hands before he entred on new Projects Therefore it was proposed to the Protector to consider whether it were not best to deliver it up by a Treaty and so to leave the King of France free to the defence of their Friends in the Empire for I find the consideration of the Protestant Religion was the chief measure of our Councils all this Reign A great Faction against the Protector Upon this there was great distraction in the Councils at home The Protector was inclined to deliver up Bulloigne for a Sum of Money and to make Peace both with the French and Scots The Kings Treasure was exhausted Affairs at home were in great confusion the defence of Bulloign was a great charge and a War with France was a thing of that consequence that in that state of Affairs it was not to be adventured on But on the other hand those who hated the Protector and measured Councils more by the bravery than the solidity of them said it would be a reproach to the Nation to deliver up a Place of that consequence which their late King in the declining of his days had gained with so much loss of Men and Treasure and to sell this for a little Money was accounted so sordid that the Protector durst not adventure on it Upon this occasion I find Sir William Paget being made Comptroller of the Kings Houshold Pagets Advice about Forreign Affairs which was then thought an advancement from the Office of a Secretary of State made a long Discourse Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. and put it in Writing The substance of it was to ballance the dangers in which England was at that time The Business of Scotland and Bulloigne drew France into a Quarrel against it On the account of Religion it had no reason to expect much from the Emperor The Interest of England was then to preserve the Protestants of Germany and therefore to unite with France which would be easily engaged in that Quarrel against the Emperor He proposed a firm Alliance with the Venetians who were then jealous of the Emperors Progress in Italy and would be ready to joyn against him if he were throughly engaged in Germany and by their means England was to make up an agreement with France On the other hand William Thomas then a Clerk of the Council Thomas's Advice differs from his Cott. Libr. Vespasian D. 18. writ a long Discourse of other Expedients He agreed with Paget as to the ill state of England having many Enemies and no Friends The North of England was wasted by the incursion of the Scots Ireland was also in an ill condition for the Natives there did generally joyn with the Scots being addicted to the old Superstition The Emperor was so set on reducing all to one Religion that they could expect no great Aid from him unless they gave him some hope of returning to the Roman Religion But the continuance of the War would undo the Nation for if the War went on the People would take advantage from it to break out into new disorders it would be also very dishonourable to deliver up or rather to sell the late Conquests in France Therefore he proposed that to gain time they should treat with the Emperor and even give him hopes of re-examining what had been done in Religion though there was danger even in that of disheart'ning those of Magdeburg and the few remaining Protestants in Germany as also they might expect the Emperor would be highly enraged when he should come to find that he had been deluded but the gaining of time was then so necessary that the preservation of the Nation depended on it For Scotland he proposed that the Governour of that Kingdom should be pressed to pretend to the Crown since their Queen was gone into a strange Country by this means Scotland would be for that whole Age separated from the Interests of France and obliged to depend on England and the French were now so hated in Scotland that any who would set up against them would have an easie Work especially being assisted by the nearness of England And for Ireland he proposed that the chief Heads of Families should be drawn over and kept at Court And that England thus being respited from Forreign War the Nation should be armed and exercised the Coin reformed Treasure laid up and things in the Government at home that were uneasie should be corrected Thus I have opened the Councils at that time as I found them laid before me in these Authentick Papers from which I drew them Paget sent over to treat with the Emperor The result of their Consultation was to send over Sir William Paget to joyn with Sir Philip Hobbey then Resident at the Emperors Court His Instructions will be found in the Collection The Substance of them was Collection Number 38. That the Treaty between the Emperor and the late King should be renewed with this King and confirmed by the Prince and the States of Flanders that some ambiguous Passages in it should be cleared that the Emperor would comprehend Bulloigne within the League defensive and so protect it England being ready to offer any thing reciprocal in the room of it He was also to shew their readiness to agree to the Emperor concerning the Lady Maries Marriage to adjust some differences occasioned by the complaints made of the Admiralty and about Trade to shew the reason of the Messages that passed between them and France and to engage that if the Emperor would heartily assist them they would never agree with France Paget was also to propose as of himself that Bulloigne should be put into the Emperors Hands upon a reasonable recompence Thus was Paget instructed and sent over in June this Year But the Emperor put him off with many delays and said The carrying of his
having examined it reported that the Process had been legally carried on and the Sentence justly given and that there was no good reason why the Appeal should be received and therefore they rejected it This being reported to the Council they sent for Bonner in the beginning of February and declared to him that his Appeal was rejected and that the Sentence against him was in full force still But the Business of Bulloigne was that which pressed them most Ambassadors sent to the Emperor They misdoubting as was formerly shewn that Paget had not managed that matter dexterously and earnestly with the Emperor sent on the 18th of October Sir Tho. Cheyney and Sir Phil. Hobbey to him to entreat him to take Bulloigne into his protection they also sent over the Earl of Huntington to command it with the addition of a thousand Men for the Garrison When the Ambassadors came to the Emperor they desired leave to raise 2000 Horse and 3000 Foot in his Dominions for the preservation of Bulloigne Cotton Libr. Galba B. 12. The Emperor gave them very good words but insisted much on his League with France and referred them to the Bishop of Arras who told them plainly the thing could not be done So Sir Tho. Cheyney took his leave of the Emperor who at parting desired him to represent to the Kings Council how necessary it was to consider matters of Religion again that so they might be all of one mind for to deal plainly with them till that were done he could not assist them so effectually as otherwise he desired to do And now the Council saw clearly they had not been deceived by Paget in that Particular and therefore resolved to apply themselves to France for a Peace But now the Earl of Warwick falling off wholly from the Popish Party The Earl of Southampton leaves the Court. the Earl of Southampton left the Court in great discontent He was neither restored to his Office of Chancellor nor made Lord Treasurer that Place which was vacant by the Duke of Somersets Fall being now given to the Lord St. John who soon after was made Earl of Wilt-shire nor was he made one of those who had charge of the Kings Person So he began to lay a Train against the Earl of Warwick but he was too quick for him and discovered it upon which he left the Court in the night and it was said he poisoned himself or pined away with discontent for he died in July after A new Office for Ordinations So now the Reformation was ordered to be carried on and there being one part of the Divine Offices not yet reformed that is concerning the giving Orders some Bishops and Divines brought now together by a Session of Parliament were appointed to prepare a Book of Ordination A Session of Parliament But now I turn to the Parliament which sate down on the 4th of November In it a severe Law was made against unlawful Assemblies that if any An Act against Tumultuary Assemblies to the number of twelve should meet together unlawfully for any matter of State and being required by any lawful Magistrate should not disperse themselves it should be Treason and if any broke Hedges or violently pulled up Pales about Inclosures without lawful Authority it should be Felony It was also made Felony to gather the People together without Warrant by ringing of Bells or sound of Drums and Trumpets or the firing of Beacons There was also a Law made against Prophecies concerning the King or his Council since by these the People were disposed to sedition for the first offence it was to be punished by Imprisonment for a year and 10 l. Fine For the second it was Imprisonment during Life with the forfeiture of Goods and Chattels All this was on the account of the Tumults the former year and not with any regard to the Duke of Somersets security as some have without any reason fancied for he had now no Interest in the Parliament nor was he in a condition any more to apprehend Tumults against himself being stript of his so much envied greatness And against Vagabonds Another Law was made against Vagabonds relating That the former Statute made in this Reign being too severe was by that means not executed so it was repealed and the Law made in King Henry the 8th's Reign put in force Provisions were laid down for relieving the Sick and Impotent and setting the Poor that were able to work That once a month there should be every where a Visitation of the Poor by those in Office who should send away such as did not belong to that Place and those were to be carried from Constable to Constable till they were brought to such Places as were bound to see to them There was a Bill brought in for the repealing of a Branch of the Act of Uniformity but it went no further than one reading On the 14th of November the Bishops made a heavy complaint to the Lords of the abounding of vice and disorder The Bishops move for a reviving of Ecclesiastical Censures and that their Power was so abridged that they could punish no sin nor oblige any to appear before them or to observe the Orders of the Church This was heard by all the Lords with great regret and they ordered a Bill to be drawn about it On the 18th of November a Bill was brought in but rejected at first reading because it seemed to give the Bishops too much Power So a second Bill was appointed to be drawn by a Committee of the House It was agreed to and sent down to the Commons who laid it aside after the second reading They thought it better to renew the design that was in the former Reign of two and thirty Persons being authorized to compile the Body of Ecclesiastical Laws and when that was prepared it seemed more proper by confirming it to establish Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than to give the Bishops any Power while the Rules of their Courts were so little determined or regulated So an act passed empow'ring the King to name fixteen Persons of the Spiritualty of whom four should be Bishops and sixteen of the Temporalty of whom four should be common Lawyers who within three years should compile a Body of Ecclesiastical Laws and those being nothing contrary to the Common and Statute Laws of the Land should be published by the Kings Warrant under the Great Seal and have the force of Laws in the Ecclesiastical Courts Thus they took care that this should not be turn'd over to an uncertain Period as it had been done in the former Reign but designed that it should be quickly finished The Bishops of that time were generally so backward in every step to a Reformation that a small number of them was made necessary to be of this Commission The effect that it had shall be afterwards opened There was a Bill brought in to the House of Commons That the Preaching and holding
from it This was a fatal step to the Emperor thus to trust a Prince who was of a different Religion and had a deep resentment of the injury he had done him in detaining his Father-in-law the Landgrave of Hesse Prisoner against the Faith he had given him But the Emperor reckoned that as long as he had John Duke of Saxe in his Hands Maurice durst not depart from his Interests since it seemed an easie thing for him to repossess the other of his Dominions and Dignity Thus was the crafty Emperor deluded and now put that upon which the compleating of his great designs depended into the Hands of one that proved too hard for him at that in which he was such a Master Cunning and Dissimulation 1551. The Compliance of the Popish Clergy In these Consultations did this Year end In the beginning of the next Year there was a great complaint brought against Dr. Oglethorp afterwards Bishop of Carlisle under Queen Mary and now President of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford But he to secure himself from that part of the Complaint that related to Religion being accused as one that was against the new Book of Service and the Kings other Proceedings Signed a Paper Coâ—lection Number 53. which will be found in the Collection in which he declared That he had never taught any thing openly against those but that he thought them good if well used and that he thought the order of Religion now set forth to be better and much nearer the use of the Apostolical and Primitive Church than that which was formerly and that in particular he did approve of the Communion in both kinds the Peoples communicating always with the Priest the Service in English and the Homilies that had been set forth and that he did reject the lately received Doctrine of Transubstantiation as being not agreeable to the Scriptures or to Ancient Writers but he thought there was an inconceivable Presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament and that therefore it should be received not without great examination before-hand So compliant was he now though he became of another mind in Queen Maries time yet then he was more moderate than the greatest part of those who did now comply most servily In particular Dr. Smith had written a Book for the Caelibate of Priests and had opposed all the Changes that had been made He was brought to London upon the Complaints that were sent up against him from Oxford but after a whiles imprisonment he was set at liberty giving Surety for his good behaviour and carried himself so obediently after it that Cranmer got his Sureties to be discharged upon which he writ him a Letter as full of acknowledgment as was possible Collection Number 54. which is in the Collection He protested he should retain the sense of it as long as he lived he wished that he had never written his Book of the Caelibate of Priests which had been printed against his Will he found he was mistaken in that which was the foundation of it all that the Priests of England had taken a Vow against Marriage he desired to see some of the Collections Cranmer had made against it It seems Cranmer was enquiring after a MS. of Ignatius's Epistles for he tells him They were in Magdalen Colledge Library he acknowledged the Arch-bishops great gentleness toward all those who had been complained of for Religion in that University and protested that for his own part if ever he could serve his basest Servant he would do it wishing that he might perish if he thought otherwise than he said and wished him long Life for the propagation and advancement of the Christian Doctrine Soon after he writ another Letter to Cranmer in which he cited some Passages out of Austin concerning his Retractations and professes he would not be ashamed to make the like and to set forth Christs true Religion and called in St. Pauls words God to be a Witness against his Soul if he lied He had also in the beginning of this Reign made a Recantation Sermon of some Opinions he had held concerning the Mass but what these were King Edwards Journal from whence I gather it does not inform us Day Bishop of Chichester did also now so far comply as to preach a Sermon at Court against Transubstantiation though he had refused to set his Hand to the Book of Common-Prayer before it was enacted by Law For the Principle that generally run among the Popish Party was that though they would not consent to the making of such Alterations in Religion yet being made they would give obedience to them which Gardiner plainly professed and it appeared in the practice of all the rest This was certainly a gross sort of compliance in those who retained the old Opinions and yet did now declare against them and in the Worship they offered up to God acted contrary to them which was the highest degree of prevarication both with God and Man that was possible But Cranmer was always gentle and moderate He left their private Consciences to God but thought that if they gave an external obedience the People would be brought to receive the Changes more easily whereas the proceeding severely against them might have raised more opposition He was also naturally a Man of Bowels and Compassion and did not love to drive things to extremities he considered that Men who had grown old in some errors could not easily lay them down and so were by degrees to be worn out of them Only in the Proceedings against Gardiner and Bonner he was carried beyond his ordinary temper But Gardiner he knew to be so inveterate a Papist and so deep a Dissembler that he was for throwing him out not so much for the Particulars objected to him as upon the ill Character he had of him Bonner had also deceived him so formerly and had been so cruel a Persecutor upon the Statute of the Six Articles and was become so brutal and luxurious that he judged it necessary to purge the Church of him And the Sees of London and Winchester were of such consequence that he was induced for having these well supplied to stretch a little in these Proceedings against those dissembling Bishops In the end of February he lost his friend Martin Bucer Bucers Death on whose assistance he had depended much in what remained yet to be done Bucer died of the Stone and Griping of the Guts on the 28th of February He lay ill almost all that Month and expressed great desire to die Bradford who will be mentioned in the next Book with much Honour waited most on him in his sickness He lamented much the desolate State of Germany and expressed his apprehensions of some such stroke coming upon England by reason of the great dissoluteness of the Peoples Manners of the want of Ecclesiastical Discipline and the general neglect of the Pastoral Charge He was very patient in all his pain which grew violent on him he lay oft
Queen Mary discharged him The same Censures with the same Justifications belong both to this and Bonners Business so I shall repeat nothing that was formerly said He had taken a Commission as well as Bonner to hold his Bishoprick only during the Kings Pleasure so they both had the less reason to complain which way soever the Royal Pleasure was signified to them Eight days after on the 26th of April Poinet was translated from Rochester to Winchester and had 2000 Marks a Year in Lands assigned him out of that wealthy Bishoprick for his Subsistence Dr. Story was made Bishop of Rochester Veysey Bishop of Exeter did also resign pretending extream old Age but he had reserved 485 l. a year in Pension for himself during Life out of the Lands of the Bishoprick and almost all the rest he had basely alienated taking care only of himself and ruining his Successors Miles Coverdale was made Bishop of Exeter So that now the Bishopricks were generally filled with Men well affected to the Reformation Hooper is consecrated upon his Conformity The business of Hooper was now also setled He was to be attired in the Vestments that were prescribed when he was consecrated and when he preached before the King or in his Cathedral or in any publick Place but he was dispens'd with upon other occasions On these Conditions he was consecrated in March for the Writ for doing it bears date the 7th of that Month. So now the Bishops being generally addicted to the purity of Religion most of this Year was spent in preparing Articles which should contain the Doctrine of the Church of England Many thought they should have begun first of all with those But Cranmer upon good Reasons was of another mind though much pressed by Bucer about it Till the Order of Bishops was brought to such a Model that the far greater part of them would agree to it it was much fitter to let that design go on slowly than to set out a Profession of their Belief to which so great a part of the chief Pactors might be obstinathly averse The corruptions that were most important were those in the Worship by which Men in their immediate Addresses to God were necessarily involved in unlawful compliances and these seemed to require a more speedy Reformation But for speculative Points there was not so pressing a necessity to have them all explained since in these Men might with less prejudice be left to a freedom in their Opinions It seemed also advisable to open and ventilate matters in publick Disputations and Books written about them for some years before they should go too hastily to determine them lest if they went too fast in that Affair it would not be so decent to make alterations afterwards nor could the Clergy be of a sudden brought to change their old Opinions Therefore upon all these Considerations that Work was delayed till this Year in which they set about it and finished it before the Convocation met in the next February In what Method they proceeded for the compiling of these Articles whether they were given out to several Bishops and Divines to deliver their Opinions concerning them as was done formerly or not it is not certain I have found it often said that they were framed by Cranmer and Ridley which I think more probable and that they were by them sent about to others to correct or add to them as they saw cause Collection Number 55. They are in the Collection with the differences between these and those set out in Queen Elizabeths time marked on the Margent The Articles of Religion are prepared They began with the Assertion of the Blessed Trinity the Incarnation of the Eternal Word and Christs descent into Hell grounding this last on these Words of St. Peter of his Preaching to the Spirits that were in Prison The next Article was about Christs Resurrection The fifth about the Scriptures containing all things necessary to Salvation so that nothing was to be held an Article of Faith that could not be proved from thence The sixth That the Old Testament was to be kept still The 7th for the receiving the three Creeds the Apostles the Nicen and Athanasius Creed in which they went according to the received Opinion that Athanasius was the Author of that Creed which is now found not to have been compiled till near three Ages after him The 8th makes Original Sin to be the corruption of the nature of all Men descending from Adam by which they had fallen from Original Righteousness and were by nature given to evil but they defined nothing about the derivation of guilt from Adams sin The 9th for the necessity of prevailing Grace without which we have no free Will to do things acceptable to God The 10th about Divine Grace which changeth a Man and yet puts no force on his Will The 11th That Men are justified by Faith only as was declared in the Homily The 12th That Works done before Grace are not without sin The 13th Against all Works of Supererogation The 14th That all Men Christ only excepted are guilty of sin The 15th That Men who have received Grace may sin afterwards and rise again by Repentance The 16th That the blaspheming against the Holy Ghost is when Men out of malice and obstinately rail against Gods Word though they are convinced of it yet persecuting it which is unpardonable The 17th That Predestination is Gods free Election of those whom he afterwards justifies which though it be matter of great comfort to such as consider it aright yet it is a dangerous thing for curious and carnal Men to prie into and it being a Secret Men are to be governed by Gods revealed Will they added not a word of Reprobation The 18th That only the Name of Christ and not the Law or Light of Nature can save Men. The 19th That all Men are bound to keep the Moral Law The 20th That the Church is a Congregation of Faithful Men who have the Word of God Preached and the Sacraments rightly Administred and that the Church of Rome as well as other particular Churches have erred in matters of Faith The 21st That the Church is only the Witness and Keeper of the Word of God but cannot appoint any thing contrary to it nor declare any Articles of Faith without Warrant from it The 22d That General Councils may not be gathered without the consent of Princes that they may erre and have erred in matters of Faith and that their Decrees in matters of Salvation have strength only as they are taken out of the Scriptures The 23d That the Doctrines of Purgatory Pardons Worshiping of Images and Relicks and Invocation of Saints are without any Warrant and contrary to the Scriptures The 24th That none may Preach or Minister the Sacraments without he be lawfully called by Men who have lawful Authority The 25th That all things should be spoken in the Church in a Vulgar Tongue The 26th That there
