This as it was fatal to the Counts of Tholouse who were great Princes in the South of France and first fell under the Censures so it was terrible to all other Princes who thereupon to save themselves delivered up their Subjects to the Mercy of the Ecclesiastical Courts Burning was the death they made choice of because Witches Vizards and Sodomites had been so executed Therefore to make Heresie appear a terrible thing this was thought the most proper punishment of it It had also a resemblance of everlasting Burning to which they adjudged their Souls as well as their bodies were condemned to the â—ire but with this signal difference that they could find no such effectual way to oblige God to execute their sentence as they contrived against the Civil Magistrate But however they confidently gave it out that by vertue of that Promise of our Saviours Whose sins ye bind on Earth they are bound in Heaven their Decrees were ratified in Heaven And it not being easie to disprove what they said people believed the one as they saw the other Sentence executed So that whatever they condemned as Heresie was looked on as the worst thing in in the world There was no occasion for the execution of this Law in England till the days of Wickliffe And the favour he had from some great men stopt the Proceedings against him But in the 5th year of King Richard the Second a Bill passed in the House of Lords and was assented to by the King and published for an Act of Parliament though the Bill was never sent to the House of Commons By this pretended Law it appears Wickliff's followers were then very numerous that they had a certain habit and did Preach in many places both in Churches Church-yards and Markets without Licence from the Ordinary and did preach several Doctrines both against the Faith and the Laws of the Land as had been proved before the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the other Bishops Prelats Doctors of Divinity and of the Civil and Canon-Law and others of the Clergy That they would not submit to the admonitions nor Censures of the Church but by their subtile ingenious words did draw the people to follow them and defend them by strong hand and in great routs Therefore it was Ordained that upon the Bishops certifying into the Chancery the names of such Preachers and their Abettors the Chancellour should issue forth Commissions to the Sheriffs and others the Kings Ministers to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison till they should justify them according to the Law and reason of Holy Church From the gentleness of which law it may appear that England was not then so tame as to bear the severity of those cruel laws which were setled and put in execution in other Kingdoms The Custome at that time was to engross Copies of all the Acts of Parliament and to send them with a Writ under the great Seal to the Sheriffs to make them be proclaimed within their jurisdictions And Iohn Braibrook Bishop of London then Lord Chancellour sent this with the other Acts of that Parliament to be proclaimed The Writ bears date the 26th of May 5 to Reg. But in the next Parliament that was held in the 6th year of that Kings Reign the Commons preferred a Bill reciting the former Act and constantly affirmed that they had never assented to it and therefore desired it might be declared to be void for they Protested it was never their intent to be Iustified and to bind themselves and their Successors to the Prelats more than their Ancestors had done in times past To which the King gave the Royal Assent as it is in the Records of Parliament But in the Proclamation of the Acts of that Parliament this Act was suppressed so that the former Act was still looked on as a good law and is Printed in the Book of Statutes Such pious frauds were always practised by the Popish Clergy and were indeed necessary for the supporting the Credit of that Church When Richard the 2d was deposed and the Crown usurped by Henry the 4th then he in gratitude to the Clergy that assisted him in his coming to the Crown granted them a law to their hearts content in the 2 d. year of his Reign The Preamble bears That some had a new Faith about the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same and did Preach without Authority gathered Conventicles taught Schools wrote Books against the Catholick Faith with many other heinous aggravations Upon which the Prelats and Clergy and the Commons of the Realm prayed the King to provide a sufficient remedy to so great an evil Therefore the King by the assent of the States and other discreet men of the Realm being in the said Parliament did Ordain That none should Preach without Licence except persons Priviledged That none should Preach any Doctrine contrary to the Catholick Faith or the Determination of the Holy Church and that none should favour and abett them nor keep their Books but deliver them to the Diocesan of the place within 40 days after the Proclamation of that Statute And that if any Persons were defamed or suspected of doing against that Ordinance then the Ordinary might Arrest them and keep them in his Prison till they were Canonically purged of the Articles laid against them or did abjure them according to the Laws of the Church Provided always that the proceedings against them were publickly and judicially done and ended within three Months after they had been so Arrested and if they were Convict the Diocesan or his Commissaries might keep them in Prison as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and might Fine them as should seem competent to him certifying the Fine into the Kings Exchequer and if any being Convict did refuse to abjure or after Abjuration did fall into Relapse then he was to be left to the Secular Court according to the Holy Canons And the Majors Sheriffs or Bayliffs were to be personally present at the passing the Sentence when they should be required by the Diocesan or his Commissaries and after the Sentence they were to receive them and them before the People in a high place do to be Brent By this Statute the Sheriffs or other Officers were immediatly to proceed to the Burning of Hereticks without any Writ or Warrant from the King But it seems the Kings Learned Council advised him to issue out a Writ De Haeretico comburendo upon what grounds of Law I cannot tell For in the same year when William Sartre who was the first that was put to death upon the account of Heresie was judged Relapse by Thomas Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in a Convocation of his Province and thereupon was degraded from Priesthood and left to Secular Power a Writ was issued out to Burn him which in the Writ is called The Customary Punishment relating it as like to the Customs that were beyond
try the outmost severity that the Law allowed and would not offer them such a favour again Yet all this did not prevail for the Act was rejected and their complaint against the Clergy was also laid aside and the Parliament was Prorogued till April next In this Parliament the Foundation of the Breach that afterwards followed with Rome was laid by an Act for restraining the payment of Annates to that Court which since it is not Printed with the other Statutes shall be found in the end of this Volume The substance of it is as follows That great Sums of Money had been conveyed out of the Kingdom under the Title of Annates or first Fruits to the Court of Rome which they extorted by restraint of Bulls and other writs that it happened often by the frequent deaths of Arch-Bishops and Bishops to turn to the utter undoing of their Friends who had advanced those Sums for them These Annates were founded on no Law for they had no other way of obliging the Incumbents of Sees to pay them but by restraining their Bulls The Parliament therefore considering that these were first begun to be payed to defend Christendome against Infidels but were now turned to a duty claimed by that Court against all Right and Conscience and that vast Sums were carryed away upon that account which from the Second year of King Henry the 7th to that present time amounted to 800000 Ducats besides many other heavy Exactions of that Court did declare that the King was bound by his Duty to Almighty God as a good Christian Prince to hinder these oppressions And that the rather because many of the Prelates were then very Aged and like to die in a short time whereby vast Sums of Money should be carryed out of England to the great Impoverishing of the Kingdom And therefore all payments of first Fruits to the Court of Rome were put down and for ever restrained under the pains of the forfeiture of the Lands Goods and Chattels of him that should pay them any more together with the Profits of his See during the time that he was vested with it And in case Bulls were restrained in the Court of Rome any person presented to a Bishoprick should be notwithstanding Consecrated by the Arch-Bishop of the Province or if he were presented to an Arch-Bishoprick by any two Bishops in the Kingdom whom the King should appoint for that end and that being so Consecrated they should be Invested and enjoy all the Rights of their Sees in full and ample manner yet that the Pope and Court of Rome might have no just cause of Complaint the persons presented to Bishopricks are allowed to pay them 5 lib. for the Hundred of the clear Profits and Revenues of their several Sees But the Parliament not willing to go to extremities Remitted the final ordering of that Act to the King that if the Pope would either charitably and reasonably put down the payment of Annates or so moderate them that they might be a tolerable burden the King might at any time before Easter 1533. or before the next Session of Parliament declare by his Letters Patents whether the premises or any part of them should be observed or not which should give them the full force and Authority of a Law And that if upon this Act the Pope should vex the King or any of his Subjects by E xommunications or other Censures these notwithstanding the King should cause the Sacraments and other Rites of the Church to be administred and that none of these Censures might be published or Executed This Bill began in the House of Lords from them it was sent to the Commons and being agreed to by them received the Royal Assent but had not that final Confirmation mentioned in the Act before the 9th of Iuly 1533. and then by Letters Patents in which the Act is at length recited it was confirmed But now I come to open the final Conclusion of the Kings Suit at Rome On the 25th of Ianuary the Pope wrote to the King that he heard reports which he very unwillingly believed that he had put away his Queen and kept one Anne about him as his Wife which as it gave much Scandal so it was an high Contempt of the Apostolick See to do such a thing while his Suit was still depending notwithstanding a Prohibition to the contrary Therefore the Pope remembring his former merits which were now like to be clouded with his present Carriage did exhort him to take home his Queen and to put Anne away and not to continue to provoke the Emperor and his Brother by so high an Indignity nor to break the General peace of Christendome which was its only security against the Power of the Turk What answer the King made to this I do not find but instead of that I shall set down the Substance of a Dispatch which the King sent to Rome about this time drawn from a Copy of it to which the date is not added But it being an answer to a Letter he received from the Pope the 7th of October it seems to have been written about this time and it concluding with a Credence to an Ambassador I judge it was sent by Doctor Bennet who was dispatched to Rome in Ianuary 1532. to shew the Pope the Opinions of Learned men and of the Universities with their Reasons The Letter will be found in the end of this Volume the Contents of it are to this purpose The Pope had writ to the King in order to the clearing all his scruples and to give him quiet in his Conscience of which the King takes notice and is sorry that both the Pope and himself were so deceived in that matter the Pope by trusting to the judgments of others and writing whatever they suggested and the King by depending so much on the Pope and in vain expecting remedy from him so long He imputes the mistakes that were in the Popes Letters which he says had things in them contrary both to Gods Law and Mans Law to the Ignorance and rashness of his Councellors for which himself was much to be blamed since he rested on their advice and that he had not carryed himself as became Christs Vicar but had dealt both unconstantly and deceitfully for when the Kings cause was first opened to him and all things that Related to it were explained he had Granted a Commission with a promise not to recall it but to confirm the Sentence which the Legates should give and a Decretal was sent over defining the cause If these were justly granted it was unjustice to revoke them but if they were justly revoked it was unjust to grant them So he presses the Pope that either he could grant these things or he could not If he could do it where was the Faith which became a Friend much more a Pope since he had broke these promises But if he said he could not do them had he
it there was no reason to apprehend any opposition from the Temporal Lords The Session was now near an end so they made haste and read it twice that day and the third time the next day and passed it The Contents of it were The Clergy acknowledged that all Convocations had been and ought to be assembled by the Kings Writ and promised in verbo Sacerdotii that they would never make nor execute any new Canons or Constitutions without the Royal assent to them and since many Canons had been received that were found prejudicial to the Kings Prerogative contrary to the Laws of the Land and heavy to the Subjects That therefore there should be a Committee of thirty two Persons sixteen of the two Houses of Parliament and as many of the Clergy to be named by the King who should have full power to abrogate or confirm Canons as they found it expedient the Kings assent being obtained This was confirmed by Act of Parliament and by the same Act all appeals to Rome were again condemned If any party found themselves agrieved in the Arch-Bishops Courts an appeal might be made to the King in the Court of Chancery and the Lord-Chancellor was to grant a Commission under the Great-Seal for some Delegates in whose determination all must acquiesce All exempted Abbots were also to appeal to the King and it concluded with a Proviso that till such Correction of the Canons was made all those which were then received should still remain in force except such as were contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Realms or were to the damage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative This Proviso seemed to have a fair colour that there might still be some Canons in force to govern the Church by but since there was no day prefixed to the Determination of the Commission this Proviso made that the Act never took effect for now it lay in the Prerogative and in the Judges breast to declare what Canons were contrary to the Laws or the Rights of the Crown and it was judged more for the Kings Greatness to keep the matter undetermined than to make such a Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws as should be fixed and unmoveable The last of the publick Acts of this Session that related to the Church was about the Election and Consecration of Bishops On the 4th of February the Commons sent up a Bill to the Lords about the Consecration of Bishops it lay on the Table till the 27th of February and was then cast out and a new one drawn On what reason it was cast out is not mentioned and the Journal does not so much as say that it was once read The new Bill had its second reading the 3d of March and on the 5th it was ordered to be Engross'd and on the 9th it was read the third time and agreed to and sent down to the Commons who returned it to the Lords on the 16th of March. The first part of it is a confirmation of their former Act against Annates to which they added that Bishops should not be any more presented to the Bishop of Rome or sue out any Bulls there but that all Bishops should be presented to the Arch-Bishop and Arch-Bishops to any Arch-Bishop in the Kings Dominions or to any four Bishops whom the King should name and that when any See was vacant the King was to grant a Licence for a new Election with a Letter missive bearing the name of the Person that was to be chosen and twelve days after these were delivered an Election was to be returned by the Dean and Chapter or Prior and Convent under their Seals Then the Person Elected was to swear Fealty to the King upon which a Commission was to be issued out for Consecrating and Investing him with the usual Ceremonies after which he was to do Homage to the King and be restored both to the Spiritualities and Temporalities of his See for which the King granted Commissions during the vacancy and whosoever refused to obey the Contents of the Act or acted contrary to it were declared within the Statute of Premunire There passed a private Act for depriving the Bishops of Salisbury and Worcester who were Cardinal Campegio and Ierome de Ghinuccii the former deserved greatter severities at the Kings hand but the latter seems to have served him faithfully and was recommended both by the King and the French King about a year before to a Cardinals Hat The Preamble of the Act bears that persons promoted to Ecclesiastical Benefices ought to reside within the Kingdom for preaching the Laws of Almighty God and for keeping Hospitality and since these Prelates did not that but lived at the Court of Rome and neglected their Diocesses and made the Revenues of them be carried out of the Kingdoms contrary to the intentions of the Founders and to the prejudice of the Realm 3000 l. being at least carried yearly out of the Kingdom therefore their Diocesses were declared vacant But now I come to the Act of the Attainder of Elizabeth Barton and her Complices which I shall open fully since it was the first step that was made to Rebellion and the first occasion of putting any to death upon this quarrel and from it one will clearly see the Genius of that part of the Clergy that adhered to the Interests of the Court of Rome On the 21th of February the Bill was sent up to the Lords and read the first time on the 26th it was read the second time and committed then the Witnesses and other Evidences were brought before them but chiefly she with all her Complices who confessed the Crimes charged on her It was reported and read the 6th of March the third time and then the Lords addressed to the King to know his pleasure whether Sir Thomas More and others mentioned in the Act as Complices or at least Concealers might not be heard to speak for themselves in the Star-Chamber As for the Bishop of Rochester he was sick but he had written to the House all that he had to say for his own excuse What presumptions lay against Sir Thomas More I have not been able to find out only that he wrote a Letter to the Nun at which the King took great exceptions yet it appears he had a mean opinion of her for in discourse with his beloved Daughter Mistress Roper he called her commonly the silly Nun. But for justifying himself he wrote a full account of all the entercourse he had with the Nun and her Complices to Cromwell but tho by his other printed Letters both to Cromwell and the King it seems some ill impressions remained in the Kings mind about it he still continued to justifie not only his intentions but his actions in that particular One thing is not unworthy of observation that Rastall who published his Works in Queen Maries time printed the second Letter he wrote to Cromwell yet did not publish that account which
