Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	parliament_n	void_a	3,949	5	9.2539	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33316	The history of the glorious life, reign, and death of the illustrious Queen Elizabeth containing an account by what means the Reformation was promoted and established, and what obstructions it met with, the assistance she gave to all Protestants abroad, the several attempts of the papists upon her life, the excommunications of Rome, Bishop Jewel's challenge to the papists, the several victories she gained, and more particularly that in 1588 ... / by S. Clark ; illustrated with pictures of some considerable matters, curiously ingraven in copper plates.	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1682 (1682)	Wing C4523; ESTC R13609	73,724	210

Circumstances to heart and being grown extraordinary Corpulent he died of a Virulent Inflammation in his Leg in the beginning of the Year 1547. He was succeeded by Prince Edward his Son though not fully ten years old of whose Person the Earl of Hartford his Unkle was made Governour and Protector of the Kingdom until he should have attained the Age of Eighteen years and as such was proclaimed in all Parts of London It was under his happy Government that the English gained a great Victory over the Scots whilst they were demanding with Sword in hand the performance of a Treaty touching a Match between King Edward and Mary Queen of Scotland the severe Law of the Si● Articles and others were repealed that were made by Henry the Eighth against the Protestants those for abolishing the Pope's Authority are confirmed the Mass is abrogated Images are taken out of Churches the Books of both Testaments printed in English Divine Service celebrated in the same Tongue and both kinds ministred in the Sacraments At which the Romanists being inraged they put in practise all their Arts for the making a stop to such fair beginnings caused Dissention to be sowed amongst the Nobility and thereby the loss of several considerable Places both in France and Scotland promoted Tumults Factions debasing of Money and all other things that might stir up the People to Rebellion procured the Protector to be accused condemned and beheaded for Felony and at length removed the King himself by an untimely Death whether by Poyson or otherwise is uncertain apprehending and hating him for his extraordinary Virtues which much surpassed what could have been expected from his tender years During these sad Occurrences the Duke of Northumberland being ●ound by the Papists to be the fittest Instrument for the effecting their Designs as being of their own Religion under a Protestant Mask they made Use of him for the bringing about their Ends by sowing Distraction in the Nation by setting the Protector and his Brother Thomas Seymour at variance which he effected through a Female Emulation between the Dutchess of Somerset the Protector 's Wife and the Queen Dowager the Wife of Thomas And amongst other Articles of High Treason that were laid to Thomas his charge was that of intending to seize the King and of taking the Lady Elizabeth the King's Sister to Wife But she being wholly ignorant of this business and freeing her self from all suspicion and advancing towards a mature Age she was not onely extremely beloved by the King her Brother who never call'd her by any other Name than his sweet Sister Temperance but likewise by the Nobility and the whole Nation in general King Edward by the Practices of the Duke of Northumberland having declared the Lady Jane Gray for his Successor she was immediately after his Decease publickly proclaimed Queen of England and for the maintaining her in that Degree pretensions were put forward as first the Invalidity of the Lady Mary's and Elizabeth's Mother's Marriage both being made void by Legal Sentences of Divorce and those Divorces ratified by Acts of Parliament which Acts of the Lady Mary's and Lady Elizabeth's Illegitimation were never duely repealed Notwithstanding that the King their Father had by the same Act declared that they should succeed in order after Edward the Sixth in case he failed of Issue Secondly It was pretended that these two Sisters being but of half Blood to the Deceased King admitting them to have been born in lawful Wedlock were not in a capacity by the Common Law to be Heirs unto him or to succeed in any part of that Inheritance which came un-unto him by his Father Now the Lady Jane's Mother being the Lady Frances Daughter and one of the Co-heirs of Charles Brandon the late Duke of Suffolk by Mary his Wife Queen Dowager to Lewis the Twelfth of France and youngest Daughter to King Henry the Seventh Grand-father to King Edward now deceased Now I say the Lady Frances her Mother might seem both by the Law of Nature and the Right of Succession to have precedency in Title