Servants and to return with an answer In August they came back and said she was much indisposed and received the Message very grievously She said she would obey the King in all things except where her Conscience was touched but she charged them to deliver none of their Message to the rest of her Family in which they being her Servants could not disobey her especially when they thought it might prejudice her health Upon this And sent some to her they were sent to the Tower The Lord Chancellor Sir Ant. Wingfield and Sir William Petre were next sent to her with a Letter from the King and Instructions from the Council for the charge they were to give to her and her Servants They came to her House of Copthall in Essex The Lord Chancellor gave her the Kings Letter which she received on her Knees and said she payed that respect to the Kings Hand and not to the matter of the Letter which she knew proceeded from the Council and when she read it she said Ah! Mr. Cecil took much pains here he was then Secretary of State in Dr. Wottons room So she turned to the Counsellors and bid them deliver their Message to her She wished them to be short for she was not well at ease and would give them a short answer having writ her mind plainly to the King with her own Hand The Lord Chancellor told her that all the Council were of one mind that she must be no longer suffered to have private Mass or a Form of Religion different from what was established by Law He went to read the Names of those who were of that mind but she desired him to spare his pains she knew they were all of a sort They next told her they had order to require her Chaplains to use no other Service and her Servants to be present at no other than what was according to Law She answered She was the Kings most obedient Subject and Sister and would obey him in every thing but where her Conscience held her and would willingly suffer death to do him service but she would lay her Head on a Block rather than use any other Form of Service But she was Intractable than what had been at her Fathers death only she thought she was not worthy to suffer death on so good an account When the King came to be of Age so that he could order these things himself she would obey his Commands in Religion for although he Good sweet King these were her words had more knowledge than any of his years yet he was not a fit Judge in these matters for if Ships were to be set to Sea or any matter of Policy to be determined they would not think him fit for it much less could he be able to resolve Points of Divinity As for her Chaplains if they would say no Mass she could hear none and for her Servants she knew they all desired to hear Mass her Chaplains might do what they would it was but a whiles Imprisonment but for the new Service it should never be said in her House and if any were forced to say it she would stay no longer in the House When the Counsellors spake of Rochester Inglefield and Walgrave who had not fully executed their charge she said it was not the wisest Counsel to order her Servants to controul her in her own House and they were the honester Men not to do such a thing against their Consciences She insisted on the Promise made to the Emperor which she had under his Hand whom she believed better than them all they ought to use her better for her Fathers sake who had raised them all almost out of nothing But though the Emperor were dead or would bid her obey them she would not change her mind and she would let his Ambassador know how they used her To this they answered clearing the mistake about the Promise to which she gave little heed They told her they had brought one down to serve as her Comptroller in Rochesters room She said she would choose her own Servants and if they went to impose any on her she would leave the House She was sick but would do all she could to live but if she died she would protest they were the causes of it they gave her good words but their deeds were evil Then she took a Ring from her Finger and on her Knees gave it to the Lord Chancellor to give to the King as a Token from her with her humble Commendations and protested much of her duty to him but she said this will never be told him The Counsellors went from her to her Chaplains and delivered their Message to them who promised they would obey Then they charged the rest of the Servants in like manner and also commanded them to give notice if those Orders were broken And so they went to go away But as they were in the Court the Lady Mary called to them from her Window to send her Comptroller to her for she said that now she her self received the accounts of her House and knew how many Loaves were made of a Bushel of Meal to which she had never been bred and so was weary of that Office but if they would needs send him to Prison she said I beshrew him if he go not to it merrily and with a good Will and concluded I pray God to send you to do well in your Souls and Bodies for some of you have but weak Bodies This is the substance of the Report these Counsellors gave when they returned back to the Court on the 29th of August By which they were now out of all hopes of prevailing with her by perswasions or Authority So it was next considered whether it was fit to go to further extremities with her How the matter was determined I do not clearly find it is certain the Lady Mary would never admit of the new Service and so I believe she continued to keep her Priests and have Mass but so secretly that there was no ground for any publick complaint For I find no further mention of that matter than what is made by Ridley of a Passage that befel him in September next year He went to wait on her she-living then at Hunsden Nor would she hear Bishop Ridley preach where she received him at first civilly and told him she remembred of him in her Fathers time and at Dinner sent him to dine with her Officers after Dinner he told her he came not only to do his Duty to her but to offer to Preach before her next Sunday She blushed and once or twice desired him to make the Answer to that himself But when he pressed her further she said the Parish-Church would be open to him if he had a mind to preach in it but neither she nor any of her Family should hear him He said he hoped she would not refuse to hear Gods Word She said She did not know what they called
War for the preservation of the Protestant Religion and recovering the liberty of Germany The Ambassadors were only sent to try the Kings mind but were not empow'red to conclude any thing They were sent back with a good Answer That the King would most willingly joyn in alliance with them that were of the same Religion with himself but he desired that the matter of Religion might be plainly set down lest under the pretence of that War should be made for other Quarrels He desired them also to communicate their designs with the other Princes and then to send over others more fully empow'red Maurice seeing such Assistances ready for him resolved both to break the Emperors designs and by leading on a new League against him to make himself more acceptable to the Empire and thereby to secure the Electoral Dignity in his Family So after Magdeburg had endured a long Siege he giving a secret intimation to some Men in whom they confided perswaded them about the end of November to surrender to him and then broke up his Army but they fell into the Dominions of several of the Popish Princes and put them under very heavy Contributions This alarumed all the Empire only the Emperor himself by a fatal security did not apprehend it till it came so near him that he was almost ruined before he dreamed of any danger This Year the Transactions of Trent were remarkable Proceedings at Trent The Pope had called the Council to meet there and the first of May this year there was a Session held There was a War now broken out between the Pope and the King of France on this occasion The Pope had a mind to have Parma in his own Hands but that Prince fearing that he would keep it as the Emperor did Placentia and so he should be ruined between them implored the Protection of France and received a French Garrison for his safety Upon this the Pope cited him to Rome declaring him a Traitor if he appeared not and this engaged the Pope in a War with France At first he sent a threatning Message to that King that if he would not restore Parma to him he would take France from him Upon this the King of France protested against the Council of Trent and threatned that he would call a National Council in France The Council was adjourned to the 10th of September In the mean while the Emperor pressed the Germans to go to it So Maurice and the other Princes of the Ausburg Confession ordered their Divines to consider of the matters which they would propose to the Council The Electors of Mentz and Trier went to Trent But the King of France sent the Abbot of Bellosana thither to make a protestation that by reason of the War that the Pope had raised he could not send his Bishops to the Council and that therefore he would not observe their Decrees for they had declared in France that absent Churches were not bound to obey the Decrees of a Council for which many Authorities were cited from the Primitive time But at Trent they proceeded for all this and appointed the Articles about the Eucharist to be first examined and the Presidents recommended to the Divines to handle them according to Scripture Tradition and Ancient Authors and to avoid unprofitable curiosities The Italian Divines did not like this For they said to argue so was but an Act of the memory and was an old and insufficient way and would give great advantage to the Lutherans who were skilled in the Tongues but the School-Learning was a mystical and sublime way in which it was easier to set off or conceal matters as was expedient But this was done to please the Germans And at the sute of the Emperor the matter of Communicating in both kinds was postponed till the German Divines could be heard A safe Conduct was desired by the Germans not only from the Emperor but from the Council For at Constance John Huss and Jerome of Prague were burnt upon this pretence that they had not the Councils safe conduct and therefore when the Council of Basil called for the Bohemians they sent them a safe Conduct besides that which the Emperor gave them So the Princes desired one in the same Form that was granted by those of Basil One was granted by the Council which in many things differed from that of Basil particularly in one Clause that all things should be determined according to the Scriptures which was in that safe Conduct of Basil but was now left out In October an Ambassador from the Elector of Brandenburg came to Trent who was endeavouring to get his Son setled in the Arch-bishoprick of Magdeburg which made him more compliant In his first Address to the Council he spake of the respect his Master had to the Fathers in it without a word of submitting to their Decrees But in the Answer that was made in the Name of the Council it was said they were glad he did submit to them and would obey their Decrees This being afterwards complained of it was said that they answered him according to what he should have said and not according to what he had said But in the mean while the Council published their Decrees about the Eucharist in the first part of which they defined that the way of the Presence could hardly be expressed and yet they called Transubstantiation a fit term for it But this might be well enough defended since that was a thing as hard to be either expressed or understood as any thing they could have thought on They went on next to examine Confession and Penitence And now as the Divines handled the matter they found the gathering Proofs out of Scripture grew endless and trifling for there was not a place in Scripture where I confess was to be found but they drew it in to prove Auricular Confession From that they went on to Extream Unction But then came the Ambassadors of the Duke of Wittenberg another Prince of the Ausburg Confession and shewed their Mandate to the Emperors Ambassadors who desired them to carry it to the Presidents but they refused to do that since it was contrary to the Protestation which the Princes of their Confession had made against a Council in which the Pope should preside On the 25th of November they published the Decree of the necessity of Auricular Confession that so the Priest might thereby know how to proportion the Penance to the sin It was much censured to see it defined that Christ had instituted Confession to a Priest and not shew'd where or how it was instituted And the reason for it about the proportioning the Penance was laughed at since it was known what slight Penances were universally injoyned to expiate the greatest sins But the Ambassadors of Wirtenberg moving that they might have a safe Conduct for their Divines to come and propose their Doctrine The Legate answered that they would not upon any terms enter into any Disputation with
they continued still in that mind that they could not be offered by them as Mediators yet they ordered them to impart them unto the Emperor as News and carefully to observe his looks and behaviour upon their opening of every one of them But now the Kings death broke off this Negotiation The Kings sickness together with all his other Affairs He had last year first the Measels and then the Small-Pox of which he was perfectly recovered In his Progress he had been sometimes violent in his Exercises which had cast him into great Colds but these went off and he seemed to be well after it But in the beginning of January this year he was seized with a deep Cough and all Medicines that were used did rather encrease than lessen it upon which a suspition was taken up and spread over all the World so that it is mentioned by most of the Historians of that Age that some lingering Poison had been given him but more than Rumours and some ill-favoured Circumstances I could never discover concerning this He was so ill when the Parliament met that he was not able to go to Westminster but ordered their first meeting and the Sermon to be at White-hall In the time of his sickness Bishop Ridley preached before him and took occasion to run out much on Works of Charity and the obligation that lay on Men of high Condition to be eminent in good Works This touched the King to the quick So that presently after Sermon he sent for the Bishop His care of the Relief of the Poor And after he had commanded him to sit down by him and be covered he resumed most of the Heads of the Sermon and said he looked on himself as chiefly touched by it he desired him as he had already given him the Exhortation in general so to direct him how to do his duty in that Particular The Bishop astonished at this tenderness in so young a Prince burst forth in Tears expressing how much he was overjoyed to see such inclinations in him but told him he must take time to think on it and craved leave to consult with the Lord Major and Court of Aldermen So the King writ by him to them to consult speedily how the Poor should be relieved They considered there were three sorts of Poor such as were so by natural infirmity or folly as impotent Persons and Mad-men or Ideots such as were so by accident as sick or maimed Persons and such as by their idleness did cast themselves into poverty So the King ordered the Gray-friars Church near Newgate with the Revenues belonging to it to be a House for Orphans St. Bartholomews near Smith-field to be an Hospital and gave his own House of Bridewell to be a Place of Correction and Work for such as were wilfully idle He also confirmed and enlarged the Grant for the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark which he had erected and endowed in August last And when he set his Hand to these Foundations which was not done before the 26th of June this Year He thanked God that had prolonged his Life till he had finished that design So he was the first Founder of those Houses which by many great Additions since that time have risen to be among the Noblest in Europe He expressed in the whole course of his sickness great submission to the Will of God and seemed glad at the approaches of death only the consideration of Religion and the Church touched him much and upon that account he said he was desirous of Life About the end of May Several Marriages or beginning of June the Duke of Suffolks three Daughters were married The eldest Lady Jane to the Lord Guilford Dudley the fourth Son of the Duke of Northumberland who was the only Son whom he had yet unmarried The second the Lady Katharine to the Earl of Pembroke's eldest Son the Lord Herbert The third the Lady Mary who was crooked to the Kings Groom-Porter Martin Keys The Duke of Northumberland married his two Daughters the eldest to Sir Henry Sidney Son to Sir William Sidney that had been Steward to the King when he was Prince the other was married to the Lord Hastings Son to the Earl of Huntington The People were mightily inflamed against this insolent Duke for it was generally given out that he was sacrificing the King to his own extravagant ambition He seemed little to regard their Censures but attended on the King most constantly and expressed all the care and concern about him that was possible And finding that nothing went so near his Heart as the ruine of Religion which he apprehended would follow upon his death when his Sister Mary should come to the Crown He is perswaded to leave the Crown to the Lady Jane Upon that he and his Party took advantage to propose to him to settle the Crown by his Letters Patents on the Lady Jane Gray How they prevailed with him to pass by his Sister Elizabeth who had been always much in his favour I do not so well understand But the King being wrought over to this the Dutchess of Suffolk who was next in King Henry's Will was ready to devolve her Right on her Daughter even though she should come afterwards to have Sons So on the 11th of June Mountague that was Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and Baker and Bromley two Judges Which the Judges at first opposed with the Kings Attorney and Solicitor were commanded to come to Council There they found the King with some Privy-Councellors about him The King told them he did now apprehend the danger the Kingdom might be in if upon his death his Sister Mary should succeed who might marry a Stranger and so change the Laws and the Religion of the Realm So he ordered some Articles to be read to them of the way in which he would have the Crown to descend They objected that the Act of Succession being an Act of Parliament could not be taken away by any such device yet the King required them to take the Articles and draw a Book according to them they asked a little time to consider of it So having examined the Statute of the first Year of this Reign concerning Treasons they found that it was Treason not only after the Kings death but even in his Life to change the Succession Secretary Petre in the mean while pressed them to make hast When they came again to the Council they declared they could not do any such thing for it was Treason and all the Lords should be guilty of Treason if they went on in it Upon which the Duke of Northumberland who was not then in the Council-Chamber being advertised of this came in great fury calling Mountague a Traitor and threatned all the Judges so that they thought he would have beaten them But the Judges stood to their Opinion They were again sent for and came with Gosnold added to them on the 15th of June The King was
present and he somewhat sharply asked them Why they had not prepared the Book as he had ordered them They answered That what ever they did would be of no force without a Parliament The King said He intended to have one shortly Then Mountague proposed that it might be delayed till the Parliament met But the King said He would have it first done and then ratified in Parliament and therefore he required them on their Allegiance to go about it and some Counsellors told them if they refused to obey that they were Traitors This put them in a great consternation and old Mountague thinking it could not be Treason what ever they did in this matter while the King lived and at worst that a Pardon under the Great Seal would secure him consented to set about it if he might have a Commission requiring him to do it and a Pardon under the Great Seal when it was done Both these being granted him he was satisfied The other Judges But through fear all yielded except Judge Hales being asked if they would concur did all agree being overcome with fear except Gosnald who still refused to do it But he also being sorely threatned both by the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Shrewsbury consented to it the next day So they put the Entail of the Crown in Form of Law and brought it to the Lord Chancellor to put the Seal to it They were all required to set their Hands to it but both Gosnald and Hales refused Yet the former was wrought on to do it but the latter though a most steady and zealous Man for the Reformation would upon no consideration yield to it After that the Lord Chancellor for his Security desired that all the Counsellors might set their Hands to it which was done on the 21st of June by thirty three of them it is like including the Judges in the Number But Cranmer as he came seldom to Council after the Duke of Somersets Fall so he was that day absent on design Cecil in a Relation which he made one write of this Transaction for clearing himself afterwards says That when he had heard Gosnald and Hales declare how much it was against Law he refused to set his Hand to it as a Counsellor and that he only Signed as a Witness to the Kings Subscription But Cranmer still refused to do it after they had all Signed it and said he would never consent to the disinheriting of the Daughters of his late Master Many Consultations were had to perswade him to it Cranmer was very hardly brought to consent to it But he could not be prevailed on till the King himself set on him who used many Arguments from the danger Religion would otherwise be in together with other Perswasions so that by his Reasons or rather Importunities at last he brought him to it But whether he also used that distinction of Cecils that he did it as a Witness and not as a Counsellor I do not know but it seems probable that if that liberty was allowed the one it would not be denied the other The Kings sickness becomes desperate But though the setling this business gave the King great content in his mind yet his Distemper rather encreased than abated so that the Physicians had no hope of his recovery Upon which a confident Woman came and undertook his Cure if he might be put into her Hands This was done and the Physicians were put from him upon this pretence that they having no hopes of his recovery in a desperate Case desperate Remedies were to be used This was said to be the Duke of Northumberlands advice in particular and it encreased the Peoples jealousie of him when they saw the King grow very sensibly worse every day after he came under the Womans care which becoming so plain she was put from him and the Physicians were again sent for and took him into their charge But if they had small hopes before they had none at all now Death thus hastening on him the Duke of Northumberland who knew he had done but half his work except he had the Kings Sisters in his Hands got the Council to write to them in the Kings Name inviting them to come and keep him company in his sickness But as they were on the way on the sixth of July his Spirits and Body were so sunk that he found death approaching and so he composed himself to die in a most devout manner His whole exercise was in short Prayers and Ejaculations The last that he was heard to use was in these words Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched Life His last Prayer and take me among thy Chosen Howbeit not my Will but thine be done Lord I commit my Spirit to thee O Lord thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee yet for thy Chosens sake send me Life and Health that I may truly serve thee O my Lord God bless my People and save thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy chosen People of England O Lord God defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my People may praise thy Holy Name for Jesus Christ his sake Seeing some about him he seemed troubled that they were so near and had heard him but with a pleasant countenance he said he had been praying to God And soon after the Pangs of death coming on him he said to Sir Henry Sidney who was holding him in his Arms I am faint Lord have mercy on me and receive my Spirit and so he breathed out his Innocent Soul The Duke of Northumberland according to Cecils Relation intended to have concealed his death for a fortnight but it could not be done His Death and Character Thus died King Edward the sixth that incomparable young Prince He was then in the sixteenth Year of his Age and was counted the wonder of that Time He was not only learned in the Tongues and other Liberal Sciences but knew well the State of his Kingdom He kept a Book in which he writ the Characters that were given him of all the chief Men of the Nation all the Judges Lord-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace over England in it he had marked down their way of living and their zeal for Religion He had studied the matter of the Mint with the Exchange and value of Money so that he understood it well as appears by his Journal He also understood Fortification and designed well He knew all the Harbours and Ports both of his own Dominions and of France and Scotland and how much Water they had and what was the way of coming in to them He had acquired great knowledge in Forreign Affairs so that he talked with the Ambassadors about them in such a manner that they filled all the World with the highest opinion of him that was possible which appears in most of the Histories of that Age. He had great quickness of apprehension and
extend to all their Issue But all People agreed in this that though by Act of Parliament King Henry was empowred to provide or limit the Crown by his Letters Patents yet that was a Grant particularly to him and did not descend to his Heirs So that the Letters Patents made by King Edward could have no force to settle the Crown and much less when they did expresly contradict an Act of Parliament The proceeding so severely against the Vintners Boy was imputed to the violent temper of the Duke of Northumberland And though when a Government is Firm and Factions are weak the making some publick Examples may intimidate a Faction otherwise disheartned yet Severities in such a juncture as this when the Council had no other support but the assistance of the People seemed very unadvised and all thought it was a great Error to punish him in that manner This made them reflect on the rest of Northumberland's Cruelties The Duke of Northumberland much hated His bringing the Duke of Somerset with those Gentlemen that suffered with him to their End by a foul Conspiracy but above all things the Suspitions that lay on him of being the Author of the late King 's untimely Death enraged the People so much against him that without considering what they might suffer under Queen Mary they generally inclined to set her up The Lady Jane was proclaimed in many Towns near London yet the People were generally running to Queen Mary Many declare for Q. Mary Many from Norfolk came to her and a great Body of Suffolk Men gathered about her who were all for the Reformation They desired to know of her whether she would alter the Religion set up in King Edward's Days to whom she gave full Assurances that she would never make any Innovation or Change but be contented with the private Exercise of her own Religion Upon this they were all possessed with such a belief of her sincerity that it made them resolve to hazard their Lives and Estates in her Quarrel The Earls of Bath and Suffolk raised Forces and joined with her so did the Sons of the Lord Wharton and Mordant with many more Upon this the Council resolved to gather Forces for the dispersing of theirs The Council orders Forces to be sent against her and sent the Earl of Huntington's Brother to raise Buckinghamshire and others to other parts ordering them to meet the Forces that should come from London at New-Market It was at first proposed to send the Duke of Suffolk to command them but the Lady Jane was so much concerned in her Father's preservation that she urged he might not be sent and he being but a soft Man was easily excused So it fell next on the Duke of Northumberland who was now much distracted in his Mind He was afraid if he went away the City might declare for Queen Mary nor was he well assured of the Council who seemed all to comply with him rather out of fear than good will Cecil would not officiate as Secretary as himself relates the Judges would do nothing and the Duke plainly saw that if he had not according to the custom of our Princes on their first coming to the Crown gone with the Lady Jane and the Council into the Tower whereby he kept them as Prisoners the Council were inclined to desert him This divided him much in his Thoughts The whole success of his Design depended on the dispersing of the Queen's Forces And it was no less necessary to have a Man of courage continue still in the Tower There was none there whom he could entirely trust but the Duke of Suffolk and he was so mean spirited that he did not depend much on him But the progress the Queen's Forces made pressed him to go and make head against her So he laid all the heavy Charges he could on the Council to look to Queen Jane and to stand firmly to her Interests and left London on the 14th of July marching out with 2000 Horse and 6000 Foot But as he rode through Bishops-gate street and Shoreditch though there were great Crouds looking on none cried out to wish him success which gave a sad indication how ill they were affected to him And write to the Emperor The Council writ to the Emperor by one Shelley whom they sent to give notice of the Lady Jane's Succession complaining that the Lady Mary was making Stirs and that his Ambassador had officiously medled in their Affairs but that they had given Orders for reducing the Lady Mary to her Duty They also desired the continuance of his Friendship and that he would command his Resident to carry himself as became an Ambassador Sir Philip Hobbey was continued Ambassador there the others were ordered to stay and prosecute the Mediation of the Peace but the Emperor would not receive those Letters and in a few days there went over others from Queen Mary Ridley preaches for the L. Jane's Title Ridley was appointed to set out Queen Jane's Title in a Sermon at Pauls and to warn the People of the Dangers they would be in if Queen Mary should reign which he did and gave an account in his Sermon of what had passed between him and her when he went and offered to preach to her At the same time the Duke of Northumberland at Cambridg where himself was both Chancellor of the University and Steward of the Town made the Vice-Chancellor preach to the same purpose But he held in more general terms and managed it so that there was no great Offence taken on either hand Q. Mary's Party grows strong But now the Queen had made her Title be proclaimed at Norwich and sent Letters all over England requiring the Peers and others of great Quality to come to her assistance Some Ships had been sent about to lie on that Coast for intercepting her if she should fly away but those who commanded them were so dealt with that instead of acting against her they declared for her Sir Edward Hastings having raised 4000 Men in Buckinghamshire instead of joining with the Duke of Northumberland went over with them into her Service Many were also from all Places every day running to her and in several Counties of England she was proclaimed Queen But none came in to the Duke of Northumberland so he writ earnestly to the Lords at London to send him more Supplies They understanding from all the Corners of England And the Council turn to her that the Tyde grew every-where strong for the Queen entred into Consultations how to redeem their passed Faults and to reconcile themselves to her The Earl of Arundel hated Northumberland on many accounts The Marquess of Winchester was famous for his dexterity in shifting sides all ways to his own Advantage To them joined the Earl of Pembrook the more closely linked to the Interests of the Lady Jane since his Son had married her Sister which made him the more careful to disentangle himself in
