Dutchess of Somerset should be so foolish as to think that she ought to have the precedence of the Queen Dowager Therefore I look upon this Story as a meer Fiction though it is probable enough there might upon some other accounts have been some Animosities between the two high-spirited Ladies which might have afterwards be thought to have occasioned their Husbands quarrel It is plain in the whole thread of this Affair that the Protector was at first very easie to be reconciled to his Brother and was only assaulted by him but bore the trouble he gave him with much patience for a great while though in the end seeing his factious temper was incurable he laid off Nature too much when he consented to his Execution Yet all along till then he had rather too much encouraged his Brother to go on by his readiness to be after every breach reconciled to him When the Protector was in Scotland the Admiral then began to act more avowedly and was making a Party for himself of which Paget took notice and charged him with it in plain terms He asked him why he would go about to reverse that which himself and others had consented to under their Hands Their Family was now so great that nothing but their mutual quarrelling could do them any prejudice But there would not be wanting officious Men to inflame them if they once divided among themselves and the Breaches among near Friends commonly turn to the most irreconcilable Quarrels Yet all was ineffectual for the Admiral was resolved to go on and either get himself advanced higher or to perish in the Attempt It was the knowledge of this which forced the Protector to return from Scotland so abruptly and disadvantageously for the securing of his Interest with the King on whom his Brothers Artifices had made some impression Whether there was any reconciliation made between them before the Parliament met is not certain But during the Session the Admiral got the King to write with his own Hand a Message to the House of Commons for the making of him the Governour of his Person and he intended to have gone with it to the House and had a Party there by whose means he was confident to have carried his business He dealt also with many of the Lords and Counsellors to assist him in it When this was known before he had gone with it to the House some were sent to him in his Brothers Name to see if they could prevail with him to proceed no further He refused to hearken to them and said That if he were cross'd in his attempt he would make this the blackest Parliament that ever was in England Upon that he was sent for by Order from the Council but refused to come Then they threatned him severely and told him the Kings Writing was nothing in Law but that he who had procured it was punishable for doing an Act of such a nature to the disturbance of the Government and for engaging the young King in it So they resolved to have sent him to the Tower and to have turned him out of all his Offices But he submitted himself to the Protector and Council and his Brother and he seemed to be perfectly reconciled Yet as the Protector had reason to have a watchful Eye over him so it was too soon visible that he had not laid down but only put off his high Projects till a fitter conjuncture For he began the next Christmas to deal Money again among the Kings Servants and was on all occasions infusing into the King a dislike of every thing that was done and did often perswade him to assume the Government himself But the sequel of this Quarrel proved fatal to him as shall be told in its proper place And thus ended the Year 1547. On the 8th of Jan. 1548. Jan. 8. next year Gardiner was brought before the Council Where it was told him that his former Offences being included in the Kings general Pardon he was thereupon discharged a grave admonition was given him to carry himself reverently and obediently and he was desired to declare whether he would receive the Injunctions and Homilies and the Doctrine to be set forth from time to time by the King and Clergy of the Realm He answered he would conform himself as the other Bishops did and only excepted to the Homily of Justification and desired four or five days to consider of it What he did at the end of that time does not appear from the Council-Book no farther mention being made of this matter for the Clerks of Council did not then enter every thing with that exactness that is since used He went home to his Diocess where there still appeared in his whole behaviour great malignity to Cranmer and to all motions for Reformation yet he gave such outward compliance that it was not easie to find any advantage against him especially now since the Councils great Power was so much abridged The Marquess of Northampton sues a Divorce for Adultery In the end of Jan. the Council made an Order concerning the Marquess of Northampton which will oblige me to look back a little for the clear account of it This Lord who was Brother to the Queen Dowager had married Anne Bourchier Daughter to the Earl of Essex the last of that Name But she being convicted of Adultery he was divorced from her which according to the Law of the Ecclesiastical Courts was only a separation from Bed and Board Upon which Divorce it was proposed in King Henry's time to consider what might be done in favour of the Innocent Person when the other was convicted of Adultery So in the beginning of King Edward's Reign on the 7th of May a Commission was granted to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Duresme and Rochester this was Holbeack who was not then translated to Lincoln to Dr. Ridley and six more ten in all of whom six were a Quorum to try whether the Lady Anne was not by the Word of God so lawfully divorced that she was no more his Wife and whether thereupon he might not marry another Wife This being a new Case and of great importance Cranmer resolved to examine it with his ordinary diligence and searched into the Opinions of the Fathers and Doctors Ex MSS. D. Stillingfleet so copiously that his Collections about it grew into a large Book the Original whereof I have perused the greatest part of it being either written or marked and interlined with his own Hand This required a longer time than the Marquess of Northampton could stay and therefore presuming on his great Power without waiting for Judgment he solemnly married Eliz. Daughter to Brooke Lord Cobham On the 28th of Jan. Information was brought to the Council of this which gave great scandal since his first Marriage stood yet firm in Law So he being put to answer for himself said he thought that by the Word of God he was discharged of his tie to
David that we may shew forth Gods Praises which cannot be done if it is in a strange Tongue Prayer is the offering up of our desires to God which we cannot do if we understand not the Language they are in Baptisme and the Lords Supper are to contain Declarations of the Death and Resurrection of Christ which must be understood otherwise why are they made The use of Speech is to make known what one brings forth to another The most Barbarous Nations perform their Worship in a known Tongue which shews it to be a Law of Nature It is plain from Justin Martyrs Apology that the Worship was then in a known Tongue which appears also from all the Ancient Liturgies and a long Citation was brought out of St. Basil for the singing of Psalms duly weighing the Words with much attention and devotion which he says was practised in all Nations They concluded wondering how such an abuse could at first creep in and be still so stifly maintained and whâ—â—â—hose who would be thought the Guides and Pastors of the Church were so unwilling to return to the Rule of St. Paul and the Practise of the Primitive Times There was a great shout of Applause when they had done They gave their Paper signed with all their Hands to the Lord Keeper to be delivered to the other side as he should think fit But he kept it till the other side should bring him theirs The Papists upon this said they had more to add on that Head which was thought disingenuous by those that had heard them profess they had nothing to add to what Cole had said Thus the Meeting broke up for that day being Saturday and they were ordered to go forward on Munday and to prepare what they were to deliver on the other two Heads The Papists though they could complain of nothing that was done except the applause given to the Paper of the Reformers yet they saw by that how much more acceptable the other Doctrine was to the People and therefore resolved to go no further in that matter At the next meeting they desired that their Answer to the Paper read by the Reformed might be first heard To this the Lord Keeper said That they had delivered their mind the former day and so were not to be heard till they had gone through the other Points and then they were to return on both sides to the answering of Papers They said that what Cole had delivered the former day was Ex tempore and of himself but it had not been agreed on by them This appeared to all the Assembly to be very foul dealing so they were required to go on to the second Point Then they pressed that the other side might begin with their Paper and they would follow for they saw what an advantage the others had the former day by being heard last The Lord Keeper said the Order was that they should be heard first as being Bishops now in Office But both Winchester and Lincoln refused to go any further if the other side did not begin Upon which there followed a long debate Lincoln saying that the first Order which was that all should be in Latin was changed and that they had prepared a Writing in Latin But in this not only the Counsellors among whom sate the Arch-bishop of York but the rest of his own Party contradicted him In conclusion all except Fecknam refused to read any more Papers he said he was willing to have done it but he could not undertake such a thing alone and so the Meeting broke up But the Bishops of Winchester and of Lincoln said The Conference between the Papists and Protestants breaks up the Doctrine of the Catholick Church was already established and ought not to be disputed except it were in a Synod of Divines that it was too great an encouragement to Hereticks to hear them thus discourse against the Faith before the unlearned Multitude and that the Queen by so doing had incurred the Sentence of Excommunication and they talked of excommunicating her and her Council Upon this they were both sent to the Tower The Reformed took great advantage from the Issue of this Debate to say their Adversaries knew that upon a fair hearing the Truth was so manifestly on their side that they durst not put it to such hazard The whole World saw that this Disputation was managed with great Impartiality and without noise or disorder far different from what had been in Queen Maries time so they were generally much confirmed in their former belief by the Papists flying the Field They on the other hand said they saw the rude Multitude were now carried with a Fury against them the Lord Keeper was their professed Enemy the Laity would take on them to judge after they had heard them and they perceived they were already determined in their minds and that this Dispute was only to set off the changes that were to be made with the Pomp of a Victory and they blamed the Bishops for undertaking it at first but excused them for breaking it off in time And the Truth is the strength of their Cause in most Points of Controversie resting on the Authority of the Church of Rome that was now a thing of so odious a sound that all Arguments brought from thence were not like to have any great effect Upon this whole matter there was an Act of State made and Signed by many Privy Counsellors giving an account of all the steps that were made in it which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 5. This being over the Parliament was now in a better disposition to pass the Bill for the Uniformity of the Service of the Church Some of the Reformed Divines were appointed to review King Edwards Liturgie and to see if in any Particular it was fit to change it The only considerable Variation was made about the Lords Supper of which somewhat will appear from the Letter of Sandys to Parker It was proposed to have the Communion Book so contrived that it might not exclude the belief of the Corporal Presence for the chief design of the Queens Council was to unite the Nation in one Faith and the greatest part of the Nation continued to believe such a Presence Therefore it was recommended to the Divines to see that there should be no express definition made against it that so it might lie as a Speculative Opinion not determined in which every Man was left to the Freedom of his own Mind Hereupon the Rubrick that explained the reason for kneeling at the Sacrament That thereby no Adoration is intended to any Corporal Presence of Christs natural Flesh and Blood because that is only in Heaven which had been in King Edwards Liturgy was now left out And whereas at the delivery of the Elements in King Edwards first Liturgy there was to be said The Body or Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ Preserve thy Body and Soul to Everlasting Life which words
