The Pope promises to satisfy the King ibid But proceeds hastily to a Sentence Pag. 102 Arguments for rejecting the Pope's Power Pag. 103 And for the Kings Supremacy Pag. 106 The Clergy submit to it Pag. 108 1534. The Pope's Power condemned in Parliam Pag. 109 The Act of the Succession Pag. 110 An Act concerning Hereticks Pag. 111 The Submission of the Convocation Pag. 112 An Act for the Election of Bishops Pag. 113 The Attainder of the Nun of Kent Pag. 114 All swear the Oath of Succession Pag. 119 Fisher Bishop of Rochester is in trouble ibid But is very obstinate Pag. 121 More and Fisher refuse the Oath ibid Another Session of Parliament establishes the King's Supremacy Pag. 123 The Progress of the Reformation in Engl. Pag. 125 The Supplication of the Beggars Pag. 127 Frith writes against Purgatory Pag. 128 A Persecution set on by More Pag. 129 Bilney 's Martyrdom ibid Frith 's Sufferings Pag. 133 A stop put to further Cruelties Pag. 135 The Interest the Reformers had at Court Pag. 136 Others oppose them much Pag. 137 The Opinion of some Bishops of a General Council Pag. 138 Heads of a Speech of Cranmer's Pag. 139 The state of England at that time Pag. 141 1535. A General Visitation proposed Pag. 144 Instructions and Injunctions for it ibid The state of the Monasteries in England Pag. 146 Some Houses surrendered to the King Pag. 150 1536. Queen Katherin's Death Pag. 151 The lesser Monasteries suppressed Pag. 152 A Translation of the Bible designed Pag. 153 Queen Ann Boleyn 's Fall Pag. 155 Her Trial Pag. 159 And Execution Pag. 162 Censures past upon it Pag. 164 Lady Mary 's Submission to the King Pag. 165 The Act of the Succession Pag. 167 The Pope desires a Reconciliation with the K. Pag. 168 Acts against the Pope's Power ibid The Convocation examines some Points of Religion Pag. 169 Articles of Religion agreed on Pag. 172 Which are variously censured Pag. 174 Other Alterations proposed Pag. 175 The King protests against all Councils called by the Pope Pag. 178 Card. Pool writes against him Pag. 179 The lesser Monasteries seized on Pag. 181 Which gave a general discontent Pag. 182 Injunctions given by the King Pag. 184 A Rebellion in Lincolnshire Pag. 186 Another in Yorkshire Pag. 187 They are every where quieted Pag. 191 Greater Monasteries surrendered Pag. 193 Some Abbots Attainted Pag. 196 The Impostures of some Images discovered Pag. 200 Becket 's Shrine broken Pag. 201 The Pope thunders against the King Pag. 203 The English Bishops assert the King's Supremacy and explain the Nature of the Power of the Church Pag. 205 The Bible set out in English and new Injunctions Pag. 208 Prince Edward born Pag. 209 Lambert is condemned and burnt for denying the Corporal Presence Pag. 210 Treaties with the German Princes Pag. 213 1539. The Act of the six Articles Pag. 215 Censures past upon it Pag. 219 An Act for the suppressing the Monasteries Pag. 220 An Act for new Bishopricks Pag. 222 An Act for Proclamations Pag. 224 Some Attainted without being heard Pag. 225 The King's kindness to Cranmer Pag. 226 Bishops hold their Sees at the Kings Pleasure Pag. 228 All the Monasteries supprest Pag. 229 A Treaty for a Match with Ann of Cleve Pag. 233 The King marries her but never likes her Pag. 234 The Knights of St. John suppressed Pag. 236 A new Parliament Pag. 235 Cromwel 's Fall Pag. 238 His Attaindor Pag. 240 Censures past upon it Pag. 241 The King's Marriage annull'd Pag. 242 Cromwel 's Death Pag. 246 A Book of Religion set out by the Bishops Pag. 247 The Explanation of Faith Pag. 248 And of the Sacraments Pag. 250 The Book is publisted Pag. 253 Barns ard others fall into Trouble Pag. 255 And burnt Pag. 257 New Sees founded Pag. 260 1541. The Bible set up in Churches Pag. 262 The Affairs of Scotland Pag. 264 A Persecution set on foot in Scotland Pag. 269 The Queen 's ill Life is discovered Pag. 271 1542. A design to suppress the Bible Pag. 274 Bonner's Injunctions ibid The way of Preaching at that time Pag. 275 A War with Scotland Pag. 279 1543. A Parliament called Pag. 280 An Act about Religion ibid Affairs in Scotland Pag. 282 Some burnt at Windsor Pag. 284 Cranmer 's Ruine is designed Pag. 286 1544. The Act of the Succession Pag. 288 The King makes War on France and Scotland Pag. 290 The King takes Bulloign Pag. 291 1545. Wishart burned in Scotland Pag. 292 Cardinal Beaton is murdered Pag. 294 Chantries given to the King Pag. 296 1546. A Peace with France Pag. 297 Ann Aiscough and others burnt Pag. 298 Designs against Cranmer Pag. 300 And against the Queen Pag. 301 The Duke of Norfolk's Fall Pag. 303 1547. The Earl of Surrey executed Pag. 304 The Duke is Attainted in Parliament Pag. 305 The King's Sickness Pag. 307 And Death Pag. 308 His Severities against Papists Pag. 309 The Carthusians in particular Pag. 310 Fisher 's Sufferings Pag. 311 More 's Death and Character Pag. 312 Attainders after the Rebellions Pag. 314 Forrest burnt for Heresy Pag. 315 Cardinal Pool's Friends Attainted Pag. 316 Some Attainted without being heard ibid The Conclusion Pag. 319 BOOK II. Of the Life and Reign of King Edward the Sixth KIng Edward 's Birth and Education Pag. 1 King Henry's Testament Pag. 2 A Protector chosen Pag. 4 Bishops take out Commissions ibid A Creation of Noblemen Pag. 5 Laymen had Ecclesiastical Dignities Pag. 7 Some take down Images Pag. 8 Arguments for and against it Pag. 9 The King's Funeral Pag. 12 Soul Masses examined ibid The Coronation Pag. 14 The Chancellour turned out Pag. 15 Protectors Patent Pag. 17 The Affairs of Germany ibid The Council of Trent Pag. 19 Divisions in England Pag. 20 The Visitation of all Churches Pag. 23 Censures on the Injunctions Pag. 26 The War with Scotland Pag. 28 The Battel of Musselburgh Pag. 31 The Success of the Visitation Pag. 32 A Parliament meets Pag. 35 An Act of Repeal ibid An Act about the Sacrament Pag. 36 An Act concerning the Nomination of Bishops Pag. 37 An Act against Vagabonds Pag. 39 An Act for dissolving the Chantries Pag. 40 The Convocation sits ibid The Affairs of Germany Pag. 43 Differences between the Protector and the Admiral Pag. 45 1548. The M. of Northampton 's Divorce Pag. 48 Some Ceremonies abrogated Pag. 49 A new Office for the Communion Pag. 52 Auricular Confession examined Pag. 54 Gardiner is imprisoned Pag. 56 A new Liturgy composed Pag. 58 The new Offices Pag. 61 Private Communion Pag. 62 Censures past on the Common-Prayer Book Pag. 63 All Preaching was for some time restrained Pag. 64 Affairs in Scotland Pag. 65 Affairs in Germany Pag. 67 1549. A Session of Parliament Pag. 69 An Act for the Marriage of the Clergy ibid An Act confirming the Liturgy Pag. 72 An Act for Fasting Pag. 73 The Admirals Attainder Pag. 74 A new Visitation Pag. 77 Disputes concerning Christs Presence
to his Son Henry which was like to draw in other Princes to a League with him who would have been much better pleased to see a King's younger Son among them than either the Emperour or the King of France The King's Matter was now in a fairer way of being adjusted for the Pope's Conscience being directed by his Interests since he had now broken with the Emperour it was probable he would give the King content He saw the danger of losing England The Interest of the Clergy was much sunk and they were in a great measure subjected to the Crown Lutheranism was also making a great Progress and the Pope was out of any danger from the Emperour on whom the whole Power of the Turkish Empire was now fallen drawn in as was believed by the Practices of Francis at the Port tho that did not well agree with his Title of Most Christian King The Princes of Germany took Advantage from this to make the Emperour consent to some further liberty in matters of Religion and to secure themselves they were then also entered into a League with Francis for preserving the Rights of the Empire unto which King Henry was invited All this raised Francis again very high so he was the fittest Person to mediate an Agreement between the King and the Pope and being himself a Lover of Pleasure he was the more easily engaged to serve the King in the accomplishment of his Amours A new Session of Parliament was held A misunderstanding between the House of Commons in which the Laity complained of the spiritual Courts of their way of proceeding ex Officio and not admitting Persons accused to their Purgation But this was not much considered by reason of an ill understanding that fell in between the King and the House of Commons There was a Custom brought in of making such Settlements of Estates that the Heir was not liable to Wards and the other Advantages to which the King or the Great Lords had otherwise a Right by their Tenures So a Bill for regulating that was sent down by the Lords but the Commons rejected it which gave the King great Offence upon that they addressed to the King for a Dissolution since they had been now obliged to a long Attendance The King answered them sharply He said they had rejected a Bill in which he had offered a great Abatement of that which he might claim by Law and therefore he would execute the Law in its utmost severity He told them he had Patience while his Suit was in dependence and so they must have likewise For this Parliament was made up of Men very ill affected to the Clergy so the King kept it still in being to terrify the Court of Rome so much the more All that was remarkable that past in this Session was an Act against Annats An Act against Annats it sets forth that they were founded on no Law they were first enacted to defend Christendom against Infidels and were now kept up as a Revenue to the Papacy and Bulls were not granted till they were compounded for for 800000 Ducats had bin carried out of England to Rome on that account since the beginning of the former Reign The King was bound by his Royal Care of his Subjects to hinder such Oppressions and therefore all that were provided to great Benefices were required not to pay First Fruits for the future under the pain of forfeiting all their Goods and the profits of their Benefices and those that were presented to Bishopricks were appointed to be consecrated tho their Bulls were denied at Rome and they were required to pay no more but 5 per Cent. of the clear Profits of their Sees If the Pope should upon this proceed to censures they required all the Clergy to perform Divine Offices these notwithstanding But by an extraordinary Proviso they referred it to the King to declare at any time between that and Easter next whether this Act should take place or not and the King by his Letters Patents declared that it should take place being provoked by the Pope In January the Pope The Pope writes to the King upon the motion of the Imperialists wrote to the King complaining that notwithstanding a Suit was depending concerning his Marriage yet he had put away his Queen and kept one Anne as his Wife contrary to a Prohibition served on him therefore he exhorted him to live with his Queen again and to put Anne away Upon this the King sent Dr. Bennet to Rome with a large Dispatch The King's Answer in it he complained that the Pope proceeded in that matter upon the Suggestion of others who were ignorant and rash Men the Pope had carried himself inconstantly and deceitfully in it and not as became Christ's Vicar and the King had now for several Years expected a Remedy from him in vain The Pope had granted a Commission had promised never to recal it and had sent over a Decretal Bull defining the Cause Either these were unjustly granted or unjustly recalled If he had Authority to grant these things where was the Faith which became a Friend much more a Pope since he had recalled them If he had not Authority to grant them he did not know how far he could consider any thing he did It was plain that he acted more with regard to his Interests than according to Conscience and that as the Pope had often confessed his own Ignorance in these matters so he was not furnished with Learned Men to advise him otherwise he would not maintain a Marriage which almost all the Learned Men and Universities in England France and Italy had condemned as unlawful He desired the Pope would excuse the Freedom he used to which his Carriage had forced him He would not question his Authority unless he were compelled to it and would do nothing but reduce it to its first and ancient Limits which was much better than to let high it run on headlong and still do amiss This high Letter made the Pope resolve to proceed and end this matter either by a Sentence or a Treaty The King was cited to answer to the Queen's Appeal at Rome in Person or by Proxy so Sir Edward Karme was sent thither in the new Character of the King 's Excusator to excuse the King's Appearance upon such grounds as could be founded on the Canon Law The King cited to Rome excuses himself and upon the Privileges of the Crown of England Bonner that was a forwad and ambitious Man and would stick at nothing that might contribute to his Preferment was sent over with him The Imperialists pressed the Pope much to give Sentence but all the wise Cardinals who observed by the Proceedings of the Parliament that the Nation would adhere to the King if he should be provoked to shake off the Pope's Yoke were very apprehensive of a Breach and suggested milder Counsels to the Pope and the King's Agents assured him that if he
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
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
Crowned Gardiner with ten other Bishops performing that Ceremony with the ordinary solemnity Day being esteemed the best Preacher among them preached the Sermon There was a General Pardon proclaimed and with that the Queen discharged the Subjects of the two Tenths two Fifteenths and a Subsidy that had been granted by the last Parliament and she also declared that she would pay both her Fathers Debts and her Brothers and though her Treasure was much exhausted yet she esteeming the love of her People her best Treasure forgave those Taxes in lieu of which she desired only the hearts of her Subjects and that they would serve God sincerely and pray earnestly for her On the 20th A Parliament meets and repeals several Laws of October a Parliament met There had been great violences used in many Elections and many false Returns were made some that were known to be zealous for the Reformation were forcibly turned out of the House of Commons which was afterwards offered as a ground upon which that Parliament and all Acts made in it might have been annulled There came only two of the Reformed Bishops to the House of Lords The two Arch-bishops and three Bishops were in Prison Two others were turned out the rest stayed at home so only Taylor and Harley the Bishops of Lincoln and Hereford came When Mass began to be said they went out as some report it but were never suffered to come to their places again others say they refused to joyn in that Worship and so were violently thrust out In the House of Commons some of the more forward moved that King Edward's Laws might be reviewed but things were not ripe enough for that Nowell a Prebendary of Westminster was returned Burgess for a Town but the House voted That the Clergy being represented in the lower House of Convocation could not be admitted to sit among the Laity The Commons sent up a Bill of Tonnage and Poundage which the Lords sent down amended in two Proviso's and the Commons did not then insist on their Priviledge that the Lords could not alter a Bill of Money The only publick Bill that was finished this Session was a Repeal of all late Statutes making any Crime Treason that was not so by the 25. of Edward the Third or Felony that was not so before King Henry the Eighth excepting from the benefit of this Act all that were put in Prison before the end of September last who were also excepted out of the General Pardon The Marchioness of Exeter and the Earl of Devonshire her Son were restored in blood by two private Acts and then the Parliament was prorogued for three days that it might be said the first Session under the Queen was meerly for Acts of Mercy At their next Meeting The Qu.'s Mother's marriage confirm'd after the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage was past a Bill past through both Houses in Four days repealing the Divorce of the Queens Mother In which they declared the Marriage to have been lawful and that malicious Persons had possessed the King with scruples concerning it and had by Corruption procured the Seals of Foreign Universities condemning it and had by threatnings and sinistrous Arts obtained the like in England Upon which Cranmer had pronounced the Sentence of Divorce which had been confirmed in Parliament They therefore looking on the miseries that had fallen on the Nation since that time as Judgments from God for that sentence condemn it and repeal the Acts confirming it Gardiner in this performed his promise to the Queen of getting her to be declared Legitimate without taking notice of the Pope's authority but he shewed that he was past shame when he procured such a Repeal of a Sentence which he had so servilely promoted and he particularly knew the falshood of this pretence that the foreign Universities were corrupted He had also set it on long before Cranmer engaged in it and sat in Court with him when it was pronounced By this Act the Lady Elizabeth was upon the matter again illegitimated since the ground upon which her Mothers marriage subsisted was the Divorce of the first Marriage and it was either upon this pretence or on old scores that the Queen who had hitherto treated her as a Sister began now to use her more severely Others suggest that a secret rivalry was the true spring of it It was thought the Earl of Devonshire was much in the Queens favour but he either not presuming so high or liking Lady Elizabeth better who was both more beautiful and was XIX Years younger than the Queen made his addresses to her which provoked the Queen so much that it drew a great deal of trouble on them both The next Bill was a Repeal of all the Laws made in King Edward's reign King Edward's Laws about Religion repealed concerning Religion it was argued six days in the House of Commons and carried without a Division by this Religion was again put back into the state in which King Henry had left it and this was to take place after the 20th of December next but till then it was left free to all either to use the old or the new Service as they pleased Another Act past against all that should disquiet any Preacher for his Sermons or interrupt Divine Offices either such as had been in the last year of King Henry or such as the Queen should set out by which she was empowered to restore the service in all things as it had been before her Father made the breach with Rome Offenders were either to be punished by Ecclesiastical Censures or by an Imprisonment for three Months And the House of Commons was now so forward that they sent up a Bill for the Punishing of all such as would not come to Church or Sacraments after the Old Service should be again set up yet the Lords fearing this might alarm the Nation too much let it fall Another Law was made that if any to the number of Twelve should meet to alter any thing in Religion or for any Riot or should by any publick notice such as Bells or Beacons gather the People together and upon Proclamation made should not disperse themselves they and all that assisted them were declared guilty of Felony and if any more than two met for these ends they should lye a Year in Prison and all People were required under severe Penalties to assist the Justices for repressing such Assemblies So the favour of the former Act of Repeal appeared to be a mockery when so soon after it so severe a Law made by which disorders that might arise upon sudden heats were declared to be Felonies The Marquess of Northampton's second Marriage was also annulled but no Declaration was made against Divorces in general grounded on the Indissolubleness of the Marriage bond only that particular sentence was condemned as pronounced upon false surmises An Act also passed The Duke of Norfolks Attainder repealed annulling the Attainder of the Duke of
manage the matter that it came to nothing This failing his Enemies procured an order to be sent to him to go into Yorkshire Thither he went in great State with 160 Horses in his Train and 72 Carts following him and there he lived some time But the King was informed that he was practising with the Pope and the Emperour So the Earl of Northumberland was sent to arrest him of high Treason and bring him up to London On the way he sickned which different collours of Wit may impute either to a greatness or meanness of Mind His Death tho the last be the truer In Conclusion he died at Leicester making great Protestations of his constant Fidelity to the King particularly in the matter of his Divorce And he wished he had served God as faithfully as he had done the King for then he would not have cast him off in his gray Hairs as the King had done Words that declining Favourites are apt to reflect on but they seldom remember them in the hight of their Fortune The King thought it necessary to secure himself of the Affections and Confidences of his People before he would venture on any thing that should displease two such mighty Potentates as the Pope and the Emperour A Parliament is called So a Parliament was called in it the Commons prepared several Bills against some of the Corruptions of the Clergy particularly against Plurality of Benefices and Non-residence Abuses that even Popery it self could not but condemn The Clergy abhorred the Precedent of the Commons medling in Ecclesiastical matters so Fisher spoke vehemently against them and said all this flowed from lack of Faith Upon this the Commons complained of him to the King for reproaching them the House of Peers either thought it no breach of Priviledge or were willing to wink at it for they did not interpose Fisher was hated by the Court for adhering so firmly to the Queen's Interests so he was made to explain himself and it was passed over The Bills were much opposed by the Clergy but in the end they were passed The Kings Debts are discharged and had the Royal Assent In this long Interval of Parliament the King had borrowed great Sums of Mony so the Parliament both to discourage that way of supplying Kings for the Future and for ruining the Cardinal's Creatures who had been most forward to lend as having the greatest Advantages from the Government did by an Act discharge the King of all those Debts The King granted a general Pardon with an exception of such as had incurred the pains of Premunire by acknowledging a Forraign Jurisdiction with design to terrify the Pope and keep the Clergy under the lash The King found it necessary to make all sure at home for now were the Pope and Emperour linkt in the firmest Friendship possible The Pope's Nephew was made Duke of Florence and married the Emperour's Natural Daughter A Peace was also made between Francis and the Emperour and the King found it not so easy to make him break with the Pope upon his account as he had expected The Emperour went into Italy and was crowned by the Pope who when the Emperour was kneeling down to kiss his Foot humbled himself so far as to draw it in and kiss his Cheek But now the King intending to proceed in the Method proposed by Cranmer The Vniversities declare against the King's Marriage sent to Oxford and Cambridg to procure their Conclusions At Oxford it was referred by the major part of the Convocation to thirty three Doctors and Batchelors of Divinity whom that Faculty was to name they were impowered to determine the Question and put the Seal of the University to their Conclusion And they gave their Opinions that the Marriage of the Brother's Wife was contrary both to the Laws of God and Nature At Cambridg the Convocation was unwilling to refer it to a select number yet it was after some days Practice obtained but with great difficulty that it should be referred to twenty nine of which number two thirds agreeing they were empowered to put the Seal of the University to their Determination These agreed in Opinion with those of Oxford The jealousy that went of Dr. Cranmer's favouring Lutheranism made that the fierce Popish Party opposed every thing in which he was so far engaged They were also afraid of Ann Bolleyn's Advancement who was believed tinctured with those Opinions Crook a learned Man in the Greek Tongue was imployed in Italy to procure the Resolution of Divines there in which he was so successful that besides the great discoveries he made in searching the Manuscripts of the Greek Fathers concerning their Opinions in this point he engaged several Persons to write for the King's Cause and also got the Jews to give their Opinions of the Laws in Leviticus that they were Moral and Obligatory Yet when a Brother died without Issue his Brother might marry his Widow within Judea for preserving their Families and Succession but they thought that might not be done out of Judea The State of Venice would not declare themselves but said they would be Neutrals and it was not easy to perswade the Divines of the Republick to give their Opinions till a Brief was obtained of the Pope permitting all Divines and Canonists to deliver their Opinions according to their Consciences which was not granted but with great difficulty Crook was not in a condition to corrupt any for he complained in all his Letters of the great want he was in And he was in such ill terms with John Cassali the King's Embassadour at Venice that he complained much of him to the King and was in fear of being poysoned by him The Pope abhorred this way of proceeding though he could not decently oppose it but he said in great scorn that no Friar should set Limits to his Power Crook was ordered to give no Mony nor make Promises to any till they had freely delivered their Opinion which as he writ he had so carefully observed that he offered to forfeit his Head if the contrary were found true Fifteen or Twenty Crowns was all the reward he gave even to those that wrot for the King's Cause and a few Crowns he gave to some of those that subscribed But the Emperour rewarded those that wrot against the Divorce with good Benesices so little reason there was to ascribe the Subscriptions he procured to Corruption the contrary of which appears by his Original Accounts yet extant Besides many Divines and Canonists not only whole Houses of Religious Orders but even the University of Bononia tho the Pope's Town declared that the Laws in Leviticus about the degrees of Marriage were parts of the Law of Nature and that the Pope could not dispense with them The University of Padua determined the same as also that of Ferrara In all Crook sent over to England an hundred several Books and Papers with many Subscriptions all condemning the King's Marriage as
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
second him in his Suit He encouraged him to proceed to a second Marriage without more adoe and assured him he would stand by him in it And told him he intended to restrain the payment of Annats to Rome and would ask of the Pope a Redress of that and other Grievances and if it was denied he would seek other Remedies in a Provincial Council An Enterview was proposed between the Pope and Him to which he desired the King go with him and King the was not unwilling to it if he could have assurance that his Business would be finally determined The Pope offered to the King to send a Legate to any indifferent place out of England to form the Process reserving only the giving Sentence to himself And proposed to him and all Princes a General Truce that so he might call a General Council The King answered that such was the present State of the Affairs of Europe that it was not seasonable to call a General Council that it was contrary to his Prerogative to send a Proxy to appear at Rome That by the Decrees of General Councils all Causes ought to be judged on the place and by a Provincial Council and that it was fitter to judge it in Engiand than any where else And that by his Coronation Oath he was bound to maintain the Dignities of his Crown and the Rights of his Subjects and not to appear before any forraign Court So Sir Thomas Elliot was sent over with Instructions to move that the cause might be judged in England Yet if the Pope had real Intentions of giving the King full Satisfaction he was not to insist on that And to make the Cardinal of Ravenna sure he sent him the offer of the Bishoprick of Coventry and Litchfield Nov. 14. The King marries Ann Bolleyn then vacant Soon after this the King married Ann Bolleyn Rowland Lee afterwards Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield did officiate none being present but the Duke of Norfolk and her Father her Mother and her Brother and Cranmer It was thought that the former Marriage being null of it self the King might proceed to another And perhaps they hoped that as the Pope had formerly proposed this Method so he would now approve of it But tho the Pope had joyned himself to France yet he was still so much in fear of the Emperour that he resolved not to provoke him and so was not wrought on by any of the Expedients which Bennet proposed which were either to judge the Cause in England according to the Council of Nice or to refer it to the Arbitration of some to be named by the King and the King of France and the Pope for all these he said tended to the Diminution of the Papal Power A new Citation was issued out for the King to answer to the Queen's Complaints but the King's Agents protested that he was a Soveraign Prince that England was a free Church over which the Pope had no just Authority and that the King could expect no Justice at Rome where the Empeperours Power was so great At this time the Parliament met again and past an Act The Parliament condemns Appeals to Rome condemning all Appeals to Rome In it they set forth That the Crown was Imperial and that the Nation was a compleat Body having full Power to do Justice in all Cases both Spiritual and Temporal And that as former Kings had maintained the Liberties of the Kingdom against the Usurpations of the See of Rome so they found the great Inconveniencies of allowing Appeals in Matrimonial Causes That they put them to great Charges and accasioned many Delayes Therefore they enacted That thereafter those should be all judged within the Kingdom and no regard should be had to any Appeals to Rome or Censures from it But Sentences given in England were to have their full Effect and all that executed any Censures from Rome were to incur the pains of Premunire Appeals were to be from the Arch-deacon to the Bishop and from him to the Archbishop And in the Causes that concerned the King the Appeal was to be to the upper House or Convocation There was now a new Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer made Archbishop of Canterbury Warham died the former Year He was a great Patron of Learning a good Canonist and wise States-man but was a cruel Persecutor of Hereticks and inclined to believe Fanatical Stories Cranmer was then in Germany disputing in the King's Cause with some of the Emperour 's Divines The King resolved to advance him to that Dignity and sent him word of it that so he might make haste over But a Promotion so far above his Thoughts had not its common Effects on him He had a true and primitive Sense of so great a Charge and instead of aspiring to it he was afraid of it he both returned very slowly to England and used all his Endeavours to be excused from that Advancement But this declining of Preferment being a thing of which the Clergy of that Age were so little guilty discovered That he had Maximes very far different from most Church-men Bulls were sent for to Rome in order to his Consecration which the Pope granted tho it could not be very grateful to him to send them to one who had so publickly disputed against his Power of dispensing all the Composition that was payed for them was but 900 Ducats which was perhaps according to the Regulation made in the Act against Annats There were 9 several Bulls sent over one confirming the King's Nomination a Second requiring him to accept it a Third absolving him from Censures a Fourth to the Suffragan Bishops a Fifth to the Dean and Chapter a Sixth to the Clergy a Seventh to the Laity an Eighth to the Tenants of the See requiring all these to receive him to be their Archbishop a Ninth requiring some Bishops to consecrate him the Tenth gave him the Pall and by the Eleventh the Archbishop of York was required to put it on him The putting all this in so many different Bulls was a good Contrivance for raising the Rents of the Apostolick Chamber On the 30 of March Cranmer was consecrated by the Bishops of Lincoln Exeter and St. Asaph The Oath to the Pope was of hard Digestion So he made a Protestation before he took it that he conceived himself not bound up by it in any thing that was contrary to his Duty to God to his King or Country and he repeated this when he took it so that if this seemed too artificial for a Man of his sincerity yet he acted in it fairly The Convocation condemns the King's Marriage and above Board The Convocation had then two Questions before them the first was Concerning the Lawfulness of the King's Marriage and the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation the other was of Matter of Fact Whether P. Arthur had consummated the Marriage or not For the first the Judgments of 19 Universities were read and after a