time To those Sir Thomas Cheney Warden of the Cinque-Ports and Sir John Mason with the two Secretaries came over It was said that the French and Spanish Ambassadors had desired an Audience in some Place in the City and it was proposed to give it in the Earl of Pembrooks House who being the least suspected it was agreed to by the Duke of Suffolk that they should be suffered to go from the Tower thither They also pretended that since the Duke of Northumberland had writ so earnestly for new Forces they must go and treat with my Lord Mayor and the City of London about it But as soon as they were got out the Earl of Arundel pressed them to declare for Queen Mary And to perswade them to it he laid open all the Cruelty of Northumberland under whose Tyranny they must resolve to be enslaved if they would not now shake it off The other consenting readily to it they sent for the Lord Mayor with the Recorder and the Aldermen and having declared their Resolutions to them they rode together into Cheapside And proclaimed her Queen and there proclaimed Queen Mary on the 19th of July From thence they went to Saint Pauls where Te Deum was sung An Order was sent to the Tower to require the Duke of Suffolk to deliver up that Place and to acknowledg Queen Mary and that the Lady Jane should lay down the Title of Queen To this as her Father submitted tamely so she expressed no sort of Concern in losing that imaginary Glory which now had for nine days been rather a Burden than any Matter of Joy to her They also sent Orders to the Duke of Northumberland to disband his Forces and to carry himself as became an Obedient Subject to the Queen And the Earl of Arundel with the Lord Paget were sent to give her an account of it who continued still at Framingham in Suffolk The Duke of Northumberland had retired back to Cambridg The Duke of Northumberland submits and is taken to stay for new Men from London but hearing how Matters went there before ever the Councils Orders came to him he dismist his Forces and went to the Market-place and proclaimed the Queen flinging up his own Hat for joy and crying God save Queen Mary But the Earl of Arundel being sent by the Queen to apprehend him it is said That when he saw him he fell abjectly at his Feet to beg his favour This was like him it being not more unusual for such Insolent Persons to be most basely sunk with their Misfortunes than to be out of measure blown up with success He was on the 25th of July sent to the Tower with the Earl of Warwick his eldest Son With many more Prisoners who were sent to the Tower of London Ambrose and Henry two of his other Sons Some other of his Friends were made Prisoners among whom was Sir Thomas Palmer the wicked Instrument of the Duke of Somerset's fall who was become his most intimate Confident and Dr. Sands the Vicechancellor of Cambridg Now did all People go to the Queen to implore her Mercy She received them all very favourably except the Marquess of Northampton Dr Ridley and Lord Robert Dudley The first of these had been a submissive fawner on the Duke of Northumberland the second had incurred her displeasure by his Sermon and she gladly laid hold on any colour to be more severe to him that way might be made for bringing Bonner to London again the third had followed his Father's Fortunes On the 27th the Lords Chief Justices Cholmley and Montague were sent to the Tower and the day after the Duke of Suffolk and Sir John Cheek went after them the Lady Jane and her Husband being still detained in the Tower Three days after an Order came to set the Duke of Suffolk at liberty upon engagement to return to Prison when the Queen required it for it was generally known that he had been driven on by Dudley and as it was believed that he had not been faulty out of Malice so his great weakness made them little apprehensive of any Dangers from him and therefore the Queen being willing to express a signal Act of Clemency at her first coming to the Crown it was thought best to let it fall on him Now did the Queen come towards London being met on the way by her Sister Elizabeth The Queen enters London with a thousand Horse who had gathered about her to shew their Zeal to maintain both their Titles which in this late contest had been linked together She made her entry to London on the third of August with great solemnity and pomp When she came to the Tower the Duke of Norfolk who had been almost seven Years in it Gardiner the Bishop of Winchester that had been five Years there the Dutchess of Somerset that had been kept there near two Years and the Lord Courtney whom she made afterwards Earl of Devonshire that was Son to the Marquess of Exeter and had been kept there ever since his Father was Attainted had their Liberty granted them So now she was peaceably setled in the Throne without any effusion of Blood having broke through a Confederacy against her which seemed to be so strong that if he that was the Head of it had not been universally odious to the Nation it could not have been so easily dissipated She was naturally pious and devout even to superstition had a generous disposition of Mind but much corrupted by Melancholy which was partly natural in her but much increased by the cross Accidents of her Life both before and after her Advancement so that she was very peevish and splenetick towards the end of her Life When the Differences became irreconcilable between her Father and Mother She had been in danger in her Father's Time she followed her Mothers Interests they being indeed her own and for a great while could not be perswaded to submit to the King who being impatient of contradiction from any but especially from his own Child was resolved to strike a terror in all his People by putting her openly to death Which her Mother coming to know writ her a Letter of a very devout strain which will be found in the Collections Coll. Numb 2. In which She encouraged her to suffer chearfully to trust to God and keep her heart clean She charged her in all things to obey the King's Commands except in the Matters of Religion She sent her two Latin Books the one of the Life of Christ which was perhaps the famous Book of Thomas a Kempis and the other St. Jerom's Letter She bid her divert her self at the Virginals or Lute but above all things to keep her self pure and to enter into no treaty of Marriage till these ill times should pass over of which her Mother seemed to retain still good hopes This Letter should have been in my former Volumn if I had then seen it but it is no improper
Place to mention it here At Court many were afraid to move the King for her both the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner look'd on and were unwilling to hazard their own Interests to preserve her But as it was now printed And was preserv'd by Cranmer's means and both these appealed to Cranmer was the only Person that would adventure on it In his gentle way he told the King that she was young and indiscreet and therefore it was no wonder if she obstinately adhered to that which her Mother and all about her had been infusing into her for many Years but that it would appear strange if he should for this Cause so far forget he was a Father as to proceed to Extremities with his own Child that if she were separated from her Mother and her People in a little time there might be ground gained on her but to take away her Life would raise horror through all Europe against him By these means he preserved her at that time After her Mother's Death in June following she changed her note She submitted to her Father for besides the Declaration she then signed which was inserted in the former part of this Work she writ Letters of such submission as shew how expert she was at dissembling Three of these to her Father and one to Cromwell I have put in the Collection in which she Collect. Numb 3 4 5 6. with the most studied Expressions declaring her sorrow for her past stubbornness and disobedience to his most just and vertuous Laws implores his Pardon as lying prostrate at his Feet and considering his great Learning and Knowledg she puts her Soul in his Hand resolving that he should for ever thereafter direct her Conscience from which she vows she would never vary This she repeats in such tender words that it shews she could command her self to say any thing that she thought fit for her ends And when Cromwell writ to her to know what her Opinion was about Pilgrimages Purgatory and Reliques she assures him she had no Opinion at all but such as she should receive from the King who had her whole Heart in his keeping and he should imprint upon it in these and all other Matters whatever his inestimable Vertue high Wisdom and excellent Learning should think convenient for her So perfectly had she learned that stile that she knew was most acceptable to him Having copied these from the Originals I thought it not unfit to insert them that it may appear how far those of that Religion can comply when their Interest leads them to it From that time this Princess had been in all Points most exactly compliant to every thing her Father did And after his Death she never pretended to be of any other Religion than that which was established by him So that all that she pleaded for in her Brother's Reign was only the continuance of that way of Worship that was in use at her Father's Death But now being come to the Crown that would not content her yet when she thought where to fix she was distracted between two different Schemes that were presented to her On the one hand Gardiner and all that Party were for bringing Religion back to what it had been at King Henry's Death and afterward The Designs for changing Religion by slow degrees to raise it up to what it had been before his breach with the Papacy On the other hand the Queen of her own Inclination was much disposed to return immediately to the Union of the Catholick Church as she called it and it was necessary for her to do it since it was only by the Papal Authority that her Illegitimation was removed To this it was answered that all these Acts and Sentences that had passed against her might be annulled without taking any notice of the Pope Gardiner's Policy Gardiner finding these things had not such weight with her as he desired for she looked on him as a crafty temporizing Man sent over to the Emperor on whom she depended much to assure him that if he would perswade her to make him Chancellor and to put Affairs into his Hands he should order them so that every thing she had a mind to should be carried in time But Gardiner understood she had sent for Cardinal Pool so he writ to the Emperor that he knew his Zeal for the Exaltation of the Popedom would undo all therefore he pressed him to write to the Queen for moderating her heat and to stop the Cardinal 's coming over He said that Pool stood Attainted by Law so that his coming into England would allarm the Nation He observed that upon a double account they were averse to the Papacy The one was for the Church Lands which they had generally bought from the Crown on very easie terms and they would not easily part with them The other was The fear they had of Papal Dominion and Power which had been now for about 25 Years set out to the People as the most intollerable Tyranny that ever was Therefore he said it was necessary to give them some time to wear out these Prejudices and the precipitating of Councils might ruin all He gave the Emperor also secret Assurances of serving him in all his Interests All this Gardiner did the more warily because he understood that Cardinal Pool hated him as a false and deceitful Man Upon this the Emperor writ to the Queen several Letters with his own hand which is so hardly legible that it was not possible for me or some others to whom I shewed them to read them so well as to copy them out and one that was written by his Sister the Queen of Hungary and signed by him is no better but from many half Sentences I find that all was with a design to temper her that she should not make too much hast nor be too much led by Italian Counsels Upon the return of this Message the Seal which had been taken from Goodrick Bishop of Ely and put for some days in the keeping of Hare Master of the Rolls was on the 13th of August given to Gardiner who was declared Lord Chancellor of England He is made Chancellor and the conduct of Affairs was chiefly put in his hands So that now the measure of the Queen's Councils was to do every thing slowly and by such sure steps as might put them less in hazard The Duke of Northumb. and others Tried The first thing that was done was the bringing the Duke of Northumberland to his Trial. The old Duke of Norfolk was made Lord High Steward the Queen thinking it fit to put the first Character of honour on him who had suffered so much for being the Head of the Popish Party And here a subtle thing was started which had been kept a great Secret hitherto It was said the Duke of Norfolk had never been truly attainted and that the Act against him was not a true Act of Parliament so that without
of a Communion In these it may be easily imagined he did every thing with a very lively sorrow since as he had loved the King beyond expression so he could not but look on his Funeral as the Burial of the Reformation and in particular as a step to his own On the 12th of August The Queen declares she will force no Man's Conscience the Queen made an open declaration in Council that although her Conscience was staied in the Matters of Religion yet she was resolved not to compel or strain others otherwise than as God should put into their Hearts a persuasion of that Truth she was in and this she hoped should be done by the opening His Word to them by godly vertuous and learned Preachers Now all the deprived Bishops looked to be quickly placed in their Sees again Bonner went to St. Pauls on the 13th of August being Sunday where Bourn that was his Chaplain preached before him He spake honourably of Bonner with sharp Reflections on the Proceedings against him in the Time of King Edward This did much provoke the whole Audience who as they hated Bonner so could not hear any thing said that seemed to detract from that King A Tumult at Pauls Cross Hereupon there was a great Tumult in the Church some called to pull him down others flung Stones and one threw a Dagger towards the Pulpit with that force that it stuck fast in the timber of it Bourn by stooping saved himself from that danger and Rogers and Bradford two eminent Preachers and of great credit with the People stood up and gently quieted the heat and they to deliver Bourn out of their hands conveyed him from the Pulpit to a House near the Church This was such an Accident as the Papists would have desired for it gave them a colour to proceed more severely and to prohibit Preaching which was the first step they intended to make There was a Message sent to the Lord Mayor to give a strict charge that every Citizen should take care of all that belonged to him and see that they went to their own Parish Church and kept the Peace as also to acquaint them with what the Queen had declared in Council on the 13th of August And on the 18th there was published an Inhibition in the Queen's Name to this effect That she An Inhibition of all preaching considering the great Danger that had come to the Realm by the Differences in Religion did delare for her self that she was of that Religion that she had professed from her Infancy and that she would maintain it during her time and be glad that all her Subjects would charitably receive it Yet she did not intend to compel any of her Subjects to it till publick Order should be taken in it by common Assent requiring all in the mean while not to move Sedition or Unquietness till such Order should be setled and not to use the Names of Papist or Heretick but to live together in Love and in the Fear of God but if any made Assemblies of the People she would take care they should be severely punished and she straitly charged them that none should preach or expound Scripture or print any Books or Plays without her special License And required her Subjects that none of them should presume to punish any on pretence of the late Rebellion but as they should be authorised by her Yet she did not thereby restrain any from informing against such Offenders She would be most sorry to have cause to execute the severity of the Law but she was resolved not to suffer such Rebellious Doings to go unpunished but hoped her Subjects would not drive her to the extream execution of the Laws When this was published which was the first thing that was set out in her Name since she had come to the Crown it was much descanted on Censures pâ—st upon it The Profession she made of her Religion to be the same it had been from her Infancy shewed it was not her Father's Religion but entire Popery that she intended to restore It was also observed that whereas before she had said plainly she would compel none to be of it now that was qualified with this till publick Order should be taken in it which was till they could so frame a Parliament that it should concur with the Queen's Design The equal forbidding of Assemblies or ill Names on both sides was thought intended to be a Trap for the Reformed that they should be punished if they offended but the others were sure to be rather encouraged The restraint of preaching without License was pretended to be copied from what had been done in King Edward's Time Yet then there was a Liberty left for a long time to all to Preach in their own Churches only they might preach no where else without a License And the power of Licensing was also lodged at first with the Bishops in their several Diocesses and at last with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as well as with the King whereas now at one stroke all the Pulpits of England that were in the hands of the Reformed were brought under an Interdict for they were sure to obtain no Licenses But the cunningest part of these Inhibitions was the declaring that the Queen would proceed with rigour against all that were guilty of the late Rebellion if they should provoke her many about London had some way or other expressed themselves for it and these were the hottest among the Reformed So that here was a sharp threatning hanging over them if they should express any more Zeal about Religion She requites the Service of the Men of Suffolk ill When this was put out the Queen understanding that in Suffolk those of that Profession took a little more liberty than their Neighbours presuming on their great Merit and the Queen's Promises to them there was a special Letter sent to the Bishop of Norwich's Vicar himself being at Brussels to see to the execution of these Injunctions against any that should preach without License Upon this some came from Suffolk to put the Queen in mind of her Promise This was thought insolent and she returned them no other answer But that they being Members thought to rule her that was their Head but they should learn that the Members ought to obey the Head and not to think to bear Rule over it One of these had spoken of her Promise with more confidence than the rest his Name was Dobbe so he was ordered to stand three days in the Pillory as having said that which tended to the defamation of the Queen And from hence all saw what a severe Government they were to come under in which the claiming of former Promises that had been made by the Queen when she needed their Assistance was to be accounted a Crime But there was yet a more unreasonable Severity shewed to Bradford and Rogers who had appeased the Tumult the Sunday before and rescued the
was expected that he should he sent to the Tower that very day These reports being brought to Cranmer some advised him to fly beyond Seas he said he would not diswade others from that course now that they saw a Persecution rising but considering the station he was in and the hand he had in all the Changes that were made he thought it so indecent a thing for him to fly that no entreaties should ever perswade him to it Cranmer's Declaration Coll. Numb 8. So he by Peter Martyr's advice drew up a Writing that I have put in the Collection in Latin as it was at that time translated The substance of it was to this effect That as the Devil had at all times set on his Instruments by Lies to defame the Servants of God so he was now more than ordinarily busie For whereas King Henry had begun the correcting of the abuses of the Mass which his Son had brought to a further perfection and so the Lords Supper was restored to its first Institution and was celebrated according to the pattern of the Primitive Church now the Devil intending to bring the Mass again into its room as being his own invention had stirred up some to give out that it had been set up in Canterbury by his the said Cranmer's Order and it was said that he had undertaken to sing Mass to the Queens Majesty both at King Edwards Funeral at Paul's and other places and though for these twenty years he had despised all such vain and false reports as were spread of him yet now he thought it not fit to lye under such misrepresentations Therefore he protested to all the World that the Mass was not set up at Canterbury by his order but that a fawning hypocritical Monk this was Thornton Suffragan of Dover had done it without his â—nowledge and for what he was said to have undertaken to the Queen her Majesty knew well how false that was offering if he might obtain her Leave for it to maintain that every thing in the Communion Service that was set out by their most innocent and good Ring Edward was according to Christs Institution and the practice of the Apostles and the ancient Church for many Ages to which the Mass was contrary being full of errors and abuses and although Peter Martyr was by some called an ignorant Man he with him or other four or five such as he should choose would be ready to defend not only their Book of Common Prayer and the other Rites of their Service but the whole Doctrine and Order of Religion set forth by the late King as more pure and more agreeable to the Word of God than any sort of Religion that had been in England for a thousand years before it provided that all things should be judged by the Scriptures and that he Reasonings on both sides should be faithfully written down This he had drawn Published without his knowledg with a Resolution to have made a publick use of it but Scory who had bin Bishop of Chichester coming to him he shewed him the Paper and bad him consider of it Scory indiscreetly gave Copies of it and one of these was publickly read in Cheapside on the fifth of September So on the eighth of that month he was called before the Star-Chamber and asked whether he was the Author of that seditious Bill that was given out in his name and if so whether he was sorry for it He answered that the Bill was truly his but he was very sorry it had gone from him in such a manner But owned by him before the Council for he had resolved to have inlarged it in many things and to have ordered it to be affixed to the doors of Pauls and of the other Churches in London with his hand and Seal to it He was at that time contrary to all mens expectation dismissed Gardiner plainly saw he could not expect to succeed him and that the Queen had designed that See for Cardinal Pool so he resolved to protect and preserve Cranmer all he could Some moved that he should be only put from his Bishoprick and have a small Pension assigned him with a charge to keep within a Confinement and not to meddle with matters of Religion He was generally beloved for the gentleness of his temper so it was thought that proceeding severely with him might Alienate some from them and embroil their affairs in the next Parliament Others objected that if he who had been the chief promoter of Heresy was used with such tenderness it would encourage the rest to be more obstinate And the Queen who had forgot the Services he did her in her Father's time remembring rather that he had pronounced the Sentence of Divorce against her Mother was easily induced to proceed severely So on the thirteenth of September both he and Latimer were called before the Council He and Latimer sent to the Tower Latimer was that day committed but Cranmer was respited till next day and then he was sent to the Tower both for matters of Treason against the Queen and for dispersing of seditious Bills Tylor of Hadlee and several other Preachers were also put in Prison and upon an Information brought against Horn Dean of Duresm he was sent for The Forreigners that were come over upon publick Faith and encouragement The Forreigners sent out of England were better used for Peter Martyr was preserved from the rage of his enemies and suffered to go beyond Sea There was also an Order sent to John a Lasco and his Congregation to be gone their Church being taken from them and their Corporation dissolved And an hundred seventy five of them went away in two Ships to Denmark on the seventeenth of September with all their Preachers except two who were left to look to those few which stayed behind and being engaged in Trade resolved to live in England and follow their Consciences in the matters of Religion in private with the Assistance of those Teachers But a Lasco after a long and hard passage arriving at Denmark was as ill received there as if it had heen a popish Country when they understood that he and his Company were of the Helvetian Confession so that though it was December and a very severe Winter they were required to be gone within two days and could not obtain so much as liberty to leave their Wives or Children behind them till they could provide a place for them From thence they went first to Lubeck then to Wismar and Hamburgh where they found the disputes about the manner of Christs Presents in the Sacrament had raised such violent animosities that after much barbarous usage they were banished out of all those Towns and could find no place to settle in till about the end of March that they came to Friseland where they were suffered to plant themselves Many English fly beyond Sea Many in England seeing the Government was set on severe courses so early did