never defame them so much to be seen to fear it And of what strength an Act of Parliament is the Realm was taught in the case of her that we called Queen Ann where all such as spake against her in the Parliament-House although they did it by special Commandment of the King and spake that was truth yet they were fain to have a Pardon because that speaking was against an Act of Parliament Did you never know or here tell of any Man that for doing that the King our late Soveraign Lord willed devised and required to be done He that took pains and was commanded to do it was fain to sue for his Pardon and such other also as were doers in it and I could tell who it were Sure there hath been such a Case and I have been present when it hath been reasoned That the doing against an Act of Parliament excuseth not a Man even from the Case of Treason although a Man did it by the King's Commandment You can tell this to your remembrance when you think further of it and when it cometh to your remembrance you will not be best content with your self I believe to have advised me to enter the breach of an Act of Parliament without surety of Pardon although the King command it and were such indeed as it were no matter to do it at all And thus I answer the Letters with worldly civil Reasons and take your Mind and Zeal towards me to be as tender as may be and yet you see that the following of your Advice might make me lose my Bishoprick by mine own Act which I am sure you would I should keep and so would I as might stand with my Truth and Honesty and none otherwise as knoweth God who send you heartily well to fare Number 14. The Conclusion of Gardiner's Letter to the Protector against the lawfulness of the Injunctions Cotton Libr. Vesp D. 18. VVHether the King may command against the Common Law or an Act of Parliament there is never a Judg or other Man in the Realm ought to know more by experience of that the Lawyers have said than I. First My Lord Cardinal had obtained his Legacy by our late Soveraign Lord's Request at Rome yet being it was against the Laws of the Realm the Judges censured the Offence of Premunire which Matter I bore away and take it for a Law of the Realm because the Lawyers said so but my Reason digested it not The Lawyers for the confirmation of their Doings brought in a Case of my Lord Typtest an Earl he was and learned in Civil Laws who being Chancellor because in execution of the King's Commission he offended the Laws of the Realm he suffered on Tower-Hill they brought in the Examples of many Judges that had Fines set on their Heads in like case for transgression of the Laws by the King's Commandment and this I learned in this Case Since that time being of the Council when many Proclamations were devised against the Carriers out of Corn when it came to punishing the Offenders the Judges would answer it might not be by the Laws because the Act of Parliament gave liberty Wheat being under a price Whereupon at the last followed the Act of Proclamations in the passing whereof were many large words When the Bishop of Exeter and his Chancellor were by one Body brought into a Premunire I reasoned with the Lord Audley then Chancellor so far as he bad me hold my peace for fear of entring a Premunire my self But I concluded that although I must take it as of their Authority that it is Common Law yet I could not see how a Man authorised by the King as since the King's Majesty hath taken upon him the Supremacy every Bishop is that Man could fall in a Premunire I reasoned once in the Parliament House where was free Speech without danger and there the Lord Audley Chancellor then to satisfie me because I was in some secret estimation as he knew Thou art a good Fellow Bishop quoth he look the Act of the Supremacy and there the King's doings be restrained to Spiritual Jurisdiction And in an other Act No Spiritual Law shall have place contrary to a Common Law or an Act of Parliament And if this were not quoth he the Bishops would enter in with the King and by means of his Supremacy order the Law as you listed but we will provide quoth he that the Premunire shall never go off your Heads This I bare away there and held my peace Since that time in a Case of Jewels I was fain with the Emperor's Ambassador Chapinius when he was here and in the Emperor's Court also to defend and maintain by Commandment that the King's Majesty was not above his Laws and therefore the Jeweller although he had the King's Bill signed yet it would not serve because it was not obtained after the Order of the Law in which Matter I was very much troubled Even this time twelve-month when I was in Commission with my Lord great Master and the Earl of Southampton for the altering of the Court of Augmentations there was my Lord Montague and other of the King 's Learned Council of whom I learned what the King might do against an Act of Parliament and what danger it was to them that medled It is fresh in my Memory and they can tell whether I say true or no and therefore being learned in so notable Causes I wrote in your absence therein as I had learned by hearing the Common Lawyers speak whose Judgments rule these Matters howsoever my reason can digest them When I wrote thereof the Matter was so reasonable as I have been learned by the Lawyers of the Realm that I trusted my Lords would have staied till your Graces return Number 15. A Letter from the Duke of Somerset to the Lady Mary in the beginning of King Edward's Reign Madam my humble Commendations to your Grace premised THese may be to signify unto the same Cotton Libr. Faustin C. 2. that I have received your Letters of the second of this present by Jane your Servant reknowledging my self thereby much bound unto your Grace nevertheless I am very sorry to perceive that your Grace should have or conceive any sinister or wrong Opinion in me and others which were by the King your late Father and our most gracious Master put in trust as Executors of his Will albeit the truth of our doings being known to your Grace as it seemeth by your said Letter not to be I trust there shall be no such fault found in us as in the same your Grace hath alleadged and for my part I know none of us that will willingly neglect the full execution of every Jot of his said Will as far as shall and may stand with the King our Master's Honour and Surety that now is otherwise I am sure that your Grace nor none other his Faithful Subjects would have it take place not doubting but our Doings and
them out at pleasure and that therefore they might declare the Commission void if they pleased to which he should consent but they could not for such an error turn him out of his Office nor out of his share of the Government To this it was answered That by the late Kings Will they or the major part of them were to Administer till the King was of Age That this subjected every one of them in particular to the rest That otherwise if any of them broke out into Rebellion he might pretend he could not be attainted nor put from the Government Therefore it was agreed on That every of them in particular was subject to the greater part Then the Lord Chancellor was required to shew what Warrant he had for that he had done Being now driven from that which he chiefly relied on he answered for himself That he had no Warrant yet he thought by his Office he had Power to do it that he had no ill intention in it and therefore submitted himself to the Kings mercy and to the gracious consideration of the Protector and the Council and desired that in respect of his past Services he might forego his Office with as little slander as might be and that as to his Fine and Imprisonment they would use moderation So he was made to withdraw The Councellors as it is entred in the Council-Book considering in their Consciences his abuses sundry ways in his Office to the great prejudice and utter decay of the Câ—mmon Laws and the prejudice that might follow by the Seals continuing in the Hands of so stout and arrogant a Person who would as he pleased put the Seals to such Commissions without Warrant did agree That the Seal should be taken from him and he be deprived of his Office and be further fined as should be afterwards thought fitting only they excused him from Imprisonment So he being called in and heard say all he could think of for his own justification they did not judge it of such importance as might move them to change their mind Sentence was therefore given That he should stay in the Council-Chamber and Closet till the Sermon was ended that then he should go home with the Seal to Ely House where he lived but that after Supper the Lord Seimour Sir Anthony Brown and Sir Edw. North should be sent to him and that he should deliver the Seal into their Hands and be from that time deprived of his Office and confined to his House during pleasure and pay what Fine should be laid on him To all which he submitted and acknowledged the justice of their Sentence So the next day the Seal was put into the Lord St. Johns Hands till they should agree on a fit Man to be Lord Chancellor and it continued with him several months On the day following the late Kings Will being in his Hands for the granting of Exemplifications of it under the Great Seal it was sent for and ordered to be laid up in the Treasury of the Exchequer and the Earl of Southampton continued in his Confinement till the 29th of June but then he entred into a Recognisance of 4000 l. to pay what Fine they should impose on him and upon that he was discharged of his Imprisonment But in all this Sentence they made no mention of his forfeiting his being one of the late Kings Executors and of the present Kings Governours either judging that being put in these Trusts as he was Lord Chancellor the discharging him of his Office did by consequence put an end to them or perhaps they were not willing to do any thing that might seem to change the late Kings Will and therefore by keeping