allow of so many Errours To this it was answered That our Saviour did not deliver all things to his Disciples till they were able to bear them And the Apostles did not abolish all the Rites of Judaism at once but by a gentle Progress intended to wean those that were converted to the Christian Religion from them The Clergy were to be drawn by slow and easy Steps out of their Ignorance and Superstition whereas the driving on things with precipitated hast might spoil the whole Design and alienate those who by slower Methods might be gained and it might also much endanger the Peace of the Nation At the same time other things were in Consultation tho not finished Other Alterations proposed Cranmer offered some Queries to shew the Cheats that had been put on the World as that Priestly Absolution without Contrition was of more efficacy than Contrition was without it and that the People trusted wholly to outward Ceremonies in which the Priests encouraged them because of the gain they made by them That the exemption of Clergy-men was without good ground that Bishops did ordain without due care and previous trial and that the dignified Clergy misapplied their Revenues and did not reside on their Benefices he also desired that the other four Sacraments might be enquired into but these things were not at this time taken under any further consideration It is true Confirmation seems to have been examined The Method in which they made their Enquiries was this the Point to be examined was brought under so many Heads in the form of Queries and to these every one gave his Answer with his Reasons so I find two Papers the one of Cranmer's the other of Stokesly's on this Head the former runs wholly upon scripture-Scripture-Authority and he thinks it was not instituted by Christ but was done by the Apostles by that extraordinary Effusion of the Holy Ghost that rested on them The other founds his Opinion for its being a Sacrament on the Tradition of the Church but nothing was determined in this point Cranmer did at this time offer another Paper to the King exhorting him to proceed to a further Reformation and that nothing should be determined without clear Proofs from Scripture for the departing from that Rule had been the Occasion of all the Errours that had been in the Church Many things were now acknowledged to be Errours for which some not long before had suffered Death He therefore proposed several points to be discussed as whether there was a Purgatory Whether departed Saints ought to be invocated or Tradition be believed Whether Images ought to be considered only as Representations of History And whether it was lawful for the Clergy to marry He prayed the King not to give Judgment in these points till he heard them well examined And for the last he offered that if those who would defend the lawfulness of it should not in the Opinion of indifferent Judges prove their Opinion to be true they should be willing to suffer Death but if they proved it all that they desired was that the King would leave them to the Liberty which God had allowed them in that matter But all this was carried no further at this time The Pope had issued out a Summons for a General Council at Mantua and had cited the King to it From this the King did appeal to a General Council rightly constituted So a motion being made by Fox that the Convocation should deliver their Sense in this Particular They drew up a Paper in which they set forth the great Good that might follow in a General Council rightly called but that nothing could be more mischievous than one called on private malice according to what Nazianzen observed of the Councils in his time And they thought neither the Pope nor any one Prince had sufficient Authority to call one but that all Princes who had an entire and supream Government over all their Subjects ought to concur to it This was signed by them all on the 20th of July and so was the Convocation dismiss'd Two days before it brake up Cromwel was made the King's Vicegerent in Ecclesiastical Matters of which some Account was formerly given Soon after this The King protests against a Council called by the Pope the King published a long and sharp Protestation against the Council summoned by the Pope he denied that he had any Authority to summon any of his Subjects He shewed that the place was neither proper nor safe and that no good could be expected from any Council in which the Pope presided since the regulating his Power was one of the chief occasions that the World had for a Council And while Christendom was in such Distractions and the Emperour and the King of France were engaged in War it was not a fit time for one to be called The Pope had refused it long and this Conjuncture was chosen in which the Bishops could not come to it that so a packt meeting of Italian Bishops might do what they pleased under the name of a General Council But the World would be no longer cozened No credit was due to a Pope's safe Conduct for they had often broken their Oaths as to himself in particular And notwithstanding his former kindness to that See they had been for three Years stirring up all the Princes in Christendom against him He protested against all Councils called by the Pope but declared He would be ready to concur with other Christian Princes for calling one when it should be convenient And in the mean while he would maintain all the Articles of the Faith and lose his Life and Crown sooner than suffer any of them to be put down Three Years after this the King made a new Protestation to the same effect when the Council was summoned to meet at Vincenza Reginald Pool began at this same time to raise that Opposition to the King Cardinal Pool writes against the King which proved so fatal to all his Family He was by his Mother descended from the Duke of Clarence Brother to Edward the Fourth and was by his Father likewise the King 's near Kinsman To this high Quality there was joined a great Sweetness of Temper and a Disposition for Letters which the King cherished much and gave him the Deanry of Exeter and some other Preferments in order to the carrying on of his Studies being resolved to advance him to the highest Dignities in the Church He lived many Years both at Paris and Padua In the latter of these he joined himself to a Society of Learned Men that gave themselves much to the Study of Eloquence and of the Roman Authors among whom were Contareno Bembo Caraffa and Sadoletti all afterwards honoured with the Scarlet but Pool was esteemed the most Eloquent of of them all When he was at Paris he first incurred the King's Displeasure for he refused to joyn with those whom he imploied in order to the procuring the Determinations of the
