plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a â—acrament and hath given occasion to many Superâ—â—itions The Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an Heavenly and Spiritual Manner And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture and hath given occasion to many Superstitions Since the very Being of humane Nature doth require that the Body of one and the same Man cannot be at one and the same time in many places but of necessity must be in some certain and determinate place therefore the Body of Christ cannot be present in many different places at the same time And since as the Holy Scriptures testify Christ hath been taken up into Heaven and there is to abide till the end of the World it becometh not any of the Faithful to believe or profess that there is a Real or Corporeal presence as they phrase it of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's Ordinance reserved carried about lifted up or worshipped XXIX Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the Lord's Supper The wicked and such as be void of a lively Faith altho they do carnally and visibly press with their Teeth as St. Augustine saith the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX Of both Kinds The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people For both the parts of the Lord's Sacrament by Christ's Ordinance and Commandment ought not to be ministred to all Christian People alike XXX Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross The Offering of Christ once made is a perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the Sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for Sin but that alone Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said That the Priests did offer Christ for the Quick and the Dead to have remission of Pain or Guilt were * blasphemous Fables and dangerous Deceits XXXI A single Life is imposed on none by the Word of God Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the estate of a single Life or to abstain from Marriage Therefore it is lawful for them as for all other Christian Men to Marry at their own discretion as they shall judg thâ— same to serve better to Godliness XXXII Excommunicated Persons are to be avoided That Person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Unity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole Multitude of the Faithful as an Heathen and Publican until he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Judg that hath Authority thereunto XXXIII Of the Tradition of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one and utterly alike for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countries Times and Mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against God's Word Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and reproved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to ordain change or abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Man's Authority so that all things be done to edifying XXXIV Of the Homilies The second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for the Times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the 6th and therefore we judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People The Names of the Homilies Of the Right Use of the Church Of Repairing Churches Against the Peril of Idolatry Of Good Works c. The Homilies lately delivered and commended to the Church of England by the King's Injunctions do contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and fit to be embraced by all Men and for that cause they are diligently plainly and distinctly to be read to the People XXXV Of the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England The Book lately delivered to the Church of England by the Authority of the King and Parliament containing the manner and form of publick Prayer and the Ministration of the Sacraments The Book of Consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering Neither hath it any thing that of it self is superstitious and ungodly And therefore whosoever are Consecrated and Ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second Year of the afore-named King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or Ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully Consecrated and Ordered in the said Church of England as also the Book published by the same Authority for ordering Ministers in the Church are both of them very pious as to truth of Doctrine in nothing contrary but agreeable to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel which they do very much promote and illustrate And for that cause they are by all faithful Members of the Church of England but chiefly of the Ministers of the Word with all thankfulness and readiness of mind to be received approved and commended to the People of God XXXVI Of the Civil Magistrates The King of England is after Christ The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Forreign Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended We give not to our Princess the Ministry either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to
were declared to be Heresies by the express and plain Words of Scripture All other Points not so decided were to be judged by the Parliament with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation This Act was in many things short of the Authority that King Henry had claimed and the severity of the Laws he had made The Title of Supream Head was left out of the Oath This was done to mitigate the Opposition of the Popish Party but besides the Queen her self had a scruple about it which was put in her Head by one Lever a famous Preacher among those of the Reformation of which Sands afterwards Bishop of Worcester complained to Parker in a Letter that is in the Collection Collection Number 2. There was no other punishment inflicted on those that denied the Queens Supremacy but the loss of their Goods and such as refused to take the Oath did only lose their Imployments whereas to refuse the Oath in King Henry's time brought them into a Praemunire and to deny the Supremacy was Treason The Bishops oppose the Queens Supremacy But against this Bill the Bishops made Speeches in the House of Lords I have seen a Speech of this kind was said to have been made by Arch-bishop Heath but it must be forgery put out in his Name for he is made to speak of the Supremacy as a new and unheard of thing which he who had sworn it so oft in King Henry's and King Edwards times could not have the face to say The rest of the Bishops opposed it the rather because they had lately declared so high for the Pope that it had been very indecent for them to have revolted so soon The Bishop of Duresme came not to this Parliament There were some hopes of gaining him to concur in the Reformation for in the Warrant the Queen afterwards gave to some for Consecrating the new Bishops he is first named and I have seen a Letter of Secretary Cecils to Parker that gives him some hope that Tonstal would joyn with them He had been offended with the Cruelties of the late Reign and though the resentments he had of his ill usage in the end of King Edwards time had made him at first concur more heartily to the restoring of Popery yet he soon fell off and declared his dislike of those violent Courses and neither did he nor Heath bring any in trouble within their Diocesses upon the account of Religion though it is hardly credible that there was no occasion for their being severe if they had been otherwise enclined to it The Bishop of Ely was also absent at the passing of this Act for though he would not consent to it yet he had done all that was prescribed by it so often before that it seems he thought it more decent to be absent than either to consent to it or to oppose it The Power that was added for the Queens Commissionating some to Execute her Supremacy gave the Rise to that Court which was commonly called the High Commission Court The beginning of the High Commission and was to be in the room of a single Person to whom with the Title of Lord Vice-gerent King Henry did delegate his Authority It seems the Clergy-men with whom the Queen consulted at this time thought this too much to be put in one Mans Hand and therefore resolved to have it shared to more Persons of whom a great many would certainly be Church-men so that they should not be altogether kept under by the hard Hands of the Laity who having groaned long under the Tyranny of an Ecclesiastical Yoke seemed now disposed to revenge themselves by bringing the Clergy as much under them for so Extreams do commonly rise from one another The Popish Clergy were now every where beginning to declaim against Innovation and Heresie Harpsfield had in a Sermon at Canterbury in February stirred the People much to Sedition and the Members belonging to that Cathedral had openly said that Religion should not nor could not be altered The Council also heard that the Prebendaries there had bought up many Arms so a Letter was written to Sir Thomas Smith to examine that matter Harpsfield was not put in Prison but received only a Rebuke There came also complaints from many other Places of many Seditious Sermons So the Queen following the Precedent her Sister had set her did in the beginning of March forbid all Preaching except by such as had a Licence under the Great Seal But lest the Clergy might now in the Convocation set out Orders in opposition to what the Queen was about to do she sent and required them under the Pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet Harpsfield that was Prolocutor with the rest of the lower House made an Address to the upper House to be by them presented to the Queen for the discharge of their Consciences They reduced the Particulars into five Articles 1. That Christ was corporally present in the Sacrament 2. That there was no other Substance there but his Body and Blood 3. That in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living 4. That St. Peter and his lawful Successors had the Power of feeding and governing the Church 5. That the Power of treating about Doctrine the Sacraments and the Order of Divine Worship belonged only to the Pastors of the Church These