Journey unless the Pope would promise to give the King Satisfaction The King of France said he was engaged in Honour to go on but assured them he would mind the King 's Concerns with as much Zeal as if they were his own In September the Queen brought forth a Daughter the renowned Queen Elizabeth and the King having before declared Lady Mary Princess of Wales Sept 7. Q. Elizabeth born did now the same for her Tho since a Son might put her from it she could not be Heir Apparent but only the Heir Presumptive to the Crown At Marseilles the Marriage was made up between the Duke of Orleans and the Pope's Neece to whom the Pope gave besides 100000 Crowns many Principalities which he pretended were either Fiefs of the Papacy or belonged to him in the Rights of the House of Medici The Pope's Historian with some Triumph boasted that the Marriage was Consummated that very Night tho it was thought not credible that P. Arthur that was Nine Months older than the new Duke of Orleans afterwards Henry the Second did Consummate his There was a secret Agreement made between the Pope and Francis that if King Henry would refer his Cause to the Consistory excepting only to the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction as partial and would in all other things return to his Obedience to the See of Rome The Pore promises to satisfy K. Henry then Sentence should be given in his Favours but this to be kept secret So Bonner not being trusted with it and sent thither with an Appeal from the Pope to the next General Council made it with great boldness and threatned the Pope upon it with so much Vehemence that the Pope talked of throwing him into a Cauldron of melted Lead or burning him alive And he apprehending some danger fled away privately But when Francis came back to Paris he sent over the Bishop of that City to the King to let him know what he had obtained of the Pope in his Favours and the Terms on which it was promised This wrought so much on the King that he presently consented to them And upon that the Bishop of Paris tho it was now in the middle of Winter took Journey to Rome being sure of the Scarlet if he could be the Instrument of regaining England which was then upon the point of being lost What these Assurances were which the Pope gave is not certain but the Archbishop of York and Tenstal of Duresm in a Letter which they wrote on that Occasion say that the Pope said at Marseilles That if the King would send a Proxy to Rome he would give Sentence for him against the Queen for he knew his Cause was good and just Upon the Bishop of Paris's coming to Rome the matter seemed agreed for it was promised that upon the King 's sending a Promise under his hand to put things in their former state and his ordering a Proxy to appear for him Judges should be sent to Cambray for making the Process and then Sentence should be given Upon the notice given of this and of a Day that was prefixt for the return of the Courier the King dispatched him with all possible hast and now the Business seemed at an end But the Courier had a Sea and the Alps to pass and in Winter it was not easy to observe a limited day so exactly This made that he came not to Rome on the prefixed day upon which the Imperialists gave out that the King was abusing the Pope's Easiness so they prest him vehemently to proceed to a Sentence The Bishop of Paris moved only for a delay of six days which was no unreasonable time in that Season and in favours of such a King who had a Suit depending six Days and since he had Patience so many Years the delay of a few days was no extraordinary Favour But the design of the Imperialists was to hinder a Reconciliation for if the King had been set right with the Pope there would have been so powerful a League formed against the Emperour as would have broke all his Measures And therefore it was necessary for his Designes to imbroil them It was also said That the King was seeking Delayes and Concessions meerly to delude the Pope and that he had proceeded so far in his Design against that See that it was necessary to go on to Censures And the angry Pope was so provoked by them and by the News that he heard out of England that without consulting his ordinary Prudence he brought in the matter to the Consistory and there the Imperialists being the greater number it was driven on with so much Precipitation that they did in on day that which according to Form should have been done in three They gave the final Sentence declaring the King's Marriage with Queen Katherine good and required him to live with her as his Wife 23. March But proceeds hastily to a Sentence otherwise they would proceed to Censures Two days after that the Courier came with the King's Submission in due form He also brought earnest Letters from Francis in the King's Favours This wrought on all the indifferent Cardinals as well as those of the French Faction So they praied the Pope to recall what was done A new Consistory was called but the Imperialists prest with greater Vehemence then ever that they would not give such Scandal to the World as to recall a definitive Sentence past of the validity of a Marriage and give the Hereticks such Advantages by their unsteadiness in matters of that nature And so it was carried that the former Sentence should take place and the Execution of it was committed to the Emperour When this was known in England it determined the King in his Resolutions of shaking off the Pope's Yoke in which he had made so great a Progress that the Parliament had past all the Acts concerning it before he had the News from Rome For he judged that the best way to Peace was to let them at Rome see with what vigour he could make War All the rest of the World lookt on astonished to see the Court of Rome throw off England with so much scorn as if they had been weary of the Obedience and Profits of so great a Kingdom and their Proceedings look'd as if they had been secretly directed by a Divine Providence that designed to draw great Consequences from this Rupture and did so far infatuate those that were most concerned to prevent it that they needlesly drew it on themselves In England they had been now examining the Foundations on which the Papal Authority was built The â—rguments used for rejecting the Pope's Power with extraordinary Care for some Years and several Books being then and soon after written on that Subject the Reader will be able to see better into the Reasons of their Proceedings by a short Abstract of these All the Apostles were made equal in the Powers that Christ gave them and he often condemned
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
of the Clergy empowered to abrogate or regulate them as they should see Cause This was confirmed in Parliament and the Act against Appeals to Rome was renewed and an Appeal was allowed from the Archbishop to the King upon which the Lord Chancellor was to grant a Commission for a Court of Delegates A Proviso was added that till the Committee of 32 should settle a Regulation of the Canons those then in force should still take place except such as were contrary to the King's Prerogative or the Laws But this last Proviso tho it seemed reasonable to give the Spiritual Courts some Rules till the 32 should finish their Work made that it came to nothing for it was thought more for the Greatness of the King's Authority and it subjected the Bishop's Courts more to the Prohibitions of the Temporal Courts to keep this whole matter in such General Terms than to have brought it to a Regulation that should be fixed and constant Another Act past An Act for the Election of Bishops for regulating the Elections and Consecrations of Bishops condemning all Bulls from Rome and appointing that upon a Vacancy the King should grant a Licence for an Election and should by a missive Letter signify the Person 's Name whom he would have chosen And within twelve Days after these were delivered the Dean and Chapter or Prior and Convent were required to return an Election of the Person named by the King under their Seals The Bishop Elect was upon that to swear Fealty and a Writ was to be issued out for his Consecration in the usual manner After that he was to do Homage to the King upon which both the Temporalities and Spiritualities were to be restored and Bishops were to exercise their Jurisdiction as they had done before All that transgressed this Act were made guilty of a premunire A private Act past depriving Cardinal Campegio and Jerome de Ghinuccii of the Bishopricks of Salisbury and Worcester the Reasons given for it are because they did not reside in their Diocesses for Preaching the Laws of God and keeping Hospitality but lived at the Court of Rome and carried 3000 l. a Year out of the Kingdom The last Act of a publick Nature The Attaindor of the Nun of Kent tho relating only to private Persons of which I shall give an account was concerning the Nun of Kent and her Complices It was the first occasion of shedding any Blood in this Quarrel and it was much cherished by all the Superstitious Clergy that adhered to the Queen's Interests and the Pope's The Nun and many of her Complices came to the Lord's Bar and confessed the whole matter Among the Concealers of this Treason Sir Thomas More and Fisher were named the former wrote upon that a long Letter to Cromwel giving him a particular account of all the Conversation he had at any time with the Nun He acknowledged he had esteemed her highly not so much out of any regard he had to her Prophesies but for the Opinion he conceived of her Holiness and Humility But he adds that he was then convinced That she was the most false dissembling Hypocrite that had been known and guilty of most detestable Hypocrisy and divellish dissembled Falshood He also believed that she had Communication with an evil Spirit Concerning this Letter a curious Discovery has been made In Queen Mary's time More 's Works were published and among them other Letters of his to Cromwel relating to that long one which he wrote concerning the Nun were printed but that was left out of which More kept a Copy and gave it to his Daughter Roper that Copy was in the MS. out of which the rest were published and out of that I have transcribed it The design of suppressing it seems to be this It is probable there might have been some thoughts in Queen Mary's time to Canonize the Nun since she was called a Martyr for her Mother's Marriage and there was no want of Miracles to justify it Therefore a Letter so plain and full against her was thought fit to be kept out of the way This Justification of Mores prevailed so far that his Name was struck out of the Bill The Act contains a Narrative of that whole Story which is in short this Elizabeth Barton of Kent fell in some Trances it seems they were Hysterical Fits and spake such things as made those about her think she was inspired of God The Parson of the Parish Master hoping to draw Advantages from this gave Archbishop Warham notice of it who ordered him to observe her carefully and bring him an account of what should follow But she had forgot all that she said in her Fitts when they were over Yet the Priest would not let it go so but perswaded her that she was inspired and taught her so to counterfeit those Trances that she became very ready at it The matter was much noised about and the Priest intended to raise the credit of an Image of the B. Virgins that was in his Church that so Pilgrimages and Offerings might be made to it by her means He associated to himself one Bocking a Monk of Canterbury and they taught her to say in her Fits that the B. Virgin appeared to her and told her she could not be well till she visited that Image She spake many good Words against ill Life and spake also against Heresy and the King's Suit of Divorce then depending and by many strange motions of her Body she seemed to be inwardly possessed A day was set for her cure and before an Assembly of 2000 People she was carried to that Image and after she had acted her Fitts all over she seemed of a sudden quite recovered which was ascribed to the Intercession of the Virgin and the Virtue of that Image She entered into a Religious Life and Bocking was her Ghostly Father There were wiolent Suspicions of Incontinence between them but the esteem she was in bore them down Many thought her a Prophetess and Warham among the rest A Book was also written of her Revelations and a Letter was shewed all in Letters of Gold pretended to be writ to her from Heaven by Mary Magdalene She pretended that when the King was last at Calais she was carried invisibly beyond Sea and brought back again and that an Angel gave her the Sacrament and that God revealed to her that if the King went on in his Divorce and married another Wife he should fall from his Crown and not live a Month longer but should die a Villain 's Death Many of the Monks of the Charter-House and the Observant Friers with many Nuns and B. Fisher came to give credit to this and set a great value on her and grew very insolent upon it for Frier Peyto preaching in the King's Chappel at Greenwich denounced the Judgments of God upon him and said tho others as lying Prophets deceived him yet he in the name of God told him that Dogs should lick
officious Courtiers are apt to do often without any good Grounds so that Silence was made an Argument of her Guilt and that she could not be defended But perhaps that was an effect of the Wisdom of the Ministers of that time who would not suffer so nice a Point upon which the Queen's Legitimation depended to be brought into dispute The day after Anne Boleyn's Death the King married Jane Scimour who gained more upon him than all his Wives ever did But she was happy that she did not out-live his Love to her Lady Mary was advised upon this turn of Affairs Lady Mary 's Submission oo the King to make her Submission to the King she offered to confess the Fault of her former Obstinacy and in General to give up her Understanding entirely to the King but that would not satisfy unless she would be more particular so at last she was prevailed with to do it in the fullest Terms that could be desired She acknowledged the King to be the Supream Head on Earth under Christ of the Church of England and did renounce the Bishop of Rome's Authority and promised in all things to be obedient to the Laws that were made which she said flowed from her inward Belief and Judgment and in which she would for ever continue and she did also acknowledg that the King's Marriage with her Mother was by God's Law and Man's Law unlawful and incestuous all this she writ with her own Hand and subscribed it upon which she was again received into Favour and an Establishment was made for a Family about her in which 40 l. a quarter was all the Allowance for her Privy Purse so great was the Frugality of that time Lady Elizabeth continued to be educated with great Care and was so forward that before she was four Years old she both wrote a good Hand and understood Italian for there are Letters extant written by her in that Language to Queen Jane when she was with child in which she subscribed Daughter On the 8th of June the Parliament met A Farliament meets which shews that it was summoned before the Justs at Greenwich The Chancellour told them that the King had called them to settle the Succession of the Crown in case he should dye without Children lawfully begotten and to repeal the Act made concerning his Marriage with Queen Anne It seems the Parliament was not at first easily brought to comply with these things and that it was necessary to take some pains to prepare them to it For the Bill of Succession was not put in till the 30th of June but then it was quickly dispatched without any Opposition by it the Attainder of Queen Anne and her Complices is confirmed both the Sentences of Divorces pass'd upon the King 's two former Marriages were also confirmed and the Issue by both was illegitimated and for ever excluded from claiming the Crown by Lineal Descent And the Succession was established on the King's Issue by his present Queen or any whom he might afterwards marry But it not being fit to declare who should succeed in default of that lest the Person so named might be thereby enabled to raise Commotions in Confidence of the King's Wisdom and Affection to his People they left it to him nominate his Successors either by Letters Patents or by his last Will signed by his Hand and promised to obey the Persons so nominated by him It was declared Treason to maintain the Lawfulness of his former Marriages or of his Issue by them and it was made not only Treason but a forfeiture of the Right of Succession if any of those whom the King should name in default of others should endeavour to get before them The Scots complained of this Act and said their Queen Dowager being King Henry's Eldest Sister could not be put by her Right after the King 's lawful Issue But by this the King was now made Master indeed and had the Crown put entirely in his Hands to be disposed of at his Pleasure and his Daughters were now to depend wholly on him He had it also in his Power in a great measure to pacify the Emperour by providing that his Kinswoman might succeed to the Crown Pope Clement the 7th Pope Paul the 3d proposes a Recoaciliation with the King was now dead and Farnese succeeded by the Name of Paul the 3d who after an unsuccesful Attempt which he made for reconciling himself with the King when that was rejected and Fisher was beheaded thundered out a most terrible Sentence of Deposition against him Yet now since both Queen Katherine and Queen Anne upon whose account the Breach was made were out of the way he thought it a fit time to try what might be done and ordered Cassali to let the King know that he had always favoured his Cause when he was a Cardinal that he was driven very much against his Mind to pass Sentence against him and that now it would be easy for him to recover the Favour of the Apostolick See But the King instead of hearkening to the Proposition Acts against the Pope's Power got two Acts to be pass'd The one was for the utter extinguishing the Pope's Authority and it was made a Premunire for any to acknowledg it or to perswade others to it And a strict Charge was given to all Magistrates under severe Penalties to enquire after all Offenders By another all Bulls and all Priviledges flowing from them were declared null and void only Marriages or Consecrations made by virtue of them were excepted All who enjoyed Priviledges by these Bulls were required to bring them into the Chancery upon which the Arch-bishop was to make them a new Grant of them and that being confirmed under the Great Seal was to be of full force in Law Another Act pass'd explaining an Exception that was in the Act for the Residence of all Incumbents by which those who were at the Universities were dispensed with upon which many went and lived idlely there It was therefore now declared that none above the Age of fourty except Heads and publick Readers should have the Benefit of that Proviso and that none under that Age should be comprehended in it except they performed their Exercises Another Act pass'd in Favour of the King's Heirs if they should Reign before they were of full Age that they might any time before they were 24 repeal by Letters Patents all Acts made during their Minority All these things being concluded the Parliament after it had sate six Weeks was dissolved The Convocation examines some points of Religion The Convocation sate at the same time and was much imployed for the House of Lords was oft adjourned because the Spiritual Lords were busy in the Convocation Latimer preached the Latine Sermon he was the most celebrated Preacher of that time the Simplicity of his matter and his Zeal in expressing it being preferred to more elaborate Composures They first confirmed the Sentence of the Divorce of
the Pope's Power and assert the King's Supremacy and to explain the Articles lately set forth by the Convocation and to publish the Abrogation of some Holy-days in Harvest time They were no more to extol Images Relicks or Pilgrimages but to exhort the People to do Works of Charity instead of them And they were required to teach the People the Lord's Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments in English and to explain these carefully and instruct the Children well in them They were to perform the Divine Offices reverently and to have good Curats to supply their rooms when they were absent They were charged not to go to Ale-houses or sit too long at Games but to study the Scriptures much and be exemplary in their Lives Those that did not reside were to give the fortieth part of their Income to the Poor and for every 100 l. a year that any had they were to maintain a Scholar at some Gramar-School or the University and if the Parsonage-house was in decay they were ordered to apply a fifth part of their Benefice for repairing it Such as did not obey these Injunctions were to be suspended and their mean Profits were to be sequestred The Clergy detested this Precedent of the King 's giving Injunctions without the Concurrence of a Convocation and by which they said they would be made Slaves to his Vicegerent they also complained of those heavy Taxes that were laid on them and that Images Relicks and Pilgrimages would be now brought under great Contempt Both the Secular and Regular Clergy were so sensibly concerned in these things that they inflamed the People all they could The great Abbots were not wanting for their share to set that on they were now opprest with the Crouds of those who were sent to them from the supprest Houses and they expected to fall next nor were their Fears removed by a Letter that was sent about in the King's Name for silencing all Reports that were given out of his Intentions to suppress them this rather encreased than lessened their Jealousie The People continued quiet till they had reaped their Harvest A Rebellion in Lincolnshire but in the beginning of October 20000 rose in Lincolnshire led by a Priest disguised into a Cobler They took an Oath to be true to God the King and the Common-wealth and sent a Paper of their Grievances to the King They complained of some Acts of Parliament of the suppressing of many Religious Houses of mean and ill Counsellours and bad Bishops and prayed the King to address their Grievances by the Advice of the Nobility but yet they acknowledged him to be their Supream Head and that the Tenths and first Fruits of Livings belonged to him of right The King sent the Duke of Suffolk to raise Forces against them and gave an Answer to their Petition He said it belonged not to the Rabble to direct Princes what Counsellours they should choose The Religious Houses were supprest by Law and the Heads of them had under their Hands confessed such horrid Scandals that they were a Reproach to the Nation and since in many of them there were not above four and that they wasted their Rents in riotous living it was much better to apply them to the common good of the Nation than leave them in such hands he required them to submit to his Mercy and to put two hundred of their Leaders into the hands of his Lieutenants The Clergy having brought so many together did all they could to put Heat and Spirit in them they perswaded them that if they did not maintain their Faith and their Liberties both would be lost Some of the Gentry were forced to joyn with them for their own Preservation and they sent Advices to the Duke of Suffolk to procure from the King the offer of a General Pardon which would effectually dissipate them At the same time there was a more formidable rising in York-shire Another in Yorkshire which being in the Neighbourhood of Scotland was like to draw Assistance from that Kingdom tho their King was then gone into France to marry Francis's Daughter this inclined the King to make more haste to settle matters in Lincolnshire he sent them secret Assurances of Mercy which wrought on the greatest part so they dispersed themselves and the most obstinate went to over them in Yorkshire The Cobler and some others were taken and executed The distance that those in the North were at from the Court gave them time to rise and form themselves into some Method One Ask commanded in chief and performed his part with great Dexterity their March was called The Pilgrimage of Grace they had in their Banners and on their Sleeves the five Wounds of Christ they took an Oath that they would restore the Church suppress Hereticks preserve the King and his Issue and drive base-born Men and ill Counsellours from him They became 40000 strong in a few days and met with no Opposition they forced the Arch-bishop of York and the Lord Darcy to swear their Covenant and to go along with them They besieged Skipton but the Earl of Cumberland made it good against them Sir Ralph Evers held out Scarborough Castle tho for twenty days he and his Men had no Provisions but Bread and Water There was also a rising in all the other Northern Counties against whom the Earl of Shrewsbury made Head and the King sent several of the Nobility to his Assistance and within a few days the Duke of Norfolk marched with some Troops and joyned him They possessed themselves of Doncaster and resolved to keep that pass till the rest of the Forces that the King had ordered to be summoned should come up to them for they were not in a Condition to engage with such numbers of desperate Men and it was very likely that if they met with any ill Accident the People might have risen about them every where so the Duke of Norfolk resolved to keep close at Doncaster and let the Provisions and Rage of the Rebels spend and then with the help of a little time they might probably fall into Factions and melt away They had now fallen to 30000 but the King's Army was not above 5000. The Duke of Norfolk proposed a Treaty and made some go among them as Desertors and spread Reports that their Leaders were making Terms for themselves They were perswaded to send their Petitions to the Court and the King to make them more secure discharged a Rendezvouz that he had appointed at Northampton and sent them a general Pardon excepting six by name and reserving four to be afterwards named but this put them all in such Apprehensions that it made them more resolved and desperate Yet the King to give his People some Content put out Injunctions requiring the Clergy to continue the use of all the Ceremonies of the Church 300 were imployed to carry the Rebels Demands to the King Which were a General Pardon a Parliament to be held at
York and that Courts of Justice should be set up there they desired that some Acts of Parliament might be repealed that the Princess Mary might be restored to her Right of Succession and the Pope to his wonted Jurisdiction that the Monasteries might be again set up that Audley and Cromwell might be put from the King and that some of the Visitors might be imprisoned for their Bribery and Extortion But these being rejected the Rebels took heart again upon which the Duke of Norfolk advised the King to gentle Methods he in his Heart wished that all their Demands might be granted and the Ld Darcy did accuse him afterwards as if he had encouraged them to make them The King sent him a general Pardon without any Exceptions to be made use of as he saw Cause The Rebels finding that with the loss of time they lost Heart resolved to fall upon him and beat him from Doncaster but at two several times in which they had resolved to pass the River such Rains fell out as made it unpassable which was magnified as next to a Miracle and made great Impressions on the Rebels Minds The King sent a long Answer to their Demands he assured them he would live and dye in the Defence of the Christian Faith but the Rabble ought not to prescribe to him and to the Convocation in that matter he answered that which concerned the Monasteries as he had done to the Men of Lincolnshire For the Laws a Multitude must not pretend to alter what was established he had governed them now 28 Years his Subjects had enjoyed great Safety and been very gently used by him in all that time It was given out that when he began to raign he had many of the Nobility in his Council and that he had then none but Men meanly born this was false for he found but two Noble-Men of his Council and at present there were 7 Temporal Lords and 4 Bishops in it It was necessary to have some that knew the Law of England and Treaties with Forreign Princes which made him call Audley and Cromwell to the Board If they had any Complaints to make of any about him he was ready to hear them but he would not suffer them to direct him what Counsellours he ought to employ nor could they judg of the Bishops that were promoted who were not known to them he charged them not to believe Lies nor be governed by Incendiaries but to submit to his Mercy On the 9th of December he signed a Proclamation of Pardon without any Restrictions When this was known They are every-where quieted and the Rage of the People cooled they were willing to lay hold on it and all the Artifices that some of the Clergy and their Leaders could use had no other Effect but to draw as many together as brought them under new Guilt and made them forfeit the benefit of the King's Pardon Many came in and renewed their Oaths of Allegiance and promising all Obedience for the future Ask was invited to the Court and well used by the King on design to learn from him all the secret Correspondencies they had in the other parts of the Kingdom for the Disposition to Rebel was general only they were not all alike forward in it It was in particular believed that the great Abbots cherished it for which some of them were afterwards attained Darcy pleaded his great Age being then fourscore and the Eminent Service he had done the Crown for fifty Years together and that he was forced for his own Preservation to go along with the Rebels but yet he was put in Prison This gave the Clergy Advantages to infuse it in the People that the Pardon would not be well kept So 8000 run together again and thought to have surprized Carlile but the Duke of Norfolk fell on them and routed them and by Martial Law hanged their Captains and 70 other Persons Others thought to have surprized Hull but were likewise routed and many of them were hanged Many other little Risings were quickly dispersed and such was the Duke of Norfolk's Vigilance that he was every where upon them before they could grow to any Number and before the end of January the Country was absolutely quieted Ask left the Court without leave but was soon retaken and hanged at York The Lord Darcy and Hussy were arraigned at Westminster and condemned by their Peers the one for the Yorkshire and the other for the Lincolnshire Insurrections Darcy was beheaded on Tower-hill his old Age and former Services made him to be much lamented Hussy was beheaded at Lincoln Darcy accused the Duke of Norfolk but he desired a Trial by Combate upon it yet the Services he had lately done were such that the King would not seem to have any Jealousy of him After these and several other Executions were over the King proclaimed a General Oblivion in July by which the Nation was again put in a quiet Condition and this threatning Storm was now quite dissipated As soon as it was over the King went on more resolutely in his Design of suppressing the Monasteries for he was now less apprehensive of any new Commotions after so many had been so happily quasht and that the chief Incendiaries had suffered A new Visitation was appointed to enquire into the Conversation of the Monks The greater Monasteries resigned to the King to examine how they stood affected to the Pope and how they promoted the King's Supremacy They were likewise ordered to examine what Impostures might be among them either in Images or Relicks by which the Superstition of the credulous People was wrought on Some few Houses of greater value were prevailed with the former Year to surrender to the King Many of the Houses that had not bin dissolved tho they were within the former Act were now supprest and many of the greater Abbots were wrought on to surrender by several Motives Some had been faulty during the Rebellion and so to prevent a Storm offered a Resignation Others liked the Reformation and did it on that account some were found guilty of great Disorders in their Lives and to prevent a shameful Discovery offered their Houses to the King and others had made such Wasts and Dilapidations that having taken Care of themselves they were less concerned for others At St. Albans the Rents were let so low that the Abbot could not maintain the Charge of the Abby At Battel the whole Furniture of the House and Chappel was not above an 100 l. in value and their Plate was not 300 l. In some Houses there was scarce any Plate or Furniture left Many Abbots and Monks were glad to accept of a Pension for Life and that was proportioned to the value of their House and to their Innocence The Abbots of St. Albans and Tewkesbury had 400 Marks a Year The Abbots of St. Edmondsbury was more innocent and more resolute The Visitors wrote that they found no Scandals in that House but at last
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
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
