Favour to him which they did according to the flattering and vain stile of that Age In his own Letter he says he had not opened the Pope's Brief and so did not know what it contained being required by the King to bring it to him with the Seals intire The Pope wrote also both to the King and Parliament requiring them under the pains of Excommunication and Damnation to repeal those Statutes Upon the meeting of the next Parliament the Archbishop accompanied by several Bishops and Abbots went to the House of Commons and made them a long Speech in the form of a Sermon upon that Text Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods And exhorted them to repeal those Laws against the Pope's power in granting Provisors and with Tears laid out the mischiefs that would follow if the Pope should proceed to Censures But the Commons would not repeal those Laws yet they were left as dead Letters among the Records for no care was taken to execute them The Pope was so far satisfied with Chichely's behaviour that he received him again to favour and restored to him the Legatine Power This being hitherto mentioned by none of our Writers it seemed no impertinent Digression to give this account of it Now were those long forgotten Statutes revived The Clergy sued in a Premunire to bring the Clergy into a Snare It was designed by the terrour of this to force them into an intire Submission and to oblige them to redeem themselves by the grant of a considerable Subsidy They pretended they had erred ignorantly for the King by his favour to the Cardinal seemed to consent if not to encourage that Authority which he then exercised It was a publick Errour and so they ought not to be punished for it To all this it was answered that the Laws which they had transgressed were still in force and so no Ignorance could excuse the Violation of them The Convocation of Canterbury made their Submission and in their Address to the King he was called the Protector and Supream Head of the Church of England but some excepting to that it was added in so far as it is agreeable to the Law of Christ This was signed by Nine Bishops Fifty Abbots and Priors and the greatest part of the Lower House and with it they offered the King a Subsidy to procure his Favour of an 100000 l. and they promised for the future not to make nor execute any Constitutions without his Licence The Convocation of York did not pass this so easily they excepted to the word Head as agreeing to none but Christ Yet the King wrote them a long expostulating Letter and told them with what Limitations those of Canterbury had passed that Title upon which they also submitted and offered him 18840 l. which was also well received and so all the Clergy were again received into the King's Protection and pardoned But when the King's Pardon was brought into the Parliament the Laity complained that they were not included within it for many of them were also obnoxious on the same account in some measure having had Suits in the Legatine Court and they did apprehend that they might be brought in trouble And therefore they addressed to the King and desired to be comprehended within it But the King told them his mercy was neither to be restrained nor forced This put the House of Commons in great trouble but they past the Act And soon after the King sent a Pardon to all his Temporal Subjects which was received with great Joy and they acknowledged that the King had tempered his Greatness with his Clemency in his way of proceeding in this matter In this Session one Rouse that had poisoned a great Pot of Porridge in the Bishop of Rochester's Kitchin of which two had died and many had been brought near Death A Poisoner condemned of Treason was attainted of Treason and condemned to be boiled to death and that was made the Punishment of Poisoning in time to come By this Act the Parliament made a Crime to be Treason that was not so before and punished the Person accordingly which was founded on the Power reserved in the 25th of Edward the 3d to Parliaments to declare in time coming what Crimes were Treason This severe Sentence was executed in Smithfield Rouse accusing none as his Complices tho malicious Persons did afterwards impute that Action of his to a design of Anne Bolleyn upon Fisher's Life but his silence under so terrible a Condemnation shewed he could not charge others with it After the Sessions of Parliament The King departs from the Queen new Applications were made to the Queen to perswade her to depart from her Appeal but she remained fixed in her Resolution and said she was the King's lawful Wife and would abide by it till the Court at Rome should declare the contrary Upon that the King desired her to chuse any of his Houses in the Country to live in and resolved never to see her more The Clergy were now raising the Subsidy A Tumult among the Clergy and the Bishops intended to make the inferiour Clergy pay their share But upon the Bishop of London's calling some few of them together on whom he hoped to prevail and make them set a good Example to the rest all the Clergy hearing of it came to the Chapter-house and forced their way in tho the Bishop's Officers did what they could by Violence to keep them out The Bishop made a Speech setting forth the King's Clemency in accepting such a Subsidy instead of all their Benefices which they had forfeited to him and therefore desired them to bear their share in it patiently They answered that they had not meddled with the Cardinal's Faculties nor needed they the King's Pardon not having transgressed his Laws and therefore since the Bishops and Abbots only were in fault it was reasonable that they only should raise the Subsidy Upon this the Bishop's Officers and They came to very high Words and it ended in Blows But the Bishop quieted them all he could with good Words and dismissed them with a Promise that none should be brought unto question for what had been then done yet he complained to More of it and he put many of them in Prison But the thing was let fall This Year produced a new Breach between the Pope and the Emperour The Pope turns to the Interest of France the Pope pretended to Modeno and Regio as Fiefs of the Papacy but the Emperour judged against him for the Duke of Ferrara Upon this the Pope resolved to unite himself to the Crown of France and Francis to gain him more entirely proposed a Match between his second Son Henry and the Pope's Neece the famous Catherine de Medici which as it wrought much on the Pope's Ambition so it was like to prove a great support to his Family Francis also offered to resign all his Pretentions in Italy
to be favourable to the work he came for the Queen sent two Lords Paget and Hastings for him Both King and Queen rode in state to Westminster and each had a Sword of state carried before them The first Bill that past was a Repeal of Pool's Attainder it was read by the Commons three times in one Day and the Bill was passed without making a Session by a short Prorogation He came over and entred privately to London on the 24th of November for the Pope's authority not being yet acknowledged he could not be received as a Legate His Instructions were full besides the authority commonly lodged with Legates which consists chiefly in the many Graces and Dispensations that they are impowered to grant though it might be expected that they should come rather to see the Canons obeyed than broken only the more scandalous abuses were still reserved to the Popes themselves whose special Prerogative it has always been to be the most Eminent Transgressors of all Canons and Constitutions Pool made his first Speech to the King and Queen The Nation is reconciled to the See of Rome and then to the Parliament in the Name of the Common Pastor inviting them to Return to the Sheepfold of the Church The Queen felt a strange emotion of joy within her as he made his Speech which she thought was a Child quickned in her Belly and the flattering Court Ladies heightned her belief of it The Council ordered Bonner to sing Te Deum and there were Bonefires and all other publick demonstrations of joy upon it The Priests said that here was another John Baptist to come that leapt in his Mother's Belly upon the Salutation from Christ's Vicar Both Houses agreed on an Address to the King and Queen that they would intercede with the Legate to reconcile them to the See of Rome and they offered to repeal all the Laws they had made against the Pope's authority in sign of their repentance Upon this the Cardinal came to the Parliament He first thanked them for repealing his Attainder in recompence of which he was now to reconcile them to the Body of the Church He made a long Speech of the Conversion of the Britains and Saxons to the Faith and of the Obedience they had payed to the Apostolick See and of the many favours that See had granted the Crown of which none was more Eminent than the Title of Defender of the Faith The ruine of the Greek Church and the distractions of Germany and the Confusions themselves had been in since they departed from the Unity of the Church might convince them of the necessity of keeping that bond entire In Conclusion he gave them and the whole Nation a Plenary Absolution The rest of the Day was spent in singing Te Deum and the Night in Bonefires The Act repealing all Laws made against the Popes authority was quickly past only it stuck a little by reason of a Proviso which the House of Lords put in for some Lands which the Lord Wentworth had of the See of London w th the Commons opposed so much that after the Bill was offered to the Royal assent it was cut out of the Parchment by Gardiner They did enumerate and repeal all Acts made since the 20th of Hen. 8. against the Pope's authority but all foundations of Bishopricks and Cathedrals all Marriages tho' contrary to the Laws of the Church all Institutions all Judicial Processes and the settlements made either of Church or Abbey-Lands were confirmed The Convocation of Canterbury had joyned their Intercession with the Cardinal that he would confirm the right of the present Possessors of those Lands Upon which he did confirm them but he added a heavy charge requiring those that had any of the Goods of the Church to remember the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazzar for profaning the holy Vessels though they were not taken away by himself but by his Father and that at least they would take care that such as served the Cures should be sufficiently maintained all which was put in the Act and confirmed by it and it was declared that all Suits concerning those Lands were to be tried in the Civil Courts and that it should be a Praemunire if any went about to disturb the Possessors by the pretence of an Ecclesiastical power They also declared that the Title of Supream Head of the Church did never of right belong to the Crown enacted that it should be left out of Writs in all time coming All Exemptions granted to Monasteries and now continued in Lay-hands were taken away and all Churches were made subject to Episcopal Jurisdiction except Westminster Windsor and the Tower of London The statute of Mortmain was repealed for 20. years to come and all things were brought back to the state in which they were in the 20th year of King Henry's reign The Lower House of Convocation gave occasion to many clauses in this Act by a Petition which they made to the Upper-house consenting to the settlement made of Church and Abbey Lands and praying that the Statute of Mortmain might be repealed and that all the Tithes might be restored to the Church they proposed also some things in relation to Religion for the condemning and burning all Heretical Books and that great care should be had of the Printing and venting of Books that the Church should be restored to its former Jurisdiction that Pluralities and Non-residence might be effectually condemned and all Simoniacal pactions punished that the Clergy might be discharged of paying first-fruits and Tenths that Exemptions might be taken away that all the Clergy should go in their Habits and that they should not be sued in a Praemunire till a Prohibition were first served and disobeyed that so they might not be surprised and ruined a second time By another Bill all former Acts made against Lollards were revived The Commons offered another Bill for voiding all Leases made by married Priests but it was laid aside by the Lords Thus were the Pensioners and aspiring Men in the House of Commons either redeeming former faults or hoping to merit highly by the forwardness of their Zeal By another Bill several things were made Treason and it was declared that if the Queen died before the King and left any Children the King should have the Government in his hands till they were of Age and during that time the conspiring his Death was made Treason but none were to be tried for words but within six Months after they were spoken Another Act past declaring it Treason in any to pray for the Queens death unless they repented of it and in that case they were to suffer Corporal punishment at the Judges discretion A severe Act was also passed against all that spread lying Reports of the King the Queen the Peers Judges or great Officers Some were to lose their Hands others their Ears and others were to be fined according to the degree of their offence And thus all affairs were
Conquerors time besides many other Acts that clearly imported a Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes But they did at the same time so explain and limit this Power that it was visible they did not intend to subject Religion wholly to the Pleasure of the King for it was declared that his Power was only a Coercive Authority to defend the true Religion to abolish Heresies and Idolatries to cause Bishops and Pastors to do their Duties and in case they were negligent or would not amend their Faults to put others in their room Upon the whole matter they concluded that the Pope had no Power in England and that the King had an intire Dominion over all his Subjects which did extend even to the regulating of Ecclesiastical Matters These things being fully opened in many Disputes The Clergy submitted to it and published in several Books all the Bishops Abbots and Priors of England Fisher only excepted were so far satisfied with them or so much in love with their Preferments that they resolved to comply with the Changes which the King was resolved to make Fisher was in great esteem for Piety and strictness of Life and so much pains was taken on him A little before the Parliament met Cranmer proposed to him that he and any five Doctors he would choose and Stokesly with five on his side should confer on that point and examine he Authorities that were on both sides he accepted of it and Stokesly wrote to him to name time and place but Fisher's Sickness hindered the Progress of that motion The Parliament met the 15th of January A Session of Parliament there were but seven Bishops and twelve Abbots present the rest it seems were unwilling to concur in making this change tho they complied with it when it was made Every Sunday during the Session a Bishop preached at St. Paul's and declared that the Pope had no Authority in England Before this they had only said that a General Council was above him and that the Exactions of that Court and Appeals to it were unlawful but now they went a strain higher to prepare the People for receiving the Acts then in Agitation On the 9th of March The Pope's Power taken away the Commons began the Bill for taking away the Pope's Power and sent it to the Lords on the 14th who past it on the 20th without any dissent In it they set forth the Exactions of the Court of Rome grounded on the Pope's Power of dispensing and that as none could dispense with the Laws of God so the King and Parliament only had the Authority of dispensing with the Laws of the Land and that therefore such Licenses or Dispensations as were formerly in use should be for the future granted by the two Arch-bishops some of these were to be confirmed under the Great Seal and they appointed that thereafter all Commerce with Rome should cease They also declared that they did not intend to alter any Article of the Catholick Faith of Christendome or of that which was declared in the Scripture necessary to Salvation They confirmed all the Exemptions granted to Monasteries by the Popes but subjected them to the King's Visitation and gave the King and his Council power to examine and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges granted by the Pope The Offenders against this Law were to be punished according to the Statutes of Premunire This Act subjected the Monasteries entirely to the King's Authority and put them in no small Confusion Those that loved the Reformation rejoyced both to see the Pope's Power rooted out and to find the Scripture made the Standard of Religion After this Act The Act of the Succession another past in both Houses in six Days time without any Opposition Settling the Succession of the Crown confirming the Sentence of Divorce and the King's Marriage with Queen Anne and declaring all Marriages within the Degrees prohibited by Moses to be unlawful All that had married within them were appointed to be divorced and their Issue illegitimated and the Succession to the Crown was settled upon the King's Issue by the prefent Queen or in default of that to the King 's right Heirs for ever All were required to swear to maintain the Contents of this Act and if any refused to swear to it or should say any thing to the Slander of the King's Marriage he was to be judged guilty of misprision of Treason and to be punished accordingly The Oath is also set down in the Journals of the House of Lords by which they did not only swear Obedience to the King and his Heirs by his present Marriage but also to defend the Act of Succession and all the Effects and Contents in it against all manner of Persons whatsoever by which they were bound to maintain the Divorce both against the Pope's Censures and the Emperour if he went about to execute them At this time An Act regulating the proceedings against Hereticks one Philips complained to the House of Commons of the Bishop of London for using him cruelly in Prison upon Suspicion of Heresy the Commons sent up this to the Lords but received no Answer So they sent some of their Members to the Bishop desiring him to answer the Complaints put in against him But he acquainted the House of Lords with it and they all with one consent voted that none of their House ought to appear or answer to any Complaint at the Bar of the House of Commons So the Commons let this particular Case fall and sent up a Bill to which the Lords agreed regulating the Proceedings against Hereticks That whereas by the Statute made by King Henry the Fourth Bishops might commit Men upon Suspition of Heresy and Heresy was generally defined to be whatever was contrary to the Scriptures or Canonical Sanctions which was liable to great Ambiguity therefore that Statute was repealed and none were to be committed for Heresy but upon a Presentment made by two Witnesses None were to be accused for speaking against things that were grounded only upon the Pope's Canons Bail was to be taken for Hereticks and they were to be brought to their Trials in open Court and if upon Conviction they did not abjure or were Relapses they were to be burnt the King 's Writ being first obtained This was a great check to the Bishop's Tyrrany and gave no smal comfort to all that favoured the Reformation The Convocation sent in a Submission at the same time The Submission of the Clergy by which they acknowledged That all Convocations ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and promised upon the Word of Priests never to make nor execute any Canons without the King's Assent They also desired That since many of the received Canons were found to be contrary to the King's Prerogative and the Laws of the Land there might be a Committee named by the King of 32 the one half out of both Houses of Parliament and the other