business which himself had so violently and servilely promoted The falsehood of that pretence of corrupting Vniversities has been shewn in the former Volumn but it was all they had now to say The laying it all upon Cranmer was as high a pitch of malice and impudence as could be devised for as Gardiner had been setting it on long before Cranmer was known to King Henry so he had been joyned with him in the Commission and had given his assent to the Sentence which Cranmer gave Nor was the Divorce grounded meerly upon Cranmers understanding of the Scriptures but upon the fullest and most studied Arguments that had perhaps been in any Age brought together in one particular case and both Houses of Convocation had condemned the Mariage before his sentence But because in the right of his See he was Legate to the Pope therefore to make the Sentence stronger it went only in his name though he had but a small share in it compared to what Gardiner had By this Act there was also a second Illegittimation brought on the Lady Elizabeth The Queens carries severely to the Lady Elizabeth to whom hitherto the Queen had been very kind using her on all occasions with the tenderness of a Sister but from this time forwards she handled her more severely It was perhaps occasioned by this Act since before they stood both equally illegittimated but now the Act that legitimated the Queen making her most certainly a Bastard in Law the Queen might think it now too much to use her as she had done formerly Others suggest a more secret reason of this distast The new Earl of Devonshire was much in the Queens favour so that it was thought she had some inclinations to marry him but he either not presuming so high or really having an aversion to her and an inclination to her Sister who of that moderate share of beauty that was between them had much the better of her and was nineteen years younger made his Addresses with more than ordinary concern to the Lady Elizabeth and this did bring them both in trouble as shall be afterwards shewn The next Bill that was sent from the Lords to the Commons The Laws made by King Edward repealed was for the repealing King Edward's Laws about Religion It was sent down on the 31st of October and argued six days in the House of Commons but in the end it was carried and sent back to the Lords The Preamble of it sets forth the great disorders that had fallen out in the Nation by the changes that had been made in Religion from that which their Fore-fathers had left them by the Authority of the Catholick Church thereupon all the Laws that had been made in King Edwards time about Religion were now repealed and it was Enacted that from the 20th of December next there should be no other Form of Divine Service but what had been used in the last year King of Henry the 8th leaving it free to all till that day to use either the Books appointed by King Edward or the old ones at their pleasure Another Act was passed which the Commons sent up to the Lords An Act against the affronting Priests against all those who by any overt Act should molest or disquiet any Preacher because of his Office or for any Sermon that he might have Preached or should any way disturb them when they were in any part of the Divine Offices that either had been in the last year of King Henry or should be afterwards set forth by the Queen or should break or abuse the holy Sacrament or break Altars Crucifixes or Crosses those that did any of these things should be presented to the Justices of Peace and be by them put in Prison where they should lye three Months or till they were penitent for their Offences and if any rescued them they should be liable to the same punishment But to this a Proviso was added by the Lords that this Act should no way derogate from the Authority of the Ecclesiastiâ—â—l Laws and Courts who might likewise proceed upon such Offences and a Certificate from the Ordinaries that such Offenders were punished by them being brought to the Justices of Peace they were to proceed no further or if the Justices made a Certificate that they had punished them according to Law the Ordinary might not punish them a second time But the Commons were now so heated that they sent up another Bill to the Lords against those who came not to Church nor to Sacraments after the old Service should be again set up the inflicting of the Punishments in these cases being left to the Ecclesiastical Courts This fell in the House of Lords not so much from any opposition that was made as that they were afraid of allarming the Nation too much by many severe Laws at once An Act against unlawful Assemblies Another Law was made for securing the publick Peace against unlawful and rebellious Assemblies that if any to the number of twelve or above should meet to alter any thing of Religion established by Law and being required by any having the Queens Authority to disperse themselves should continue after that an hour together it should be Felony or if that number met to break Hedges or Parks to destroy Deer or Fish c. and did not disperse upon Proclamation it should be Felony or if any by ringing of Bells Drums or firing of Beacons gathered the People together and did the things before mentioned it was Felony if the Wives or Servants of Persons so gathered caried Meat Money or Weapons to them it should be Felony and if any above the number of two and within twelve should meet for these ends they should suffer a years imprisonment empowering the Sheriffs or Justices to gather the Country for the resistance of Persons so offending with Penalties on all between eighteen and sixty that being required to come out against them should refuse to do it When this Act was known the People then saw clearly how they had been deceived by the former Act that seemed so favourable repealing all Acts of new Treasons and Felonies since there was so soon after it an Act passed that renewed one of the severest Laws of the last Reign in which so many things that might flow from sudden heats were made Felonies and a great many new and severe Proviso's were added to it The Queens discharge of the Subsidy was confirmed by another Act. The Marquess of Northampton's 2d Marriage is annulled There followed two private Acts which occasioned more Debate than the publick ones had done The one was the repeal of the Act that had confirmed the Marquess of Northamptons Marriage It was much argued in the House of Commons and on the 28th of November it was agreed to It contains that the Act of confirming the Divorce and the second Marriage was procured more upon untrue surmises and private respects than for any publick good and increase
the Ashes were the Body of Christ or what it was that was burnt To all this Harpsfield made a long Answer concerning Gods Omnipotence and the weakness of mens understandings that could not comprehend Divine Mysteries But Cheyney still asked what it was that was burnt Harpsfield replied it was either the Substance of Bread or the Body of Christ and afterwards said it was a Miracle At that Cheyney smiled and said then he could say no more Weston asked whether there was not enough said in answer to these mens Objections Many of the Clergy cried out Yes Yes But the multitude with repeated cries said No No Weston said he spake to those of the House and not to the rude Multitude Then he asked those Divines whether they would now for three days answer the Arguments that should be put to them Haddon Cheyney and Ailmer said they would not But Philpot offered to do it Woston said he was a mad man and fitter to be sent to Bedlam Philpot said he that had carried himself with so much Passion and so little Indifferency deserved a Room there much better Weston neglecting him turned to the Assembly and said they might see what sort of men these were whom they had now answered three days but tho they had promised it and the Order of Disputation did require it that they should answer in their turn three days they now declined it Upon that Ailmer stood up and answered that they had made no such Promise nor undertaken any such Disputation but being required to give their Reasons why they would not subscribe with the rest they had done it but had received no Answer to them and therefore would enter into no further Disputation before such Judges who had already determined and subscribed those Questions So the House was adjourned to the 30th and then Philpot appeared to answer but desired first leave to prosecute his former Argument and urged that since Christ as man is like us in all things without sin therefore as we are restrained to one place at a time so is Christ but in one place and that is Heaven for St. Peter says the Heavens must contain him till the Restitution of all things To this it was answered that Christ being God his Omnipotence was above our understanding and that to shut him in one place was to put him in Prison Philpot said he was not speaking of his Divine Nature but that as he was man he was like us And for their saying that Christ was not to be imprisoned in Heaven he left to all men to judge whether that was a good answer or not Much discourse following upon this the Prolocutor commanded him to come no more into the House He answered he thought himself happy to be out of their Company Others suggesting to the Prolocutor that it would be said the meetting was not free if men were put out of the House for speaking their minds He said to him he might come so he were decently Habited and did not speak but when he commanded him To this he answered that he had rather be absent altogether Weston concluded all by saying you have the Word but we have the Sword Truly pointing out wherein the strength of both Causes lay This was the Issue of that Disputation which was soon after Printed in English and in Latin by Volerandus Polanus Censures past upon it and is inserted at large in Fox's Acts and Monuments What account the other side gave of it I do not find But upon all such occasions the prevailing party vvhen the inequality vvas so disproportioned used to carry things vvith so much noise and disorder that it vvas no vvonder the Reformers had no mind to engage in this Dispute And those vvho reflected on the vvay of proceeding in King Edwards time could not but confess things had been managed vvith much more Candor and Equality For in this very Point there had been as vvas formerly shewn Disputes for a Year together before there vvas any Determination made so that all men vvere free at that time to deliver their Opinions vvithout any fear and then the Disputes vvere in the Universities vvhere as there vvere a great Silence and Collection of Books so the Auditors vvere more capable of being instructed by them But here the Point was first determined and then disputed And this vvas in the midst of the disorder of the Town vvhere the Privy Council gave all possible encouragement to the prevailing Party The last thing I find done this year was the restoring Veisey to be Bishop of Exeter which vvas done on the 28th of December In his Warrant for it under the great Seal it is said that he for some just troubles both in Body and Mind had resign'd his Bishoprick to King Edward to which the Queen now restored him And thus ended this year Forreign Affairs did not so much concern Religion as they had done in the former Reign vvhich as it made me give some account of them then so it causes me now not to prosecute them so fully In the beginning of the next year 1554. Ambassadors sent from the Emperour for the marriage the Emperour sent over the Count of Egmont and some other Ambassadours to make the Proposition and Treaty of Marriage betwixt his Son and the Queen In the managing of this Treaty Gardiner had the chief hand for he was now the Oracle at the Council-board He had thirty years Experience in Affairs a great Knowledge of the Courts of Christendome and of the State of England and had great Sagacity vvith a marvelous Cunning vvhich vvas not always regulated by the Rules of Candor and Honesty He in drawing the Articles of the Marriage had a double design the one vvas to have them so framed that they might easily pass in Parliament And the other was to exclude the Spaniards from having any share in the Government of England vvhich he intended to hold in his own hands The Articles agreed So the Terms on which it was agreed vvere these The Queen should have the vvhole Government of England vvith the giving of Offices and Benefices in her own hands so that tho Philip was to be called King and his Name was to be on the Coin and the Seals and in Writts yet her hand vvas to give force to every thing vvithout his Spaniards should not be admitted into the Government nor to any Offices at Court 1553. The Laws should not be altered nor the Pleadings put into any other Tongue The Queen should not be made to go out of England but upon her own desire The Children born in the Marriage should not go out of England but by the consent of the Nobility If the Queen out-lived the Prince She should have 60000 l. a year out of his Estate 40000 out of Spain and 20000 of it out of the Netherlands If the Queen had Sons by him they should succeed both to her own Crowns and the Netherlands and Burgundy
Recorder of London told the Earl of Leicester the secret of this in Queen Elizabeth's Time who writ down his Discourse and from thence I have copied it There was one that had been Cromwell's Servant and much employed by him in the suppression of Monasteries he was a Man of great Notions but very busy and factious so having been a great stickler for the Lady Jane he was put in the Fleet upon the Queen's first coming to the Crown yet within a month he was discharged but upon the last Rising was again put up and indicted of High Treason He had great Friends and made application to one of the Emperor's Ambassadors that was then the Chancellor of the Dutchy of Milan and by his means he obtained his Liberty Being brought to him he shewed him a new Plat-form of Government which he had contrived for the Queen She was to declare her self a Conqueror or that she having succeeded to the Crown by Common Law was not at all to be limited by the Statute Laws since those were only restrictions upon the Kings but not on the Queens of England and that therefore all those Limitations of the Prerogative were only binding in the Persons of Kings but she was free from them Upon this he shewed how she might establish Religion set up the Monasteries raise her Friends and ruin her Enemies and Rule according to her Pleasure The Ambassador carried this to the Queen and seemed much pleased with it but desired her to read it carefully and keep it as a great Secret As she read it she disliked it and judged it contrary to the Oath she had made at her Coronation and thereupon sent for Gardiner and charged him as he would answer before the Judgment-Seat of God at the general Day of the Holy Doom that he would consider the Book carefully and bring her his Opinion of it next day which fell to be Maundy Thursday So as the Queen came from her Maundy he waited on her into her Closet and said these words My good and most gracious Lady I intend not to pray your Highness with any humble Petitions to name the Devisers of this new invented Plat-form but here I say That it is pity that so noble and vertuous a Lady should be endangered with the pernicious Devices of such lewd and subtil Sycophants for the Book is naught and most horrible to be thought on Upon this the Queen thanked him and threw the Book into the Fire and charged the Ambassador that neither he nor any of his Company should receive more such Projects from any of her People This made Gardiner apprehended that if the Spaniards began so soon to put such Notions into the Queen's Head they might afterwards when she was in their Hands make somewhat of them and therefore to prevent such Designs for the future he drew the Act in which though he seemed to do it as an Advantage to the Queen for the putting of her Title beyond dispute yet he really intended nothing by it but that she should be restrained by all those Laws that the former Kings of England had consented to And because King Henry the Seventh though his best right to the Crown flowed from his Marriage to the Heir of the House of York had yet taken the Government wholly into his own hands he fearing lest the Spaniards should pretend to such a Power by the Authority which Marriage gives the Husband over the Wife got the Articles of the Marriage to be ratified in Parliament by which they not only confirmed those agreed on but made a more full explanation of that part of them which declared the entire Government of the Kingdom to belong only to the Queen To this the Spaniards gave too great an occasion Great Jealousies of the Spanish Power by publishing King Philip's Pedigree whom they derived from John of Gaunt They said this was only done to conciliate the favour of the Nation by representing him not a stranger but a Native But this gave great offence concerning which I have seen a little Book that vvas then printed It was there said That King Henry the Seventh came in pretending only to marry the Heir of the House of York But he was no sooner on the Throne than he declared his own Title and kept it his whole Life So it vvas said the Spaniard vvould call himself Heir of the House of Lancaster and upon that Pretension would easily wrest the Power out of the Queen's hands who seemed to mind nothing but her Devotions This made Gardiner look the better to the securing of the Liberties of the Crown and Nation so that it must be acknowledged that the preserving of England out of the hands of the Spaniards at that time seems to be almost vvholly owing to him In this Parliament the Marquess of Northampton vvas restored in Blood And the Act for restoring the Bishoprick of Duresm The Bishoprick of Duresm restored not having gone through the last Parliament vvhen it vvas dissolved vvas now brought in again The Town of Newcastle opposed it much vvhen it came down to the Commons But the Bishop of Duresm came to them on the 18th of April and gave them a long account of all his Troubles from the Duke of Northumberland and desired that they would dispatch his Bill There vvere many Proviso's put into it for some that vvere concerned in Gateside but it vvas carried in the House That instead of these Proviso's they should send a Desire to him recommending those Persons to his Favour So upon a Division there vvere 120 against it and 201 for it After this came the Bill confirming the Attainders of the Duke of Suffolk and fifty eight more vvho vvere attainted for the late Rebellion The Lords put in a Proviso excepting Entailed Lands out of their Forfeitures but the Commons rejected the Proviso and passed the Bill Then did the Commons send up a Bill for reviving the Statutes made against Lollardy vvhich being read twice by the Lords vvas laid aside The Commons intended next to have revived the Statute of the Six Articles but it did not agree vvith the Design at Court to take any notice of King Henry's Acts so this vvas let fall Then they brought in another Bill to extirpate Erroneous Opinions and Books but that vvas at the third reading laid aside After that they passed a particular Bill against Lollardy in some Points as the eating of flesh in Lent but that also being sent up to the Lords was at the third reading laid aside by the major part of the House so forward were the Commons to please the Queen or such Operation had the Spanish Gold on them that they contrived four Bills in one Session for the prosecution of those they called Hereticks But to give some content on the other hand they passed a Bill that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any other should have any Power to Convene or trouble any for possessing Abbey Lands This was sent up to
their Tongues immediatly so they to avoid that butchery promised to obey those cruel Orders The manner of Hooper's death Reflections made on Hooper's Death made those who judged too critically of Divine Providences reflect on the dissension that had been raised by him about the Vestments as if he who had kindled that fire had suffered now more than ordinary for that reason But all that difference was at an end before this for Ridley and he between whom there had been the greatest animosity becoming Partners in the same sufferings were perfectly reconciled to each other He writ twice to Ridley who writ him an answer as soon as he could convey it in which he declared how intirely he was knit to him tho in some circumstances of Religion they had formerly Jarred a little it was Hoopers wisdom and his own simplicity that had divided them every one following the abundance of his own sence but now he assured him that in the Bowels of Christ he loved him in the Truth and for the Truth He encouraged him to prepare for the day of his dissolution after which they should triumph together in eternal Glory he expressed great Joy for what he heard of Cranmers godly and fatherly constancy whose integrity and uprightness gravity and innocence was known to the whole Nation and he blessed God that had given in his reverend old age such a Man to be the witness of his Truth for miserable and hard-hearted was he whom the Godliness and constant confession of so worthy so grave and so innocent a man would not move to acknowledg and confess his Truth It had been happy if the fires that consumed those good Men had put an end to these Contests and if those that have been since engaged in the like will reflect more on the sense they had of them when they were now preparing for Eternity than on the heats they were put in concerning them when perhaps ease and plenty made their Passions keener they may from thence be reduced to have more moderate thoughts of such matters If the English Nation was dissatisfied with what was done since the beginning of this Reign These Burnings were disliked by the Nation it cannot be imagined but their discontent received a great encrease by what was now acted Those that favoured the Reformation were awakened to have more serious thoughts about it since they saw those that had preached it dyed so patiently and resolutly rather than they would deny it It begot in them greater tenderness to their memories and a more violent aversion to their Persecutors The rest of the Nation that neither knew nor valued Religion much yet were startled at the severity and strangeness of these proceedings and being naturally of relenting and compassionate Tempers were highly disaffected to the King from whom they believed that this flowed The Queen had before declared she would force no body in these points so they thought it not reasonable nor decent to charge her with it Gardiner with the other Bishops and Privy Councelours had openly in Court purged themselves of it and laid it on the Queen being therein more careful of their own credit than of her honour so now it could fall no where but on the King the sowreness of whose temper together with his bigotry for that Religion made it reasonable enough to impute it to him besides he had been bred in Spain where the Inquisition was let loose on all that were suspected of Heresie without any restraint and his Father had during his whole Reign been always as far as he safely could be a persecutor of Protestants Philip could not but see that all was cast on him The King purges himself of them and understanding that thereby he should become unacceptable to the Nation and so not be able to carry on his Design of making himself Master of England he was something concerned to clear himself of these Impâ—â—ations Therefore Alphonsus a Franciscan Friar that was his Confessor in a Sermon before him on the 10th of February preached largely against the taking away of Peoples lives for Religion and in plain terms inveighed against the Bishops for doing it he said they had not learned it in Scripture which taught Bishops in the spirit of meekness to instruct those that opposed them and not to burn them for their Consciences This startled the Bishops since it was novv plain But they are prosecuted by the Clergy that the Spaniards disovvned these extream courses and hereupon there vvas a stop for several weeks put to any further severities But the Popish Clergy being once engaged in blood have been always observed to become the most brutally cruel of any sort of men so that it was not easie to restrain them and therefore they resolved rather than the Hereticks should not be prosecuted any further to take the blame of it avowedly on themselves There was at this time a Petition Printed A Petition against Persecution and sent over from some beyond Sea to the Queen in which they set before her the danger of her being carried away by a blind zeal to persecute the members of Christ as St. Paul was before his conversion They put her in mind how Cranmer had preserved her in her Fathers time so that she had more reason to believe he loved her and would speak truth to her than all the rest of her Clergy whom they compared to be Jezabel's Prophets They gathered many Passages out of Gardiner's Bonner's and Tonstal's Writings against the Pope's Supremacy and her Mother's Marriage and shewed that they were Men that by their own confession had no conscience in them but measured their Actions and Professions by their Fears and Interests and averred that it was known that many of that Faction did openly profess that if they lived in Turkey they would comply with the Religion of the Country They said that the Turks did tolerate Christians and the Christians did in most places suffer Jews but the Persecution now set on foot was like that which the Scribes and Pharisees raised against the Apostles for they then pretended that they had been once of their Religion and so were Apostates and Hereticks They also said but by a common mistakâ— That the first Law for Burning in England was made by Henry tâ—â— Fourth who to gratify the Bishops that had helped him to depose Kiâ—â— Richard the Second and to advance himself to the Throne 〈◊〉 were in recompence of that Service had granted them that Lawâ— which was both against all humanity and more particularly against the mercifulness of the Christian Religion They remembred her that in King Edward's Time none of the Papists had been so used and in conclusion they told her She was trusted by God with the Sword for the protection of her People as long as they did well and was to answer to him for their Blood if she thus delivered them to the Mercy of such Wolves From the Queen the