begged that he might be heard with his Accusers face to face He prayed that the King would take all his Lands and Goods and only restore him to his Favour and grant him such an Allowance to live on as he thought fit He went further and set his Hand to a Confession of several Crimes as 1. His revealing the Secrets of the King's Council 2. His concealing his Son's Treason in giving the Arms of Edward the Confessor 3. His own giving the Arms of England with the Labels of Silver which belonged only to the Prince which he acknowledged was High Treason and therefore he begged the King's Mercy But all this had no effect on the King tho his drawing so near his end ought to have begot in him a greater regard to the shedding of Innocent Blood When the Parliament met And the Duke attainted by Act of Parliament the King was not able to come to Westminster but he sent his Pleasure to them by a Commission He intended to have Prince Edward Crowned Prince of Wales and therefore desired they would make all possible hast in the Attainder of the Duke of Norfolk that so the Places which he held by Patent might be disposed of to others who should assist at the Coronation which tho it was a very slight Excuse for so high a piece of Injustice yet it had that effect that in seven Days both Houses past the Bill On the 27th of January the Royal Assent was given by those Commissioned by the King and the Execution was ordered to be next Morning There was no special Matter in the Act but that of the Coat of Arms which he and his Ancestors were used to give according to Records in the Herauld's Office so that this was condemned by all Persons as a most Inexcusable Act of Tyranny But the Night after this the King died and it was thought contrary to the Decencies of Government to begin a new Reign with so Unjustifiable an Act as the beheading of the old Duke and so he was preserved Yet both Sides made Inferences from this Calamity that fell on him The Papists said It was God's just Judgment on him for his Obsequiousness to King Henry But the Protestants said It was a just return on him for what he had done against Cromwel and many others on the account of the six Articles Cranmer would not meddle in this Matter but that he might be out of the way he retired to Croydon whereas Gardiner that had been his Friend all along continued still about the Court. The King's Distemper had been growing long upon him He was become so Corpulent that he could not go up and down Stairs but made use of an Ingine The King's Sickness when he intended to walk in his Garden by which he was let down and drawn up He had an old Sore in his Leg that pained him much the Humours of his Body discharging themselves that way till at last all setled in a Dropsy Those about him were afraid to let him know that his Death seemed near lest that might have been brought within the Statute of foretelling his Death which was made Treason His Will was made ready and as it was given out was signed by him on the 30th of December He had made one at his last going over to France All the Change that he made at this time was that he ordered Gardiner's Name to be struck out for in that formerly made he was named one of the Executors When Sir Anthony Brown endeavoured to perswade him not to put that Disgrace on an old Servant he continued positive in it for he said he knew his Temper and could govern him but it would not be in the Power of others to do it if he were put in so high a Trust The most material thing in the Will was the preferring the Children of his second Sister by Charles Brandon to the Children of his eldest Sister the Queen of Scotland in the Succession to the Crown Some Objections were made to the Validity and Truth of the Will It was not signed by the King's Hand as it was directed by the Act of Parliament but only stamped with his Name and it was said this was done when he was dying without any Order given for it by himself for proof of which the Scots that were most concerned appealed to many Witnesses and chiefly to a Deposition which the Lord Paget had made who was then Secretary of State On his Death-bed he finished the Foundation of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge and of Christ's-Church Hospital near Newgate yet this last was not so fully setled as was needful till his Son compleated what he had begun On the 27th of January And Death his Spirits sunk so that it was visible he had not long to live Sir Anthony Denny took the courage to tell him that Death was approaching and desired him to call on God for his Mercy The King exprest in general his Sorrow for his past Sins and his Trust in the Mercies of God in Christ Jesus He ordered Cranmer to be sent for but he was speechless before he could be brought from Croidon yet he gave a Sign that he understood what he said to him and soon after he died in the 57th Year of his Age after he had reigned 37 Years and nine Months His Death was concealed three days for the Parliament which was dissolved with his last Breath continued to do business till the 31st and then his Death was published It is probable the Seimours concealed it so long till they made a Party for the putting the Government into their own Hands The Severities he used against many of his Subjects in matters of Religion An account of his Severities against the Priests made both sides write with great Sharpness of him His Temper was Imperious and Cruel He was both sudden and violent in his Revenges and stuck at nothing by which he could either gratify his Lust or his Passion This was much provoked by the Sentence the Pope thundered against him by the virulent Books Cardinal Pool and others published by the Rebellions that were raised in England and the Apprehensions he was in of the Emperour's Greatness and of the Inclinations his People had to have joined with him together with what he had read in History of the Fates of those Princes against whom Popes had thundered in former times all which made him think it necessary to keep his People under the Terror of a severe Government and by some publick Examples to secure the Peace of the Nation and thereby to prevent a more profuse Effusion of Blood which might have otherwise followed if he had been more gentle And it was no wonder if after the Pope deposed him he proceeded to great Severities against all that which supported that Authority The first Instance of Capital Proceedings upon that account was in Easter-Term 1535 in which three Priors and a Monk of the Carthusian Order The Carthusians
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
Falsid the Scots engaged with them in Parties but lost 1300 men The two Armies came in view the English consisted of fifteen thousand Foot and three thousand Horse and a Fleet under the Command of the Lord Clinton sailed along by them as they marched near the Coast the Scottish Army consisted of thirty thousand and a good train of Artillery The Protector sent a Message to the Scots inviting them by all the Arguments that could be invented to consent to the Marriage and if that would not be granted he desired engagements from them that their Queen should be contracted to no other person at least till she came of age and by the advice of the Estates should choose a Husband for herself This the Protector offered to get out of the War upon Honourable terms but the Scottish Lords thought this great Condescension was an effect of fear and believed the Protector was straitned for want of Provisions so instead of publishing this offer they resolved to fall upon him next day And so all the return that was made was That if the Protector would march back without any act of Hostility they would not fall upon him One went officiously with the Trumpeter and challenged the Protector in the Earl of Huntley's name to decide the matter by their Valour but the Protector said he was to fight no way but at the head of his Army yet the Earl of Warwick accepted the challenge but Huntley had given no order for it On the twentieth of September the Armies engaged In the beginning of the action a shot from the Ships killed a whole lane of men and disordered the High-landers so that they could not be made to keep their Ranks The Battel of Musselburgh The Earl of Angus charged bravely but was repulsed and the English broke in with such fury on the Scots that they threw down their Arms and fled Fourteen thousand were killed fifteen hundred taken Prisoners among whom was the Earl of Huntley and five hundred Gentlemen Upon this the Protector went on and took Leith and some Islands in the Frith in which he put Garrisons and left Ships to wait on them he sent some Ships to the mouth of Tay and took a Castle Broughty that commanded that River If he had followed this blow and gone forward to Striveling to which the Governour with the small remainders of his Army had retired and where the Queen was it is probable in the consternation in which they were he might have taken that place and so have made an end of the War But the party his Brother was making at Court gave him such an Alarm that he returned before he had ended his business And the Scots having sent a Message desiring a Treaty which they did only to gain time he ordered them to send their Commissioners to Berwick and so marched back He took in all the Castles in Merch and Teviotdale and left Garrisons in them and made the Gentry swear to be true to the King and to promote the Marriage He entred into Scotch ground the second of September and returned to England on the twenty ninth with the loss only of sixty men and brought with him a great deal of Artillery and many Prisoners This success did raise his reputation very high and if he had now made an end of the War it had no doubt establish'd him in his authority The Scots sent no Commissioners to Berwick but instead of that they sent some to France to offer their Queen to the Dauphin and to cast themselves on the protection of that Crown and so the Earl of Warwick whom the Protector left to treat with them returned back The Protector upon this great success summoned a Parliament to get himself established in his power The Visitors had now ended the Visitation The success of the Visitation and all had submitted to them and great Inferences were made from this that on the same day on which the Images were burnt in London their Army obtained that great Victory in Scotland But all sides are apt to build much on Providence when it is favourable to them and yet they will not allow the Argument when it turns against them Bonner at first protested that he would obey the Injunctions if they were not contrary to the Laws of God and the Ordinances of the Church but being called before the Council he retracted that and asked Pardon yet for giving terrour to others he was for some time put in Prison upon it Gardiner wrote to one of the Visitors before they came to Winchester that he could not receive the Homilies and if he must either quit his Bishoprick or sin against his Conscience he resolved to chuse the former Upon this he was called before the Council and required to receive the Book of Homilies but he excepted to one of them that taught that Charity did not justifie contrary to the Book set out by the late King confirmed in Parliament He also complained of many things in Erasmus's Paraphrase And being pressed to declare whether he would obey the Injunctions or not he refused to promise it and so was sent to the Fleet. Cranmer treated in private with him and they argued much about Justification Gardiner thought the Sacraments justified and that Charity justified as well as Eaith Cranmer thought that only the merits of Christ justified as they were applied by Faith which could not be without Charity so the question turned much on a different way of explaining the same thing Gardiner objected many things to Erasmus's Book particularly to some passages contrary to the power of Princes it was answered That Book was not chosen as having no faults but as the best they knew for clearing the difficulties in Scripture Cranmer offered to him that if he would concur with them he should be brought to be one of the Privy Council but he did not comply in this so readily as he ordinarily did to such offers Upon the Protectors return he wrote to him complaining of the Councils proceedings in his absence and after he had given his objections to the Injunctions he excepted to this that they were contrary to Law and argued from many precedents that the Kings authority could not be raised so high and that though Cromwel and others endeavoured to perswade the late King that he might govern as the Roman Emperours did and that his Will ought to be his Law yet he was of another opinion and thought that it was much better to make the Law the Kings Will. He complained also that he was hardly used that he had neither Servants Physicians nor Chaplains allowed to wait on him and that though he had a Writ of Summons he was not suffered to come to the Parliament which he said might bring a Nullity on all their Proceedings But he lay in Prison till the Act of General Pardon past in Parliament set him at liberty Many blamed the severity of these proceedings as contrary both to Law
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 Council went no further only after this her Mass was said so secretly that she gave no publick scandal From Copthall where this was done she removed and lived at Hunsden and thither Ridley went to see her She received him very civilly and ordered her Officers to entertain him at dinner But when he begged leave to Preach before her she at first blusht but being further prest she said he might Preach in the Parish Church but neither she nor her Family would be there He asked her if she refused to hear the word of God She answered they did not call that Gods word now that they had called so in her Fathers days and that in his time they durst not have said the things which they then Preached And after some sharp and reproachful discourse she dismist him Wharton one of her Officers as he conducted him out made him drink a little but he reflecting on that blamed himself for it for he said when the Word of God was rejected he ought to have shaken off the dust of his Feet and gone away The Kings Sister Elizabeth did in all things conform to the Laws for her Mother at her death recommended her to Dr. Parker's care who instructed her well in the Principles of Christian Religion The Earl of Warwick began now to form great designs of bringing the Crown into his Family The Earl of Warwick's designs The King was alienated from his Sister Mary and the Privy Council had imbroiled themselves with her and so would be easily engaged against her The pretence against both the Sisters was the same that they stood illegitimated by two Sentences in the Spiritual Courts confirmed in Parliament So that it would be a disgrace to the Nation to let the Crown devolve on Bastards And since the fears of the Eldests revenge made the Council willing to exclude her the only reason on which they could ground that must take place against the second likewise And therefore though the Crown was provided to them both by Act of Parliament and the late Kings Will yet these being founded on an Errour that was indispensable which was the baseness of their descent they ought not to take place They being laid aside the Daughters of the French Queen by Charles Brandon stood next in the Act and yet it was generally believed that they were Bastards For it was given out that Brandon was secretly married to one Mortimer at the time that he married the French Queen and that Mortimer out-lived her so that the issue by her was Illegitimate The Sweating Sickness did this year break out in England with such Contagion that eight hundred died in one week of it in London those that were taken with it were inclined much to sleep and all that slept died but if they were kept awake a day they did sweat it out Charles Brandon's two Sons by his last Wife died within a day one of another His eldest Daughter by the French Queen was married to the Marquess of Dorset a good but weak man and so he was made Duke of Suffolk They had no Sons their eldest Daughter Jane Gray was thought the wonder of the age So the Earl of Warwick projected a Match between her and his fourth Son Guilford his three elder Sons being then married And because the Lady Elizabeth was like to stand most in the way care was taken to send her out of England and a Match was treated for her with the King of Denmark A splendid Message was sent to France A Treaty for a Marriage to the King with the Order of the Garter The Marquess of Northampton carried it three Earls the Bishop of Ely and five Lords were sent with him and above two hundred Gentlemen accompanied them They were to make a Proposition of Marriage for the King with a Daughter of France The Bishop of Ely made the first Speech and the Cardinal of Lorrain answered him it was soon agreed on yet neither Party was to be bound either in Honour or Conscience till the Lady should be of Years to give consent A noble Embassy was sent in return from France to England with the Order of Saint Michael They desired in their Master's name the continuance of the King's friendship and that he would not be moved by Rumors that might be raised to break their Alliance The young King answered on the sudden that Rumours were not always to be believed nor always to be rejected for it was no less vain to fear all things than to doubt of nothing if any differences hapned to arise he should be always ready to determine them rather by reason than by force so far as his Honour should not be thereby diminished This was thought a very extraordinary answer to be made by one of Fourteen on the sudden There was at this time a great Creation of Peers The Duke of Somerset's fall Warwick was made Duke of Northumberland the blood of the Piercies being then under an Attainder Pawlet was made Marquess of Winchester Herbert was made Earl of Pembroke and a little before this Russel had been made Earl of Bedford and Darcy was made a Lord. There was none so likely to take the King out of Northumberlands hands as the Duke of Somerset who was beginning to form a new Party about the King so upon some Informations both the Duke of Somerset his Dutchess Sir Ralph Vane Sir Tho. Palmer Sr Tho. Arundel several others of whom some were Gentlemen of Quality and others were the Dukes servants were all committed to the Tower The committing of Palmer was to delude the World for he had betrayed the Duke and was clapt up as a Complice and then pretended to discover a Plot He said the Duke intended to have raised the People and that Northumberland Northampton and Pembroke having been invited to dine at the Lord Pagets he intended to have set on them by the way or have killed them at Dinner that Vane was to have 2000. Men ready Arundel was to have seized on the Tower and all the Gendarmoury were to have been killed All these things were told the young King with such Circumstances that he too easily believed them and so was much alienated from his Uncle judging him guilty of so foul a Conspiracy It was added by others that the Duke intended to have raised the City of London one Crane confirmed Palmers testimony and both the Earl of Arundel and Paget were also committed as Complices On the first of December His Trial the Duke was brought to his Trial The Marquess of Winchester was Lord Steward and 27. Peers sat to judge him among whom were the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland and the Earl of Pembroke The particulars charged on him were a design to seize on the King's Person to imprison the Duke of Northumberland and to raise the City of London it seemed strange to see Northumberland sit a Judge when the crime objected was a design against his life
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
on the same piece of Paper it appears he was then privy to the Kings Design of marrying her and intended to advance himself yet higher by his merits in procuring her the Crown This Year he settled his two great Colledges and finding both the King and People much pleased with his converting some Monasteries to such uses he intended to suppress more and to convert them to Bishopricks and Cathedral Churches which the Pope was not willing to grant the Religious Orders making great Opposition to it but Gardiner told him it was necessary and must be done so a power for doing it was added to the Legates Commission At this time the Queen engaged the Emperor to espouse her Interests which he did the more willingly because the King was then in the Interests of France and to help her Business a Breve was either found or forged the last is more probable of the same date with the Bull that dispensed with her Marriage But with stronger Clauses in it to answer those Objections that were made against some defects in the Bull though it did not seem probable that in the same Day a Bull and a Breve would have been granted for the same thing in such different strains The most considerable Variation was That whereas the Bull did only suppose that the Queens Marriage with Prince Arthur was perhaps Consummated the Breve did suppose it absolutly without a perhaps This was thought to prejudice the Queen's Cause as much as the Suspicion of the Forgery did blemish her Agents In October Campegio comes into England Campegio came into England and after the first Complements were over he first advised the King to give over the Prosecution of his Suit and then counselled the Queen in the Pope's Name to enter into a Religious Life and make Vows but both were in vain and he by affecting an Impartiality almost lost both sides But he in great measure pacified the King when he shewed him the Bull he had brought over for annulling the Marriage yet he would not part with it out of his hands neither to the King nor the Cardinal upon which great Instances were made at Rome that Campegio might be ordered to shew it to some of the King's Counsellors and to go on and end the business otherwise Wolsey would be ruined and England lost Yet all this did not prevail on the crafty Pope who knew it was intended once to have the Bull out of Campegio's hands and then the King would leave him to the Emperour's Indignation But tho he positively refused to grant that yet he said he left the Legates in England free to judge as they saw Cause and promised that he would confirm their Sentence The Imperialists at Rome pressed him hard to inhibit the Legates and to recall the Cause that it might be heard before the Consistory The Pope declined this motion and to mollify the King he sent Campana one of his Bed-chamber Campana sent to deceive the King over to England with Complements too high to gain much Credit He assured the King that the Pope would do for him all he could not only in Justice and Equity but in the fulness of his Power And that tho he had reason to be very apprehensive of the Emperour's Resentments yet that did not divert him from his Zeal for the King's Service for if his resigning the Popedome would advance it it should not stick at that He also was ordered to require the Legates to put a speedy end to the business but his secret Instructions to Campegio were of another strain he charged him to burn the Bull and to draw out the matter by all the delayes he could invent Sir Francis Brian and Peter Vannes were dispatched to Rome with new Propositions to try whether if both the King and Queen took Religious Vowes so that their Marriage were upon that annulled the Pope would engage to dispence with the King's Vow or grant him a License for having two Wives Wolsey also offered in the King's Name to settle a Pay for 2000 Men that should be a Guard to the Pope and to procure a Restitution of some of his Towns on which the Venetians had seized But the Pope did not care to have his Guards payed by other Princes which he looked on as a putting himself in their hands He was in fear of every thing that might bring a new Calamity upon him and was now resolved to unite himself firmly with the Emperour by whose means only he hoped to reestablish his Family at Florence The Pope resolved to unite with the Emperour and ever after this all the use he made of the King's Earnestness in his Divorce was only to draw in the Emperour to his Interests on the better Terms The Emperour was also then pressing him hard for a General Council of which besides the aversion that the Court of Rome had to it he had particular reason to be afraid for being a Bastard he was threatned with Deposition as uncapable by the Canons of the Church to hold such a Dignity The Pope proposed a Journey incognito to Spain and desired Wolsey to go with him for obtaining a General Peace But in secret he was making up with the Emperour and gave his Agents Assurances that tho the Legates gave Sentence he would not confirm it So the King 's Correspondents at Rome wrote to him to set on the War more vigorously against the Emperour for he could expect nothing at Rome unless the Emperour's Affairs declined The Pope went on cajoling those the King sent over and gave new Assurances that tho he would not grant a Bull by which the Divorce should be immediately his own Act yet he would confirm the Legates Sentence so he resolved to cast the Load wholly upon them if he said he did it himself a Council would be called by the Emperour's means in which his Bull would be annulled and himself deposed which would bring on a new Confusion and that considering the footing Heresy had got would ruine the Church The Pope inclined more to the dissolving the Marriage by the Queen's taking Vowes as that which could be best defended but the Cardinal gave him notice that the Queen would never be brought to that unless her Nephews advised it At this time The Pope's Sickness the Pope was taken suddenly ill and fell in a great Sickness upon which the Imperialists began to prepare for a Conclave But Farnese and the Cardinal of Mantua opposed them and seemed to have Inclination for Wolsey Whom as his Correspondents wrot to him they reverenced as a Deity Upon this he sent a Courier to Gardiner Wolsey's aspiring then on his way to Rome whith large Directions how to manage the Election It was reckoned that the King of France joyning heartily with the King of which he seemed confident there were only six Cardinals wanting to make the Election sure and besides Summes of Mony and other Rewards that were to be
gave the King content the late Act against Annats should not be put in Execution The Cardinal of Ravenna was then considered as an Oracle for Learning in the Consistory Some Cardinals corrupted so the King's Agents resolved to gain him with great Promises but he said Princes were liberal of their Promises till their turn was served and then forgot them so he resolved to make sure work therefore he made Bennet give him a Promise in writing of the Bishoprick of Ely or the first Bishoprick that fell till that was vacant and he also engaged that the King should procure him Benefices in France to the value of 6000 Ducats a Year for the Service he should do him in his Divorce This was an Argument of so great Efficacy with the Cardinal that it absolutely turned him from being a great Enemy to be as great a Promoter of the King's Cause tho very artificially Several other Cardinals were also prevailed with by the same Topicks The King's Agents put in his Plea of Excuse in 28 Articles and it was ordered that three of them should be discussed at a hearing before the Consistory till they should be all examined But that Court sitting once a Week the Imperialists after some of them were heard procured an Order that the rest should be heard in a Congregation or Committee of Cardinals before the Pope for greater Dispatch but Karn refused to obey this and so it was referred back to the Consistory But against this the Imperialists protested and refused to appear any more News were brought to Rome from England that a Priest that had preached up the Pope's Power was cast into Prison and that one committed by the Archbishop for Heresy appealed to the King as supream Head which was received and judged in the King's Courts The Pope made great Complaints upon this but the King's Agents said the best way to prevent the like for the future was to do the King Justice At this time a Bull was granted for suppressing some Monasteries and erecting new Bishopricks out of them Chester was to be one and the Cardinal of Revenna was so pleased with the Revenue designed for it that he laid his hand upon it till Ely should happen to fall vacant In conclusion the Pope seemed to favour the King's Plea Excusatory upon which the Imperialists made great Complaints But this amounted to no more save that the King was not bound to appear in Person Therefore the Cardinals that were gained advised the King to send over a Proxy for answering to the merits of the Cause and not to lose more time in that Dilatory Plea and they having declared themselves against the King in that Plea before the bargain had been made with them could with the better credit serve him in the other So the Vacation coming on it was resolved by the Cardinals neither to admit nor reject the Plea But both the Pope and the Colledg wrote to the King to send over a Proxy for determining the matter next Winter Bonner was also sent to England to assure the King that the Pope was now so much in the French Interest that he might confidently refer his matter to him but whereas the King desired a Commission to judg in partibus upon the place it was said that the Point to be judged being the Pope's Authority to dispense with the King's Marriage that could not be referred to Legates but must needs be judged in the Consistory At this time a new Session of Parliament was called in England The Clergy gave in an Answer to the Complaints made of them by the Commons in the former Sessions A Session of Parliament But when the King gave it to the Speaker he complained that one Temse a Member of their House had moved for an Address to the King that the Queen might be again brought back to the Court The King said it touched his Conscience and was not a thing that could be determined in that House He wished his Marriage were good but many Divines had declared it unlawful He did not make his Suit out of Lust or foolish Appetite being then past the Heats of Youth he assured them his Conscience was troubled and desired them to report that to the House Many of the Lords came down to the House of Commons and told them the King intended to build some Forts on the Borders of Scotland to secure the Nation from the Inroads of the Scots and the Lords approving of this sent them to propose it to the Commons upon which a Subsidy was voted but upon the breaking out of the Plague the Parliament was prorogued before the Act was finished The Oaths which the Bishops swore both to the Pope and the King At that time the King sent for the Speaker of the House of Commons and told him he found that the Prelates were but half Subjects for they swore at their Consecration an Oath to the Pope that was inconsistent with their Allegiance and Oath to the King By their Oath to the Pope they swore to be in no Council against him nor to disclose his Secrets but to maintain the Papacy and the Regalities of S. Peter against all Men together with the Rights and Authorities of the Church of Rome and that they should honourably entreat the Legats of the Apostolick See and observe all the Decrees Sentences Provisions and Commandments of that See and yearly either in Person or by Proxy visit the Thresholds of the Apostles In their Oath to the King they renounced all Clauses in their Bulls contrary to the King 's Royal Dignity and did swear to be faithful to him and to live and die with him against all others and to keep his Counsel acknowledging that they held their Bishopricks only of him By these it appeared that they could not keep both those Oaths in case a Breach should fall out between the King and the Pope But the Plague broke off the Consultations of Parliament at this time Soon after Sir Thomas More seeing a Rupture with Rome coming on so fast More quits his Office desired leave to lay down his Office which was upon that conferred on Sir Tho. Audley He was satisfied with the King 's keeping up the Laws formerly made in Opposition to the Papal Incroachments and so had concured in the Suit of the Premunire but now the matter went further and so he not being able to keep pace with the Counsels returned to a private Life with a Greatness of Mind equal to what the ancient Greeks or Romans had expressed on such Occasions Endeavours were used to fasten some Imputations on him in the Distribution of Justice but nothing could be brought against him to blemish his Integrity An Enterveiw followed between the Kings of France and England to which An Interview between the King of France England Ann Bolleyn now Marchioness of Pembrook was carried In which after the first Ceremonies and Magnificence was over Francis promised Henry to