shake him a little but he said he thought in his Conscience that it would be a Sin in him and offered to take his Oath upon that and that he was not led by any other Consideration The Abbot of Westminster told him he ought to think his Conscience was misled since the Parliament was of another Mind an Argument well becoming a rich ignorant Abbot But More said if the Parliament of England was against him yet he believed all the rest of Christendom was on his side In conclusion both he and Fisher declared that they thought it was in the Power of the Parliament to settle the Succession to the Crown and so were ready to swear to that but they could not take the Oath that was tendred to them for by it they must swear to maintain all the Contents in the Act of Succession and in it the King 's former Marriage was declared unlawful to which they could not assent Cranmer press'd that this might be accepted for if they once swore to maintain the Succession it would conduce much to the Quiet of the Nation but sharper Counsels were more acceptable so they were both committed to the Tower and Pen Ink and Paper was kept from them The old Bishop was also hardly used both in his Cloaths and Diet he had only Rags to cover him and Fire was often denied him which was a Cruelty not capable of any Excuse and was as barbarous as it was imprudent In Winter another Session of Parliament was held the first Act that pass'd Another Session of Parliament declared the King to be the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and appointed that to be added to his other Titles and it was enacted that he and his Successors should have full Authority to reform all Heresies and Abuses in the Spiritual Jurisdiction By an other Act they confirmed the Oath of Succession which had not been specified in the former Act tho agreed to by the Lords They also gave the King the first Fruits and Tenthes of Ecclesiastical Benefices as being the Supream Head of the Church for the King being put in the Pope's room it was thought reasonable to give him the Annats which the Popes had formerly exacted The Temporalty were now willing to revenge themselves on the Spiritualty and to tax them as heavily as they had formerly tyrannized over them Another Act past declaring some things Treason one of these was the denying the King any of his Titles or the calling him Heretick Schismatick or Usurper of the Crown By another Act Provision was made for setting up 26 Suffragan Bishops over England for the more speedy Administration of the Sacraments and the better Service of God It is also said they had been formerly accustomed to be in the Kingdom The Bishop of the Diocess was to present two to the King and upon the King 's declaring his choice the Archbishop was to consecrate the Person and then the Bishop was to delegate such parts of his Charge to his Care as he thought fitting which was to last during his Pleasure These were the same that the Ancients called the Chorepiscopi who were at first the Bishops of some Villages but were afterwards put under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of the next City They were set up before the Council of Nice and continued to be in the Church for many Ages but the Bishops devolving their whole Spiritual Power to them they were put down and a Decretal Epistle was forged in the name of P. Damasus condemning them The great Extent of the Diocesses in England made it hard for one Bishop to govern them with that Exactness that was necessary these were therefore appointed to assist them in the discharge of the Pastoral Care In this Parliament Subsidies were granted payable in three Years with the highest Preamble of their Happiness under the King's Government all those 24 Years in which he had reigned that Flattery could dictate Fisher and More by two special Acts were attainted of Misprision of Treason five other Clerks were in like manner condemned all for refusing to swear the Oath of Succession The See of Rochester was declared void yet it seems few were willing to succeed such a Man for it continued vacant two Years This Severity against them was censured by some as Extream since they were willing to swear to the Succession in other Terms so that it was merely a point of Conscience in which the common Safety was not concerned at which they stuck and it was thought the prosecuting them in this manner would so raise their Credit that it might endanger the Government more than any Opposition which they could make But now that the King entered upon a new Scene The Progress the New Doctrines made in England it will be necessary to open the Progress that the new Opinions had made in England all the time of the King's Suit of Divorce During Wolsey's Ministry those Preachers were gently used and it is probable the King ordered the Bishops to give over their enquiring after them when the Pope began to use him ill for the Progress of Heresy was always reckoned up at Rome among the Mischiefs that would follow upon the Pope's denying the King's Desires But More coming into Favour he offered new Counsels he thought the King 's proceeding severely against Hereticks would be so meritorious at Rome that it would work more effectually than all his Treatnings had done so a severe Proclamation was issued out both against their Books and Persons ordering all the Laws against them to be put in Execution Tindall and some others at Antwerp were every Year either translating or writing Books against some of the received Errors and sending them over to England But his Translation of the New Testament gave the greatest Wound and was much complained of by the Clergy as full of Errors Tonstall then Bp of London being a Man of great Learning and Vertue which is generally accompanied with much Moderation returning from the Treaty of Cambray to which More and he were sent in the King's Name as he came through Antwerp dealt with an English Merchant that was secretly a Friend of Tindall's to procure him as many of his New Testaments as could be had for Mony Tindall was glad of this for being about a more correct Edition he found he would be better enabled to set about it if the Copies of the Old were sold off so he gave the Merchant all he had and Tonstall paying the Price of them got them in his hands and burnt them publickly in Cheapside This was called a burning of the Word of God and it was said the Clergy had reason to revenge themselves on it for it had done them more Mischief than all other Books whatsoever But a Year after this the second Edition being sinished great Numbers were sent over to England and Constantine one of Tindall's Partners hapned to be taken so More believing that some of the
as that which would alienate the World abroad and his People at home from him The Popish Party saw the interest the Queen had in him Q. Ann's Fall was the great Obstacle of their Designes She grew not only in the Kings Esteem but in the Love of the Nation The last Nine Months of her Life She gave above 14000 l. in Alms to the Poor and was much set on doing good Soon after Queen Katherin's Death she bore a dead Son which was believed to have made some Impression on the King's mind It was also considered that now Queen Katherine being dead the King might marry another and be set right again with the Pope and the Emperour And the Issue by any other Marriage would never be questioned whereas while Queen Ann lived the ground of the Controversy still remained and her Issue would be Illegitimated her Marriage being null from the beginning as they thought With these Reasons of State the King 's Affectiosn joyned for he was now in Love with Jane Seymour whose humour was tempered in a mean between the Gravity of Queen Katherine and the Pleasantness of Queen Ann. The poor Queen used all possible Arts to reinflame a dying Affection but the King was changed and instead of being wrought on by her Caresses he came to look on them as Artifices to cover some other Criminal Affection Her cheerfulness was not alwayes governed with Decency and Discretion And her Brother's Wife being jealous of her Husband and Her possessed the King with her own Apprehensions and filled his Head with many Stories Norris Weston and Brereton the King's Servants and Smeton a Musician were observed to be particularly officious about her Somewhat was pretended to have been sworn by the Lady Wyngfield at her Death that determined the King but there is little light left to judg of that Matter The King was at Justs at Greenwich May 1 where it was reported that he was displeased with the Queen for letting her Handkerchief fall to one for wiping his Face but this seems to be a Fiction for a Parliament was summoned the day before that and then it was resolved to destroy her The King left her upon which she was confined to her Chamber and the five before mentioned were seized on and sent to the Tower and the next day she was carried thither On the River some Privy Counsellors came to examine her but she made deep Protestations of her Innocence and as she landed at the Tower she fell down on her Knees and prayed God so to asist her as she was free of the Crimes laid to her charge After this she fell into fits of the Mother sometimes she laughed and at other times she wept excessively She was also devout and light by turns and sometimes she stood upon her Vindication and at other times she confessed some Indiscretions which she afterwards denied All the People about her made the most of every Word that fell from her and sent it immediately to Court The others that were imprisoned on her account denied every thing only Smeton confessed Leudness with her The Duke of Norfolk and others that came to examine her made her believe that both Norris and Smeton had accused her but tho that was false yet it had this Effect on her that it made her confess that which did totally alienate the King from her She acknowledged that she had rallied Norris that he waited for the King's Death and then thought to have her which tho he denied yet upon that she fell out with him She denied that Smeton was ever in her Chamber but once when he came to play on the Virginals She insinuated as if he had made Love to her for seeing him one day pensive she told him he must not expect that she should talk to him since he was so mean a Person and he answered A Look would serve him She also said Weston had seemed jealous of Norris for being oft in her Chamber and had declared Love to her upon which she defied him Whether these Confessions were real Truths or the Effects of Imagination and Vapors cannot be certainly determined at this distance It is probable there had been some Levities in her Carriage that were not becoming All the Court was now turned against her and she had no Friend about the King but Cranmer and therefore her Enemies procured an Order for him not to come to Court yet he put all to hazard and wrote the King a long Letter upon this Critical Juncture He acknowledged that if the Things reported of the Queen were true it was the greatest Affliction that ever befel the King and therefore exhorted him to bear it with Patience and Submission to the Will of God he confessed he never had a better Opinion of any Woman than of her and that next the King he was more bound to her than to all Persons living and therefore he begged the King's leave to pray that she might be found Innocent he loved her not a little because of the Love which she seemed to bear to God and his Gospel but if she was guilty all that loved the Gospel must hate her as having given the greatest Slander possible to the Gospel but he prayed the King not to entertain any Prejudice to the Gospel on her account nor give the World reason to say That his Love to it was founded on the Power that she had with him The King's Jealousy was now too deeply rooted to admit of any Cure but an extream one May 12. The Indictments were laid in the Counties of Kent and Middlesex the former relating to what was done in Greenwich Smeton pleaded Guilty and confessed he had known the Queen catnally three times the rest pleaded not guilty but they were all condemned Three days after that May 15. Her Trial. the Queen and her Brother who was then a Peer were tried before the Duke of Norfolk as High Steward and a Court of 27 Peers It has been oft given out to defame her the more that her own Father sate and condemned her but the Record of the Attainder shews that is false for he was not of the Number The Crime charged on her was That she had procured her Brother and four others to lie with her and had often said to them That the King never had her Heart and this was to the Slander of the Issue begotten between the King and her which was Treason by the Act that confirmed her Marriage so that Act that was made for the Marriage was now turned on her to ruine her They would not now acknowledg her the King 's lawful Wife and therefore they did not found the Treason on the known Statute 25th Edw. 3. It does not appear what Evidence was brought against her for Smeton being already condemned could not be made use of and his never being brought face to face against her gave great suspition that he was perswaded to confess by base Practices The