him under the fear of a severe Fine they chose rather to oblige him to be absent and to carry himself quietly than by any Sentence to exclude him from his share in that Trust Which I encline the rather to believe because I find him afterwards brought to Council without any Order entred about it So that he seems to have come thither rather on a former Right than on a new choice made of him Thus fell the Lord Chancellor and in him the Popish Party lost their chief support and the Protector his most emulous Rival The Reader will find the Commission with the Opinion of the Judges about it in the Collection Collection Number 5. from which he will be better able to judge of these Proceedings against him Which were summary and severe beyond the usage of the Privy Council and without the common forms of legal Processes But the Councils Authority had been raised so high by the Act mentioned Page 263. of the former Part that they were empowerd sufficiently for Matters of that nature That which followed a few days after made this be the more censured The Protector holds his Office by Patent since the Lord Protector who hitherto held his Office but by the choice of the rest and under great restrictions was now resolved to hold it by Patent to which the late Chancellor had been unwilling to consent The pretence for it was That the Forreign Ministers the French Ambassador in particular desired to be satisfied concerning his Power and how far they might treat with him and depend on the assurances and promises he gave So the Protector and Council did on the 13th of March March 13. petition the King that they might act by a Commission under the Great Seal which might empower and justifie them in what they were to do And that was to be done in this manner The King and the Lords were to Sign the Warrant for it upon which the Lord St. John who though he had the keeping of the Great Seal was never designed to be Lord Keeper nor was empowred to hear Causes should set the Seal to it The Original Warrant was to be kept by the Protector and Exemplifications of it were to be given to Forreign Ministers To this Order Sir Thom. Cheyney set his Hand upon what Authority I do not so clearly see since he was none of the Executors By this Commission which will be found in the Collection it is set forth Collection Number 6. That the King being under Age was desired by divers of the Nobles and Prelates of the Realm to name and authorize one above all others to have the Charge of the Kingdom with the Government of his Person whereupon he had formerly by word of mouth named his Unkle to be Protector and Governour of his Person yet for a more perfect Declaration of that he did now ratifie and approve all he had done since that Nomination and constituted him his Governour and the Protector of his Kingdom till he should attain the full Age of 18 years giving him the full Authority that belonged to that Office to do every thing as he by his Wisdom should think for the Honour Good and Prosperity of the King and Kingdoms and that he might be furnished with a Council for
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
and Temporalty did without compulsion give their assent he remembers her what opposition the stiff-necked Papists gave him and what Rebellions they raised against him which he wonders how she came so soon to forget Adding that death had prevented him before he had finished these Godly Orders which he had designed and that no kind of Religion was perfected at his death but all was left so uncertain that it must inevitably bring on great disorders if God did not help them and that himself and many others could witness what regret their late Master had when he saw he must die before he had finished what he intended He wond'red that she who had been well bred and was learned should esteem true Religion and the knowledge of the Scriptures Newfangledness or Fantasie He desired she would turn the Leaf and look on the other side and would with an humble Spirit and by the assistance of the Grace of God consider the matter better Thus things went on till the Parliament met The Parliament meets which was summoned to meet the fourth of November The day before it met Novemb. 3. the Protector gave too publick an instance how much his prosperous success had lifted him up For by a Patent under the Great Seal Rot. Pat. 1. Reg. 7. Part. he was warranted to sit in Parliament on the Right Hand of the Throne under the Cloath of State and was to have all the Honours and Priviledges that at any time any of the Unkles of the Kings of England whether by the Fathers or Mothers side had enjoyed with a Non obstante to the Statute of Precedence The Lord Rich had been made Lord Chancellor on the 24th of October but whether the Protector or he opened the Parliament by any Speech does not appear from the Journal of the Lords House On the 10th of Decemb. Decemb. 10. a Bill was brought in for the repealing several Statutes It was read the second time on the 12th and the third time on the 16th day On the 19th 19. some Provisoes were added to it and it was sent down to the Commons who sent it up the 23d of December 23. Dec. to which the Royal Assent was given The Commons had formed a new Bill for repealing these Statutes which upon some Conferences they were willing to let fall only some Provisoes were added to the old one upon which the Bishops of London Duresme Ely Hereford and Chichester dissented An Act repealing former severe Laws The Preamble of it sets forth That nothing made a Government happier than when the Prince governed with much clemency and the Subjects obeyed out of love Yet the late King and some of his Progenitors being provoked by the unruliness of some of their People had made severe Laws but they judging it necessary now to recommend the Kings Government to the affections of the People repealed all Laws that made any thing to be Treason but what was in the Act of 25 of Edw. the 3d as also two of the Statutes about Lollardies together with the Act of the six Articles and the other Acts that followed in explanation of that All Acts in King Henry the 8th's time declaring any thing to be Felony that was not so declared before were also repealed together with the Acts that made the Kings Proclamations of equal Authority with Acts of Parliament It was also Enacted That all who denied the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes in words should for the first offence forfeit their Goods and Chattels and suffer Imprisonment during pleasure For the second offence should incur the Pain of Praemunire and for the third offence be attainted of Treason But if any did in Writing Printing or by any overt Act or Deed endeavour to deprive the King of his Estate or Titles particularly of his Supremacy or to confer them on any other after the first of March next he was to be adjudged guilty of High Treason and if any of the Heirs of the Crown should usurp upon another or did endeavour to break the Succession of the Crown it was declared high Treason in them their Aiders and Abettors And all were to enjoy the Benefit of Clergy and the Priviledge of Sanctuary as they had it before King Henry the 8th's Reign excepting only such as were guilty of Murder Poisoning Burglary Robbing on the High-way the stealing of Cattel or stealing out of Churches or Chappels Poisoners were to suffer as other Murderers None were to be accused of Words but within a Month after they were spoken And those who called the French King by the Title of King of France were not to be esteemed guilty of the Pains of translating the Kings Authority or Titles on any other In Ch. Coll. Camb. among Parkers Papers This Act was occasioned by a Speech that Arch-bishop Cranmer had in Convocation in which he exhorted the Clergy to give themselves much to the study of the Scripture and to consider seriously what things were in the Church that needed Reformation that so they might throw out all the Popish trash that was not yet cast out Upon this some intimated to him that as long as the six Articles stood in force it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council upon which they ordered this Act of Repeal By it the Subjects were delivered from many fears they were under and had good hopes of a mild Government when in stead of procuring new severe Law the old ones were let fall The Council did also free the Nation of the jealousies they might have of them by such an abridgment of their own Power But others judged it had been more for the interest of the Government to have kept up these Laws still in force but to have restrained the execution of them This Repeal drew on another which was sent from the Commons on the 20th of December and was agreed to by the Lords on the 21st It was of an Act in the 28th year of the last King by which all Laws made while his Son was under 24 years of Age might be by his Letters Patents after he attained that Age annulled as if they had never been Which they altered thus That the King after that Age might by his Letters Patents void any Act of Parliament for the future but could not so void it from the beginning as to annul all things done upon it between the making and annulling of it which were still to be lawful Deeds The next Bill of a publick nature was concerning the Sacrament Act about the Communion Which was brought in and read the first time on the 12th of Novemb. the second time on the 15th and was twice read on the 17th And on the 24th a Bill was brought in for the Communion to be received in both kinds on the third of December it was read the second time and given to the Protector on the 5th read again and given to two
being read there once it was like to have raised such debates that it being resolved to end the Session before Christmas the Lords laid it aside But while the Parliament was sitting The Convocation meets they were not idle in the Convocation though the Popish Party was yet so prevalent in both Houses that Cranmer had no hopes of doing any thing till they were freed of the trouble which some of the great Bishops gave them The lower House made some Petitions Number 16. The most important thing they did was the carrying up four Petitions to the Bishops which will be found in the Collection 1. That according to the Statute made in the Reign of the late King there might be Persons empow'red for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws The second That according to the ancient Custom of the Nation and the Tenor of the Bishops Writ to the Parliament the inferior Clergy might be admitted again to sit in the House of Commons or that no Acts concerning matters of Religion might pass without the sight and assent of the Clergy The third That since divers Prelates and other Divines had been in the late Kings time appointed to alter the Service of the Church and had made some progress in it that this might be brought to its full perfection The fourth That some consideration might be had for the maintenance of the Clergy the first year they came into their Livings in which they were charged with the First-fruits to which they added a desire to know whether they might safely speak their minds about Religion without the danger of any Law For the first of these four Petitions an account of it shall be given hereafter As to the second it was a thing of great consequence and deserves to be farther considered in this place Anciently all the free Men of England The Inferior Clergy desire to be admited to have Representatives in the House of Commons or at least those that held of the Crown in chief came to