dispense with the Laws of God which were not subject to him And it had been judged in the Rota at Rome when a Dispensation was asked for a King to marry his Wives Sister that it could not be granted and when Precedents were alledged for it it was answered that the Church was to be governed by Laws and not by Examples and if any Pope had granted such Dispensation it was either out of Ignorance or Corruption This was not only the Opinion of the School-men but of the Canonists tho they are much set on raising the Pope's Power as high as is possible And therefore Alexander the third refused to grant a Dispensation in a like case tho the Parent had sworn to make his Son marry his Brother's Widow others went further and said The Pope could not dispense with the Laws of the Church which several ancient Popes had declared against and it was said that the fulness of Power with which the Pope was vested did only extend to the pastoral Care and was not for Destruction but for Edification and that as St. Paul opposed St. Peter to his Face so had mnay Bishops withstood Popes when they proceeded against the Canons of the Church So both Laurence and Dunstan in England had proceeded to Censures notwithstanding the Pope's Authority interposed to the contrary and no Authority being able to make what was a Sin in it self become lawful every Man that found himself engaged in a sinful course of Life ought to forsake it and therefore the King ought to withdraw from the Queen and the Bishops of England in case of refusal ought to proceed to Censures Upon the whole matter Tradition was that upon which all the Writers of Controversy particularly now in the Contests with the Lutherans founded the Doctrine of the Church as being the only infallible Exposition of the doubtful parts of Scripture and that being so clear in this matter there seemed to be no room for any further Debate On the other hand Arguments against it Cajetan was the first Writer that against the stream of former Ages thought that the Laws of Leviticus were only Judiciary Precepts binding the Jews and were not moral his Reasons were that Adam's Children must have married in the Degrees there forbidden Jacob married two Sisters and Judah according to custom gave his two Sons and promised a third to the same Woman Moses also appointed the Brother to marry the Brother's Wife when he died without Issue But a Moral Law is for ever and in all Cases binding and it was also said that the Pope's power reached even to the Laws of God for he dispensed with Oaths and Vows and as he had the Power of determining Controversies so he only could declare what Laws were moral and indispensable and what were not nor could any Bishops pretend to judg concerning the extent of his Power or the validity of his Bulls To all this those that writ for the King answered That it was strange to see Men who pretended such Zeal against Hereticks follow their Method which was to set up private reasonings from some Texts of Scripture in opposition to the received Tradition of the Church which was the bottom in which all good Catholicks thought themselves safe and if Cajetan wrote in this manner against the received Doctrin of the Church in one Particular why might not Luther take the same liberty in other Points They also made distinction in moral Laws between those that were so from the nature of the thing which was indispensable and could in no Case be lawful and to this sort no Degrees but those of Parents and Children could be reduced other Moral Laws were only grounded upon publick Inconveniencies and Dishonesty such as the other Degrees were for the Familiarities that Persons so nearly related live in are such that unless a Terrour were struck in them by a perpetual Law against such mixtures Families would be much defiled But in such Laws tho God may grant a Dispensation in some particular Cases yet an Inferiour Authority cannot pretend to it and some Dispensations granted in the latter Ages ought not to be set up to ballance the Decisions of so many Popes and Councils against them and the Doctrine taught by so many Fathers and Doctors in former times Both sides having thus brought forth the strength of their Cause it did evidently appear That according to the Authority given to Tradition in the Church of Rome the King had clearly the Right on his side and that the Pope's Party did write with little sincerity in this matter being guilty of that manner of arguing from Texts of Scriptures for which they had so loudly charged the Lutherans The Queen continued firm to her Resolution of leaving the matter in the Pope's Hands and therefore would hearken to no Propositions that were made to her for referring the matter to the Arbitration of some chosen on both sides A Session of Parliament followed in January in which the King made the Decisions of the Universities and the Books that were written for the Divorce A Session of Parliament be first read in the House of Lords and then they were carried down by Sir Thomas More and 12 Lords both of the Spirituality and Temporality to the Commons There were