he was prevailed with by a Pension of 500 Marks to resign The Inferiour Governours had some 30 20 or 10 l. Pensions and the Monks had generally 6 l. or 8 Marks a piece If any Abbot died the new Abbot they being chosen as the Bishops were upon a Conge delire and a Missive Letter was named for that purpose only to resigne the House And all were made to hope for Advancement that should give good Example to others by a quick and cheerful Surrender by these means 121 of those Houses were this Year resigned to the King In most Houses the Visitor made the Monks sign a Confession of their former Vices and Disorders of which there is only one Original Extant that escaped a general Rasure of all such Papers in Queen Mary's time in which they acknowledged in a long Narrative their former Idleness Gluttony and Sensuaality for which the pit of Hell was ready to swallow them up Others acknowledged that they were sensible that the manner of their former pretended Religion consisted in some dumb Ceremonies by which they were blindly led having no true Knowledg of God's Laws but that they had procured Exemption from their Diocesans and had subjected themselves wholly to a Forreign Power that took no care to reform their Abuses and therefore since the most perfect way of Life was revealed by Christ and his Apostles and that it was fit they should be governed by the King their Supream Head they resigned to him Of this sort I have seen six Some resigned in hopes that the King would found them of new these favoured the Reformation and intended to convert their Houses to better Uses for preaching study and Prayer and Latimer prest Cromwell earnestly that two or three Houses might be reserved for such purposes in every County But it was resolved to suppress all and therefore neither could the Intercessions of the Gentry of Oxfordshire nor of the Visitors preserve the Nunnery at Godstow tho they found great Strictness of Life in it and it was the common place of the Education of young Women of Quality in that County The common Preamble to most Surrenders was That upon full Deliberation and of their own proper Motion for just and reasonable Causes moving their Consciences they did freely give up their Houses to the King Some surrendred without any Preamble to the Visitors as Feofees in trust for the King In short they went on at such a rate that 159 Resignations were obtained before the Parliament met and of these the Originals of 154 are yet extant Some thought that these Resignations could not be valid since the Incumbents had not the Property but only the Trust for life of those Houses But the Parliament did afterwards declare them good in Law It was also said that they being of the Nature of Corporations all Deeds under their Seals were valid and that at least by their Resignation and quitting their Houses they forfeited them to the King But this was thought to subsist rather on a Nicety in Law than natural Equity Others were more roughly handled Some Abbots attainted The Prior of Wooburn was suspected of a Correspondence with the Rebels and of favouring the Pope he was dealt with to submit to the King and he was prevailed on to do it but was not easie in it once nor fixed to it He complained that the new Preachers detracted from the Honour due to the Virgin and Saints he thought the Religion was changed and wondered that the Judgments of God on Q. Anne had not terrified others from going on to subvert the Faith When the Rebellion broke out he joined in it as did also the Abbots of Whaley Garvaux and Sawley and the Prior of Burlington all these were all taken and attainted of Treason and executed The Abbots of Glassenbury and Reading had also sent a great deal of their Plate to the Rebels the former to disguise it the better had made one break into the House where the Plate was kept So he was convicted both of Burglary and Treason and at his Execution he confessed his Crime and begged both God's and the King's Pardon for it The Abbot of Colchester was also attainted and executed but the Grounds of it are not known for the Records of their Attaindors are lost These had over and over again taken the Oaths in which they acknowledged the King to be Supream Head of the Church and were present in those Parliaments in which the several Acts about it were pass'd and did not dissent to them and since they made no Opposition when they might safely and legally do it there is no Reason to think they would have done it afterwards when it was more dangerous and criminal So that all those who have represented them as having suffered for denying the King's Supremacy have therein shewed their Unacquaintedness with the Journals of Parliament The Abbot of Reading had complied so far that he was grown into Favour with Cromwell so that in some Contests between Shaxton Bishop of Salisbury and him the Bishop who was a proud ill-natured Man complained that Cromwell supported the Abbot against him and writ upon that a very Insolent Expostulatory Letter to him which Cromwell answered with great strength of Reason and Decency of Stile by which it appears that heighth of his Condition had no other Effect on him but to make him know himself and others better Upon the Attainders of those Abbots their Abbies were seized on and this was thought a great stretch both in Law and Equity for it seemed not reasonable if an Incumbent was faulty for that to seize on his Benefice which upon his Attainder ought to continue entire and pass to the next Successor as if he were really dead But a Clause was put in the Act of Treason 26 Hen. 8 That whatsoever Lands of Estate of Inheritance any that should be convicted of Treason had in Vse or Possession by any Right or manner should be forfeited to the King By which as intailed Estates were certainly comprehended so it seems they applied it likewise to Church-Benefices yet when the Bishop of Rochester was attainted this was not thought on The words Estate of Inheritance seemed to exclude Church-Lands but the mention that was made of Traitors Successors that were cut off as well as their Heirs seemed on the other hand to include Estates to which Successors might come in a Traitor's room as well as those which descended by Inheritance The Words were ambiguous and were stretched to justify those Seizures and therefore in an Act of Treasons made in the next Reign this was more cautiously worded for it was provided that Traitors should forfeit the Estates which they possessed in their own Right But whatsoever Illegality there might be in these Proceedings they were confirmed by the following Parliament in a special Proviso made concerning those Abbies that were seized on by any Attainders of Treason Many of the Carthusians were executed for denying the
Author of it would certainly be hanged So when the Secretary came to ask for it and said it was the Arch-bishop's Book the other that was an obstinate Papist refused to give it and reckoned that now Cranmer would be certainly ruined but the Secretary acquainting Cromwell with it he called for him next day and chid him severely for presuming to keep a Privy-Counsellours Book and so he took it out of his Hands thus Cranmer was delivered out of this Danger Shaxton and Latimer not only resigned their Bishopricks but being presented for some Words spoken against the six Articles they were put in Prison where they lay till a recantation discharged the one and the King's Death set the other at liberty There were about 500 others presented on the same account but upon the Intercessions of Cranmer Cromwell and others they were set at liberty and there was a stop put to the further Execution of the Act till Cromwell fell The Bishops of the Popish Party took strange Methods to insinuate themselves into the King's Confidence Bishops hold their Sees at the King's Pleasure for they took out Commissions by which they acknowledged That all Jurisdiction Civil and Ecclesiastical flowed from the King and that they exercised it only at the King's Courtesy and as they had of his Bounty so they would be ready to deliver it up when he should be pleased to call for it and therefore the King did empower them in his stead to ordain give Institution and do all the other parts of the Episcopal Function which was to last during his Pleasure and a mighty charge was given them to ordain none but Persons of great Integrity good Life and well learned for since the Corruption of Religion flowed from ill Pastors so the Reformation of it was to be expected chiefly from good Pastors By this they were made indeed the King's Bishops in this Bonner set an Example to the rest but it does not appear that Cranmer took out any such Commission all this Reign Now came on the total Dissolution of the Abbies All the Monasteries supprest 57 surrenders were made this Year of which 30 are yet extant of these 37 were Monasteries and 20 were Nunneries and among them 12 were Parliamentary Abbies which were in all 28 Abington St. Albans St. Austin's Canterbury Battell St. Bennets in the Holm Bardeny Cirencester Colchester Coventry Croyland St. Edmundsbury Evesham Glassenbury Gloceste Hide Malmsbury St. Mary's in York Peterborough Ramsey Reading Selby Shrewsbury Tavestock Tewkesbury Thorney Waltham Westminster and Winchelcomb When all had thus resigned Commissioners were appointed by the Court of Augmentations to seize on the Revenues and Goods belonging to these Houses to establish the Pensions that were to be given to every one that had been in them and to pull down the Churches or such other parts of the Fabrick as they thought superfluous and to sell the Materials of them When this was done others began to get Hospitals to be surrendred to the King Thirleby being Master of St. Thomas Hospital in Southwark was the first that set an Example to the rest he was soon after made a Bishop and turned with every Change that followed till Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and then he refused to comply tho he had gone along with all the Changes that were made in King Edward's time The valued Rents of the Abby-Lands as they were then let was 132607 l. 6 s. 4 d. but they were worth above ten times so much in true value The King had now in his hand the greatest Advantage that ever King of England had both for enriching the Crown and making Royal Foundations But such was his Easiness to his Courtiers and his Lavishness that all this melted away in a few Years and his Designs were never accomplished he intended to have founded 18 new Bishopricks but he founded only six Other great Projects did also become abortive In particular one that was designed by Sir Nicholas Bacon which was a Seminary for States-men he proposed the crecting a House for Persons of Quality or of extraordinary Endowments for the study of the Civil Law and of the Latine and French Tongues of whom some were to be sent with every Ambassadour beyond Sea to be improved in the Knowledg of Forreign Assairs in which they should be imploied as they grew capable of them And others were to be set to work to write the History of the Trasactions abroad and of Assairs at home This was to supply one Loss that was like to follow on the Fall of Abbies for in most of them there was kept a Chronicle of the Times These were written by Men that were more credulous than judicious and so they are often more particular in the recital of Trifles than of important Affairs and an invincible Humour of lying when it might raise the Credit of their Order or House runs through all their Manuscripts All the Ground that Cranmer gained this Year in which there was so much lost was a Liberty that all private Persons might have Bibles in their House the managing of which was put in Cromwell's Hands by a special Patent Gardiner opposed it vehemently and built much on this that without Tradition it was impossible to understand the meaning of the Scriptures and one day before the King he challenged Cranmer to shew any Difference between the Scriptures and the Apostles Canons It is not known how Cranmer managed the Debate but the Issue of it was this The King judged in his Favours and said He was an old experienced Captain and ought not to be troubled by fresh Men and Novices The King was now resolved to marry again and both the Emperour and the King of France proposed Matches to him but they came to no Effect The Emperour endeavoured by all means possible to separate the King from the Princes of the Smalcaldick League and the Act of the six Articles had done that already in a great measure for they complained much of the King's Severity in those Points which were the principal Parts of their Doctrine such as Communion in both kinds Private Masses and the Marriage of the Clergy Gardiner studied to animate the King much against them he often told him it was below his Dignity to suffer dull Gâ—rrâ—ans to dictate to him and he suggested that they who would not acknowledg the Emperours Supremacy in the matters of Religion could not be hearty Friends to the Authority which the King had assumed in them But the Germans did not look on the Emperour as their Soveraign but only as the Head of the Empire and they did believe that every Prinee in his Dominions and the Diet for the whole Empire had sufficient Authority for making Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs but what other Considerations could not induce the King to was like to be more powerfully carried on by the Match with Anne of Cleve which was now set on foot There had been a Treaty between her Father and
and delivered it to the King not knowing how to open it in Discourse The King was struck with it and at first inclined to believe it was a Forgery yet he ordered a strict enquiry to be made into it but he quickly found Proof enough for the Queen had so far cast off both Modesty and the Fear of a Discovery that several Women had been Witnesses to her Lewdness It also appeared that she had intended to continue in that ill Course for she had brought Deirham into her Service and at Lincoln by the Lady Rochford's means one Culpeper was brought to her in the Night and stayed many Hours with her in a Cellar and at his going away she gave him a Gold Chain The Queen after a slight denial which she made at first did at last confess all Deirham and Culpeper were executed and a Parliament was called upon it When it met a Committee was sent to examine the Queen Their Report is recorded only in General That she confessed but no Particulars are mentioned Upon that they pass'd an Act in the Form of a Petition In it they prayed the King that the Queen and her Complices with her Bawd the Lady Rochford might be attainted of Treason And that all those who knew of the Queen's Vicious Course before her Marriage might be attainted of Misprision of Treason for not revealing it to the King before he married her Among those were her Father and Mother and her Grand-Mother the Dutchess of Norfolk It was also declared Treason to know any thing of the Incontinence of any Queen for the future and not to reveal it And it was made Treason in any whom the King intended to marry judging they were Maids not to reveal it if they were not such The Queen and the Lady Rochford were beheaded on the 14th of February She confessed her Incontinence before her Marriage but denied to the last that she had broken her Wed-lock tho the Lasciviousness of her former Life made the World easy to believe the worst things of her All observed the Judgments of God on the Lady Rochford who had been so instrumental in the Ruine of Ann Bolleyn and of her Husband And when she to whose Artifices their Fall was in a great Measure ascribed was found to be so vile a Woman it tended much to raise their Reputation again The attainting her Kindred and Parents for not discovering her former Lewdness was thought extream Severity for it had been a hard piece of Duty to the King in them to have discovered such a Secret Yet tho they lay some time in Prison the King pardoned them all afterwards when his Rage was a little qualified That other Proviso obliging a young Woman to discover her own Faultiness if the King should make Love to her was thought a Piece of grievous Tiranny And upon this those that rallied that Sex took occasion to say that after this none who was reputed a Maid could be induced to marry the King So that it was not so much choice as necessity that made him marry a Widow two Years after Some Hospitals were this Year resigned to the King but there was good ground to question the Validity of those Deeds because by their Statutes it was provided that the Consent of all the Fellows was necessary to make their Deeds good in Law So those Statutes were now by a special Act annulled and this made way for the Dissolution of many Hospitals The Bishops sitting in Convocation A Design to suppress the Bible took great pains to suppress the English Bible but the King could not be prevailed on directly to call it in So they complained much of the Translation then set out and intended to procure a Condemnation of that and then to set about a new one in which it would be easy to put such Delayes that it should not be finished in many Years Gardiner did also propose a singular Conceit that many of the Latin Words should be still retained in the English for he thought they had either such a Majesty or so peculiar a Signification that they could not be fitly rendered He proposed an hundred of those and it seems hoped that if this could be carried the Translation would be so full of Latine Words that the People should not understand it for all its being in English Cranmer perceiving that the Bible was the great Eye-sore of that Party and that they were resolved to suppress it by all the means they could think of procured an Order from the King referring the Correction of the Translation to the two Universities The Bishops took this very ill and all of them except the Bishops of Ely and St. Davids protested against it Bonner 's Injunctions At this time Bonner gave some Injunctions to his Clergy which had a strain in them so far different from the other parts of his Life that it is probable he drew them not himself He required his Clergy to read every day a Chapter in the Bible with some Gloss upon it and to study the Book set out by the Bishops That they should imploy no Curats but such as he approved of That they should take care to instruct young Children well in the Principles of the Christian Religion That they should not go to Taverns nor use unlawful Games chiefly on Sundays or Holy-days That they should perform all the Duties of their Function decently and seriously That they should suffer no Plays nor Enterludes in Churches And that in their Sermons they should explain the Gospel and Epistle for the Day and study to stir up the People to Good Works and to Prayer and should explain all the Ceremonies of the Church but should forbear all railing or the reciting of fabulous Stories and should chiefly set forth the Excellencies of Vertue and the Vileness of Sin and that none under the degree of a Bishop should preach without a License In the former times there had been few or no Sermons except in Lent The way of preaching in that time for on Holy Days the Sermons were Panegyricks on the Saints and on the virtue of their Relicks But in Lent there was a more solemn way of preaching and the Friars maintained their Credit much by the pathetick Sermons they preached in that time by which they wrought much on the Affections of the People yet these for the most part tended most to extol some of the Laws of the Church as Fasting Confession and other Austerities with the making Pilgrimages but they were careful to acquaint the People as little as was possible with the true Simplicity of Christianity or the Scriptures and they seemed to design rather to raise a sudden Heat than to work a real Change in their Auditors They had also mixt so much out of Legends with their Sermons that the People came to disbelieve all that they said for the sake of those Fabulous things with which their Sermons were embased The Reformers took great care to