his Blood as they had done Ahabs The King bore this patiently but ordered one Dr. Corren to preach next Sunday and to answer all that he had said who railed against Peyto as a Dog and a Traitor Peyto had gone to Canterbury but Elston a Franciscan of the same House interrupted him and called him one of the lying Prophets that went about to establish the Succession of the Crown by Adultery and spoke with such Vehemence that the King himself was forced to command him silence And yet so unwilling was the King to go to Extremities that all that was done upon so high a Provocation was that they were called before the Council and rebuked for their Insolence But the Nun's Confederates publishing her Revelations in all the parts of the Kingdom she and Nine of her Complices were apprehended in November last Year and they did all without any Rack or Torture discover the whole Conspiracy and upon that were appointed to go to St. Pauls and after a Sermon preached upon that Occasion by the Bishop of Bangor they repeated their Confession in the Hearing of the People and were sent to ly Prisoners in the Tower But it was given out That all was extorted from them by Violence and Messages were sent to the Nun desiring her to deny all that she had confessed which made the King judge it necessary to proceed to further Extremities So she and six of her chief Complices were Attainted of Treason And the Bishop of Rochester and five more were Attainted of Misprision of Treason But at the Intercession of Q. Ann as it is exprest in the Act all others that had been concerned with her were pardoned This was as black an Imposture as any ever was and if it had fallen out in a darker Age in which the World went mad after Visions the King might have lost his Crown by it The Discovery of this disposed all to look on older Stories of the Trances of Monastical People as Contrivances to serve base ends and did make way for the ruine of that Order of Men in England but all that was at present done upon it was that the Observants were put out of their Houses and mixt with the other Franciscans and the Austin Friers were put in their rooms When all these Acts were passed the King gave his Assent to them on the 29th of March and prorogued the Parliament till November The Members of both Houses swore to the Oath of Succession on the day of the Prorogation On the 20th of April The Oath of Succession sworn followed the Execution of the Nun and her Complices at Tyburn where she freely acknowledged her Impostures and the Justice of the Sentence and laid the blame on those that suffered with her who because the thing was profitable to them praised her much and tho they knew that all was feigned yet gave out that it was done by the working of the Holy Ghost and she concluded her Life begging both God's and the King's Pardon Upon the first Discovery of this Cheat Fisher in some Trouble Cromwell sent Fisher's Brother to him to reprove him for his Carriage in that Business and to advise him to ask the King's Pardon for the Encouragement he had given to the Nun which he was confident the King would grant him But Fisher excused himself and said he had done nothing but only tried whether her Revelations were true or not He confessed that upon the Reports he had heard he was induced to have a high Opinion of her and that he had never discovered any Falsehood in her It is true she had said some things to him concerning the King's Death which he had not revealed but he thought it was not necessary to do it because he knew she had told it to the King her self she had named no Person that should kill the King but had only denounced it as a Judgment of God on him and he had reason to think that the King would have been offended with him if he had spoken of it to him and so he desired to be no more troubled with that matter But upon that Cromwell wrote him a sharp Letter he shewed him that he had proceeded rashly in that Affair being so partial in the matter of the King's Divorce that he easily believed every thing that seemed to make against it he shewed him how necessary it was to use great Caution before extraordinary things should be received or spread about as Revelations since otherwise the Peace of the World should be in the hands of every bold or crafty Impostor yet in conclusion he advises him again to ask the King's Pardon for his Rashness and he assures him that the King was ready to forgive that and every thing else by which he had offended him But Fisher was obstinate and would make no Submission and so included within the Act yet it was not executed till a new Provocation drew him into further Trouble And is very obstinate The Secular and Regular Clergy did every where swear the Oath of Succession which none did more zealously promote than Gardiner who before the 6th of May got all his Clergy to swear it and the Religious Orders being apprehensive of the King's Jealousies of them took care to remove them by sending in Declarations under the Seals of their Houses that in their Opinion the King 's present Marriage was lawful and that they would always acknowledg him Head of the Church of England that the Bishops of Rome had no Authority out of his own Diocess and that they would continue obedient to the King notwithstanding his Censures that they would preach the Gospel sincerely according to the Scriptures and the Tradition of the Catholick Doctors and would in their Prayers pray for the King as Supream Head of the Church of England A meeting of the Council-sate at Lambeth More and heâ— refuse the Oath to which many were cited in order to the swearing the Oath among whom was Sir Thomas More and Fisher More was first called on to take it he answered that he neither blamed those that made the Acts nor those that swore the Oath and that he was willing to swear to maintain the Succession to the Crown but could not take the Oath as it was conceived Fisher made the same Answer but all the rest that were cited before them took it More was much press'd to give his Reasons against it but he refused to do that for it might be called a disputing against Law yet he would put them into Writing if the King would command him to do it Cranmer said if he did not blame those that took it it seems he was not perswaded it was a Sin and so was only doubtful of it but he was sure he ought to obey the Law if it was not sinful so there was a Certainty on the one hand and only a Doubt on the other and therefore the former ought to determine him this he confessed did
Upon this he was again seized on and condemned for having said That Thomas Becket was a Murderer and was damned if he did not repent And that in the Sacrament Christ's Body was received by Faith and not chewed with the Teeth Sentence past upon him by Stokesly and he was burnt Soon after this More delivered up the Great Seal so the Preachers had some ease Crome and Latimer were accused but abjured Tracy Ancestor to the present Lord Tracy made a Will by which he left his Soul to God in hopes of Mercy through Christ without the help of any other Saint and therefore he declared that he would leave nothing for Soul-Masses This Will being brought to the Bishop of London's Court to be proved after his Death provoked them so much that he was condemned as an Heretick and an Order was sent to the Chancellour of Worcester to raise his Body but he went further and burnt it which could not be justified since he was not a Relapse Tracy's Heirs sued him for it and he was turned out of his place and fined in 400 l. The Clergy proclaimed an Indulgence of fourty days Pardon to any that carried a Faggot to the burning of an Heretick that so Cruelty might seem the more Meritorious And an aged Man Harding being condemned by Longland Bishop of Lincoln as he was tied to the Stake one flung a Faggot with such force at him that it dashed out his Brains After an Intermission of two Years Gardiner represented to the King That it would give him great Advantages against the Pope if he would take hold of some occasion to shew his hatred of Heresy So Frith seemed a fit Person to offer as a Sacrifice to demonstrate his Zeal He was a young Man much famed for Learning Frith's Sufferings and was the first that writ against the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament in England He followed Zuinglius's Doctrine on these Grounds Christ received in the Sacrament gave Eternal Life but this was only to those that believed from which he inferred that he was received only by Faith St Paul said that the Fathers before Christ eat the same Spiritual Food with Christians from which it appears that Christ is now no more corporally present to us then he was to them And he argued from the nature of Sacraments in general and the ends of the Lord's Supper that it was only a Commemoration Yet upon these Premises he built no other Conclusion but that Chist's presence was no Article of Faith Frith put these Reasons in Writing which falling into More 's hands was answered by him but Frith never saw that till he was put in Prison And then tho he was loaded with Irons and had no Books allowed him he replied He insisted much on that Argument That the Israelites did eat the same Food and drank of the same Rock that was Christ and since Christ was only mystically and by Faith received by them he concluded that he was now received only by Faith He shewed that Christ's Words This is my Body were accommodated to the Jewish Phrase of calling the Lamb the Lord 's Passover and confirmed his Opinion with many Passages out of the Fathers in which the Elements were called Signes and Figures of Christ's Body and they said that upon Consecration they did not cease to be Bread and Wine but remained still in their own proper Natures He also shewed That the Fathers were Strangers to all the Consequences of that Opinion as that a Body could be in more places than one at once or could be in a place after the manner of a Spirit Yet he concluded That if that Opinion were held only as a Speculation so that Adoration were not offered to the Elements it might be well tollerated but that he condemned as gross Idolatry This was intended by him to prevent such Heats in England as were raised in Germany between the Lutherans and Helvetians by reason of their different Opinions concerning the Sacrament He was seized on in May 1533 and brought before Stokesly Gardiner and Longland They objected to him his not believing Purgatory nor Transubstantiation He gave his Reasons that determined him to look on neither of these as Articles of Faith but he thought that neither the affirming nor denying them ought to be determined positively The Bishops seemed unwilling to proceed to Sentence but he continuing resolute Stokesly pronounced it and so delivered him to the Secular Arm obtesting that his Punishment might be moderated so that the Rigour might not be too extream nor yet the gentleness of it too much mitigated This Obtestation by the Bowels of Christ was thought a Mockery when all the World knew that it was intended that he should be burnt One Hewet a Prentice of London was also condemned with him on the same account When they were brought to Smithfield Frith expressed great Joy and hugged the Faggots with some Transport Cook a Priest that stood by called to the People not to pray for them more then they would do for a Dog Frith smiled at that and prayed God to forgive him The Fire was kindled which consumed them to ashes This was the last Instance of the Cruelty of the Clergy at this time for the Act formerly mentioned regulating their Proceedings followed soon after Philips at whose Complaint that Bill was begun was committed upon Suspicion of Heresy a Copy of Tracy's Will was found about him and Butter and Cheese being also found in his Chamber in Lent But he being required to abjure appealed to the King as Supream Head and upon that he was set at Liberty but whether he was tried by the King or not is not upon Record The Act that was past A stop put to further Cruelties gave the new Preachers and their Followers some Respite The King was also impowered to reform all Heresies and Idolatries And his Affairs did now oblige him to unite himself to the Princes of Germany that by their means he might so imbroil the Emperour's Affairs asnot to give him leisure to turn his Arms against England and this produced a slackning of all Severities against them For those Princes in that first fervour of the Reformation made it an Article in all their Treaties that none should be persecuted for favouring their Doctrine The Interests the Reformers had at Court The Queen did also openly protect them she took Latimer and Shaxton to be her Chaplains and promoted them to the Bishopricks of Worcester and Salisbury Cranmer was fully convinced of the necessity of a Reformation and that he might carry it on with true Judgment and justify it by good Authorities He made a great Collection of the Opininions of the Antient Fathers and later Doctors in all the Points of Religion of which I have seen two Volumes in Folio But by a Letter of the Lord Burghly's it appears there were then six Volumes of his Collections in his hands He was a Man of great Candor and much Patience
The State of England and assumed a Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs The Nobility and Gentry were generally well satisfied with the Change but the Body of the People was more under the Power of the Priests and they studied to infuse in them great Fears of a Change in Religion It was said the King was now joyning himself to Hereticks that both the Queen Cranmer and Cromwell favoured them It was left free to dispute what were Articles of Faith and what were only the Decrees of Popes and Changes would be made under this Pretence that they only rejected those Opinions which were supported by the Papal Authority The Monks and Friars saw themselves left at the King's Mercy Their Bulls could be no longer useful to them The trade of new Saints or Indulgences was near an end they had also some Intimations that Cromwell was forming a Project for suppressing them so they thought it necessary for their own Preservation to imbroil the King's Affairs as much as was possible therefore both in Confessions and Discourses they were infusing into the People a dislike of the King's Proceedings and this did so far work on them that if the Emperour's Affairs had been in such a condition that he could have made War on the King he might have done it with great Advantage and found a strong Party in England on his side But the Practices of the Clergy at home and of Cardinal Pool abroad the Libels that were published and the Rebellions that were afterwards raised in England wrought so much on the King's Temper that was naturally imperious and boisterous that he became too apt to commit Acts of the highest Severity and to bring his Subjects into Trouble upon the slightest Grounds and his new Title of Head of the Church seemed to have encreased his former Vanity and made him fancy that all his Subjects were bound to regulate their Belief by the measures he set them He had now raigned 25 Years in all which time none had suffered for Crimes against the State but Pool Earl of Suffolk and Stafford Duke of Buckingham the former was executed in Obedience to his Father's last Commands the latter fell by Cardinal Wolsey's Malice he had also been inveigled by a Priest to imagine he had a Right to the Crown but in the last ten Years of his Life Instances of Severity returned more frequently The Bishops and Abbots did what they could to free the King of any Jealousies that might be raised in him concerning them and of their own accord before any Law was made about it they swore to maintain the King's Supremacy The first Act of it was the making Cromwell Vicar General and Visitor of all the Monasteries and Churches of England with a Delegation of the King's Supremacy to him he was also empowered to give Commissions subaltern to himself and all Wills where the Estate was in value above 200 l. were to be proved in his Court This was afterwards enlarged and he was made the King's Vicegerent in Ecclesiastical Matters and had the Precedence of all next the Royal Family and his Authority was in all Points the same that the Legates had in time of Popery for as the King 's came in the Popes room so the Vicegerent was what the Legates had been Pains was taken to engage all the Clergy to declare for the Supreamacy At Oxford a publick Determination was made to which every Member assented that the Pope had no more Authority in England than any other Forreign Bishop The Franciscans at Richmond made some more Opposition they said by the Rule of St. Francis they were bound to obey the Holy See The Bishop of Litchfield told them that all the Bishops in England all the Heads of Houses and the most learned Divines had signed that Proposition St. Francis made his Rule in Italy where the Bishop of Rome was Metropolitan but that ought not to extend to England and it was shewed that the Chapter cited by them was not written by him but added since yet they continued positive in their refusal to sign it It was well known that all the Monks and Friars A general Visitation proposed tho they complied with the Time yet they hated this new Power of the King 's the People were also startled at it so one Dr. Leighton that had been in the Cardinal's Service with Cromwell proposed a General Visitation of all the Religious Houses in England and thought that nothing would reconcile the Nation so much to the King's Supremacy as to see some good Effect flow from it Others thought this was too hardy a Step and that it would provoke the Religious Orders too much Yet it was known that they were guilty of such Disorders that nothing could so effectually keep them in awe as the enquiring into these Cranmer led the way to this by a Metropolitical Visitation for which he obtained the King's Licence he took care to see that the Pope's Name was struck out of all the Offices of the Church and that the King's Supremacy was generally acknowledged In October the General Visitation of the Monasteries was begun Instructions and Injunctions for it which was cast into several Precincts Instructions were given them directing them what things to enquire after as whether the Houses had the full number according to their Foundation and if they performed Divine Worship in the appointed Hours what Exemptions they had what were their Statutes how their Heads were chosen and how their Vows were observed Whether they lived according to the Severities of their Orders how the Master and other Officers did their Duties how their Lands and their Revenues were managed what Hospitality was kept and what care was taken of the Novices what Benefices were in their Gift and how they disposed of them how the Inclosures of the Nunneries were kept whether the Nuns went abroad or if Men were admitted to come to them how they imploied their time and what Priests they had for their Confessors They were also ordered to give them some Injunctions in the King's Name That they should acknowledge his Supremacy and maintain the Act of Succession and declare all to be absolved from any Rules or Oaths that bound them to obey the Pope and that all their Statutes tending to that should be razed out of their Books That the Abbots should not have choice Dishes but plain Tables for Hospitality and that the Scriptures shoul be read at Meals that they should have daily Lectures of Divinity and maintain some of every House at the University The Abbot was required to instruct the Monks in true Religion and to shew them that it did not consist in outward Ceremonies but in Cleanness of Heart and Purity of Life and the worshiping of God in Spirit and Truth Rules were given about their Revenues and against admitting any under 20 Years of Age. The Visitors were empower'd to punish Offenders or to bring them to answer before the Visitor General What the Ancient
before the Act of Parliament past for suppressing the lesser Monasteries Q. Katherine was put to much trouble for keeping the Title Queen Queen Katherin's Death but bore it resolutely and said That since the Pope had judged that her Marriage was good she would die rather than do any thing in prejudice of it Her Sufferings begot Compassion in the People and all the Superstitious Clergy supported her Interests zealously But now her Troubles ended with her Life She desired to be buried among the Observant Friers for they had suffered most for her She ordered 500 Masses to be said for her Soul and that one of her Women should go a Pilgrimage to our Lady of Walsingham and give 200 Nobles on her way to the Poor When she found Death coming on her as she writ to the Emperour recommending her Daughter to his care So she writ to the King with this Inscription My dear Lord King and Husband She forgave him all the Injuries he had done her and wish'd him to have regard to his Soul She recommended her Daughter to his Care and desired him to be kind to her three Maids and to pay her Servants a Years Wages and ended thus mine Eyes desire you above all things She died on the Eighth of January at Kimbolt on in the 50th Year of her Age 33 years after she came to England She shas a Devout and Exemplary Woman She used to work with her own hands and kept her Women at work with her The Severities and Devotions that were known to her Priests and her Alms-Deeds joined to the Troubles she fell in begat a high Esteem of her in all sorts of People The King complained often of her Peevishness but that was perhaps to be imputed as much to the Provocations he gave her as to the Sowrness of her Temper He ordered her to be buried in the Abbey of Peterborough and was somewhat touched with her Death But Q. Ann did not carry this so decently as became a happy Rival In February a Parliament met In Parliament the lesser Monasteries suppressed after a Prorogation of 14 Months The Act impowering 32 to revise the Ecclesiastical Laws was confirmed but no time was limited for finishing it so it had no effect The chief business of this Session was the suppressing of the Monasteries under 200 l. a Year The Report the Visitors made was read in the two Houses and disposed them to great easiness in this matter The Act sets forth the great disorders of those Houses and the many unsuccessful Attempts that had been made to reform them so the Religious that were in them were ordered to be put in the greater Houses where Religion was better observed and the Revenues of them were given to the King Those Houses were much richer than they seemed to be for an abuse that had run over Europe of keeping the Rents of the Church at their first Rates and instead of raising them the exacting great Fines for the Incumbent when the Leases were renewed was so gross in those Houses that some rated but at 200 l. were in real value worth many Thousands By another Act a new Court was erected with the Title of the Court of the Augmentations of the King's Revenue consisting of a Chancellor a Treasurer 10 Auditors 17 Receivers besides ofther Officers The King was also empowered to make new Foundations of such of those Houses now suppressed as he pleased which were in all 370 and so this Parliament after six Years Continuance was now dissolved A Convocation sate at this time A Translation of the Bille designed in which a motion was made for Translating the Bible into English which had been promised when Tindal's Translation was condemned but was afterwards laid aside by the Clergy as neither necessary nor expedient So it was said that those whose Office it was to teach People the Word of God did all they could to suppress it Moses the Prophets and the Apostles wrote in the Vulgar Tongue Christ directed the People to search the Scriptures and as soon as any Nation was converted to the Christian Religion the Bible was translated into their Language nor was it ever taken out of the hands of the People till the Christian Religion was so corrupted that it was not safe to trust them with such a Book which would have so manifestly discovered those Errours and the Legends as agreeing better with those Abuses were read instead of the Word of God So Cranmer look'd on the putting the Bible in the People's hands as the most effectual means for promoting the Reformation and therefore moved that the King might be prayed to give order for it But Gardiner and all the other Party opposed this vehemently They said All the extravagant Opinions then in Germanny rose from the indiscreet use of the Scriptures Some of those Opinions were at this time disseminated in England both against the Divinity and Incarnation of Christ and the usefulness of the Sacraments for which 19 Hollanders had been burnt in England the former Year It was therefore said That during these Distractions the use of the Scriptures would prove a great Snare So it was proposed that instead of them their might be some short Exposition of the Christian Religion put in the Peoples hands which might keep them in a certain Subjection to the King and the Church But it was carried in the Convocation for the Affirmative At Court Men were much divided in this Point some said if the King gave way to it he would never be able after that to govern his People and that they would break into many Divisions But on the other hand it was said That nothing would make the Difference between the Pope's Power and the King's Supremacy appear more eminently than if the one gave the People the free use of the Word of God whereas the other had kept them in Darkness and ruled them by a blind Obedience It would be also a great mean to extinguish the Interest that either the Pope or the Monks had in England to put the Bible in the People's hands in which it would appear that the World had been long deceived by their Impostures which had no Foundation in the Scriptures These Reasons joyned with the Interest that the Queen had in the King prevailed so far with him that he gave order for setting about this with all possible hast and within three Years the Impression of it was finished At this time the King was in some Treaty with the German Princes not only for a League in Temporal Concerns but likewise in matters of Religion The King thought the Germans should have in all things submitted to him and the Opinion he had of his own Learning which was perhaps heightned a little with his new Title of Head of the Church made him expect that they should in all points comply with him Gardiner was then his Ambassadour in France and diswaded him much from any Religious League with them
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
2. That Christ was entirely in each kind and so Communion in both was not necessary 3. That Priests by the Law of God ought not to marry 4. That Vows of Chastity taken after the Age of 21 ought to be kept 5. That Private Masses were lawful and useful 6. That Auricular Confession was necessary and ought to be retained Such as did speak or write agaist the first of these were to be burned without the benefit of Abjuration and it was made Felony to dispute against the other five and such as did speak against them were to be in a Premunire for the first Offence the second was made Felony Married Priests that did not put away their Wives were to be condemned of Fellony in those that lived incontinently the first Offence was a Premunire and the second Felony Women that offended were to be punished as the Priests were Those that contemned Confession and the Sacrament and abstained from it at the accustomed times were for the first Offence in a Premunire the second was Felony Proceedings were to be made in the Forms of Common Law by Presentments and a Jury and all Church-men were charged to read the Act in their Churches once a Quarter This Act was received with great Joy by all the Popish Party Censures past upon it they reckoned that now Heresy would be extirpated and that the King was as much engaged against it as he was when he writ against Luther this made the Suppression of the Monasteries pass much the easier The poor Reformers were now exposed to the Rage of their Enemies and had no Comfort from any part of it but one that they were not delivered up to the Cruelty of the Ecclesiastical Courts or the Trials ex Officio but were to be tried by Juries yet the denying the benefit of Abjuration was a Severity without a Precedent and was a forcing Martyrdom on them since they were not to be the better for their Apostacy It was some Satisfaction to the married Clergy that the incontinent Priests were to be so severely punished which Cromwell put in and the Clergy knew not how they could decently oppose it Upon the passing the Act the German Ambassadours being set on to it by those that favoured their Doctrine in England desired an Audience of the King and told him of the Grief with which their Masters would receive the News of this Act and therefore earnestly press'd him to stop the Execution of it The King answered that he found it necessary to have the Act made for repressing the Insolence of some People but assured them it should not be put in Execution except upon great Provocation When the Princes heard of the Act they writ to the King to the same purpose they warned him of many Bishops that were about him who in their Hearts loved Popery and all the old Abuses and took this method to force the King to return back to the former Yoke hoping that if they once made him cruel to all those they called Hereticks it would be easy to bring him back to submit to that Tyranny which he had shaken off and therefore they proposed a Conference between some Divines of both sides in order to an Agreement of Doctrine The King was only concerned upon State Maxims to keep up their League in Opposition to the Emperour but they still press'd a Religious as well as a Civil League After the Act of the six Articles An Act for suppressing the Monasteries the Act for suppressing the Monasteries was brought in and tho there were so many Abbots sitting in the House none of them protested against it By it no Monastery was suppressed but only the Resignations made or to be made were confirmed and the King 's Right founded either on their Surrenders Forfeitures or Attainders of Treason was declared good in Law Houses surrendred were to be managed by the Court of Augmentations but those seized on by Attainders were to come to the Exchequer All Persons except the Founders and Donors were to have the same Rights to the Lands belonging to these Houses that they had before this Act was made All Deeds and Leases made for a Year before this to the prejudice of these Houses were annulled and all the Churches belonging to them and formerly exempted were put under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop or of such as should be appointed by the King This last Proviso has produced a great Mischief in this Church for many that purchased Abby-Lands had this Clause put in their Grants that they should be the Visitors of the Churches and by this they continue still exempted from the Episcopal Jurisdiction and this has emboldened many to break out into great Scandals which have been made use of by prejudiced Men to cast an Obloquy on the Church tho this Disorder proceeds only from the want of Authority in the Bishops to censure them A Question was raised upon this Suppression whether the Lands should have reverted to the Donors or been escheated to the Crown By a Judgment of the Roman Senate in Theodosius's time all the Endowments of the Heathenish Temples were given to the Fisc and tho the Heirs of the Donors pretended to them yet it was said that by the Gifts that their Ancestors made they were totally alienated from them and their Heirs When the Order of the Templers was suppressed their Lands went to the Lord by an Escheat This might seem reasonable in Endowments that were simple Gifts without any Conditions But the Grants to Religious Houses were of the nature of Covenants given in consideration of the Masses that were to be said for them and their Families and therefore it was inferred that when the Cheat of redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was discovered and these Houses were suppress'd then the Lands ought to revert to the Heirs of the Donors and upon that account it was thought necessary to exclude them by a special Proviso Another Bill was brought in An Act for new Bishopricks empowering the King to erect new Bishopricks by his Letters Patents it was read three times in one day in the House of Lords The Preamble set forth that the ill Lives of those that were called Religious made it necessary to change thir Houses to better Uses for teaching the Word of God instructing of Children educating of Clerks relieving of old infirm People the endowing of Readers for Greek Latine and Hebrew mending of High-ways and the bettering the Condition of the Parish Priests and for this end the King was empowered to erect new Sees and to assign what Limits and Divisions and appoint them what Statutes he pleased I have seen the first Draught of this Preamble all written with the King 's own Hand and indeed he used extraordinary Care in corecting both Acts of Parliament and Proclamations with his own Hand All Papers in matters of Religion that were set out by publick Authority in this Reign were revised by him and in many places large