twelve Seals of Universities shewed and their Decisions were read first in Latin and then Translated into English There were also an hundred Books shewed written on the same Argument Upon the shewing these the Chancellor desired them to report in their Countries that they now clearly saw that the King had not attempted this matter of his meer will and pleasure but for the discharge of his Conscience and the security of the Succession of the Crown This was also brought into the Convocation who declared themselves satisfied concerning the unlawfulness of the Marriage but the Circumstances they were then in made that their Declaration was not much considered for they were then under the lash All the Clergy of England were sued as in the case of a Premunire for having acknowledged a Forreign Jurisdiction and taken out Bulls and had Suits in the Legatine Court The Kings of England did claim such a Power in Ecclesiastical matters The Laws of England against Bulls from Rome as the Roman Emperours had exercised before the fall of that Empire Anciently they had by their Authority divided Bishopricks granted the Investitures and made Laws both relating to Ecclesiastical Causes Persons When the Popes began to extend their Power beyond the Limits assigned them by the Canons they met with great opposition in England both in the matter of Investitures Appeals Legates and the other Branches of their Usurpations but they managed all the Advantages they found either from the Weakness or ill Circumstances of Princes so steadily that in Conclusion they subdued the World And if they had not by their cruel Exactions so oppressed the Clergy that they were driven to seek Shelter under the Covert
his Blood as they had done Ahabs The King bore this patiently but ordered one Dr. Corren to preach next Sunday and to answer all that he had said who railed against Peyto as a Dog and a Traitor Peyto had gone to Canterbury but Elston a Franciscan of the same House interrupted him and called him one of the lying Prophets that went about to establish the Succession of the Crown by Adultery and spoke with such Vehemence that the King himself was forced to command him silence And yet so unwilling was the King to go to Extremities that all that was done upon so high a Provocation was that they were called before the Council and rebuked for their Insolence But the Nun's Confederates publishing her Revelations in all the parts of the Kingdom she and Nine of her Complices were apprehended in November last Year and they did all without any Rack or Torture discover the whole Conspiracy and upon that were appointed to go to St. Pauls and after a Sermon preached upon that Occasion by the Bishop of Bangor they repeated their Confession in the Hearing of the People and were sent to ly Prisoners in the Tower But it was given out That all was extorted from them by Violence and Messages were sent to the Nun desiring her to deny all that she had confessed which made the King judge it necessary to proceed to further Extremities So she and six of her chief Complices were Attainted of Treason And the Bishop of Rochester and five more were Attainted of Misprision of Treason But at the Intercession of Q. Ann as it is exprest in the Act all others that had been concerned with her were pardoned This was as black an Imposture as any ever was and if it had fallen out in a darker Age in which the World went mad after Visions the King might have lost his Crown by it The Discovery of this disposed all to look on older Stories of the Trances of Monastical People as Contrivances to serve base ends and did make way for the ruine of that Order of Men in England but all that was at present done upon it was that the Observants were put out of their Houses and mixt with the other Franciscans and the Austin Friers were put in their rooms When all these Acts were passed the King gave his Assent to them on the 29th of March and prorogued the Parliament till November The Members of both Houses swore to the Oath of Succession on the day of the Prorogation On the 20th of April The Oath of Succession sworn followed the Execution of the Nun and her Complices at Tyburn where she freely acknowledged her Impostures and the Justice of the Sentence and laid the blame on those that suffered with her who because the thing was profitable to them praised her much and tho they knew that all was feigned yet gave out that it was done by the working of the Holy Ghost and she concluded her Life begging both God's and the King's Pardon Upon the first Discovery of this Cheat Fisher in some Trouble Cromwell sent Fisher's Brother to him to reprove him for his Carriage in that Business and to advise him to ask the King's Pardon for the Encouragement he had given to the Nun which he was confident the King would grant him But Fisher excused himself and said he had done nothing but only tried whether her Revelations were true or not He confessed that upon the Reports he had heard he was induced to have a high Opinion of her and that he had never discovered any Falsehood in her It is true she had said some things to him concerning the King's Death which he had not revealed but he thought it was not necessary to do it because he knew she had told it to the King her self she had named no Person that should kill the King but had only denounced it as a Judgment of God on him and he had reason to think that the King would have been offended with him if he had spoken of it to him and so he desired to be no more troubled with that matter But upon that Cromwell wrote him a sharp Letter he shewed him that he had proceeded rashly in that Affair being so partial in the matter of the King's Divorce that he easily believed every thing that seemed to make against it he shewed him how necessary it was to use great Caution before extraordinary things should be received or spread about as Revelations since otherwise