three were condemned for some Words which they had spoken against the Mass and upon that were burnt Dr. London and Simonds an Attorney had taken some Informations against several Persons of Quality at Court and intended to have carried the Design very high But a great Pacquet in which all their Project was disclosed by them being intercepted they were sent for and examined about it but they denied it upon Oath not knowing that their Letters were taken and were not a little confounded when their own Hand-writing was shewed them So they were convicted of Perjury and were set on a Pillory and made ride about with their Faces to the Horses Tails and Papers on their Breasts in three several Places which did so affect Dr. London that he died soon after Cranmer 's Ruine is designed The chief thing aimed at by the whole Popish Party was Cranmer's Ruine Gardiner imploied many to infuse it into the King that he gave the chief Encouragement to Heresy of any in England and that it was in vain to lop off the Branches and leave the Root still growing The King till then would never hear the Complaints that were made of him But now to penetrate into the depth of this Design he was willing to draw out all that was to be said against him Gardiner reckoned that this Point being gained all the rest would follow And judged that the King was now alienated from him and so more Instruments and Artifices than ever were now made use of A long Paper of many Particulars both against Cranmer and his Chaplains was put in the King's hands So upon this the King sent for him and after he had complained much of the Heresy in England he said He resolved to find out the chief Promoter of it and to make him an Example Cranmer wished him first to consider well what Heresy was that so he might not condemn those as Hereticks who stood for the Word of God against Humane Inventions Then the King told him franckly That he was the Man complained of as most guilty and shewed him all the Informations that he had received against him Cranmer confessed he was still of the same mind that he was of when he opposed the six Articles and submitted himself to a Trial He confessed many things to the King in particular that he had a Wife but he said he had sent her out of England when the Act of the six Articles past and expressed so great a Sincerity and put so entire a Confidence in the King that instead of being ruined he was now better established with him than formerly The King commanded him to appoint some to examine the Contrivance that was laid to destroy him He answered That it was not decent for him to nominate any to judge in a Cause in which himself was concerned Yet the King was positive so so he named some to go about it and the whole secret was found out It appeared that Gardiner and Dr. London had been the chief Sticklers and had encouraged Informers to appear against him Cranmer did not press the King to give him any Reparation for he was so noted for his readiness to forgive Injuries and to do Good for Evil that it was commonly said that the best way to obtain his Favour was to do him an Injury of this he gave signal Instances at this time both in Relation to some of the Clergy and Laity by which it appeared that he was acted by that meek and lowly Spirit that became all the Followers of Christ but more particularly one that was so great an Instrument in reforming the Christian Religion and did in such eminent Acts of Charity shew that he himself practised that which he taught others to do A Parliament was now called The Act of the Succession in which the great Act of Succession to the Crown past By it the Crown was first provided to Prince Edward and his Heirs or the Heirs by the King 's present Marriage after them to Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth and in case they had no Issue or did not observe such Limitations or Conditions as the King should appoint then it was to fall to any other whom the King should name either by his Letters Patents or by his last Will signed with his Hand An Oath was appointed both against the Pope's Supremacy and for the maintaining Succession according to this Act which all were required to take under the pains of Treason It was made Treason to say or write any thing contrary to this Act or to the Slander of any of the King's Heirs named in it By this tho the King did not Legitimate his Daughters yet it was made Criminal for any to object Bastardy to them Another Act past qualifying the Severity of the Act of the six Articles none were to be imprisoned but upon a Legal Presentment except upon the King's Warrant None was to be challenged for Words but within a Year nor for a Sermon but within 40 Days This was made to prevent such Conspiracies as had been discovered the former Year Another Act past renewng the Authority given to 32 to reform the Ecclesiastical Law which Cranmer promoted much and to set it forward he drew out of the Canon Law a Collection of many things against the Regal and for the Papal Authority with several other very Extravagant Propositions to shew how Indecent a thing it was to let a Book in which such things were continue still in any credit in England But he could not bring this to any good Issue during this Reign Another Act past discharging all the King's Debts and they also required such as had received payment to bring back the Money into the Exchequer This was taxed as a piece of gross Injustice and it was thought strange that since the King had done this once before he could have the credit to raise more Mony and be tempted to do it a second time A General Pardon was granted out of which Heresy was excepted The King was now engaged in a War The King makes War on France and Scotland both with France and Scotland and to make his Treasure hold out the longer he embased the Coin in a very Extraordinary manner The Earl of Hartford was sent with an Army by Sea to Scotland he landed at Grantham a little above Leith He burnt both Leith and Edinburgh but he neither staied to take the Castle of Edinburgh nor did he Fortify Leith but only wasted the Country all the Way from that to Berwick He did too much if it was intended to gain the Hearts of that Nation and too little if it was intended to subdue them for this did only inflame their Spirits more by which they were so united in their Aversion to England that the Earl of Lennox who had been cast off by France and was gone over to the English Interest could make no Party in the West but was forced for his own Preservation to fly into
and Equity and said that all people even those who complained most of arbitrary power were apt to usurp it when they were in authority And some thought the delivering the doctrine of Justification in such nice terms was not sutable to the plain simplicity of the Christian Religion Lady Mary was so alarmed at these proceedings that she wrote to the Protector that such changes were contrary to the honour due to her Fathers Memory and it was against their duty to the King to enter upon such points and endanger the publick Peace before he was of Age. To which he wrote answer That her Father had died before he could finish the good things he had intended concerning Religion and had expressed his regret both before himself and many others that he left things in so unsetled a state and assured her that nothing should be done but what would turn to the Glory of God and the Kings Honour He imputed her Writing to the importunity of others rather than to her self and desired her to consider the matter better with an humble Spirit and the assistance of the Grace of God The Parliament was opened the fourth of November A Parliament meets and the Protector was by Patent authorized to sit under the Cloath of State on the Right hand of the Throne and to have all the Honours and Priviledges that any Unkle of the Crown either by Father or Mothers side ever had Rich was made Lord Chancellour The first Act that past five Bishops only dissenting An Act of Repeal was A Repeal of all Statutes that had made any thing Treason or Felony in the late Reign which was not so before and of the six Articles and the authority given to the Kings Proclamations as also of the Acts against Lollards All who deni'd the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes for the first offence were to forfeit their goods for the second were to be in a Pramunire and were to be attainted of Treason for the third But if any intended to deprive the King of his Estate or Title that was made Treason none were to be accused of Words but within a month after they were spoken they also repealed the power that the King had of annulling all Laws made till he was twenty four years of age and restrained it only to an annulling them for the time to come but that it should not be of force for the declaring them null from the beginning Another Act past with the same dissent An Act about the Sacrament for the Communion in both kinds and that the people should always communicate with the Priest and by it irreverence to the Sacrament was condemned under severe penalties Christ had instituted the Sacrament in both kinds and S. Paul mentions both In the Primitive Church that custome was universally observed but upon the belief of Transubstantiation the reserving and carrying about the Sacrament were brought in this made them first endeavour to perswade the World that the Cup was not necessary for Wine could neither keep nor be carried about conveniently but it was done by degrees the Bread was for some time given dipt as it is yet in the Greek Church but it being believed that Christ was entirely under either kind and in every crumb the Council of Constance took the Cup from the Laity yet the Bohemians could not be brought to submit to it so every where the use of the Cup was one of the first things that was insisted on by those who demanded a Reformation At first all that were present did communicate and censures past on such as did it not And none were denied the Sacrament but Penitents who were made to withdraw during the Action But as the devotion of the World slackned the people were still exhorted to continue their Oblations and come to the Sacrament though they did not receive it and were made believe that the Priest received it in their stead The name Sacrifice given to it as being a holy Oblation was so far improved that the World came to look on the Priests officiating as a Sacrifice for the dead and living From hence followed an infinite variety of Masses for all the accidents of humane life and that was the chief part of the Priests trade but it occasioned many unseemly jests concerning it which were restrained by the same Act that put these down Another Act past without any dissent An Act concerning the nomination of Bishops That the Conge d'elire and the Election pursuant to it being but a shadow since the person was named by the King should cease for the future and that Bishops should be named by the Kings Letters Patents and thereupon be consecrated and should hold their Courts in the Kings name and not in their own excepting only the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Court And they were to use the Kings Seal in all their Writings except in Presentations Collations and Letters of Orders in which they might use their own Seals The Apostles chose Bishops and Pastors by an extraordinary gift of discerning Spirits and proposed them to the approbation of the people yet they left no rules to make that necessary In the times of Persecution the Clergy being maintained by the Oblations of the people they were chosen by them But when the Emperours became Christians the Town Councils and eminent men took the Elections out of the hands of the Rabble And the Tumults in popular Elections were such that it was necessary to regulate them In some places the Clergy and in others the Bishops of the Province made the choice The Emperours reserved the Confirmation of the Elections in the great Sees to themselves But when Charles the Great annexed great Territories and Regalities to Bishopricks a great change followed thereupon Church-men were corrupted by this undue greatness and came to depend on the humours of those Princes to whom they owed this great encrease of their wealth Princes named them and invested them in their Sees But the Popes intended to separate the Ecclesiastical State from all subjection to Secular Princes and to make themselves the heads of that State at first they pretended to restore the freedom of Elections but these were now ingrossed in a few hands for only the Chapters chose The Popes had granted thirty years before this to the King of France the nomination to all the Bishopricks in that Kingdome so the King of Englands assuming it was no new thing and the way of Elections as King Henry had setled it seemed to be but a Mockery so this change was not much condemned The Ecclesiastical Courts were the Concessions of Princes in which Trials concerning Marriages Wills and Tithes depended so the holding those Courts in the Kings name was no Invasion on the Spiritual Function since all that concerned Orders was to be done still in the Bishops name only Excommunication was still left as the Censure of those Courts which being a Spiritual Censure ought to have been reserved to
Saturdays and Ember days should be Fish days under several penalties excepting the weak or those that had the Kings Licence Christ had told his Disciples that when he was taken from them they should fast So in the Primitive Church they fasted before Easter but the same number of days was not observed in all places afterwards other rules and days were set up but S. Austin complained that many in his time placed all their Religion in observing them Fast-days were turned to a mockery in the Church of Rome in which they both dined and did eat Fish drest exquisitely and drank Wine This made many run to another extream against all Fasts or distinction of days which certainly if rightly managed and without superstition is a great means for keeping up a seriousness of mind which is necessary for maintaining the power of Religion Other Bills were proposed but not past one for making it Treason to marry the Kings Sisters without the consent of the King and Council But the forfeiture of Succession in that case was thought sufficient The Bishops did also complain of their want of power to repress vice which so much abounded But the Laity were so apprehensive of coming again under an Ecclesiastical Tyranny that they would not consent to it A Proposition was also made for bringing the Common Law into a body in imitation of Justinians Digests But it fell being too great a design to be finished under an Infant King In this Parliament the Admiral was Attainted The Admirals Attainder The Queen Dowager died in September last not without suspicion of Poison upon that he renewed his Addresses to Lady Elizabeth but finding it in vain to expect that his Brother and the Council would consent to it and that her right to the Succession would be cut off if he married her without their consent he resolved to make sure of the Kings Person till he made a change in the Government He fortified his House he laid up a Magazine and made a party among the Nobility The Protector imployed many to divert him from those desperate designs but his Ambition being incurable he was forced to proceed to extremities against him He sent him Prisoner to the Tower in January with his Confederate Sharington who being Vice-Treasurer of the Mint at Bristol had supplied him with Money and had coined much base Money for his use Many were sent to perswade him to a better mind and his Brother was willing to be again reconciled to him if he would retire from the Court and business but he was intractable So many Articles were objected to him both of his designs against the State and of his Malversation in his Office several Pyrates having been entertained by him Many Witnesses and Letters under his own hand were brought against him Almost the whole Council went to the Tower and examined him but he refused to make any Answers and said he expected an open Tryal The whole Council upon this acquainted the King with it and desired him to refer the matter to the Parliament which he granted Upon that some Counsellors were again sent to see what they could draw from him but he was sullen and after he had answered to three of the Articles denying some particulars and excusing others he refused to go any further The business was next brought into the House of Lords