And therefore they were every-where meeting together and consulting what should be done for suppressing Heresie and preserving the Catholick Faith That zeal was much inflamed by the Monks and Friers who clearly saw the Acts of Parliament were so levelled at their Exemptions and Immunities that they were now like to be at the Kings mercy They were no more to plead their Bulls nor claim any Priviledges further than it pleased the King to allow them No new Saints from Rome could draw more Riches or Honour to their Orders Priviledges and Indulgences were out of doors so that the Arts of drawing in the people to enrich their Churches and Houses were at an end And they had also secret Intimations that the King and the Courtiers had an eye on their Lands and they gave themselves for lost if they could not so embroyl the Kings Affairs that he should not adventure on so invidious a thing Therefore both in Confessions and Conferences they infused into the people a dislike of the Kings Proceedings which though for some time it did not break out into an open Rebellion yet the humor still fermented and people only waited for an opportunity So that if the Emperor had not been otherwise distracted he might have made War upon the King with great Advantages For many of his discontented Subjects would have joyned with the Enemy But the King did so dextrously manage his Leagues with the French King and the Princes of the Empire that the Emperor could never make any impressions on his Dominions But those factious Spirits seeing nothing was to be expected from any forreign Power could not contain themselves but broke out into open Rebellion And this provoked the King to great severities His Spirit was so fretted by the tricks the Court of Rome had put on him and by the Ingratitude and seditious practises of Reginald Pool that he thereby lost much of his former temper and patience and was too ready upon slight grounds to bring his Subjects to the Bar. Where though the matter was always so ordered that according to Law they were Endicted and Judged yet the severity of the Law bordering sometimes on rigor and cruelty he came to be called a cruel Tyrant Nor did his severity lie only on one side but being addicted to some Tenets of the Old Religion and impatient of Contradiction or perhaps blown up either with the vanity of his new Title of Head of the Church or with the praises which Flatterers bestowed on him he thought all persons were bound to regulate their Belief by his Dictates which made him prosecute Protestants as well as proceed against Papists Yet it does not appear that Cruelty was Natural to him For in Twenty five years Reign none had suffered for any Crime against the State but Pool Earl of Suffolk and Stafford Duke of Buckingham The former he prosecuted in Obedience to his Fathers last Commands at his death His severity to the other was imputed to the Cardinals Malice The Proceedings were also legal And the Duke of Buckingham had by the knavery of a Priest to whom he gave great credit been made believe he had a Right to the Crown and practises of that nature touch Princes so nearly that no wonder the Law was executed in such a case This showes that the King was not very jealous nor desirous of the Blood of his Subjects But though he always proceeded upon Law yet in the last Ten years of his Life many instances of Severity occurred for which he is rather to be pityed than either imitated or sharply censured The former Book was full of Intrigues and forreign Transactions the greatest part of it being an account of a tedious Negotiation with the subtlest and most refined Court in Christendome in all the Arts of humane Policy But now my work is confined to this Nation and except in short touches by the way I shall meddle no further with the Mysteries of State but shall give as clear an account of those things that relate to Religion and Reformation as I could possibly recover The Suppression of Monasteries The advance and declension of Reformation and the Proceedings against those who adhered to the Interests of the Court of Rome must be the chief Subjects of this Book The two former shall be opened in the series of time as they were Transacted But the last shall be left to the end of the Book that it may be presented in one full view After the Parliament had ended their Business the Bishops did all renew their Allegeance to the King and swore also to maintain his Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters acknowledging that he was the Supreme Head of the Church of England though there was yet no Law for the requiring of any such Oath The first act of the Kings Supremacy was his naming Cromwell Vicar-General and General Visitor of all the Monasteries and other Priviledged places This is commonly confounded with his following Dignity of Lord Vice-Gerent in Ecclesiastical matters but they were two different Places and held by different Commissions By the one he had no Authority over the Bishops nor had he any Precedence but the other as it gave him the Precedence next the Royal Family so it cloathed him with a compleat Delegation of the Kings whole Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs For Two years he was only Vicar-General But the tenour of his Commissions and the nature of the Power devolved on him by them cannot be fully known For neither the one nor the other are in the Rolls though there can be no doubt made but Commissions of such Importance were enrolled therefore the loss of them can only be charged on that search and rasure of Records made by Bonner upon the Commission granted to him by Queen Mary of which I have spoken in the Preface of this work In the Prerogative-Office there is a subalterne Commission granted to Doctor afterwards Secretary Petre on Ian. 13. in the Twenty Seventh year of the Kings Reign by which it appears that Cromwells Commission was at first conceived in very General words for he is called the Kings Vice-Gerent in Ecclesiastical causes his Vicar-General and Official-Principal But because he could not himself attend upon all these affairs therefore Doctor Petre is deputed under him for receiving the Probates of Wills from thence likewise it appears that all Wills where the Estate was 200 lib. or above were no more to be tryed or proved in the Bishops Courts but in the Vicar-Generals Court Yet though he was called Vice-Gerent in that Commission he was spoken of and writ to by the Name of Vicar-General but after the second Commission seen and mentioned by the Lord Herbert in Iuly 1536. he was alwayes designed Lord Vice-Gerent The next thing that was every-where laboured with great industry was to engage all the rest of the Clergy chiefly the Regulars to own the Kings Supremacy To which they generally submitted In Oxford the Question being put whether
the fault was in her humor or in the Provocations she met with the Reader may conjecture The King received the news of her death with some regrett But he would not give leave to bury her as she had ordered but made her body be laid in the Abbey Church of Peterborough which he afterwards Converted to an Episcopal Cathedral But Queen Anne did not carry her death so decently for she express'd too much joy at it both in her Carriage and dress On the 4th of February the Parliament sate upon a Prorogation of 14th Months for in the Record there is no mention of any intermedial Prorogation where a great many Laws relating to Civil concerns were passed By the 15th Act the Power that had been given by a former Act to the King for naming thirty two Persons to make a Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws was again confirmed for nothing had been done upon the former Act. But there was no limitation of time in this Act and so there was nothing done in pursuance of it The great business of this Session of Parliament was the suppressing the lesser Monasteries How this went thorough the two Houses we cannot know from the Journals for they are lost But all the Historians of that time tell us that the report which the Visitors made to the King was read in Parliament which represented the manners of these Houses so odiously that the Act was easily carried The Preamble bears That small Religious Houses under the number of twelve Persons had been long and notoriously guilty of vicious and abominable Living and did much consume and waste their Churches Lands and other things belonging to them and that for above two hundred years there had been many Visitations for reforming these Abuses but with no success their vicious living encreasing daily So that except small Houses were dissolved and the Religious put into greater Monasteries there could no Reformation be expected in that matter Whereupon the King having received a full information of these Abuses both by his Visitors and other credible ways and considering that there were divers great Monasteries in which Religion was well kept and observed which had not the full number in them that they might and ought to receive had made a full Declaration of the Premisses in Parliament Whereupon it was Enacted That all Houses which might spend yearly 200 l. or within it should be suppressed and their Revenues converted to better uses and they compelled to reform their Lives The Lord Herbert thinks it strange that the Statute in the printed Book has no Preamble but begins bluntly Fuller tell us that he wonders that Lord did not see the Record and he sets down the Preamble and says The rest follow as in the printed Statute Chap. 27th by a mistake for the 28th This shews that neither the one nor the other ever look'd on the Record For there is a particular Statute of Dissolution distinct from the 28th Chap. And the Preamble which Fuller sets down belongs not to the 28th Chapter as he says but to the 18th Chapter which was never printed and the 28th relates in the Preamble to that other Statute which had given these Monasteries to the King The reasons that were pretended for dissolving these Houses were That whereas there was but a small number of persons in them they entred into Confederacies together and their Poverty set them on to use many ill arts to grow Rich. They were also much abroad and kept no manner of Discipline in their Houses But those Houses were generally much richer than they seemed to be For the Abbots raising great Fines out of them held the Leases still low and by that means they were not obliged to entertain a greater number in their House and so enriched themselves and their Brethren by the Fines that were raised For many Houses then rented at two hundred pounds were worth many thousands as will appear to any that compares what they were then valued at which is Collected by Speed with what their Estates are truely worth When this was passing in Parliament Stokeslâ—y Bishop of London said These lesser Houses were as Thorns soon pluck't up but the great Abbots were like putrified old Oaks yet they must needs follow and so would others do in Christendom before many years were passed By another Act all these Houses their Churches Lands and all their Goods were given to the King and his Heirs and Successors together with all other Houses which within a year before the making of the Act had been dissolved or suppressed And for the gathering the Revenues that belonged to them a new Court was Erected called the Court of the Augmentations of the Kings Revenue which was to consist of a Chancellor a Treasurer an Attourney and Sollicitor and ten Auditors seventeen Receivers a Clerk an Usher and a Messenger This Court was to bring in the Revenues of such Houses as were now dissolved excepting only such as the King by his Letters-Patents continued in their former state appointing a Seal for the Court with full Power and Authority to dispose of these Lands so as might be most for the Kings Service Thus â—ell the lesser Abbeys to the number of 376 and soon after this Parliament which had done the King such eminent Service and had now sate six years was dissolved on the 14th of April In the Convocation a motion was made of great consequence That there should be a Translation of the Bible in English to be set up in all the Churches of England The Clergy when they procured Tindalls Translation to be condemned and suppressed it gave out that they intended to make a Translation into the Vulgar-Tongue Yet it was afterwards upon a long Consultation Resolved that it was free for the Church to give the Bible in a Vulgar-Tongue or not as they pleased and that the King was not obliged to it and that at that time it was not at all expedient to do it Upon which those that promoted the Reformation made great complaints and said it was visible the Clergy knew there was an opposition between the Scriptures and their Doctrine That they had first condemned Wickliffs Translation and then Tindalls and though they ought to teach men the Word of God yet they did all they could to suppress it In the times of the Old Testament the Scriptures were writ in the Vulgar-Tongue and all were charged to read and remember the Law The Apostles wrote in Greek which was then the most common Language in the World Christ did also appeal to the Scriptures and sent the people to them And by what St. Paul says of Timothy it appears that children were then early trained up in that study In the Primitive Church as Nations were converted to the Faith the Bible was Translated into their Tongue The Latine Translation was very Ancient the Bible was afterwards put into the Scythian Dalmatian and Gothick Tongues It continued thus for
recovered the Lands which their Ancestors had superstitiously given away and the Surrenders which Religious persons made to the Crown could not have cut off their Title But this Act did that effectually It is true many of the greatest of them were of Royal Foundation and these would have returned to the Crown without Dispute On the 23 of May in this Session of Parliament a Bill was brought in by Cromwel for giving the King Power to Erect new Bishopricks by his Letters Patents It was read that day for the first second and third time and sent down to the Commons The Preamble of it was That it was known what slothful and ungodly Life had been led by those who were called Religious But that these Houses might be converted to better uses that Gods word might be better set forth Children brought up in Learning Clarks nourished in the Universities and that old decayed Servants might have Livings poor people might have Alms-Houses to maintain them Readers of Greek Hebrew and Latine might have good Stipend daily Alms might be Ministred and Allowance might be made for mending of the high-ways and Exhibition for Ministers of the Church for these ends if the King thought fit to have more Bishopricks or Cathedral Churches erected out of the Reat of these Houses full Power was given to him to erect and found them and to make Rules and Statutes for them and such Translations of Sees or divisions of them as he thought fit But on this Act I must adde a singular Remark The Preamble and material parts of it were drawn by the King himself and the first draught of it under his hand is yet extant which shows his extraordinary application and understanding of business But in the same Paper there is a List of the Sees which he intended to found of which what was done afterwards came so far short that I know nothing to which it can be so reasonably imputed as the declining of Cranmers Interest at Court who had proposed the Erecting of new Cathedrals and Sees with other things mentioned in the Preamble of the Statute as a great mean for Reforming the Church The Sees which the King then designed with the Abbies out of which they were to be Erected follow as it is in the Paper under the Kings own hand Essex Waltham Hartford St. Albans Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire Dunstable Newenham Clowstown Oxford and Berkshire Osnay and Tame Northampton and Huntington Peterborough Middlesex Westminster Leicester and Rutland Leicester Glocestershire St. Peters Lancashire Fountaines and the Arch-deaconry of Richmond Suffolk Edmonds-bury Stafford and Salop. Shrewsbury Nottingham and Derby Welbeck Werksop Thurgarton Cornwall Lanceston Bedmynne Wardreth Over these is written The Bishopricks to be made In another corner of the Page he writes as follows Christ's Church in Canterbury St. Swithins Ely Duresm Rochester with a part of Leeds Worcester and all others having the same Then a little below Places to be altered into Colledges and Schools Burton super Trent More is not written in that Paper But I wonder much that in this List Chester was forgotten Yet it was Erected before any of them For I have seen a Commission under the Privy Seal to the Bishop of Chester to take the Surrender of the Monastery of Hamond in Shropshire bearing date the 24th of August this year So it seems the See of Chester was Erected and endowed before the Act passed though there is among the Rolls a Charter for Endowing and founding of it afterwards Bristow is not mentioned in this Paper though a See was afterwards Erected there It was not before the end of the next year that these Sees were founded and there was in that Interval so great a Change made both of the Counsels and Ministers that no wonder the things now designed were never accomplished Another Act passed in this Parliament concerning the obedience due to the Kings Proclamations There had been great exceptions made to the Legality of the Kings proceedings in the Articles about Religion and other Injunctions published by his authority which were complained of as contrary to Law since by these the King had without consent of Parliament altered some Laws and had laid Taxes on his Spiritual Subjects Upon which an Act passed which sets forth in the preamble the contempt and disobedience of the Kings Proclamations by some who did not consider what a King by his Royal power might do which if it continued would tend to the disobedience of the Laws of God and the dishonour of the Kings Majesty who may full ill bear it Considering also that many occasions might require speedy Remedies and that delaying these till a Parliament met might occasion great prejudices to the Realm and that the King by his Royal power given of God might do many things in such cases Therefore it is Enacted That the King for the time being with advice of his Council might set forth Proclamations with pains and penalties in them which were to be obeyed as if they were made by an Act of Parliament But this was not to be so extended that any of the Kings Subjects should suffer in their Estates Liberties or Persons by vertue of it Nor that by any of the Kings Proclamations Laws or Customs were to be broken and subverted Then follow some Clauses about the publishing of Proclamations and the way of prosecuting those who contemned and disobeyed them It is also added That if any offended against them and in further contempt went out of the Realm he was to be adjudged a Traitor This also gave power to the Counsellours of the Kings Successor if he were under age to set forth Proclamations in his name which were to be obeyed in the same manner with these set forth by the King himself This Act gave great power to the Judges since there were such Restrictions in some branches of it which seemed to lessen the great extent of the other parts of it so that the Expositors of the Law had much referred to them upon this Act were the great changes of Religion in the Non-age of Edward the 6th grounded There is another Act which but collaterally belongs to Ecclesiastical affairs and therefore shall be but slightly touched It is the Act of the Precedency of the Officers of State by which the Lord Vice-gerent has the Precedence of all persons in the Kingdom next the Royal Family and on this I must make one Remark which may seem very improper for one of my profession especially when it is an animadversion on one of the greatest men that any age has produced the most Learned Mr. Selden He in his Titles of Honour sayes That this Statute was never printed in the Statute-Book and but incorrectly by another and that therefore he infers it Literally as is in the Record In which there are two mistakes For it is Printed in the Statute-Book that was set down in that Kings Reign though left out in some latter Statute-Books