Parliament and then the inferior Clergy had Writs as well as the Superior and the first of the three Estates of the Kingdom were the Bishops the other Prelates and the Inferior Clergy But when the Parliament was divided into two Houses then the Clergy made likewise a Body of their own and sate in Convocation which was the third Estate But the Bishops having a double capacity the one of Ecclesiastical Prelature the other of being the Kings Barons they had a Right to sit with the Lords as a part of their Estate as well as in the Convocation And though by parity of reason it might seem that the rest of the Clergy being Freeholders as well as Clarks had an equal Right to choose or be chosen into the House of Commons yet whether they were ever in possession of it or whether according to the Clause Premonentes in the Bishops Writ they were ever a part of the House of Commons is a just doubt For besides this assertion in the Petition that was mentioned and a more large one in the second Petition which they presented to the same purpose which is likewise in the Collection Number 17. I have never met with any good reason to satisfie me in it There was a general Tradition in Queen Elizabeths Reign that the Inferior Clergy departed from their Right of being in the House of Commons when they were all brought into the Praemunire upon Cardinal Wolsey's Legatine Power and made their submission to the King But that is not credible for as there is no footstep of it which in a time of so much writing and printing must have remained if so great a change had been then made so it cannot be thought that those who made this Address but 17 years after that Submission many being alive in this who were of that Convocation Polidore Virgil in particular a curious observer since he was maintained here to write the History of England none of them should have remembred a thing that was so fresh but have appealed to Writs and ancient Practises But though this design of bringing the Inferior Clergy into the House of Commons did not take at this time yet it was again set on foot in the end of Queen Elizabeths Reign and Reasons were offered to perswade her to set it forward Which not being then successful these same Reasons were again offered to King James to induce him to endeavour it The Paper that discovers this was communicated to me by Dr. Borlace the Worthy Author of the History of the Irish Rebellion It is corrected in many places by the Hand of Bishop Ravis then Bishop of London a Man of great Worth This for the affinity of the matter and the curiosity of the thing I have put into the Collection Number 18. with a large Marginal Note as it was designed to be transcribed for King James But whether this Matter was ever much considered or lightly laid aside as a thing unfit and unpracticable does not appear certain it is that it came to nothing Upon the whole matter it is not certain what was the Power or Right of these Proctors of the Clergy in former times Some are of opinion that they were only assistants to the Bishops Coke 4. Inst 3.4 but had no Voice in either House of Parliament This is much confirmed by an Act pass'd in the Parliament of Ireland in the 28th Year of the former Reign which sets forth in the Preamble That though the Proctors of the Clergy were always summoned to Parliament yet they were no part of it nor had they any right to Vote in it but were only Assistants in case Matters of Controversie or Learning came before them as the Convocation was in England which had been determined by the Judges of England after much enquiry made about it But the Proctors were then pretending to so high an Authority that nothing could pass without their consents and it was presumed they were set on to it by the Bishops whose Chaplains they were for the most part Therefore they were by that Act declared to have no right to Vote From this some infer they were no other in England and that they were only the Bishops Assistants and Council But as the Clause Premonentes in the Writ seems to make them a part of the Parliament so these Petitions suppose that they sate in the House of Commons anciently where it cannot be imagined they could sit if they came only to be Assistants to the Bishops for then they must have sate in the House of Lords rather as the Judges the Masters of Chancery and the Kings Council do Nor is it reasonable to think they had no Voice for then their sitting in Parliament had been so insignificant a thing that it is not likely they would have used such endeavours to be restored to it since their coming to Parliament upon such an account must have been only a charge to them There is against this Opinion an
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
Translation into some Town of the Popes to which it was not likely the Imperialists would follow them and so at least the Council would be suspended if not dissolved For this Remove they laid hold on the first colour they could find One dying of a malignant Feaver it was given out and certified by Physicians that he died of the Plague so in all hast they translated the Council to Bologna Apr. 21. The first Session of Bologna The Imperialists protested against it but in vain for thither they went The Emperor was hereby quite disappointed of his chief design which was to force the Germans to submit to a Council held in Germany and therefore no Plague appearing at Trent he pressed the return of the Council thither But the Pope said it was the Councils act and not his and that their Honour was to be kept up that therefore such as stayed at Trent were to go first to Bologna and acknowledge the Council and they should then consider what was to be done So that now all the hope the Germans had was that this difference between the Pope and Emperor might give them some breathing and time might bring them out of these extremities into which they were then driven Upon these disorders the Forreign Reformers who generally made Germany their Sanctuary were now forced to seek it elsewhere So Peter Martyr in the end of November this Year was brought over to England by the Invitation which the Arch-bishop of Canterbury sent him in the Kings Name He was born in Florence where he had been an Augustinian-Monk He was learned in the Greek and the Hebrew which drew on him the envy of the rest of his Order whose Manners he inveighed oft against So he left them and went to Naples where he gathered an Assembly of those who loved to Worship God more purely This being made known he was forced to leave that Place and went next to Lucca where he lived in society with Tremellius and Zanchius But being also in danger there he went to Zurick with Bernardinus Ochinus that had been one of the most celebrated Preachers of Italy and now forsook his former Superstitions From Zurick he went to Basil and from thence by Martin Bucers means he was brought to Strasburg where Cranmers Letter found both him and Ochinus The Latter was made a Canon of Canterbury with a Dispensation of Residence and by other Letters Patents 40 Marks were given yearly to him and as much to Peter Martyr There had been this Year some differences between the English and French concerning the Fortifications about Bulloigne The French quarrel about Bulloigne The English were raising a great Fort by the Harbour there This being signified to King Henry by Gaspar Coligny afterwards the famous Admiral of France then Governour of the neighbouring Parts to Bulloigne it was complained of at the Court of England It was answered That this was only to make the Harbour more secure and so the Works were ordered to be vigorously carried on But this could not satisfie the French who plainly saw it was of another sort than to be intended only for the Sea The King of France came and viewed the Country himself and ordered Coligny to raise a Fort on a high Ground near it which was called the Chastilion Fort and commanded both the English Fort and the Harbour But the Protector had no mind to give the French a colour for breaking with the English so there was a Truce and further Cessation agreed on in the end of September These are all the considerable Forreign Transactions of this Year in which England was concerned But there was a secret contrivance laid at home of a high nature which though it broke not out till the next Year yet the beginnings of it did now appear The Protectors Brother Thomas Seimour was brought to such a share in his Fortunes The Breach between the Protector and the Admiral that he was made a Baron and Lord Admiral But this not satisfying his ambition he endeavoured to have linked himself into a nearer relation with the Crown by marrying the Kings Sister the Lady Elizabeth But finding he could not compass that he made his Addresses to the Queen Dowager Who enjoying now the Honour and Wealth the late King had left her resolved to satisfie her self in her next Choice and entertained him a little too early for they were married so soon after the Kings death that it was charged afterwards on the Admiral that if she had brought a Child as soon as might have been after the Marriage it had given cause to doubt whether it had not been by the late King which might have raised great disturbance afterwards But being thus married to the Queen he concealed it for some time till he procured a Letter from the King recommending him to her for a Husband upon which they declared their Marriage with which the Protector was much offended Being thus possessed of great Wealth and being Husband to the Queen Dowager he studied to engage all that were about the King to be his Friends and he corrupted some of them by his Presents and forced one on Sir John Cheek That which he designed was That whereas in former times the Infant Kings of England had had Governours of their Persons distinct from the Protectors of their Realms which Trusts were divided between their Unkles it being judged too much to joyn both in one Person who was thereby too great whereas a Governour of the Kings Person might be a check on the Protector he would therefore himself be made Governour of the Kings Person alledging that since he was the Kings Unkle as well as his Brother he ought to have a proportioned share with him in the Government About Easter this Year he first set about this design and corrupted some about the King who should bring him sometimes privately through the Gallery to the Queens Lodgings and he desired they would let him know when the King had occasion for Money and that they should not always trouble the Treasury for he would be ready to furnish him and he thought a young King might be taken with this So it happened that the first time Latimer preached at Court the King sent to him to know what Present he should make him Seimour sent him 40 l. but said he thought 20 enough to give Latimer and the King might dispose of the rest as he pleased Thus he gained ground with the King whose sweet nature exposed him to be easily won by such Artifices It is generally said that all this difference between the Brothers was begun by their Wives and that the Protectors Lady being offended that the younger Brothers Wife had the precedence of her which she thought belonged to her self did thereupon raise and inflame the differences But in all the Letters that I have seen concerning this Breach I could never find any such thing once mentioned Nor is it reasonable to imagine that the
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