The Judges and the Kings Council delivered their opinions That the Articles objected to him were Treason Then the Evidence was given upon which the whole House past the Bill the Protector only withdrawing They dispatched it in two days In the House of Commons many argued against Attainders without a Trial or bringing the party to make his Answers But a Message was sent from the King desiring them to proceed as the Lords had begun So the Lords that had given Evidence against him in their own House were sent down to the Commons Upon which they past the Bill and the Royal Assent was given the fifth of March And afterwards the King being prest to it by the Council gave order for the Execution which was done the twentieth of March. This was the only cure that his Ambition seemed capable of Yet it was thought against nature that one Brother should fall by the hand of another And the Attainting a man without hearing him was condemned as contrary to Natural Justice so that the Protector suffered almost as much by his death as he could have done by his life The Laity and Clergy both gave the King Subsidies and so the Parliament was Prorogued The first thing taken into care was the receiving the Act of Uniformity A new Visitation Some Complaints were made of the Priests way of officiating that they did it with such a tone of voice that the people did not understand what was said no more than when the Prayers were said in Latine so this Temper was found Prayers were ordered to be said in Parish Churches in a plain voice but in Cathedrals the old way was still kept up as agreeing better with the Musick used in them Though this seemed not very decent in the Confession of sins nor in the Litany where a simple voice gravely uttered agreed better with those devotions than those Cadences and unmusical notes do Others continued to use all the Gesticulations Crossings and Kneelings that they had formerly been accustomed to The people did also continue the use of their Beads which were brought in by Peter Hermit in the eleventh Century by which the repeating the Angels Salutation to the Virgin was made a great part of their devotion and was ten times said for one Pater Noster Instructions were given to the Visitors to put all these down in a new Visitation and to enquire if any Priests continued to drive a trade by Trentals or Masses for departed Souls Order was also given that there should be no Private Masses at Altars in the corners of Churches and that there should be but one Communion in a day unless it were in great Churches and at high Festivals in which they were allowed to have one Communion in the morning and another at noon The Visitors made their Report That they found the Book of Common Prayer received universally over all the Kingdom only Lady Mary continued to have Mass said according to the abrogated forms Upon this the Council wrote to her to conform to the Laws for the nearer she was to the King in blood she was so much the more obliged to give a good Example to the rest of the Subjects She refused to comply with their desires and sent one to the Emperour for his Protection upon which the Emperour pressed the English Embassadours and they promised that for some time she should be dispensed with The Emperour pretended afterwards that they made him an absolute Promise that she should never be more troubled about it but they said it was only a Temporary Promise A Match was also proposed for her with the King
the other Executors had treated with Ambassadours apart had made Bishops and Lord-Lieutenants without their knowledge had held a Court of Requests in his House had embased the Coin had neglected the Places the King had in France had encouraged the Commons in their late Insurrections and had given out Commissions and proclaimed a Pardon without their consent that he had animated the King against the rest of the Council and had proclaimed them Traitors had put his own Servants armed about the King's Person By these it appears the Crimes against him were the effects of his sudden exaltation that had made him too much forget that he was a subject but that he had carried his greatness with much Innocence since no acts of Cruelty Rapine or Bribery were objected to him for they were rather errours and weaknesses than Crimes His embasing the Coin was done upon a common mistake of weak Governments who flye to that as their last refuge in the necessity of their affairs In his Imprisonment he set himself to the study of Moral Philosophy and Divinity and writ a Preface to a Book of Patience which had made great Impressions on him His fall was a great affliction to all that loved the Reformation and that was increased because they had no reason to trust much to the two chief Men of the party against him Southampton and Warwick the one was a known Papist and the other was lookt on as a Man of no Religion and both at the Emperor's Court and in France it was expected that upon this revolution matters of Religion would be again set back into the posture in which King Henry had left them The Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner hoped to be discharged and Bonner lookt to be re-established in his Bishoprick again and all People began to fall off much from the new service but the Earl of Warwick finding the King was zealously addicted to the Reformation quickly forsook the Popish party and seemed to be a mighty promoter of that work A Court of Civilians was appointed to examine Bonner's Appeal and upon their report the Council rejected it and confirmed the Sentence that was past upon him But next The Emperor will not assist them foreign affairs come under their care They suspected that Paget had not dealt effectually with the Emperour to assist them in the preservation of Bulloign so they sent over Sir Tho. Cheyney to try what might be expected from him they took also care of the Garrison and both encreased it and supplied it well Cheyney found the same reception with the Emperour and had the same answer that Paget got The Emperor prest him much that matters of Religion might be again considered and confest that till that were done he could not assist them so effectually as otherwise he would do so now the Council found it necessary to apply to the Court of France for a Peace The Earl of Southampton left the Court in great discontent he was neither restored to his Office of Chancellour nor was he made one of the six Lords that were appointed to have the charge of the King's Person this touched him so much that he died not long after of grief as was believed In November A Session of Parliament a Session of Parliament met in which an Act was past declaring it Treason to call any to the number of Twelve together about any matter of State if being required they did not disperse themselves other Riotous Assemblies were also declared felonious the giving out of Prophecies concerning the King or Council was also made Penal Another Law was made against Vagabonds the former Statute was repealed as too severe and Provisions were made for the relief of the Sick and Impotent and Imploying such as could work The Bishops made a heavy complaint of the growth of Vice and Impiety and that their power was so much abridged that they could not repress it so a Bill was read enlarging their Authority but it was thought that it gave them too much power yet it was so moderated that the Lords past it But the Commons rejected it and instead of it sent up a Bill that impowered XXXII who were to be named by the King the one half of the Temporalty and the other of Spiritualty to compile a body of Ecclesiastical Laws within three years and that these not being contrary to the Common or Statute Law and approved of by the King should have the force of Ecclesiastical Laws of the 32. Four were to be Bishops and as many to be Common Lawyers Six Bishops and six Divines were impowered to prepare a new form of Ordination which being confirmed under the Great Seal should take place after April next Articles were also put in against the Duke of Somerset with a Confession signed by him But some objected that they ought not to proceed The Duke of Somerset fined but restored to favour till they knew whether he had signed it voluntarily or not and some were sent to examine him he acknowledged he had done it freely but protested that his errours had flowed rather from Indiscretion than Malice and denied all treasonable designs against the King or the Realm he was fined in 2000 l. a year in Land and in the loss of all his Goods and Offices He complained of the heaviness of this Censure and desired earnestly to be restored to the Kings favour and promised to carry himself so humbly and obediently that he should make amends for his past follies which was thought a sign of too abject a mind others excused it since the power and malice of his Enemies was such that he was not safe as long as he continued in Prison he was discharged in the beginning of February soon after he had his pardon and did so manage his interest in the King that he was again brought both to the Court and Council in April But if these submissions gained him some favour at Court they sunk him as much in the esteem of the World The Reformation was now A Progress in the Reformation after this confusion was over carried on again with vigour The Council sent Orders over England to require all to conform themselves to the new service and to call in all the Books of the old Offices An Act past in Parliament to the same effect one Earl six Bishops and four Lords only dissenting all the old Books and Images were appointed to be defaced and all prayers to Saints were to be struck out of the Primers published by the late King A Subsidy was granted and the King gave a General Pardon out of which all Prisoners on the account of the State and Anabaptists were excepted In this Session the Eldest Sons of Peers were first allowed to sit in the House of Commons The Committee appointed to prepare the Book of Ordination finished their work with common consent only Heath Bishop of Worcester refused to sign it for which he was called before the
only as a Paper of News and so ordered their Ambassadours to communicate them to the Emperour But the King's death broke off this Negotiation He had contracted great Colds by Violent Exercises which in January setled in a deep Cough and all Medicines proved ineffectual The Kings sickness There was a suspicion taken up and spred over all Europe that he was poisoned but no certain grounds appear for justifying that During his sickness Ridley preached before him and among other things run out much on works of Charity and the duty of Men of high condition to be Eminent in good works The King was much touched with this so after Sermon he sent for the Bishop and treated him with such respect that he made him sit down and be covered then he told him what Impression his Exhortation had made on him and therefore he desired to be directed by him how to do his duty in that matter Ridley took a little time to consider of it and after some consultation with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London he brought the King a Scheme of several Foundations one for the sick and wounded another for such as were wilfully idle or were mad and a third for Orphans so he endowed St. Bartholomew's Hospital for the first Bridewell for the second and Christ's Church near Newgate for the third and he enlarged the Grant he made the former year for St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark The Statutes and Warrants relating to these were not finished before the 26. of June though he gave order to make all the hast that was possible and when he set his hand to them he blest God that had prolonged his life till he finished his designs concerning them These Houses have by the good Government and great Charities of the City of London continued to be so useful and grown to be so well-endowed that now they may be well reckoned among the Noblest in Europe The King bore his sickness with great submission to the will of God The Patents for the succession to the Crown and seemed concerned in nothing so much as the state that Religion and the Church would be in after his death The Duke of Suffolk had only three Daughters the eldest of these was now married to Lord Guilford Dudley the second to the Earl of Pembroke's eldest Son and the third that was crooked to one Keys The Duke of Northumberland for strengthning his Family married also his own two Daughters the one to Sir Henry Sidney and the other to the Earl of Huntington's eldest Son He grew to be much hated by the People and the jealousie of the King 's being poisoned was fastened on him But he regarded these things little and resolved to improve the fears the King was in concerning Religion to the advantage of Lady Jane The King was easily perswaded to order the Judges and his Learned Council to put some Articles which he had signed for the succession of the Crown in the common form of Law They answered that the Succession being setled by Act of Parliament could not be taken away except by Parliament yet the King required them to do what he commanded them But next time they came to the Council they declared that it was made Treason to change the Succession by an Act past in this Reign so they could not meddle with it Mountague was chief Justice and spake in the name of the rest Northumberland fell out in a great passion against him calling him Traitor for refusing to obey the King's commands for that is always the language of an Arbitrary Minister when he acts against Law But the Judges were not shaken by his threatnings so they were again brought before the King who sharply rebuked them for their delays but they said all that they could do would be of no force without a Parliament yet they were required to do it in the best manner they could At last Mountague desired they might have a Pardon for what they were to do that being granted all the Judges except Gosnald and Hales agreed to the Patent deliver'd their Opinions that the Lord Chancellor might put the Seal to it and that then it would be good in Law yet the former of these two was at last wrought on so Hales was the only Man that stood out to the last who though he was a zealous Protestant yet would not give his Opinion against his Conscience upon any consideration whatsoever The Privy Councellours were next required to set their hand to it Cecyl in a Relation he writ of this transaction says that hearing some of the Judges declare so positively that it was against Law he refused to set his hand to it as a Privy Councellour but signed it only as a Witness to the King's subscription Cranmer stood out long he came not to Council when it was past there and refused to consent to it when he was prest to it for he said he would never have a hand in disinheriting his late Master's Daughters The young dying King was at last set on him and by his Importunity prevailed with him to do it and so the Seal was put to the Patents The King's distemper continued to encrease so that the Physicians despaired of his Recovery A confident Woman undertook his Cure and he was put in her hands but she left him worse than she found him and this heightned the jealousie of the Duke of Northumberland that had introduced her and put the Physicians away At last to Crown his designs he got the King to write to his Sisters to come and divert him in his sickness and the matter of the Exclusion had been carried so secretly that they apprehending no danger had begun their Journey In the 6th of July The Kings death and Character the King felt death approaching and prepared himself for it in a most devout manner He was often heard offering up Prayers and Ejaculations to God Particularly a few Moments before he died he prayed earnestly that God would take him out of this wretched life and committed his Spirit to him he interceded very fervently for his Subjects that God would preserve England from Popery and maintain his true Religion among them soon after that he breathed out his Innocent Soul being in Sir Henry Sidney's arms Endeavours were used to conceal his death for some days on design to draw his Sisters into the snare before they should be aware of it but that could not be done Thus died Edward the VI. in the sixteenth Year of his Age. He was counted the wonder of that time he was not only Learned in the Tongues and the Liberal Sciences but knew well the state of his Kingdom He kept a Table-Book in which he had writ the Characters of all the eminent Men of the Nation he studied Fortification and understood the Mint well he knew the Harbours in all his Dominions with the depth of Water and way of coming into them He understood foreign