to be her Witnesses upon the Salvation of her Soul that she was guiltless of that Act of defiling her Soveraigns bed for which she was condemned Yet the Lasciviousness of her former Life made people incline to believe any ill thing that could be reported of her But for the Lady Rochford every body observed Gods Justice on her who had the chief hand both in Queen Anne Boleyns and her own Husbands death and it now appearing so evidently what sort of Woman she was it tended much to raise their Reputations again in whose Fall her spite and other Artifices had so great a hand She had been a Lady of the Bed-Chamber to the last four Queens But now it was found how unworthy she was of that Trust. It was thought extream cruelty to be so severe to the Queens kindred for not discovering her former ill life Since the making such a discovery had been inconsistent with the Rules of Justice or Decency The old Dutchess of Norfolk being her Grandmother had bred her of a Child and it was said for her to have gone and told the King That she was a Whore when he intended to marry her as it was an unheard-of thing so the not-doing of it could not have drawn so severe a punishment from any but a Prince of that Kings temper But the King pardoned her and most of the rest tho some continued in Prison after the rest were discharged But for the other part of this Act obliging a Woman to reveal her own former Incontinence if the King intended to marry her which by a mistake the Lord Herbert sayes was passed in another Act taking it from Hall and not looking into the Record It was thought a piece of grievous Tyranny since if a King especially one of so imperious a temper as this was should design such an honour to any of his Subjects who had failed in their former life they must either defame themselves by publishing so disgraceful a secret or run the hazard of being afterwards attainted of Treason Upon this those that took an indiscreet liberty to rally that Sex injustly and severely said the King could induce none that was reputed a Maid to Marry him so that not so much choice as necessity put him on Marrying a Widow about two years after this But this part of the Act was afterwards repealed in the first Parliament of King Edward the 6th There passed another Act in this Parliament that made way for the dissolution of Colledges Hospitals and other Foundations of that nature The Courtiers had been practising with the Presidents and Governors of some of these to make Resignations of them to the King which were conceived in the same stile that most of the surrenders of Monasteries did run in Eight of these were all really procured which are enrolled But they could not make any great progress because it was provided by the Local Statutes of most of them that no President or any other Fellows could make any such Deed without the Consent of all the Fellows in the House and this could not be so easily obtained Therefore all such Statutes were annulled and none were any more to be sworn to the observation of them In the Convocation that sate at that time which as was formerly observed Fuller mistakes for the Convocation in the 31st year of this King the Translation of the Bible was brought under examination and many of the Bishops were appointed to peruse it For it seems complaints were brought against it It was certainly the greatest eye-sore of the Popish party and that which they knew would most effectually beat down all their projects But there was no opposing it directly for the King was fully resolved to go through with it Therefore the way they took was once to load the Translation then set out with as many faults as they could and so to get it first condemned and then to promise a new one in the making and publishing of which it would be easie to breed many delays But Gardiner had another singular conceit He fancied there were many words in the New Testament of such Majesty that they were not to be Translated but must stand in the English Bible as they were in the Latine A hundred of these he put into a Writing which was read in Convocation His design in this was visible That if a Translation must be made it should be so daubed all through with Latine words that the people should not understand it much the better for its being in English A taste of this the Reader may have by the first twenty of them Ecclâ—sia Penitentia Pontifex Ancilla Contritus Olocausta Iusâ—itia Iustiâ—icatio Idiota Elâ—menta Baptizare Martyr Adorare Sandalium Simplex Tetrarcha Sacramentum Simulachrum Gloria The design he had of keeping some of these particularly the last save one is plain enough that the People might not discover that visible opposition which was between the Scriptures and the Roman Church in the matter of Images This could not be better palliated than by disguising these places with words that the People understood not How this was received Fullâ—r has not told us But it seems Cranmer found that the Bishops were resolved either to condemn the Translation of the Bible or to proceed so slowly in it that it should come to nothing Therefore he moved the King to refer the perusing of it to the two Universities The Bishops took this very ill when Cranmer intimated it to them in the Kings name and objected that the Learning of the Universities was much decayed of late and that the two Houses of Convocation were the more proper Judges of that where the Learning of the Land was chiefly gathered together But the Arch-Bishop said he would stick close to the Kings pleasure and that the Universities should examine it Upon which all the Bishops of his Province except Ely and St. Davids protested against it and soon after the Convocation was dissolved Not long after this I find Bonner made some Injunctions for his Clergy which have a strain in them so far different from the rest of his Life that it 's more probable they were drawn by another Pen and imposed on Bonner by an Order from the King They were set out in the 34th year of the Kings Reign but the time of the year is not exprest The Reader will find them in the Collection at their full length The Substance of them is First That all should observe the Kings Injunctions Secondly That every Clergy-man should read and study a Chapter of the Bible every day with the exposition of the Gloss or some approved Doctor which having once studied they should retain it in their memories and be ready to give an account of it to him or any whom he should appoint Thirdly That they should study the Book set forth by the Bishops of the Institution of a Christian man Fourthly That such as did not reside in their
Father were committed to the Tower That which was most insisted on was their giving the Arms of Edward the Confessor which were only to be given by the Kings of England This the Earl of Surrey justified and said they gave their Arms according to the opinion of the Kings Heraulds But all excuses availed nothing for his Father and he were designed to be destroyed upon reasons of State for which some colours were to be found out The Earl of Surrey being but a Commoner was brought to his Tryal at Guildhall and put upon an Inquest of Commoners consisting of nine Knights and three Esquires by whom he was found guilty of Treason and had Sentence of death passed upon him which was executed on the 19th of Ianuary at Tower-Hill It was generally condemned as an Act of high injustice and severity which loaded the Seimours with a popular Odium that they could never overcome He was much pitied being a man of great parts and high courage with many other Noble Qualities But the King who never hated nor ruined any body by halves resolved to compleat the misfortunes of that Family by the Attaindor of the Father And as all his Eminent Services were now forgotten so the Submissions he made could not allay a displeasure that was only to be satisfied with his Life and Fortune He wrote to the King Protesting his Innocency That he had never a thought to his prejudice and could not imagine what could be laid to his Charge He had spent his whole Life in his Service and did not know that ever he had offended any person or that any were displeased with him except for prosecuting the breakers of the Act about the Sacrament of the Altar But in that and in every thing else as he had been always obedient to the Kings Laws so he was resolved still to obey any Laws he should make He desired he might be examined with his Accusers face to face before the King or at least before his Council and if it did not appear that he was wrongfully accused let him be punished as he deserved In Conclusion he begged the King would have pity on him and restore him to his favour taking all his Lands or Goods from him or as much of them as he pleased Yet all this had no effect on the King So he was desired to make a more formal Submission which he did on the 12th of Ianuary under his hand ten Privy Councellors being Witnesses In it he confessed First his discovering the Secrets of the Kings Council Secondly his concealing his Sons Treason in using to give the Arms of St. Edward the Confessor which did only belong to the King and to which his Son had no Right Thirdly That he had ever since his Fathers death born in the first quarter of his Arms the Arms of England with a difference of the Labells of Silver that are the proper Arms of the Prince which was done in prejudice of the King and the Prince and gave occasion for disturbing or interrupting the Succession to the Crown of the Realm This he acknowledged was high Treason he confessed he deserved to be attainted of high Treason and humbly begged the Kings Mercy and Compassion He yielded to all this hoping by such a Submission and Compliance to have overcome the Kings displeasure but his Expectations failed him A Parliament was called the reason whereof was pretended to be the Coronation of the Prince of Wales But it was thought the true cause of calling it was to Attaint the Duke of Norfolk for which they had not colour enough to do it in a Tryal by his Peers Therefore an Attaindor by Act of Parliament was thought the better way So it was moved that the King intending to Crown his Son Prince of Wales desired they would go on with all possible haste in the Attaindor of the Duke of Norfolk that so these Places which he held by Patent might be disposed of by the King to such as he thought fit who should Assist at the Coronation And upon this slight pretence since a better could not be found The Bill of Attaindor was read the first time on the 18th of Ianuary And on the 19th and 20th it was read the second and third time And so passed in the House of Lords and was sent down to the Commons Who on the 24th sent it up also passed On the 27th the Lords were ordered to be in their Robes That the Royal assent might be given to it which the Lord Chancellor with some others joyned in Commission did give by vertue of the Kings Letters Patents And it had been executed the next Morning if the Kings death had not prevented it Upon what grounds this Attaindor was founded I can only give this Account from the 34th Act of the first Parliament of Queen Mary in which this Act is declared null and void by the Common Law of the Land for I cannot find the Act it self upon Record In the Act of Repeal it is said That there was no special matter in the Act of Attaindor but only general words of Treasons and Conspiracies and that out of their care of the preservation of the King and the Prince they passed it But the Act of Repeal says also That the only thing with which he was charged was For bearing of Arms which he and his Ancestors had born both within and without the Kingdom both in the Kings presence and in the sight of his Progenitors which they might Lawfully bear and give as by good and substantial matter of Record it did appear It is also added That the King dyed after the date of the Commission That the King only empowered them to give his Assent but did not give it himself And that it did not appear by any Record that they gave it That the King did not Sign the Commission with his own hand his Stamp being only set to it and that not to the upper but the nether part of it contrary to the Kings custom All these particulars though cleared afterwards I mention now because they give light to this matter As soon as the Act was passed a Warrant was sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower to cut off his head the next Morning but the King dying in the night the Lieutenant could do nothing on that Warrant And it seems it was not thought advisable to begin the new Kings Reign with such an Odious Execution And thus the Duke of Norfolk escaped very narrowly Both Parties descanted on this differently The Conscientious Papists said it was Gods just Judgment on him who had in all things followed the Kings pleasure oftentimes against his own Conscience That he should smart under that Power which himself had helped so considerably to make it be raised so high The Protestants could not but observe an hand of God in measuring out such a hard measure to him that was so heavy on all those poor people that were
the King would submit to him p. 122 A new Session of Parliament ibid. A Subsidy is voted p. 123 The Oaths the Clergy swore to the Pope and to the King ibid. Chancellor More delivers up his Office p. 124 The King meets with the French King ibid. Eliot sent to Rome p. 125 The King Marries Anne Boleyn p. 126 New Overtures for the Divorce ibid. Anno 1533. A Session of Parliament ibid. An Act against Appeals to Rome ibid. Arch-Bishop Warham dies p. 127 Cranmer succeeds him ibid. His Bulls from Rome p. 128 His Consecration ibid. The Iudgment of the Convocation concerning the Divorce p. 129 Endeavours to make the Queen Submit p. 130 But in vain ibid. Cranmer gives Iudgment p. 131 Censures that pass upon it ibid. The Pope united to the French King p. 133 A Sentence against the Kings proceedings ibid. Queen Elizabeth is born p. 134 An Enterview between the Pope and the French King ibid. The King submits to the Pope ibid. The Imperialists oppose the agreement p. 135 And procure a definitive Sentence p. 136 The King resolves to abolish the Popes Power in England ibid. It was long disputed ibid. Arguments against it from Scripture p. 137 And the Primitive Church p. 138 Arguments for the Kings Supremacy p. 140 From Scripture and the Laws of England p. 141 The Supremacy explained p. 142 Pains taken to satisfie Fisher p. 143 Anno 1534. A Session of Parliament ibid. An Act for taking away the Popes Power p. 144 About the Succession to the Crown p. 145 For punishing Hereticks p. 147 The Submission of the Clergy ibid. About the Election of Bishops p. 148 And the Maid of Kent p. 149 The Insolence of some Friers p. 151 The Nuns speech at her death p. 152 Fisher is dealt with Gently p. 153 The Oath for the Succession taken by many p. 154 More and Fisher refuse it p. 155 And are proceeded against p. 156 Another Session of Parliament p. 157 The Kings Supremacy is Enacted ibid. An Act for Suffragan Bishops ibid. A Subsidy is granted p. 158 More and Fisher are Attainted ibid. The Progress of the Reformation p. 159 Tindal and others at Antwerp send over Books and the New Testament ibid. The Supplication of the Beggars p. 160 More answers and Frith replyes p. 161 Cruel proceeding against Reformers p. 162 Bilney's Sufferings p. 163 The Sufferings of Byfield p. 164 And Bainham p. 165 Articles abjured by some ibid. Tracy's Testament p. 166 Frith's Sufferings p. 167 His Arguments against the Corporal presence in the Sacrament ibid. His Opinion of the Sacrament and Purgatory for which he was condemned p. 169 His Constancy at his death p. 170 A stop put to Cruel proceedings p. 171 The Queen favoured the Reformers ibid. Cranmer Promoted it ibid. And was Assisted by Cromwell p. 172. A strong party against it ibid. Reasons used against it ibid. And for it p. 173. The Iudgment of some Bishops concerning a General Council p. 174 A speech of Cranmers of it ibid. BOOK III. Of the other Transactions about Religion and Reformation during the rest of the Reign of King Henry the 8th Anno 1535. THe rest of the Kings Reign was troublesome p. 179 By the practises of the Clergy p. 180 Which provoked the King much ibid. The Bishops swear the Kings Supremacy p. 181. The Franciscans only refuse it p. 182 A Visitation of Monasteries ibid. The Instructions of the Visitors p. 184 Injunctions sent by them p. 185 The State of the Monasteries in England and their Exemptions p. 186 They were deserted but again set up by King Edgar p. 187 Arts used by the Monks ibid. They were generally corrupt p. 188 And so grew the Friers p. 189 The Kings other reasons for suppressing Monasteries ibid. Cranmers design in it p. 190 The Proceedings of the Visitors ibid. Some Houses resigned to the King p. 191 Anno 1536. QVeen Katherine dies ibid. A Session of Parliament in which the lesser Monasteries were suppressed p. 193 The reasons for doing it ibid. The Translation of the Bible in English designed p. 194 The reasons for it ibid. The opposition made to it p. 195 Queen Anns fall driven on by the Popish party p. 196 The King became jealous p. 197 She is put in the Tower p. 198 She confessed some Indiscreet words p. 199 Cranmers Letters concerning her p. 200 She is brought to a Tryal p. 201 And Condemned p. 202 And also Divorced p. 203 She prepares for Death p. 204 The Lieutenant of the Tower's Letters about her ibid. Her Execution p. 205 The Censures made on this ibid. Lady Mary is reconciled to her Father and makes a full Submission p. 207 Lady Elizabeth is well used by the King p. 208 A Letter of hers to the Queen p. 209 A New Parliament is called ibid. An Act of the Succession p. 210 The Pope endeavours a reconciliation p. 211 But in vain ibid. The Proceedings of the Convocation p. 213 Articles agreed on about Religion p. 215 Published by the Kings Authority p. 217 But variously censured p. 218 The Convocation declared against the Council Summoned by the Pope p. 219 The King publishes his reasons against it p. 220 Cardinal Pool writes against the King ibid. Many Books are written for the King p. 221 Instructions for the dissolution of Monasteries p. 222 Great discontents among all sorts p. 223 Endeavours to qualifie these ibid. The people were disposed to Rebel p. 224 The Kings Injunctions about Religion p. 225 They were much censured p. 226 A Rising in Lincoln-shire p. 227 Their Demands and the Kings Answer ibid. It was quieted by the Duke of Suffolk p. 228 A great Rebellion in the North ibid. The Duke of Norfolk was sent against them p. 230 They advance to Doncaster ibid. Their Demands p. 231 The Kings Answer to them p. 232 Anno 1537. THe Rebellion is quieted p. 233 New risings soon dispersed p. 234 The chief Rebels Executed ibid. A New Visitation of Monasteries p. 235 Some great Abbots resign ibid. Confessions of horrid crimes are made p. 237 Some are Attainted p. 238 And their Abbies Suppressed p. 240 The Superstition and Cheats of these Houses discovered p. 242 Anno 1538. SOme Images publickly broken ibid. Thomas Beckets shrine broken p. 243 New Injunctions about Religion p. 245 Inâ—ectives against the King at Rome ibid. The Popes Bulls against the King ibid. The Clergy in England declared against these p. 248 The Bible is Printed in English p. 249 New Injunctions ibid. Prince Edward is born p. 250 The Complyance of the Popish party p. 251 Lambert appealed to the King p. 252 And is publickly tryed ibid. Many Arguments brought against him p. 253 He is condemned and burnt p. 254 The Popish party gain ground ibid. A Treaty with the German Princes p. 255 Bonners dissimulation ibid. Anno 1539. A Parliament is called p. 256 The six Articles are proposed ibid. Arguments against them p. 257 An Act passed for them p. 258 Which is variously