a Park there what they did should be no prejudice to him There was also a Commission issued out to enquire about Inclosures and Farms and whether those who had purchased the Abbey-Lands kept Hospitality to which they were bound by the Grants they had of them and whether they encouraged Husbandry But I find no effect of this And indeed there seemed to have been a general design among the Nobility and Gentry to bring the Inferior sort to that low and servile state to which the Peasants in many other Kingdoms are reduced In the Parliament an Act was carried in the House of Lords for imparking Grounds but was cast out by the Commons yet Gentlemen went on every where taking their Lands into their own Hands and enclosing them Many are easily quieted In May the Commons did rise first in Wilt-shire where Sir William Herbert gathered some resolute Men about him and dispersed them and slew some of them Soon after that they rose in Sussex Hamp-shire Kent Glocester-shire Suffolk Warwick-shire Essex Hartford-shire Leicester-shire Worcester-shire and Rutland-shire but by fair perswasions the fury of the People was a little stopt till the matter should be represented to the Council The Protector said he did not wonder the Commons were in such distempers they being so oppressed that it was easier to die once than to perish for want and therefore he set out a Proclamation contrary to the mind of the whole Council against all new Inclosures with another indempnifying the People for what was past so they carried themselves obediently for the future Commissions were also sent every where with an unlimited Power to the Commissioners to hear and determine all Causes about Inclosures High-ways and Cottages The vast Power these Commissioners assumed was much complained of the Landlords said it was an Invasion of their Property to subject them thus to the pleasure of those who were sent to examine the Matters without proceeding in the ordinary Courts according to Law The Commons being encouraged by the favour they heard the Protector bore them and not able to govern their heat or stay for a more peaceable issue did rise again but were anew quieted Yet the Protector being opposed much by the Council he was not able to redress this Grievance so fully as the People hoped So in Oxford-shire and Devon-shire they rose again and also in Norfolk and York-shire Those in Oxford-shire were dissipated by a Force of 1500 Men led against them by the Lord Gray Some of them were taken and hanged by Martial Law as being in a state of War the greatest part ran home to their Dwellings In Devon-shire the Insurrection grew to be better formed But those of Devon-shire grew formidable for that County was not only far from the Court but it was generally inclined to the former superstition and many of the old Priests run in among them They came together on the 10th of June being Whit-Munday and in a short time they grew to be 10000 strong At Court it was hoped this might be as easily dispersed as the other Risings were but the Protector was against running into extremities and so did not move so speedily as the thing required He after some days at last sent the Lord Russel with a small Force to stop their Proceedings And that Lord remembring well how the Duke of Norfolk had with a very small Army broken a formidable Rebellion in the former Reign hoped that time would likewise weaken and dis-unite these and therefore he kept at some distance and offered to receive their Complaints and to send them to the Council But these delays gave advantage and strength to the Rebels who were now led on by some Gentlemen Arundel of Cornwall being in chief Command among them and in answer to the Lord Russel they agreed on fifteen Articles the Substance of which was as follows 1. That all the General Councils Their Demands and the Decrees of their Forefathers should be observed 2. That the Act of the Six Articles should be again in force 3. That the Mass should be in Latin and that the Priests alone should receive 4. That the Sacrament should be hanged up and worshiped and those who refused to do it should suffer as Hereticks 5. That the Sacrament should only be given to the People at Easter in one kind 6. That Baptism should be done at all times 7. That Holy Bread Holy Water and Palms be again used and that Images be set up with all the other ancient Ceremonies 8. That the new Service should be laid aside since it was like a Christmas Game and the old Service again should be used with the Procession in Latin 9. That all Preachers in their Sermons and Priests in the Mass should pray for the Souls in Purgatory 10. That the Bible should be called in since otherwise the Clergy could not easily confound the Hereticks 11. That Dr. Moreman and Crispin should be sent to them and put in their Livings 12. That Cardinal Pool should be restored and made of the Kings Council 13. That every Gentleman might have only one Servant for every hundred Marks of yearly Rent that belonged to him 14. That the half of the Abbey and Church-Lands should be taken back and restored to two of the chief Abbeys in every County and all the Church Boxes for seven years should be given to such Houses that so devout Persons might live in them who should pray for the King and the Common-wealth 15. And that for their particular grievances they should be redressed as Humphrey Arundel and the Major of Bodmyn should inform the King for whom they desired a safe conduct These Articles being sent to the Council the Arch-bishop of Canterbury was ordered to draw an Answer to them which I have seen corrected with his own Hand Cranmer drew an Answer to them Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab. The Substance of it was That their Demands were insolent such as were dictated to them by some seditious Priests they did not know what General Councils had decreed nor was there any thing in the Church of England contrary to them though many things had been formerly received which were so and for the Decrees they were framed by the Popes to enslave the World of which he gave several Instances For the Six Articles he says They had not been carried in Parliament if the late King had not gone thither in Person and procured that Act and yet of his own accord he slackened the execution of it To the third it was strange that they did not desire to know in what terms they worshiped God and for the Mass the ancient Canons required the People to communicate in it and the Prayers in the Office of the Mass did still imply that they were to do it For the hanging up and adoring the Host it was but lately set up by Pope Innocent and Honorius and in some Places it had never been received For the fifth the Ancient
of some Opinions should be declared Felony it passed with them but was laid aside by the Lords 1550. A Bill for the Form of Ordaining Ministers was brought in to the House of Lords and was agreed to the Bishops of Duresme Carlisle Worcester Chichester and Westminster protesting against it The Substance of it was An Act about the Forms of giving Orders That such Forms of Ordaining Ministers as should be set forth by the advice of six Prelates and six Divines to be named by the King and authorized by a Warrant under the Great Seal should be used after April next and no other On the second of January a Bill was put in against the Duke of Somerset An Act about the Duke of Somerset of the Articles formerly mentioned with a Confession of them Signed by his Hand This he was prevailed with to do upon assurances given that he should be gently dealt with if he would freely confess and submit himself to the Kings mercy But it was said by some of the Lords that they did not know whether that Confession was not drawn from him by force and that it might be an ill President to pass Acts upon such Papers without examining the Party whether he had subscribed them freely and uncompelled so they sent four Temporal Lords and four Bishops to examine him concerning it And the day following the Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield made the Report that he thanked them for that kind Message but that he had freely subscribed the Confession that lay before them He had made it on his Knees before the King and Council and had Signed it on the 13th of December He protested his offences had flowed from rashness and indiscretion rather than malice and that he had no treasonable design against the King or his Realms So he was fined by Act of Parliament in 2000 l. a year of Land and he lost all his Goods and Offices Upon this he wrote to the Council acknowledging their favour in bringing off his Matter by a Fine he confess'd that he had fall'n into the frailties that often attend on great Places but what he had done amiss was rather for want of true Judgment than from any malicious meaning he humbly desired they would interpose with the King for a moderation of his Fine and that he might be pardoned and restored to favour assuring them that for the future he should carry himself so humbly and obediently that he should thereby make amends for his former follies This was much censured by many as a sign of an abject Spirit others thought it was wisely done in him once to get out of Prison on any terms since the greatness of his former condition gave such jealousie to his Enemies that unless he had his pardon he would be in continual danger as long as he was in their hands So on the 6th of February he was set at liberty giving Bond of 10000 l. for his good behaviour and being limited that he should stay at the Kings House of Sheen or his own of Zion and should not go four Miles from them nor come to the King or the Council unless he were called He had his Pardon on the 16th of February and carried himself after that so humbly that his behaviour with the Kings great kindness to him did so far prevail that on the 10th of April after he was restored into favour and sworn of the Privy-Council And so this storm went over him much more gently than was expected but his carriage in it was thought to have so little of the Hero that he was not much considered after this The Reformation is set on vigorously But to go on with the business of the Parliament reports had been spread that the old Service would be again set up and these were much cherished by those who still loved the former superstition who gave out that a change was to be expected since the New Service had been only the Act of the Duke of Somerset Upon this the Council wrote on Christmas day a Letter to all the Bishops of England to this effect That whereas the English Service had been devised by Learned Men according to the Scripture and the use of the Primitive Church therefore for putting away those vain expectations all Clergy-men were required to deliver to such as should be appointed by the King to receive them all Antiphonales Missals Grayles Processionals Manuals Legends Pies Portuasses Journals and Ordinals after the use of Sarum Lincoln York or any other private use requiring them also to see to the observing one uniform Order in the Service set forth by the common consent of the Realm and particularly to take care that there should be every where provision made of Bread and Wine for the Communion on Sunday This will be found in the Collection But to give a more publick declaration of their zeal Collection Number 46. an Act was brought into Parliament about it and was agreed to by all the Lords except the Earl of Darby the Bishops of Duresme Coventry and Litchfield Carlisle Worcester Westminster and Chichester and the Lords Morley Stourton Windsor and Wharton By it not only all the Books formerly mentioned were to be destroyed but all that had any Image that had belonged to any Church or Chappel were required to deface it before the last of June and in all the Primers set out by the late King the Prayers to the Saints were to be dashed out There was also an Act for a Subsidy to be payed in one year for which there was a Release granted of a Branch of the Subsidy formerly given Last of all came the Kings general Pardon out of which those in the Tower or other Prisons on the account of the State as also all Anabaptists were excepted Thus were all Matters ended and on the first of February the Parliament was prorogued Only in the House of Commons there was a Debate that deserves to be remembred It seems that before this time the Eldest Sons of Peers were not Members of the House of Commons and Sir Francis Russel becoming by the death of his elder Brother Heir apparent to the Lord Russell it was on the 21st of Jan. carried upon a Debate That he should abide in the House as he was before So it is entred in the Original Journal of the House of Commons which was communicated to me by Mr. Surle and Mr. Clark in whose Hands it is now and is the first Journal that ever was taken in that House But it may be expected that I should next give an account of the Forms of Ordination now agreed on Twelve were appointed by the Council to prepare the Book among whom Heath Bishop of Worcester was one but he would not consent to the Reformations that were proposed in it So on the 8th of February he was called before the Council and required to agree to that which all the rest had consented to But he could not be