the Peace of the World should be in the hands of every bold or crafty Impostor yet in conclusion he advises him again to ask the King's Pardon for his Rashness and he assures him that the King was ready to forgive that and every thing else by which he had offended him But Fisher was obstinate and would make no Submission and so included within the Act yet it was not executed till a new Provocation drew him into further Trouble And is very obstinate The Secular and Regular Clergy did every where swear the Oath of Succession which none did more zealously promote than Gardiner who before the 6th of May got all his Clergy to swear it and the Religious Orders being apprehensive of the King's Jealousies of them took care to remove them by sending in Declarations under the Seals of their Houses that in their Opinion the King 's present Marriage was lawful and that they would always acknowledg him Head of the Church of England that the Bishops of Rome had no Authority out of his own Diocess and that they would continue obedient to the King notwithstanding his Censures that they would preach the Gospel sincerely according to the Scriptures and the Tradition of the Catholick Doctors and would in their Prayers pray for the King as Supream Head of the Church of England A meeting of the Council-sate at Lambeth More and heâ— refuse the Oath to which many were cited in order to the swearing the Oath among whom was Sir Thomas More and Fisher More was first called on to take it he answered that he neither blamed those that made the Acts nor those that swore the Oath and that he was willing to swear to maintain the Succession to the Crown but could not take the Oath as it was conceived Fisher made the same Answer but all the rest that were cited before them took it More was much press'd to give his Reasons against it but he refused to do that for it might be called a disputing against Law yet he would put them into Writing if the King would command him to do it Cranmer said if he did not blame those that took it it seems he was not perswaded it was a Sin and so was only doubtful of it but he was sure he ought to obey the Law if it was not sinful so there was a Certainty on the one hand and only a Doubt on the other and therefore the former ought to determine him this he confessed did
unlawful in it self The Sorbon declares against the Marriage At Paris the Sorbon made their Determination with great Solemnity after a Mass of the Holy Ghost all the Doctors took an Oath to study the Question and to give their Judgment according to their Consciences and after three Weeks study the greater part agreed in this That the King's Marriage was unlawful and that the Pope could not dispense with it At Orleans Angiers and Tholouse they determined to the same purpose Erasmus had a mind to live in quiet and so he would not give his Opinion nor offend either party Grineus was implored to try what Bucer Zuinglius and Oecolampadius thought of the Marriage Bucer's Opinion was The Opinion of the Reformed Divines about it that the Laws in Leviticus did not bind and were not moral Because God not only dispensed but commanded them to marry their Brother's Wife when he died without Issue Zuinglius and Oecolampadius were of another mind and thought these Laws were moral But were of Opinion that the Issue by a Marriage de facto grounded upon a received Mistake ought not to be Illegitimated Calvin thought the Marriage was null and they all agreed that the Pope's Dispensation was of no force Osiander was imploied to engage the Lutheran Divines but they were affraid of giving the Emperour new grounds of displeasure Melanctthon thought the Law in Leviticus was dispensable and that the Marriage might be lawful and that in those matters States and Princes might make what Laws they pleased And though the Divines of Leipsick after much disputing about it did agree that these Laws were moral yet they could never be brought to justify the Divorce with the subsequent Marriage that followed upon it even after it was done and that the King appeared very inclinable to receive their Doctrine So steadily did they follow their Consciences even against their Interests But the Pope was more compliant for he offered to Cassali to grant the King a Dispensation for having another Wife with which the Imperialists seemed not disatisfied The King's Cause being thus fortified Many of the Nobility write to the Pope by so many Resolutions in his Favours he made many members of Parliament in a Prorogation time sign a Letter to the Pope complaining that notwithstanding the great merits of the King the Justice of his Cause and the Importance of it to the safety of the Kingdom yet the Pope made still new Delayes they therefore pressed him to dispatch it speedily otherwise they would be forced to see for other Remedies tho they were not willing to drive things to Extremities till it was unavoidable The Letter was signed by the Cardinal the Archbishop of Canterbury four other Bishops 22 Abbots 42 Peers and 11 Commoners To this the Pope wrote an answer The Pope's Answer He took notice of the Vehemence of their Stile He freed himself from the Imputations of Ingratitude and Injustice He acknowledged the King's great Merits and said he had done all he could in his Favour He had granted a Commission but could not refuse to receive the Queen's Appeal all the Cardinals with one consent judged that an Avocation was necessary Since that time the delays lay not at his door but at the Kings that he was ready to proceed and would bring it to as speedy an Issue as the Importance of it would admit of and for their Threatnings they were neither agreeable to their Wisdom nor their Religion Things being now in such a Posture November the King set out a Proclamation against any that should purchase bring over or publish any Bull from Rome contrary to his Authority and after that he made an