they had sent to the two Universities from whence they were returned with the Hands of the greatest part in them to the first four but it seems they thought it not fit to sign the last For now the Queen had resolved to have a publick Conference about Religion in the Abby-Church of Westminster The Arch-bishop of York was continued still to be of the Council so the Conference being proposed to him he after he had Communicated it to his Brethren accepted of it though with some unwillingness It was appointed that there should be nine of a side who should confer about these three Points 1. Whether it was not against the Word of God and the Custom of the Ancient Church to use a Tongue unknown to the People in the Common-Prayers and the Administration of the Sacraments 2. Whether every Church had not Authority to appoint change and take away Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Rites so the same were done to edification 3. Whether it could be proved by the Word of God that in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living All was ordered to be done in Writing The Bishops as being actually in Office were to read their Papers first upon the first Point and the Reformed were to read theirs next and then they were to exchange their Papers without any discourse concerning them for the avoiding of jangling The next day they were to read their Papers upon the second and after that upon the third Head and then they were to answer one anothers Papers The Nine on both sides were the Bishops of Winchester
the Church till they met in a Convocation yet they soon after prepared them And for the present they agreed on a short Profession of their Doctrine which all Incumbents were obliged to read and publish to their People This will be found in the Collection Coll. Num. 11. copied from it as it was then printed In the Articles made in King Edward's Reign which I have put in the Collection the Reader will find on the Margent the differences between those and these marked In the third Article the explanation of Christ's descent to Hell was left out In that about the Scriptures they now added an enumeration of the Canonical and Apocryphal Books declaring that some Lessons were read out of the latter for the Instruction of the People but not for the confirmation of the Doctrine About the Authority of the Church they now added That the Church had power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and had Authority in Controversies of Faith but still subordinate to the Scripture In the Article about the Lord's Supper there is a great deal left out for instead of that large refutation of the Corporal Presence from the impossibility of a Bodies being in more places at once from whence it follows that since Christ's Body is in Heaven the Faithful ought not to believe or profess a Real or Corporal Presence of it in the Sacrament In the new Articles it is said That the Body of Christ is given and received after a Spiritual manner and the means by which it is received is Faith But in the Original Copy of these Articles M.SS. C. Cor. Christ Cant. which I have seen subscribed by the hands of all that sat in either House of Convocation there is a further addition made The Articles were subscribed with that Precaution which was requisite in a matter of such consequence for before the Subscriptions there is set down the number of the Pages and of the Lines in every Page of the Book to which they set their hands In that Article of the Eucharist these words are added Christus in Coelum ascendens corpori suo immortalitatem dedit naturam non abstulit Humanae enim naturae veritatem juxta scripturas perpetuo retinet quam in uno definito loco esse non in multa vel omnia simul loca diffundi oportet Quum igitur Chistus in Coelum sublatus ibi usque ad finem Soeculi sit permansurus atque inde non aliunde ut loquitur Augustinus venturus sit ad judicandum vivos mortuos non debet quisquam fidelium Carnis ejus Sanguinis realem corporalem ut loquuntur praesentiam in Eucharistia vel credere vel profiteri In English thus Christ An Explanation of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament when he ascended into Heaven made his Body Immortal but took not from it the nature of a Body For still it retains according to the Scriptures the verity of a humane Body which must be always in one definite place and cannot be spread into many or all places at once Since then Christ being carried up to Heaven is to remain there to the end of the World and is to come from thence and from no place else as says St. Austin to judg the Quick and the Dead None of the Faithful ought to believe or profess the real or as they call it the corporal Presence of his Flesh and Blood in the Eucharist But this in the Original is dasht over with minium yet so that it is still legible â—uâ— 't is suppresseâ— The Secret of it was this The Queen and her Council studied as hath been already shewn to unite all into the Communion of the Church and it was alleaged that such an express definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of that Perswasion and therefore it was thought to be enough to condemn Transubstantiation and to say that Christ was present after a Spiritual manner and received by Faith to say more as it was judged superfluous so it might occasion Division Upon this these words were by common consent left out And in the next Convocation the Articles were subscribed without them of which I have also seen the Original This shews that the Doctrine of the Church subscribed by the whole Convocation was at that time contrary to the belief of a Real or Corporal Presence in the Sacrament only it was not thought necessary or expedient to publish it Though from this silence which flowed not from their Opinion but the Wisdom of that Time in leaving a Liberty for different Speculations as to the manner of the Presence some have since inferred that the chief Pastors of this Church did then disapprove of the Definition made in King Edward's Time and that they were for a Real Presence For the Translating of the Bible it was divided into many Parcels The Pentateuch was committed to William Alley Bishop of Exeter The Books from that to the second of Samuel were given to Richard Davis who was made Bishop of St. Davids when Young was removed to York All from Samuel to the second Book of Chronicles was assigned to Edwin Sandys then Bishop of Worcester From thence to the end of Job to one whose Name is marked A. P. C. The Book of the Psalms was given to Thomas Bentham Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield The Proverbs to one who is marked A. P. The Song of Solomon to one Marked A. P. E. All from thence to the Lamentations of Jeremy was given to Robert Horn Bishop of Winchester Ezekiel and Daniel to Bentham From thence to Malachi to Grindal Bishop of London The Apocripha to the Book of Wisdom was given to Barlow Bishop of Chichester and the rest of it to Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich The Gospels Acts and Epistle to the Romans were given to Richard Cox Bishop of Ely The Epistles to the Corinthians to one marked G. G. I know not to whom the rest of the New Testament was assigned All these Allotments I gather from the Bible it self as it was afterwards set out by Parker What Method they followed in this Work I cannot discover unless the Rules afterwards given in King James his Time when the Translation was revived Coll. Num. 10. were copied from what was now done which Rules for the curiosity of the thing I shall put in the Collection as I copied it from B. Ravis's Paper They were given with that care that such a matter required There were many Companies appointed for every parcel of the Scripture and every one of a Company was to translate the whole Parcel then they were to compare these together and when any Company had finished their Part they were to communicate it to the other Companies So it is like that at this Time those several Bishops that had undertaken the Translation did associate to themselves Companies with whose assistance they perfected it afterwards and when it was set out at the end
We are accounted Righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith is a most wholesome Doctrine and very full of comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification in that sense wherein it is set forth in the Homily of Justification is the most certain and most wholesome Doctrine for a Christian Man XII Of Good Works Albeit the Good Works which are the Fruits of Faith and follow after Justification cannot put away our Sins and endure the severity of God's Judgment yet are they pleasing and acceptable unto God in Christ and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith insomuch that by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a Tree discerned by the Fruit. XII Works before Justification Works done before the Grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make Men meet to receive Grace or as the School Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity yea rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the nature of Sin XIII Works of Supererrogation Voluntary Works besides over and above God's Commandments which they call Works of Supererrogation cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety for by them Men do declare that they do not only render unto God as much as they are bound to do but that they do more for his sake than of bounden Duty is required Whereas Christ saith plainly When you have done all that are commanded to you say we are unprofitable Servants XIV None but Christ without Sin Christ in the truth of our Nature was made like unto us in all things sin only excepted from which he was clearly void both in his Flesh and in his Spirit He came to be a Lamb without spot who by Sacrifice of himself once made should take away the Sins of the World and Sin as St. John saith was not in him But all we the rest although baptized and born in Christ yet offend in many things and if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us XV. Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost Not every deadly Sin willingly committed after Baptism is Sin against the Holy Ghost and unpardonable Wherefore the grant of Repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace given and fall into sin and by the Grace of God we may arise again and amend our Lives And therefore they are to be condemned which say They can no more sin as long as they live here or deny the * Place of Forgiveness place of Penance to such as truly repent XVI The Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost The Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is then committed when any Man out of malice and hardness of heart doth wilfully reproach and persecute in an hostile manner the Truth of God's Word manifestly made known unto him Which sort of Men being made obnoxious to the Curse subject themselves to the most grievous of all wickednesses from whence this kind of Sin is called unpardonable and so affirmed to be by our Lord and Saviour XVII Of Predestination and Election Predestination unto Life is the everlasting Purpose of God whereby before the Foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret unto us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen * In Christ out of Man-kind and to bring them by Christ to everlasting Salvation as Vessels made to Honour Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God's Purpose by his Spirit working in due season they through Grace obey the Calling they be justified freely they are made Sons of †God by Adoption they are made like the Image of ‖ His. the only begotten Jesus Christ they walk religiously in good Works and at length by God's Mercy they attain to everlasting felicity As the godly consideration of Predestination and Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly Persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the Works of the Flesh and their Earthly Members and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly Things as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their Faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God So for curious and carnal Persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's Predestination is a most dangerous downfal whereby the Devil doth thrust them either into desparation or into wretchlesness of most unclean living no less perilous than desparation Furthermore * Left out though the Decrees of Predestination be unknown to us yet must we receive God's Promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture and in our doings that Will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God XVIII Everlasting Salvation to be obtained only in the Name of Christ They also are to be had accursed that presume to say That every Man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his Life according to that Law and the Light of Nature For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ whereby Men must be saved XIX All Men are bound to keep the Precepts of the Moral Law Although the Law given from God by Moses as touching Ceremonies and Rites do not bind Christian Men nor the Civil Precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any Common-Wealth yet notwithstanding no Christian Man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral Wherefore they are not to be heard which teach that the Holy Scriptures were given to none but to the Weak and brag continually of the Spirit by which they do pretend that all whatsoever they preach is suggested to them though manifestly contrary to the Holy Scripture XX. Of the Church The Visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful Men in which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly ministred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same As the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their Livings and manner of Ceremonies but also in Matters of Faith XXI Of the Authority of the Church The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority
in Controversies of Faith It is not lawful for the Church c. It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation XXI Of the Authority of General Councils General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of Princes And when they are gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of Men whereof all be governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining unto God Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture XXIII Of Purgatory The Doctrine of the School-men concerning Purgatory Pardons Worshipping and Adoration as well of Images as of Reliques and also Invocation of Saints is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather perniciously repugnant to the Word of God XXIV No Man to minister in the Church except he be called It is not lawful for any Man to take upon him the Office of publick Preaching or ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judg lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this Work by Men who have publick Authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lord's Vineyard XXV All things to be done in the Congregation in such a Tongue as is understood by the People It is most fit It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the custom of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayers in the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a Tongue not understood by the People and most agreeable to the Word of God that nothing be read or rehearsed in the Congregation in a Tongue not known unto the People which Paul hath forbidden to be done unless some be present to interpret XXVI Of the Sacraments Our Lord Jesus Christ gathered his People into a Society Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only Badges and Tokens of Christian Mens Profession but rather they be certain sure Witnesses and effectual signs of Grace and God's good Will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not only quicken but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Those five commonly called Sacraments That is to say Confirmation Penance Orders Matrimony and Extream Vnction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lord's Supper for that they have not any visible Sign or Ceremony ordained of God The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed on or to be carried about but that we should duly use them And in such only as worthily receive the same they have a wholesome effect or operation but they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation as St. Paul saith by Sacraments very few in number most easie to be kept and of most excellent signification that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should duly use them And in such only as worthily receive the same they have a wholesome effect or operation not as some say Ex opere operato which terms as they are strange and utterly unknown to the Holy Scripture so do they yield a sense which savoureth of little Piety but of much Superstition but they that receive them unworthily receive to themselves damnation The Sacraments ordained by the word of God be not only Badges or Tokens of Christian Mens Profession but rather they be certain sure Witnesses effectual signs of Grace and God's good Will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not only quicken but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him XXVII The Wickedness of the Ministers takes not away the Efficacy of Divine Institutions Although in the Visible Church the Evil be ever mingled with the Good and sometimes the Evil have chief Authority in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own Name but in Christ's and do minister by his Commission and Authority we may use their Ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in receiving of the Sacraments Neither is the effect of Christ's Ordinance taken away by their wickedness nor the Grace of God's Gifts diminished from such as by Faith rightly do receive the Sacrament ministred unto them which be effectual because of Christ's Institution and Promise although they be ministred by evil Men. Nevertheless it appertaineth to the Discipline of the Church that inquiry be made after * Evil Ministers them and that they be accused by those that have knowledg of their Offences and finally being found guilty by just judgment be deposed XXVIII Of Baptism Baptism is not only a sign of Profession and mark of Difference whereby Christian Men are discerned from others that be not Christned but it is also a sign of Regeneration or New Birth whereby as by an Instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the Promises of forgiveness of sin and of our Adoption to be the Sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by virtue of Prayer unto God * The Baptism of young Children is in any wise to be retained in the Church as most agreeable to the Institution of Christ The Custom of the Church for baptising young Children is both to be commended and by all means to be retained in the Church XXIX Of the Lord's Supper The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the Love that Christians ought to have amongst themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's Death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with Faith receive the same the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ Transubstantiation or the change of the Substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy Writ * but is repugnant to the