on the Dead or cast the burthen of it wholly upon her Sister But she assured them if ever she married she would make such a Choice as should be to the satisfaction and good of her People She did not know what credit she might yet have with them but she knew well she deserved to have it for she was resolved never to deceive them Her People were to her in stead of Children and she reckoned her self married to them by her Coronation They would not want a Successor when she died and for her part she should be well contented that the Marble should tell Posterity HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN She took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her hearty thanks for the care the Commons had of her The Journals of the House of Lords are imperfect so that we find nothing in them of this matter yet it appears that they likewise had it before them for the Journals of the House of Commons have it marked that on the fifteenth of February there was a Message sent from the Lords desiring that a Committee of thirty Commoners might meet with twelve Lords to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen should marry The Committee was appointed to treat concerning it but it seems the Queen desired them to turn to other things that were more pressing for I find nothing after this entred in the Journals of this Parliament concerning it On the ninth of February the Lords past a Bill for the Recognizing of the Queens Title to the Crown They recognize her Title to the Crown It had been considered whether as Queen Mary had procured a former Repeal of her Mothers Divorce and of the Acts that passed upon it declaring her Illegitimate the like should be done now The Lord Keeper said The Crown purged all defects and it was needless to look back to a thing which would at least cast a reproach on her Father the enquiring into such things too anxiously would rather prejudice than advance her Title So he advised that there should be an Act passed in general words asserting the lawfulness of her descent and her Right to the Crown rather than any special Repeal Queen Mary and her Council were careless of King Henry's Honour but it became her rather to conceal than expose his Weakness This being thought both Wise and Pious Council the Act was conceived in general Words That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and of the Realm she was their lawful Queen and that she was rightly lineally and lawfully descended from the Royal Blood and that the Crown did without all doubt or ambiguity belong to her and the Heirs to be lawfully begotten of her Body after her and that they as representing the Three Estates of the Realm did declare and assert her Title which they would defend with their Lives and Fortunes This was thought to be very wise Council for if they had gone to repeal the Sentence of Divorce which passed upon her Mothers acknowledging a Precontract they must have set forth the force that was on her when she made that Confession and that as it was a great dishonour to her Father so it would have raised discourses likewise to her Mothers prejudice which must have rather weakned than strengthened her Title And as has been formerly observed this seems to be the true reason why in all her Reign there was no Apology printed for her Mother There was another Act passed for the restoring of her in Blood to her Mother by which she was qualified as a private Subject to succeed either to her Grand-fathers Estate or to any others by that Blood But for the matters of Religion the Commons began The Acts that were passed concerning Religion and on the fifteenth of February brought in a Bill for the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church On the 21st a Bill was read for annexing the Supremacy to the Crown again and on the 17th of March another Bill was brought in confirming the Laws made about Religion in King Edwards time and on the 21st another was brought in That the Queen should have the Nomination of the Bishops as it had been in King Edwards time The Bill for the Supremacy was past by the Lords on the 18th of March the Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute and the Bishops of London Winchester Worcester Landaffe Coventry and Litchfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting But afterwards the Commons annexed many other Bills to it as that about the Queens making Bishops not according to the Act made in King Edwards time but by the old way of Elections as it was Enacted in the 25th Year of her Fathers Reign with several Provisoes which passed in the House of Lords with the same dissent By it all the Acts past in the Reign of King Henry for the abolishing of the Popes Power are again revived and the Acts in Queen Maries time to the contrary are repealed There was also a Repeal of the Act made by her for proceeding against Hereticks They revived the Act made in the first Parliament of King Edward against those that spoke irreverently of the Sacrament and against private Masses and for Communion in both kinds And declared the Authority of Visiting Correcting and Reforming all things in the Church to be for ever annexed to the Crown which the Queen and her Successors might by her Letters Patents depute to any Persons to exercise in her Name All Bishops and other Ecclesiastieal Persons and all in any Civil Imployment were required to swear that they acknowledged the Queen to be the Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions that they renounced all Forreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and true Allegiance Whosoever should refuse to swear it was to forfeit any Office he had either in Church or State and to be from thenceforth disabled to hold any Imployment during Life And if within a Month after the end of that Session of Parliament any should either by discourse or in writing set forth the Authority of any Forreign Power or do any thing for the advancement of it they were to forfeit all their Goods and Chattels and if they had not Goods to the value of twenty Pounds they were to be Imprisoned a whole year and for the second offence they were to incur the Pains of a Praemunire and the third offence in that kind was made Treason To this a Proviso was added That such Persons as should be Commissioned by the Queen to Reform and Order Ecclesiastical Matters should judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so Judged by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or by any other General Council in which such Doctrines
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
That against Law he held a Court of Request in his House and did enforce divers to answer there for their Freehold and Goods and did determine of the same 8. That being no Officer without the advice of the Council or most part of them he did dispose Offices of the King's Gift for Mony grant Leases and Wards and Presentations of Benefices pertaining to the King gave Bishopricks and made sales of the King's Lands 9. That he commanded Alchimie and Multiplication to be practised thereby to abase the King's Coin 10. That divers times he openly said That the Nobility and Gentry were the only cause of Dearth whereupon the People rose to reform Matters of themselves 11. That against the mind of the whole Council he caused Proclamation to be made concernig Inclosures whereupon the People made divers Insurrections and destroyed many of the King's Subjects 12. That he sent forth a Commission with Articles annexed concerning Inclosures Commons High-ways Cottages and such-like Matters giving the Commissioners authority to hear and determine those causes whereby the Laws and Statutes of the Realm were subverted and much Rebellion raised 13. That he suffered Rebels to assemble and lie armed in Camp against the Nobility and Gentry of the Realm without speedy repressing of them 14. That he did comfort and encourage divers Rebels by giving them Mony and by promising them Fees Rewards and Services 15. That he caused a Proclamation to be made against Law and in favour of the Rebels that none of them should be vexed or sued by any for their Offences in their Rebellion 16. That in time of Rebellion he said That he liked well the Actions of the Rebels and that the Avarice of Gentlemen gave occasion for the People to rise and that it was better for them to die than to perish for want 17. That he said The Lords of the Parliament were loath to reform Inclosures and other things therefore the People had a good cause to reform them themselves 18. That after declaration of the Defaults of Bulloign and the Pieces there by such as did survey them he would never amend the same 19. That he would not suffer the King's Pieces of Newhaven and Blackness to be furnished with Men and Provision albeit he was advertised of the Defaults and advised thereto by the King's Council whereby the French King was emboldned to attempt upon them 20. That he would neither give Authority nor suffer Noblemen and Gentlemen to suppress Rebels in time convenient but wrote to them to speak the Rebels fair and use them gently 21. That upon the 5th of October the present Year at Hampton-Court for defence of his own private Causes he procured seditious Bills to be written in counterfeit Hands and secretly to be dispersed into divers parts of the Realm beginning thus Good People intending thereby to raise the King's Subjects to Rebellion and open War 22. That the King's Privy-Council did consult at London to come to him and move him to reform his Government but he hearing of their Assembly declared by his Letters in divers places that they were high Traitors to the King 23. That he declared untruly as well to the King as to other young Lords attending his Person That the Lords at London intended to destroy the King and desired the King never to forget but to revenge it and desired the young Lords to put the King in remembrance thereof with intent to make Sedition and Discord between the King and his Nobles 24. That at divers times and places