Abstract of all the Reasons and Authorities of Fathers or modern Writers against his Marriage to be published both in Latin and English The main stress was laid on the Laws in Leviticus The Arguments for the Divorce of the forbidden Degrees of Marriage among which this was one not to marry the Brother's Wife These Marriages are called Abominations that defile the Land and for which the Canaanites were cast out of it The Exposition of Scripture was to be taken from the Tradition of the Church and by the Universal Consent of all Doctors those Laws had been still looked on as Moral and ever binding to Christians as well as Jews Therefore Gregory the Great advised Austin the Monk upon the Conversion of the English among whom the Marriages of the Brother's Wife were usual to dissolve them looking on them as grievous Sins Many other Popes as Calixtus Zacharias and Innocent the Third had given their Judgments for the perpetual Obligation of those Laws They had been also condemned by the Councils of Neocesarea Agde and the second of Toledo Among Wickliff's condemned Opinions this was one that the Prohibitions of marrying in such degrees were not founded on the Law of God For which he was condemned in some English Councils and these were confirmed by the General Council at Constance Among the Greek Fathers both Origen Basil Chrysostom and Hesychius and among the Latins Tertullian Ambrose Jerome and St. Austine do formerly deliver this as the belief of the Church in their time that those Laws were Moral and still in force Anselm Hugo de sancto Victore Hildebert and Ivo argue very fully to the same purpose the last particularly writing concerning the King of France who had married his Brothers Wife says it was inconsistent with the Law of God with which none can dispence and that he could not be admitted to the Communion of the Church till he put her away Aquinas and all the School-men follow these Authorities and in their way of reasoning they argue fully for this Opinion and all that writ against Wickliff did also assert the Authority of those Prohibitions in particular Waldensis whose Books were approved by Pope Martin the Fifth All the Canonists did also agree with them as Johannes Andreas Panormitan and Ostiensis so that Tradition being the only sure Expounder of the Scripture the Case seemed clear They also proved that a Consent without Consummation made the Marriage compleat which being a Sacrament that which followed after in the Right of Marriage was not necessary to make it compleat as a Priest saying Mass consummates his Orders which yet were compleat without it Many Testimonies were brought to confirm this from which it was inferred that the Queen's being married to Prince Arthur tho nothing had followed upon it made her incapable of a lawful Marriage with the King And yet they shewed what violent Presumptions there were of Consummation which was all that in such Cases was sought for and this was expressed both in the Bull and Breve tho but dubiously in the one yet very positively in the other After that they examined the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation It was a received Maxime that tho the Pope had Authority to dispense with the Laws of the Church yet he could not
their Contests about Superiority but never declared in St. Peter's Favour St. Paul withstood him to his Face and reckoned himself not inferour to him If the Dignity of a Person left any Authority with the City in which he sat then Antioch must carry it as well as Rome and Jerusalem where Christ suffered was to be prefererd to all the World for it was truly the Mother-Church Christ said to Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church The Ancients understood by the Rock either the Confession Peter had made or which is all one upon the matter Christ himself and tho it were to be meant of St. Peter all the rest of the Apostles are also called Foundations that of Tell the Church was by many Doctors of the Church of Rome turned against the Pope for a General Council The other Priviledges ascribed to St. Peter were either only a precedence of Order or were occasioned by his Fall as that Feed my Sheep it being a restoring him to the Apostolical Function St. Peter had also a limited Province the Circumcision as St. Paul had the Uncircumcision that was of far greater extent which shewed that he was not considered as the Universal Pastor In the Primitive Church St. Cyprian and other Bishops wrote to the Bishops of Rome as to their fellow Bishop Colleague and Brother they were against Appeals to Rome and did not submit to their Definition and in plain Terms asserted that all Bishops were equal in Power as the Apostles had been It is true the Dignity of the City made the Bishops of Rome to be much esteemed yet in the first Council of Nice the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch were declared to have the same Authority in the Countries about them that the Bishops of Rome had over those that lay about them It is true the East being over-run with Arrianism from which the West was better preserved the oppressed Eastern Bishops did take shelter in the Protection the Bishops of Rome gave them and as is natural to all People they magnified that Authority which was so useful to them But the second General Council indirectly condemned all Appeals to Rome for it decreed that every Province should be governed by its own Synod and allowed no higher Appeal but to the Bishops of the Diocess Constantinople being made the Imperial City the second and fourth General Council gave it equal Priviledges with Rome because it was new Rome which shews that the Dignity of the Sees flowed from the greatness of the Cities The African Churches condemned all Appeals to Rome and the Popes who complained of that pretended only to a Canon of the Council of Nice for it and then they did not talk of a Divine Right but search