two several times that is to say the Sundays next following Easterday and St. Michael the Arch-Angel or on some other Sunday within one month after those Feasts immediately after the Gospel FOrasmuch as it appertaineth to all Christian Men but especially to the Ministers and the Pastors of the Church being Teachers and Instructers of others to be ready to give a Reason of their Faith when they shall be thereunto required I for my part now appointed your Parson Vicar or Curat having before my Eyes the Fear of God and the Testimony of my Conscience do acknowledg for my self and require you to assent to the same I. First That there is but one living and true God of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the maker and preserver of all Things And that in Unity of this God-head there be three Persons of one Substance of equal Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. I believe also whatsoever is contained in the Holy Canonical Scriptures In the which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to Salvation by the which also all Errors and Heresies may sufficiently be reproved and convicted and all Doctrine and Articles necessary to Salvation established I do also most firmly believe and confess all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds The Nicene Creed Athanasius Creed and our Common Creed called the Apostles Creed for these do briefly contain the principal Articles of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy Scriptures III. I do acknowledg also that Church to be the Spouse of Christ wherein the Word of God is truly taught the Sacraments orderly ministred according to Christ's Institution and the Authority of the Keys duly used And that every such particular Church hath authority to institute to change clean to put away Ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical Rites as they be superfluous or be abused and to constitute other making more to Seemliness to Order or Edification IV. Moreover I confess That it is not lawful for any Man to take upon him any Office or Ministry either Ecclesiastical or Secular but such only as are lawfully thereunto called by their High Authorities according to the Ordinances of this Realm V. Furthermore I do acknowledg the Queen's Majesty's Prerogative and Superiority of Government of all Estates and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within this Realm and other her Dominions and Countries to be agreable to God's Word and of right to appertain to her Highness in such sort as is in the late Act of Parliament expressed and sithence by her Majesty's Injunctions declared and expounded VI. Moreover touching the Bishop of Rome I do acknowledg and confess that by the Scriptures and Word of God he hath no more Authority than other Bishops have in their Provinces and Diocesses And therefore the Power which he now challengeth that is to be the Supream Head of the Universal Church of Christ and so to be above all Emperors Kings and Princes is an usurped Power contrary to the Scriptures and Word of God and contrary to the Example of the Primitive Church and therefore is for most just Causes taken away and abolished in this Realm VII Furthermore I do grant and confess That the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set sorth by the Authority of Parliament is agreeable to the Scriptures and that it is Catholick Apostolick and most for the advancing of God's Glory and the edifying of God's People both for that it is in a Tongue that may be understanded of the People and also for the Doctrine and Form of ministration contained in the same VIII And although in the Administration of Baptism there is neither Exorcism Oil Salt Spittle or hallowing of the Water now used and for that they were of late Years abused and esteemed necessary Where they pertain not to the substance and necessity of the Sacrament they be reasonably abolished and yet the Sacrament full and perfectly ministred to all intents and purposes agreeable to the Institution of our Saviour Christ IX Moreover I do not only acknowledg that Privat Masses were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church I mean publick Ministration and receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest alone without a just number of Communicants according to Christ's saying Take ye and eat ye c. But also that the Doctrine that maintaineth the Mass to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead and a mean to deliver Souls out of Purgatory is neither agreeable to Christ's Ordinance nor grounded upon Doctrine Apostolick But contrary-wise most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Redemption of our Saviour Christ and his only-sufficient Sacrifice offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross X. I am of that mind also That the Holy Communion or Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the due obedience to Christ's Institution and to express the vertue of the same ought to be ministred unto the People under both kinds And that it is avouched by certain Fathers of the Church to be a plain Sacrilege to rob them of the Mystical Cup for whom Christ hath shed his most precious Blood seeing he himself hath said Drink ye all of this Considering also That in the time of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as Cyprian Hierom Augustine Gelasius and others six hundred Years after Christ and more both the Parts of the Sacrament were ministred to the People Last of all As I do utterly disallow the extolling of Images Reliques and feigned Miracles and also all kind of expressing God Invisible in the form of an Old Man or the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove and all other vain worshipping of God devised by Man's fantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures As wandering on Pilgrimages setting up of Candles praying upon Beads and such-like Superstition which kind of Works have no promise of Reward in Scripture but contrary-wise Threatnings and Maledictions So I do exhort all Men to the Obedience of God's Law and to the Works of Faith as Charity Mercy Pity Alms devout and fervent Prayer with the affection of the Heart and not with the Mouth only Godly Abstinence and Fasting Chastity Obedience to the Rulers and Superior Powers with such-like Works and godliness of Life commanded by God in his Word which as St. Paul saith hath Promises both of this Life and of the Life to come and are Works only acceptable in God's sight These things above-rehearsed though they be appointed by common Order yet do I without all compulsion with freedom of Mind and Conscience from the bottom of my Heart and upon most sure persuasion acknowledg to be true and agreeable to God's Word And therefore I exhort you all of whom I have Cure heartily and obediently to embrace and receive the same That we all joining together in unity of Spirit Faith and Charity may also at length be joined together in the Kingdom of God and that
the best Courts we shall find him better than most of them and if some few have carried their Prosperity better many more even of those who are otherwise recorded for extraordinary Persons have been guilty of far greater faults He who is but a little acquainted with History or with the Courts of Princes must needs know so much of this Argument that he will easily cure himself of any ill effects which this Prejudice may have on him A fourth Prejudice is raised from the great Invasions which were then made upon the Church-Lands and things dedicated to Pious Vses which is a thing hated by Men of all Religions and branded with the odious Names of Sacriledge and robbing of God so that the Spoils of Religious Houses and Churches seem to have been the secret Motives that at first drew in and still engage so many to the Reformation This has more weight in it than the former and therefore deserves to be more fully considered The Light of Nature teaches that those who are dedicated to the Service of God and for instructing the People ought to be so well provided for that they may be delivered from the distractions of Secular Cares and secured from the contempt which follows Poverty and be furnished with such means as may both enable them to know that well wherein they are to instruct others and to gain such an Interest in the affections of those among whom they labour as modest Hospitality and liberal Alms-giving may procure In this all Nations and Religions have so generally agreed that it may be well called a Law of Nations if not of Nature Had Church-men been contented with this measure it is very probable things had never run to the other Extream so much as they have done But as the Pope got to himself a great Principality so the rest of his Clergy defigned to imitate him in that as much as was possible they spared no pains nor thought they any Methods too bad that could set forward these Projects The belief of Purgatory and the redeeming of Souls out of it by Masses with many other publick Cheats imposed on the World had brought the Wealth of this and other Nations into their Hands Vpon the discovery of this imposture it was but a reasonable and just proceeding of the Government to re-assume those Lands and dispose otherwise of them which had been for most part fraudulently drawn from the former Ages for indeed the best part of the Soil of England being in such ill Hands it was the Interest of the whole Kingdom to have it put to better uses So that the Abbies being generally raised and endowed by the efficacy of those false Opinions which were infused into the People I can see no just exception against the dissolution of them with the Chantries and other Foundations of like superstition and the fault was not in taking them away but in not applying a greater part of them to uses truly Religious But most of these Monasteries had been enriched by that which was indeed the Spoil of the Church for in many Places the Tithes which belonged to the Secular Clergy were taken from them and by the Authority of Papal Bulls were given to the Monasteries This was the Original of the greatest mischief that came on this Church at the Reformation The Abbots having possessed themselves of the Tithes and having left to those who served the Cure either some small Donative or Stipend and at best the small Tithes or Viccarage those who purchased the Abbey-Lands from the Crown in the former Reign had them with no other charge reserved for the Incumbents but that small Pittance that the Abbots had formerly given them and this is now a much less allowance than the Curates had in the times of Popery for though they have now the same Right by their Incumbency that they then had yet in the time of Superstition the Fees of Obits Exequies Soul Masses and such other Perquisites did furnish them so plentifully that considering their obligation to remain unmarried they lived well though their certain maintenance was but small but these things falling off by the Reformation which likewise leaves the Clergy at liberty in the matter of Marriage this has occasioned much ignorance and scandal among the