mutual Love and to relieve the Poor according to their abundance Then he came to that on which he said all his past Life and that which was to come did hang being now to enter either into the joys of Heaven or the pains of Hell He repeated the Apostles Creed and declared his belief of the Scriptures and then he spake to that which he said troubled his Conscience more than any thing he had ever done in his whole Life which was the subscribing a Paper contrary to the Truth and against his Conscience out of the fear of Death and the love of Life and when he came to the Fire he was resolved that Hand that had signed it should burn first He rejected the Pope as Christ's enemy and Antichrist and said he had the same belief of the Sacrament which he had published in the Book he writ about it Upon this there was a wonderful Confusion in the Assembly Those who hoped to have gained a great Victory that day seeing it turning another way were in much disorder They called to him to dissemble no more He said he had ever loved Simplicity and before that time had never dissembled in his whole Life And going on in his discourse with abundance of tears they pulled him down and led him away to the Stake which was set in the same place where Ridley and Latimer were burnt All the way the Priests upbraided him for his changing but he was minding another thing When he came to the Stake he first prayed He suffers Myrtyrdome with great constancy of Mind and then undressed himself and being tied to it as the Fire was kindling he stretched forth his Right-Hand towards the Flame never moving it save that once he wiped his Face with it till it was burnt away which was consumed before the Fire reached his Body He expressed no disorder for the pain he was in sometimes saying that unworthy Hand and oft crying out Lord Jesus receive my Spirit He was soon after quite burnt But it was no small matter of Astonishment to find his Heart entire and not consumed among the Ashes which tho the Reformed would not carry so far as to make a Miracle of it and a clear proof that his Heart had continued true tho his Hand had erred yet they objected it to the Papists that it was certainly such a thing that if it had fallen out in any of their Church they had made it a Miracle Thus did Thomas Cranmer end his days in the sixty seventh year of his Age. He was a Man raised of God for great Services His Character and well fitted for them He was naturally of a milde and gentle temper not soon heated nor apt to give his Opinion rashly of things or persons and yet his Gentleness tho it oft exposed him to his Enemies who took advantages from it to use him ill knowing he would readily forgive them did not lead him into such a weakness of Spirit as to consent to every thing that was uppermost for as he stood firmly against the six Articles in K. Henry's time notwithstanding all his heat for them so he also opposed the Duke of Somerset in the matter of the sale and alienation of the Chantry Lands and the Duke of Northumberland during his whole Government and now resisted unto Blood so that his meekness was really a vertue in him and not a pusillanimity in his temper He was a Man of great Candor He never dissembled his Opinion nor disowned his Friend two rare qualities in that Age in which there was a continued course of dissimulation almost in the whole English Clergy and Nation they going backward and forward as the Court turned But this had got him that esteem with King Henry that it always preserv'd him in his days He knew what Complaints soever were brought against him he would freely tell him the truth so instead of asking it from other hands he began at himself He neither disowned his esteem of Queen Anne nor his friendship to Cromwel and the Duke of Somerset in their misfortunes but owned he had the same thoughts of them in their lowest Condition that he had in their greatest State He being thus prepared by a candid and good nature for the searches into Truth added to these a most wonderful diligence for he drew out of all the Authors that he read every thing that was remarkable digesting these Quotations into Common-places This begat in King Henry an admiration of him for he had often tried it to bid him bring the Opinions of the Fathers and Doctors upon several questions which he commonly did in two or three dayes time This flowed from the copiousness of his common place Books He had a good judgment but no great quickness of apprehension not closeness of Stile which was diffused and unconnected therefore when any thing was to be penned that required more Nerves he made use of Ridley He laid out all his Wealth on the poor and pious uses He had Hospitals and Surgeons in his House for the King's Seamen He gave Pensions to many of those that fled out of Germany into England and kept up that which is Hospitality indeed at his Table where great numbers of the honest and poor neighbours were always invited instead of the Luxury and Extravagance of great Entertainments which the vanity and excess of the Age we live in has honoured with the name of Hospitality to which too many are led by the Authority of Custom to comply too far He was so humble and affable that he carried himself in all conditions at the same rate His last Fall was the only blemish of his life but he expiated it with a sincere repentance and a patient Martyrdom He had been the chief advancer of the Reformation in his Life and God so ordered it that his death should bear a proportion to the former parts of his life which was no small Confirmation to all that received his Doctrine when they heard how constantly he had at last sealed it with his Blood And tho it is not to be fancied that King Henry was a Prophet yet he discovered such things in Cranmers temper as made him conclude he was to die a Martyr for his Religion and therefore he ordered him to change his Coat of Arms and to give Pelicans instead of Cranes which were formerly the Arms of his Family Intimating withal that as it is reported of the Pelican that she gives her Blood to feed her young ones so he was to give his Blood for the good of the Church That King's kindness to him subjected him too much to him for great Obligations do often prove the greatest snares to generous and noble minds And he was so much over-born by his respects to him and was so affected with King Henry's Death that he never after that shaved his Beard but let it grow to a great length which I the rather mention because the Pictures that were afterwards made for
when they were proceeding so severely against Men for their Opinions to spare one that was guilty of so foul a Murder killing both Father and Son at the same time But it is strange that neither his Quality nor his former zeal for Popery could procure a change of the Sentence from the more infamous way of hanging to beheading which had been generally used to Persons of his Quality It has been said and it passes for a Maxim of Law That though in Judgments of Treason the King can order the Execution to be by cutting off the Head since it being a part of the Sentence that the Head shall be severed from the Body the King may in that Case remit all the other parts of the Sentence except that yet in Felonies the Sentence must be Executed in the way prescribed by Law and that if the King should order beheading in stead of hanging it would be Murder in the Sheriff and those that Execute it So that in such a Case they must have a Pardon under the Great Seal for killing a Man unlawfully But this seems to be taken up without good Grounds and against clear Precedents For in the former Reign the Duke of Somerset though condemned for Felony yet was beheaded And in the Reign of King Charles the first the Lord Audley being likewise condemned for Felony all the Judges delivered their Opinons that the King might change the Execution from hanging to beheading which was done and was not afterwards questioned So it seems the hanging the Lord Stourton flowed not from any scruple as to the Queens Power of doing it lawfully but that on this occasion she resolved to give a publick Demonstration of her Justice and Horror at so cruel a Murder and therefore she left him to the Law without taking any further care of him On the last of February he was sent from London with a Letter to the Sheriff of Wilt-shire to receive his Body and execute the Sentence given against him and his Servants which was accordingly done as has been already shewn Upon this the Papists took great advantage to commend the strictness and impartiality of the Queens Justice that would not spare so zealous a Catholick when guilty of so foul a Murder It was also said That the killing of Mens Bodies was a much less crime than the killing of Souls which was done by the Propagators of Heresie and therefore if the Queen did thus execute Justice on a Friend for that which was a lesser degree of Murder they who were her Enemies and guilty of higher Crimes were to look for no mercy Indeed as the Poor Protestants looked for none so they met with very little but what the Cardinal shewed them and he was now brought under trouble himself for favouring them too much it being that which the Pope made use of to cover his malice against him Now the War had again broken out between France and Spain and the King studied to engage the English to his assistance The Queen had often complained to the French Court that the Fugitives who left her Kingdom had been well entertained in France She understood that the practises of Wiat and of her other rebellious Subjects were encouraged from thence particularly of Ashton who went often between the two Kingdoms and had made use of the Lady Elizabeths Name to raise Seditions as will appear by a Letter that is in the Collection Collection Number 34. which some of the Council writ to one that attended that Princess She was indeed the more strictly kept and worse used upon that occasion But besides it so happened that this Year one Stafford had gone into France and gathered some of the English Fugitives together and with Money and Ships that were secretly given him by that Court had come and seized on the Castle of Scarborough from whence he published a Manifesto against the Queen that by bringing in the Spaniards she had fallen from her Right to the Kingdom of which he declared himself Protector The Earl of Westmorland took the Castle on the last of April and Stafford with three of his Complices being taken suffered as Traitors on the 28th of May. The Queen becomes jealous of the French His coming out of France added much to the Jealousie though the French King disowned that he had given him any assistance But Dr. Wotton who was then Ambassador there resolved to give the Queen a more certain discovery of the inclinations of the French that so he might engage her in the War as was desired by Philip He therefore caused a Nephew of his own to come out of England whom when he had secretly instructed he ordered him to desire to be admitted to speak with the French King pretending that he was sent from some that were discontented in England and desired the French Protection But the King would not see him till he had first spoken with the Constable So Wotton was brought to the Constable and Melvill from whose Memoirs I draw this was called to interpret The young man first offered him the Service of many in England that partly upon the account of Religion partly for the hatred they bore the Spaniards were ready if assisted by France to make stirs there The Constable received and answered this but coldly and said He did not see what Service they could do his Master in it Upon which he replied They would put Calais into his Hands The Constable not suspecting a Trick started at that and shewed great joy at the Proposition but desired to know how it might be effected Young Wotton told him there were a thousand Protestants in it and gave him a long formal Project of the way of taking it with which the Constable seemed pleased and had much discourse with him about it he promised him great Rewards and gave him directions how to proceed in the Design So the Ambassador having found out what he had designed to discover sent his Nephew over to the Queen who was thereupon satisfied that the French were resolved to begin with her if they found an opportunity Her Husband King Philip finding it was not so easie by Letters or Messages to draw her into the War came over himself about the 20th of May and stayed with her till the beginning of July And denounces War In that time he prevailed so far with her and the Council that she sent over a Herauld with a formal Denunciation of War who made it at Rhemes where the King then was on the seventh of June Soon after she sent over 8000 Men under the Command of the Earl of Pembroke to joyn the Spanish Army that consisting of near 50000 Men sate down before St. Quintin The Constable was sent to raise the Siege with a great Force and all the chief Nobility of France When the two Armies were in view of one another The great defeat given the French at St. Quintin the Constable intended to draw back his Army but by
a mistake in the way of it they fell in some disorder The Spaniards upon that falling on them did with the loss only of fifty of their Men gain an entire Victory 2500 were killed on the Place the whole Army was dispersed many of the first Quality were killed the Constable with many others were taken Prisoners The French King was in such a consternation upon it that he knew not which way to turn himself Now all the French cursed the Popes Counsels for he had perswaded their King to begin this War and that with a manifest breach of his Faith This Action lost the Constable that great reputation which he had acquired and preserved in a course of much success and raised the credit of the Duke of Guise who was now sent for in all hast to come with his Army out of Italy for the preservation of his own Country France indeed was never in greater danger than at that time For if King Philip had known how to have used his Success and marched on to Paris he could have met with no resistance But he sate down before St. Quintins which Coligny kept out so long till the first terror was over that so great a Victory had raised and then as the French took Heart again so the Spaniards grew less as well in strength as reputation and the English finding themselves not well used returned home into their Country As soon as the Pope heard that England had made War upon France he was not a little inflamed with it and his wrath was much heightned when he heard of the defeat at St. Quintins and that the Duke of Guise Army was recalled out of Italy by which he was exposed to the mercy of the Spaniards He now said openly they might see how little Cardinal Pool The Pope is offended with Cadrinal Pool regarded the Apostolick See when he suffered the Queen to assist their Enemies against their Friends The Pope being thus incens'd against Pool sought all ways to be revenged of him At first he made a Decree in May this Year for a General Revocation of all Legates and Nuntio's in the King of Spains Dominions and among these Cardinal Pool was mentioned with the rest But Carne understanding this went first to the Cardinals and informed them what a prejudice it would be to their Religion to recall the Cardinal while things were yet in so unsetled a state in England Of this they were all very sensible and desired him to speak to the Pope about it So in an Audience he had of him he desired a Suspension might be made of that Revocation The Pope pretended he did it in General in all the Spanish Dominions yet he promised Carne to propose it to the Congregation of the Inquisition but he was resolved not to recall it and said it did not consist with the Majesty of the Place he sate in to revoke any part of a Decree which he had solemnly given In the Congregation the Pope endeavoured to have got the Concurrence of the Cardinals but they were unwilling to joyn in it So he told Carne that though he would recall no part of his Decree yet he would give Orders that there should be no Intimation made of it to Cardinal Pool and that if the Queen writ to him to desire his Continuance in England it might be granted He also let fall some words to Carne of his willingness to make Peace with King Philip and indeed at that time he was much distasted with the French Of this Carne advertised the King though he was then so much better acquainted with the Popes dissimulation than formerly that he did not lay much weight on what he said to him as will appear by the dispatch he made upon this occasion which is in the Collection Whether the Queen did upon this write to the Pope or not Collection Number 35. I do not know It is probable she did for this matter lay asleep till September and then the Pope did not only recall Pool but intended to destroy him He did not know where to find a Person to set up against the Cardinal since Gardiner was dead and none of the other Bishops in England were great enough or sure enough to him to be raised to so high a Dignity Peito the Franciscan Friar seemed a Man of his own temper because he had railed against King Henry so boldly to his face and he being chosen by the Queen to be her Confessor was looked on as the fittest to be advanced So the Pope wrote for him into England and when he came to Rome made him a Cardinal and sent over his Bulls declaring that he recalled Pools Legatine Power And recalls his Legatine Power and required him to come to Rome to answer for some Accusations he had received of him as a favourer of Hereticks This might have perhaps been grounded on his discharging that Year so many delated of Heresie upon so ambiguous a submission as they had made The Pope also wrote to the Queen that he was to send over Cardinal Peito with full power requiring her to receive him as the Legate of the Apostolick See The Queen called for the Bulls and according to the way formerly practised in England and still continued in Spain when Bulls that were unacceptable were sent over she ordered them to be laid up without opening them It has been shewn in the former part how Arch-bishop Chicheley when he was so proceeded against by Pope Martin appealed to the next General Council and some that desired to see the Form of such Appeals in those Ages have thought it an Omission in me that I had not published his Appeal in the Collection of Records at the end of that Work therefore upon this occasion I shall refer the Reader to it which he will find in the Collection But now Collection Number 36. Cardinal Pool resolved to behave himself with more submission For though the Queen had ordered the Popes Breve to him not to be delivered yet of himself he laid down the Ensigns of his Legatine Power and sent Ormaneto who had the Title of the Popes Datary and was his Friend and Confident to give an account of his whole behaviour in England and to clear him of these Imputations of Heresie This he did with so much submission that he mollified the Pope only he said that Pool ought not to have consented to the Queens joyning in War with the Enemies of the Holy See The Queen refuses to admit of Cardinal Peito the new Legate Peito had begun his Journey to England but the Queen sent him word not to come over otherwise she would bring him and all that owned his Authority within the Praemunire So he stopt in his Journey and dying in April following enjoyed but a short while his new Dignity together with the Bishoprick of Salisbury to which the Pope had advanced him clearly contrary to the old Law then in force against Provisions
accidents that struck terror in them In July Thunder broke near Nottingham with such violence that it beat down two little Towns with all the Houses and Churches in them the Bells were carried a good way from the Steeples and the Lead that covered the Churches was cast 400 Foot from them strangely wreathed The River of Trent as it is apt upon Deluges of Rain to swell and over-run the Country so it broke out this Year with extraordinary violence many Trees were plucked up by the Roots and with it there was such a Wind that carried several Men and Children a great way and dashed them against Trees or Houses so that they died Hail-stones fell that were fifteen Inches about in other Places and which was much more terrible a contagious intermitting Feaver not unlike the Plague raged every where so that three parts of four of the whole Nation were infected with it So many Priests died of it that in many Places there were none to be had for the performing of the Offices Many Bishops died also of it so that there were many vacancies made by the Hand of Heaven against Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and it spreading most violently in August there were not Men enough in many Counties to reap the Harvest so that much Corn was lost All these Symptoms concurred to encrease the aversion the People had to the Government which made the Queen very willing to consent to a Treaty of Peace that was opened at Cambray in October to which she sent the Earl of Arundel the Bishop of Ely and Dr. Wotton as her Plenipotentiaries A Treaty of Peace between England France and Spain The occasion of the Peace was from a meeting that the Bishop of Arras had with the Cardinal of Lorrain at Peronne in which he proposed to him how much Philip was troubled at the continuance of the War their Forces being so much engaged in it that they could make no resistance to the Turk and the mean while Heresie encreasing and spreading in their own Dominions while they were so taken up that they could not look carefully to their Affairs at home but must connive at many things therefore he pressed the Cardinal to perswade the King of France to an Accommodation The Cardinal was easily induced to this since besides his own zeal for Religion he saw that he might thereby bear down the Constables greatness whose Friends chiefly his two Nephews the Admiral and Dandelot who went then among the best Captains in France were both suspect of being Protestants upon which the latter was shortly after put in Prison so he used all his endeavours to draw the King to consent to it in which he had the less opposition since the Court was now filled with his Dependants and his four Brothers who had got all the great Officers of France into their Hands and the Constable and Admiral being Prisoners there was none to oppose their Councils The King thinking that by the recovery of Calais and the Places about it he had gained enough to ballance the loss of St. Quintin was very willing to hearken to a Treaty and he was in an ill state to continue the War being much weakned both by the loss he suffered last Year and the blow that he received in July last The Battel of Graveling the Marshal de Thermes being enclosed by the Count of Egmont near Graveling where the French Army being set on by the Count and galled with the English Ordnance from their Ships that lay near the Land was defeated 5000 killed the Marshal and the other chief Officers being taken Prisoners These losses made him sensible that his Affairs were in so ill a condition that he could not gain much by the War The Number of the Protestants growing in France The Cardinal was the more earnest to bring on a Peace because the Protestants did not only encrease in their Numbers but they came so openly to avow their Religion that in the publick Walks without the Suburbs of St. Germain they began to sing Davids Psalms in French Verse The newness of the thing amused many the devotion of it wrought on others the Musick drew in the rest so that the Multitudes that used to divert themselves in those Fields in stead of their ordinary sports did now nothing for many nights but go about singing Psalms and that which made it more remarkable was that the King and Queen of Navarre came and joyned with them That King besides the Honour of a Crowned Head with the small part of that Kingdom that was yet left in their Hands was the first Prince of the Blood He was a soft and weak Man but his Queen in whose right he had that Title was one of the most extraordinary Women that any Age hath produced both for knowledge far above her Sex for a great judgment in Affairs an Heroical Greatness of Mind and all other Vertues joyned to a high measure of Devotion and true Piety all which except the last she derived to her Son Henry the Great When the King of France heard of this Psalmody he made an Edict against it and ordered the doers of it to be punished but the Numbers of them and the respect to those Crowned Heads made the business to go no further On the 24th of April was the Dolphin married to the Queen of Scotland The Dolphin marries the Queen of Scotland Four Cardinals Bourbon Lorrain Chastilion and Bertrand with many of the Princes of the Blood and the other great Men of France and the Commissioners sent from Scotland were present But scarce any thing adorned it more than the Epithalamium written upon it by Buchanan which was accounted one of the perfectest Pieces of Latin Poetry After the Marriage was over the Scotch Commissioners were desired to offer the Dolphin the Ensigns of the Regality of Scotland and to acknowledge him their King but they excused themselves since that was beyond their Commission which only empow'red them to treat concerning the Articles of the Marriage and to carry an account back to those that sent them Then it was desired that they would promote the business at their return to their Country but some of them had expressed their aversion to those Propositions so plainly that it was believed they were poisoned by the Brethren of the House of Guise Four of them died in France the Bishop of Orkney and the Earls of Rothes and Cassils and the Lord Fleeming The Prior of St. Andrews was also very sick and though he recovered at that time yet he had never any perfect health after it When the other four returned into Scotland a Convention of the Estates was called to consult about the Propositions they brought This Assembly consists of all those Members that make up a Parliament who were then the Bishops and Abbots and Priors A Convention of Estates in Scotland who made the first Estate the Noblemen that were the second Estate and the
her he told her Ambassador that the French had offered him full satisfaction in all his own concerns so that the Peace was hindered only by the Consideration of Calais and therefore unless the English would enter into a League with him for keeping up the War six years longer he must submit to the necessity of his Affairs The Queen perceiving that she was to expect no more assistance from the Spaniard who was so much engaged to the old Superstition that he would enter into no strict League with any whom he accounted an Heretick was willing to listen to the Messages that were sent her from France by the Constable and others inducing her to agree to a Peace She on the other hand complained that the Queen of Scotland and her Husband in her Right had assumed the Title and Arms of England It was answered That was done as the younger Brothers in Germany carried the Title of the great Families from whence they were descended and for Titles the Queen of England had little reason to quarrel about that since she carried the Title and gave the Arms of France A Peace with France agreed to The Queen and her Council saw it was impossible for her to carry on the War with France alone The laying heavy Impositions on her Subjects in the beginning of her Reign might render her very ingrateful to the Nation who loved not to be charged with many Subsidies and when the War should produce nothing but some Wasts on the French Coasts which was all that could be expected since it was unreasonable to look for the Recovery of Calais it might turn all the Joy they were now in at her coming to the Crown into as general a discontent It was the ruine of the Duke of Somerset that he had engaged in a War in the beginning of King Edwards Reign when he was making Changes in Religion at home therefore it was necessary to yield to the necessity of the time especially since the loss of Calais was no reproach on the Queen but on her Sister so it was resolved on to make a general Peace that being at quiet with their Neighbours they might with the less danger apply themselves to the correcting what was amiss in England both in Religion and the Civil Government At length a Peace was made on these terms That there should be free Commerce between the Kingdoms of England France and Scotland the French should keep Calais for eight years and at the end of that time should deliver it to the English and if it were not then delivered they should pay to the English 500000 Crowns for which they should give good security by Merchants that lived in other Parts and give Hostages till the Security were given but if during these years the Queen made War on France or Scotland she was to lose her Right to that Town or if the French or Scots made War on her Calais should be presently restored to which she was still to reserve her Right Aymouth in Scotland was to be razed and a Commission was to be sent down to some of both Kingdoms to agree all lesser differences On these terms a Peace was made and proclaimed between those Crowns to which many of the English that did not apprehend what the charge of a War for the regaining of Calais would have amounted to were very averse thinking it highly dishonourable that they whose Ancestors had made such Conquests in France should be now beaten out of the only remainder that they had on the Continent and thus make a Peace by which it was in effect parted with for ever For all these Conditions about restoring it were understood to be only for palliating so Inglorious a business But the Reformed cast the blame of this on the Papists and some moved that all the late Queens Council should be questioned for their Misgovernment in that Particular for it was thought nothing would make them so odious to the Nation as the charging that on them They on the other hand did cast the blame of it on the Lord Wentworth that had been Governour of Calais and was now professedly one of the Reformed and had been very gentle to these of that Perswasion during his Government But he put himself on a Trial by his Peers which he underwent on the 22d of April and there did so clear himself that he was by the Judgment of the Peers acquitted The Queens Government being thus quieted abroad The Proceedings of the Parliament she was thereby at more leisure to do things at home The first Bill that was put into the House of Lords to try their affections and disposition to a Change in the matters of Religion was that for the Restitution of the Tenths and First Fruits to the Crown It was agreed to by the Lords on the fourth of February having been put in the 30th of January and was the first Bill that was read the Arch-bishop of York the Bishops of London Worcester Landaffe Litchfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle protested against it these were all of that Order that were at the Session except the Bishops of Winchester Lincoln Ely and the Abbot of Westminster who it seems were occasionally absent On the sixth of February it was sent down to the Commons to which they readily agreed and so it had the Royal Assent By it not only the Tenths and First Fruits were again restored to the Crown but also all Impropriated Benefices which had been surrendred up by Queen Mary They address to the Queen for her marrying But the Commons reflecting on the Miseries in which they had been lately involved by Queen Maries Marriage had much debate about an Address to the Queen to induce her to marry On the fourth of February it was argued in the House of Commons and on the sixth the Speaker with the Privy-Counsellors of the House and thirty Members more were sent with their desires to the Queen They expressed the affections of the Nation to her and said That if they could hope she might be Immortal they would rest satisfied but that being a vain Imagination they earnestly besought her to choose such a Husband as might make the Nation and her self happy and by the blessing of God bring such Issue as might Reign after her death which they prayed God might be very late The Queens Answer She said She looked on that as an expression both of their affection and respect since they had neither limited Time nor Place She declared that she had hitherto lived in a single state with great satisfaction and had neither entertained some Honourable Propositions which the Lord Treasurer knew had been made to her in her Brothers time nor had been moved by the fears of death that she was in while she was under her Sisters displeasure of which she would say little for though she knew or might justly suspect by whose means it was yet she would not utter it nor would she charge it