Author of it would certainly be hanged So when the Secretary came to ask for it and said it was the Arch-bishop's Book the other that was an obstinate Papist refused to give it and reckoned that now Cranmer would be certainly ruined but the Secretary acquainting Cromwell with it he called for him next day and chid him severely for presuming to keep a Privy-Counsellours Book and so he took it out of his Hands thus Cranmer was delivered out of this Danger Shaxton and Latimer not only resigned their Bishopricks but being presented for some Words spoken against the six Articles they were put in Prison where they lay till a recantation discharged the one and the King's Death set the other at liberty There were about 500 others presented on the same account but upon the Intercessions of Cranmer Cromwell and others they were set at liberty and there was a stop put to the further Execution of the Act till Cromwell fell The Bishops of the Popish Party took strange Methods to insinuate themselves into the King's Confidence Bishops hold their Sees at the King's Pleasure for they took out Commissions by which they acknowledged That all Jurisdiction Civil and Ecclesiastical flowed from the King and that they exercised it only at the King's Courtesy and as they had of his Bounty so they would be ready to deliver it up when he should be pleased to call for it and therefore the King did empower them in his stead to ordain give Institution and do all the other parts of the Episcopal Function which was to last during his Pleasure and a mighty charge was given them to ordain none but Persons of great Integrity good Life and well learned for since the Corruption of Religion flowed from ill Pastors so the Reformation of it was to be expected chiefly from good Pastors By this they were made indeed the King's Bishops in this Bonner set an Example to the rest but it does not appear that Cranmer took out any such Commission all this Reign Now came on the total Dissolution of the Abbies All the Monasteries supprest 57 surrenders were made this Year of which 30 are yet extant of these 37 were Monasteries and 20 were Nunneries and among them 12 were Parliamentary Abbies which were in all 28 Abington St. Albans St. Austin's Canterbury Battell St. Bennets in the Holm Bardeny Cirencester Colchester Coventry Croyland St. Edmundsbury Evesham Glassenbury Gloceste Hide Malmsbury St. Mary's in York Peterborough Ramsey Reading Selby Shrewsbury Tavestock Tewkesbury Thorney Waltham Westminster and Winchelcomb When all had thus resigned Commissioners were appointed by the Court of Augmentations to seize on the Revenues and Goods belonging to these Houses to establish the Pensions that were to be given to every one that had been in them and to pull down the Churches or such other parts of the Fabrick as they thought superfluous and to sell the Materials of them When this was done others began to get Hospitals to be surrendred to the King Thirleby being Master of St. Thomas Hospital in Southwark was the first that set an Example to the rest he was soon after made a Bishop and turned with every Change that followed till Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and then he refused to comply tho he had gone along with all the Changes that were made in King Edward's time The valued Rents of the Abby-Lands as they were then let was 132607 l. 6 s. 4 d. but they were worth above ten times so much in true value The King had now in his hand the greatest Advantage that ever King of England had both for enriching the Crown and making Royal Foundations But such was his Easiness to his Courtiers and his Lavishness that all this melted away in a few Years and his Designs were never accomplished he intended to have founded 18 new Bishopricks but he founded only six Other great Projects did also become abortive In particular one that was designed by Sir Nicholas Bacon which was a Seminary for States-men he proposed the crecting a House for Persons of Quality or of extraordinary Endowments for the study of the Civil Law and of the Latine and French Tongues of whom some were to be sent with every Ambassadour beyond Sea to be improved in the Knowledg of Forreign Assairs in which they should be imploied as they grew capable of them And others were to be set to work to write the History of the Trasactions abroad and of Assairs at home This was to supply one Loss that was like to follow on the Fall of Abbies for in most of them there was kept a Chronicle of the Times These were written by Men that were more credulous than judicious and so they are often more particular in the recital of Trifles than of important Affairs and an invincible Humour of lying when it might raise the Credit of their Order or House runs through all their Manuscripts All the Ground that Cranmer gained this Year in which there was so much lost was a Liberty that all private Persons might have Bibles in their House the managing of which was put in Cromwell's Hands by a special Patent Gardiner opposed it vehemently and built much on this that without Tradition it was impossible to understand the meaning of the Scriptures and one day before the King he challenged Cranmer to shew any Difference between the Scriptures and the Apostles Canons It is not known how Cranmer managed the Debate but the Issue of it was this The King judged in his Favours and said He was an old experienced Captain and ought not to be troubled by fresh Men and Novices The King was now resolved to marry again and both the Emperour and the King of France proposed Matches to him but they came to no Effect The Emperour endeavoured by all means possible to separate the King from the Princes of the Smalcaldick League and the Act of the six Articles had done that already in a great measure for they complained much of the King's Severity in those Points which were the principal Parts of their Doctrine such as Communion in both kinds Private Masses and the Marriage of the Clergy Gardiner studied to animate the King much against them he often told him it was below his Dignity to suffer dull Gâ—rrâ—ans to dictate to him and he suggested that they who would not acknowledg the Emperours Supremacy in the matters of Religion could not be hearty Friends to the Authority which the King had assumed in them But the Germans did not look on the Emperour as their Soveraign but only as the Head of the Empire and they did believe that every Prinee in his Dominions and the Diet for the whole Empire had sufficient Authority for making Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs but what other Considerations could not induce the King to was like to be more powerfully carried on by the Match with Anne of Cleve which was now set on foot There had been a Treaty between her Father and
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
the latter of it self Grace was said to be offered to all Men but was made effectual by the Application of the Free-will to it and Grace and Free-will did consist well together the one being added for the help of the other and therefore Preachers were warned not to depress either of them too much in order to the Exaltation of the other Men were justified freely by the Grace of God but that was applied by Faith in which both the Fear of God Repentance and Amendment of Life were included All curious reasonings about Predestination were condemned for Men could not be assured of their Election but by feeling the Motions of God's Holy Spirit appearing in a good and a vertuous Life and persevering in that to the end Good Works were necessary which were not the Superstitious Inventions of Monks and Friars nor only moral Good Works done by the Power of Nature but were the Works of Charity flowing from a pure Heart and Faith unfeigned Fasting and the other Fruits of Pennance were also Good Works but of an Inferiour Nature to Justice and the other Vertues Good Works were meritorious yet since they were wrought in Men by God's Spirit all boasting was excluded They ended with an account of Prayer for Souls departed almost the same that was in the Articles published before The Book was writ in a plain and Masculine Stile fit for weak Capacities The Book is published and yet strong and weighty and the parts of it that related to Practice were admirable To this they added a Preface declaring the Care they had used in examining the Scriptures and Antient Doctors out of whom they compiled this Book The King added another Preface in which he condemned the Hypocrisy and Superstition of one sort and the Presumption of another sort to correct both he had ordered this Book to be made and published and he required his People to read and print it in their Hearts and to pray to God to grant them the Spirit of Humility for receiving it aright And he charged the Inferiour People to remember that their Office was not to teach but to be taught and to practise what they heard rather than dispute about it But this Preface was not added till two Years after the Book was put out for it mentions the Approbation that was given to it in Parliament and the Restraint that was put on reading the Scriptures of which an account shall be given afterwards The Reformers were dissatisfied with many things in the Book yet were glad to find the Morals of Religion so well opened for the Purity of Soul which that might effect would dispose People to sound Opinions many Superstitious Practices were also condemned and the Gospel-Covenant was rightly stated One Article was also asserted in it which opened the way to a further Reformation for every National Church was declared to be a compleat Body with Power to reform Heresies and do every thing that was necessary for preserving its own Purity or governing its Members The Popish Party thought they had recovered much Ground that seemed lost formerly They knew the Reformers would never submit to all things in this Book which would alienate the King from them but they were safe being resolved to comply with him in every thing and without doing that it was like to be somewhat uneasy to live in England for the King's Peevishness grew upon him with his Age. Now the Correspondence between the King and the German Princes fell upon the Change that was made in the Ministry and a secret Treaty was set on foot between the King and the Emperour All the Changes that the Committee appointed for the Ceremonies made was only the Rasure of some Offices and Collects and the setting out of a new Primer with the Vulgar Devotions for the Common People But the Changes were not so great as that it was necessary to reprint the Missals or Breviaries for the old Books were still made use of Yet these Rasures were such that in Queen Mary's time the old Books were all called in and the Nation was put to the Charge of buying new ones which was considerable so great was the Number of the Books of Offices The Popish Party studied now to engage the King into new Severities against the Reformers Barnes and others fall into Trouble the first Instances of these fell on three Preachers Barnes Gerrard and Jerome who had been early wrought on by Luther's Books Barnes had during Wolsey's Greatness reflected much on him in a Sermon which he preached at Cambridg but Gardiner was then his Friend and brought him off he having abjured some Articles that were objected to him yet upon new Complaints he was again put in Prison but he made his Escape and fled to Germany and became so considerable that he was sent over to England by the King of Denmark as Chaplain to his Ambassadours but he went back again The Bishop of Hereford meeting him at Smalcald sent him over to England with a special Recommendation to Cromwell he was after that much imployed in the Negotiations which the King had with the Germans and had the misfortune to be the first that was sent with the Proposition for Anne of Cleve In Lent this Year Bonner appointed those three to have their turns at St. Paul's Cross Gardiner preached also there and fell on Justification which he handled according to the Notions of the Schools But Barnes and the other two did directly refute his Sermon when it came to their turns to preach not without indecent Reflections on his Person This was represented to the King as a great Insolence he being both a Bishop and a Privy Counsellour so the King commanded them to go and give him Satisfaction he seemed to carry the matter with much Moderation and readily forgave all that was personal tho it was believed that it stuck deep in him In Conclusion they confessed their Indiscretion and promised for the future to be more cautious and renounced some Articles of which it was thought their Sermons savoured as that God was the Author of Sin that Good Works were not necessary to Salvation and that Princes ought not to be obeyed in all their just Laws Some other Niceties were in dispute concerning Justification but the King thought these were not of such Consequence that it was necessary to make them abjure them Barnes and his Friends were required to preach a Recantation Sermon at the Spittle and to ask Gardiner's Pardon but tho they obeyed this yet it was said that in one place they justified what they recanted in another at which the King was so much provoked that without hearing them he sent them to the Tower At that time Cromwell either could not protect them or would not interpose in a matter which gave the King so great Offence When the Parliament came they were attainted of Heresy without being brought to make their Answers no particular Errors were objected to them only they were
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
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
instruct their Hearers in the Fundamentals of Religion of which they had known little formerly This made the Nation run after these Teachers with a wonderful Zeal but they mixed too much Sharpness against the Friars in their Sermons which was judged indecent in them to do tho their Hypocrisy and Cheats did in a great measure excuse those Heats and it was observed that our Saviour had exposed the Pharisees in so plain a manner that it did very much justify the treating them with some Roughness yet it is not to be denied but Resentments for the Cruelties they or their Friends had suffered by their means might have too much Influence on them This made it seem necessary to suffer none to preach at least out of their own Parishes without Licence and many were licensed to preach as Itinerants There was also a Book of Homilies on all the Epistles and Gospels in the Year put out which contained a plain Paraphrase of those Parcels of Scripture together with some practical Exhortations founded on them Many Complaints were made of those that were licensed to preach and that they might be able to justify themselves they began generally to write and read their Sermons and thus did this Custom begin in which what is wanting in the heat and force of Delivery is much made up by the strength and solidity of the Matter and has produced many Volumes of as excellent Sermons as have been preached in any Age. Plays and Enterludes were a great Abuse in that time in them Mock-Representations were made both of the Clergy and of the Pageantry of their Worship The Clergy complained much of these as an Introduction to Atheism when things Sacred were thus laught at and said They that begun to laugh at Abuses would not cease till they had represented all the Mysteries of Religion as ridiculous The graver sort of Reformers did not approve of it but political Men encouraged it and thought nothing would more effectually pull down the Abuses that yet remained than the exposing them to the scorn of the Nation A War did now break out between England and Scotland at the Instigation of the King of France A War with Scotland King Henry set out a Declaration pretending that the Crown of Scotland owed Homage to him and cited many Precedents to shew that Homage was done not only by their Kings but by consent of the States for which Original Records were appealed to The Scots on the other hand asserted that they were a free and independent Kingdom that the Homages antiently made by their Kings were only for Lands which they had in England and that those more lately made were either offered by Pretenders in the case of a doubtful Title or were extorted by Force And they said their Kings could not give up the Rights of a free Crown and People The Duke of Norfolk made an In-road into Scotland with 20000 Men in October but after he had burnt some small Towns and wasted Teviotdale he returned back to England In the end of November an Army of 15000 Scots with a good Train of Artillery was brought together They intended to march into England by the Western Road. The King went to it in Person but he was at this time much disturbed in his Fancy and thought the Ghost of one whom he had unjustly put to death followed him continually he not only left the Army but sent a Commission to Oliver Sinclare then called his Minion to command in chief This disgusted the Nobility very much who were become weary of the Insolence of that Favourite so they refused to march and were beginning to separate While they were in this Disorder 500 English appeared and they apprehending it was a fore Party of the Duke of Norfolk's Army refused to fight so the English fell upon them and dispersed them they took all their Ordinance and Baggage and 1000 Prisoners of whom 200 were Gentlemen The chief of these were the Earls of Glencarn and Cassilis The News of this so over-charged the Melancholy King that he died soon after leaving only an Infant Daughter newly born to succeed him The Lords that were taken were brought up to London and lodged in the Houses of the English Nobility Cassilis was sent to Lambeth where he received those Seeds of Knowledg which produced afterwards a great Harvest in Scotland The other Prisoners were also instructed to such a degree that they came to have very different Thoughts of the Changes that had been made in England from what the Scotish Clergy had possessed them with who had encouraged their King to engage in the War both by the assurance of Victory since he fought against an Heretical Prince and the Contribution of 50000 Crowns a Year The King's Death and the Crowns falling to his Daughter made the English Council lay hold on this as a proper Conjuncture for uniting the whole Island in one therefore they sent for the Scotish Lords and proposed to them the marrying the Prince of Wales to their young Queen this the Scots liked very well and promised to promote it all they could And so upon their giving Hostages for the performing their Promises faithfully they were sent home and went away much pleased both with the Splendor of the King's Court and with the way of Religion which they had seen in England A Parliament was called A Parliament called in which the King had great Subsidies given him of six Shillings in the Pound to be paid in three Years A Bill was proposed for the advancement of true Religion by Cranmer and some other Bishops for the Spirits of the Popish Party were much fallen ever since the last Queen's Death yet at this time a Treaty was set on foot between the King and the Emperour which raised them a little for since the King was like to engage in a War with France it was necessary for him to make the Emperour his Friend Cranmer's Motion was much opposed and the timorous Bishops forsook him yet he put it as far as it would go An Act about Religion tho in most Points things went against him By it Tindall's Translation of the Bible was condemned as crafty and false and also all other Books contrary to the Doctrine set forth by the Bishops But Bibles of another Translation were still allowed to be kept only all Prefaces or Annotations that might be in them were to be dashed or cut out All the King's Injunctions were confirmed No Books of Religion might be printed without Licence there was to be no Exposition of Scripture in Plays or Enterludes none of the Laity might read the Scripture or explain it in any publick Assembly But a Proviso was made for publick Speeches which then began generally with a Text of Scripture and were like Sermons Noblemen Gentlemen and their Wives or Merchants might have Bibles but no ordinary Woman Tradesman Apprentice or Husbandman might have any Every Person might have the Book set out by the
Bishops and the Psalter and other Rudiments of Religion in English All Church-men that preached contrary to that Book for the first Offence were only required to recant for the second to abjure and carry a Faggot but were to be burnt for the third the Laity for the third Offence were only to forfeit their Goods and Chattels and to be liable to perpetual Imprisonment but they were to be proceeded against within a Year The Parties accused were not allowed Witnesses for their Purgation The Act of the six Articles was confirmed and it was left free to the King to change this Act or any Proviso in it There was also a new Act past giving Authority to the King's Proclamations and any nine Privy Counsellours were empowered to proceed against Offenders To this the Lord Mountjoy dissented and it is the only Instance of any Protestation against any of the publick Acts that past in this whole Reign By the Act about Religion as the Laity were delivered from the fear of Burning so the Clergy might not be burnt but upon the third Conviction The Act being also put entirely in the King's Power he had now the Reformers all at mercy for he could bind up the Act or execute it as he pleased and he affected this much to have his People depend entirely upon him The League offensive and defensive for England and Calais and for the Netherlands was sworn by the King and the Emperour and Assurances were given that tho the King would not declare Lady Mary legitimate upon which the Emperour insisted much yet she should be put in the Succession to the Crown next Prince Edward The Emperour was glad thus to engage the Kings of England and France in a War by which the Germans were left without Support and so he resolved to carry on his great design of making himself Master of Germany In Scotland the Earl of Arran Affairs in Scotland Hamilton next in Blood to the young Queen was established in the Government during the Queen's Minority he was a Man of great Vertue and much inclined to the Reformation but was soft and easie to be wrought on King Henry sent Sir Ralph Sadler to him to induce him to set forward the Match and to offer him Lady Elizabeth to his Son It was agreed and confirmed in Parliament that the Young Queen should be bred in Scotland till she was ten Years old the King of England sending a Nobleman and his Lady with others not exceeding twenty to wait on her and after that Age she was to be sent to England and in the mean while six Hostages were to be given but all the Clergy headed by Cardinal Beaton set themselves much against this The Queen-Mother opposed it much and it was also said a Match with the French would be more for the Interest of the Nation who being at so great a distance could not oppress them so easily as the English might for if the French opprest them the English would be ready to protect them but if they came under the Yoke of England they could expect no Protection from any other Prince This meeting with that Antipathy that was then formed between the two Nations and being inflamed by the Clergy turned the People generally to prefer a Match with France to that which was proposed for the Prince of Wales The French sent over the Earl of Lennox to make a Party against the Governour they sent also over the Governour 's Base-Brother afterwards made Arch-bishop of St. Andrews to take him out of the hands of the English and he made him apprehend great danger if he went on in his Opposition to the Interests of Rome that he would be declared illegitimate as being begotten in a second Marriage while the first that was annulled because of a Precontract did subsist for if the annulling the first should be reversed then the second could be of no force and if that were once done the Earl of Lennox who was next to him in blood would be preferred to him These threatnings joyned with his Brother 's Artifices had their full Effect on him for he turned off wholly from the Interests of England and gave himself up to the French Councils When it was thus resolved to break the Match with England the Lords that had left Hostages for their faithful performing the Promises they made to King Henry were little concerned either in their own Honour or in the safety of their Hostages only the Earl of Cassilis thought it was unworthy of him to break his Faith in such a manner so he came into England and put himself in King Henry's Hands who upon that called him another Regulus but used him better for he gave him his Liberty and a Noble Present and sent him back with his Hostages but resolved to take a severe Reparation of those who had failed him in that Kingdom At the same time he began the War with France one of the Reasons he gave for it was that Francis had failed in the matter of shaking off the Pope's Authority and advancing a Reformation in which he had promised to second him The King married Katherine Parre Some burnt at Windsor Widow to Nevill Lord Latimer She secretly favoured the Reformation but could not divert a Storm which fell then on a Society at Windsor Person a Priest Testwood and Marbeck two Singing-men and Filmer one of the Town were informed against by Dr. London who had insinuated himself much into Cromwel's Favour and was eminently zealous in the Suppression of the Monasteries But now he made his Court no less dextrously to the Popish Party Gardiner moved in Council That a Commission might be granted for searching all suspected Houses for Books written against the six Articles So the four before mentioned were found to have some of them and upon that account were seized on Sir Philip Hobbey and Dr. Hains Dean of Exeter were also put in Prison There was a Concordance of the Bible and some Notes upon it in English found written by Marbeck which was look'd on as the Work of some learned Man for it was known that he was illiterate Marbeck said the Notes were his own gathered by him out of such Books as he fell on And for the Concordance he said he compiled it by the help of a Latin Concordance and an English Bible tho he understood little Latin He had brought it to the Letter L. This seemed so incredible that it was look'd on only as a Pretence to conceal the true Author so to try him they gave him some Words of the Letter M and shut him up with a Latin Concordance and an English Bible and by his Performance in that they clearly saw that the whole Work was his own and were not a little astonished at the Ingeniousness and Diligence of so poor a Man When the King heard of it he said Marbeck was better imployed than they were that examined him So he was preserved tho the other
three were condemned for some Words which they had spoken against the Mass and upon that were burnt Dr. London and Simonds an Attorney had taken some Informations against several Persons of Quality at Court and intended to have carried the Design very high But a great Pacquet in which all their Project was disclosed by them being intercepted they were sent for and examined about it but they denied it upon Oath not knowing that their Letters were taken and were not a little confounded when their own Hand-writing was shewed them So they were convicted of Perjury and were set on a Pillory and made ride about with their Faces to the Horses Tails and Papers on their Breasts in three several Places which did so affect Dr. London that he died soon after Cranmer 's Ruine is designed The chief thing aimed at by the whole Popish Party was Cranmer's Ruine Gardiner imploied many to infuse it into the King that he gave the chief Encouragement to Heresy of any in England and that it was in vain to lop off the Branches and leave the Root still growing The King till then would never hear the Complaints that were made of him But now to penetrate into the depth of this Design he was willing to draw out all that was to be said against him Gardiner reckoned that this Point being gained all the rest would follow And judged that the King was now alienated from him and so more Instruments and Artifices than ever were now made use of A long Paper of many Particulars both against Cranmer and his Chaplains was put in the King's hands So upon this the King sent for him and after he had complained much of the Heresy in England he said He resolved to find out the chief Promoter of it and to make him an Example Cranmer wished him first to consider well what Heresy was that so he might not condemn those as Hereticks who stood for the Word of God against Humane Inventions Then the King told him franckly That he was the Man complained of as most guilty and shewed him all the Informations that he had received against him Cranmer confessed he was still of the same mind that he was of when he opposed the six Articles and submitted himself to a Trial He confessed many things to the King in particular that he had a Wife but he said he had sent her out of England when the Act of the six Articles past and expressed so great a Sincerity and put so entire a Confidence in the King that instead of being ruined he was now better established with him than formerly The King commanded him to appoint some to examine the Contrivance that was laid to destroy him He answered That it was not decent for him to nominate any to judge in a Cause in which himself was concerned Yet the King was positive so so he named some to go about it and the whole secret was found out It appeared that Gardiner and Dr. London had been the chief Sticklers and had encouraged Informers to appear against him Cranmer did not press the King to give him any Reparation for he was so noted for his readiness to forgive Injuries and to do Good for Evil that it was commonly said that the best way to obtain his Favour was to do him an Injury of this he gave signal Instances at this time both in Relation to some of the Clergy and Laity by which it appeared that he was acted by that meek and lowly Spirit that became all the Followers of Christ but more particularly one that was so great an Instrument in reforming the Christian Religion and did in such eminent Acts of Charity shew that he himself practised that which he taught others to do A Parliament was now called The Act of the Succession in which the great Act of Succession to the Crown past By it the Crown was first provided to Prince Edward and his Heirs or the Heirs by the King 's present Marriage after them to Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth and in case they had no Issue or did not observe such Limitations or Conditions as the King should appoint then it was to fall to any other whom the King should name either by his Letters Patents or by his last Will signed with his Hand An Oath was appointed both against the Pope's Supremacy and for the maintaining Succession according to this Act which all were required to take under the pains of Treason It was made Treason to say or write any thing contrary to this Act or to the Slander of any of the King's Heirs named in it By this tho the King did not Legitimate his Daughters yet it was made Criminal for any to object Bastardy to them Another Act past qualifying the Severity of the Act of the six Articles none were to be imprisoned but upon a Legal Presentment except upon the King's Warrant None was to be challenged for Words but within a Year nor for a Sermon but within 40 Days This was made to prevent such Conspiracies as had been discovered the former Year Another Act past renewng the Authority given to 32 to reform the Ecclesiastical Law which Cranmer promoted much and to set it forward he drew out of the Canon Law a Collection of many things against the Regal and for the Papal Authority with several other very Extravagant Propositions to shew how Indecent a thing it was to let a Book in which such things were continue still in any credit in England But he could not bring this to any good Issue during this Reign Another Act past discharging all the King's Debts and they also required such as had received payment to bring back the Money into the Exchequer This was taxed as a piece of gross Injustice and it was thought strange that since the King had done this once before he could have the credit to raise more Mony and be tempted to do it a second time A General Pardon was granted out of which Heresy was excepted The King was now engaged in a War The King makes War on France and Scotland both with France and Scotland and to make his Treasure hold out the longer he embased the Coin in a very Extraordinary manner The Earl of Hartford was sent with an Army by Sea to Scotland he landed at Grantham a little above Leith He burnt both Leith and Edinburgh but he neither staied to take the Castle of Edinburgh nor did he Fortify Leith but only wasted the Country all the Way from that to Berwick He did too much if it was intended to gain the Hearts of that Nation and too little if it was intended to subdue them for this did only inflame their Spirits more by which they were so united in their Aversion to England that the Earl of Lennox who had been cast off by France and was gone over to the English Interest could make no Party in the West but was forced for his own Preservation to fly into