Clergy I shall not enter into the debate about the Divine Right of Tithes this I am sure of a decent maintenance of the Clergy is of natural Right and that it is not better looked to is a publick reproach to the whole Nation when in all other Religions and Nations those who serve at the Altar live by it The ancient Allowances for the Curates in Market Towns being generally so small because the Number and Wealth of the People made the Perquisites so considerable has made those Places to be too often but ill supplied and what way this makes for the seducers of all hands when the Minister is of so mean a condition and hath so incompetent a Maintenance that he can scarce secure himself from extream want and great contempt I leave it to every Man to judge This is as high a contempt of Religion and the Gospel as any can be and is one of those things for which this Nation has much to answer to God that now in one hundred and twenty years time so little has been done by publick Authority for the redress of such a crying oppression Some private Persons have done great things this way but the publick has yet done nothing sutable to the occasion Though their Neighbour Nation of Scotland has set them a very good Example where by the great zeal and care of King James and the late blessed King Acts and Orders of Parliament have been made for examining the whole state of the Clergy and for supplying all poor Livings so plentifully that in Glebe and Tithes all Benefices are now raised to at least fifty Pounds Sterling yearly What greater scorn can be put on Religion than to provide so scantly for those that are trusted with the care of Souls that some hundreds of Parishes in England pay not Ten Pounds a year to their Pastors and perhaps some thousands not Fifty This is to be numbred among those crying sins that are bringing down vengeance on us since by this many Souls are left to perish because it is not possible to provide them with faithful and able Shepherds I shall not examine all the particular Reasons that have obstructed the redress of this mischief but those concerned in it may soon find some of them out in themselves And here I acknowledge a great and just prejudice lies against our Reformation which no man can fully answer But how faulty soever we may be in this Particular they of the Church of Rome have little reason to object it to us since the first and true occasion of it was of their own doing Our fault is that at the dissolution of the Monasteries restitution was not made to the Parish Priests of
and Temporalty did without compulsion give their assent he remembers her what opposition the stiff-necked Papists gave him and what Rebellions they raised against him which he wonders how she came so soon to forget Adding that death had prevented him before he had finished these Godly Orders which he had designed and that no kind of Religion was perfected at his death but all was left so uncertain that it must inevitably bring on great disorders if God did not help them and that himself and many others could witness what regret their late Master had when he saw he must die before he had finished what he intended He wond'red that she who had been well bred and was learned should esteem true Religion and the knowledge of the Scriptures Newfangledness or Fantasie He desired she would turn the Leaf and look on the other side and would with an humble Spirit and by the assistance of the Grace of God consider the matter better Thus things went on till the Parliament met The Parliament meets which was summoned to meet the fourth of November The day before it met Novemb. 3. the Protector gave too publick an instance how much his prosperous success had lifted him up For by a Patent under the Great Seal Rot. Pat. 1. Reg. 7. Part. he was warranted to sit in Parliament on the Right Hand of the Throne under the Cloath of State and was to have all the Honours and Priviledges that at any time any of the Unkles of the Kings of England whether by the Fathers or Mothers side had enjoyed with a Non obstante to the Statute of Precedence The Lord Rich had been made Lord Chancellor on the 24th of October but whether the Protector or he opened the Parliament by any Speech does not appear from the Journal of the Lords House On the 10th of Decemb. Decemb. 10. a Bill was brought in for the repealing several Statutes It was read the second time on the 12th and the third time on the 16th day On the 19th 19. some Provisoes were added to it and it was sent down to the Commons who sent it up the 23d of December 23. Dec. to which the Royal Assent was given The Commons had formed a new Bill for repealing these Statutes which upon some Conferences they were willing to let fall only some Provisoes were added to the old one upon which the Bishops of London Duresme Ely Hereford and Chichester dissented An Act repealing former severe Laws The Preamble of it sets forth That nothing made a Government happier than when the Prince governed with much clemency and the Subjects obeyed out of love Yet the late King and some of his Progenitors being provoked by the unruliness of some of their People had made severe Laws but they judging it necessary now to recommend the Kings Government to the affections of the People repealed all Laws that made any thing to be Treason but what was in the Act of 25 of Edw. the 3d as also two of the Statutes about Lollardies together with the Act of the six Articles and the other Acts that followed in explanation of that All Acts in King Henry the 8th's time declaring any thing to be Felony that was not so declared before were also repealed together with the Acts that made the Kings Proclamations of equal Authority with Acts of Parliament It was also Enacted That all who denied the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes in words should for the first offence forfeit their Goods and Chattels and suffer Imprisonment during pleasure For the second offence should incur the Pain of Praemunire and for the third offence be attainted of Treason But if any did in Writing Printing or by any overt Act or Deed endeavour to deprive the King of his Estate or Titles particularly of his Supremacy or to confer them on any other after the first of March next he was to be adjudged guilty of High Treason and if any of the Heirs of the Crown should usurp upon another or did endeavour to break the Succession of the Crown it was declared high Treason in them their Aiders and Abettors And all were to enjoy the Benefit of Clergy and the Priviledge of Sanctuary as they had it before King Henry the 8th's Reign excepting only such as were guilty of Murder Poisoning Burglary Robbing on the High-way the stealing of Cattel or stealing out of Churches or Chappels Poisoners were to suffer as other Murderers None were to be accused of Words but within a Month after they were spoken And those who called the French King by the Title of King of France were not to be esteemed guilty of the Pains of translating the Kings Authority or Titles on any other In Ch. Coll. Camb. among Parkers Papers This Act was occasioned by a Speech that Arch-bishop Cranmer had in Convocation in which he exhorted the Clergy to give themselves much to the study of the Scripture and to consider seriously what things were in the Church that needed Reformation that so they might throw out all the Popish trash that was not yet cast out Upon this some intimated to him that as long as the six Articles stood in force it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council upon which they ordered this Act of Repeal By it the Subjects were delivered from many fears they were under and had good hopes of a mild Government when in stead of procuring new severe Law the old ones were let fall The Council did also free the Nation of the jealousies they might have of them by such an abridgment of their own Power But others judged it had been more for the interest of the Government to have kept up these Laws still in force but to have restrained the execution of them This Repeal drew on another which was sent from the Commons on the 20th of December and was agreed to by the Lords on the 21st It was of an Act in the 28th year of the last King by which all Laws made while his Son was under 24 years of Age might be by his Letters Patents after he attained that Age annulled as if they had never been Which they altered thus That the King after that Age might by his Letters Patents void any Act of Parliament for the future but could not so void it from the beginning as to annul all things done upon it between the making and annulling of it which were still to be lawful Deeds The next Bill of a publick nature was concerning the Sacrament Act about the Communion Which was brought in and read the first time on the 12th of Novemb. the second time on the 15th and was twice read on the 17th And on the 24th a Bill was brought in for the Communion to be received in both kinds on the third of December it was read the second time and given to the Protector on the 5th read again and given to two