being made into all the Copies of the Canons of the Council that was found to be a Forgery When the Emperour Mauricius gave the Title Vniversal Bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinple Gregory the Great complained of the Ambition of that Title which he calls equal to the Pride of Lucifer and since England received the Faith by those whom he sent over it appeared from thence what was the Doctrine of that See at that time and by consequence what where the first Impressions made on the English in that matter It is true Boniface the third got the same Title by Phocas's Grant and Boniface the eighth pretended to all Power both spiritual and temporal but the Progress of their Usurpations and the Wars raised to maintain them were very visible in History The Popes swore at their Consecrations to obey the Canons of the eighth first General Councils which are manifested against Appeals and their Universal Jurisdiction small regard is to be had to the Decrees of latter Councils being Cabals pack'd and managed as the Popes pleased Several Sees as Ravenna Milan and Aquileia pretended Exemption from the Papal Authority Many English Bishops had asserted that the Popes had no Authority against the Canons and to that day no Canon the Popes made was binding till it was received which shewed the Pope's Authority was not believed founded on a divine Authority and the Contests that the Kings of England had with the Pope's concerning Investitures Bishops doing the King Homage Appeals to Rome and the Authority of Papal Bulls and Provisions shewed that the Pope's Power was believed subject to Laws and Custom and so not derived from Christ and St. Peter and as Laws had given them some Power and Princes had bin forced in ignorant Ages to submit to their Usurpations so they might as they saw cause change those Laws and resume their Rights The next Point inquired into was And for the King's Supremacy the Authority that Kings had in matters of Religion and the Church The King of Israel judged in all Causes and Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes David made many Rules about the Service at the Temple and declaring to Solomon what his Power was 1 Chron. 28.21 2 Chron. 8.14 15. he told him that the Priests were wholly at his Command and it is also said that Solomon appointed the Priests their Charges in the Service of God and that they departed not from his Commandment in any matter he turned out one High-Priest and put another in his room Jehoshaphat Hezekiah and Josias made also Laws about Ecclesiastical Matters In the New Testament Christ was himself subject to the Civil Powers and charged his Disciples not to affect Temporal Dominion They also wrote to the Churches to be subject to the Higher Powers and call them Supream and charge every Soul to be subject to them so in Scripture the King is called Head and Supream and every Soul is said to be under him which joyn'd together makes up this Conclusion that He is the supream Head over all Persons In the Primitive Church the Bishops only made Rules or Canons but pretended to no compulsive Authority but what came from the Civil Magistrate The Roman Emperours called Councils presided in them and confirmed them and made many Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Matters so did also Charles the Great The Emperours did also either chuse the Popes themselves or confirm their Elections Church-men taking Orders were not thereby discharged from the Obedience they formerly owed their Princes but remained still Subjects And tho the Offices of the Church had peculiar Functions in which the People were subject to them that did not deliver them from their Obedience to the King as a Father's Authority over his Children cuts not off the King's Power over him They found also that in all times the Kings of England had assumed an Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters Ina Alfred Edgar and Canetus had made many Laws about them so had also most of the Kings since the Conquest which appeared particularly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Contests that followed upon them and from the daies of King Ina they had granted Exemptions to Monasteries from the Episcopal Jurisdiction down to William the
besides Adultery as for procuring Abortions treating for another Marriage being guilty of Treason or a Wifes going to Plays without her Husbands leave Nor did the Fathers in those times complain of those Laws This was also allowed by the Canons upon several occasions but after the State of Coelibate came to be magnified out of measure second Marriages were more generally condemned And this was heightned when Marriage was lookt on as a Sacrament Yet though no Divorces were allowed in the Church the Canonists found out many shifts for annulling Marriages from the beginning to those that could pay well for them All these things being considered the Delegates gave sentence confirming the second Marriage and dissolving the first Candlemass and Lent were now approaching Some Ceremonies abrogated so the Clergy and People were much divided with relation to the Ceremonies usual at those times By some Injunctions in K. Henry's Reign it had been declared that Fasting in Lent was only binding by a positive Law Wakes and Plough Moondays were also suppressed and hints were given that other customes which were much abused should be shortly put down The gross Rabble loved these things as matters of diversion and thought Divine Worship without them would be but a dull business But others lookt on these as Relicts of Heathenism since the Gentiles worshipped their Gods with such Festivities and thought they did not become the gravity and simplicity of the Christian Religion Cranmer upon this procured an Order of Council against the carrying of Candles on Candlemass day of Ashes on Ash-Wednesday and Palms on Palm-Sunday which was directed to Bonner