of Age he was put into the hands of Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheek the one was to form his mind and to teach him Philosophy and Divinity the other was to teach him the Tongues and Mathematicks other Masters were also appointed for the other parts of his Education He discovered very early a good disposition to Religion and Vertue and a particular Reverence for the Scriptures for he took it very ill when one about him laid a great Bible on the Floor to step up on it to somewhat which was out of his reach without such an advantage He profited well in Letters and wrote at eight Years old Latin Letters frequently both to the King to Q. Katherine Parre to the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Uncle the Earl of Hartford who had been first made Viscount Beauchamp being the Heir by his Mother of that Family and was after that advanced to be an Earl In the end of his Fathers life it had been designed to create him Prince of Wales for that was one of the reasons given to hasten the attainder of the D. of Norfolk because he held some places during life which the King intended to put in other hands in order to that Ceremony Upon his Fathers death the E. of Hartford and Sir Anth. Brown were sent to bring him up to the Tower of London and when King Henry's death was published he was proclaimed King At his coming to the Tower his Fathers Will was opened K. Hen. testament by which it was found that he had named 16. to be the Governors of the Kingdom and of his Sons person till he should be eighteen Years of Age. These were the Archbishops of Canterbury the Lord Wriothesly Lord Chancellor Lord St. John Great Master Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal Earl Hartford Lord Great Chamberlain Vis Lisle Lord Admiral Tonstall B. of Duresme Sir Anth. Brown Master of the Horse Sr Will. Paget Secretary of State Sr Ed. North Chancellour of the Augmentations Sir Ed. Mountague L d Chief Just of the Common Pleas Judge Bromley Sir Anth. Denny and Sir Will. Herbert Chief Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Sr Ed. Wotton Treasurer of Callis Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York They were also to give the Kings Sisters in Marriage and if they married without their consent they were to forfeit their right of succession for the King was Impowered by Act of Parliament to leave the Crown to them with what limitations he should think fit to appoint There was also a Privy Council named to be their Assistants in the Government if any of the 16. died the Survivers were to continue in the Administration without a power to substitute others in their rooms who should die It was now proposed that one should be chosen out of the 16. to whom Ambassadours should address themselves and who should have the chief direction of affairs but should be restrained to do nothing but by the consent of the greater part of the other Co-executors The Chancellor who thought the Precedence fell to him by his Office since the Archbishop did not meddle much in secular Affairs opposed this much and said it was a change of the Kings will who had made them all equal in power and dignity and if any were raised above the rest in Title it would not be possible to keep him within due bounds since great Titles make way for High Power but the Earl of Hartford had so prepared his Friends that it was carried that he should be declared the Governour of the Kings Person and the Protector of the Kingdom A Protector chosen with this restriction that he should do nothing but by the advice and consent of the rest Upon this advancement and the opposition made to it two Parties were formed the one headed by the Protector and the other by the Chancellour the favourers of the Reformation were of the former and those that opposed it were of the latter The Chancellor was ordered to renew the Commissions of the Judges and Justices of Peace and King Henry's great Seal was to be made use of till a new one should be made The day after this all the Executors took their Oaths to execute their trust faithfully the Privy Councellors were also brought into the Kings presence who did all express their satisfaction in the choice that was made of the Protector and it was ordered that all dispatches to foreign Princes should be signed only by him All that held Offices were required to come and renew their Commissions Bishops take out Commissions and to swear Allegiance to the King among the rest the Bishops came and took out such Commissions as were granted in the former Reign only by those they were subaltern to the Kings Vicegerent but there being none now in that Office they were immediately subaltern to the King and by them they were to hold their Bishopricks only during the Kings pleasure and were impowered in the Kings name as his Delegates to perform all the parts of the Episcopal function Cranmer set an Example to the rest in taking out one of those It was thought fit thus to keep the Bishops under the terror of such an Arbitrary power lodged in the King that so it might be more easie to turn them out if they should much oppose what might be done in points of Religion but the ill consequences of such an unlimited power being well foreseen the Bishops that were afterwards promoted were not so fettered but were provided to hold their Bishopricks during life The late King had in his Will required his Executors to perform all the promises he had made A Creation of Noblemen so Paget was required to give an account of the Promises the late King had made and he declared upon Oath that upon the prospect of the attainder of the D. of Norfolk the King intended a Creation of Peers and to divide his Lands among them the Persons to be raised were Hartford to be a Duke Essex a Marquess Lisle Russel St. John and Wriothesly to be Earls Sir Tho. Seimour Cheyney Rich Willoughby Arundell Sheffield St. Leger Wymbish Vernon and Danby to be Barons and a division was to be made of the Duke of Norfolks Estate among them some shares were also set off for others who were not to be advanced in Title as Denny and Herbert and they finding Paget had been mindful of them but had not mentioned himself had moved the King for a share to him The King appointed Paget to give notice of this to the Persons named but many excused themselves and desired no addition of honor since the Lands which the King intended to give them were not sufficient to support that dignity The Duke of Norfolk prevented all this for being apprehensive of the ruine of his Family if his Estate were once divided he sent a message to the King desiring him to convert it all to be a Revenue to the Prince of Wales This wrought so much on the
the German Princes and yet it was very dangerous to begin a War of such Consequence under an Infant King At present they promised within three Months to send by the Merchants of the Still-yard 50000 Crowns to Hamburgh and resolved to do no more till new Emergents should lead them to new Councels The Nation was in an ill condition for a War Divisions in England with such a mighty Prince labouring under great distractions at home the People generally cried out for a Reformation they despised the Clergy and loved the new Preachers The Priests were for the most part both very ignorant and scandalous in their lives many of them had been Monks and those that were to pay them the pensions that were reserved to them at the destruction of the Monasteries till they should be provided took care to get them into some small Benefice The greatest part of the Parsonages were Impropriated for they belonged to the Monasteries and the Abbots had only granted the Incumbents either the Vicarage or some small Donative and left them the Perquisites raised by Masses and other Offices At the suppression of those Houses there was no care taken to provide the Incumbents better so they chiefly subsisted by Trentals other Devices that brought them in some small relief though the Price of them was scandalously low for Masses went often at 2 d. a Groat was a great bounty Now these saw that a Reformation of those abuses took the Bread out of their mouths so their Interests prevailing more with them than any thing else they were zealously engaged against all changes but that same Principle made them comply with every change that was made rather than lose their Benefices Their poverty made them run into another abuse of holding more Benefices at the same time a Corruption of so crying and scandalous a nature that where ever it is practised it is sufficient to possess the People with great prejudices against the Church that is guilty of it there being nothing more contrary to the plainest impressions of reason than that every Man who undertakes a Cure of Souls whom at his Ordination he has vowed that he would instruct feed govern ought to discharge that trust himself which is the greatest and most important of all others The Clergy were incouraged in their Opposition to all changes by the protection they expected from Gardiner Bonner and Tonstall who were Men of great reputation as well as set in high places and above all Lady Mary did openly declare against all Changes till the King should be of Age. But on the other hand Cranmer whose greatest weakness was his over-obsequiousness to King Henry being now at liberty resolved to proceed more vigorously The Protector was firmly united to him so were the young Kings Tutors and he was as much engaged as could be expected from so young a Person for both his knowledge and zeal for true Religion were above his Age. Several of the Bishops did also declare for a Reformation but Dr. Ridley now made Bishop of Rochester was the Person on whom he depended most Latimer was kept by him at Lambeth and did great service by his Sermons which were very popular but he would not return to his Bishoprick choosing rather to serve the Church in a more disengaged manner Many of the Bishops were very ignorant and poor spirited Men raised meerly by Court-favour who wee little concerned for any thing but their Revenues Cranmer resolved to proceed by degrees and to open the reasons of every advance that was made so fully that he hoped by the blessing of God to possess the Nation of the fitness of what they should do and thereby to prevent any dangerous opposition that might otherwise be apprehended The power of the Privy Council had been much exalted in King Henry's time by Act of Parliament and one Proviso in it was that the King's Council should have the same Authority when he was under Age that he himself had at full Age A Visitation of all the Churches so it was resolved to begin with a General Visitation of all England which was divided into six Precincts and two Gentlemen a Civilian a Divine and a Register were appointed for every one of these But before they were sent out May. there was a Letter written to all the Bishops giving them notice of it suspending their Jurisdiction while it lasted and requiring them to preach no where but in their Cathedrals and that the other Clergy should not preach but in their own Churches without Licence by which it was intended to restrain such as were not acceptable to their own Parishes and to grant the others Licences to Preach in any Church of England The greatest difficulty that the Reformers found was in the want of able and prudent Men the most zealous were too hot and indiscreet and the few they had that were Eminent were to be imployed in London and the Universities Therefore they intended to make those as common as was possible and appointed them to preach as Itinerants and Visitors The only thing by which the People could be universally instructed was a Book of Homilies so the twelve first Homilies in the Book still known by that name were compiled in framing which the chief design was to acquaint the People aright with the nature of the Gospel Covenant in which there were two extreams equally dangerous the one was of those who thought the Priests had an infallible secret of saving their souls if they would in all things follow their directions the other was of those who thought that if they magnified Christ much and depended on his Merits they could not perish which way soever they led their lives So the mean between these was observed and the People were taught both to depend on the sufferings of Christ and also to lead their lives according to the rules of the Gospel without which they could receive no benefit by his death Order was also given that a Bible should be in every Church which though it was commanded by King Henry yet had not been generally obeyed and for understanding the New Testament Erasmus's Paraphrase was put out in English and appointed to be set up in every Church His great reputation and learning and his dying in the Communion of the Roman Church made this Book to be preferred to any other since there lay no prejudice to Erasmus which would have been objected to any other Author They renewed also all the Injunctions made by Cromwel in the former Reign which after his fall were but little looked after as those for instructing the people for removing Images and putting down all other customes abused to superstition perstition for reading the Scriptures and saying the Litany in English for frequent Sermons and Catechising for the Exemplary lives of the Clergy and their labours in visiting the sick and the other parts of their function such as reconciling differences and exhorting their people to Charities and
and Equity and said that all people even those who complained most of arbitrary power were apt to usurp it when they were in authority And some thought the delivering the doctrine of Justification in such nice terms was not sutable to the plain simplicity of the Christian Religion Lady Mary was so alarmed at these proceedings that she wrote to the Protector that such changes were contrary to the honour due to her Fathers Memory and it was against their duty to the King to enter upon such points and endanger the publick Peace before he was of Age. To which he wrote answer That her Father had died before he could finish the good things he had intended concerning Religion and had expressed his regret both before himself and many others that he left things in so unsetled a state and assured her that nothing should be done but what would turn to the Glory of God and the Kings Honour He imputed her Writing to the importunity of others rather than to her self and desired her to consider the matter better with an humble Spirit and the assistance of the Grace of God The Parliament was opened the fourth of November A Parliament meets and the Protector was by Patent authorized to sit under the Cloath of State on the Right hand of the Throne and to have all the Honours and Priviledges that any Unkle of the Crown either by Father or Mothers side ever had Rich was made Lord Chancellour The first Act that past five Bishops only dissenting An Act of Repeal was A Repeal of all Statutes that had made any thing Treason or Felony in the late Reign which was not so before and of the six Articles and the authority given to the Kings Proclamations as also of the Acts against Lollards All who deni'd the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes for the first offence were to forfeit their goods for the second were to be in a Pramunire and were to be attainted of Treason for the third But if any intended to deprive the King of his Estate or Title that was made Treason none were to be accused of Words but within a month after they were spoken they also repealed the power that the King had of annulling all Laws made till he was twenty four years of age and restrained it only to an annulling them for the time to come but that it should not be of force for the declaring them null from the beginning Another Act past with the same dissent An Act about the Sacrament for the Communion in both kinds and that the people should always communicate with the Priest and by it irreverence to the Sacrament was condemned under severe penalties Christ had instituted the Sacrament in both kinds and S. Paul mentions both In the Primitive Church that custome was universally observed but upon the belief of Transubstantiation the reserving and carrying about the Sacrament were brought in this made them first endeavour to perswade the World that the Cup was not necessary for Wine could neither keep nor be carried about conveniently but it was done by degrees the Bread was for some time given dipt as it is yet in the Greek Church but it being believed that Christ was entirely under either kind and in every crumb the Council of Constance took the Cup from the Laity yet the Bohemians could not be brought to submit to it so every where the use of the Cup was one of the first things that was insisted on by those who demanded a Reformation At first all that were present did communicate and censures past on such as did it not And none were denied the Sacrament but Penitents who were made to withdraw during the Action But as the devotion of the World slackned the people were still exhorted to continue their Oblations and come to the Sacrament though they did not receive it and were made believe that the Priest received it in their stead The name Sacrifice given to it as being a holy Oblation was so far improved that the World came to look on the Priests officiating as a Sacrifice for the dead and living From hence followed an infinite variety of Masses for all the accidents of humane life and that was the chief part of the Priests trade but it occasioned many unseemly jests concerning it which were restrained by the same Act that put these down Another Act past without any dissent An Act concerning the nomination of Bishops That the Conge d'elire and the Election pursuant to it being but a shadow since the person was named by the King should cease for the future and that Bishops should be named by the Kings Letters Patents and thereupon be consecrated and should hold their Courts in the Kings name and not in their own excepting only the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Court And they were to use the Kings Seal in all their Writings except in Presentations Collations and Letters of Orders in which they might use their own Seals The Apostles chose Bishops and Pastors by an extraordinary gift of discerning Spirits and proposed them to the approbation of the people yet they left no rules to make that necessary In the times of Persecution the Clergy being maintained by the Oblations of the people they were chosen by them But when the Emperours became Christians the Town Councils and eminent men took the Elections out of the hands of the Rabble And the Tumults in popular Elections were such that it was necessary to regulate them In some places the Clergy and in others the Bishops of the Province made the choice The Emperours reserved the Confirmation of the Elections in the great Sees to themselves But when Charles the Great annexed great Territories and Regalities to Bishopricks a great change followed thereupon Church-men were corrupted by this undue greatness and came to depend on the humours of those Princes to whom they owed this great encrease of their wealth Princes named them and invested them in their Sees But the Popes intended to separate the Ecclesiastical State from all subjection to Secular Princes and to make themselves the heads of that State at first they pretended to restore the freedom of Elections but these were now ingrossed in a few hands for only the Chapters chose The Popes had granted thirty years before this to the King of France the nomination to all the Bishopricks in that Kingdome so the King of Englands assuming it was no new thing and the way of Elections as King Henry had setled it seemed to be but a Mockery so this change was not much condemned The Ecclesiastical Courts were the Concessions of Princes in which Trials concerning Marriages Wills and Tithes depended so the holding those Courts in the Kings name was no Invasion on the Spiritual Function since all that concerned Orders was to be done still in the Bishops name only Excommunication was still left as the Censure of those Courts which being a Spiritual Censure ought to have been reserved to
the Bishop to be proceeded in by him only with the assistance of his Clergy and this fatal errour then committed has not yet met with an effectual regulation Another Act was made against idle Vagabonds An Act against Vagabonds that they should be made slaves for two years by any that should seize on them This was chiefly designed against some Vagrant Monks as appears by the Proviso's in the Act for they went about the Countrey infusing in the People a dislike of the Government The severity of this Act made that the English Nation which naturally abhors slavery did not care to execute it and this made that the other Proviso's for supplying those that were truly indigent and were willing to be imployed had no effect But as no Nation has better and more merciful Laws for the supply of the Poor so the fond pity that many shew to the common Beggars which no Laws have been able to restrain makes that a sort of dissolute and idle Beggars intercept much of that Charity which should go to the relief of those that are indeed the only proper objects of it An Act for dissolving the Changries After this came the Act for giving the King all those Chantries which the late King had not seized on by Vertue of the Grant made to him of them Cranmer opposed this much for the poverty of the Clergy was such that the State of Learning and Religion was like to suffer much if it should not be relieved and yet he saw no probable Fond for that but the preserving these till the King should come to be at Age and allow the selling them for buying in of at least such a share of the Impropriations as might afford some more comfortable subsistence to the Clergy yet though he and seven other Bishops dissented it was past After all other Acts a General Pardon but clogged with some Exceptions came last some Acts were proposed but not past one was for the free use of the Scriptures others were for a Court of Chancery in Ecclesiastical Causes for Residence and for a Reformation of the Courts of Common Law The Convocation fits The Convocation sat at the same time and moved that a Commission begun in the late Reign of thirty two Persons for reforming the Ecclesiastical Laws might be revived and that the inferiour Clergy might be admitted to sit in the House of Commons for which they alledged a Clause in the Bishops Writ and Ancient Custome and since some Prelates had under the former Reign begun to alter the form of the Service of the Church they desired it might be brought to perfection and that some care might be had of supplying the poor Clergy and relieving them from the Taxes that lay on them This concerning the inferiour Clergy's sitting in the House of Commons was the subject of some debate and was again set on foot both under Queen Elizabeth and King James but to no effect Some pretended that they always sat in the House of Commons till the submission made in the former Reign upon the suit of the Praemunire but that cannot be true since in this Convocation 17. years after that in which many that had been in the former were present no such thing was alledged It is not clear who those Proctors of the Clergy that sat in Parliament were if they were the Bishops assistants it is more proper to think they sat in the House of Lords No mention is made of them as having a share in the Legislative Authority in our Records except in the 21. of Richard the 2d In which mention is made both of the Commons the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Proctors of the Clergy concurring to the Acts then made which makes it seem most probable that they were the Clerks of the lower House of Convocation When the Parliament met antiently all in one Body the inferiour Clergy had their Writs and came to it with the other Freeholders but when the two Houses were separated the Clergy became also a distinct body and gave their own Subsidies and medled in all the concerns and represented all the grievances of the Church But now by the Act made upon the submission of the Clergy in the last Reign their power was reduced almost to nothing so they thought it reasonable to desire that either they might have their Representatives in the House of Commons or at least that matters of Religion should not pass without the assent of the Clergy But the raising the Ecclesiastical authority too high in former times made this turn that it was now depressed as much below its just limits as it was before exalted above them as commonly one extreme produces another It was resolved that some Bishops and Divines should be sent to Windsor to finish some Reformations in the publick Offices for the whole lower House of Convocation without a contradictory Vote agreed to the Bill about the Sacrament But it is not known what opposition it met with in the Upper House A Proposition being also set on foot concerning the lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy thirty five subscribed to the affirmative and only fourteen held the Negative And thus ended this Session both of Parliament and Convocation And the Protector being now established in his power and received by a Parliament without contradiction took out a new Commission in which besides his former authority he was impowered to substitute one in his room during his absence In Germany the Princes of the Smalcaldick League were quite ruined The affairs of Germany the Duke of Saxe was defeated and taken Prisoner and used with great severity and scorn which he bare with an invincible greatness of mind The Landgrave was perswaded to submit and had assurances of liberty given him but by a trick unbecoming the greatness of the Emperour he was seized on and kept Prisoner contrary to faith given upon this all the Princes and Towns except Magdeburg and Brome submitted and purchased their pardon at what terms the Conquerour was pleased to impose The Bishop and Elector of Colen withdrew peaceably to a retirement in which after four years he died and now all Germany was at the Emperours mercy Some Cathedrals as that at Ausburg were again restored to the Bishops and Mass was said in them A Diet was also held in which the Emperor obtain'd a Decree to pass by which matters of Religion were referred wholly to his care The Pope instead of rejoycing at this blow given the Lutherans was much troubled at it for the Emperour had now in one Year made an end of a War which he hoped would have Imbroiled him his whole life so that Italy was now more at his mercy than ever and it seemed the Emperour intended to inlarge his Conquests there for the Pope's Natural Son being killed by a Conspiracy the Governour of Milan seized on Placentia which gave the Pope some jealousie as if the Emperour had been privy to
the design against his Son The Emperour's Ambassadors were also very uneasie to the Legates at Trent and prest a Reformation of abuses and endeavoured to restrain them from proceeding in points of doctrine so they took hold of the first pretence they had by the death of one that seemed to have some symptomes of the Plague and removed it to Bologna By this all the advantages the Emperour had from the Promises which the Protestants made to submit to a free General Council assembled in Germany were defeated and it was thought a strange turn of Divine Providence that when the extirpation of Lutheranism was so near being effected a stop was put to it by that which of all things was least to be apprehended since it might have been expected that the perfecting such a design would have made the Pope and the Emperor friends though there had been ever so many other grounds of difference between them So unusual a thing made the favourers of the Reformation ascribe it to the immediate care that Heaven had of that work now when all the humane supports of it were gone Upon this fatal revolution of affairs there many Germans and Italians that had retired to Germany came over to England Peter Martyr and Bernardinus Ochinus came over first Bucer and Fagius followed They were invited over by Cranmer who entertained them at Lambeth till they were provided Martyr was sent to Oxford and Bucer and Fagius to Cambridge but the latter dyed soon after There were some differences between the French and English concerning some new Forts which were made about Bulloigne on both sides yet a Truce was agreed on for the Protector had no mind to engage in a War with France He had a new trouble raised up in his own Family Differences between the Protector and the Admiral by the Ambition of his Brother who thought that being the Kings Uncle as well as his Brother was he ought to have a larger share of the Government He had made addresses to Lady Elizabeth the Kings sister but finding no hopes of success he made applications to the Queen Dowager who married him a little undecently for it was afterwards objected to him that he married her so soon after the Kings death that if she had conceived with Child immediately after the marriage it might have been doubtful whether it was by the late King or not yet the marriage was for some time concealed and the Admiral moved the King and his Sisters to write to the Queen to accept him for her Husband The Kings Sisters excused themselves that it was not decent for them to interpose in such a matter but the young King was more easie so upon his Letter the Queen published her marriage The Admiral being now possessed of much Wealth and the King coming often to the Queens Lodgings he endeavoured to gain him and all that were about him and furnished the King often with Money His design was that whereas in former times when Infant-Kings had two Uncles one was Governour of his Person and another was Protector of the Realm so now these two Trusts might be divided and that he might be made Governour of the Kings Person This is the true account of the breach between those Brothers for the story of the quarrel between their Wives about precedence seems to be an ill-grounded fiction for there was no pretence of a competition between the Queen Dowager and the Dutchess of Somerset but the latter being a high Woman might have perhaps inflamed her Husbands resentments over whom she had an absolute power which gave the rise to that story The Protector was at first very easie to be reconciled to his Brother but after the many provocations he received from him he threw off nature too much When he was in Scotland the Admiral began to take advantage upon that to make a party And the good advices that were given him by Paget to look on those as the common Enemies of their Family who were making this breach between them had no effect to cure a mind hurried on by Ambition It was the advertisement that was sent him of this that made the Protector leave Scotland before he had finished his business there During the Session of Parliament the Admiral prevailed with the King to write with his own hand a Message to the House of Commons to make him the Governour of his person When the Admiral was making Friends in order to this it came to his Brothers ears before he had made any publick use of it So he employed some to divert him from it but with no success Upon that he was sent for to appear before the Council but he refused to come yet they having threatned to turn him out of all his places and to send him to the Tower he submitted and the Brothers were reconciled But the Admiral continued his secret practices still with those about the King Gardiner being included in the Act of Pardon was set at liberty He promised to receive and obey the Injunctions only he excepted to the Homily of Justification yet he complied in that likewise but it was visible that in his heart he abhorred all their proceedings though he outwardly conformed The Second Marriage of the M. of Northampton was tried at this time for his first Wife being convict of Adultery he and she were separated The M. of Northamptons Divorce And he moved in the end of the former Reign that he might be suffered to marry again so a Commission was then granted and was renewed in this Reign to some Delegates to examine what relief might be given to the innocent person in such a case But this being new and Cranmer proceeding in it with his usual exactness which is often accompanied with slowness the Marquess became impatient and married a second Wife Upon this the Council ordered them to be parted till the Delegates should give sentence The Arguments for the second Marriage were these Christ had condemned Divorces for other cases but excepted that of Adultery A Separation from Bed and Board and the Marriage bond standing was contrary to many places of Scripture that mention the end of Marriage S. Paul discharges the married person if the other wilfully deserted him much more will it follow in the case of Adultery And though St. Paul says the Wife is tyed to her Husband as long as he liveth that is only to be understood of a Husband that continued to be one but that relation ceased by Adultery The Fathers differed in their opinions in this matter some allowed Marriage upon Divorce to the Husband but denied it to the Wife others allowed it to both So Tertullian Epiphanius and Basil Jerome also justified Fabiolae that had done it Chrysostome and Chromatius allowed a second Marriage St. Austin was doubtful about it The Roman Emperours allowed by their Laws even after they became Christians Divorce and a second Marriage both to Husbands and Wives upon many other Reasons