laid the Murder on the Officers that had the charge of that Prison and by other proofs they found the Bishops Sumner and the Bell-ringer guilty of it and by the deposition of the Sumner himself it did appear that the Chancellour and he and the Bell-ringer did Murder him and then hang him up But as the Inquest proceeded in this Trial the Bishop began a new Process against the dead body of Richard Hunne for other points of Heresie and several Articles were gathered out of Wickliff's Preface to the Bible with which he was charged And his having the Book in his Possession being taken for good evidence he was judged an Heretick and his body delivered to the Secular Power When judgment was given the Bishops of Duresme and Lincoln with many Doctors both of Divinity and the canon-Canon-Law sate with the Bishop of London so that it was lookt on as an Act of the whole Clergy and done by common consent On the 20th of December his body was burnt at Smithfield But this produced an effect very different from what was expected for it was hoped that he being found an Heretick no body should appear for him any more whereas on the contrary it occasioned a great out-cry the man having lived in very good reputation among his Neighbours so that after that day the City of London was never well affected to the Popish Clergy but inclined to follow any body who spoke against them and every one lookt on it as a Cause of common concern All exclaimed against the Cruelty of their Clergy that for a mans suing a Clerke according to law he should be long and hardly used in a severe imprisonment and at last cruelly murdered and all this laid on himself to defame him and ruin his family And then to burn that body which they had so handled was thought such a complication of Cruelties as few Barbarians had ever been guilty of The Bishop finding that the Inquest went on and the whole matter was discovered used all possible endeavours to stop their proceedings and they were often brought before the Kings Council where it was pretended that all proceeded from Malice and Heresie The Cardinal laboured to procure an order to forbid their going any further but the thing was both so foul and so evident that it could not be done and that opposition made it more generally believed In the Parliament there was a Bill sent up to the Lords by the Commons for restoring Hunne's Children which was passed and had the Royal assent to it but another Bill being brought in about this Murther it occasioned great heats among them The Bishop of London said that Hunne had hanged himself that the Inquest were false perjured Caitiffs and if they proceeded further he could not keep his house for Hereticks so that the Bill which was sent up by the Commons was but once read in the House of Lords for the power of the Clergy was great there But the Trial went on and both the Bishops Chancellour and the Summer were endicted as Principals in the Murder The Convocation that was then sitting finding so great a stir made and that all their liberties were now struck at resolved to call Doctor Standish to an Account for what he had said and argued in that matter so he being summoned before them some Articles were objected to him by word of mouth concerning the judging of Clerks in Civil Courts and the day following they being put in writing the Bill was delivered to him and a day assigned for him to make answer The Doctor perceiving their intention and judging it would go hard with him if he were tryed before them went and claimed the Kings Protection from this trouble that he was now brought in for discharging his duty as the Kings Spiritual Counsel But the Clergy made their excuse to the King that they were not to question him for any thing he had said as the Kings Counsel but for some Lectures he read at St Pauls and elswhere contrary to the Law of God and Liberties of the holy Church which they were bound to maintain and desired the Kings Assistance according to his Coronation Oath and as he would not incur the Censures of the holy Church On the other hand the Temporal Lords and Judges with the concurrence of the House of Commons addressed to the King to maintain the Temporal Jurisdiction according to his Coronation Oath and to protect Standish from the Malice of his enemies This put the King in great perplexity for he had no mind to lose any part of his Temporal Jurisdiction and on the other hand was no less apprehensive of the dangerous effects that might follow on a breach with the Clergy So he called for Doctor Veysey then Dean of his Chappel and afterwards Bishop of Exeter and charged him upon his Allegiance to declare the truth to him in that matter which after some study he did and said upon his Faith Conscience and Allegiance he did think that the convening of Clerks before the secular Judg which had been always practised in England might well consist with the Law of God and the true Liberties of the holy Church This gave the King great satisfaction so he commanded all the Judges and his Council both Spiritual and Temporal and some of both Houses to meet at Black-Friers and to hear the matter argued The Bill against Doctor Standish was read which consisted of Six Articles that were objected to him First That he had said that the lower Orders were not sacred Secondly That the Exemption of Clerks was not founded on a divine Right Thirdly That the Laity might coerce Clerks when the Prelates did not their duty Fourthly That no positive Ecclesiastical Law binds any but those who receive it Fifthly That the Study of the Canon-Law was needless Sixthly That of the whole Volume of the Decretum so much as a man could hold in his fist and no more did oblige Christians To these Doctor Standish answered that for those things exprest in the Third the Fifth and the Sixth Articles he had never taught them as for his asserting them at any time in discourse as he did not remember it so he did not much care whether he had done it or not To the First he said Lesser Orders in one sense are sacred and in another they are not sacred For the Second and Fourth he confessed he had taught them and was ready to justifie them It was objected by the Clergy that as by the Law of God no man could judge his Father it being contrary to that Commandment Honour thy Father So Church-men being Spiritual Fathers they could not be judged by the Laity who were their Children To which he answered that as that only concluded in favour of Priests those in Inferiour Orders not being Fathers so it was a mistake to say a Judge might not sit upon his Natural Father for the Judge was by another Relation above his Natural Father and though
Court had an eye on their Lands made them to be as complyant as could be But Fisher was a man of great reputation and very ancient so that much pains was taken to satisfie him A week before the Parliament sat down the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury proposed to him that he and any Five Doctors such as he should choose and the Bishop of London and Five Doctors with him might confer about it and examine the Authorities of both sides that so there might be an Agreement among them by which the scandal might be removed which otherwise would be taken from their Janglings and Contests among themselves Fisher accepted of this and Stokesley wrote to him on the 8th of Ianuary that he was ready whenever the other pleased and desired him to name time and place and if they could not agree the matter among themselves he moved to refer it to two Learned men whom they should choose in whose determination they would both acquiesce How far this overture went I cannot discover and perhaps Fishers sickness hindred the progress of it But now on the 15th of Ianuary the Parliament sat down by the Journals I find no other Bishops present but the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Winchester Lincoln Bath and Wells Landaffe and Carlisle There were also twelve Abbots present but upon what pretences the rest excused their attendance I do not know perhaps some made a difference between submitting to what was done and being active and concurring to make the change During the Session a Bishop preached every Sunday at Pauls-Cross and declared to the people That the Pope had no Authority at all in England In the two former Sessions the Bishops had preached that the general Council was above the Pope but now they struck a note higher This was done to let the people see what justice and reason was in the Acts that were then passing to which I now turn and shall next give an account of this great Session of Parliament which I shall put rather in the natural Method according to the matter of the Acts than in the order of time as they passed On the 9th of March a Bill came up from the Commons for dischargeing the Subjects of all dependance on the Court of Rome it was read the first time in the House of Lords the 13th of March and on the 14th was read the second time and Committed The Committee reported it on the 19th by which it appears there was no stiff nor long opposition and he that was likest to make it was both obnoxious and absent as will afterwards appear On the 19th it was read the third time and on the 20th the fourth time and then passed without any protestation Some Proviso's were added to it by the Lords to which the Commons agreed and so it was made ready for the Royal assent In the Preamble the intolerable exactions for Peter-pence Provisions Pensions and Bulls of all sorts are complained of which were contrary to all Laws and grounded only on the Popes Power of Dispensing which was Usurped But the King and the Lords and Commons within his own Realm had only power to consider how any of the Laws were to be Dispensed with or Abrogated and since the King was acknowledged the Supreme Head of the Church of England by the Prelates and Clergy in their Convocations Therefore it was Enacted that all Payments made to the Apostolick Chamber and all Provisions Bulls or Dispensations should from thenceforth cease But that all Dispensations or Licences for things that were not contrary to the Law of God but only to the Law of the Land should be granted within the Kingdom by and under the Seals of the two Arch-Bishops in their several Provinces who should not presume to grant any contrary to the Laws of Almighty God and should only grant such Licences as had been formerly in use to be granted but give no Licence for any new thing till it were first examined by the King and his Council whether such things might be dispensed with and that all Dispensations which were formerly taxed at or above 4 l. should be also confirmed under the Great-Seal Then many clauses follow about the Rates of Licences and the ways of procuring them It was also declared that they did not hereby intend to vary from Christ's Church about the Articles of the Catholick Faith of Christendom or in any other things declared by the Scriptures and the word of God necessary for their Salvation confirming withal the exemptions of Monasteries formerly granted by the Bishop of Rome exempting them still from the Arch-Bishops Visitations declaring that such Abbeys whose Elections were formerly confirmed by the Pope shall be now confirmed by the King who likewise shall give Commission under his Great-Seal for visiting them providing also that Licences and other Writs obtained from Rome before the 12 of March in that year should be valid and in force except they were contrary to the Laws of the Realm giving also to the King and his Council power to order and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges or the abuses of them which had been granted by the See of Rome The offenders against this Act were to be punished according to the Statutes of Provisors and Premunire This Act as it gave great ease to the Subject so it cut off that base trade of Indulgences about Divine Laws which had been so gainful to the Church of Rome but was of late fatal to it All in the Religious Houses saw their Priviledges now struck at since they were to be reformed as the King saw cause which put them in no small confusion Those that favoured the Reformation rejoyced at this Act not only because the Popes Power was rooted out but because the Faith that was to be adhered to was to be taken from those things which the Scriptures declared necessary to Salvation so that all their fears were now much qualified since the Scripture was to be the standard of the Catholick Faith On the same day that this Bill passed in the House of Lords another Bill was read for confirming the Succession to the Crown in the Issue of the Kings present Marriage with Queen Anne It was read the second time on the 21 of March and Committed It was reported on the 23th and read the third time and passed and sent down to the Commons who sent it back again to them on the 26th so speedily did this Bill go through both Houses without any opposition The Preamble of it was The distractions that had been in England about the Succession to the Crown which had occasioned the effusion of much Blood with many other mischiefs all which flowed from the want of a clear Decision of the true Title from which the Popes had Usurped a Power of investing such as pleased them in other Princes Kingdoms and Princes had often maintained such Donations for their other ends therefore to avoid the like
inconveniences the Kings former Marriage with the Princess Katharine is judged contrary to the Laws of God and void and of no effect and the Sentence passed by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury annulling it is confirmed and the Lady Katharine is thenceforth to be reputed only Princess Dowager and not Queen and the Marriage with Queen Annâ— is established and confirmed and Marriages within the degrees Prohibited by Moses which are enumerated in the Statute are declared to be unlawful according to the judgment of the Convocations of this Realm and of the most famous Universities and Learned men abroad any Dispensations to the contrary notwithstanding which are also declared null since contrary to the Laws of God and all that were Married within these degrees are appointed to be Divorced and the Children begotten in such Marriages were declared Illegitimate And all the Issue that should be between the King and the present Queen is declared Lawful and the Crown was to descend on his Issue Male by her or any other Wife or in default of Issue Male to the Issue Female by the Queen and in default of any such to the right Heirs of the Kings Highness for ever and any that after the 1st of May should maliciously divulge any thing to the slander of the Kings Marriage or of the Issue begotten in it were to be adjudged for misprision of Treason and to suffer Imprisonment at the Kings will and forfeit all their Goods and Chattels to him And if the Queen out-lived the King she is declared Regent till the Issue by her were of Age if a Son 18 and if a Daughter 16 years of Age and all the Kings Subjects were to Swear that they would maintain the Contents of this Act and whoever being required did refuse it was to be judged guilty of misprision of Treason and punished accordingly The Oath it seems was likewise agreed on in the House of Lords for the Form of it is set down in their Journal as follows Ye shall Swear to bear Faith Truth and Obedience alonely to the Kings Majesty and to his Heirs of his body of his most dear and entirely beloved lawful Wife Queen Anne begotten and to be begotten And further to the Heirs of our said Soveraign Lord according to the limitation in the Statute made for surety of his Succession in the Crown of this Realm mentioned and contained and not to any other within this Realm nor Forreign Authority or Potentate And in case any Oath be made or hath been made by you to any Person or Persons that then ye to repute the same as vain and annihilate And that to your cunning wit and uttermost of your Power without guile fraud or other undue means ye shall observe keep maintain and defend the said Act of Succession and all the whole Effects and Contents thereof and all other Acts and Statutes made in Confirmation or for Execution of the same or of any thing therein contained And this ye shall do against all manner of Persons of what Estate Dignity Degree or condition soever they be and in no wise to do or attempt nor to your power suffer to be done or attempted directly or indirectly any thing or things privily or appartly to the let hindrance damage or derogation thereof or of any part of the same by any manner of means or for any manner of pretence So help you God and all Saints and the holy Evangelists And thus was the Kings Marriage confirmed But when the Commons returned this Bill to the Lords they sent them another with it concerning the proceedings against Hereticks There had been complaints made formerly as was told before of the severe and intolerable proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts against Hereticks And on the 4th of Fâ—bruary the Commons sent up a complaint made by one Thomas Philips against the Bishop of London for using him cruelly in Prison upon the suspition of Heresie but the Lords doing nothing in it on the 1st of March the House of Commons sent some of their number to the Bishop requiring him to make answer to the complaints exhibited against him who acquainted the House of Lords with it the next day but as they had formerly laid aside the complaint as not worthy of their time so they all with one consent answered That it was not fit for any of the Peers to appear or answer at the Barr of the House of Commons Upon this the House of Commons finding they could do nothing in that particular case resolved to provide an effectual remedy for such abuses for the future And therefore sent up a Bill about the punishment of Hereticks which was read that day for the first time and the second and third time on the 27th and 28th in which it passed The Act was a repeal of the Statute of the 2d of Henry the 4th by which Bishops upon suspition of Heresie might commit any to Prison as was before told but in that Act there was no Declaration made what was Heresie except in the general words of what was contrary to Scriptures or Canonical Sanctions This was liable to great Ambiguity by which men were in much danger and not sufficiently instructed what was Heresie They also complained of their proceedings without Presentment or Accusation contrary to what was practised in all other cases even of Treason it self and many Canonical Sanctions had been established only by Popes without any Divine Precept therefore they repealed the Act of Henry the 4th but left the Statutes of Richard the 2d and Henry the 5th still in force with the following Regulation That Hereticks should be proceeded against upon Presentments by two Witnesses at least and then be Committed but brought to answer to their Enditements in open Court and if they were found guilty and would not abjure or were relapse to be adjudged to death the Kings Writ De Haeretico comburendo being first obtained It was also declared that none should be troubled upon any of the Popes Canons or Laws or for speaking or doing against them It was likewise provided that men Committed for Heresie might be Bailed It may easily be imagined how acceptable this Act was to the whole Nation since it was such an effectual limitation of the Ecclesiastical Power in one of the uneasiest parts of it and this Regulation of the Arbitrary proceedings of the Spiritual Courts was a particular blessing to all that favoured Reformation But as the Parliament was going on with these good Laws there came a Submission from the Clergy then sitting in Convocation to be passed in Parliament With what opposition it went through the two Houses of Convocation and the House of Commons is not known for as the Registers of the Convocation are burnt so it does not appear that there were any Journals kept in the House of Commons at that time On the 27th of March it was sent up to the Lords and since the Spiritual Lords had already consented to