be found in the Collection In end Sentence was given allowing the second Marriage in that Case and by consequence confirming the Marquess of Northampton's Marriage to his second Wife who upon that was suffered to cohabit with him Yet four years after he was advised to have a special Act of Parliament for confirming this Sentence of which mention shall be made in its due time and Place Some further advance in the Reformation The next thing that came under consideration was the great contradiction that was in most of the Sermons over England Some were very earnest to justifie and maintain all the old Rites that yet remained and others were no less hot to have them laid aside So that in London especially the People were wonderfully distracted by this variety among their Teachers The Ceremonies of Candlemass and their observance of Lent with the Rites used on Palm-Sunday Good-Friday and Easter were now approaching Those that were against them condemned them as superstitious Additions to the Worship of God invented in the dark Ages when an outward Pageantry had been the chief thing that was looked after But others set out the good use that might be made of these things and taught that till they were abolished by the Kings Authority they ought to be still observed In a Visitation that had been made when I cannot learn only it seems to have been about the end of King Henry's Reign it had been declared that Fasting in Lent was only a Positive Law Several Directions were also given about the use of the Ceremonies and some hints as if they were not to be long continued and all Wakes and Plough-Mondays were suppressed since they drew great Assemblies of People together which ended in drinking and quarrelling These I have also inserted in the Collection Number 21. having had a Copy of the Articles left at the Visitation of the Deanry of Doncaster communicated to me by the favour of a most learned Physitian and curious Antiquary Dr. Nathaniel Johnston who sent me this with several other Papers out of his generous zeal for contributing every thing in his power to the perfecting of this Work The Country People generally loved all these Shews Processions and Assemblies as things of diversion and judged it a dull business only to come to Church for Divine Worship and the hearing of Sermons therefore they were much delighted with the gayity and cheerfulness of those Rites But others observing that they kept up all these things just as the Heathens did their Plays and Festivities for their Gods judged them contrary to the gravity and simplicity of the Christian Religion and therefore were earnest to have them removed This was so effectually represented to the Council by Cranmer that an Order was sent to him about it He sent it to Bonner who being Dean of the Colledge of Bishops in the Province of Canterbury was to transmit all such Orders over the whole Province By it the carrying of Candles on Candlemass day of Ashes on Ash-Wednesday and Palms on Palm-Sunday were forbid to be used any longer And this was signified by Bonner to Thirleby Bishop of Westminster on the 28th of June as appears by the Register After this on the 6th of February A Proclamation against those who Innovated without Authority a Proclamation was issued out against such as should on the other hand rashly innovate or perswade the People from the old accustomed Rites under the Pains of Imprisonment and other Punishments at the Kings pleasure excepting only the formerly mentioned Rites to which are added the creeping to the Cross on Good-Friday taking Holy Bread and Water and any other that should be afterwards at any time certified by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the other Bishops in the Kings Name to be laid aside And for preventing the mischiefs occasioned by rash Preachers none were to preach without Licence from the King or his Visitors the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of the Diocess where they lived excepting only Incumbents preaching in their own Parishes Those who preached otherwise were to be imprisoned till Order were given for their punishment and the inferior Magistrates were required to see to the execution of these Orders This Proclamation which is in the Collection Number 22. was necessary for giving Authority to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Letters which were censured as a great presumption for him without any publick Order to appoint changes in Sacred Rites Some observed that the Council went on making Proclamations with arbitrary Punishments though the Act was repealed that had formerly given so great Authority to them To this it was answered That the King by his Supremacy might still in matters of Religion make new Orders and add Punishments upon the Transgressors yet this was much questioned though universally submitted to The general taking away of all Images Number 23. On the 11th of Feb. there was a Letter sent from the Council to the Arch-bishop for a more considerable Change There were every where great Heats about the removing of Images which had been abused to superstition Some affirming and others denying that their Images had been so abused There were in the Churches some Images of so strange a nature that it could not be denied that they had been abused Such was the Image of the Blessed Trinity which was to be censed on the day of the Innocents Processionale in Festo Innocentium by him that was made the Bishop of the Children This shews it was used on other days in which it is like it was censed by the Bishop where he was present How this Image was made can only be gathered from the Prints that were of it at that time In which the Father is represented sitting on the one hand as an old Man with a Triple Crown and Rayes about him the Son on the other hand as a young Man with a Crown and Rayes and the Blessed Virgin between them and the Emblem of the Holy Ghost a Dove spread over her Head So it is represented in a fair Book of the Hours according to the use of Sarum printed Anno 1526. The impiety of this did raise horror in most Mens Minds when that unconceivable Mystery was so grosly expressed Besides the taking the Virgin into it was done in pursuance to what had been said by some blasphemous Friars of her being assumed into the Trinity In another Edition of these it is represented by three Faces formed in one Head These things had not been set up by any publick Warrant but having been so long in practice they stood upon the general Plea that was for keeping the Traditions of the Church for it was said that the Promises made to the Church were the same in all Ages and that therefore every Age of the Church had an equal Right to them But for the other Images it was urged against them that they had been all consecrated with such Rites and Prayers that it was certain
they were every one of them superstitious since it was prayed that they might be so blessed and consecrated that whosoever worshiped them might by the Saints Prayers and Aid whom they represented obtain every thing that he desired So they resolved on an entire removal of all Images And the Protector with the Council wrote to Cranmer that for putting an end to all these Contests and that the living Images of Christ might not quarrel about the dead ones it was concluded they should all of them be taken down and he was to give order to see this executed in his own Diocess and to transmit it to the other Bishops to be in like manner executed by them There were also Orders given That all rich Shrines with all the Plate belonging to them should be brought in to the Kings use and that the Cloathes that covered them should be converted to the use of the Poor This gave Gardiner and those of his Party a new affliction For in his Diocess he had been always on their side that were for keeping up the Images But they all submitted and so the Churches were emptied of all these Pictures and Statues which had been for divers Ages the chief Objects of the Peoples Worship And now the greatest care of the Reformers was Some Restraints put on Preachers to find the best Men they could who should be licensed by the Kings Authority to preach To whom the Council sent a Letter in the beginning of May May 4. intimating that by the restraint put on preaching they only intended to put an end to the rash contentions of indiscreet Men and not to extinguish the lively Preaching of the pure Word of God Number 24. made after such sort as the Holy Ghost should for the time put in the Preachers mind They are therefore charged to preach sincerely and with that caution and moderation that the Time and Place shall require and particularly that they should not set on the People to make Innovations or to run before those whom they should obey but should perswade them to amend their Lives and keep the Commandments of God and to forsake all their old Superstitions And for the things not yet changed they ought to wait patiently and to conclude that the Prince did either allow or suffer them and in delivering things to the People they were ordered to have a special regard to what they could bear But this temper was not observed Some plainly condemned it as a political patching and said Why should not all these Superstitions be swept away at once To this it was answered by others That as Christ forbade the pulling up of the Tares lest with them they should pull up good Wheat so if they went too forwardly to the changing of things they might in that hast change much for the worse and great care was to be had not to provoke the People too much lest in the infancy of the King or in some ill conjuncture of Affairs they might be disposed to make Commotions And the compliances that both Christ and his Apostles gave to the Jews when they were to abrogaâ—e the Mosaical Law were often insisted on It was said if they who were cloathed with a Power of Miracles for the more effectual conviction of the World condescended so far it was much more reasonable for them who had not that Authority over Mens Consciences and had no immediate signs to shew from Heaven to perswade the People rather by degrees to forsake their old mistakes and not to precipitate things by an over hast This Winter there was a Committee of selected Bishops and Divines appointed for examining all the Offices of the Church and for reforming them Some had been in King Henry's time employed in the same business in which they had made a good progress which was now to be brought to a full perfection Bishops and Divines examine the Offices of the Church Therefore the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York the Bishops of London Duresme Worcester Norwich St. Asaph Salisbury Coventry and Litchfield Carlisle Bristol St. Davids Ely Lincoln Chichester Hereford Westminster and Rochester with Doctors Cox May Tailor Heins Robertson and Redmayn were appointed to examine all the Offices of the Church and to consider how far any of them needed amendment The thing they first examined was the Sacrament of the Eucharist which being the chief Symbol of Christian Communion was thought to deserve their chief care And here they managed their Enquiries in the same manner that was used in the former Reign in which when any thing was considered in order to a Change it was put into several Queries to which every one in Commission was to give his Answer in writing It is no wonder if the