were declared to be Heresies by the express and plain Words of Scripture All other Points not so decided were to be judged by the Parliament with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation This Act was in many things short of the Authority that King Henry had claimed and the severity of the Laws he had made The Title of Supream Head was left out of the Oath This was done to mitigate the Opposition of the Popish Party but besides the Queen her self had a scruple about it which was put in her Head by one Lever a famous Preacher among those of the Reformation of which Sands afterwards Bishop of Worcester complained to Parker in a Letter that is in the Collection Collection Number 2. There was no other punishment inflicted on those that denied the Queens Supremacy but the loss of their Goods and such as refused to take the Oath did only lose their Imployments whereas to refuse the Oath in King Henry's time brought them into a Praemunire and to deny the Supremacy was Treason The Bishops oppose the Queens Supremacy But against this Bill the Bishops made Speeches in the House of Lords I have seen a Speech of this kind was said to have been made by Arch-bishop Heath but it must be forgery put out in his Name for he is made to speak of the Supremacy as a new and unheard of thing which he who had sworn it so oft in King Henry's and King Edwards times could not have the face to say The rest of the Bishops opposed it the rather because they had lately declared so high for the Pope that it had been very indecent for them to have revolted so soon The Bishop of Duresme came not to this Parliament There were some hopes of gaining him to concur in the Reformation for in the Warrant the Queen afterwards gave to some for Consecrating the new Bishops he is first named and I have seen a Letter of Secretary Cecils to Parker that gives him some hope that Tonstal would joyn with them He had been offended with the Cruelties of the late Reign and though the resentments he had of his ill usage in the end of King Edwards time had made him at first concur more heartily to the restoring of Popery yet he soon fell off and declared his dislike of those violent Courses and neither did he nor Heath bring any in trouble within their Diocesses upon the account of Religion though it is hardly credible that there was no occasion for their being severe if they had been otherwise enclined to it The Bishop of Ely was also absent at the passing of this Act for though he would not consent to it yet he had done all that was prescribed by it so often before that it seems he thought it more decent to be absent than either to consent to it or to oppose it The Power that was added for the Queens Commissionating some to Execute her Supremacy gave the Rise to that Court which was commonly called the High Commission Court The beginning of the High Commission and was to be in the room of a single Person to whom with the Title of Lord Vice-gerent King Henry did delegate his Authority It seems the Clergy-men with whom the Queen consulted at this time thought this too much to be put in one Mans Hand and therefore resolved to have it shared to more Persons of whom a great many would certainly be Church-men so that they should not be altogether kept under by the hard Hands of the Laity who having groaned long under the Tyranny of an Ecclesiastical Yoke seemed now disposed to revenge themselves by bringing the Clergy as much under them for so Extreams do commonly rise from one another The Popish Clergy were now every where beginning to declaim against Innovation and Heresie Harpsfield had in a Sermon at Canterbury in February stirred the People much to Sedition and the Members belonging to that Cathedral had openly said that Religion should not nor could not be altered The Council also heard that the Prebendaries there had bought up many Arms so a Letter was written to Sir Thomas Smith to examine that matter Harpsfield was not put in Prison but received only a Rebuke There came also complaints from many other Places of many Seditious Sermons So the Queen following the Precedent her Sister had set her did in the beginning of March forbid all Preaching except by such as had a Licence under the Great Seal But lest the Clergy might now in the Convocation set out Orders in opposition to what the Queen was about to do she sent and required them under the Pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet Harpsfield that was Prolocutor with the rest of the lower House made an Address to the upper House to be by them presented to the Queen for the discharge of their Consciences They reduced the Particulars into five Articles 1. That Christ was corporally present in the Sacrament 2. That there was no other Substance there but his Body and Blood 3. That in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living 4. That St. Peter and his lawful Successors had the Power of feeding and governing the Church 5. That the Power of treating about Doctrine the Sacraments and the Order of Divine Worship belonged only to the Pastors of the Church These they had sent to the two Universities from whence they were returned with the Hands of the greatest part in them to the first four but it seems they thought it not fit to sign the last For now the Queen had resolved to have a publick Conference about Religion in the Abby-Church of Westminster The Arch-bishop of York was continued still to be of the Council so the Conference being proposed to him he after he had Communicated it to his Brethren accepted of it though with some unwillingness It was appointed that there should be nine of a side who should confer about these three Points 1. Whether it was not against the Word of God and the Custom of the Ancient Church to use a Tongue unknown to the People in the Common-Prayers and the Administration of the Sacraments 2. Whether every Church had not Authority to appoint change and take away Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Rites so the same were done to edification 3. Whether it could be proved by the Word of God that in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living All was ordered to be done in Writing The Bishops as being actually in Office were to read their Papers first upon the first Point and the Reformed were to read theirs next and then they were to exchange their Papers without any discourse concerning them for the avoiding of jangling The next day they were to read their Papers upon the second and after that upon the third Head and then they were to answer one anothers Papers The Nine on both sides were the Bishops of Winchester
endeavouring to propagate the True Religion with the right way of worshipping God in all her Dominions therefore she intending to have a General Visitation of her whole Kingdom impowred them or any two of them to examine the true State of all the Churches in the Northern Parts to suspend or deprive such Clergy-men as were unworthy and to put others into their Places to proceed against such as were obstinate by Imprisonment Church-Censure or any other legal way They were to reserve Pensions for such as would not continue in their Benefices but quitted them by Resignation and to examine the condition of all that were Imprisoned on the account of Religion and to discharge them and to restore all such to their Benefices as had been unlawfully turned out in the late Times This was the first High Commission that was given out that for the Province of Canterbury was without doubt of the same nature The prudence of reserving Pensions for such Priests as were turned out was much applauded since thereby they were kept from extream want which might have set them on to do mischief and by the Pension which was granted them upon their good Behaviour they were kept under some awe which would not have been otherwise That which was chiefly condemned in these Commissions was the Queen's giving the Visitors Authority to proceed by Ecclesiastical Censures which seemed a great stretch of her Supremacy but it was thought that the Queen might do that as well as the Lay-Chancellors did it in the Ecclesiastical Courts So that one Abuse was the excuse for another These Visiters having made Report to the Queen of the Obedience given to the Laws and her Injunctions it was found that of 9400 Benificed Men in England there were no more but fourteen Bishops six Abbots twelve Deans twelve Arch-Deacons fifteen Heads of Colledges fifty Prebendaries and eighty Rectors of Parishes that had left their Benefices upon the account of Religion So compliant were the Papists generally And indeed the Bishops after this time had the same apprehension of the danger into which Religion was brought by the juglings of the greatest part of the Clergy who retained their affections to the old Superstition that those in King Edward's time had So that if Queen Elizabeth had not lived so long as she did till all that Generation â—as dead and a new Set of Men better educated and principled were gro n up and put in their rooms and if a Prince of another Religion â— d succeeded before that time they had probably turned about again â—o the old Superstitions as nimbly as they had done before in Queen Mary's days That which supported the superstitious Party in King Edward's time most was that many great Bishops did secretly favour and encourage them Therefore it was now resolved to look well to the filling of the vacant Sees It has been said before that Parker Parker's unwillingness to accept of the Canterbury was sent for to London by the Queen's Order and the Archbishoprick of Canterbury was offered him he was upon that cast into such a perplexity of mind that he was out of measure grieved at it As soon as he was returned home he writ a Letter to the Lord-Keeper which with all the other Letters that passed in this matter I have put into the Collection Coll. Numb 8. He professed he never had less joy of a Journey to London and was never more glad to get from it than upon his last being there He said It was necessary to fill that See with a Man that was neither Arrogant Faint-hearted nor Covetous an Arrogant Man would perhaps divide from his Brethren in Doctrine whereas the whole strength of the Church depended on their Unity but if their should be Heart-burnings among them and the private quarrels that had been beyond Sea should be brought home the Peace of the Church would be lost and the Success of all their Design would be blasted and if a fainthearted Man were put in it would raise the Spirits of all their Adversaries A Covetous Man was good for nothing He knew his own unfitness both of Body and Mind so well that though he should be sorry to offend him and Secretary Cecil whom he honoured above all Men in the World and more sorry to displease the Queen yet he must above all things avoid God's Indignation and not enter into a station into which he knew he could not carry himself so as to answer it either to God or the World for his Administration And if he must go to Prison for his obstinate untowardness with which it seems they had threatned him he would suffer it rather with a quiet conscience than accept of an Imployment which he could not discharge He said he intended by God's Grace never to be of that Order neither higher nor lower He knew what he was capable of he was poor and not able to enter on such a station he had a Rupture which made him that he could not stir much therefore he desired some place in the University where he might wear out his Life tolerably He knew he could not answer their Expectation which made him so importunate not to be raised so high He said he had great apprehensions of Differences like to fall out among themselves which would be a pleasant diversion to those of the Church of Rome He saw some Men were Men still even after all their teaching in the School of Affliction He protested he did not seek his own private gain or ease he had but two or three years more of life before him and did not intend to heap up for his Children This he writ the first of March The business of the Parliament made this Motion to be laid aside till that was dissolved and then on the 17th of May the L. Keeper wrote to him concerning it He told him that he saw by a Resolution taken that day in the Queen's Presence that it would be very hard for his Friends to get him delivered from that Charge For his own part if he knew a Man to whom the Characters in his Letter did agree better than to himself he should be for preferring of such a one but knowing no such he must be still for him On the 19th after that the Lord Keeper and Secretary Cecil signed a Letter in the Queen's Name requiring him to come up and after that they sent a second Command to him to come to Court on the 28th of the Month. He came up but again excused himself Yet at last being so often pressed he writ to the Queen her self protesting that extream Necessity forced him to trouble her both out of Conscience to God and regard to her Service he knew his great unworthiness for so high a Function therefore as on his Knees he humbly besought her to discharge him of that Office which did require a Man of more Learning Virtue and Experience then he perfectly knew was in himself He lamented his
the Arch-Bishop sent the Cords of his own Pavilion for that use When Mill was brought to the Stake he said he would not go up of his own accord because he would not be accessary to his own Death but if they would put their hand to him they should see how chearfully he should do it That being done he went up and said I will go in to the Altar of God He exhorted the People to be no more seduced by the Lyes of their Priests but to depend upon Christ and his Mercy for whose Doctrine as many Martyrs had offered up their Lives so he blessed God that had so honoured him to call him to give this Testimony for whose Glory he most willingly offered up his Life When the Fire was set to him he called to the People to pray for him and continued to cry Lord have mercy on me till he could speak no more His Suffering was much resented by the Inhabitants of St. Andrews The Nation was much provoked by it who raised a great heap of Stones in the place where he was burnt for a Memorial of it and though the Priests scattered them often they renewed them still till a Watch was set about it In all parts of Scotland and especially in the Towns and in the Families of the Nobility and Gentry the Reformation had been received and secretly professed So they began now to consult what to do They had many meetings in several places and finding their Interest was great over the Kingdom they entred into Confederacies to maintain the true Religion Before the Parliament met last Year they had sent a Petition to the Queen Regent That the Worship of God might be in the Vulgar Tongue and the Communion might be given in both Kinds That there should be great care taken in the Election of Ministers that it might be according to the Custom of the Primitive Church and that scandalous Ministers might be removed and more worthy Men put in their Places But the Queen Regent to keep them in hopes till the Dolphin should be acknowledged King of Scotland promised they should not be hindred to have Prayers in their own Tongue so they would keep no publick Assemblies in Edinburgh and Leith In the Parliament they proposed the abrogating of the Laws for Church-mens proceedings against Hereticks and that none should be condemned of Heresy but according to the Word of God with some other Limitations of the Severities against them But the Queen still gave them good hopes only she said she could not agree to those things by reason of the opposition that would be made by the Spiritual Estate But she suffered them to read a Protestation in Parliament declaring their desires of a Reformation and that if upon the denial of it Abuses were removed violently they were not to be blamed who had begun thus in a modest way to Petition for it This Year it was become visible that she resolved to proceed to extremities She ordered all the reformed Preachers to appear at Sterling the 10th of May. When this was done the Earl of Glencarn went to her in the Name of the rest and asked her the reason of that way of proceeding She answered him in passion ' That maugre them and all that would take part with them the Ministers should be banished Scotland though they preached as soundly as St. Paul did Upon this he remembred her of the Promises she had often made them to which she answered ' That the Promises of Princes should be no further strained then seem'd convenient to them to perform Glencarn replied ' if she would keep no Promises they would acknowledge her no more but renounce their Obedience to her A Revolt began at St. Johnstoun â— That very night she heard that in the Town of St. Johnstoun the People had Sermons openly in their Churches Upon that she ordered the Lord Ruthven to go and reduce that Town He answered he could not govern their Consciences Upon which she vowed she would make him and them both repent it The Ministers were coming from all parts accompanied with many Gentlemen to appear on the Day to which they were cited The Queen hearing that sent word to them to go home for she would not proceed in the Citation Many of them upon that returned to their homes but others went to St. Johnstoun Yet upon their not appearing she made them all be declared Rebells contrary to her Promise This made many leave her and go over to them at St. Johnstoun The People began there first to break Images and then they fell into the Houses of the Franciscans and Dominicans where they found much more Wealth than agreed with their pretended Poverty They also pulled down a great House of the Carthusians with so much Hast that within two days there was not one Stone left to shew where it had stood but yet the Prior was suffered to carry away the Plate All that was found in these Houses besides what the Monks carried away was given to the Poor The Queen hearing this resolved to make that Town an Example and sent over all the Kingdom to gather the French Souldiers together with such others as would joyn with her in this Quarrel But the Earl of Glencarn with incredible hast came to their assistance with 2500 Men And there were gathered in all in and about the Town 7000 Men. The Queen seeing it now turned to an open Rebellion employed the Earl of Argile and the Prior of St. Andrews to treat with them An Oblivion for what was past was agreed on The Queen was to come to St. Johnstoun without her French-men and the matters of Religion were to be referred to a Parliament Upon this she went thither but carried French-men with her and put a Garrison in the Town and proceeded to the Fining of many and the Banishing of others Being pressed with her Promise she said The Promises of Princes ought not to be strictly urged and those were not to be kept that were made to Hereticks she declared that she would take it on her Conscience to kill and undo all that Sect and make the best excuse she could when it was done Upon this all the Nation forsook her and in many other places they went on to cleanse the Churches and pull down Monasteries When the News of this came to the Court of France it was at first not rightly understood The Queen Regent represented it as if it had been a Design to shake off the French Power and desired a great Force to reduce them The King then saw too late that the Constable had given him good Advice in diswading the Match with Scotland The French Kind intends to grant Liberty of Religion and fearing to be intangled in a long chargeable War he resolved to send one thither to know the true occasion of these Stirrs So the Constable proposed to him the sending of Melvil by whom he had understood that the Reason of all
Queen declares she will force no Conscience pag. 245. A Tumult at Pauls ibid. A Proclamation against Preaching ibid. Censures passed upon it pag. 246. She uses those of Suffolk ill ibid. Consultations among the Reformed pag. 247. Judge Hales barbarously used ibid. Cranmer declares against the Mass pag. 248. Bonners insolence ibid. Cranmer and Latimer sent to the Tower pag. 250. Forreigners sent out of England ibid. Many English fly beyond Sea ibid. The Queen rewards those who had served her pag. 251. She is Crowned and discharges a Tax ibid. A Parliament summoned pag. 252. The Reformed Bishops thrust out of the House of Lords ibid. Great disorders in Elections ibid. An Act moderating severe Laws pag. 253. The Marriage of the Queens Mother Confirmed ibid. Censures passed upon it pag. 254. The Queen is severe to the Lady Elis. ibid. King Edwards Laws about Religion repealed pag. 255. An Act against injuries to Priests ibid. An Act against unlawful assemblies ibid. Marquess of Northamptons 2d Marriage broken pag. 256. The Duke of Norfolks Attaindor annulled ibid. Cranmer and others attainted pag. 257. But his See is not declared void ibid. The Queen resolves to reconcile with Rome ibid. Cardinal Pool sent Legate pag. 258. But is stopt by the Emperor pag. 259. The Queen sends to him ibid. His advice to the Queen pag. 260. Gardiners methods are preferred pag. 261. The House of Commons offended with the Queens Marriage then treated about ibid. The Parliament is dissolved ibid. 1200000 Crowns sent to corrupt the next Parliament pag. 262. Proceedings in the Convocation ibid. Disputes concerning the Sacrament ibid. Censures passed upon them pag. 283. 1554. Ambassadors treat with the Queen for her Marriage ibid. Articles agreed on ibid. The Match generally disliked p. 284. Plots to oppose it are discovered ibid. Wiat breaks out in Kent ibid. His Demands p. 286. He is defeated and taken ibid. The Lady Jane and her Husband Executed p. 271. Her preparations for Death ibid. The Duke of Suffolk is Executed p. 272. The Lady Elis is unjustly suspected p. 273. Many severe proceedings ibid. The Imposture in the Wall ibid. Instructions for the Bishops p. 274. Bishops that adhere to the Reform deprived ibid. The Mass every where set up pag. 276. Books against the married Clergy pag. 277. A New Parliament ibid. The Queens Regal Power asserted ibid. The secret Reasons for that Act. ibid. Great jealousies of the Spaniards pag. 279. The Bishoprick of Duresm restored ibid. Disputes at Oxford pag. 280. With Cranmer pag. 281. And Ridley pag. 282. And Latimer pag. 283. Censures passed upon them ibid. They are all Condemned ibid. The Prisoners in London give reasons why they would not dispute pag. 284. King Philip Lands pag. 286. And is Married to the Queen ibid. He brings a great Treasure with him ibid. Acts of favour done by him pag. 287. He preserves the Lady Elizabeth ibid. He was little beloved pag. 288. But much Magnifyed by Gardiner ibid. Bonners carriage in his Visitation ibid. No reordination of those Ordained in King Edward's time pag. 289. Bonners rage pag. 290. The Sacrament stollen pag. 291. A New Parliament ibid. Cardinal Pools Attaindor repealed ibid. He comes to London pag. 292. And makes a speech to the Parliament ibid. The Queen is believed with Child ibid. The Parliament petition to be reconciled pag. 293. The Cardinal absolves them ibid. Laws against the See of Rome repealed pag. 294. A Proviso for Church Lands ibid. A Petition from the Convocation ibid. An Address from the inferior Clergy pag. 295. Laws against Hereticks revived pag. 296. An Act declaring Treasons ibid. Another against seditious words ibid. Gardiner in great esteem pag. 297. The fear of losing the Church Lands ibid. Consultations how to deal with Hereticks pag. 298. Cardinal Pool for moderate courses pag. 299. But Gardiner is for violent ones ibid. To which the Queen is inclined pag. 300. 1555. They begin with Rogers and others ibid. Who refusing to comply are judged pag. 301. Rogers and Hooper burnt pag. 302. Sanders and Taylor burnt pag. 303. These cruelties are much censured pag. 304. Reflections made on Hoopers Death ibid. The Burnings much disliked pag. 305. The King Purges himself ibid. A Petition against persecution ibid. Arguments to defend it pag. 306. More are Burnt pag. 307. Ferrar and others Burnt pag. 308. The Queen gives up the Church Lands ibid. Pope Julius dies and Marcellus succeeds pag. 309. Paul the 4th succeeds him pag. 310. English Ambassadors at Rome ibid. Instructions sent for persecution pag. 311. Bonner required to Burn more pag. 312. The Queens delivery in vain expected ibid. Bradford and others Burnt pag. 313. Sir Thomas Mores works Published pag. 316. His Letter of the Nun of Kent ibid. Ridley and Latimer Burnt pag. 318. Gardiners Death and Character pag. 320. The temper of the Parliament is much changed pag. 322. The Queen discharges tenths and first fruits ibid. An Act against those that fled beyond Sea rejected pag. 323. An Act debarring a Murderer from the benefit of Clergy opposed ibid. Sir Anthony Kingston put in the Tower pag. 324. Pool holds a Convocation ibid. The heads of his Decrees ibid. Pools design for Reforming of abuses pag. 326. Pool will not admit the Jesuits to England pag. 327. Philpots Martyrdome pag. 328. Forreign affairs ibid. Charles the 5ths Resignation pag. 329. Cranmers Tryal pag. 332. He is degraded pag. 333. He recants ibid. He repents of it pag. 334. His Martyrdome pag. 335. His Character ibid. Others suffer on the like account pag. 337. A Child born in the Fire and burnt ibid. The Reformation grows pag. 338. Troubles at Frankfort among the English there pag. 339. Pool is made Arch-bishop of Canterbury pag. 340. Some Religious Houses are endowed ibid. Records are razed pag. 341. Endeavours for the Abbey of Glassenburg ibid. Forreign Affairs pag. 342. The Pope is extravagantly proud ibid. He dispenses with the French Kings Oath pag. 343. And makes War with Spain pag. 344. 1557. A Visitation of the Vniversities pag. 345. The Persecution set forward pag. 346. A Design for setting up the Inquisition pag. 347. Burnings for Religion pag. 348. Lord Stourton hanged for Murder pag. 350. The Queen is jealous of the French pag. 351. The Battel at St. Quintin pag. 352. The Pope offended with Cardinal Pool ibid. He recalls him pag. 353. The Queen refuses to receive Cardinal Peito ibid. A Peace between the Pope and Spain pag. 354. A War between England and Scotland ibid. The Affairs of Germany pag. 355. A Persecution in France pag. 356. 1558. Calais is besieged ibid. And it and Guisnes are taken pag. 357. Sark taken by the French pag. 358. And retaken strangely pag. 359. Great discontents in England ibid. A Parliament is called pag. 360. King of Sweden courts the Lady Elizabeth pag. 361. But is rejected by her ibid. She was ill used in this Reign pag. 362. The Progress of the Persecution pag. 363. The Methods of it pag.