Merchants of London furnished them with Mony promised him his Liberty if he would discover who they were that encouraged and assisted them so he told him the Bishop of London did more than all the World besides for he had brought up the greatest gart of a faulty Impression The Clergy when they condemned Tindall's Translation promised a new one but a Year after in a long Condemnation of several Books that were published by Warham Tonstall and other Canonists and Divines they added this that it was not necessary to publish the Scripture in English and that the King did well not to set about it There came out a Book writ by one Fish of Grayes-Inn that took mightily The Supplication of the Beggars called the Supplication of the Beggars by which they complained that the Alms of the People were intercepted by the Mendicant Friars that were an useless Burden to the Government they also taxed the Pope of Cruelty for taking no Pity on the Poor since none but those that could pay for it were delivered out of Purgatory The King was so pleased with this that he would not suffer any thing to be done against the Author More answered it by another Supplication in behalf of the Souls in Purgatory setting forth the Miseries they were in and the Relief which they received by the Masses that were said for them and therefore they called on their Friends to support the Religious Orders that had now so many Enemies This was elegantly and wittily written but did not take so much as the other for such is the ill nature of Mankind that Satyres are always better received than Apologies and no Satyres are more acceptable than those against Church-men Frith answered More in a Book more gravely written Frith writes against Purgatory in which he shewed that there was no mention made of Purgatory in the Scripture that it was inconsistent with the Merits of Christ by which upon sincere Repentance all Sins were pardoned for if they were pardoned they could not be punished And tho Temporary Judgments either as Medicinal Corrections or for giving Warning to others do sometimes fall even on true Penitents yet terrible Punishments in another state cannot consist with a free Pardon and the remembring of our Sins no more In expounding many Passages of the New Testament he appealed to More 's great Friend Erasmus and shewed That the Fire which was spoken of by St. Paul as that which would consume the Wood Hay and Stubble could only be meant of the fiery Trial of Persecution He shewed That the Primitive Church received it not Ambrose Jerom and Austin did not believe it the last had plainly said that no mention was made of it in Scripture The Monks brought it in and by many wonderful Stories possessed the World of the belief of it and had made a very gainful Trade of it This Book provoked the Clergy so much that they resolved to make the Author feel a real Fire for endeavouring to extinguish their Imaginary one More objected Poverty and want of Learning to the new Preachers But it was answered The same thing was made use of to disgrace Christ and his Apostles but a plain Simplicity of mind without Artificial Improvments was rather thought a good Disposition for Men that were to bear a Cross and the Glory of God appeared more Eminently than the Instruments seemed Contemptible But the Pen proving too feeble A Persecution set on by More and too gentle a Tool the Clergy betook themselves to that on which they relied more Many were vexed with Imprisonments for teaching their Children the Lord's Prayer in English for harbouring the Preachers and for speaking against the Corruptions in the Worship or the Vices of the Clergy but these generally abjured One Hitton that had been a Curate and went over to Tindall was taken coming back with some Books and was by Warham condemned and burnt Bilney after his Abjuration formerly mentioned returned to Cambridge Bilney's Martyrdom and fell under great Horrour of mind but overcame it and resolved to expiate his Apostacy by a publick Acknowledgment And that he might be able to do that on surer Grounds he followed his Studies close two Years for then he left the University and went into Norfolk where he was born and preached up and down that County against Idolatry and Superstition exhorting the People to live well to give much Almes to believe in Christ and to offer up their Souls and Wills to him in the Sacrament He openly confessed his own Sin of denying the Faith and using no Precaution as he went about he was taken by the Bishops Officers and was condemned as a Relapse and degraded More not only sent down the Writ to burn him but to make him suffer another way he affirmed in Print that he had abjured But no Paper signed by him was ever shewed and little credit was due to the Priests who gave it out that he did it by word of Mouth But Parker afterwards Archbishop was an eye Witness of his Sufferings He bore all the hardships he was put to patiently and continued very cheerful after his Sentence and eat up the poor Provision that was brought him heartily for he said he must keep up a ruinous Cottage till it fell He Isaiah He had those Words often in his Mouth When thou walkest thorow the Fire thou shalt not be burnt And by burning his Finger in the Candle he prepared himself for the Eire and said it would only consume the Stubble of his Body but would purify his Soul On the 10th of November he was burnt At the Stake he repeated the Creed to shew he was a true Christian for the Clergy made strange Representations of his Doctrine Then he prayed earnestly and with a deep sence repeated those Words Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant Dr. Warner that waited on him embraced him shedding many Tears and wished that he might die in as good a state as that in which he then was The Friers desired him to declare to the People that they had not procured his Death and he did it so the last Act of his Life was full of Charity to his Enemies His Sufferings Animated others Byfield that had formerly abjured was taken dispersing Tindall's Books and one Tewkesbury were condemned by Stokesley and burnt Two Men and a Woman were also burnt at York Upon these Proceedings the Parliament that sate that Year complained to the King but that did not cool the Heat of the Clergy One Bainham a Councellour of the Temple was taken on Suspicion of Heresy and whipt in More 's presence and afterwards rackt in the Tower Yet he could not be wrought on to accuse any but through Fear he abjured After that being discharged he was in great trouble of Mind and could find no quiet till he went publickly to Church and openly confessed his Sins and declared the Torments he felt in his Conscience for what he had done
before the Act of Parliament past for suppressing the lesser Monasteries Q. Katherine was put to much trouble for keeping the Title Queen Queen Katherin's Death but bore it resolutely and said That since the Pope had judged that her Marriage was good she would die rather than do any thing in prejudice of it Her Sufferings begot Compassion in the People and all the Superstitious Clergy supported her Interests zealously But now her Troubles ended with her Life She desired to be buried among the Observant Friers for they had suffered most for her She ordered 500 Masses to be said for her Soul and that one of her Women should go a Pilgrimage to our Lady of Walsingham and give 200 Nobles on her way to the Poor When she found Death coming on her as she writ to the Emperour recommending her Daughter to his care So she writ to the King with this Inscription My dear Lord King and Husband She forgave him all the Injuries he had done her and wish'd him to have regard to his Soul She recommended her Daughter to his Care and desired him to be kind to her three Maids and to pay her Servants a Years Wages and ended thus mine Eyes desire you above all things She died on the Eighth of January at Kimbolt on in the 50th Year of her Age 33 years after she came to England She shas a Devout and Exemplary Woman She used to work with her own hands and kept her Women at work with her The Severities and Devotions that were known to her Priests and her Alms-Deeds joined to the Troubles she fell in begat a high Esteem of her in all sorts of People The King complained often of her Peevishness but that was perhaps to be imputed as much to the Provocations he gave her as to the Sowrness of her Temper He ordered her to be buried in the Abbey of Peterborough and was somewhat touched with her Death But Q. Ann did not carry this so decently as became a happy Rival In February a Parliament met In Parliament the lesser Monasteries suppressed after a Prorogation of 14 Months The Act impowering 32 to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws was confirmed but no time was limited for finishing it so it had no effect The chief business of this Session was the suppressing of the Monasteries under 200 l. a Year The Report the Visitors made was read in the two Houses and disposed them to great easiness in this matter The Act sets forth the great disorders of those Houses and the many unsuccessful Attempts that had been made to reform them so the Religious that were in them were ordered to be put in the greater Houses where Religion was better observed and the Revenues of them were given to the King Those Houses were much richer than they seemed to be for an abuse that had run over Europe of keeping the Rents of the Church at their first Rates and instead of raising them the exacting great Fines for the Incumbent when the Leases were renewed was so gross in those Houses that some rated but at 200 l. were in real value worth many Thousands By another Act a new Court was erected with the Title of the Court of the Augmentations of the King's Revenue consisting of a Chancellor a Treasurer 10 Auditors 17 Receivers besides ofther Officers The King was also empowered to make new Foundations of such of those Houses now suppressed as he pleased which were in all 370 and so this Parliament after six Years Continuance was now dissolved A Convocation sate at this time A Translation of the Bille designed in which a motion was made for Translating the Bible into English which had been promised when Tindal's Translation was condemned but was afterwards laid aside by the Clergy as neither necessary nor expedient So it was said that those whose Office it was to teach People the Word of God did all they could to suppress it Moses the Prophets and the Apostles wrote in the Vulgar Tongue Christ directed the People to search the Scriptures and as soon as any Nation was converted to the Christian Religion the Bible was translated into their Language nor was it ever taken out of the hands of the People till the Christian Religion was so corrupted that it was not safe to trust them with such a Book which would have so manifestly discovered those Errours and the Legends as agreeing better with those Abuses were read instead of the Word of God So Cranmer look'd on the putting the Bible in the People's hands as the most effectual means for promoting the Reformation and therefore moved that the King might be prayed to give order for it But Gardiner and all the other Party opposed this vehemently They said All the extravagant Opinions then in Germanny rose from the indiscreet use of the Scriptures Some of those Opinions were at this time disseminated in England both against the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ and the usefulness of the Sacraments for which 19 Hollanders had been burnt in England the former Year It was therefore said That during these Distractions the use of the Scriptures would prove a great Snare So it was proposed that instead of them their might be some short Exposition of the Christian Religion put in the Peoples hands which might keep them in a certain Subjection to the King and the Church But it was carried in the Convocation for the Affirmative At Court Men were much divided in this Point some said if the King gave way to it he would never be able after that to govern his People and that they would break into many Divisions But on the other hand it was said That nothing would make the Difference between the Pope's Power and the King's Supremacy appear more eminently than if the one gave the People the free use of the Word of God whereas the other had kept them in Darkness and ruled them by a blind Obedience It would be also a great mean to extinguish the Interest that either the Pope or the Monks had in England to put the Bible in the People's hands in which it would appear that the World had been long deceived by their Impostures which had no Foundation in the Scriptures These Reasons joyned with the Interest that the Queen had in the King prevailed so far with him that he gave order for setting about this with all possible hast and within three Years the Impression of it was finished At this time the King was in some Treaty with the German Princes not only for a League in Temporal Concerns but likewise in matters of Religion The King thought the Germans should have in all things submitted to him and the Opinion he had of his own Learning which was perhaps heightned a little with his new Title of Head of the Church made him expect that they should in all points comply with him Gardiner was then his Ambassadour in France and diswaded him much from any Religious League with them
Corrections are to be seen made with his own Hand which shew both his great Judgment in those Matters and his extraordinary Application to Business but as he was fond of his two accquired Titles of Defender of the Faith and Supream Head of the Church and loved to shew that he did not carry them in vain so there was nothing which he affected more then to discover his Learning and Understanding in matters of Religion He writ also a List of all the new Sees which he intended to found which were Waltham for Essex St. Albans for Hartford another for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire out of the Monasteries of Dunstable Newenham and Clowstown another for Oxfordshire and Berkshire out of the Rents of Osney and Tame one for Northampton and Huntington out of Peterborough one for Midlesex out of Westminster one for Leicester and Rutland out of Leicester one for Glocestershire out of St. Peters in Glocester one for Lancashire out of Fountain and the Arch-Deaconry of Richmond one for Suffolk out of Edmundsbury one for Stafford and Salop out of Shrewsbury one for Nottingham and Darby out of Welbeck Wersop and Thurgarton and one for Cornwall out of the Rents of Lanceston Bodmyn and Wardreth Over these he writ Bishopricks to be made and in another part of the same Paper he writ Places to be altered which have Sees in them and names Christ-Church in Canterbury St. Swithins and several others a little under that he writ Places to be altered into Colledges and Schools but mentions only Burton upon Trent Neither Chester nor Bristol are named here tho Episcopal Sees were afterwards erected in them The King had formed a great Design of endowing many Sees and making many other noble Foundations yet the great Change that was made in the Councils and Ministry before this took Effect made that only a small part of that which he now intended was accomplished An Act for Proclamations Another Act was brought in concerning the Obedience due to the King's Proclamations which set forth That great Exceptions had been made to the Legality of the King's Proclamations by some who did not consider what a King might do by his Royal Power which the King took very ill and since many Occasions called for speedy Remedies and could not admit of Delays till a Parliament might be called therefore it was enacted that such Proclamations as the King set out by Advice of his Council with Pains upon Offenders should be obeyed as if they were Acts of Parliaments yet it was provided that no Laws nor Customs might be taken away by them and that the Subjects should not suffer in their Estates Liberties or Persons by them If any offended against them and fled out of the Kingdom that was made Treason It was also provided that if the King's Heirs should reign before they were of Age the Proclamations set out by the Privy Council should have the like force in Law By this the Injunctions that had been given or should be thereafter given were now legally authorized The Statute of Precedence past in this Parliament The King's Vicegerent was to take place of all after the Royal Family and next him among the Clergy came the two Arch-bishops then the Bishops of London and Duresme after them the Bishop of Winchester as Prelate of the Garter and all the other Bishops were to take place according to the Date of their Consecrations A Bill of Attainder past Some attainted without being heard not only confirming the Sentences that had been given against the Marquess of Exeter the Lord Mounticute and others that had been condemned at common Law but of some that were of new attainted without a Trial of these some were absent and others were in Prison but it was not thought fit to bring them to make their Answers The chief of these were the Marchionses of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum Mother to Cardinal Pool It was questioned whether this could be done in Law or not The Judges delivered their Opinion that it was against natural Justice to condemn any without hearing them and that when the Parliament proceeded as a Court they were obliged to follow the common Rules of Equity but if they did otherwise yet since they were the Supream Court of the Nation whatsoever they did could not be reversed The latter part of this was laid hold on and the former was neglected so that Act past This Council was ascribed to Cromwell and he being the first that was executed upon such a Sentence gave occasion to many to observe the Justice of God in making ill Councils turn upon those that gave them When the Parliament was prorogued The King 's Kindnesss to Cranmer the King ordered Cranmer to put in writing all the Arguments he had used against the six Articles and bring them to him He sent also both Cromwell and the Duke of Norfolk to dine with him and to assure him of the Constancy of his Kindness to him At Table they expressed great Esteem for him and acknowledged that he had opposed the six Articles with so much Learning and Gravity that those who differed most from him could not but value him highly for it and that he needed not to fear any thing from the King Cromwell said the King made that difference between him and the rest of his Council that he would not so much as hearken to any Complaints that were made of him and made a Parallel between him and Cardinal Wolsey the one lost his Friends by his Pride and the other gained on his Enemies by his Humility and Mildness the Duke of Norfolk said he could speak best of the Cardinal having been his Man so long this heated Cromwell who answered that he never liked his Manners and tho Wolsey had intended if he had been chosen Pope to have carried him with him to Italy yet he was resolved not to have gone tho he knew the Duke intended to have gone with him Upon this the Duke of Norfolk swore he lied and gave him foul Language This put all the Company in great Disorder They were in some sort reconciled but were never hearty Friends after this Cranmer put his Reasons against the six Articles together and gave them to his Secretary to be written out in a fair Hand for the King's use but he crossing the Thames with the Book in his Bosom met with such an Adventure on the Water as might have at another time sent the Author to the Fire There was a Bear baited near the River which breaking loose run into it and happened to overturn the Boat in which Cranmer's Secretary was and he being in danger of his Life took no care of the Book which falling from him floated on the River and was taken up by the Bear-Ward and put in the hand of a Priest that stood by to see what it might contain he presently found it was a Confutation of the six Articles and so told the Bear-ward that the