before her yet she received no injury because she was willing to pass by all her personal Claims for the Preferment of her Daughter It was also given out that Henry the Eighth by his last Will and Testament conveyed the Title of the Crown to the Lady Jane Gray and moreover Politick Reasons and Pretexts were used as that there was an unavoidable danger of reducing this Kingdom under the Vassalage and Servitude of the Bishop of Rome in case either of the King 's two Sisters should marry with a Foreign Prince of that Religion or otherwise of themselves revoke the Bishop of Rome's Authority and subject the English to a Popish Yoke But through the extraordinary Affection the Nobility and Commons had for the Daughters of King Henry the 8th this great Storm was dispersed within the space of twenty dayes to the fatal End of the Duke of Northumberland and the Lady Jane and the Lady Mary was proclaimed Queen throughout all England And at her coming to London with an Army the Lady Elizabeth met her with five hundred Horse notwithstanding the offers that had been made her by the Duke of a vast Sum of money and certain Lands if she would resign her Title to the Crown lest she should fail her Sister 's and her own Cause which was then in hand Queen Mary caused in the first Parliament that she held all those Acts to be repealed that had been made against the Marriage of Queen Katharine her Mother and King Henry the 8th and the Marriage was judged to be agreeable to the Laws of God and to all intents valid and available The same Form also of Religion and Service of God and Administration of the Sacraments which had been in use at the Death of Henry the 8th were re-established however without any acknowledgment or mention at all of the Pope's Authority notwithstanding all the Efforts of the Queen and Cardinal Pool for the Parliament were very unwilling to admit and acknowledge the Authority of the Bishop of Rome which was now shaken off Neither would they suffer that the Queen should lay down the Title of Supream Head of the Church of England unto which most of the Nobility Bishops and Commons had sworn to Henry the 8th his Heirs and Successors But the Queen was very desirous to lay down this Title as believing that her Pretensions to the Crown had no better Foundation than the Authority of the Bishop of Rome who had maintained her Cause after that her father had procured her to be declared Illegitimate And indeed at this time the apprehensions of the English were so great of Popery and of being inslaved by it's means and by the Match that was concluded with Phillip to the Yoke of Spain as that it caused some to break out into Rebellion as Wyat and others But notwithstanding the Papists had got their will by procuring after much opposition the Roman

which she committed to the Care of several learned moderate and judicious Divines and Gentlemen but she only acquainted four of the Members of her Privy Council with this Project About this time the Funeral of the Deceased Queen was solemnized with very great state in the Abby of Westminster and the like Ceremony was performed within a few days after for the Death of that Great Emperour Charles the 5th who having two Years before resigned the Empire to his Brother and all his other vast Dominions to his Son abandoned all the Grandeurs of this World and retired into a Monastery where he wholly devoted himself to God and his Service But notwithstanding the State of these Solemnities was extraordinary in it's kind yet was it far short of the Splendour and Majesty that attended her Coronation And as a Preparation thereunto she restored some to their former and raised others to new Honours Having performed which she was Conducted with extraordinary Pomp and Triumph from the Tower through the City of London to Westminster with incredible Joy and Acclamations and behaving her self with so Graceful Modest and yet Majestick an Air that as it caused Tears of Joy to fall from some so it inspired the Hearts of all with Prayers and Thanksgivings but nothing charmed them more than her accepting of an English Bible richly Bound which was presented to her from one of the Pageants by a Child representing Truth At the sight whereof she kiss'd both her hands and with both her hands she receiv'd the Book and then laid it to her Bosom intimating that it should be the nearest of all things to her heart being fuller of acknowledgment to the City for that Excellent Present than for all the rest she had received from them that day in ●uch Abundance and promised to be diligent in the reading of it By which and sundry other such like Pious Acts she perfectly gained the Affections of all the Spectators and by their means the Hearts of all her other Subjects The next day after this Cavalcade she was Crowned at Westminster by the Bishop of Carlile all the other Bishops