the Bishop of Rome whom some called the Pope who had long darkned Gods word that it might serve his Pomp Glory Avarice Ambition and Tyranny both upon the Souls Bodies and Goods of all Christians excluding Christ out of the Rule of mans Soul and Princes out of their Dominions And had exacted in England great Sums by dreams and vanities and other Superstitious ways â—pon these reasons his Usurpations had been by Law put down in this Nation yet many of his Emissaries were still practising up and down the Kingdom and perswading people to acknowledg his pretended Authority Therefore every person so offending after the last of Iâ—ly next to come was to incur the pains of a Premunire and all Officers both Civil and Ecclesiastical were commanded to make enquiry about such offences under several penalties On the 12th of Iuly a Bill was brought in concerning Priviledges obtained from the See of Rome and was read the First time And on the 17th it was agreed to and sent down to the Commons who sent it up again the next day It bears that the Popes had during their Usurpation granted many Immunities to several Bodies and Societies in England which upon that Grant had been now long in use Therefore all these Bulls Breves and every thing depending on or flowing from them were declared void and of no force Yet all Marriages celebrated by vertue of them that were not otherwise contrary to the Law of God were declared good in Law and all Consecrations of Bishops by vertue of them were confirmed And for the future all who enjoyed any Priviledges by Bulls were to bring them in to the Chancery or to such persons as the King should appoint for that end And the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was Lawfully to grant anew the effects contained in them which â—rant was to pass under the great Seal and to be of full force in Law This struck at the Abbots Rights But they were glad to bear a Diminution of their Greatness so they might save the whole which now lay at stake By the Thirteenth Act they corrected an Abuse which had come in to evade the force of a Statute made in the Twenty First year of this King about the Residence of all Ecclesiastical persons in their Livings One qualification that did excuse from Residence was their staying at the University for the compleating of their Studies Now it was found that many dissolute Clergymen went and lived at the Universities not for their Studies but to be excused from serving their Cures So it was Enacted that none above the Age of Forty that were not either Heads of Houses or Publick Readers should have any Exemption from their Residence by vertue of that Clause in the former Act. And those under that Age should not have the Benefit of it except they were present at the Lectures and perform'd their Exercises in the Schools By another Act there was Provision made against the prejudice the Kings Heirs might receive before they were of Age by Parliaments held in their Non-Age That whatsoever Acts were made before they were Twenty Four years of Age they might at any time of their lives after that Repeal and Annul by their Letters Patents which should have equal force with a Repeal by Act of Parliament From these Acts it appears that the King was absolute Master both of the affections and fears of his Subjects when in a new Parliament called on a sudden and in a Session of six weeks from the 8th of Iune to the 18th of Iuly Acts of this Importance were passed without any Protest or publick Opposition But having now opened the business of the Parliament as it relates to the State I must next give an account of the Convocation which sate at this time and was very busie as appears by the Journal of the House of Lords in which this is given for a reason of many Adjournments because the Spiritual Lords were busie in the Convocation It sate down on the 9th of Iune according to Fullers Extract it being the Custom of all this Reign for that Court to meet two or three days after the Parliament Hither Cromwell came as the Kings Vicar-General But he was not yet Vice-Gerent For he sate next the Arch-Bishop but when he had that Dignity he sate above him Nor do I find him Stiled in any Writing Vice-gerent for some time after this though the Lord Herbert says he was made Vice-gerent the 18th of Iuly this year the same day in which the Parliament was Dissolved Latimer Bishop of Worcester preached the Latine Sermon on these words The Children of this World are wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light He was the most Celebrated Preacher of that time The simplicity and plainness of his matter with a serious and fervent Action that accompanied it being preferred to more learned and elaborate Composures On the 21st of Iune Cromwell moved that they would Confirm the Sentence of the Invalidity of the Kings Marriage with Queen Anne which was accordingly done by both Houses of Convocation But certainly Fuller was asleep when he wrote That Ten days before that the Arch-Bishop had passed the Sentence of Divorce on the day before the Queen was beheaded Whereas if he had considered this more fully he must have seen that the Queen was put to death a Month before this and was Divorced two days before she dyed Yet with this animadversion I must give him my thanks for his pains in copying out of the Journals of Convocation many remarkable things which had been otherwise irrecoverably lost On the 23d of Iune the lower House of Convocation sent to the upper House a Collection of many opinions that were then in the Realm which as they thought were abuses and errors worthy of special Reformation But they began this Representation with a Protestation That they intended not to do or speak any thing which might be unpleasant to the King whom they acknowledged their Supream Head and were resolved to obey his Commands renouncing the Popes usurp'd Authority with all his Laws and Inventions now extinguisht and abolisht and did addict themselves to Almighty God and his Laws and unto the King and the Laws made within this Kingdom There are Sixty Seven opinions set down and are either the Tenets of the Old Lollards or the New Reformers together with the Anabaptists opinions Besides all which they complained of many unsavory and indiscreet expressions which were either feigned on design to disgrace the New Preachers or were perhaps the extravagant Reflexions of some illiterate and injudicious persons who are apt upon all occasions by their heat and folly rather to prejudice than advance their party and affect some petulant jeers which they think witty and are perhaps well entertained by some others who though they are more judicious themselves yet imagining that such jests on the contrary opinions will take with the people do give them too much Encouragement Many of these
received it Laying Censures upon such as were present at the rest of that office and did not stay and Communicate For the Fifth it touched Cranmer to the quick for he was then Marryed The Scripture did in no place enjoyn the Celibate of the Clergy On the contrary Scripture speaks of their Wives and gives the Rules of their living with them And St. Paul in express words condemns all mens leaving their Wives without exception saying That the man hath not Power over his own body but the Wife In the Primitive Church though those that were in orders did not Marry yet such as were Marryed before Orders kept their Wives of which there were many Instances and when some moved in the Council of Nice that all that had been Marryed when they entred into Orders should put away their Wives it was rejected and ever since the Greek Churches have allowed their Priests to keep their Wives Nor was it ever commanded in the Western Church till the Popes began their Usurpation Therefore the prohibition of it being only grounded on the Papal Constitutions it was not reasonable to keep it up since that Authority on which it was built was now overthrown What was said concerning Auricular Confession I cannot so easily recover For though Cranmer argued three days against these Articles I can only gather the substance of his Arguments from what himself wrote on some of these Heads afterwards For nothing remains of what passed there but what is conveyed to us in the Journal which is short and defective On the 24th of May the Parliament was Prorogued to the 30th upon what reason it does not appear It was not to set any of the Bills backward for it was agreed that the Bills should continue in the State in which they were then till their next meeting When they met again on the 30th of May being Friday the Lord Chancellor intimated to them that not only the Spiritual Lords but the King himself had taken much pains to bring things to an agreement which was effected Therefore he moved in the Kings name that a Bill might be brought in for punishing such as offended against these Articles So the Lords appointed the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Ely and St. Davids and Doctor Petre a master of Chancery afterwards Secretary of State to draw one Bill and the Arch-Bishop of York the Bishop of Duresin and Winchester and Doctor Tregonnel another Master of Chancery to draw another Bill about it and to have them both ready and to offer them to the King by Sunday next But the Bill that was drawn by the Arch-Bishop of York and those with him was best liked yet it seems the Matter was long contested for it was not brought to the House before the 7th of Iune and then the Lord Chancellor offered it and it was read the first time On the 9th of Iune it had the second reading and on the 10th it was engrossed and read the third time But when it passed the King desired the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to go out of the House since he could not give his consent to it but he humbly excused himself for he thought he was bound in conscience to stay and vote against it It was sent down to the House of Commons where it met with no great opposition for on the 14th it was agreed to and sent up again And on the 28th it had the force of a Law by the Royal Assent The Title of it was an Act for abolishing Diversity of opinions in certain Articles concerning Christian Religion It is said in the Preamble that the King considering the blessed effects of union and the mischiefs of discord since there were many different opinions both among the Clergy and Laity about some points of Religion had called this Parliament and a Synod at the same time for removing these differences where six Articles were proposed and long debated by the Clergy And the King himself had come in person to the Parliament and Council and opened many things of high Learning and great knowledg about them And that he with the Assent of both Houses of Parliament had agreed on the following Articles First That in the Sacrament of the Altar after the Consecration there remained no Substance of Bread and Wine but under these forms the Natural Body and Blood of Christ were present Secondly That Communion in both kinds was not necessary to Salvation to all persons by the Law of God but that both the Flesh and Blood of Christ were together in each of the kinds Thirdly That Priests after the order of Priesthood might not Marry by the Law of God Fourthly That vows of Chastity ought to be observed by the Law of God Fifthly That the use of private Masses ought to be continued which as it was agreeable to Gods Law so men received great benefit by them Sixthly That Auricular Confession was expedient and necessary and ought to be retained in the Church The Parliament thanked the King for the pains he had taken in these Articles And Enacted that if any after the 12th of Iuly did speak preach or write against the first Article they were to be judged Hereticks and to be burnt without any abjuration and to forfeit their real and personal Estates to the King And those who preached or obstinately disputed against the other Articles were to be judged Felons and to suffer death as Felons without benefit of Clergy And those who either in word or writing spake against them were to be Prisoners during the Kings pleasure and forfeit their goods and Chattels to the King for the first time And if they offended so the second time they were to suffer as Felons All the Marriages of Priests are declared void and if any Priest did still keep any such woman whom he had so Marryed and lived familiarly with her as with his Wife he was to be judged a Felon And if a Priest lived carnally with any other woman he was upon the first Conviction to forfeit his Benefices Goods and Chattels and to be Imprisoned during the Kings pleasure and upon the second Conviction was to suffer as a Felon The women so offending were also to be punished in the same manner as the Priests and those who contemned or abstained from Confession or the Sacrament at the accustomed times for the first offence were to forfeit their Goods and Chattels and be Imprisoned and for the second were to be adjudged of Felony And for the Execution of this Act Commissions were to be issued out to all Arch-Bishops and Bishops and their Chancellors and Commissaries and such others in the several shires as the King should name to hold their Sessions quarterly or oftner and they were to proceed upon presentments and by a Jury Those Commissioners were to swear that they should execute their Commission indifferently without favour affection corruption or malice As Ecclesiastical Incumbents were to read this Act in their Churches once a
of Iuly a Bill was brought in for moderating the Statute of the six Articles in the Clauses that related to the marriage of the Priests or their Incontinency with other Women On the 17th it was agreed by the whole House without a contradictory vote and sent down to the Commons who on the 21th sent it up again By it the pains of Death were turned to forfeitures of their Goods and Chattels and the rents of their Ecclesiastical promotions to the King On the 20th of Iuly a Bill was brought in concerning a Declaration of the Christian Religion and was then read the first 2d and 3d time and passed without any opposition and sent down to the Commons who agreeing to it sent it up again the next day It contained that the King as Supream Head of the Church was taking much pains for an Union among all his Subjects in matters of Religion and for preventing the further progress of Heresie had appointed many of the Bishops and the most learned Divines to declare the principal Articles of the Christian Belief with the Ceremonies and way of Gods service to be observed That therefore a thing of that weight might not be rashly done or hasted through in this Session of Parliament but be done with that care which was requisite Therefore it was Enacted that whatsoever was determined by the Arch-Bishops Bishops and the other Divines now Commissionated for that effect or by any others appointed by the King or by the whole Clergy of England and published by the Kings Authority concerning the Christian Faith or the Ceremonies of the Church should be believed and obeyed by all the Kings Subjects as well as if the particulars so set forth had been ennumerated in this Act any Custom or Law to the Contrary notwithstanding To this a strange Proviso was added which destroyed the former Clause That nothing should be done or determined by the Authority of this Act which was contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom But whether this Proviso was added by the House of Commons or originally put into the Bill does not appear It was more likely it was put in at the first by the Kings Council for these contradictory Clauses raised the Prerogative higher and left it in the Judges power to determine which of the two should be followed by which all Ecclesiastical matters were to be brought under Tryals at Common Law for it was one of the great designs both of the Ministers and Lawyers at this time to bring all Ecclesiastical Matters to thâ— Cognizance of the Secular Judge But another Bill passed which seems a little odd concerning the circumstances of that time That whereas many Marriages had been annulled in the time of Popery upon the pretence of Precontracts or other degrees of kindred than those that were prohibited by the Law of God Therefore after a Marriage was consummated no pretence of any pre-contract or any degrees of kindred or alliance but those mentioned in the Law of God should be brought or made use of to annull it since these things had been oft pretended only to dissolve a Marriage when the parties grew weary of each other which was contrary to Gods Law Therefore it was Enacted that no pretence of precontract not consummated should be made use of to annull a Marriage duly solemnized and consummated and that no degrees of kindred not mentioned by the Law of God should be pleaded to annull a Marriage This Act gave great occasion of censuring the Kings former proceedings against Queen Anne Boleyn since that which was now condemned had been the pretence for dissolving his Marriage with her Others thought the King did it on design to remove that Impediment out of the way of the Lady Elizabeth's succeeding to the Crown since that judgment upon which she was Illegitimated was now indirectly censured And that other branch of the Act for taking away all prohibitions of Marriages within any degrees but those forbidden in Scripture was to make way for the Kings Marriage with Katherine Howard who was Cousin German to Queen Anne Boleyn for that was one of the prohibited degrees by the Canon Law The Province of Canterbury offered a Subsidy of four shillings in the pound of all Ecclesiastical preferments to be payed in two years and in that acknowledgment of the great liberty they enjoyed by being delivered from the Usurpations of the Bishops of Rome and in recompencâ— the great charges of the King had been at and was still to be at in building Havens Bullwarks and other Forts for the defence of his Coasts and the security of his Subjects This was confirmed in Parliament But that did not satisfie the King who had husbanded the money that came in by the sale of Abbey Lands so ill that now he wanted money and was forced to aske a subsidy for his Marriage of the Parliament this was obtained with great difficulty For it was said That if the King was already in want after so vast an income especially being engaged in no Warr there would be no end of his necessities nor could it be possible for them to supply them But it was answered that the King had laid out a great Treasure in fortifying the Coast and though he was then in no visible Warr yet the charge he was at in keeping up the Warr beyond Sea was equal to the expence of a Warr and much more to the advantage of his people who were kept in peace and plenty This obtained a Tenth and four 15ths After the passing of all these Bills and many others that concerned the publick with several other Bills of Attaindor of some that favoured the Popes Interests or Corresponded with Cardinal Pool which shall be mentioned in another place the King sent in a General Pardon with the Ordinary Exceptions and in particular excepted Cromwel the Countess of Sarum with many others then in person Some of them were put in for opposing the Kings Supremacy and others for transgressing the Statute of the six Articles On the 24th of Iuly the Parliament was dissolved And now Cromwel who had been six weeks a Prisoner was brought to his Execution He had used all the endeavours he could for his own preservation Once he wrote to the King in such melting terms that he made the Letter to be thrice read and seemed touched with it But the charms of Katharine Howard and the endeavours of the Duke of Norfolk and the Bishop of Winchester at length prevailed So a Warrant was sent to cut off his Head on the 28th of Iuly at Tower-hill When he was brought to the Scaffold his kindness to his Son made him very cautious in what he said he declined the purging of himself but said he was by Law condemned to die and thanked God for bringing him to that death for his offences He acknowledged his Sins against God and his offences against his Prince who had raised him from a base degree