confusions that followed in Queen Maries Reign have deprived us of most of these Papers yet there is one Set of them preserved relating to some Questions about the Priests single communicating Whether one Mans receiving it can be useful to another What was the Oblation or Sacrifice that was made of Christ in the Mass Wherein the Mass consisted When the Priests receiving alone began Whether it was convenient to retain that and continue Masses satisfactory for departed Souls Whether the Gospel ought to be taught at the time of the Mass Whether it were convenient to have it all in a known Tongue or not And when the reserving or hanging up of the Sacrament first began To these the Bishops made their several Answers Some answered them all others answered only a few of them it is like suspending their Opinions about those which they answered not The Bishops of London Worcester Chichester and Hereford gave in their Answers once in one Paper together but afterwards they joyned with the Bishops of Norwich and St. Asaph and all those six gave a joynt Answer in one Paper Those are not all subscribed as those which I inserted in the former Volume were or at least the Papers I have are not the Originals But Cranmers Hand is over every one of them marking the Name of the Bishop to whom they belonged and Dr. Cox hath set his Hand and Seal to his Answer Number 25. By these which are in the Collection the Reader will perceive how generally the Bishops were addicted to thâ— old Superstition and how few did agree in all things with Cranmer It may be thought that these Questions were given out before the Act of Parliament passed in which the Priests single communicating is turned into a Communion of more Yet by that Act it was only provided That all who came to receive should be admitted but Priests were not forbid to Consecrate if none were to Communicate which was the thing now inquired into The Corruptions in the Office of the Communion examined It is certain there was no part of Worship more corrupted than this Sacrament was The first Institution was so plain and simple that except in the Words This is my Body
unless they were put under more Artificial Rules and dressed up with much Ceremony Gregory the Great was the first that took much care to make the Church Musick very regular and he did also put the Liturgies in another Method than had been formerly used Yet he had no such fondness of his own composures but left it to Austin the Monk whom he sent over into England when he consulted him in it either to use the Roman or French Rituals or any other as he should find they were most likely to edifie the People After this in most Sees there were great variations for as any Prelate came to be Canonized or held in high esteem by the People some private Collects or particular Forms that he had used were practised in his or perhaps as his Fame spread in the neighbouring Dioceses In every Age there were notable Additions made and all the Writers almost in the 8th and 9th Centuries employed their Fancies to find out mystical significations for every Rite that was then used and so as a new Rite was added it was no hard matter to add some Mystery to it This had made the Offices swell out of measure and there was a great variety of them Missals Breviaries Rituals Pontificals Portoises Pies Gradualls Antiphonalls Psalteries Houres and a great many more Every Religious Order had likewise their peculiar Rites with the Saints days that belonged to their Order and Services for them and the understanding how to officiate was become so hard a piece of the Trade that it was not easie to learn it exactly without a long practice in it So now it was resolved to correct and examine these It was resolved there should be a new Liturgy I do not find it was ever brought under consideration whether they should compose a Form for all the Parts of Divine Worship or leave it to the sudden and extemporary heats of those who were to officiate which some have called since that time The worshiping by the Spirit Of this way of serving God they did not then dream much less that the appointing of Forms of Prayer was an encroaching on the Kingly Office of Christ but thought what ever praying in the Spirit might have been in the Apostles time where yet every Man brought his Psalms which are a sort of Prayers as well as Praises and these look like some written Composures as St. Paul expresses it that now to pray with warm affection and sincere devotion was Spiritual Worship and that where it was the same thing that was to be daily asked of God the using the same expressions was the sign of a steady devotion that was fixed on the thing prayed for whereas the heat that new words raised looked rather like a warmth in the fancy Nor could it agree with the Principles of a Reformation that was to devest the Church-men of that unlimited Authority which they had formerly exercised over Mens Consciences to leave them at liberty to make the People pray after them as they pleased this being as great a resignation of the People when their devotion depended on the sudden heats of their Pastors as the former Superstition had made of their Faith and Conscience to them So it being resolved to bring the whole Worship of God under set Forms they set one General Rule to themselves which they afterwards declared of changing nothing for novelties sake or meerly because it had been formerly used They resolved to retain such things as the Primitive Church had practised cutting off such abuses as the later ages had grafted on them and to continue the use of such other things which though they had been brought in not so early yet were of good use to beget devotion and were so much recommended to the People by the practice of them that the laying these aside would perhaps have alienated them from the other changes they made And therefore they resolved to make no change without very good and weighty reasons In which they considered the practice of our Saviour who did not only comply with the Rites of Judaism himself but even the Prayer he gave to his Disciples was framed according to their Forms and his two great Institutions of Baptism and the Eucharist did consist of Rites that had been used among the Jews And since he who was delivering a new Religion and was authorized in the highest manner that ever any was did yet so far comply with received Practices as from them to take those which he sanctified for the use of his Church it seemed much fitter for those who had no such extraordinary warrant to give them Authority in what they did when they were reforming abuses to let the World see they did it not from the wanton desire of change or any affectation of novelty and with those resolutions they entred on their Work In the search of the former Offices they found an infinite deal of superstition in the Consecrations of Water Salt Bread Incense Candles Fire Bells Churches Images Altars Crosses Vessels Garments Palms Flowers all looked like the Rites of Heathenism and seemed to spring from the same Fountain When the Water or Salt were blessed it was expressed to be to this end that they might be health both to Soul and Body and Devils who might well laugh at these tricks which they had taught them were adjured not to come to any place where they were sprinkled and the Holy Bread was blessed to be a defence against all Diseases and snares of the Devil and the Holy Incense that Devils might not come near the smoak of it but that all who smelled at it might perceive the Vertue of the Holy Ghost and the Ashes were blessed so that all who were covered with them might deserve to obtain the remission of their sins All those things had drawn the People to such confidence in them that they generally thought that without those harder terms of true holiness they might upon such superstitious observances be sure of Heaven So all these they resolved to cast out as things which had no warrant in Scripture and were vain devices to draw Men away from a lively application to God through Christ according to the method of the Gospel Then the many Rites in Sacramental Actions were considered all which had swelled up to an infinite heap And as some of these which had no foundation in Scripture were thrown out so the others were brought back to a greater simplicity In no part of Religion was the corruption of the former Offices more remarkable than in the Priests granting Absolution to the Living and the Dead To such as Confessed the Absolution was thus granted I absolve thee in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost To which this was added And I grant to thee that all the Indulgences given or to be given thee by any Prelate with the Blessings of them all the Sprinklings of Holy Water all the Devout Beatings of thy Breast the