to be intimated to the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury and was executed by him But a Proclamation followed against all that should make changes without Authority The creeping to the Cross and taking Holy Bread and Water were by it put down and power was given to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to certifie in the Kings name what Ceremonies should be afterwards laid aside and none were to preach out of their own Parishes without licence from the King or the Visitors the Arch-bishop or the Bishop of the Diocess Some questioned the Councils power to make such Orders the Act that gave authority to their Proclamations being repealed but it was said the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters might well justifie their making such ' Rules Febr. 8. Soon after this a General Order followed for a removal of all Images out of Churches There were every where great contests whether the Images had been abused to Superstition or not Some thought the consecration of them was an abuse common to them all Those also that represented the Trinity as a man with three faces in one head or as an old man with a young man before him and a Dove over his head and some where the Blessed Virgin was represented as assumed into it gave so great scandal that it was no wonder if men as they grew to be better enlightned could no longer endure them The only occasion given to censure in this order was that all Shrines and the Plate belonging to them were appointed to be brought in to the Kings use A Letter was at that time writ to all Preachers requiring them to exhort the people to amend their lives and forsake Superstition but for things not yet changed to bear with them and not to run before those whom they should obey Some hot men condemned this temper as savouring too much of carnal Policy but it was said that though the Apostles by the gift of Miracles had sufficient means to convince the World of their authority Yet they did not all at once change the customes of the Mosaical Law but proceeded by degrees and Christ forbid the pulling up the Tares lest good Wheat should be pulled up with them so it was fit to wean people by degrees from their former superstition and not to run too fast Eighteen Bishops and some Divines were now imployed to examine the Offices of the Church to see which of them needed amendment A new Office for the Communion They began with the Eucharist They proceeded in the same manner that was used in the former Reign For every one gave in his opinion in Writing in answer to the questions that were put to them Some of these are still preserved which were concerning the Priests sole communicating and Masses satisfactory for the dead the Mass in an unknown tongue the hanging it up and exposing it and the Sacrifice that was made in it In most of those Papers it appears that the greatest part of the Bishops were still leavened with the old superstition at least to some degree It was clearly found that the plain Institution of the Sacrament was was much vitiated with a mixture of many Heathenish Rites and Pomps on design to raise the credit of the Priests in whose hands that great performance was lodged This was at first done to draw over the Heathens by those splendid Rites to Christianity but Superstition once begun has no bounds nor measures and ignorance and barbarity encreasing in the darker ages there was no regard had to any thing in Religion but as it was set off with much Pageantry And the belief of the Corporal presence raised this to a great height The Office was in an unknown tongue all the Vessels and Garments belonging to it were consecrated with much devotion a great part of the Service was secret to make it look like a wonderful charm the Consecration it self was to be said very softly for words that were not to be heard agreed best with a change that was not to be seen The many Gesticulations and the magnificent Processions all tended to raise this Pageantry higher Masses were also said for all the turns and affairs of humane life Trentals a custome of having thirty Masses a year on the chief Festivities for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was that which brought the Priests most Money for these were thought Gods best days in which aecess was easier to him On Saints days in the Mass it was prayed that by the Saints Intercession the Sacrifice might become the more acceptable and procure a larger Indulgence which could not be easily explained if the Sacrifice was the death of Christ besides a numberless variety of other Rites so many of the Relicts of Heathenism were made use of for the corrupting of the holiest institution of the Christian Religion The first step that was now made was a new Office for the Communion that is the distribution of the Sacrament for the Office of Consecration was not at this time touched It differs very little from what is still used In the Exhortation Auricular Confession to a Priest is left free to be done or omitted and all were required not to judge one another in that matter There was also a denunciation made requiring impenitent sinners to withdraw The Bread was to be still of the same form that had been formerly used