have given to the Reformation born down this Proposition and turned all the Kings Bounty and Foundations another way These new Foundations gave some credit to the Kings proceedings and made the Suppression of Chantries and Chappels go on more smoothly But those of the Roman party beyond Sea censured this as they had done all the rest of the Kings Actings They said it was but a slight Restitution of a small part of the goods of which he had robbed the Church And they complained of the Kings encroaching on the Spiritual Jurisdiction of the Church by dismembring Dioceses and removing Churches from one Jurisdiction to another To this it was answered that the necessities which their practices put on the King both to â—ortifie his Coast and Dominions to send money beâ—ond Sea for keeping the War at a distance from himself and to secure his quiet at home by easie grants of these Lands made him that he could not do all that he intended And for the Division of Dioceses many things were brought from the Roman Law to shew That the Division of the Ecclesiastical â—urisdiction whether of Patriarches Primates Metropolitans or Bishops was Regulated by the Emperors of which the Ancient Councils always approved And in England when the Bishoprick of Lincoln being judged of too great an Extent the Bishoprick of Ely was taken out of it it was done only by the King with the consent of his Clergy and Nobles Pope Nicolas indeed officiously intruded himself into that matter by sending afterwards a Confirmation of that which was done But that was one of the great Arts of the Papacy to offer Confirmations of things that were done without the Popes For these being easily received by them that thought of nothing more than to give the better countenance to their own Acts the Popes afterwards founded a Right on these Confirmations The very receiving of them was pretended to be an acknowledgment of a Title in the Pope And the matter was so artificially managed that Princes were noozed into some approbation of such a pretence before they were aware of it And then the Authority of the canon-Canon-Law prevailing Maxims were laid down in it by which the most tacite and inconsiderate Acts of Princes were construed to such senses as still advanced the greatness of the Papal pretensions This business of the new Foundations being thus setled the matters of the Church were now put in a method and the Bishops Book was the standard of Religion So that whatsoever was not agreeable to that was judged Heretical whether it leaned to the one side or the other But it seems that the King by some secret Order had chained up the party which was going on in the Execution of the Statute of the six Articles that they should not proceed capitally Thus matters went this year and with this the Series of the History of the Reformation made by this King ends for it was now digested and formed into a Body What followed was not in a Thred but now and then some remarkable things were done sometimes in favour of the one and sometimes of the other party For after Cromwel fell the King did not go on so steadily in any thing as he had done formerly Cromwel had an Ascendant over him which after Cardinal Wolseys fall none besides himself ever had They knew how to manage the Kings uneasie and imperious humor But now none had such a Power over him The Duke of Norfolk was rich and brave and made his Court well but had not so great a Genius so that the King did rather trust and fear than esteem him Gardiner was only a Tool and being of an abject Spirit was employed but not at all reverenced by the King Cranmer retained always his candor and simplicity and was a great Prelate but neither a good Courtier nor a States-man And the King esteemed him more for his vertues than for his dexterity and cunning in business So that now the King was left wholly to himself and being extream humorous and impatiâ—nt there were more errors committed in the last years of his Government than had been for his whole Reign before France forsook him Scotland made War upon him which might have been fatal to him if their King had not dyed in the beginning of it leaving an Infant Princess but a few days old behind him And though the Emperor made peace with him yet it was but an hollow agreement Of all which I shall give but slender hints in the rest of this Book and rather open some few particulars than pursue a Continued Narration since the matter of my Work failes me In May the 33d year of the Kings Reign a new Impression of the Bible was finished and the King by Proclamation Required all Curates and Parishioners of every Town and Parish to provide themselves a Copy of it before All-Hallowtide under the penalty of forfeiting forty Shillings a month after that till they had one He declared that he set it forth to the end that his people might by Reading it perceive the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God Observe his Commandments obey the Laws and their Prince and live in Godly Charity among themselves But that the King did not thereby intend that his Subjects should presume to expound or take arguments from Scripture nor disturb Divine Service by reading it when Mass was Celebrating but should read it meekly humbly and reverently for their Instruction Edification and Amendment There was also care taken so to Regulate the Prices of the Bibles that there should be no exacting on the Subjects in the Sale of them And Bonner seeing the Kings mind was set on this ordered six of these great Bibles to be set up in several places of St. Pauls that all persons who could read might at all times have free access to them And upon the Pillars to which these Bibles were chained an Exhortation was set up admonishing all that came thither to read That they should lay aside vain-glory hypocrisie and all other corrupt affections and bring with them Discretion good Intentions Charity Reverence and a quiet behaviour for the Edification of their own Souls but not to draw multitudes about them nor to make Expositions of what they read nor to read aloud nor make noise in time of Divine Service nor enter into Disputes concerning it But people came generally to hear the Scriptures read and such as could read and had clear voices came often thither with great Crowds about them And many set their Children to School that they might carry them with them to St. Pauls and hear them read the Scriptures Nor could the people be hindred from entring into disputes about some places for who could hear the words of the Institution of the Sacrament Drink ye all of it or St. Pauls Discourse against worship in an unknown tongue and not from thence be led to consider that the people were deprived of the Cup which by
to the Commons with words to be put in or put out of it On the 6th the Commons sent it up with some alterations And on the 8th the Lords sent it down again to the Commons where it lay till the 17th and then it was sent up with their agreement And the Kings Assent was given by his Letters Patents on the 29th of March. The Preamble was That whereas untrue accusations and presentments might be maliciously contrived against the Kings Subjects and kept secret till a time were espied to have them by malice convicted Therefore it was Enacted That none should be Endited but upon a presentment by the Oaths of twelve men to at least three of the Commissioners appointed by the King and that none should be Imprisoned but upon an Enditement except by a special Warrant from the King and that all Presentments should be made within one year after the Offences were committed and if words were uttered in a Sermon contrary to the Statute they must be complained of within forty dayes unless a just cause were given why it could not be so soon Admittiâ—g also the parties Endited to all such Challenges as they might have in any other case of Felony This Act has clearly a Relation to the Conspiracies mentioned the former year both against the Arch-Bishop and some of the Kings Servants Another Act passed continuing some former Acts for revising the Canon-Law and for drawing up such a body of Ecclesiastical Laws as should have Authority in England This Cranmer pressed often with great vehemence and to shew the necessity of it drew out a short Extract of some passages in the Canon-Law which the Reader will find in the Collection to shew how undecent a thing it was to let a Volume in which such Laws were be studyed or considered any longer in England Therefore he was earnest to have such a Collection of Ecclesiastical Laws made as might regulate the Spiritual Courts But it was found more for the greatness of the Prerogative and the Authority of the Civil Courts to keep that undetermined so he could never obtain his desire during this Kings Reign Another Act passed in this Parliament for the remission of a Loan of Money which the King had raised This is almost copied out of an Act to the same effect that passed in the twenty first year of the Kings Reign with this addition That by this Act those who had got payment either in whole or in part of the Sums so lent the King were to repay it back to the Exchequer All business being finished and a general pardon passed with the ordinary exceptions of some Crimes among which Heresie is one the Parliament was Prorogued on the 29th of March to the 4th of November The King had now a War both with France and Scotland upon him And therefore to prepare for it he both enhanced the value of Money and embased it for which he that writes his vindication gives this for the reason That the Coin being generally embased all over Europe he was forced to do it lest otherwise all the Money should have gone out of the Kingdom He resolved to begin the War with Scotland and sent an Army by Sea thither under the command of the Earl of Hartford afterwards Duke of Somerset who landing at Grantham a little above Leith burnt and spoiled Leith and Edenburgh in which they found more riches than they thought could possibly have been there and they went through the Countrey burning and spoiling it every-where till they came to Berwick But they did too much if they intended to gain the hearts of that people and too little if they intended to subdue them For as they besieged not the Castle of Edinburgh which would have cost them more time and trouble so they did not fortifie Leith nor leave a Garrison in it which was such an inexcusable Omission that it seems their Counsels were very weak and ill laid For Leith being fortified and a Fleet kept going between it and Berwick or Tinmouth the Trade of the Kingdom must have been quite stopt Edinburgh ruined the Intercourse between France and them cut off and the whole Kingdom forced to submit to the King But the spoils this Army made had no other effect but to enrage the Kingdom and unite them so entirely to the French Interests that when the Eaâ—l of Lâ—nnâ—x was sent down by the King to the Western parts of Scotland where his Power lay he could get none to follow him And the Governor of Dunbritton Castle though his own Lieutenant would not deliver that Castle to him when he understood he was to put it in the King of Englands hands but drove him out others say he â—â—ed away of himself else he had been taken Prisoner The King was now to cross the Seas but before he went he studied to settle the matters of Religion so that both Parties might have some content Audley the Chancellor dying he made the Lord Wriothesley that had been Secretary and was of the Popish Party Lord Chancellor but made Sir William Petre that was Cranmers great friend Secretary of State He also committed the Government of the Kingdom in his absence to the Queen to whom he joyned the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellor the Earl of Hartford and Secretary Petre. And if there was need of any Force to be raised he appointed the Earl of Hartford his Lieutenant under whose Government the Reformers needed not fear any thing But he did another Act that did wonderfully please that whole Party which was the Translating of the Prayers for the Processions and Litaâ—ies into the English tongue This was sent to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the 11th of Iune with an Order that it should be used over all his Province as the Reader will find in the Collection This was not only very acceptable to that Party because of the thing it self but it gave them hope that the King was again opening his ears to motions for Reformation to which they had been shut now about six years And therefore they looked that more things of that nature would quickly follow And as these Prayers werâ— now set out in English so they doubted not but there being the same reason to put all the other Offices in the vulgar tongue they would prevail for that too Things being thus setled at home the King having sent his Forces over before him crossed the Seas with much pomp the Sails of his Ship being of Cloth of Gold He Landed at Calais the 14th of Iuly The Emperor pressed his marching straight to Paris But he thought it of more importance to take Bulloign and after two months Siege it was surrendred to him into which he made his Entry with great Triumph on the 18th of September But the Emperor having thus engaged those two Crowns in a War and designing while they should fight it out to make himself Master of Gâ—rmanâ— concluded a Treaty
Patents whether that the Premisses or any part clause or matter thereof shall be observed obeyed executed and take place and effect as an Act and Statute of this present Parliament or not So that if his Highness by his said Letters Patents before the expiration of the times above-limited thereby do declare his pleasure to be That the Premisses or any part clause or matter thereof shall not be put in execution observed continued nor obeyed in that case all the said Premisses or such part clause or matter as the King's Highness so shall refuse disaffirm or not ratifie shall stand and be from henceforth utterly void and of none effect And in case that the King's Highness before the expiration of the times afore-prefixed do declare by his said Letters Patents his pleasure and determination to be that the said Premisses or every clause sentence and part thereof that is to say the whole or such part thereof as the King's Highness so shall affirm accept and ratifie shall in all points stand remain abide and be put in due and effectual execution according to the purport tenour effect and true meaning of the same and to stand and be from henceforth forever after as firm stedfast and available in the Law as the same had been fully and perfectly established enacted and confirmed to be in every part thereof immediately wholly and entirely executed in like manner form and effect as other Acts and Laws The which being fully and determinately made ordained and enacted in this present Parliament And if that upon the foresaid reasonable amicable and charitable ways and means by the King's Highness to be experimented moved or compounded or otherwise approved it shall and may appear or be seen unto his Grace that this Realm shall be continually burdened and charged with this and such other intolerable Exactions and Demands as heretofore it hath been And that thereupon for continuance of the same our said Holy Father the Pope or any of his Successors or the Court of Rome will or do or cause to be done at any time hereafter so as is above rehearsed unjustly uncharitably and unreasonably vex inquiet molest trouble or grieve our said Sovereign Lord his Heirs or Successors Kings of England or any of his or their Spiritual or Lay-Subjects or this his Realm by Excommunication Excomengement Interdiction or by any other Process Censures Compulsories Ways or Means Be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors Kings of England and all his Spiritual and Lay-Subjects of the same without any scruples of Conscience shall and may lawfully to the honour of Almighty God the encrease and continuance of vertue and good example within this Realm the said Censures Excommunications Interdictions Compulsories or any of them notwithstanding minister or cause to be ministred throughout this said Realm and all other the Dominions or Territories belonging or appertaining thereunto All and all manner Sacraments Sacramentals Ceremonies or other Divine Services of the Holy Church or any other thing or things necessary for the health of the Soul of Mankind as they heretofore at any time or times have been vertuously used or accustomed to do within the same and that no manner such Censures Excommunications Interdictions or any other Process or Compulsories shall be by any of the Prelates or other Spiritual Fathers of this Region nor by any of their Ministers or Substitutes be at any time or times hereafter published executed nor divulged nor suffered to be published executed or divulged in any manner of ways Cui quidem Billae praedictae ad plenum intellectae per dictum Dominum Regem ex assensu Autoritate Parliamenti praedicti taliter est Responsum Le Roy le Volt Soit Baille aux comunes A cest Bille Les comunes sont assentes MEmorand quod nono die Julii Anno Regni Regis Henrici vicesimo quinto idem Dominus Rex per Literas suas Patentes sub magno sigillo suo sigillat Actum praedictum ratificavit confirmavit actui illo assensum suum regium dedit prout per easdem Literas Patentes cujus tenor sequitur in haec verba magis apte constat Here follows the King's Ratification in which the Act is again recited and ratified XLII The King 's last Letter to the Pope A Duplicate To the Pope's Holiness 1532. AFter most humble commendations and most devout kissing of your blessed Feet Albeit that we have hitherto differred to make answer to those Letters dated at Bonony the 7 th day of October which Letters of late were delivered unto us by Paul of Cassali Yet when they appear to be written for this Cause that we deeply considering the Contents of the same should provide for the tranquillity of our own Conscience and should purge such Scruples and Doubts conceived of our Cause of Matrimony We could neither neglect those Letters sent for such a purpose nor after that we had diligently examined and perpended the effects of the same which we did very diligently noting conferring and revolving every thing in them contained with deep study of mind pretermit ne leave to answer unto them For sith that your Holiness seemeth to go about that thing chiefly which is to vanquish those Doubts and to take away inquietations which daily do prick our Conscience insomuch as it doth appear at the first sight to be done of Zeal Love and Piety we therefore do thank you of your good will Howbeit sith it is not performed in Deed that ye pretend we have thought it expedient to require your Holiness to provide us other Remedies wherefore forasmuch as your Holiness would vouchsafe to write unto us concerning this Matter we heartily thank you greatly lamenting also both the chance of your Holiness and also ours unto whom both twain it hath chanced in so high a matter of so great moment to be frustrated and deceived that is to say That your Holiness not being instructed nor having knowledg of the Matter of your self should be compelled to hang upon the Judgment of others and so put forth and make answers gathered of other Men being variable and repugnant among themselves And that we being so long sick and exagitate with this same Sore should so long time in vain look for Remedy which when we have augmented our aegritude and distress by delay and protracting of time ye do so cruciate the Patient and Afflicted as who seeth it should much avail to protract the Cause and thorough vain hope of the end of our desire to lead us whither ye will But to speak plainly to your Holiness Forasmuch as we have suffered many Injuries which with great difficulty we do sustain and digest albeit that among all things passed by your Holiness some cannot be laid alledged nor objected against your Holiness yet in many of them some default appeareth to be in you which I would to God we could so diminish as it might appear no default