besides Adultery as for procuring Abortions treating for another Marriage being guilty of Treason or a Wifes going to Plays without her Husbands leave Nor did the Fathers in those times complain of those Laws This was also allowed by the Canons upon several occasions but after the State of Coelibate came to be magnified out of measure second Marriages were more generally condemned And this was heightned when Marriage was lookt on as a Sacrament Yet though no Divorces were allowed in the Church the Canonists found out many shifts for annulling Marriages from the beginning to those that could pay well for them All these things being considered the Delegates gave sentence confirming the second Marriage and dissolving the first Candlemass and Lent were now approaching Some Ceremonies abrogated so the Clergy and People were much divided with relation to the Ceremonies usual at those times By some Injunctions in K. Henry's Reign it had been declared that Fasting in Lent was only binding by a positive Law Wakes and Plough Moondays were also suppressed and hints were given that other customes which were much abused should be shortly put down The gross Rabble loved these things as matters of diversion and thought Divine Worship without them would be but a dull business But others lookt on these as Relicts of Heathenism since the Gentiles worshipped their Gods with such Festivities and thought they did not become the gravity and simplicity of the Christian Religion Cranmer upon this procured an Order of Council against the carrying of Candles on Candlemass day of Ashes on Ash-Wednesday and Palms on Palm-Sunday which was directed to Bonner to be intimated to the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury and was executed by him But a Proclamation followed against all that should make changes without Authority The creeping to the Cross and taking Holy Bread and Water were by it put down and power was given to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to certifie in the Kings name what Ceremonies should be afterwards laid aside and none were to preach out of their own Parishes without licence from the King or the Visitors the Arch-bishop or the Bishop of the Diocess Some questioned the Councils power to make such Orders the Act that gave authority to their Proclamations being repealed but it was said the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters might well justifie their making such ' Rules Febr. 8. Soon after this a General Order followed for a removal of all Images out of Churches There were every where great contests whether the Images had been abused to Superstition or not Some thought the consecration of them was an abuse common to them all Those also that represented the Trinity as a man with three faces in one head or as an old man with a young man before him and a Dove over his head and some where the Blessed Virgin was represented as assumed into it gave so great scandal that it was no wonder if men as they grew to be better enlightned could no longer endure them The only occasion given to censure in this order was that all Shrines and the Plate belonging to them were appointed to be brought in to the Kings use A Letter was at that time writ to all Preachers requiring them to exhort the people to amend their lives and forsake Superstition but for things not yet changed to bear with them and not to run before those whom they should obey Some hot men condemned this temper as savouring too much of carnal Policy but it was said that though the Apostles by the gift of Miracles had sufficient means to convince the World of their authority Yet they did not all at once change the customes of the Mosaical Law but proceeded by degrees and Christ forbid the pulling up the Tares lest good Wheat should be pulled up with them so it was fit to wean people by degrees from their former superstition and not to run too fast Eighteen Bishops and some Divines were now imployed to examine the Offices of the Church to see which of them needed amendment A new Office for the Communion They began with the Eucharist They proceeded in the same manner that was used in the former Reign For every one gave in his opinion in Writing in answer to the questions that were put to them Some of these are still preserved which were concerning the Priests sole communicating and Masses satisfactory for the dead the Mass in an unknown tongue the hanging it up and exposing it and the Sacrifice that was made in it In most of those Papers it appears that the greatest part of the Bishops were still leavened with the old superstition at least to some degree It was clearly found that the plain Institution of the Sacrament was was much vitiated with a mixture of many Heathenish Rites and Pomps on design to raise the credit of the Priests in whose hands that great performance was lodged This was at first done to draw over the Heathens by those splendid Rites to Christianity but Superstition once begun has no bounds nor measures and ignorance and barbarity encreasing in the darker ages there was no regard had to any thing in Religion but as it was set off with much Pageantry And the belief of the Corporal presence raised this to a great height The Office was in an unknown tongue all the Vessels and Garments belonging to it were consecrated with much devotion a great part of the Service was secret to make it look like a wonderful charm the Consecration it self was to be said very softly for words that were not to be heard agreed best with a change that was not to be seen The many Gesticulations and the magnificent Processions all tended to raise this Pageantry higher Masses were also said for all the turns and affairs of humane life Trentals a custome of having thirty Masses a year on the chief Festivities for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was that which brought the Priests most Money for these were thought Gods best days in which aecess was easier to him On Saints days in the Mass it was prayed that by the Saints Intercession the Sacrifice might become the more acceptable and procure a larger Indulgence which could not be easily explained if the Sacrifice was the death of Christ besides a numberless variety of other Rites so many of the Relicts of Heathenism were made use of for the corrupting of the holiest institution of the Christian Religion The first step that was now made was a new Office for the Communion that is the distribution of the Sacrament for the Office of Consecration was not at this time touched It differs very little from what is still used In the Exhortation Auricular Confession to a Priest is left free to be done or omitted and all were required not to judge one another in that matter There was also a denunciation made requiring impenitent sinners to withdraw The Bread was to be still of the same form that had been formerly used
enacted the same Penalties against offendors that were in the Act for the former Book three years before The Papists took occasion on the changes now made in the Book to say that the new Doctrines and ways of Worship changed as fast as the fashions did It was answered That it was no wonder if corruptions which had been creeping in for a thousand years were not all discovered and thrown out at once and since they had been every age making additions of new Ceremonies it might be excused if the Purging them out was done by such easie degrees The Book was not to be received till All-hallows because it was hoped that between and then the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws would have been finished A Bill concerning Treasons past with only one dissent it was much opposed in the H. of Commons for the multiplying of Treasons is always lookt on as a severity in the Government One Bill was rejected but another was agreed on If any called the King or his Successors named in the Statute of 35 Hen. 8. Heretick Tyrant or other opprobrious words he was for the first offence to be punished with a forfeiture of Goods and Chattels for the second with a Praemunire and the third offence was made Treason but if it was done in printing or writing the first offence was Treason None were to be prosecuted for words but within three Months and two Witnesses were made necessary who should aver their Depositions to the Parties face This seems to relate to the proceedings against the Duke of Somerset in which the Witnesses did not appear so that he lost the advantage of cross examining them and many times Innocence and guilt discover themselves when the Parties are confronted Another Law past for Holy-days and Fasts No days were to be esteemed Holy in their own nature but by reason of those Holy duties which ought to be done in them for which they were dedicated to the service of God Days were esteemed to be dedicated only to the honour of God even those in which the Saints were commemorated Sundays and the other Holy-days were to be religiously observed and the Bishops were to proceed to Censures against offenders only Labourers or Fisher-men in case of necessity might work on them The Eves before them were to be Fasts and abstinence from Flesh was enacted both in Lent and on Fridays and Saturdays This liberty to Tradesmen to work on these days was abused to a publick profanation of them but the stricter clauses in the Act were little regarded An Act past empowering Church-wardens to gather Collections for the poor and the Bishops to proceed against such as refused to contribute which though it was a Bill that taxed the people yet had its first rise in the House of Lords A Bill was past by the Lords but rejected by the Commons for securing the Clergy from falling under the lash of a Praemunire by Ignorance and that they ought to be first prohibited by the Kings Writ and not be sued unless they continued after that stiff in their disobedience An Act past for the Marriage of the Clergy four Earls and six Lords dissenting from it That whereas the former Act about it was thought only a permission of it as some other unlawful things were connived at upon which the Wives and Children of the Clergy were reproachfully used and the Word of God was not heard with due reverence therefore their Marriages were declared good and valid The Marquess of Northampton procured an Act confirming his second Marriage and that occasioned another to be proposed in the House of Lords that no man might put away his Wife and marry another unless he were first Divorced but it was laid aside by the Commons The Bishoprick of Westminster was re-united to London only the Collegiate Church was still continued An Act past concerning Usury An Act against Usury repealing a Law made 37 Hen. 8. That none might take above 20 per Cent. All Usury or profit for Money lent was condemned as contrary to the Word of God and transgressors were to be imprisoned and fined at pleasure This has been since that time repealed and several regulations have been made of the gain by lent Money which is now reduced to 6 per Cent. The prohibitions of Usury by Moses have been thought Moral others have believed that they were founded only on the equal division of the Land and since it was then lawful to take Usury of a stranger they have inferred that the Law was not Moral otherwise it must be of perpetual obligation It was also a great incitement to industry not to lend upon profit and it made every man lay out his Money in some way of advantage and their neighbourhood to Tyre and Sidon gave them a quick vent of their Manufacture without which it is not easie to imagine how such vast numbers could have lived in so narrow a Countrey So that these Laws seem'd to be only judiciary It was thought at first suitable to the Brotherly kindness that ought to be among Christians to lend without gain but at last Canons were made against taking Usury and it was put among the reserved Cases Mortgages were an invention to avoid that for the use was paid as the Rent of the Land mortgaged and not of the Money lent Inventions also were found for those who had no Land to mortgage to make such bargains that gain was made of the Money and yet not in the way of Usury These were tricks only to deceive people and it is not easie to shew how the making such a gain as holds proportion to the value of Land is immoral in it self if the rule setled by Law is not exceeded and men deal not unmercifully with those who by inevitable accidents are disabled from making payment Another Bill was past against Simony the reserving pensions out of Benefices and granting Advowsons while the Incumbent was yet alive but it had not the Royal Assent Simony has been oft complained of and many Laws and Canons have been made against it but new contrivances are still found out to elude them all And it is a disease that will still hang on the Church as long as Covetousness and Ambition ferment so strongly in the minds of Church-men A Bill was sent to the House of Commons signed by the King A Repeal of the settlement of the Duke of Somerset's estate repealing the settlement of the Duke of Somerset's Estate 23 Hen. 8. made in favour of his Children by his second Wife to exclude the Children by his first of whom are descended the Seimours of Devonshire which some imputed to a Jealousie he had of his first Wife and others ascribed it to the power his second Wife had over him But the Commons were very unwilling to void a settlement confirmed in Parliament and so for Fifteen days it was debated A new Bill was devised and that was much altered and the Bill was not finished till the
Duke of Somerset's administration and was set on by the Duke of Northumberland's Party to let the King see how well pleased the Representative of the Nation was with his fall The Sons of the Nobility and Gentry had ordinarily Prebends given them A Bill proposed that Lay-men should not hold Church-dignities under this pretence that they intended to follow their studies and make themselves capable of entring into Orders and this was like to become a great prejudice to the Clergy when so many of the dignities of the Church were in Lay-hands Upon this the Bishops procured a Bill to be past in the House of Lords that none might hold these that was not either Priest or Deacon but at the third reading the Commons threw it out Another Bill past for suppressing the Bishoprick of Durham An Act suppressing the Bishop of Durham and erecting two new Sees the one at Durham and the other at Newcastle the former was to have 2000. and the latter 1000. Marks Revenue there was also a Dean and a Chapter to be endowed at Newcastle Ridley was designed to be made Bishop of Durham But though the secular Jurisdiction of that See was given to the Duke of Northumberland yet the King's death stopt the further progress of this affair Tonstall was deprived as Heath and Day were by a Court of Lay-delegates upon the Informations that had been brought against him of Misprision of Treason and was kept in the Tower till Queen Mary set him at liberty The King granted a General Pardon in which the Commons moved the Lords that some words might be put though that is not usual to be done for Acts of Pardon are commonly past without any Changes made in them After the passing these Acts the Parliament was dissolved on the last of March. For it seems either the Duke of Northumberland was not pleased with the proceedings in the House of Commons or he was resolved to call frequent Parliaments and not continue the same as the Duke of Somerset had done Visitors were sent after this to examine what Plate was in every Church Another Visitation and to leave them one or two Chalices of Silver with Linnen for the Communion-Table and for Surplices and to bring in all other things of value to the Treasurer of the King's Houshold and to sell the rest and give it to the Poor This was a new rifling of Churches by which it seemed some resolved not to cease till they had brought them to a Primitive Poverty as well as the Reformers intended to bring them to a Primitive purity The King set his hand to these Instructions from which some have inferred that he was ill principled in himself when at such an Age he joyned his Authority to such proceedings But he was now so ill that it is probable he set his hand to every thing that the Council sent him without examining anxiously what it might import Skip Bishop of Hereford dying Harley succeeded him and was the last that was promoted by the Kings Letters Patents as Barlow was the first Bishops made by the Kings Patent being removed by them from St. Davids to Bath and Wells The form of the Patent was That the King appointed such a one to be Bishop during his Natural life or as long as he behaved himself well and gave him power to ordain or deprive Ministers to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and perform all the other parts of the Episcopal Function that by the Word of God were committed to Bishops and this they were to do in the King's Name and by his Authority Ferrar was put in St. Davids upon Barlow's removal he was an indiscreet Man and drew upon himself the dislike of his Prebendaries and many complaints were made of him which if true discovered great weakness in him at last he was sued in a Premunire for acting in his own name and not in the King 's in his Courts and was put in Prison where he continued till Morgan that was his chief Accuser being put in his place by Queen Mary condemned him to the Fire which turned all former Censures that he had given occasion for by his simplicity into esteem and compassion By these Patents the Episcopal Power was still declared to flow from Christ they were only presentations to Bishopricks such as other Patrons gave to inferiour Benefices and such as Christian Princes in France and other Kingdoms gave in elder times for Bishopricks Their Courts were ordered to be held in the King's Name but all this was repealed by Queen Mary and when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown instead of reviving this she revived that made in the 25 Hen. 8. by which Bishops were authorised to hold their Courts as they had done formerly and though Queen Mary's repeal of the Statute of this King was afterwards taken away so that this Act seemed thereby to be again in force yet Queen Flizabeth's reviving that made by her Father was understood to be in effect a Repeal of it so that in King James's time when some scruples were started about it the Judges did not think it necessary to make an Explanatory Act to clear the matter for the thing did not seem to admit of any debate A new and fuller Catechism was this Year composed by Poinet and was published with the Kings approbation The state of affairs beyond Sea Affairs in Germany was now quite turned so that the Progress the French had made set the English Council on mediating a Peace The Emperour represented to them the danger the Netherlands were in since the French were Masters of Metz and so could in a great measure divide them from the assistance that they might receive from the Empire therefore he desired that according to the Ancient Leagues between England and the House of Burgundy they would now engage against the French The Council sent over Ambassadours both to the Emperour and the French King to mediate The Emperour was then indisposed but his Ministers complained much that the French had broken with them perfidiously when they were making solemn protestations that they intended to observe the Peace religiously The Germans proposed a League between the Emperour the King of the Romans the King of England and the Princes of the Empire The Emperour moved that the Netherlands might be comprehended within the perpetual League of the Empire but the Princes refused that since those Provinces were like to be the perpetual Seat of War when ever it should break out between France and Spain unless they might have reciprocal advantages for exposing themselves to so much danger and charge The French made extravagant Propositions by which it appeared that their King had a mind to carry on the War They askt the restitution of Millan Sicily Naples and Navarre and the Soveraignty of the Netherlands and that Metz Toul and Verdun should continue under the Protection of France The English would not receive these as Mediators but took them
they asserted her right and she promised to maintain the true Religion and the Laws of the Land This was not received with the shouts ordinary on such occasions A Vintners Boy expressed some scorn when he heard it for which he was next day set on a Pillory and his Ears were nailed to it to strike terror in the rest Many descanted variously on this Proclamation Censures past upon that Those who thought that the King had his power immediately from God said that then it must descend in the way of Inheritance and since the King 's two Sisters were both under sentences of illegitimation they said the next Heir in blood must succeed and that was the young Queen of Scotland but she being of the Church of Rome claimed nothing upon the sentence against Queen Mary esteeming it unlawful and null yet afterwards she made her claim against Queen Elizabeth Others said that though a Prince were named immediately by God yet upon great reasons he might alter the Succession from its natural course for so David preferred Solomon to Adonijah In England the Kings claimed the Crown by a long Prescription confirmed by many Laws and not from a divine designation and therefore they inferred that the Act of Parliament for the Succession ought to take place and that by vertue of it the two Sisters ought to succeed and it was said that as the King could limit the Prerogative so he could likewise limit the succession It was also said that Charles Brandon's Issue by the French Queen was unlawful because he was then married to one Mortimer yet this was not declared in any Court and so could not take place Others said if the Right of blood could not be cut off why was the Scotch Queen cut off and her being born out of the Kingdom could not exclude her as an Alien for though that held in other cases yet it was only a Provision of Law which could not take away a Divine right and by special Law the King's Children were excepted It was also urged that the Dutchess of Suffolk ought to be preferred to her Daughter who could only claim by her Right and though Maud the Empress and Margaret Countess of Richmond had not claimed the Crown but were satisfied that their Sons two Henries the second and seventh should reign in their right yet it was never heard that a Mother should quit her right to a Daughter that of the half blood was said to be only a rule in Law for private Families and that it did not extend to the Crown The power of limiting the succession by Patent or Testament was said to be only a Personal trust lodged in King Henry the Eighth and that it did not descend to his Heirs so that King Edward's Patents were thought to be of no force The severity against the Vintners Boy in the beginning of a Reign founded on so doubtful a Title Many turn to Queen Mary was thought a great errour in Policy and it seemed to be a well grounded Maxime that all Governments ought to begin with acts of Clemency and affect the love rather than the fear of the People Northumberland's proceeding against the Duke of Somerset upon so soul a Conspiracy and the suspicions that lay on him as the Author of the late Kings untimely death begat a great aversion in the People to him and that disposed them to set up Queen Mary She gathered all in the neighbouring Counties about her The Men of Suffolk were generally for the Reformation yet a great Body of them came to her and asked her if she would promise not to alter the Religion set up in King Edward's days she assured them she would make no changes but should be content with the private Exercise of her own Religion Upon that they all vowed that they would live and dye with her The Earl of Sussex and several others raised Forces for her and proclaimed her Queen When the Council heard this they sent the Earl of Huntington's Brother to raise Men in Buckinghamshire and meet the Forces that should be sent from London at Newmarket The Duke of Northumberland was ordered to Command the Army Northumberland marches against her He was now much distracted in his thoughts It was of equal Importance to keep London and the Privy Councellours steady and to conduct the Army well A misfortune in either of these was like to be fatal to him So he could not resolve what to do there was not a Man of spirit that was firm to him to be left behind and yet it was most necessary once to dissipate the Force that was daily growing about Queen Mary The Lady Jane and the Council were removed to the Tower not only for state but for security for here the Council were upon the matter Prisoners He could do no more but lay a strict charge on the Council to be firm to Lady Jane's Interests and so he marched out of London with 2000. Horse and 6000. Foot on the 14th of July but no acclamations or wishes of success were to be heard as he past through the Streets The Council gave the Emperor notice of the Lady Jane's succession and complained of the disturbance that was raised by Queen Mary and that his Ambassadour had officiously medled in their affairs But the Emperour would not receive their Letters Ridley was appointed to preach up Queen Jane's Title and to animate the People against Queen Mary which he too rashly obeyed But Queen Mary's Party encreased every day Hastings went over to her with 4000. Men out of Buckinghamshire and she was proclaimed Queen in many places And now did the Privy Council begin to see their danger and to think how to get out of it The Earl of Arundel hated Northumberland The Marquess of Winchester was dextrous in shifting sides for his advantage The Earl of Pembroke's Son had married the Lady Jane's Sister which made him think it necessary to redeem the danger he was in by a speedy turn To these many others were joyned They pretended it was necessary to give an Audience to the foreign Ambassadours who would not have it in the Tower And the Earl of Pembroke's House was pitched upon he being least suspected They also said it was necessary to treat with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for sending more Forces to Northumberland concerning which he had writ very earnestly When they got out they resolved to declare for Queen Mary The Council declares for her and rid themselves of Northumberland's uneasie Yoke which they knew they must bear if he were victorious They sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and easily perswaded them to concur with them and so they went immediately to Cheapside and proclaimed the Queen on the 19th of July and from thence they went to St. Paul's where Te Deum was sung They sent next to the Tower requiring the Duke of Suffolk to quit the Government of that place and the Lady Jane to lay down the
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
carried in Parliament Gardiners policy in the steps of this change as well as the Court could wish and upon this Gardiner's reputation was much raised for bringing about so great a change in so little time with so little opposition He took much pains to remove all the Objections that were generally made use of they were chiefly two the one was the fear of coming under such Tyranny from Rome as their Ancestors had groaned under and the other was the loss of the Abbey-Lands But to the first he said that all the old Laws against Provisions from Rome should still continue in force and to shew them that Legates should exercise no dangerous authority in England he made Pool take out a Licence under the Great Seal for his Legatine power As for the other he promised both an Act of Parliament and Convocation confirming them and undertook that the Pope should ratifie these as well as his Legate did now consent to them But to all this it was answered that if the Nation were again brought under the old Superstition and the Papal authority established it would not be possible to bridle that power which would be no longer kept within limits if once they became Masters again and brought the World under a blind obedience It was objected that the Church-Lands must be certainly taken back it was not likely the Pope would confirm the alienation of them but though he should do it yet his Successors might annul that as sacrilegious And it was observed in the charge which Pool gave to all to make restitution by the repeal of the statute of Mortmain that it was intended to possess the Nation with an Opinion of the Unlawfulness of keeping those Lands which would probably work much on Men that were near death and could not resist the terrours of Purgatory or perhaps of Hell for the sin of Sacriledge and so would be easily induced to make restitution of them especially at such a time when they were not able to possess them any longer themselves Now the Parliament was at an end Consultations about the way of proceeding against Hereticks and the first thing taken into consideration was what way they ought to proceed against the Hereticks Pool had been suspected to bear some favour to them formerly but he took great care to avoid all occasions of being any more blamed for that and indeed he lived in that distrust of all the English that he opened his thoughts to very few for his chief Confidents were two Italians that came over with him Priuli and Ormaneto Secretary Cecyl who in matters of Religion complied with the present time was observed to have more of his favour than any English Man had Pool was an Enemy to all severe proceedings he thought Churchmen should have the tenderness of a Father and the care of a Shepherd and ought to reduce but not devour the stray sheep he had observed that Cruelty rather inflamed than cured that Distemper he thought the better and surer way was to begin with an effectual Reformation of the manners of the Clergy since it was the scandals given by their ill conduct and Ignorance that was the chief cause of the growth of Heresie so he concluded that if a Primitive Discipline should be revived the Nation would by degrees lay down their prejudices and might in time be gained by gentle methods Gardiner on the other hand being of an abject and cruel temper himself thought the strict execution of the Laws against the Lollards was that to which they ought chiefly to trust if the Preachers were made publick Examples he concluded the People would be easily reclaimed for he pretended that it was visible if King Henry had executed the Act of the six Articles vigorously all would have submitted he confessed a Reformation of the Clergy was a good thing but all times could not bear it if they should proceed severely against scandalous Churchmen the Hereticks would take advantage from that to defame the Church the more and raise a clamour against all Clergymen Gardiner's spite was at this time much whetted by the reprinting of his Books of true Obedience which was done at Strasburg and sent over In it he had called King Henry's marriage with Queen Catherine Incestuous and had justified his Divorce and his second Marriage with his most godly and vertuous Wife Queen Anne This was a severe exposing of him but he had brow enough and bore down these reproaches by saying Peter had denied his Master but others said a Compliance of 25. years continuance was very unjustly compared to a sudden denial that was presently expiated with so sincere a Repentance The Queen was for joining both these Councils together and intended to proceed at the same time both against scandalous Churchmen and Hereticks After the Parliament was over there was a solemn Procession of many Bishops and Priests Bonner carrying the Host to thank God for reconciling the Nation again to Saint Peter's Chair and it having been done on St. Andrew's Day that was appointed to be an Anniversary and was called The Feast of the Reconciliation But soon after began the Persecution Rogers Hooper Taylor Bradford A Persecution set on foot and seven more were brought before the Council and asked one by one if they would return to the Union of the Catholick Church and acknowledge the Pope but they all answered resolutely that they had renounced the Pope's power as all the Bishops had also done they were assured he had no authority but over his own Diocess for the first four Ages so they could not submit to his Tyranny Gardiner told them Mercy was now offered them but if they rejected it Justice would be done next so they were all sent back to Prison except one who had great Friends so he was only asked if he would be an honest man and upon that promise was dismist They began with Rogers whose Imprisonment was formerly mentioned Many had advised him to make his escape and flie to Germany but he would not do it though a Family of Ten Children was a great Temptation Both he and Hooper were brought before Gardiner Rogers and Hooper condemned and burnt Bonner Tonstall and three other Bishops They asked them whether they would submit to the Church or not but they answered that they looked on the Church of Rome as Antichristian Gardiner said that was a reproach on the Queen Rogers said they honoured the Queen and lookt for no ill at her hands but as she was set on to it by them Upon that Gardiner and the other Bishops declared that so far were they from setting on the Queen to the executing of the Law that she commanded them to do it and this was confirmed by two Privy Councellours that were present In conclusion they gave them time till next Morning to consider what they would do and then they continuing firm they declared them obstinate Hereticks and degraded them but they did