refusing to perform that Office as fearing the Pope's Displeasure and the Fall or at least some Alteration of the Catholick Religion in this Kingdom which they were resolved not to Conform themselves to Her Devotion was so great that every Morning as soon as she was up she spent some time in Prayer and besides at the appointed hours she went constantly to her private Chappel In Lent she was Clo●thed in Black after the antient manner hearing constantly an● attentively the Sermons though she many times said That she had rather tal● with God devoutly by Prayer than hea● others speak eloquently of his Divine Majesty As touching the Cross the Blesse● Virgin and the Saints she had no contemptible Opinion nor ever spoke otherwise of them than with Reverence no● would allow others to speak irreverently o● them And by the Parliament it was unanimously enacted That the Lady Elizabeth was by the Law of God the Common Law of England and the Statutes of the Realm the most Certain Lawful and Undoubted Queen of England but however without repealing the Statute where in her Father had Excluded her from th● Succession or without making any Act 〈…〉 the Validity of her Mothers Marriage o● which her Title principally depended For which Sir Nicholas Bacon then Lo 〈…〉 Keeper was condemned of Impruden● and Neglect on whose Judgment the Queen wholly depended in matters 〈…〉 Law seeing it had been objected by som● against Queen Mary and for that reaso● her Ministers had been careful to have it repealed in what concerned her self But Bacon not only knew the old Law Maxime That the Crown takes away all the defects and stops in blood and that from the time the Queen did assume the Crown the Fountain was cleared and all Attainders and corruption of blood discharged And besides he possibly thought it more prudent that the Queen Mother's Marriage should pass as a thing unquestionable and no ways subject to dispute than to ground it upon the inconstancy of Acts and Statutes There pass'd also an Act for the restoring to the Crown the Tenths and first Fruits first setled upon it in the time of King Henry the Eighth and afterwards remitted by Queen Mary There likewise passed an Act for the Dissolution of all those Monasteries Convents and Religious Orders as had been Founded and Established by the late Queen In the passing of these Acts there was little Opposition but when they came to debate of the Act of Supremacy it seemed to several a thing both strange and contrary to Nature and Policy that a Woman should be declared Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England whereupon an Expedient was found out to satisfie their Cavils and remove all Obstructions by putting in Governour instead of Head the Act being couched in these Terms That whatsoever Jurisdictions Priviledges and Spiritual Preheminences had been heretofore in use by any Ecclesiastical Authority whatsoever to visit Ecclesiastical men and correct all manner of Errors Heresies Schisms Abuses and Enormities should be for ever annexed to the Imperial Crown of England That the Queen and her Successors might by their Letters Patents substitute certain men to exercise that Authority Provided that they should define nothing to be Heresie but those things which were long before defined to be Heresies out of the Sacred Canonical Scriptures or the first four Oecumenical Councils or other Councils by the true and proper sence of the Holy Scriptures or should thereafter be so defined by Authority of Parliament with Assent of the Clergy of England assembled in a Synod that all and every Ecclesiastical Persons Magistrates Receivers of Pensions out of the Exchequer such a● were to receive Degrees in the Universities Wards that were to sue their Liveries and to be invested in their Livings and such as were to be admitted into the Number of the Queens Servants c. should be obliged by Oath to acknowledge the Queens Majesty to be the only and Supream Governour of her Kingdoms in all Matters and Causes as well Spiritual as Temporal all Forreign Princes and Potentates being wholly excluded from taking Cognisance of Causes within her Dominions This Act was stifly opposed by nine Bishops and only two Temporal Lords who were the Earl of Shrewsbury and Anthony Brown Vicount Montacute who had been sent in the time of Queen Mary to tender Obedience to the Apostolick See But were joyfully and unanimously assented to by the far major part of the House of Commons the Papists complaining that the Votes had been surprised and that the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Arundel and Cecil had by cunning procured Voices in favour of those Acts. Now Men differing so much in points of Religion it was ordered by Proclamation that no man should speak unreverently of the Sacrament and both kinds were allowed to be administred But notwithstanding that a