other Enormities so that good and devout Persons be much offended therewith Wherefore I require and command you to declare to such as keepeth Ale-houses or Taverns within your Parishes that at such times from henceforth they shall not suffer in their Houses any such unlawful and ungodly Assemblies neither receive such Persons to Bowling and Drinking at such Seasons into their Houses under pain of Excommunication and otherwise to be punished for their so doing according to the Laws in that behalf Item That all Curats shall declare openly in the Pulpit twice every Quarter to their Parishioners the seven deadly Sins and the Ten Commandments so that the People thereby may not only learn how to obey honour and serve God their Prince Superiors and Parents but also to avoid and eschew Sin and Vice and to live vertuously following God's Commandments and his Laws Item That where I am credily informed that certain Priests of my Diocess and Jurisdiction doth use to go in an unseemly and unpriestly habit and apparel with unlawful tonsures carrying and having upon them also Armour and Weapons contrary to all wholsome and godly Laws and Ordinances more like Persons of the Lay than of the Clergy which may and doth minister occasion to light Persons and to Persons unknown where such Persons come in place to be more licentious both of their Communication and also of their Acts to the great slander of the Clergy Wherefore in the avoiding of such slander and obloquy hereafter I admonish and command all and singular Parsons Vicars Curats and all other Priests whatsoever they be dwelling or inhabiting or hereafter shall dwell and inhabit within my Diocess and Jurisdiction That from henceforth they and every of them do use and wear meet convenient and decent Apparel with their Trussures accordingly whereby they may be known at all times from Lay-People and to be of the Clergy as they intend to avoid and eschew the penalty of the Laws ordained in that behalf Item That no Parson Vicar or other Beneficed Man having Cure within my Diocess and Jurisdiction do suffer any Priest to say Mass or to have any Service within their Cure unless they first give knowledg and present them with the Letters of their Orders to me as Ordinary or to my Officers deputed in that behalf and the said Priest so presented shall be by me or my said Officers found able and sufficient thereunto Item That every Curat not only in his Preachings open Sermons and Collations made to the People but also at all other times necessary do perswade exhort and monish the People being of his Cure whatsoever they be to beware and abstain from Swearing and blaspheming of the Holy Name of God or any part of Christ's most precious Body or Blood And likewise to beware and abstain from Cursing Banning Chiding Scolding Backbiting Slandering and Lying And also from talking and jangling in the Church specially in time of Divine-Service or Sermon-time And semblably to abstain from Adultery Fornication Gluttony and Drunkenness And if they or any of them be found notoriously faulty or infamed upon any of the said Crimes and Offences then to detect them at every Visitation or sooner as the case shall require so that the said Offenders may be corrected and reformed to the example of other Item That no Priest from henceforth do use any unlawful Games or frequently use any Ale-houses Taverns or any suspect place at any unlawful times or any light Company but only for their Necessaries as they and any of them will avoid the danger that may ensue thereupon Item That in the Plague-time no dead Bodies or Corpses be brought into the Church except it be brought streight to the Grave and immediately buried whereby the People may the rather avoid infection Item That no Parsons Vicars nor Curats permit or suffer any manner of common Plays Games or Interludes to be played setforth or declared within their Churches or Chappels contrary to this our forbidding and Commandment that then you or either of you in whose Churches or Chappels any such Games Plays or Interludes shall be so used shall immediately thereupon make relation of the names of the Person or Persons so obstinately and disobediently using themselves unto me my Chancellor or other my Officers to the intent that they may be therefore reformed and punished according to the Laws Item That all Priests shall take this order when they Preach first They shall not rehearse no Sermons made by other Men within this 200 or 300 Years but when they shall preach they shall take the Gospel or Epistle of the day which they shall recite and declare to the people plainly distinctly and sincerely from the beginning to the end thereof and then to desire the people to pray with them for Grace after the usage of the Church of England now used And that done we will that every Preacher shall declare the same Gospel or Epistle or both from the beginning not after his own Mind but after the Mind of some Catholick Doctor allowed in this Church of England and in no wise to affirm any thing but that which he shall be ready always to shew in some Ancient Writer and in no wise to make rehearsal of any Opinion not allowed for the intent to reprove the same but to leave that for those that are and shall be admitted to preach by the King's Majesty or by me the Bishop of London your Ordinary or by mine authority In the which Epistle and Gospel ye shall note and consider diligently certain godly and devout places which may incense and stir the Hearers to obedience of good Works and Prayers And in case any notable Ceremony used to be observed in the Church shall happen that day when any preaching shall be appointed it shall be meet and convenient that the Preacher declare and set forth to the people the true meaning of the same in such sort that the people may perceive thereby what is meant and signified by such Ceremony and also know how to use and accept it to their own edifying Furthermore That no Preacher shall rage or rail in his Sermon but coldly discreetly and charitably open declare and set forth the excellency of Vertue and to suppress the abomination of Sin and Vice every Preacher shall if time and occasion will serve instruct and teach his Audience what Prayer is used in the Church that day and for what thing the Church prayeth specially that day to the intent that all the people may pray together with one heart for the same and as occasion will serve to shew and declare to the people what the Sacraments signifieth what strength and efficacy they be of how every Man should use them reverently and devoutly at the receiving of them And to declare wherefore the Mass is so highly to be esteemed and honoured with all the Circumstances appertaining to the same Let every Preacher beware that he do not feed his Audience with any Fable
perfectly and truly repentant and contrite of all their sins before committed and also perfectly and constantly confessing and believing all the Articles of our faith according as it was mentioned in the Article before or else not And Finally if they shall also have firm credence and trust in the promise of God adjoyned to the said Sacrament that is to say that in and by this said Sacrament which they shall receive God the Father giveth unto them for his Son Jesus Christs sake remission of all their sins and the Grace of the Holy Ghost whereby they be newly regenerated and made the very Children of God according to the saying of Christ and his Apostle St. Peter Paenitentiam agite Baptizetur vnusquisque vestrum in nomine Iesu Christi in remissionem peccatorum accipietis donum Spiritus Sancti and according also to the saying of St. Paul ad Titum 3. non ex operibus justitiae quae fecimus nos sed secundum suam misericordiam salvos nos fecit per lavacrum regenerationis renovationis Spiritus Sancti quem effudit in nos opulenter per Iesum Christum servatorem nostrum ut justificati illius gratia haeredes efficiamur juxta spem vitae aeternae The Sacrament of Penance THirdly Concerning the Sacrament of Pennance We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their Spiritual charge that they ought and must most constantly believe that that Sacrament was instituted of Christ in the New Testament as a thing so necessary for mans Salvation that no man which after his Baptism is fallen again and hath committed deadly sin can without the same be saved or attain everlasting Life Item That like-as such men which after Baptism do fall again into sin if they do not Pennance in this Life shall undoubtedly be damned even so whensoever the same men shall convert themselves from the said naughty Life and do such Pennance for the same as Christ requireth of them they shall without doubt attain remission of their sins and shall be saved Item That this Sacrament of perfect Pennance which Christ requireth of such manner of persons consisteth of three parts that is to say Contrition Confession with the amendment of the former Life and a new obedient reconciliation unto the Laws and will of God that is to say exteriour Acts in works of Charity according as they be commanded of God which be called in Scripture fructus digni Paenitentia Furthermore as touching Contrition which is the first part We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their Spiritual charge that the said Contrâ—tion consisteth in two special parts which must always be conjoined together and cannot be dissevered that is to say the penitent and contrite man must first knowledg the filthiness and abomination of his own sin whereunto he is brought by hearing and considering of the will of God declared in his Laws and feeling and perceiving in his own conscience that God is angry and displeased with him for the same he must also conceive not only great sorrow and inward shame that he hath so grievously offended God but also great fear of Gods displeasure towards him considering he hath no works or merits of his own which he may worthily lay before God as sufficient satisfaction for his sins which done then afterwards with this fear shame and sorrow must needs succeed and be conjoyned The second part viz. a certain faith trust and confidence of the mercy and goodness of God whereby the penitent must conceive certain hope and faith that God will forgive him his sins and repute him justified and of the number of his Elect children not for the worthiness of any merit or work done by the penitent but for the only merits of the blood and passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Item That this certain faith and hope is gotten and also confirmed and made more strong by the applying of Christs words and promises of his grace and favour contained in his Gospel and the Sacraments instituted by him in the new Testament and therefore to attain this certain faith the second part of Pennance is necessary that is to say Confession to a Priest if it may be had for the Absolution given by the Priest was institute of Christ to apply the promises of Gods grace and favour to the Penitent Wherefore as touching Confession We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us to their spiritual charge that they ought and must certainly believe that the words of Absolution pronounced by the Priest be spoken by the Authority given to him by Christ in the Gospel Item That they ought and must give no less faith and credence to the same words of Absolution so pronounced by the Ministers of the Church than they would give unto the very words and voyce of God himself if he should speak unto us out of Heaven according to the saying of Christ Quorum remiseritis peccata c. qui vos audit me audit Item That in no ways they do contemn this Auricular Confession which is made unto the Ministers of the Church but that they ought to repute the same a verry expedient and necessary mean whereby they may require and ask this Absolution at the Priests hands at such time as they shall find their consciences grieved with mortal sin and have occasion so to do to the intent they may thereby attain certain comfort and consolation of their consciences As touching the third part of Penance We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us to their spiritual charge that although Christ and his death be the sufficient oblation sacrifice satisfaction and recompence for the which God the Father forgiveth and remitteth to all sinners not only their sin but also Eternal pain due for the same yet all men truly penitent contrite and confessed must needs also bring forth the fruits of Penance that is to say Prayer Fasting Almsdeeds and must make Restitution or Satisfaction in will and deed to their neighbour in such things as they have done them wrong and injury in and also must do all other good works of mercy and charity and express their obedient will in the executing and fulfilling of Gods Commandments outwardly when time power and occasion shall be Ministred unto them or else they shall never be saved for this is the express precept and commandment of God Agite fructus dignos paenitentia and St. Paul saith Debitores sumus and in another place he saith Castigo corpus meum in servitutem redigo Item That these precepts and works of Charity be necessary works to our Salvation and God necessarily requireth that every penitent man shall perform the same whensoever time power and occasion shall be ministred unto him so to do Item That by Penance and such good
18. v. 16. Lev. 20.21 And in the New Mat. 14.4 1 Cor. 5. â— Lib. 4 to cont Marcionâ—â— The Authorities of Popes a ad omnes Galâ—iâ—e Episcopos b 30. Quaest. 3. cap. Pitanâ—m c De Pres. cap. cum in juventutem and Counciâ—s Can. 2. Chap. 5. 〈◊〉 61. Chap. 5. a And the Greek In 20. Levit. b Homil. 71. on 22. Mat. c Epist. ad Diodor. On Levit. 18. and 20. And the Latine Fathers a Lib. 8. Ep. 66. b Cont. Hâ—â—vidium c Cont. Faâ—st chap. 8 9 10. Quaest. 64. in Lev. Ad Bonifac Lib. 3. chap. 4. Lib. 15. de Civ Dâ—i chap. 16. And of the Modern Writers In Epist. ad Pium Fratâ—em e On 18. Lev. g Epist. ad Arch. Rotomag Epis. Sag. f Lib. 2. de Sacram. p. 2. chap. 5. Art 2. h Epist. 240. The Schoolmen 2 dâ— 2 dae Quaest. 154. art 9. In Tertiam Quaest. 54. art 3. In 4tam. dist 40. Q. 3. and 4. And Canonists Marriage compleated by Consent Violent presumptions of the Consummation of Prince Artâ—â—r's Marriage The Popes Dispensation of no force In Quodiâ— Lib. 4. Art 13. in 4 tam dist 15. Q. 3. art 2. Sâ—p Cap. Conjunctioniâ— 35. Q. 2. 3. Sup. Cap. Literas de Rest. Spons Cap. ad Audien Spousal Several Bishops refuse to submit to the Popes Decrees The Authority of Tradition The Arguments for the Marriage 1529. The Anwers made to h ese 1531. The Queen still intractable Hall A Session of Parliament Morâ— Convocation The whole Clergy sued in a Premâ—nire The Prerogative of the Kings of England in Ecclesiastical affairs The Encroachment of the Papacy Mat. Paris The Laws made against them 25 Edw. 1st repeated in the Stat. of Provisors 25. Edw. 3d. 25. Edward 3d. Statute of Provisors 27. Edward 3d. cap. 1st 38. Edward 3d. cap. 1st 3. Richard 2d cap. 3d. 12 Richard 2d cap. 15. 16. Richard 2d cap. 5. 2. Hen. 4. cap. 4. 6. Henry 4. cap. 1st 7. Hen. 4. cap. 6.8 17. Hen. 4. cap. 8. 4. Hen. 5. cap. 4. Ex MSS. D Petyt 1530. Reg. Chicâ—el Fol. 39. Collect. Numb 37. 1531. And to the King and Parliament Collect. Numb 38. Collect. Numb 39. But to no purpose Collect. Numb 40. The Clergy excuse themselves Yet they Compound And acknowledge the King Supreme Head of the Church of England Lord Heâ—bert Antiquit. Britanniae in vita Warham Printed in the Cabala The Commons desire to be included in the King's Pardon Hall Which thâ— King afterwards grants One Attainâ—â—ed for Poisoning 22. Hen. 8 Act. 16. Lord Herbert The King leaves the Queen A disorder among the Clergy of London about the Subsidy Hall The Pope falls off to the French Faction A Match projected between the Pope's Neece and the Duke of Orleance The Emperor is engaged in a War with â—he Turk 1532. The Parliament complains of the Ecclesiastical Courts Hall But reject a Bill about Wards The Commons Petition that they may be Dissolved 1532. The King's Answer An Act against Annates Collect. Numb 41. Parl. Rolls The Pope writes to the King about the Queens Appeal L. Herbert Collect. Numb 42. A Dispatch of the King to the Pope Sir Edward Karne sent to Rome His Negotiation there taken from the Original Letters Cott. lib. Viteli B. 13. The Cardinal of Ravenna corrupted by Bribes Collect. Numb 43. Collect. Numb 44. Collect. Numb 45. A Bull for erecting new Bishopricks The Pope desires the King would submit to him Collect. Numb 46. A Session of Parl. One moves for bringing the Queen to Court At which the King is offended A Subsidy is voted The King remits the Oaths which the Clergy swore to be considered by the Commons Their Oath to the Pope Their Oath to the King More laid down his Office An Enterveiw with the French King Eliot sent to Rome with Instructions Cott. Lib. Vil. B. 13. The King Married Anne Boâ—eyn Nov. 14. Cowper Holinsâ—ies and Sanders An enterview between Pope and Emperor Some overtures about the Divorce Lord Herbert 1533. A Session of Parliament An Act against Appeals to Rome 24. Hen. 8. Act 22. 1533. Warhams Death Aug. 23. The King resolves to promote Cranmer Fox Cranmers Bulls from Rome His Protestation about his Oath to the Pope Antiq. Brit. iâ— vita Cranmâ—â— 1532. New Endeavours to make the Queen submit But in vain 1533. Cranmer proceeds to a Sentence of Divorce taken from the Originals Cott. lib. Otho C. 1â— Collect. Numb 47. The Censures past at that time Cott. lib. Otho C. 10. The Pope unites himself to the French King And condemns the Kings proceedings in England Queen Elizabeth Born Sâ—p 7. An Interview between the Pope and Frâ—nch King at Marsâ—illâ—s The Pope promises to give Sentence for the King of England's Divorce Fidel. serv. Infidâ— subdit Responsio Bzovius The French King prevails with the King of England to submit to the Pope Which was well received at Rome Hist. Council of Trent by Padre Paule But the Imperialists opposed it 1531. And with great preparation procure a sentence against the King The King resolves to abolish the Popes Power in England Which had been much disputed there 1532. â—elerine Inglese Hall The Arguments upon which it was rejected 1533. 1534. The Arguments for the Kings Supremacy From the old Testament 1533. And the New And the Practises of the primitive Church And from Reason And from the Laws of England 1534. The Qualification of that Supremacy Necessary Erudition upon the Sacrament of Orders The necessity of extirpating the Popes Power Pains taken to satisfie Fisher about it The Origiâ—nal is in the Cott. lib. 〈◊〉 C. 10. Journal Procer The Act for taking away the Popes Power It is the Act 21 in the Statute Book 27 in the Record and 8 in the Journal The judgments past on that Act. Act about the Succession to the Crown 22 in the Statute Books 34 in the Reâ—ord 26 in the Journal The Oath about the Succesâ—ion Journal Procer Act about punishing Hereticks 14 in the Stâ—tute Book 33 in the Record 31 in the Journal The submission made by the Clergy to the King 19 in the Statute Book 25 in the Record Journal Procâ—r 〈…〉 26 in the Record Collect. â—umb 48. The Act about the Maid of Kâ—nt and her Complices 12 in Statute Book 31 in the Record 7 in the Journâ—â— See his Works paâ— 1435. The 〈…〉 of the 〈◊〉 Sâ—ow Stow. The Nuns speech at her death Hall Stow Fisher gently dealt with But is obstinate and intractable Collect. Numb 49. Cott. Lib. Cleopatâ—e E. 4. The Oath for the Succession generally sworn Orig. Cott. Lib. Otho C. â—â— Collect. Numb 50. Rot. Claus. Those last clausâ—◠〈◊〉 not in the other Writing More and Fisher refuse the Oath See his works p. 1428. Weavers Monuments page 504 and 506. And are proceeded against Another Session of Parliament The Kings Supremacy declared The Oath about the Succession conâ—iâ—med The first Fruits of Benefices given to the King Sundry