That the matter of the Precontract with the Prince of Lorrain was not fully cleared and it did not appear if it was made by the Queen or whether it was in the Words of the present time or not That the King had married her against her Will and had not given an inward and compleat Consent and that he had never consummated the Marriage so that they saw he could have no Issue by the Queen Upon these grounds the whole Convocation with one consent annulled the Marriage and declared both Parties free This was the grossest piece of Compliance that the King had from his Clergy in his whole Reign For as they knew that there was nothing in the pretended Precontract so by voiding the Marriage because the Consent was not internal and free they made a most pernicious Precedent for breaking all publick Treaties for none can know Men's Hearts it would be easy for every one to pretend that he had not given a perfect Consent and that being allowed there could be no Confidence nor safety among Men any more And in the Process for the King 's first Divorce they had laid it down as a Principle that a Marriage was compleat tho it were never consummated But in a Word the King was resolved to be rid of the Queen and the Clergy were resolved not to offend him And they rather sought out Reasons to give a colour to their Sentence then past it on the force of those Reasons Cromwel was required to send a Declaration of all he knew concerning the Marriage which he did but ended in these most abject Words Written with the heavy Heart and trembling Hand of your Highness's most heavy and most miserable Prisoner and poor Slave Tho. Cromwel and under his Subscription he wrote Most Sacred Prince I cry for Mercy Mercy Mercy The Judgment of the Convocation was reported to the House of Lords by Cranmer and the Reasons were opened by Gardiner They were sent down to the Commons to give them the same account and both Houses were satisfied with it Next day some Lords were sent to the Queen who had retired to Richmond They told her The King was resolved to declare her his adopted Sister and to setle 4000 l. a Year on her if she would consent to it which she cheerfully embraced and it being left to her choice either to live in England or to return to her Brother She preferred the former They prest her to write to her Brother that all this matter was done with her good Will that the King used her as a Father and that therefore he and the other Allies should not take this ill at his hands She was a little averse to this but was prevailed on to do it When things were thus prepared the Act confirming the Judgment of the Convocation past without any Opposition An Act past mitigating one Clause in the Act of the six Articles by which the pains of Death for the Marriage or Incontinence of the Clergy were changed into a Forfeiture of their Goods and Benefices Another Act past Authorizing those Committees of Bishops and Divines that had been named by the King both for the Doctrine and Ceremonies to go on in it and appointing that what should be agreed on by them and Published with the King's Approbation should bind the Subjects as much as if every Particular in it had been ennumerated in that Act any Law or Custome to the contrary notwithstanding But a Proviso was added That nothing might be done by them contrary to the Laws then in force Which Contradiction in the Provisos seems to have been put in on design to keep all Ecclesiastical Proceedings under the Inspection of the Secular Courts since they are the only Expounders of Acts of Parliament Another Act past That no Pretence of a Precontract should be made use of to annul a Marriage duly Solemnized and Consummated And that no Degrees of Kindred but those ennumerated in the Law of Moses might hinder a Marriage This last was added To enable the King to marry Katherine Howard that was Cousin German to Ann Boleyn which was one of the Degrees prohibited by the Canon Law but the reason of the former part is not known It directly condemns the King's Divorce of Ann Boleyn grounded on a pretended Precontract The Province of Canterbury gave the King a Subsidy of 4 s. in the Pound to be payed in two Years with a Preamble of high Acknowledgments of their Happiness under his Protection A Subsidy was also asked of the Laity but in the House of Commons it was much opposed Many said they had given the King the Abbey-Lands in hopes that no Subsidies should have been any more demanded and it shewed a strange Profuseness that now within a Year after that a Subsidy was demanded But it was answered That the King had been at great charge in fortifying his Coasts and in keeping up such Leagues beyond Sea as preserved the Nation in safety a Tenth and four 15ths were granted Several Bills of Attainder were past And in Conclusion the King sent a General Pardon out of which Cromwel and divers others were excepted and then the Parliament was dissolved Cromwel's mean Addresses could not preserve him So he was executed on the 28 of July Cromwels Death He thanked God for bringing him to die in that manner which was just on the account of his Sins against God and his Offences against his Prince He declared that he doubted of no Article of the Catholick Faith nor of any Sacrament of the Church He said He had been seduced but now he died in the Catholick Faith and denied he had supported the Preachers of ill Opinions He desired all their Prayers and prayed very fervently for himself and thus did he end his days He rose meerly by the strength of his Natural Parts for his Education was suitable to his mean Extraction Only he had all the New Testament in Latin by Heart He carried his Greatness with Extraordinary Moderation and fell rather under the weight of Popular Odium than Guilt At his Death he mixed none of the Superstitions of the Church of Rome with his Devotions So it was said that he used the Word Catholick Faith in its true sense and in Opposition to the Novelties of the Church of Rome Yet his Ambiguous way of expressing himself made the Papists say that he died repenting of his Heresy But the Protestants said that he died in the same Perswasions in which he lived With him fell the Office of the King's Vicegerent and none after him have aspired to that Character that proved so fatal to him who first carried it It was believed that the King lamented his Death when it was too late and the Miseries that fell on the new Queen and on the Duke of Norfolk and his Family were look'd on as Strokes from Heaven on them for their cruel prosecuting this unfortunate Minister With his Fall the Progress of the Reformation stopt for Cranmer
condemned to be burnt as detestable Hereticks in general Words In the same Act by which they were condemned four other were attainted of Treason for being confederated with Reginald Pool and for intending to surprize Calais and as there was a strange mixture in their Condemnation so the like was in their Executions for Abel Featherston and Powell that were attainted in the same Parliament for owning the Pope's Supremacy were executed with them and were coupled together in the Hurdles in which they were carried to Smithfield the King in this affecting an extravagant Appearance of Impartiality in his Justice Barnes being tied to the Stake And burnt went over the Articles of the Creed and declared his Belief of them all and that he abhorred the impious Opinions of some German Anabaptists He asserted the necessity of Good Works but ascribed Justification wholly to the Merits of Christ he professed all due Reverence to the Saints but said he saw no Warrant to pray for them he asked the Sheriff and the People if they knew for what they were condemned and what Heresies they were accused of but none made Answer he prayed God to forgive all that sought their Death and in particular Gardiner if he had done it then prayed for the King and the Prince and expressed his Loyalty to the King that he believed all his just Laws were to be obeyed for Conscience sake and that in no Case it was lawful to resist him he sent some Desires to the King as that he would apply the Abby-Lands to good Uses and the Relief of his poor Subjects that he would punish the Contempt of Marriage that was so common and would put a stop to the Liberty many took of casting off their Wives and living in Whoredom that Swearers might be punished and that since the King had begun to set forth the Christian Religion that he would go on with it for a great deal remained yet to be done he asked the Forgiveness of all People whom he might have at any time offended and so turned and prepared himself for Death then the other two spoke to the same purpose they declared their Faith and exhorted the People to a good Life and mutual Love and they all prayed and embraced one another after that the Fire was set to The Constancy they expressed together with the Gentleness of their Deportment towards their Enemies made great Impressions on the Spectators and cast a heavy Imputation on Gardiner as the Procurer of their Deaths tho he justified himself in an Apology which he printed in which he denied any other Accession to it but giving his Vote to the Bill of Attainder Bonner began now to shew himself in his own Colours He had courted Cromwell more than any Person whatsoever yet the very day after his Disgrace he shewed his Ingratitude for Grafton that had printed the Bible and was much in Cromwell's Favour upon that account meeting Bonner expressed his Sorrow for Cromwell's being sent to the Tower but the other answered that it had been good he had been there much sooner Grafton saw his Error in speaking so freely and went from him but some Verses being printed in Cromwell's Praise Bonner informed the Council what Grafton had said to him and so thought it was probable he had printed them yet he had so many Friends that he was let go He procured many to be indicted upon the Act of the six Articles but an Order came from the King to stop further Proceedings yet he pick'd out one Instance which did equally discover his brutal Cruelty and his want of Judgment One Mekins not above fifteen Years old had said somewhat against the Corporal Presence and in Commendation of Dr. Barnes The Witnesses differed in their Evidence one swore he had said the Sacrament was only a Ceremony the other swore he had said it was only a Signification so two Grand Juries returned an Ignoramus on the Bill upon which he fell into a fit of Cursing and violent Rage and he made the second Grand Jury go aside and consider better of it they being terrified found the Bill and he was condemned to be burnt but hoping to be preserved by what he should say at the Stake he railed at Barnes and praised Bonner much yet that did not save him Two were burnt at Salisbury and two at Lincoln upon the same Statute besides great Numbers that were put in Prison In the end of this Year New Sees founded the King began to endow the new Bishopricks Westminster was the first in which he endowed a Bishoprick a Deanry 12 Prebendaries a Quire and other Officers The Year after this he endowed Chester Glocester and Peterborough but in these Cathedrals he only endowed six Prebendaries two Years after he likewise endowed Oxford and Bristol The Foundations had Preambles are almost the same with that of the Act of Parliament that empowred him to erect them he promoted the Bishops to those Sees by a special Writ tho that was to go thereafter in the way of Election as it was in the other Sees he also converted the Priories of Canterbury Winchester Duresme Worcester Ely Rochester and Carlile into Collegiate Churches consisting of Deans and Prebendaries But as all this came much far short of what the King had at first intended so the Channel in which those Foundations run differed much from what Cranmer had projected whose Interest was so low at Court that his Opinion was not now regarded as it had been formerly He intended to have restored the Cathedrals to what they had been at first to be Colleges and Nurseries for the Diocess and to have set up Readers of the Learned Tongues and of Divinity in them that so a considerable number of young Clerks might have been trained up under the Bishop's Eye both in their Studies and in a Course of Devotion to be by him put afterwards in Livings according to their Merit and Improvements The want of such Houses for the strict Education of those who are to serve in the Church has been the occasion of many fatal Consequences since that time by the Scandals which Men initiated to the Sacred Functions before they were well prepared for them have given the World The Popish Party beyond Sea censured these Endowments both as being a very defective Restitution of the Lands that had been invaded and as an Invasion on the Spiritual Authority when the King divided Diocesses and removed Churches from one Jurisdiction and put them under another To which it was answered That as their Practices against the King had put him to such a charge that he could not execute what he at first intended so both the Roman Emperours and other Christian Kings had regulated and divided the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and made Primates and Patriarchs as they pleased Ely in England was taken out of Lincoln only by the King and his Parliament tho P. Nicolaus did officiously send a Confirmation of it that being an Art of