364. An Expedition against France pag. 365. Many strange Accidents ibid. A Treaty of Peace pag. 366. The Battel of Graveling ibid. Many Protestants in France ibid. Dolphin marries the Queen of Scots pag. 367. A Convention of Estates in Scotland ibid. A Parliament in England pag. 368. The Queens Sickness and Death pag. 369. Cardinal Pool dies ibid. His Character ibid. The Queens Character pag. 370. BOOK III. Of the Settlement of the Reformation of Religion in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign QVeen Elizabeth succeeds pag. 373. And comes to London pag. 374. She sends a Dispatch to Rome ibid. But to no effect ibid. King Philip Courts her pag. 375. The Queens Council ibid. A Consultation about the Change of Religion pag. 376. A Method proposed for it pag. 377. Many forward to Reform pag. 378. Parker named to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury ibid. 1559. Bacon made Lord Keeper pag. 380. The Queens Coronation ibid. The Parliament meets pag. 381. The Treaty at Cambray pag. 382. A Peace agreed on with France ibid. The Proceedings of the Parliament pag. 383. An Address to the Queen to marry pag. 384. Her Answer to it ibid. They Recognise her Title pag. 385. Acts concerning Religion ibid. The Bishops against the Supremacy pag. 386. The beginning of the High Commission pag. 387. A Conference at Westminster pag. 388. Arguments for the Latin Service pag. 389. Arguments against it pag. 390. The Conference breaks up pag. 391. The Liturgy corrected and explained pag. 392. Debates about the Act of Vniformity pag. 393. Arguments for the Changes then made pag. 394. Bills proposed but rejected pag. 395. The Bishops refuse the Oath of Supremacy pag. 396. The Queens gentleness to them ibid. Injunctions for a Visitation pag. 397. The Queen desires to have Images retained ibid. Reasons brought against it ibid. The Heads of the Injunctions pag. 398. Reflections made on them pag. 399. The first High Commission pag. 400. Parkers unwillingness to accept of the Archbishoprick of Canterbury pag. 401. His Consecration pag. 402. The Fable of the Nags-head confuted pag. 403. The Articles of Religion prepared pag. 405. An Explanation of the Presence in the Sacrament ibid. The Translation of the Bible pag. 406. The beginnings of the Divisions pag. 407. The Reformation in Scotland ibid. Mills Martyrdome pag. 408. It occasions great discontents pag. 409. A Revolt at St. Johnstoun pag. 410. The French King intends to grant them liberty of Religion pag. 411. But is killed ibid. A Truce agreed to ibid. The Queen Regent is deposed pag. 412. The Scots implore the Queen of England's Aid ibid. Leith besieged by the English ibid. The Queen Regent dies pag. 413. A Peace is concluded ibid. The Reformation setled by Parliament ibid. Francis the second dies ibid. The Civil Wars of France pag. 415. The Wars of the Netherlands pag. 416. The misfortunes of the Queen of Scotland pag. 417. Queen Elizabeth deposed by the Pope pag. 418. Sir Fr. Walsinghams Letter concerning the Queens proceeding with Papists and Puritans ibid. The Conclusion pag. 421. FINIS A COLLECTION OF RECORDS AND Original Papers WITH OTHER INSTRUMENTS Referred to in the SECOND PART OF THE History of the Reformation OF THE Church of England LONDON Printed by J.D. for Richard Chiswell 1680. The Journal of King EDWARD'S Reign written with his own Hand The Original is in the Cotton Library Nero C. 10. THe Year of our Lord 1537 was a Prince born to King Henry the 8th by Jane Seimour then Queen who within few days after the Birth of her Son died and was buried at the Castle of Windsor This Child was Christned by the Duke of Norfolk the Duke of Suffolk and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Afterwards was brought up till he came to six Years old among the Women At the sixth Year of his Age he was brought up in Learning by Master Doctor Cox who was after his Almoner and John Cheeke Master of Arts two well-learned Men who sought to bring him up in learning of Tongues of the Scripture of Philosophy and all Liberal Sciences Also John Bellmaine Frenchman did teach him the French Language The tenth Year not yet ended it was appointed he should be created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwal and Count Palatine of Chester At which time being the Year of our Lord 1547 the said King died of a Dropsie as it was thought After whose Death incontinent came Edward Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse to convoy this Prince to Enfield where the Earl of Hartford declared to him and his younger Sister Elizabeth the Death of their Father Here he begins anew again AFter the Death of King Henry the 8th his Son Edward Prince of Wales was come to at Hartford by the Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse for whom before was made great preparation that he might be created Prince of Wales and afterward was brought to Enfield where the Death of his Father was first shewed him and the same day the Death of his Father was shewed in London where was great lamentation and weeping and suddenly he proclaimed King The next day being the _____ of _____ He was brought to the Tower of London where he tarried the space of three weeks and in the mean season the Council sat every day for the performance of the Will and at length thought best that the Earl of Hartford should be made Duke of Somerset Sir Thomas Seimour Lord Sudley the Earl of Essex Marquess of Northampton and divers Knights should be made Barons as the Lord Sheffield with divers others Also they thought best to chuse the Duke of Somerset to be Protector of the Realm and Governour of the King's Person during his Minority to which all the Gentlemen and Lords did agree because he was the King's Uncle on his Mothers side Also in this time the late King was buried at Windsor with much solemnity and the Officers broke their Staves hurling them into the Grave but they were restored to them again when they came to the Tower The Lord Lisle was made Earl of Warwick and the Lord Great Chamberlainship was given to him and the Lord Sudley made Admiral of England all these things were done the King being in the Tower Afterwards all things being prepared for the Coronation the King being then but nine Years old passed through the City of London as heretofore hath been used and came to the Palace of Westminster and the next day came into Westminster-Hall And it was asked the People Whether they would have him to be their King Who answered Yea yea Then he was crowned King of England France and Ireland by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the rest of the Clergy and Nobles and Anointed with all such Ceremonies as were accustomed and took his Oath and gave a General Pardon and so was brought to the Hall to Dinner on Shrove-sunday where he sat with the Crown on his Head with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury
Proceedings therein and in all things committed to our Charge shall be such as shall be able to answer the whole World both in honour and discharge of our Consciences And where your Grace writeth that the most part of the Realm through a naughty Liberty and Presumption are now brought into such a Division as if we Executors go not about to bring them to that stay that our late Master left them they will forsake all Obedience unless they have their own Will and Phantasies and then it must follow that the King shall not be well served and that all other Realms shall have us in an Obloquy and Derision and not without just cause Madam as these words written or spoken by you soundeth not well so can I not perswade my self that they have proceeded from the sincere mind of so vertuous and so wise a Lady but rather by the setting on and procurement of some uncharitable and malicious Persons of which sort there are too many in these days the more pity but yet we must not be so simple so to weigh and regard the Sayings of ill-disposed People and the Doings of other Realms and Countries as for that Report we should neglect our Duty to God and to our Soveraign Lord and Native Country for then we might be justly called evil Servants and Masters and thanks be given unto the Lord such hath been the King's Majesty's Proceedings our young Noble Master that now is that all his faithful Subjects have more cause to render their hearty thanks for the manifold Benefits shewed unto his Grace and to his People and Realm sithence the first day of his Reign until this hour than to be offended with it and thereby rather to judg and think that God who knoweth the Hearts of all Men is contented and pleased with his Ministers who seek nothing but the true Glory of God and the Surety of the King's Person with the Quietness and Wealth of his Subjects And where your Grace writeth also That there was a Godly Order and Quietness left by the King our late Master your Graces Father in this Realm at the time of his Death and that the Spiritualty and Temporalty of the whole Realm did not only without compulsion fully assent to his Doings and Proceedings specially in Matters of Religion but also in all kind of Talk whereof as your Grace wrote ye can partly be witness your self at which your Graces Sayings I do something marvel For if it may please you to call to your remembrance what great Labours Travels and Pains his Grace had before he could reform some of those stiff-necked Romanists or Papists yea and did not they cause his Subjects Rise and Rebel against him and constrained him to take the Sword in his hand not without danger to his Person and Realm Alas why should your Grace so shortly forget that great Outrage done by those Generations of Vipers unto his Noble Person only for God's Cause Did not some of the same ill kind also I mean that Romanist Sect as well with his own Realm as without conspire oftentimes his Death which was manifestly and oftentimes proved to the confusion of some of their privy Assisters Then was it not that all the Spiritualty nor yet the Temporalty did so fully assent to his Godly Orders as your Grace writeth of Did not his Grace also depart from this Life before he had fully finished such Orders as he minded to have established to all his People if death had not prevented him Is it not most true that no kind of Religion was perfected at his Death but left all uncertain most like to have brought us in Parties and Divisions if God had not only helpt us And doth your Grace think it convenient it should so remain God forbid What regret and sorrow our late Master had the time he saw he must depart for that he knew the Religion was not established as he purposed to have done I and others can be witness and testify and what he would have done further in it if he had lived a great many know and also I can testifie And doth your Grace who is learned and should know God's Word esteem true Religion and the knowledg of the Scriptures to be new-fangledness and fantasie For the Lord's sake turn the Leaf and look the other while upon the other side I mean with another Judgment which must pass by an humble Spirit through the Peace of the Living God who of his infinite Goodness and Mercy grant unto your Grace plenty thereof to the satisfying of your Soveraign and your most noble Hearts continual desire Number 16. Certain Petitions and Requests made by the Clergie of the Lower House of the Convocation to the most Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Grace and the residue of the Prelats of the Higher House for the furtherance of certain Articles following FIrst Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet That Ecclesiastical Laws may be made and established in this Realm by thirty two Persons or so many as shall please the King's Majesty to name and appoint according to the effect of a late Statute made in 35th Year of the most noble King and of most famous Memory King Henry the 8th So that all Judges Ecclesiastical proceeding after those Laws may be without danger and peril Also that according to the Ancient Custom of this Realm and the Tenour of the King 's Writ for the summoning of the Parliament which be now and ever have been directed to the Bishops of every Diocess the Clergy of the Lower House of the Convocation may be adjoined and associate with the Lower House of the Parliament or else That all such Statutes and Ordinances as shall be made concerning all Matters of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical may not pass without the sight and assent of the said Clergy Also that whereas by the Commandment of King Henry the 8th certain Prelats and learned Men were appointed to alter the Service in the Church and to devise other convenient and uniform Order therein Who according to the same Appointment did make certain Books as they be informed Their Request is That the said Books may be seen and perused by them for a better expedition of Divine Service to be set forth accordingly Also that Men being called to Spiritual Promotions or Benefices may have some Allowance for their necessary Living and other Charges to be sustained and born concerning the same Benefices in the first Year wherein they pay the first Fruits Whether the Clergy of the Convocation may liberally speak their Minds without danger of Statute or Law Number 17. A second Petition to the same purpose Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet WHere the Clergy in this present Convocation assembled have made humble suit unto the most Reverend Father in God my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the other Bishops That it may please them to be a Mean to the King's Majesty and Lord Protector 's Grace
that the said Clergy according to the Tenour of the King 's Writ and the Ancient Laws and Customs of this Noble Realm might have their Room and Place and be associated with the Commons in the Nether House of this present Parliament as Members of the Common-Wealth and the King 's most humble Subjects And if this may not be permitted and granted unto them that then no Statutes nor Laws concerning the Christian Religion or which shall concern especially the Persons Possessions Rooms Livings Jurisdictions Goods or Chattels of the said Clergy may pass nor be enacted the said Clergy not being made privy thereunto and their Answers and Reasons not heard The said Clergy do most humbly beseech an Answer and Declaration to be made unto them what the said most Reverend Father in God and all other the Bishops have done in this their humble Suit and Request to the end that the said Clergy if need be may chuse of themselves such able and discreet Persons which shall effectually follow the same Suit in the Name of them all And whereas in a Statute ordained and established by Authority of Parliament at Westminster in the 25th Year of the Reign of the most excellent Prince King Henry the 8th The Clergy of this Realm submitting themselves to the King's Highness did knowledg and confess according to the Truth That the Convocations of the same Clergy have been and ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and did promise farther in Verbo Sacerdotii that they never from thenceforth would presume to attempt alledg claim or put in use or enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances Provincials or other or by whatsoever other Name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the King 's most Royal Assent and License may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same And his Majesty to give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf upon pain of every one of the Clergy doing the contrary and being thereof Convict to suffer Imprisonment and make Fine at the King 's Will. And that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm which Statute is eft-soons renewed and established in the 27th Year of the Reign of the most noble King as by the Tenour of both Statutes more at large will appear The said Clergy being presently assembled in Convocation by Authority of the King 's Writ do desire that the King's Majesty's License in writing may be for them obtained and granted according to the effect of the said Statutes authorising them to attempt entreat and commune of such Matters and therein freely to give their Consents which otherwise they may not do upon pain and peril premised Also the said Clergy desireth that such Matters as concerneth Religion which be disputable may be quietly and in good order reasoned and disputed among them in this House whereby the Verities of such Matters shall the better appear and the Doubts being opened and resolutely discussed Men may be fully perswaded with the quietness of their Consciences and the time well spent Number 18. A Paper offered to Q. Elizabeth and afterwards to K. James concerning the Inferior Clergies being brought to the House of Commons Reasons to induce her Majesty that Deans Arch-Deacons and some other of her grave and wise Clergie may be admitted into the Lower House of Parliament 1. IN former Times when Causes Ecclesiastical were either not at all Ex M.S. Dr. Borlace or else very rarely treated of in that Assembly the Clergy were thought Men most meet to consult and determine of the Civil Affairs of this Realm 2. The Supream Authority in Church Causes is not newly granted but reunited and restored to the Crown and an Order is by Law already established how all Abuses in the Church are to be reformed so as no cause concerning Religion may be handled in that House without her Majesty's special leave but with the manifest impeaching of her Prerogative Royal and contempt of the said Order 3. If it shall please her Highness to give way to this Course that Church-Matters be there debated and in part concluded How much more necessary is it now than it was in former Times that some of the Clergy should be there present at the same * In the same Paper written over to be presented to K. James this Article is thus varied It is thought the Clergie falling into a Premunire and so not in the King's Protection it did afterwards please the King to pardon them but not to restore them So began this Separation as far forth as can be collected then the Wisdom of a great Politician meeting with the Ambition of as great a Prelat wrought the continuance of the said Separation under this pretence That it should be most for the Honour of him and his Clergie to be still by themselves in two Assemblies of Convocation answerable in proportion to the two Houses of Parliament There are many other inconsiderable Amendments made by Bishop Ravis 's own hand It doth not appear why they were excluded but as it is thought either the King offended with some of them did so grievously punish the whole Body or else the Ambition of one of them meeting with the subtilty of an undermining Politick did occasion this causeless Separation 5. They are yet to this day called by several Writs directed into their several Diocesses under the Great Seal to assist the Prince in that High Court of Parliament 6. Though the Clergy and the Universities be not the worst Members of this Common-Wealth yet in that respect they are of all other in worst condition for in that Assembly every Shire hath their Knights and every incorporate Town their Burgesses only the Clergy and the Universities are excluded 7. The Wisdom and Justice of this Realm doth intend That no Subject should be bound to that Law whereunto he himself after a sort hath not yielded his Consent but the Clergy and the Universities may now be concluded by Law without their Consent without their just Defence without their Privity 8. The many Motions made so prejudicial to the State and being of the Clergy and Universities followed now with so great eagerness in that House would then be utterly silenced or soon repressed with the sober and sufficient Answers of the Clergy present 9. It would much repair the Reputation and Credit of the Clergy which now is exposed to great contumely and contempt as generally abroad in this Land so particularly in that House And whoso is religious and wise may observe That the Contempt of the Clergy is the high way to Atheism and all Prophaneness Men are Flesh and not Spirit led by ordinary outward Means and not usually overwrought by extraordinary Inspirations and therefore do easily
desiring no State no Condition nor no meaner degree of living but such as your Grace shall appoint me knowledging and confessing That my State cannot be so vile as either the extremity of Justice would appoint unto me or as mine Offences have required or deserved And whatsoever your Grace shall command me to do touching any of these Points either for things past present or to come I shall as gladly do the same as your Majesty shall command me Most humbly therefore beseeching your Mercy most gracious Soveraign Lord and Benign Father to have pity and compassion of your miserable and sorrowful Child and with the abundance of your inestimable Goodness so to overcome mine Iniquity towards God Your Grace and Your whole Realm as I may feel some sensible Token of Reconciliation which God is my Judg I only desire without other respect To whom I shall daily pray for the preservation of Your Highness with the Queens Grace and that it may please him to send You Issue From Hunsdon this Thursday at eleven of the Clock at Night Your Graces most humble and obedient Daughter and Handmaid MARY Number 4. Another of the same strain confirming the former An Original MOst humbly obediently and gladly Cotton Libr. Otho C. 20. lying at the Feet of Your most Excellent Majesty my most dear and benign Father and Soveraign Lord I have this day perceived Your gracious Clemency and merciful Pity to have overcome my most unkind and unnatural Proceedings towards You and Your most Just and Vertuous Laws The great and inestimable Joy whereof I cannot express nor have any thing worthy to be again presented to Your Majesty for the same Your fatherly Pity extended towards me most ingrately on my part abandoned as much as in me lie but my poor Heart which I send unto Your Highness to remain in Your Hand to be for ever used directed and framed whiles God shall suffer life to remain in it at Your only pleasure most humbly beseeching Your Grace to accept and receive the same being all that I have to offer which shall never alter vary or change from that Confession and Submission which I have made unto Your Highness in the presence of Your Council and other attending upon the same for whose preservation with my most gracious Mother the Queen I shall daily pray to God whom eft-soons I beseech to send You Issue to his Honour and the Comfort of Your whole Realm From Hounsdon the 26th day of June Your Grace's most humble and obedient Daughter and Handmaid MARY Number 5. Another Letter written to her Father to the same purpose An Original Cotton Libr. Otho C. 20. MY bounden Duty most humbly remembred to Your most Excellent Majesty Whereas I am unable and insufficient to render and express to Your Highness those most hearty and humble thanks for Your gracious Mercy and fatherly Pity surmounting mine Offences at this time extended towards me I shall prostrate at Your most noble Feet humbly and with the very bottom of my Stomach beseech your Grace to repute that in me which in my poor Heart remaining in Your most noble Hand I have conceived and professed towards Your Grace whiles the Breath shall remain in my Body that is that as I am now in such merciful sort recovered being more than almost lost with mine own Folly that Your Majesty may as well accept me justly Your bounden Slave by Redemption as Your most humble faithful and obedient Child and Subject by the course of Nature planted in this Your most noble Realm so shall I for ever persevere and continue towards Your Highness in such uniformity and due obedience as I doubt not but with the help of God Your Grace shall see and perceive a will and intent in me to redouble again that hath been amiss on my behalf conformably to such Words and Writings as I have spoken and sent unto Your Highness from the which I will never vary during my Life trusting that Your Grace hath conceived that Opinion of me which to remember is mine only comfort And thus I beseech our Lord to preserve Your Grace in Health with my very natural Mother the Queen and to send you shortly Issue which I shall as gladly and willingly serve with my Hands under their Feet as ever did poor Subject their most Gracious Soveraign From Hunsdon the 8th day of July Your Grace's most humble and obedient Daughter and Handmaid MARY Number 6. A Letter written by her to Cromwell containing a full Submission to the King's Pleasure in all the Points of Religion An Original GOod Mr. Secretary how much am I bound unto you Cotton Libr. Otho C. 10. which have not only travelled when I was almost drowned in folly to recover me before I sunk and was utterly past recovery and so to present me to the face of Grace and Mercy but also desisteth not sithence with your good and wholesome Counsels so to arm me from any relapse that I cannot unless I were too wilful and obstinate whereof now there is no spark in me fall again into any danger But leaving the recital of your Goodness apart which I cannot recount For answer to the Particularities of your Credence sent by my Friend Mr. Wriothsley First Concerning the Princess so I think I must call her yet for I would be loth to offend I offered at her entry to that Name and Honour to call her Sister but it was refused unless I would also add the other Title unto it which I denied not then more obstinately than I am now sorry for it for that I did therein offend my most gracious Father and his just Laws And now that you think it meet I shall never call her by other Name than Sister Touching the nomination of such Women as I would have about me surely Mr. Secretary what Men or Women soever the King's Highness shall appoint to wait on me without exception shall be to me right-heartily and without respect welcome albeit to express my mind to you whom I think worthy to be accepted for their faithful Service done to the King's Majesty and to me sithence they came into my Company I promise you on my Faith Margaret Baynton and Susanna Clarencieux have in every condition used themselves as faithfully painfully and diligently as ever did Women in such a case as sorry when I was not so conformable as became me as glad when I enclined any thing to my Duty as could be devised One other there is that was sometime my Maid whom for her Vertue I love and could be glad to have in my Company that is Mary Brown and here be all that I will recommend and yet my estimation of this shall be measured at the King's Highness my most merciful Father's pleasure and appointment as Reason is For mine Opinion touching Pilgrimages Purgatory Reliques and such-like I assure you I have none at all but such as I shall receive from him that hath mine whole Heart