upon their Mothers Title which might have been a dangerous competition to him that was so little beloved by his Subjects took this Method for amusing them with other things thence it was that his Son was the most learned Prince that had been in the World for many Ages and deserved the Title Beau-Clerke on a better account than his Predecessor that long before had carried it The Learning then in credit was either that of the Schools about abstruse Questions of Divinity which from the days of Lombard were debated and descanted on with much subtlety and nicety and exercised all Speculative Divines or the Study of the Canon-Law which was the way to Business and Preferment To the former of these the King was much addicted and delighted to read often in Thomas 〈◊〉 and this made Cardinal Wolsey more acceptable to him who was 〈◊〉 conversant in that sort of Learning He loved the purity of the 〈◊〉 tongue which made him be so kind to Erasmus that was the great Resâ—â—â—er of it and to Polidore Virgil though neither of these made their Court dextrously with the Cardinal which did much intercept the Kingâ— favour to them so that the one left England and the other was but coâ—rsly used in it who has sufficiently revenged himself upon the Cardinal's Memory The Philosophy then in fashion was so intermixed with their Divinity that the King understood it too and was also a good Musician as appears by two whole Masses which he composed He never wrote well but scrawled so that his hand was scarce legible Being thus inclined to Learning he was much courted by all hungry Scholars who generally over Europe dedicated their Books to him with such flattering Epistles that it very much lessens him to see how he delighted in such stuffe For if he had not taken pleasure in it and rewarded them it is not likely that others should have been every year writing after such ill Copies Of all things in the World Flattery wrought most on him and no sort of Flattery pleased him better than to have his great Learning and Wisdom commended And in this his Parliaments his Courtiers his Chaplains Forreigners and Natives all seemed to vie who should exceed most and came to speak to him in a Stile which was scarce fit to be used to any Creature But he designed to entail these praises on his Memory cherishing Church-men more than any King in England had ever done he also Courted the Pope with a constant submission and upon all occasions made the Popes Interests his own and made War and Peace as they desired him So that had he dyed any time before the 19th year of his Reign he could scarce have scaped being Canonized notwithstanding all his faults for he abounded in those vertues which had given Saintship to Kings for near 1000 years together and had done more than they all did by writing a Book for the Roman Faith England had for above 300 years been the tamest part of Christendome to the Papal Authority and had been accordingly dealt with But though the Parliaments and two or three high-spirited Kings had given some interruption to the cruel exactions and other illegal proceedings of the Court of Rome yet that Court always gained their designs in the end But even in this Kings days the Crown was not quite stript of all its Authority over Spiritual persons The Investitures of Bishops and Abbots which had been originally given by the delivery of the Pastoral Ring and Staffe by the Kings of England were after some opposition wrung out of their hands yet I find they retained another thing which upon the matter was the same When any See was vacant a Writ was issued out of the Chancery for seizing on all the Temporalties of the Bishoprick and then the King recommended one to the Pope upon which his Bulls were expeded at Rome and so by a Warrant from the Pope he was consecrated and invested in the Spiritualties of the See but was to appear before the King either in Person or by Proxie and renounce every clause in his Letters and Bulls that were or might be prejudicial to the Prerogative of the Crown or contrary to the Laws of the Land and was to swear Fealty and Allegiance to the King And after this a new Writ was issued out of the Chancery bearing that this was done and that thereupon the Temporalties should be restored Of this there are so many Precedents in the Records that every one that has searched them must needs find them in every year but when this began I leave to the more Learned in the Law to discover And for proof of it the Reader will find in the Collection the fullest Record which I met with concerning it in Henry the 7th his Reign of Cardinal Adrian's being Invested in the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells So that upon the matter the Kings then disposed of all Bishopricks keeping that still in their own hands which made them most desired in those Ages and so had the Bishops much at their Dovotion But King Henry in a great degree parted with this by the above-mentioned power granted to Cardinal Wolsey who being Legate as well as Lord Chancellour it was thought a great errour in Government to lodge such a trust with him which might have past into a Precedent for other Legates pretending to the same Power since the Papal greatness had thus risen and oft upon weaker grounds to the height it was then at Yet the King had no mind to suffer the Laws made against the suing out of Bulls in the Court of Rome without his leave to be neglected for I find several Licenses granted to sue Bulls in that Court bearing for their Preamble the Statute of the 16 of Richard the Second against the Popes pretended Power in England But the immunity of Ecclesiastical persons was a thing that occasioned great complaints And good cause there was for them For it was ordinary for persons after the greatest Crimes to get into Orders and then not only what was past must be forgiven them but they were not to be questioned for any Crime after holy Orders given till they were first degraded and till that was done they were the Bishops Prisoners Whereupon there rose a great dispute in the beginning of this Kings Reign of which none of our Historians having taken any Notice I shall give a full account of it King Henry the Seventh in his Fourth Parliament did a little lessen the Priviledges of the Clergy enacting that Clerks convicted should be burnt in the hand But this not proving a sufficient restraint it was Enacted in Parliament in the Fourth year of this King that all Murderers and Robbers should be denyed the benefit of their Clergy But though this seemed a very Just Law yet to make it pass through the House of Lords they added two Proviso's to it the one for excepting all such as were within
the Holy Orders of Bishop Priest or Deacon the other that the Act should only be in force till the next Parliament With these Proviso's it was unanimously assented to by the Lords on the 26 Ian. 1513. and being agreed to by the Commons the Royal Assent made it a Law Pursuant to which many Murderers and Felons were denyed their Clergy and the Law passed on them to the great Satisfaction of the whole Nation But this gave great offence to the Clergy who had no mind to suffer their Immunities to be touched or lessened And judging that if the laity made bold with Inferiour Orders they would proceed further even against Sacred Orders therefore as their Opposition was such that the Act not being continued did determine at the next Parliament that was in the 5th year of the King so they not satisfied with that resolved to fix a censure on that Act as contrary to the Franchises of the Holy Church And the Abbot of Winchelcomb being more forward than the rest during the session of Parliament in the 7 year of this King's Reign in a Sermon at Pauls Cross said openly That that Act was contrary to the Law of God and to the Liberties of the Holy Church and that all who assented to it as well Spiritual as Temporal Persons had by so doing incur'd the Censures of the Church And for Confirmation of his Opinion he published a Book to prove That all Clerks whether of the greater or lower Orders were Sacred and exempted from all Temporal Punishment by the Secular Judge even in Criminal cases This made great noise and all the Temporal Lords with the concurrence of the House of Commons desired the King to suppress the growing Insolence of the Clergy So there was a hearing of the Matter before the King with all the Judges and the Kings Temporal Council Doctor Standish Guardian of the Mendicant Friers in London afterwards Bishop of Saint Asaph the chief of the Kings Spiritual Council argued That by the Law Clerks had been still convened and judged in the Kings Court for Civil Crimes and that there was nothing either in the Laws of God or the Church inconsistent with it and that the publick good of the Society which was chiefly driven at by all Laws and ought to be preferred to all other things required that Crimes should be punished But the Abbot of Winchelcomb being Counsel for the Clergy excepted to this and said There was a Decree made by the Church expresly to the contrary to which all ought to pay Obedience under the pain of Mortal sin and that therefore the trying of Clerks in the Civil Courts was a sin in it self Standish upon this turned to the King and said God forbid that all the Decrees of the Church should bind It seems the Bishops think not so for though there is a Decree that they should reside at their Cathedrals all the Festivals of the year yet the greater part of them do it not Adding That no Decree could have any force in England till it was received there and That this Decree was never received in England but that as well since the making of it as before Clerks had been tryed for Crimes in the Civil Courts To this the Abbot made no answer but brought a place of Scripture to prove this Exemption to have come from our Saviours words Nolite tangere Christos meos Touch not mine Anointed and therefore Princes ordering Clerks to be arrested and brought before their Courts was contrary to Scripture against which no custome can take place Standish replyed these words were never said by our Saviour but were put by David in his Psalter 1000 years before Christ and he said these words had no relation to the Civil Judicatories but because the greatest part of the World was then wicked and but a small number believed the Law they were a Charge to the Rest of the World not to do them harm But though the Abbot had been very violent and confident of his being able to confound all that held the contrary opinion yet he made no answer to this The Laity that were present being confirmed in their former opinion by hearing the Matter thus argued moved the Bishops to order the Abbot to renounce his former opinion and recant his Sermon at Pauls Cross. But they flatly refused to do it and said they were bound by the Laws of the Holy Church to maintain the Abbots opinion in every point of it Great heats followed upon this during the sitting of the Parliament of which there is a very partial Entry made in the Journal of the Lords House and no wonder the Clerk of the Parliament Doctor Tylor Doctor of the Canon-Law being at the same time Speaker of the Lower House of Convocation The Entrie is in these words In this Parliament and Convocation there were most dangerous contentions between the Clergy and the Secular Power about the Ecclesiastical liberties one Standish a Minor Frier being the Instrument and Promoter of all that mischief But a passage â—ell out that made this matter be more fully prosecuted in the Michaelmas-Term One Richard Hunne a Merchant-Taylor in London was questioned by a Clerk in Middlesex for a Mortuary pretended to be due for a Child of his that died 5 weeks old The Clerk claiming the beering sheet and Hunne refusing to give it upon that he was sued but his Counsel advised him to sue the Clerk in a Premunire for bringing the Kings Subjects before a forreign Court the Spiritual Court sitting by Authority from the Legate This touched the Clergy so in the quick that they used all the Arts they could to fasten Heresie on him and understanding that he had Wickliff's Bible upon that he was attached of Heresie and put in the Lollards Tower at Pauls and examined upon some Articles objected to him by Fitz-Iames then Bishop of London He denied them as they were chargeâ— against him but acknowledged he had said some words sounding that way for which he was sorry and asked Gods mercy and submitted himself to the Bishops Correction upon which he ought to have been enjoyned Penance and set at Liberty but he persisting still in his Sute in the Kings Courts they used him most cruelly On the Fourth of December he was found hanged in the Chamber where he was kept Prisoner And Doctor Horsey Chancellour to the â—iâ—hop of London with the other Officers who had the Charge of the Prison gave it out that he had hang'd himself But the Coroner of London coming to hold an Inquest on the dead body they found him hanging so loose and in a silk girdle that they clearly perceived he was killed they also found his Neck had been broken as they judged with an Iron chain for the Skin was all fretted and cut they saw some streams of blood about his body besides several other evidences which made it clear he had not murdered himself whereupon they did acquit the dead body and
Modena and Reggio from the Duke of Ferrara to which he pretended as being Fiefs of the Papacy and the Emperor having engaged by the former Treatyto restore them to him But now that the Popes pretensions were appointed to be examined by some Judges delegated by the Emperor they determined against the Pope for the Duke of Ferrara which so disgusted the Pope that he fell totally from the Emperor and did unite with the King of France a Match being also projected between the Duke of Orleance afterwards Henry the 2d and his Neece Catharine de Medici which did work much on the Popes ambition to have his Family Allied to so mighty a Monarch So that now he became wholly French The French King was also on account of this Marriage to resigne all the pretensions he had to any Territory in Italy to his younger Son which as it would give less-Umbrage to the other Princes of Italy who liked rather to have a King 's younger Son among them than either the Emperor or the French King so the Pope was wonderfully pleased to raise another great Prince in Italy out of his own Family On these grounds was the Match at this time designed which afterwards took effect but with this difference that by the Dolphin's death the Duke of Orleance became King of France and his Queen made the greatest Figure that any Queen of France had done for many Ages This change in the Popes mind might have produced another in the Kings Affairs if he had not already gone so far that he was less in fear of the Pope than formerly He found the Credit of his Clergy was so low that to preserve themselves from the contempt and fury of the people they were forced to depend wholly on the Crown For Lutheranisme was then making a great progress in England of which I shall say nothing here being resolved at the end of this Book to give an account of the whole Course of it in those years that fall within this time But what by the means of the new Preachers what by the scandals cast on the Clergy they were all at the Kings Mercy so he did not fear much from them especially in the Southern parts which were the richest and best peopled Therefore the King went on resolutely The Pope on the other hand was in great perplexity he saw England ready to be lost and knew not what to do to rescue or preserve it If he gave way to what was lately done in the business of the Premunire he must thereby lose the greatest advantages he drew from that Nation and it was not likely that after the King had gone so far he would undo what was done The Emperor was more remiss in prosecuting the Queens Appeal at Rome for at that time the Turk with a most numerous and powerful Army was making an impression on Hungary which to the great scandal of the most Christian King was imputed to his Councils and Presents at the Port and all the Emperor's thoughts were taken up with this Therefore as he gave the Protestant Princes of Germany some present satisfaction in Religion and other matters so he sent over to England and desired the Kings assistance against that vast Army of 300000 men that was falling in upon Christendom To this the King made a general answer that gave some hopes of assisting him But at the same time the Protestant Princes resolving to draw some advantage from that conjuncture of Affairs and being courted by the French King entred into a League with him for the defence of the Rights of the Empire And to make this firmer the King was invited by the French King to joyn in it to which he consented and sent over to France a sum of Money to be employed â—or the safety of the Empire And this provoked the Emperor to renew his endeavours in the Court of Rome for prosecuting the Queens Appeal The French King encouraged the King to go on with his Divorce that he might totally Alienate him from the Emperor The French Writers also add another Consideration which seems unworthy of so great a King that he himself being at that time so publick a Courtier of Ladies was not ill pleased to set forward a thing of that nature But though Princes allow themselves their pleasures yet they seldom Govern their Affairs by such Maximes In the beginning of the next year a new Session of Parliament was held in which the House of Commons went on to complain of many other grievances they lay under from the Clergy which they put in a writing and Presented it to the King In it they complained of the proceedings in the Spiritual Courts and especially their calling men before them ex officio and laying Articles to their charge without any Accuser and then admitting no Purgation but causing the Party Accused either to abjure or to be burnt which they found very grievous and intollerable This was occasioned by some violent proceeding against some reputed Hereticks of which an account shall be given afterwards But those complaints were stifled and great misunderstandings arose between the King and the House of Commons upon this following occasion There was a common practice in England of mens making such Setlements of their Estates by their Last Wills or other Deeds that the King and some great Lords were thereby defrauded of the advantages they made by Wards Marriages and Primer Season For regulating which a Bill was brought in to the House of Peers and assented to there but when it was sent down to the House of Commons it was rejected by them and they would neither pass the Bill nor any other Qualification of that Abuse This gave the King great offence and the House when they addressed to him about the proceedings of the Clergy also prayed That he would consider what Cost Charge and Pains they had been at since the beginning of the Parliament and that it would please his Grace of his Princely Benignity to Dissolve his Court of Parliament and that his Subjects might return into their Countries To which the King answered That for their complaints of the Clergy he must hear them also before he could give Judgment since in Justice he ought to hear both Parties but that their desiring the Redress of such Abuses was contrary to the other part of their Petition for if the Parliament were Dissolved how could those things they complained of be amended And as they complained of their long attendance so the King had stayed as long as they had done and yet he had still patience and so they must have otherwise their grievances would be without Redress But he did expostulate severely upon their rejecting the Bill about Deeds in prejudice of the Rights of the Crown He â—aid he had offered them a great mitigation of what by the rigour of the Law he might pretend to and if they would not accept of it he would