Journey unless the Pope would promise to give the King Satisfaction The King of France said he was engaged in Honour to go on but assured them he would mind the King 's Concerns with as much Zeal as if they were his own In September the Queen brought forth a Daughter the renowned Queen Elizabeth and the King having before declared Lady Mary Princess of Wales Sept 7. Q. Elizabeth born did now the same for her Tho since a Son might put her from it she could not be Heir Apparent but only the Heir Presumptive to the Crown At Marseilles the Marriage was made up between the Duke of Orleans and the Pope's Neece to whom the Pope gave besides 100000 Crowns many Principalities which he pretended were either Fiefs of the Papacy or belonged to him in the Rights of the House of Medici The Pope's Historian with some Triumph boasted that the Marriage was Consummated that very Night tho it was thought not credible that P. Arthur that was Nine Months older than the new Duke of Orleans afterwards Henry the Second did Consummate his There was a secret Agreement made between the Pope and Francis that if King Henry would refer his Cause to the Consistory excepting only to the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction as partial and would in all other things return to his Obedience to the See of Rome The Pore promises to satisfy K. Henry then Sentence should be given in his Favours but this to be kept secret So Bonner not being trusted with it and sent thither with an Appeal from the Pope to the next General Council made it with great boldness and threatned the Pope upon it with so much Vehemence that the Pope talked of throwing him into a Cauldron of melted Lead or burning him alive And he apprehending some danger fled away privately But when Francis came back to Paris he sent over the Bishop of that City to the King to let him know what he had obtained of the Pope in his Favours and the Terms on which it was promised This wrought so much on the King that he presently consented to them And upon that the Bishop of Paris tho it was now in the middle of Winter took Journey to Rome being sure of the Scarlet if he could be the Instrument of regaining England which was then upon the point of being lost What these Assurances were which the Pope gave is not certain but the Archbishop of York and Tenstal of Duresm in a Letter which they wrote on that Occasion say that the Pope said at Marseilles That if the King would send a Proxy to Rome he would give Sentence for him against the Queen for he knew his Cause was good and just Upon the Bishop of Paris's coming to Rome the matter seemed agreed for it was promised that upon the King 's sending a Promise under his hand to put things in their former state and his ordering a Proxy to appear for him Judges should be sent to Cambray for making the Process and then Sentence should be given Upon the notice given of this and of a Day that was prefixt for the return of the Courier the King dispatched him with all possible hast and now the Business seemed at an end But the Courier had a Sea and the Alps to pass and in Winter it was not easy to observe a limited day so exactly This made that he came not to Rome on the prefixed day upon which the Imperialists gave out that the King was abusing the Pope's Easiness so they prest him vehemently to proceed to a Sentence The Bishop of Paris moved only for a delay of six days which was no unreasonable time in that Season and in favours of such a King who had a Suit depending six Days and since he had Patience so many Years the delay of a few days was no extraordinary Favour But the design of the Imperialists was to hinder a Reconciliation for if the King had been set right with the Pope there would have been so powerful a League formed against the Emperour as would have broke all his Measures And therefore it was necessary for his Designes to imbroil them It was also said That the King was seeking Delayes and Concessions meerly to delude the Pope and that he had proceeded so far in his Design against that See that it was necessary to go on to Censures And the angry Pope was so provoked by them and by the News that he heard out of England that without consulting his ordinary Prudence he brought in the matter to the Consistory and there the Imperialists being the greater number it was driven on with so much Precipitation that they did in on day that which according to Form should have been done in three They gave the final Sentence declaring the King's Marriage with Queen Katherine good and required him to live with her as his Wife 23. March But proceeds hastily to a Sentence otherwise they would proceed to Censures Two days after that the Courier came with the King's Submission in due form He also brought earnest Letters from Francis in the King's Favours This wrought on all the indifferent Cardinals as well as those of the French Faction So they praied the Pope to recall what was done A new Consistory was called but the Imperialists prest with greater Vehemence then ever that they would not give such Scandal to the World as to recall a definitive Sentence past of the validity of a Marriage and give the Hereticks such Advantages by their unsteadiness in matters of that nature And so it was carried that the former Sentence should take place and the Execution of it was committed to the Emperour When this was known in England it determined the King in his Resolutions of shaking off the Pope's Yoke in which he had made so great a Progress that the Parliament had past all the Acts concerning it before he had the News from Rome For he judged that the best way to Peace was to let them at Rome see with what vigour he could make War All the rest of the World lookt on astonished to see the Court of Rome throw off England with so much scorn as if they had been weary of the Obedience and Profits of so great a Kingdom and their Proceedings look'd as if they had been secretly directed by a Divine Providence that designed to draw great Consequences from this Rupture and did so far infatuate those that were most concerned to prevent it that they needlesly drew it on themselves In England they had been now examining the Foundations on which the Papal Authority was built The â—rguments used for rejecting the Pope's Power with extraordinary Care for some Years and several Books being then and soon after written on that Subject the Reader will be able to see better into the Reasons of their Proceedings by a short Abstract of these All the Apostles were made equal in the Powers that Christ gave them and he often condemned