King Henry at his Death but two Years before Ibid. 5. He says On the 27th of February two days before the King was crowned the Protector persuaded the King to create many new Peers who were all Hereticks except Dudley Earl of Warwick Our Author by this shew of exactness would persuade the Reader that he had considered Dates and the smallest particulars with the care that became an Historian But he little thought that any would come after him and examine what he said By this Account the King must have been crowned the first of March but it was done Feb. 20. and the Peers were created on the 16th of February four days before They were not all Hereticks for he forgot that Wriothesley was at the same time made Earl of Southampton which he afterwards insinuates was done upon another account But all those Creations were in persuance of King Henry's Designs and in obedience to his latter Will Ibid. 6. He says They forced Wriothesley to resign his Office and turned both him and the Earl of Arundel out of the Council because they were Catholicks Wriothesley was turned out upon no account of Religion but for putting the Great Seal to a Commission that was against Law according to the Opinion which the Judges declared under their hands without any Warrant from the Council himself acknowledging the justice of the Sentence The Earl of Arundel was not turned out of the Council on the contrary in the Patent by which the Protector held his Office that passed after the Chancellor was removed he is named to be one of the Privy Council 7. He says Pag. 179. The Protector would needs force all the Clergy to submit in every thing to the King's Orders and sets down the Form in which the King writ to Arch-Bishop Cranmer In this nothing was done but what was begun by King Henry and to which all the Clergy even his beloved Bonner not excepted had formerly submitted So this was no new thing set up by the Protector it being only the renewing the Bishops Patents in the new King's Name And this was no part of the Reformation for it was done only to awe the Popish Bishops but was soon after laid aside What he sets down as a Letter of King Edward's to Cranmer is the Preamble of the Patent he took out So little did this Writer know the things that truly make to the advantage to the Cause which he designed to assert 8. He says The New Protector among the first things he did Pag. 180. restrained all Preaching and silenced all the Bishops and Pastors so that none were licensed to preach but the Lutherans and Zuinglians The first Injunctions set out in the King's Name required all Bishops to preach at least four times a Year in their Diocesses and to keep Learned Chaplains who might be able to preach and should be often much employed in it And thus Matters stood the first Year of this Reign In the beginning of the second Year upon complaints made of the rashness of some Preachers a Proclamation was put out that none should preach without a License from the King or the Arch-Bishops or the Bishop of the Diocess except Incumbents in their own Parishes Afterwards there was for some little time a total prohibition of Preaching but that was to last for a short while till the Book of Common Prayer which was then a preparing should be finished This was equally made on both hands for the Prohibition was universal without exception so falsly has our Author stated this Matter which one would think he ignorantly drew from what Queen Mary did applying it to this Reign for she upon her coming to the Crown did prohibit all Preaching excepting only such as were licensed to it by Gardiner under the Great Seal 9. He says Latimer was turned out of the Bishoprick of Worcester Pag. 181. by King Henry upon suspicion of Heresy Latimer did freely resign his Bishoprick upon the passing of the Act of the six Articles with which he could not comply with a good Conscience 10. He says The Protector put Cox and Cheek about the King Pag. 182. that they might corrupt his Mind with Heretical Doctrines These were put about him three Years before by King Henry's Order as that young King himself informs us in his Journal Pag. 184. 11. He says The Heads of the Colleges were turned out and the Catholick Doctors were forbid to preach I do not find one Head of a College in either University was turned out for though they generally loved the Old Superstition yet they loved their Places much better And indeed the whole Clergy did so readily conform themselves to every Change that was made that it was not easy to find Colours for turning out Bonner and Gardiner All Preachers had the liberty of their own Pulpits except for a very little while Ibid. 12. He says They decried the School Divinity and the Works of Lombard Aquinas and Scotus and so threw all Learning out of the Schools They could not do that more than Sir Thomas More Erasmus and other Popish Writers had done before them who had expressed their scorn of that way of Treating Divine Matters so copiously that it was no wonder it was much despised Those Writers had by a set of dark and barbarous Maxims and Terms so intangled all the Articles of Faith and imposed by the World on an appearance of saying somewhat when really they said nothing and pretending to explain Religion they had so exposed it that their way of Divinity was become equally nauseous and ridiculous Pag. 186. 13. He says Bucer and Peter Martyr being brought out of Germany did corrupt the Universities and entertained the Youth with Discourses of Predestination Reprobation and a fatal necessity of things This was so far from being much taught that on the contrary in one of the Articles of Religion the curious Enquiries into those abstruse Points was by Publick Authority forbid Bucer and Martyr read for most part in the Chairs upon the Mass and the other Corruptions of the Popish Worship They also declared St. Austin's Doctrine about Grace but I do not find they ever medled with Reprobation Pag. 190. 14. After a long Invective which is to pass as a piece of his Wit and Poetry he says Bucer was inclined to become a Jew and was descended from Jewish Parents and that the Lord Paget had heard him say That the Corporal Presence was so clear in the Scripture that no Man could deny it who believed the Gospel but for his part he did not believe all that was said in the New Testament concerning our Saviour This is as sutable to our Author's Honesty as can be Bucer was never accused of this by any of his Enemies as long as he lived No Man in that Age writ with a greater sense of the Kingdom of Christ than he did And for the Story of the Lord Paget we have nothing
him to go a-board a Ship in Flanders on another pretence and presently set sail for England where yet the Government was so gentle that two Years past before he was brought to his Tryal and then the Defence he made was That he was not accountable for what he had done in Flanders it not being in the Queen's Dominions and that he was not her Subject having sworn Allegiance to the King of Spain But this being contrary to his natural Allegiance which he could never shake off he was found guilty of Treason and was there executed These are our Author's Martyrs and are of a piece with his Faith Pag. 216. 44. In the room of the Bishops that were turned out he says there were put some Apostate and Lustful that is as he explains it married Monks Scory Bird Holgate Barlow Harley Coverdale and Ridley on whom he bestows many such Epithetes as may be expected from him This is such a piece of History as one can hardly meet with any thing like it 1. Bird was made Bishop of Chester by King Henry and was the first that sat in that See it being of that King's Foundation 2. Holgate was put in the See of York by King Henry when it was void by Lee's Death 3. Barlow was also put in Bath and Wells by the same King it being likewise void by the Death of Knight 4. Coverdale was put in the See of Exeter upon Veysey's free Resignation he being then extream old 5. Harley was also put in Hereford upon the former Bishop's Death 6. Ridley and Harley were never married nor Coverdale for ought I can find so exact is our Author in delivering the History of that Time Ibid. 45. He says Poinet that was made Bishop of Worchester in Gardiner's Room besides one Wife to whom he was married took â— Butchers Wife from him but the Butcher sued for his Wife and recovered her out of his hands and to make this pass the better he adds a Jest of Gardiner's about it that he had said Why might not he hope to be restored to his Bishoprick as well as the Butcher was to his Wife The falseness of this Story is clearly evinced by the Answer that Dr. Martin set out in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign to a Book that Poinet had writ in the defence of the married Clergy Martin's Answer is writ with so much spite and so many indecent Reflections that though it is not reasonable to believe all he says yet it is almost a certain Argument that this Story concerning Poinet is a Forgery since if it was a thing so publick as our Author makes it Martin must have heard of it especially living in Gardiner's House and it is not to be imagined that if he did know it he would have concealed it So this and the Jest that hangs upon it must pass as one of the flourishes of our Author 's Pen. Pag. 217. 46. He says Hooper that used formerly to rail at the Luxury of the Catholick Bishops being made a Superintendent himself for so the Zuinglians called their Bishops enjoyed at once two Bishopricks Worcester and Glocester The Zuinglians had no Superintendents for ought I can find nor was Hooper ever called Superintendent but Bishop He was made Bishop of Glocester which had been before King Henry the Eighth's Time a part of the Bishoprick of Worcester And now these Sees came to be united so that Hooper had not two Bishopricks but one that had been for some Years divided into two He only enjoyed the Revenue of Glocester for Worcester was entirely suppressed 47. He says On the 9th of July Pag. 219. the Mony was cried down one fourth part and forty days after another fourth part so that the whole Nation was thereby robbed of the half of their Stock This King's Counsellors found the Coin embased and they were either to let it continue in that State to the great prejudice of the state of the Nation or to reduce it to a just Standard so our Author condemns them for correcting what they found amiss But no wonder he that quarrels with them so much for reforming of Religion should be likewise offended with them for reforming the Coin 48. He says The Duke of Somerset was condemned Pag. 222. because he had come into the Duke of Northumberland's Chamber with intention to have killed him and was thereupon beheaded This was indeed said to be the cause of his Death but it is not mentioned in the Record in which it is only said that he intended to have seised on the Duke of Northumberland without adding that he designed to have killed him 49. He says The two younger Sisters of Lady Jane Gray Page 223. vvere married to the eldest Sons of the Earls of Pembroke and Huntington This Error is of no great consequence but it shews how much our Author was a stranger even to the most publick Actions for the youngest Sister to the Lady Jane was married to one Keys that was Groom Porter The Earl of Huntington's Son married the Duke of Northumberland's Daughter 50. He says Soon after the Marriages the King began to sicken Ibid. and to fall in decay The King had been ill four months before these Marriages were made and it is probable his sickness made them be the more hastned 51. He says Ibid. Dudley was very desirous to have the Lady Mary in his power not being much concerned about the Lady Elizabeth for she being descended of Ann Boleyn he did not much consider her It was natural for Dudley to desire rather to have the elder Sister in his power than the younger who could not claim to the Crown but after the other but it appeared by the submission of the whole Nation to Queen Elizabeth though still professing Popery that she was every whit as much considered as her Sister had been formerly 52. He says Lady Mary having been sent for by Dudley's Order Pag. 224. understood when she was not for from London that the King was expiring and that she would be in great danger if she came to Court upon which she turned back Queen Mary had not been sent for by Dudley's Order the Council had writ to her that the King being Ill desired her Company The News sent her from Court was That the King was Dead so she was desired to stir no further and upon that retired to her House in the Countrey Ibid. 53. He says Twenty days after that she heard the King was dead whereupon she made proclaim her self Queen The discovery of the former Error clears this for she immediatly gathered the People of Suffolk about her and gave them her Royal Word that they should enjoy their Religion as it had been established in King Edward's Time But though they were the first that proclaimed her Queen and came about her to defend her Right they were among the first that felt the Severities of her Reign Pag. 225. 54.
Offices and the Parties so refusing were subjected to no other Danger nor was the Oath to be put to them a second Time It is true if any did assert the Authority of any Forreign Potentate that was more penal Yet that was not as our Author represents it for the first Offence there was a forfeiture of ones Goods or in case of Poverty one Years Imprisonment the second Offence brought the Offender within a Premunire and the third was Treason 5. He says The Change that was made Pag. 258. of the Title of Supream Head into that of Supream Governor deceived many yet others thought that the Queen might have thereby assumed an Authority for Administring the Sacraments but to clear all Scruples she in the first Visitation ordered it to be thus explained that she thereby pretended to no more Power than what her Father and Brother had exercised In the first Visitation ordered by the Queen there was an Injunction given Explanatory to the Oath of Supremacy declaring that she did not pretend to any Authority for the Ministry of Divine Service in the Church and challenged nothing but what had at all times belonged to the Crown of England which was a Soveraignty over all manner of Persons under God so that no Forreign Power had any Rule over them and so was willing to acquit such as took it in that sense of all the Penalties in the Act. So that it is plain she assumed nothing but the Royal Authority and was ready to accept of such Explications as might clear all Ambiguities 6. He reckons among the Laws that were made this for one Pag. 259. that Bishops should hold their Sees only during the Queen's Pleasure and exercise no other Authority but only as they derived it from her The Laws he reckons were those made by King Henry now revived but this Law is falsly recited in both the parts of it for the Bishops were to hold their Sees as all others do their Free-holds without any dependence on the Queen's Pleasure and were to exercise their Jurisdiction in their own Names and according to the Ecclesiastical Laws and were not forced to take Commissions to hold their Bishopricks during the Queen's Pleasure as had been done both in King Henry and King Edward's Time Pag. 263. 7. After a long discourse against the Queen's Supremacy he says The Laws concerning it and other Points of Religion did pass with great difficulty in the House of Lords all the Bishops opposing them and those Noblemen in particular who had gone to Rome upon the Embassy Queen Mary sent thither did very earnestly disswade it It is true all the Bishops did oppose them tho both Tonstal Heath Thirleby and some others had consented to and written for King Henry's Supremacy which was at least as to the manner of expressing it of a higher strain than that to which the Queen did now pretend They had also submitted to all the Changes that had been made in King Edward's Time For the Temporal Lords none dissented from the Act of Supremacy but the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Viscount Montacute so the opposition was small where so few entred their Dissents and of these only the Viscount Montacute had been at Rome sent thither by Queen Mary It is true the Marquess of Winchester and the Lords Morley Stafford Dudley Wharton Rich and North dissented from the Bill for the Book of Common Prayer and some other Acts that related to the Reformation but these being but few in number were far short of those that were for them and it is clear the Queen left the Peers wholly to their freedom since the Marquess of Winchester notwithstanding his Dissent continued to hold that great Office of Lord Treasurer in which he had been put in King Edward's Time and which he had kept all Queen Mary's Reign till his Death fourteen Years after this this may perhaps be justly censured as looking too like a remissness in the Matters of Religion when he that dissented to the Reformation was yet so long employed in the greatest Trust in the Kingdom but certainly this is none of the Claws to know the Lioness by 8. He says The Queen gave the Earl of Arundel some hopes that she would marry him and so perswaded him to consent to the Laws now made but afterwards slighted him and declared she would live and die a Virgin The Journals of Parliament shew how false this is for the Address was made to the Queen persuading her to marry to which she made the Answer set down by our Author on the 6th of February and the Act of Supremacy with the other Acts concerning Religion passed in April thereafter so that the Queen after so publick a Declaration of her unwillingness to marry could not have deluded the Earl of Arundel with the hopes of it Ibid. 9. He says She wrought on the D. of Norfolk by promising him a Dispensation in the Business of his Marriage which he could not obtain of the Pope It is not like the Duke of Norfolk was denied any such Dispensation from Rome nor are there any Dispensations granted in England for marrying in the forbidden Degrees Cousin Germans are the nearest that may marry The obtaining a License for that at Rome is a matter of course so the Fees are but paied and the Law allows that to all in England Nor are there any Dispensations in Matrimonial Matters except concerning the Time the Place or the asking of Banes and it is not likely these were ever denied to any at Rome As for his long Excursion concerning that Duke's Death it not falling within the compass of my History I shall not follow him in it 10. He says The Protestants desired a publick Disputation Pag. 266. so the Queen commanded the Bishops to make ready for it they refused it a great while since that seemed to make the Faith of the Church subject to the judgment of the ignorant Laity but at last they were forced to yield to it and the Points were Communion in both kinds Prayer in a known Tongue and the like The Act of Council has it otherwise By it we see that the Arch-Bishop of York being then a Privy Councellor did heartily agree to it and undertook that the rest of his Brethren should follow the Orders that were made by the Council concerning it tho it is not to be denied but some of the Bishops were secretly dissatisfied with it as they had good reason since a publick Disputation was like to lay open the weakness of their Cause which was never so safe as when it was received in gross without descending to troublesome Enquiries concerning it The Communion in both kinds was not one of the Articles 11. He says Bacon a Lay-man was Judg Ibid. the Arch-Bishop of York sitting next to him only for forms-sake Bacon was not Judg the whole Privy-Council were present to order the Forms of the Debate and he as the first of
to the Justices in Peace of Norfolk 283 ibid 20. A Letter from the King and Queen requiring Bonner to go on in the prosecution of Hereticks 285 312 21. Sir T. Mores Letter to Cromwel concerning the Nun of Kent 286 316 22. Directions of the Queen 's to the Council touching the Reformation of the Church 292 317 23. Injunctions given by Latimer to the Prior of St. Maries 293 319 24. A Letter of Ann Boleyn's to Gardiner 294 321 25. The Office of Consecrating the Cramp-Rings 295 ibid 26. Letter of Gardiner's to K. Henry concerning his Divorce 297 ibid 27. The Writ for the burning of Cranmer 300 334 28. A Commission to Bonner and others to raze Records 301 341 29. Cromwel's Commission to be the King's Vice-gerent 303 ibid 30. A Letter of the Monks of Glassenbury for raising that Abbey 306 342 31. A Letter of Carne's from Rome 307 344 32. A Commission for a severe way of proceeding against all suspect of Heresy 311 347 33. A Letter of the Councils expressing their Jealousies of the Lady Elizabeth 314 351 34. Letter from Carn concerning the suspension of Pool's Legation 315 353 35. The Appeal of Archbishop Chichely to a General Council from the Pope's Sentence 321 ibid 36. Instructions representing the State of the Nation to King Philip after the loss of Calais 324 360 37. Sir T. Pope's Letter concerning the L. Elizabeth's Answer to the Proposition of Marriage sent her by the K. of Sweden 325 361 BOOK III. 1. THe Device for alteration of Religion in the first Year of Q. Elizabeth's Reign offered to Secretary Cecil 327 377 2. Dr. Sandys's Letter to Dr. Parker concerning the Proceedings in Parliament 332 386 3. The first Proposition upon which the Papists and Protestants disputed in Westminster Abbey with the Arguments which the Reformed Divines made upon it 333 390 4. The Answer which D. Cole made to the former Proposition 338 389 5. A Declaration made by the Council concerning the Conference 345 392 6. An Address made by some Bishops and Divines to the Queen against the use of Images 348 397 7. The High Commission for the Province of York 350 400 8. Ten Letters written to and by Dr. Parker concerning his Promotion to the See of Canterbury 353 401 9. The Instrument of his Consecration 363 404 10. An Order for the Translating of the Bible 366 406 11. A Profession of Religion made in all Churches by the Clergie 365 405 12. Sir Walter Mildmay's Opinion concerning the keeping of the Queen of Scots 369 417 12. A Letter of the E. of Leicester's touching the same thing 373 ibid 13. The Bull of P. Pius the 5th deposing Q. Elizabeth 377 418 An Appendix concerning some of the Errors and Falshoods in Sanders's Book of the English Schism 383 Â Some Mistakes in the former Volume 410 Â ERRATA PAge 9. line penult after be read not P. 13. l. 17. ever 1. every P. 15. l. 42. Mâ—â—bâ—â—gs r. Marbridge P. 72. l. 42. muta r. imbuta P. 74. l. 32. tenetis r. tenentem P. 75. l. 8. â—â—im qui r. eum qui. 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Henry Marg. l. 3. for 203 r. 202. Marg. l. 4. 226 r. 206. p. 415. Marg. 297. l. 16. add fr. bottom p. 416. l. 19. Frideswoide r. Frideswide P. 2. Contents Numb 52. r. Injunctions given by Bishop Ridley 205 158. P. 3. Contents Numb 15. r. The Articles of Bonner 's Visitation 260. BOOKS printed for and sold by Richard Chiswell FOLIO SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland and of Forreign Parts Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time Wanly's Wonders of the little Word or History of Man Sir Tho. Herbert's Travels into Persia c. Holyoak's large Dictionary Latin and English Sir Rich. Baker's Chronicle of England Causin's Holy Court. Wilson's Compleat Christian Dictionary Bishop Wilkin's Real Character or Philosophical Language Pharmacopoeia Regalis Collegii Medicorum Londinensis Judg Jone's Reports of Cases in Common Law Judg Vaughan's Reports of Cases in Common Law Cave Tabulae Ecclesiasticorum Scriptorum Hobbes's Leviathan Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning Bishop Taylor 's Sermons Sir Will. Dugdale's Baronage of England in two Vol. Râ—â—anolli Bibliotheca Theologica in three Vol. Lord Cook 's Reports in French Idem in English Judg Yelverton's Reports Sir John Davies's Reports Herodâ—ti Historia Gr. Lat. Accesserunt huic editione Stephani Apologia pro Herodâ—to item Chronologia Tabula Geograph Necnon variae lectiones Notae ex MSS. Antiq. Script 1679. QVARTO THe several Informations exhibited to the Committee appointed by Parliament to enquire into the burning of London 1667. Godwin's Roman Antiquities Dr. Littleton's Dictionary Bishop Nicholson on the Church Catechism The Compleat Clerk