he said The Lords of the Council at London intended to kill me but if I die the King shall die and if they famish me they shall famish him 25. That of his own head he removed the King so suddenly from Hampton-Court to Windsor without any provision there made that he was thereby not only in great fear but cast thereby into a dangerous Disease 26. That by his Letters he caused the King's People to assemble in great numbers in Armour after the manner of War to his Aid and Defence 27. That he caused his Servants and Friends at Hampton-Court and Windsor to be apparelled in the King's Armour when the King's Servants and Guards went unarmed 28. That he intended to fly to Gernsey or Wales and laid Post-horses and Men and a Boat to that purpose Number 47. A Letter written by the Council to the Bishops to assure them That the King intended to go forward in the Reformation By the KING RIght Reverend Father in God Right trusty and well-beloved Regist Cran. Fol. 56. we greet you well Whereas the Book entituled the Book of Common Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England was agreed upon and set forth by Act of Parliament and by the same Act commanded to be used of all Persons within this our Realm Yet nevertheless we are informed that divers unquiet and evil-disposed Persons sithence the apprehension of the Duke of Somerset have noised and bruited abroad That they should have again their old Latin Service their Conjured Bread and Water with such-like vain and superfluous Ceremonies as though the setting forth of the said Book had been the only Act of the said Duke We therefore by the advice of the Body and State of our privy-Privy-Council not only considering the said Book to be our Act and the Act of the whole State of our Realm assembled together in Parliament but also the same to be grounded upon the Holy Scripture agreeable to the Order of the Primitive Church and much to the re-edifying of our Subjects to put away all such vain expectation of having the Publick Service the Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies again in the Latin Tongue which were but a preferment of Ignorance to Knowledg and Darkness to Light and a preparation to bring in Papistry and Superstition again have thought good by the advice aforesaid to require and nevertheless straitly do command and charge you That immediately upon the receipt hereof you do command the Dean and Prebendaries of your Cathedral Church the Parsons Vicar or Curat and Church-wardens of every Parish within your Diocess to bring and deliver unto you or your Deputy any of them for their Church or Parish at such convenient place as you shall appoint all Antiphonals Missals Graylles Processionals Manuels Legends Pies Portasies Journals and Ordinals after the use of Sarum Lincoln York or any other private use And all other Books of Service the keeping whereof should be a lett to the using of the said Book of Common Prayers and that you take the same Books into your hands or into the hands of your Deputy and them so to deface and abolish that they never after may serve either to any such use as they were provided for or be at any time a lett to that godly and uniform Order which by a common Consent is now set forth And if
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
repealed and it was Enacted That from the first of May none should eat Flesh on Fridays Saturdays Ember-days in Lent or any other days that should be declared Fish-days under several Penalties A Proviso was added for excepting such as should obtain the Kings Licence or were sick or weak and that none should be indicted but within three Months after the Offence Christ had told his Disciples that when he should be taken from them then they should fast Accordingly the Primitive Christians used to fast oft more particularly before the Anniversary of the Passion of Christ which ended in a high Festivity at Easter Yet this was differently observed as to the number of days Some abstained 40 days in imitation of Christs Fast others only that Week and others had only an entire Fast from the time of Christs death till his Resurrection On these Fasts they eat nothing till the Evening and then they eat most commonly Herbs and Roots Afterwards the Fridays were kept as Fasts because on that day Christ suffered Saturdays were also added in the Roman Church but not without contradiction Ember-weeks came in afterwards being some days before those Sundays in which Orders were given And a General Rule being laid down that every Christian Festival should be preceded by a Fast thereupon the Vigils of Holy-days came though not so soon into the Number But this with the other good Institutions of the Primitive times became degenerate even in St. Austins time Religion came to be placed in these observances and anxious Rules were made about them Afterwards in the Church of Rome they were turned into a Mockery for as on Fast-days they dined which the Ancients did not so the use of the most delicious Fish drest in the most exquisite manner with the richest Wines that could be had was allowed which made it ridiculous So now they resolved to take off the severities of the former Laws and yet to keep up such Laws about Fasting and Abstinence as might be agreeable to its true end which is to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit and not to gratifie it by a change of one sort of diet into another which may be both more delicate and more inflaming So fond a thing is Superstition that it will help Men to deceive themselves by the slightest Pretences that can be imagined It was much lamented then and there is as much cause for it still that carnal Men have taken advantages from the abuses that were formerly practised to throw off good and profitable Institutions since the frequent use of Fasting with Prayer and true Devotion joyned to it is perhaps one of the greatest helps that can be devised to advance one to a spiritual temper of Mind and to promote a holy course of Life And the mockery that is discernable in the way of some Mens Fasting is a very slight excuse for any to lay aside the use of that which the Scriptures have so much recommended Some Bills were rejected There were other Bills put in into both Houses but did not pass One was for declaring it Treason to marry the Kings Sisters without consent of the King and his Council but it was thought that King Henry's Will disabling them from the Succession in that case would be a stronger restraint and so it was laid aside Another Bill was put in for Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Great Complaints were made of the abounding of Vices and Immoralities which the Clergy could neither restrain nor punish and so they had nothing left but to preach against them which was done by many with great freedom In some of these Sermons the Preachers expressed their apprehensions of signal and speedy Judgments from Heaven if the People did not repent but their Sermons had no great effect for the Nation grew very corrupt and this brought on them severe punishments The Temporal Lords were so jealous of putting power in Church-mens hands especially to correct those vices of which themselves perhaps were most guilty that the Bill was laid aside The pretence of opposing it was that the greatest part of the Bishops and Clergy were still Papists in their Hearts so that if Power were put into such Mens hands it was reasonable to expect they would employ it chiefly against those who favoured the Reformation and would vex them on that score though with Pretences fetched from other things A design for digesting the Common Law into a Body There was also put into the House of Commons a Bill for reforming of Processes at Common Law which was sent up by the Commons to the Lords but it fell in that House I have seen a large Discourse written then upon that Argument in which it is set forth that the Law of England was a barbarous kind of Study and did not lead Men into a finer sort of Learning which made the Common Lawyers to be generally so ignorant of Forreign Matters and so unable to negotiate in them therefore it was proposed that the Common and Statute Laws should be in imitation of the Roman Law digested into a Body under Titles and Heads and put in good Latin But this was too great a Design to be set on or finished under an Infant King If it was then necessary it will be readily acknowledged to be much more so now the Volume of our Statutes being so much swell'd since that time besides the vast number of Reports and Cases and the Pleadings growing much longer than formerly yet whether this is a thing to be much expected or desired I refer it to the learned and wise Men of that Robe The only Act that remains of this Session of Parliament The Admirals Attainder about which I shall inform the Reader is the Attainder of the Admiral The Queen Dowager that had married him died in September last not without suspition of Poison She was a good and vertuous Lady and in her whole Life had done nothing unseemly but the marrying him so indecently and so soon after the Kings death There was found among her Papers a Discourse written by her concerning her self entituled The Lamentation of a Sinner which was published by Cecil who writ a Preface to it In it she with great sincerity acknowledges the sinful course of her Life for many years in which she relying on External Performances such as Fasts and Pilgrimages was all that while a Stranger to the Internal and True Power of Religion which she came afterwards to feel by the study of the Scripture and the calling upon God for his Holy Spirit She explains clearly the Notion she had of Justification by Faith so that Holiness necessarily followed upon it but lamented the great scandal given by many Gospellers So were all these called who were given to the reading of the Scriptures She being thus dead The Queen Dowager dying he courted the Lady Eliz. the Admiral renewed his Addresses to the Lady Elizabeth but in vain for as he could not expect that his Brother and the Council