put in the Tower and then it would appear how many would inform against him The King seemed to consent to this and they resolved to execute it the next day but in the Night the King sent for Cranmer and told him what was resolved concerning him Cranmer thanked the King for giving him notice of it and not leaving him to be surprised He submitted to it only he desired he might be heard answer for himself and that he might have indifferent Judges who understood those matters The King wondered to see him so little concerned in his own Preservation but told him he must take care of him since he took so little care of himself The King therefore gave him Instructions to appear before the Council and to desire to see his Accusers before he should be sent to the Tower and that he might be used by them as they would desire to be used in the like Case And if he could not prevail by the force of Reason then he was to appeal to the King in Person and was to shew the King's Seal-Ring which he took from his Finger and gave him and they knew it all so well that they would do nothing after they once saw that so he being summoned next Morning came over to White-Hall He was kept long in the Lobbey before he was called in But when that was done and he had observed the Method the King had ordered him to use and had at last shewed the Ring they rose all in great Confusion and went to the King He chid them severely for what they had done and expressed his Esteem and Kindness to Cranmer in such Terms that his Enemies were glad to get off by pretending that they had no other Design but to have his Innocence declared in a publick Trial and were now so convinced of the King 's unalterable Favour to him that they never made any more Attempts upon him But what they durst not do in Relation to Cranmer And against the Queen they thought might be more safely tried against the Queen who was known to love the New Learning which was the common Phrase for the Reformation She used to have Sermons in her Privy Chamber which could not be so secretly carried but that it came to the King's Knowledge Yet her Conduct in all other things was so exact and she expressed such a tender care of the King's Person that it was observed she had gained much upon him but his Peevishness growing with his Distempers made him sometimes uneasy even to her They used often to talk of Matters of Religion and sometimes she held up the Argument for the Reformers so stifly that he was offended at it yet as soon as that appeared she let it fall but once the Debate continuing long the King expressed his Displeasure at it to Gardiner when she went away He took hold of this Opportunity to perswade the King that she was a great Cherisher of Hereticks Wriothesly joined with him in the same Artifice and filled the angry King's Head with many Stories in so much that he signed the Articles upon which she was to be Impeached But Wriothesly let that Paper fall from him carelesly and it happened to be taken up by one of the Queen's Friends who carried it to her Upon which she went to the King and brought on a Discourse of Religion and after a little Opposition she yielded and seemed convinced by the King's Reasons and told him That she only held up that Argument to be instructed by him and sometimes to engage him in Discourse and so to make him forget his pains and this she seconded with such Flattery that he was perfectly satisfied and reconciled to her Next day as he was walking with her in the Garden Wriothesly came thither on design to have carryed her to the Tower but the King chid him severely for it and was heard to call him Knave and Fool. The good natured Queen interposed to mitigate his Displeasure but the King told her She had no reason to be concerned for him Thus the Design against her vanished and Gardiner that had set it on lost the King's Favour entirely by it But now the Fall of the Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surry The Duke of Norfolk's Fall came on The Father had been long Treasurer and had served the King with great Fidelity and Success His Son was a Man of rare Qualities he had a great Wit and was more than ordinary learned He particularly hated the Earl of Hartford and scorned an Alliance with him which his Father had projected The Duke of Norfolk had intended to unite his Family to the Seimours by marrying his Son to the Earl of Hartford's Daughter and his Daughter the Dutchess of Richmond to Sir Thomas Seimour But both his Children refused to comply with him in it The Seimours were apprehensive of the Opposition they might meet with if the King should die from the Earl of Surry who was a high spirited Man had a vast Fortune and was the Head of the Popish Party It was likewise suspected that he kept himself unmarried in hopes of marrying the Lady Mary The Duke's Family was also fatally divided His Dutchess had been separated from him about four Years and now turned Informer against him His Daughter did also hate her Brother and was a Spy upon him One Holland a Whore of the Duke's did also betray him and discovered all she could yet all amounted to no more than some Complaints of the Fathers who thought the Services he had done the Crown were little regarded and some Threatnings of the Sons It was also said that the Father gave the Coat of Arms that belonged to the Prince of Wales and the Son gave Edward the Confessors Coat but that was only a Pretence to make a noise among the People and to cover the want of more important matter against them One Southwel objected things of a higher Nature to the Earl of Surry He denied them and desired that according to the Martial Law they might have a Trial by Combate and fight in their Shirts But that was not granted yet both Father and Son were put in the Tower The Earl of Surry was tried by a Jury of Commoners The Earl of Surry executed and was found guilty of Treason and executed on the 19th of January He was much lamented and the Blame of his Death being cast on the Seimours raised a General Odium against them The old Duke saw a Parliament called to destroy him by an Act of Attainder for there was not matter enough to ruine him at Common Law so to prevent that he made such humble Submission to the King as would have mollified any that had not Bowels of Brass He wrote to him That he had spent his whole Life in his Service without having so much as a Thought to his Prejudice He had obeyed all the King's Laws and was resolved to obey all that ever he should make He
in particular were condemned of Treason for saying that the King was not Supream Head of the Church of England It was then only a Premunire not to swear to the Supremacy but it was made Treason to deny it or speak against it Hall a Secular Priest was at the same time condemned of Treason for calling the King a Tyrant an Heretick a Robber and an Adulterer and saying that he would die as King John or Richard the Third died and that it would never be well with the Church till the King was brought to Pot And that they looked when Ireland and Wales would rise and were assured that three parts of four in England would join with them All these pleaded not Guilty but being condemned they justified what they had said The Carthusians were hanged in their Habits Soon after that three Carthusians were condemned and executed at London two more at York upon the same account for opposing the King's Supremacy Ten other Monks were shut up in their Cells of whom nine died there and one was condemned and hanged These had been all Complices in the Business of the Maid of Kent and tho that was pardoned yet it gave the Government ground to have a watchful Eye over them and to proceed more severly against them upon the first Provocation After these Fisher's Sufferings Fisher and More were brought to their Trials Pope Clements officious Kindness to Fisher in declaring him a Cardinal did hasten his Ruine tho he was little concerned at that Honour that was done him He was tried by a Jury of Commoners and was found guilty of Treason for having spoken against the King's Supremacy but instead of the Common Death in Cases of Treason the King ordered him to be beheaded On the 22th of June he suffered He dressed himself with more then ordinary Care that day for he said it was to be his Wedding-Day As he was led out he opened the New Testament at a Venture and prayed that such a place might turn up as might comfort him in his last Moments The Words on which he cast his Eyes were This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So he shut the Book and continued meditating on these Words to the last On the Scaffold he repeated the Te Deum and so laid his Head on the Block which was severed from his Body He was a learned and devout Man but much addicted to Superstition and too cruel in his Temper against Hereticks He had been Confessor to the King's Grand-Mother and perswaded her to found two Colledges in Cambridge Christ's and St John's in Acknowledgment of which he was chosen Chancelof the University Henry the Seventh made him Bishop of Rochester He would never exchange that for any other He said his Church was his Wife and he would not part with his Wife because she was Poor He was much esteemed by this King till the Suit of the Divorce was set on foot and then he adhered stifly to the Marriage and the Popes Supremacy and that made him too favourable to the Nun of Kent But the Severities of his long Imprisonment together with this bloody Conclusion of it were universally condemned all the World over only Gardiner imploied his Servile Pen to write a Vindication of the King's Proceedings against him It was writ in Elegant Latin but the Stile was thought too Vehement More 's Death It was harder to find matter against Sir Thomas More for he was very cautious and satisfied his own Conscience by not swearing the Supremacy but would not not speak against it He said the Act had two Edges if he consented to it it would damne his Soul and if he spoke against it it would condemn his Body This was all the Message he sent to Fisher when he desired to know his Opinion about it he had also said the same to the Duke of Norfolk and some Counsellors that came to examine him And Rich then the King's Solicitor coming as a private Friend to perswade him to swear the Oath urged him with the Act of Parliament and asked him if he should be made King by Act of Parliament would not he Acknowledge him He answered he would because a King might be made or deprived by a Parliament But the Matter of the Supremacy was a point of Religion to which the Parliament's Authority did not extend it self All this Rich witnessed against him so these Particulars were laid together as amounting to a Denial of the King's Supremacy and upon this he was judged guilty of Treason He received his Sentence with that equal Temper of Mind which he had shewed in both Conditions of Life He expressed great Contempt of the World and much Weariness in living in it His ordinary Facetiousness remained with him to his last Moment on the Scaffold Some censured that as affected and indecent and as having more of the Stoick than the Christian in it But others said that way of Railery had been so Customary to him that Death did not discompose him nor put him out of his ordinary Humour He was beheaded on the 6th of July in the 52d or 53d Year of his Age. He had great Capacities and eminent Vertues In his Youth he had freer thoughts but he was afterwards much corrupted by Superstition and became fierce for all the Interests of the Clergy He wrote much in Defence of all the old Abuses His Learning in Divinity was but ordinary for he had read little more than some of St. Austin's Treatises and the Canon Law and the Master of the Sentences beyond whom his Quotations do seldom go His Stile was Natural and Pleasant and he could turn things very dextrously to make them look well or ill as it served his Purpose But tho he suffered for denying the Kings Supremacy yet he was at first no Zealot for the Pope For he says of himself That when the King shewed him his Book in Manuscript which he wrote against Luther he advised him to leave out that which he had put in it concerning the Pope's Power for he did not know what Quarrels he might have afterwards with the Pope's and then that would be turned against him But the King was perhaps fond of what he had written and so he would not follow that wise Advice which he gave him There were no Executions after this till the Rebellions of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire gave new Occasions to Severity Attainders after the Rebellion and then not only the Lords of Darcy and Hussy but six Abbots and many Gentlemen the chief of whom was Sir Thomas Piercy Brother to the Earl of Northumberland were attainted They had not only been in the Rebellion but had forfeited the General Pardon by their new Attempts after it was proclaimed Yet some said the King took Advantage on very slight Grounds to break his Indemnity But on the other hand it was no Wonder if he proceeded with the utmost Rigour
against those who had raised such a Storm in the Kingdom and in particular against those Abbots and Monks who had sworn to maintain his Supremacy and yet were the chief Incendiaries that had set the Kingdom on Fire One Forrest an Observant Friar Forrest was burnt had been Queen Katherin's Confessor but forsook her Interests and not only swore to the King's Supremacy but used such Insinuations that he had a large share of the King's Favour and Confidence He was look'd on as a Reproach to his Order and used great Cruelties in their House at Greenwich He shut up one that he believed gave Intelligence of all they did to the Court and used him so ill that he died in their hands It was also found that in secret Confession he had alienated many from the King's Supremacy and being questioned for it he said he had taken the Oath for it only with his outward Man but his inward Man had never consented to it But he offered to recant and abjure this Opinion yet being afterwards diverted from that he was condemned as an Heretick and was burnt in Smithfield A Pardon was offered him at the Stake if he would recant but he refused it A great Image that was brought out of Wales was hewed in pieces and served for Fewel to burn him The Writers of that time say he denied the Gospel and that he had little Knowledge of God in his Life and shewed less Trust in him at his Death The Winter after this a Correspondence was discovered between Cardinal Pool The Attainders of Cardinal Pool's Friends and Courtney Marquess of Exeter and Pool's Brother the Lord Mountacute and several others It was believed that Sir Geoffrey Pool another of the Brothers betrayed the rest They had expressed some Kindness for the Cardinal and his Proceedings and had said that they looked to see a Change in England and that they hoped the King would die ere long and then all would go well with several other Words to that purpose for which they were Attainted and Executed Others were also condemned for calling the King a Beast and worse than a Beast and that he would be certainly damned for plucking down the Abbies Cardinal Pool and several others that had fled out of the Kingdom and had Confederated themselves with the Pope against the King were also Attainted Sir Nicholas Carew Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garter was likewise condemned for having said that the Attainder of the Marquis of Exeter was cruel and unjust He renounced the Superstitions of Popery and embraced the Reformation before he suffered Attainders in Parliament without hearing the Parties After these Judgments and Executions were over a new and unheard of Precedent was made of Attainting some without bringing them to make their Answers which is a Blemish on this Reign that can never be washed off and was a Breach of the most sacred and unalterable Rules of Justice The first that were so condemned were the Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Sarum Mother to Card. Pool The special Matter charged on the former was her Confederating her self with Sir Nicholas Carew and that against the other was the Confederating with her Son Cardinal Pool No Witnesses were examined to prove these things against them perhaps some Depositions might have been read in Parliament Cromwell shewed a Coat which was found among the Countess of Sarum's Cloaths on which the Standard used by the Yorkshire Rebels was wrought from which it was inferred that she approved of them Fourteen others were Attainted by the same Act six of them were Priests one was a Knight Hospitaller four were Gentlemen one was a Merchant and two were Yeomen all were condemned for Confederating with the Pope or Cardinal Pool or asserting the Pope's Supremacy or endeavouring to raise Rebellion But against four of them there is nothing but Treason in General Words alledged This Bill was past in two days by the Lords and in five by the Commons But of all these only three were executed these were the Countess of Sarum tho not till two Years after this and Sir Adrian Fortescue and Dingley the Knight of St. John of Jerusalem In the Countess of Sarum did the Name of Plantagenet end She was about 70 Years old but shewed that in that Age she had a Vigorous and Masculine Mind In the Parliament that sate in the Year 1540 several others were Attainted in the same manner without being heard and for the same Crimes Fetherston Abel and Powel and six more were so condemned but those three only suffered By another Act of the same Parliament the Lord Hungerford and his Chaplain Bird were Attainted His Chaplain had often Perswaded him to rebel and had said that the King was the greatest Heretick in the World Hungerford had also ordered some of his other Chaplains to use Conjuring that they might know how long the King would live and whether he would be Victorious over his Enemies He was also charged for having lived in Sodomy with several of his Servants three Years together He was soon after executed and died in great disorder In the Year 1541 Five Priests and ten Laymen were stirring up the People in the North to a new Rebellion but it was prevented and they suffered for it In the Year 1543 Gardiner that was the Bishop of Winchester's Secretary and three other Priests were condemned and executed for denying the King's Supremacy and this was the last Occasion that was given to the King to shew his Severity on that account In all these Executions it cannot be denied but the Laws were excessively severe and the Proceedings upon them were never tempered with that Mildness which ought to be often applied for the mitigating the rigour of Penal Laws But tho they are much aggravated by Popish Writers they were far short of the Cruelties used in Queen Mary's Reign To conclude We have now gone through the Reign of King Henry the Eighth who is rather to be reckoned among the Great than the Good Princes He exercised so much Severity on Men of both Perswasions that the Writers of both sides have laid open his Faults and taxed his Cruelty But as neither of them were much obliged to him so none have taken so much care to set forth his good Qualities as his Enemies have done to enlarge on his Vices I do not deny that he is to be numbered among the ill Princes yet I cannot rank him with the worst BOOK II. Book II. Of the Life and Reign of King EDWARD the VI. EDWARD was the only Son of King Henry K. Edwards Birth and education by his best beloved Wife Jane Seimour born the 12th of October 1537. His Mother died the day after he was born of a Distemper incident to Women in her condition and was not ripped up by Chirurgeons as some Writers have reported on design to represent King Henry as barbarous and cruel to all his Wives At six years