that could be obtained It was agreed that at the end of eight Years Calais should either be restored or 500000. Crowns should be payed the Queen yet if during that time she made War either on France or Scotland she was to forfeit her right to Calais Aymouth in Scotland was to be rased and all differences on the Borders there were to be determined by some deputed on both sides this being adjusted a General Peace between the Crowns of England France and Spain was concluded and thus the Queen being freed from the dangerous consultations that the continuance of a War might have involved her in was the more at liberty to settle matters at home The first Bill Acts past in Parliament that was brought to try the Temper of the Parliament was for the Restitution of the Tenths and First-fruits to the Crown against this all the Bishops protested but that was all the opposition made to it By it not only that Tax was of new laid on the Clergy but all the Impropriated Benefices which Queen Mary had surrendred were restored to the Crown After this The Commons pray the Queen to marry the Commons made an Address to the Queen desiring her to choose such a Husband as might make both her self and the Nation happy She received this very kindly since they had neither limited her to time nor Nation but declared that as hitherto she had lived with great satisfaction in a single state and had refused the Propositions that had been made her both in her Brothers and Sisters reign so she had no Inclination to change her course of life If ever she did it she would take care that it should be for the good and to the satisfaction of her People She thought she was married to the Nation at her Coronation and looked on her People as her Children and she would be well contented if her Tombstone might tell Posterity Here lies a Queen that reigned so long and lived and dyed a Virgin There was little more progress made in this matter save that a Committee was appointed by both Houses to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen might happen to marry but she sent them a Message to proceed to other affairs and let that alone A Bill for the Recognition of her Title to the Crown was put in Her Title to the Crown acknowledged It was not thought necessary to Repeal the Sentence of her Mothers Divorce for the Crown purged all defects and it was thought needless to look back unto a thing which could not be done without at least casting some reproach on her Father so it was in general words Enacted That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and the Realm she was their lawful Queen and was rightly and lineally descended This was thought a much wiser way than if they examined the Sentence of Divorce that past upon the Confession of a Precontract which must have revived the remembrance of things that were better left in silence Bills were put in for the English Service Acts concerning Religion for reviving King Edward's Laws and for annexing the Supremacy again to the Crown To that concerning the Supremacy two Temporal Lords and nine Bishops with the Abbot of Westminster dissented It was proposed to revive the Law for making the Bishops by Letters-Patents as was in King Edward's time but they choosed rather to revive the Act for Electing them made in the 25. Hen. 8. They revived all Acts made against the Pope's power in King Henry's time and repealed those made by Queen Mary They enacted an Oath for acknowledging the Queen Supream Governour in all causes and over all Persons Those that refused it were to forfeit all Offices that they held either in Church or State and to be under a disability during life If any should advance the authority of a Foreign Power for the first offence they were to be fined or imprisoned for the second to be in a Praemunire and the third was made Treason The Queen was also impowered to give Commissions for Judging and Reforming Ecclesiastical matters who were limited to judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so judged by the authority of the Scriptures or the first four General Councils All Points that were not decided either by express words of Scripture or by those Councils were to be referred to the Parliament and Convocation The Title of Supream Head was changed partly because the Queen had some scruples about it and partly to moderate the opposition which the Popish party might otherwise make to it and the refusing the Oath was made no other way Penal but that all Offices or Benefices were forfeited upon it which was a great mitigation of the severity in King Henry's time The Bishops are said to have made several Speeches against this in the House of Lords but that which goes under the name of Heath's Speech must be a forgery for in it the Supremacy is called a new and unheard of thing which could not have flowed from one that had sworn it so often both under King Henry and King Edward Tonstall came not to this Parliament and he was so offended with the Cruelties of the last Reign that he had withdrawn himself into his Diocess where he burnt none himself upon that it was now thought that he was so much alienated from those Methods that some had great hopes of his declaring for the Reformation Heath had been likewise very moderate nor were any burnt under him Upon the power given the Queen to appoint some to Reform and direct all Ecclesiastical matters was the Court called the High Commission Court founded which indeed was nothing but the sharing that authority which was in one Person in King Henry's time into many hands for that Court had no other authority but that which was lodged formerly in Cromwell as the King's Vicegerent and was now thought too great to be trusted to one Man Great complaints were made of seditious Sermons preached by the Popish Clergy Preaching without Licence forbidden upon which the Queen followed the Precedent that her Sister had made and forbid all Preaching excepting only by such as obtained a Licence under the Great Seal for it She likewise sent an Order to the Convocation requiring them under the pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet the lower House in an Address to the upper House declared for the Corporal Presence and that the Mass was a Propitiatory Sacrifice and for the Supremacy and that matters of Religion fell only under the Cognisance of the Pastors of the Church The greatest part of both Universities had also set their hands to all these Points except the last This it seems A publick Conference about Religion was the rather added by the Clerks of Convocation to hinder a publick Conference which the Queen had appointed between the Bishops and the Reformed Divines It was first
proposed to Heath who was still a Privy Councellour and he after some Conference about it with his Brethren accepted of it Nine of a side were to dispute about three Points Worship in an Unknown Tongue the power that every particular Church had to alter Rites and Ceremonies and the Masse's being a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living All was to be given in in Writing The Bishops were to begin in every Point and they were to interchange their Papers and answer them The last of March was the first day of Conference which held in Westminster Abby in the presence of the Privy Council and both Houses of Parliament The Bishop of Winchester pretended there had been some mistake in the Order and that their Paper was not quite finished but that Dr. Cole should deliver in discourse what they had prepared though it was not yet in that order that it could be Copied out The secret of this was The Bishops had resolved openly to Vindicate their Doctrine but not to give any Papers or enter into dispute with Hereticks or so far to acknowledge the Queen's Supremacy as to engage in Conferences at her command Cole was observed to read almost all he said though he affected to be thought only to deliver a discourse so as if most part of it had been Extemporary The substance of it was Arguments for against the Worship in an unknown Tongue that though the Worship in a known Tongue had been appointed in the Scriptures yet the Church had power to change it as she changed the Sabbath and had appointed the Sacrament to be received fasting though it was Instituted after Supper to eat blood was forbid and a Community of goods was set up by the Apostles yet it was in the power of the Church to alter these things he enlarged on the evil of Schism and the necessity of adhering to the Church of Rome Vulgar Tongues changed daily but the Latine was the same was spread over many Countries The People might reap profit from Prayers which they understood not as well as absent Persons The Queen of Ethiopia's Eunuch read Isaiah though he understood him not and Philip was sent to explain that Prophecy to him Horn when this was ended read the Paper drawn by the Reformers he began it with a Prayer and a Protestation of their sincerity They founded their Assertion on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians in which he enjoyned them to pray with understanding that so the Unlearned might say Amen and that nothing should be spoken that might give an uncertain sound but that all things should be done to edification and though the speaking with strange Tongues was then an extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost yet he forbids the using it where there was not an Interpreter Things so expresly enjoyned could not be indifferent or fall under the power of the Church The Jews had their Worship in the Vulgar Tongue so had also the most barbarous Nations when converted to Christianity The natural use of Speech was that every thing which was said might be understood Quotations were brought to shew that Psalms were daily sung in the Vulgar Tongue among all Nations When they ended their Paper it was received with a shout of applause and was put in the Lord Keeper's hands signed by them all But the Bishops refused to deliver theirs The next day was appointed for considering the second Point but the Bishops resolved to go no further in the Conference for they saw by the applause of the People that the Audience was more favourable to the other side so the next day of Meeting they offered an answer to the Paper given in the former day by the Reformers The Lord Keeper told them that according to the Order laid down they were first to go through the three Points before they might be suffered to reply but they said Cole had the former day only given his own sense in an Extemporary discourse Their foul dealing in this was condemned by the whole Audience so the Lord Keeper required them to go to the second Point but they refused to begin and moved that the other side should be made to begin and though the Lord Keeper shewed them that this was contrary to the Order agreed on before-hand yet they continued all resolute and would not proceed any further Ferknam only excepted but he said he could do nothing alone since the rest would not joyn with him The Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln said the Faith of the Church ought not to be examined except in a Synod of Divines and it gave too great an encouragement to Hereticks to dispute with them and that both the Queen and her Council deserved to be excommunicated for suffering them to argue against the Catholick Faith before an Unlearned Multitude Upon this they were sent to the Tower and the Conference broke up but the Reformers thought the advantage was much on their side and that things were now carried much more fairly than had been in those Conferences and Disputes that were in the beginning of the former Reign The Papists on the other hand said it was visible the Audience was prepossessed and that the Conference was appointed only to make way for the changes that the Parliament was then about with the Pomp of a Victory and therefore as they blamed the Bishops for undertaking it so they justified them for breaking it off The Book of Common-Prayer was now revised The English Service is again set up the most considerable alteration was that the express Declaration which was made in the second Book set out by King Edward against the Corporal Presence was left out that so none might be driven out of the Communion of the Church upon that account The matter was left undetermined as a speculative Point in which People were left at liberty The Book of Ordination was not specially mentioned in the Act which gave occasion to Bonner afterwards to question the Legality of Ordinations made by it But it had been made a part of the Common-Prayer-Book in the 5th year of King Edward and the whole Book then set out was now confirmed so that by a special Act made some years after this it was declared that that Office was understood to be a part of it When the Bill for the English Service was put in to the House of Lords Speeches made against it by some Bishops Heath and Scot Bishop of Chester and Ferknam made long Speeches against it grounded chiefly on the Authority of the Church the Antiquity of the established Religion and Novelty of the other which was changed every day as appeared in King Edward's time They said the consent of the Catholick Church and the perpetual succession in St. Peter's Chair ought to have more autherity than a few Preachers risen up of late They also enlarged much against the Sacriledge the robbing of Churches and the breaking of Images that had been committed by the
made between the Duke of Norfolk and the Scots they promised to be the Queen 's perpetual Allies and that after the French were driven out of Scotland The Queen of England assists the Scots they should continue their Obedience to their own Queen upon which 2000. Horse and 6000. Foot were sent to assist the Scots These besieged Lieth during which there were considerable losses on both sides but the losses on the side of the English were more easily made up supplies being nearer at hand The French offered to put Calais again in the Queen of England's hands if she would recall her Forces out of Scotland She answered on the sudden that she did not value that Fish-Town so much as she did the quiet of the Isle of Brittain But she offered to Mediate a Peace between them and the Scots Before this could be effected 〈◊〉 June The Queen Regent dies the Queen Regent of Scotland died she sent for some of the Scottish Lords in her sickness and asked them pardon for the Injuries she had done them She advised them to send both the French and English out of Scotland and prayed them to continue in their Obedience to their Queen She also discoursed with one of their Preachers and declared that she hoped to be saved only by the Merits of Christ She had governed the Nation before the last year of her life with such Justice and Prudence and was so great an Example both in her own Person and in the Order of her Court that if she had died before her Brother's bloody Counsels had involved her in these last passages of her life she had been the most lamented and esteemed Queen that had been in that Nation for many Ages Her own Inclinations were Just and Moderate and she often said that if her Counsels might take place she did not doubt but she should bring all things again to perfect Tranquillity and Peace Soon after a Peace was concluded between England France and Scotland An Oblivion was granted for all that was past The French and English were to be sent out of Scotland and all other things were referred to a Parliament During the Queen's absence the Kingdom was to be governed by a Council of 12. all Natives of these the Queen was to name 7. and the States were to choose 5. So both the English and French were sent out of Scotland and the Parliament met in August In it A Parliament meets and settles the Reformation all Acts for the former way of Religion were repealed and a confession of Faith penned by Knox afterwards inserted among the Acts of Parliament 1567. was confirmed These Acts were opposed only by three Temporal Lords who said they would believe as their Fathers had done but all the Spiritual Lords both Bishops and Abbots consented to them and they did dilapidate the Lands and Revenues of the Church in the strangest manner that was ever known the Abbots converted their Abbies into Temporal Estates and the Bishops though they continued Papists still divided all their Lands among their Bastards or Kindred and procured confirmations of many of the Grants they gave from Rome by which that Church was so impoverished that if King James and King Charles the First had not with much zeal and great endeavours retrieved some part of the Ancient Revenues and provided a considerable maintenance for the Inferiour Clergy all the encouragements to Religion and Learning had been to such a degree withdrawn that Barbarism must have again over-run that Kingdom When these Acts thus agreed on in the Parliament of Scotland were sent over to France they were rejected with great scorn so that the Scots began to apprehend a new War but Francis the second 's death soon after delivered them from all their fears for their Queen having no more the support of so great a Crown was forced to return home and govern in such a manner as that Nation was pleased to submit to Thus had the Queen of England divided Scotland from its ancient dependance on France The Queen of England the Head of all the Protestants and had tied it so to her own Interests that she was not only secure on that side of her Dominions but came to have so great an interest in Scotland that affairs there were for most part governed according to the Directions she sent thither Other Accidents did also concur to give her a great share in all the most Important affairs of Europe In France upon Henry the second 's fatal end great Divisions arose between the Princes of the Blood and the Brothers of the House of Guise Both in France into whose hands the administration of affairs was put during Francis the second 's short Reign It was pretended on the one hand that the King was not of Age till he was 22. and that during his Minority the Princes of the Blood were to Govern by the Advice of the Courts of Parliaments and the Assembly of Estates On the other hand it was said that the King might assume the Government and Imploy whom he pleased at 14. A design was laid in which many of both Religions concurred for taking the Government out of the hands of the strangers and seising on the King's Person but a Protestant moved by a Principle of Conscience discovered it Upon this the Prince of Conde and many others were seised on and if the King had not died soon after they had suffered for it Charles the Ninth succeeding who was under Age the King of Navarre was declared Regent but he though before a Protestant was drawn into the Papist Interest and joyned himself with the Queen Mother and the Constable A severe Edict was made against the Protestants but the Execution of it was like to raise great disorders so another was made in a great Assembly of many Princes of the Blood Privy Councellours and 8. Courts of Parliament allowing the free exercise of that Religion yet after this the Duke of Guise reconciled himself to the Queen Mother and they resolved to break the Edict so the Duke of Guise happening to pass by a Meeting of Protestants his Servants offered violence to them from reproachful words it went to the throwing of stones by one of which the Duke was hurt upon which his Servants killed 60. of the Protestants and wounded 200. and upon this the Edict was every where broken It was said that the Regent's power did not extend so far as that he could break so Publick an Edict and that therefore it was lawful for the Protestants to defend themselves The Prince of Conde set himself at the Head of them and the King of Navarre being killed soon after the breaking out of the War he as the first Prince of the Blood that was of Age ought to have been declared Regent so that the Protestants said their defending themselves was not Rebellion since they had both the Law and the first Prince of the Blood on their side The
their Contests about Superiority but never declared in St. Peter's Favour St. Paul withstood him to his Face and reckoned himself not inferour to him If the Dignity of a Person left any Authority with the City in which he sat then Antioch must carry it as well as Rome and Jerusalem where Christ suffered was to be prefererd to all the World for it was truly the Mother-Church Christ said to Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church The Ancients understood by the Rock either the Confession Peter had made or which is all one upon the matter Christ himself and tho it were to be meant of St. Peter all the rest of the Apostles are also called Foundations that of Tell the Church was by many Doctors of the Church of Rome turned against the Pope for a General Council The other Priviledges ascribed to St. Peter were either only a precedence of Order or were occasioned by his Fall as that Feed my Sheep it being a restoring him to the Apostolical Function St. Peter had also a limited Province the Circumcision as St. Paul had the Uncircumcision that was of far greater extent which shewed that he was not considered as the Universal Pastor In the Primitive Church St. Cyprian and other Bishops wrote to the Bishops of Rome as to their fellow Bishop Colleague and Brother they were against Appeals to Rome and did not submit to their Definition and in plain Terms asserted that all Bishops were equal in Power as the Apostles had been It is true the Dignity of the City made the Bishops of Rome to be much esteemed yet in the first Council of Nice the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch were declared to have the same Authority in the Countries about them that the Bishops of Rome had over those that lay about them It is true the East being over-run with Arrianism from which the West was better preserved the oppressed Eastern Bishops did take shelter in the Protection the Bishops of Rome gave them and as is natural to all People they magnified that Authority which was so useful to them But the second General Council indirectly condemned all Appeals to Rome for it decreed that every Province should be governed by its own Synod and allowed no higher Appeal but to the Bishops of the Diocess Constantinople being made the Imperial City the second and fourth General Council gave it equal Priviledges with Rome because it was new Rome which shews that the Dignity of the Sees flowed from the greatness of the Cities The African Churches condemned all Appeals to Rome and the Popes who complained of that pretended only to a Canon of the Council of Nice for it and then they did not talk of a Divine Right but search being made into all the Copies of the Canons of the Council that was found to be a Forgery When the Emperour Mauricius gave the Title Vniversal Bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinple Gregory the Great complained of the Ambition of that Title which he calls equal to the Pride of Lucifer and since England received the Faith by those whom he sent over it appeared from thence what was the Doctrine of that See at that time and by consequence what where the first Impressions made on the English in that matter It is true Boniface the third got the same Title by Phocas's Grant and Boniface the eighth pretended to all Power both spiritual and temporal but the Progress of their Usurpations and the Wars raised to maintain them were very visible in History The Popes swore at their Consecrations to obey the Canons of the eighth first General Councils which are manifested against Appeals and their Universal Jurisdiction small regard is to be had to the Decrees of latter Councils being Cabals pack'd and managed as the Popes pleased Several Sees as Ravenna Milan and Aquileia pretended Exemption from the Papal Authority Many English Bishops had asserted that the Popes had no Authority against the Canons and to that day no Canon the Popes made was binding till it was received which shewed the Pope's Authority was not believed founded on a divine Authority and the Contests that the Kings of England had with the Pope's concerning Investitures Bishops doing the King Homage Appeals to Rome and the Authority of Papal Bulls and Provisions shewed that the Pope's Power was believed subject to Laws and Custom and so not derived from Christ and St. Peter and as Laws had given them some Power and Princes had bin forced in ignorant Ages to submit to their Usurpations so they might as they saw cause change those Laws and resume their Rights The next Point inquired into was And for the King's Supremacy the Authority that Kings had in matters of Religion and the Church The King of Israel judged in all Causes and Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes David made many Rules about the Service at the Temple and declaring to Solomon what his Power was 1 Chron. 28.21 2 Chron. 8.14 15. he told him that the Priests were wholly at his Command and it is also said that Solomon appointed the Priests their Charges in the Service of God and that they departed not from his Commandment in any matter he turned out one High-Priest and put another in his room Jehoshaphat Hezekiah and Josias made also Laws about Ecclesiastical Matters In the New Testament Christ was himself subject to the Civil Powers and charged his Disciples not to affect Temporal Dominion They also wrote to the Churches to be subject to the Higher Powers and call them Supream and charge every Soul to be subject to them so in Scripture the King is called Head and Supream and every Soul is said to be under him which joyn'd together makes up this Conclusion that He is the supream Head over all Persons In the Primitive Church the Bishops only made Rules or Canons but pretended to no compulsive Authority but what came from the Civil Magistrate The Roman Emperours called Councils presided in them and confirmed them and made many Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Matters so did also Charles the Great The Emperours did also either chuse the Popes themselves or confirm their Elections Church-men taking Orders were not thereby discharged from the Obedience they formerly owed their Princes but remained still Subjects And tho the Offices of the Church had peculiar Functions in which the People were subject to them that did not deliver them from their Obedience to the King as a Father's Authority over his Children cuts not off the King's Power over him They found also that in all times the Kings of England had assumed an Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters Ina Alfred Edgar and Canetus had made many Laws about them so had also most of the Kings since the Conquest which appeared particularly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Contests that followed upon them and from the daies of King Ina they had granted Exemptions to Monasteries from the Episcopal Jurisdiction down to William the
Brittish Monks were is not well known The State of the Monasteries in England whether they were governed according to the Rules of the Monks of Egypt or France is matter of Conjecture They were in all things obedient to their Bishops as all the Monks of the Primitive Times were But upon the Confusions which the Gothick Wars brought upon Italy Benedict set up a new Order with more Artificial Rules for its Government Not long after Gregory the Great raised the Credit of that Order much by his Books of Dialogues and Austin the Monk being sent by him to convert England did found a Monastery at Canterbury that carried his Name which both the King and Austin exempted from the Arch-bishop's Jurisdiction But there is great reason to suspect that most of those Antient Charters were forged After that many other Abbies were founded and exempted by the Kings of England if Credit is due to the Leiger Books or Chartularies of the Monasteries In the end of the eighth Century the Danes made Descents upon England and finding the most Wealth and the least Resistance in the Monasteries they generally plundered them in so much that the Monks were forced to quit their Seats and they left them to the Secular Clergy so that in King Edgar's time there was scarce a Monk left in all England He was a leud and cruel Prince and Dunstan and other Monks taking Advantage from some horrours of Conscience that he fell under perswaded him that the restoring the Monastick State would be matter of great Merit so he converted many of the Chapters into Monasteries and by the Foundation of the Priory of Worcester it appears he had then founded 47 and intended to raise them to 50 the number of Pardon tho the Invention of Jubilees being so much later gives occasion to believe this was also a Forgery He only exempted his Monasteries from all Payments to the Bishops but others were exempted from Episcopal Jurisdiction In some only the Precinct was exempted in others the Exemption was extended to all the Lands or Churches belonging to them The latest Exemption from Episcopal Jurisdiction granted by any King is that of Battel founded by William the Conquerour After this the Exemptions were granted by the Popes who pretending to an Universal Jurisdiction assumed this among other Usurpations Some Abbies had also the Priviledg of being Sanctuaries to all that fled to them The Foundation of all their Wealth was the belief of Purgatory and of the Virtue that was in Masses to redeem Souls out of it and that these eased the Torments of departed Souls and at last delivered them out of them so it past among all for a piece of Piety to Parents and of care for their own Souls and Families to endow those Houses with some Lands upon condition that they should have Masses said for them as it was agreed on more or less frequently according to the measure of the Gift This was like to have drawn in the whole Wealth of the Nation into those Houses if the Statute of Mortmain had not put some restraint to that Superstition They also perswaded the World that the Saints interceded for them and would take it kindly at their hands if they made great Offerings to their Shrines and would thereupon intercede the more earnestly for them The credulous Vulgar measuring the Court of Heaven by those on Earth believed Presents might be of great Efficacy there and thought the new Favourites would have the most Weight in their Intercessions So upon every new Canonization there was a new Fit of Devotion towards the last Saint which made the elder to grow almost out of request Some Images were believed to have an extraordinary Virtue in them and Pilgrimages to these were much extolled There was also great Rivalry among the several Orders and different Houses of the same Orders every one magnifying their own Saints their Images and Relicks most The Wealth of these Houses brought them under great Corruptions They were generally very dissolute and grosly ignorant Their Priviledges were become a publick Grievance and their Lives gave great Scandal to the World So that as they had found it easy to bear down the Secular Clergy when their own Vices were more secret the begging Friers found it as easy to carry the Esteem of the World from them These under the Appearance of Poverty and course Diet and Cloathing gained much Esteem and became almost the only Preachers and Confessors then in the World They had a General at Rome from whom they received such Directions as the Popes sent them so that they were more useful to the Papacy then the Monks had been They had also the School-Learning in their hands so that they were generally much cherished But they living much in the World could not conceal their Vices so artificially as the Monks had done and tho several Reformations had been made of their Orders yet they had all fallen under great Scandal and a general Disesteem The King intended to erect new Bishopricks and in order to that it was necessary to make use of some of their Revenues He also apprehended a War from the Emperour and for that end he intended to fortify his Harbours and to encourage Shipping and Trade upon which the Ballance of the World began then to turn And in order to that he resolved to make use of the Wealth of those Houses and thought the best way to bring that into his hands would be to expose their Vices that so they might quite lose the Esteem they might yet be in with some and so it might be less dangerous to suppress them Cranmer promoted this much both because these Houses were founded on gross Abuses and subsisted by them and these were necessary to be removed if a Reformation went on The Extent of many Diocesses was also such that one man could not oversee them so he intended to have more Bishopricks founded and to have Houses at every Cathedral for the Education of those who should be imploied in the Pastoral Charge The Visitors went over England and found in many places monstrous Disorders The Sin of Sodom was found in many Houses great Factions and Barbarous Cruelties were in others and in some they found Tools for Coining The Report contained many abominable things that are not fit to be mentioned Some of these were printed but the greatest part is lost only a Report of 144 Houses is yet extant The first House that was surrendered to the King Some Houses surrendered was Langden in Kent the Abbot was found a Bed with a Whore who went in the Habit of a Lay Brother This perhaps made him more willing to give an Example to the rest so he and ten of his Monks signed a Resignation of their House to the King Two other Houses in the same County Folkeston and Dover followed their Example And in the following Year four other Houses made the like Surrenders and these were all that I find