would consent to it so if he had married her without that the possibility of succeeding to the Crown was cut off by King Henry's Will And this Attempt of his occasioned that Act to be put in which was formerly mentioned for declaring the marrying the Kings Sisters without consent of Council to be Treason Seeing he could not compass that design he resolved to carry away the King to his House of Holt in the Country and so to displace his Brother and to take the Government into his own hands For this end he had laid in Magazines of Arms and listed about 10000 Men in several Places and openly complained that his Brother intended to enslave the Nation and make himself Master of all and had therefore brought over those German Soldiers He had also entred into Treaty with several of the Nobility that envied his Brothers greatness and were not ill pleased to see a breach between them and that grown to be irreconcilable To these he promised that they should be of the Council and that he would dispose of the King in Marriage to one of their Daughters the Person is not named The Protector had often told him of these things and warned him of the danger into which he would throw himself by such ways but he persisted still in his designs though he denied and excused them as long as was possible Now his restless ambition seeming incurable he was on the 19th of Jan. sent to the Tower The original Warrant Jan. 19. The Admiral sent to the Tower Signed by all the Privy Council is in the Council-Book formerly mentioned where the Earl of Southampton Signs with the rest who was now in outward appearance reconciled to the Protector On the day following the Admirals Seal of his Office was sent for and put into Secretary Smiths Hands And now many things broke out against him and particularly a Conspiracy of his with Sir W. Sharington Vice-Treasurer of the Mint at Bristol who was to have furnished him with 10000 l. and had already coined about 12000 l. false Money and had clipt a great deal more to the value of 40000 l. in all for which he was attainted by a Process at Common Law and that was confirmed in Parliament Fowler also that waited in the Privy Chamber with some few others were sent to the Tower Many complaints being usually brought against a sinking Man the Lord Russel the Earl of Southampton and Secretary Petre were ordered to receive their Examinations And thus the Business was let alone till the 28 of Feb. in which time his Brother did again try if it were possible to bring him to a better temper And as he had since their first breach granted him 800 l. a year in Land to gain his friendship so means were now used to perswade him to submit himself and to withdraw from Court and from all employment But it appeared that nothing could be done to him that could cure his ambition or the hatred he carried to his Brother And therefore on the 22d of Feb. a full report was made to the Council of all the things that were informed against him consisting not only of the Particulars formerly mentioned but of many foul misdemeanours in the discharge of the Admiralty several Pirates being entertained by him who gave him a share of their Robberies and whom he had protected notwithstanding the Complaints made by other Princes by which the King was in danger of a War from the Princes so complaining The whole Charge consists of 33 Articles which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 31. The Particulars as it is entred in the Council-Book were so manifestly proved not only by Witnesses but by Letters under his own Hand that it did not seem possible to deny them Yet he had been sent to and examined by some of the Council but refused to make a direct Answer to them or to Sign those Answers that he had made So it was ordered that the next day all the Privy Council except the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Sir John Baker Speaker to the House of Commons who was engaged to attend in the House should go to the Tower and examine him On the 23d the Lord Chancellor with the other Councellors went to him and read the Articles of his Charge and earnestly desired him to make plain Answers to them excusing himself where he could and submitting himself in other things and that he would shew no obstinacy of Mind He answered them That he expected an open Trial and his Accusers to be brought face to face All the Councellors endeavoured to perswade him to be more tractable but to no purpose At last the Lord Chancellor required him on his Allegiance to make his Answer He desired they would leave the Articles with him and he would consider of them otherwise he would make no Answer to them But the Councellors resolved not to leave them with him on those terms On the 24th of Feb. it was resolved in Council that the whole Board should after Dinner acquaint the King with the state of that Affair and desire to know of him whether he would have the Law to take place and since the thing had been before the Parliament whether he would leave it to their determination so tender they were of their young King in a Case that concerned his Unkles Life But the King had begun to discern his seditious temper and was now much alienated from him The Council desired the King to refer the Matter to the Parliament When the Councellors waited on him the Lord Chancellor opened the Matter to the King and delivered his Opinion for leaving it to the Parliament Then every Councellor by himself spake his mind all to the same purpose Last of all the Protector spake he protested this was a most sorrowful business to him that he had used all the means in his power to keep it from coming to this extremity but were it Son or Brother he must prefer his Majesties safety to them for he weighed his Allegiance more than his Blood and that therefore he was not against the request that the other Lords had made and said if he himself were guilty of such offences he should not think he were worthy of life and the rather because he was of all Men the most bound to his Majesty and therefore he could not refuse Justice The King answered them in these words Who consented to it We perceive that there are great things objected and laid to my Lord Admiral my Unkle and they tend to Treason and We perceive that you require but Justice to be done We think it reasonable and We Will that you proceed according to your Request Which words as it is marked in the Council-Book coming so suddenly from his Graces Mouth of his own motion as the Lords might well perceive they were marvellously rejoyced and gave the King most hearty praise and thanks yet resolved that some of both Houses
nobis virtutem faciet ad nihilum rediget Hostes nostros Serenitatem ac Sanctitatem vestram conservet Altissimus Ecclesiae suae Sanctae per tempora diuturna Datum apud Monasterium de Aberbroth in Scotia 6 die Aprilis Anno gratiae Millesimo trecentesimo vicesimo Anno vero Regni Regis nostri supradicti quintodecimo Number 11. The Oath given to the Scots who submitted to the Protector YOu shall bear your Faith to the King's Majesty Ex Libro Concilii Fol. 139. our Soveraign Lord Edward the Sixth c. till such time as you shall be discharged of your Oath by special License And you shall to the uttermost of your power serve his Majesty truly and faithfully against all other Realms Dominions and Potentates as well Scots as others You shall hear nothing that may be prejudicial to his Majesty or any of his Realms or Dominions but with as much diligence as you may shall cause the same to be opened so as the same come to his Majesty's Knowledg or to the knowledg of the Lord Protector or some of his Majesty's Privy-Council You shall to the uttermost of your possible Power set forwards and advance the King's Majesties Affairs in Scotland for the Marriage and Peace Number 12. The Protestation of the Bishop of London made to the Visitors when he received the King's Majesties Injunctions and Homilies Ex Libro Concilii Fol. 110. I Do receive these Injunctions and Homilies with this Protestation That I will observe them if they be not contrary and repugnant to God's Law and the Statutes and Ordinances of this Church The Submission and Revocation of the same Bishop made before the Lords of the Kings Majesty's Council presently attending upon his Majesty's Person with the subscription of his Name thereunto VVHere I Edmund Bishop of Lodon have at such time as I received the King's Majesty's my most dread Soveraign Lord's Injunctions and Homilies at the Hands of his Highness Visitors did unadvisedly make such Protestation as now upon better consideration of my duty of Obedience and of the ill Example that may ensue to others thereof appeareth to me neither reasonable nor such as might well stand with the Duty of an humble Subject forasmuch as the same Protestation at my request was then by the Register of that Visitation enacted and put in Record I have thought it my bounden Duty not only to declare before your Lordships That I do now upon better consideration of my Duty renounce and revoke my said Protestation but also most humbly beseech your Lordships that this my Revocation of the same may likewise be put in the same Records for a perpetual Memory of the Truth Most humbly beseeching your good Lordships both to take order that it may take effect and also that my former unadvised doings may by your good Mediations be pardoned of the King's Majesty Edmund London Number 13. Gardiner's Letter to Sir John Godsalve concerning the Injunctions Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab. Mr. Godsalve after my right hearty Commendations with like thanks for the declaration of your good mind towards me as you mean it although it agreeth not with mine Accompt such as I have had leasure to make in this time of Liberty since the Death of my late Soveraign Lord whose Soul Jesu pardon For this have I reckon'd that I was called to this Bishoprick without the offence of God's Law or the King 's in the attaining of it I have kept my Bishoprick these sixteen Years accomplished this very day that I write these my Letters unto you without offending God's Law or the King 's in the retaining of it howsoever I have of frailty otherwise sinned Now if I may play the third part well to depart from the Bishoprick without the offence of God's Law or the King 's I shall think the Tragedy of my Life well passed over and in this part to be well handled is all my care and study now how to finish this third Act well for so I offend not God's Law nor the King's I will no more care to see my Bishoprick taken from me than my self to be taken from the Bishoprick I am by Nature already condemned to die which Sentence no Man can pardon nor assure me of delay in the execution of it and so see that of necessity I shall leave my Bishoprick to the disposition of the Crown from whence I had it my Houshold also to break up and my bringing up of Youth to cease the remembrance whereof troubleth me nothing I made in my House at London a pleasant Study that delighted me much and yet I was glad to come into the Country and leave it and as I have left the use of somewhat so can I leave the use of all to obtain a more quiet it is not loss to change for the better Honesty and Truth are more leef to me than all the Possessions of the Realm and in these two to say and do frankly as I must I never forbare yet and in these two Honesty and Truth I take such pleasure and comfort as I will never leave them for no respect for they will abide by a Man and so will nothing else No Man can take them away from me but my self and if my self do them away from me then my self do undo my self and make my self worthy to lose my Bishoprick whereat such as gape might take more sport than they are like to have at my hands What other Men have said or done in the Homilies I cannot tell and what Homilies or Injunctions shall be brought hither I know not such as the Printers have sold abroad I have read and considered and am therefore the better instructed how to use my self to the Visitors at their repair hither to whom I will use no manner of Protestation but a plain Allegation as the Matter serveth and as Honesty and Truth shall bind me to speak for I will never yield to do that should not beseem a Christian Bishops ought never to lose the Inheritance of the King's Laws due to every English Man for want of Petition I will shew my self a true Subject humble and obedient which repugneth not with the preservation of my Duty to God and my Right in the Realm not to be enjoined against an Act of Parliament which mine intent I have signified to the Council with request of redress in the Matter and not to compel me to such an Allegation which without I were a Beast I cannot pretermit and I were more than a Beast if after I had signified to the Council Truth and Reason in words I should then seem in my Deeds not to care for it My Lord Protector in one of such Letters as he wrote to me willed me not to fear too much and indeed I know him so well and divers others of my Lords of the Council that I cannot fear any hurt at their hands in the allegation of God's Law and the King 's and I will