War for the preservation of the Protestant Religion and recovering the liberty of Germany The Ambassadors were only sent to try the Kings mind but were not empow'red to conclude any thing They were sent back with a good Answer That the King would most willingly joyn in alliance with them that were of the same Religion with himself but he desired that the matter of Religion might be plainly set down lest under the pretence of that War should be made for other Quarrels He desired them also to communicate their designs with the other Princes and then to send over others more fully empow'red Maurice seeing such Assistances ready for him resolved both to break the Emperors designs and by leading on a new League against him to make himself more acceptable to the Empire and thereby to secure the Electoral Dignity in his Family So after Magdeburg had endured a long Siege he giving a secret intimation to some Men in whom they confided perswaded them about the end of November to surrender to him and then broke up his Army but they fell into the Dominions of several of the Popish Princes and put them under very heavy Contributions This alarumed all the Empire only the Emperor himself by a fatal security did not apprehend it till it came so near him that he was almost ruined before he dreamed of any danger This Year the Transactions of Trent were remarkable Proceedings at Trent The Pope had called the Council to meet there and the first of May this year there was a Session held There was a War now broken out between the Pope and the King of France on this occasion The Pope had a mind to have Parma in his own Hands but that Prince fearing that he would keep it as the Emperor did Placentia and so he should be ruined between them implored the Protection of France and received a French Garrison for his safety Upon this the Pope cited him to Rome declaring him a Traitor if he appeared not and this engaged the Pope in a War with France At first he sent a threatning Message to that King that if he would not restore Parma to him he would take France from him Upon this the King of France protested against the Council of Trent and threatned that he would call a National Council in France The Council was adjourned to the 10th of September In the mean while the Emperor pressed the Germans to go to it So Maurice and the other Princes of the Ausburg Confession ordered their Divines to consider of the matters which they would propose to the Council The Electors of Mentz and Trier went to Trent But the King of France sent the Abbot of Bellosana thither to make a protestation that by reason of the War that the Pope had raised he could not send his Bishops to the Council and that therefore he would not observe their Decrees for they had declared in France that absent Churches were not bound to obey the Decrees of a Council for which many Authorities were cited from the Primitive time But at Trent they proceeded for all this and appointed the Articles about the Eucharist to be first examined and the Presidents recommended to the Divines to handle them according to Scripture Tradition and Ancient Authors and to avoid unprofitable curiosities The Italian Divines did not like this For they said to argue so was but an Act of the memory and was an old and insufficient way and would give great advantage to the Lutherans who were skilled in the Tongues but the School-Learning was a mystical and sublime way in which it was easier to set off or conceal matters as was expedient But this was done to please the Germans And at the sute of the Emperor the matter of Communicating in both kinds was postponed till the German Divines could be heard A safe Conduct was desired by the Germans not only from the Emperor but from the Council For at Constance John Huss and Jerome of Prague were burnt upon this pretence that they had not the Councils safe conduct and therefore when the Council of Basil called for the Bohemians they sent them a safe Conduct besides that which the Emperor gave them So the Princes desired one in the same Form that was granted by those of Basil One was granted by the Council which in many things differed from that of Basil particularly in one Clause that all things should be determined according to the Scriptures which was in that safe Conduct of Basil but was now left out In October an Ambassador from the Elector of Brandenburg came to Trent who was endeavouring to get his Son setled in the Arch-bishoprick of Magdeburg which made him more compliant In his first Address to the Council he spake of the respect his Master had to the Fathers in it without a word of submitting to their Decrees But in the Answer that was made in the Name of the Council it was said they were glad he did submit to them and would obey their Decrees This being afterwards complained of it was said that they answered him according to what he should have said and not according to what he had said But in the mean while the Council published their Decrees about the Eucharist in the first part of which they defined that the way of the Presence could hardly be expressed and yet they called Transubstantiation a fit term for it But this might be well enough defended since that was a thing as hard to be either expressed or understood as any thing they could have thought on They went on next to examine Confession and Penitence And now as the Divines handled the matter they found the gathering Proofs out of Scripture grew endless and trifling for there was not a place in Scripture where I confess was to be found but they drew it in to prove Auricular Confession From that they went on to Extream Unction But then came the Ambassadors of the Duke of Wittenberg another Prince of the Ausburg Confession and shewed their Mandate to the Emperors Ambassadors who desired them to carry it to the Presidents but they refused to do that since it was contrary to the Protestation which the Princes of their Confession had made against a Council in which the Pope should preside On the 25th of November they published the Decree of the necessity of Auricular Confession that so the Priest might thereby know how to proportion the Penance to the sin It was much censured to see it defined that Christ had instituted Confession to a Priest and not shew'd where or how it was instituted And the reason for it about the proportioning the Penance was laughed at since it was known what slight Penances were universally injoyned to expiate the greatest sins But the Ambassadors of Wirtenberg moving that they might have a safe Conduct for their Divines to come and propose their Doctrine The Legate answered that they would not upon any terms enter into any Disputation with
It was long argued at first and at the passing the Bill it was again argued but at last the Commons agreed to it The Preamble of it is a long Accusation of the Duke of Somerset for involving the King in Wars wasting his Treasure engaging him in much Debt embasing the Coin and having given occasion to a most terrible Rebellion In fine considering the great Debt the King was left in by his Father the loss he put himself to in the reforming the Coin and they finding his temper to be set wholly on the good of his Subjects and not on enriching himself therefore they give him two Tenths and two Fifteenths with one Subsidy for two years Whether the debate in the House of Commons was against the Subsidies in this Act or against the Preamble cannot be certainly known but it is probable the Debate at the engrossing the Bill was about the Preamble which the Duke of Northumberland and his Party were the more earnestly set on to let the King see how acceptable they were and how hateful the Duke of Somerset had been The Clergy did also for an expression of their affection and duty give the King six Shillings in the Pound of their Benefices There was also a Bill sent down from the Lords That none might hold any Spiritual Promotion unless he were either Priest or Deacon But after the third reading it was cast out The reason of it was because many Noblemen and Gentlemens Sons had Prebends given them on this pretence that they intended to fit themselves by Study for entring into Orders but they kept these and never advanced in their Studies upon which the Bishops prevailed to have the Bill agreed to by the Lords but could carry it no further Another Act passed for the suppressing the Bishoprick of Duresme The Bishoprick of Duresme suppressed and two new ones appon ed. which is so strangely mis-represented by those who never read more than the Title of it that I shall therefore give a more full account of it It is set forth in the Preamble That that Bishoprick being then void of a Prelate so that the Gift thereof was in the Kings pleasure and the compass of it being so large extending to so many Shires so far distant that it could not be sufficiently served by one Bishop and since the King according to his godly disposition was desirous to have Gods Holy Word preached in these Parts which were wild and barbarous for lack of good Preaching and good Learning therefore he intended to have two Bishopricks for that Diocess the one at Duresme which should have 2000 Marks Revenue and another at Newcastle which should have 1000 Marks Revenue and also to Found a Cathedral Church at Newcastle with a Deanry and Chapter out of the Revenues of the Bishoprick therefore the Bishoprick of Duresme is utterly extinguished and dissolved and Authority is given for Letters Patents to erect the two new Bishopricks together with the Deanry and Chapter at Newcastle with a Proviso that the Rights of the Deanry Chapter and Cathedral of Duresme should suffer nothing by this Act. When this Bill is considered that dissolution that was designed by it will not appear to be so sacrilegious a thing as some Writers have represented it For whosoever understands the value of old Rents especially such as these were near the Marches of an Enemy where the Service of the Tenants in the War made their Lands be set at very low rates will know that 3000 Marks of Rent being reserved besides the endowing of the Cathedral which could hardly be done under another thousand Marks there could not be so great a Prey of that Bishoprick as has been imagined Ridley as himself writes in one of his Letters was named to be Bishop of Duresme being one of the Natives of that Country but the thing never took effect For in May and no sooner was the Temporalty of the Bishoprick turned into a County-Palatine and given to the Duke of Northumberland But the Kings sickness and soon after his death made that and all the rest of these designs prove abortive How Tonstall was deprived I cannot understand It was for misprision of Treason and done by Secular Men. For Cranmer refused to meddle in it I have seen the Commission given by Queen Mary to some Delegates to examine it in which it is said That the Sentence was given only by Lay-men and that Tonstal being kept Prisoner long in the Tower was brought to his Trial in which he had neither Counsel assigned him nor convenient time given him for clearing himself and that after divers Protestations they had notwithstanding his Appeal deprived him of his Bishoprick He was not only turned out but kept Prisoner till Queen Mary set him at liberty At the end of this Parliament the King granted a free Pardon concerning which this is only remarkable That whereas it goes for a Maxime that the Acts of Pardon must be passed without changing any thing in them the Commons when they sent up this Act of Pardon to the Lords desired that some words might be amended in it but it is not clear what was done for that same day the Acts were passed and the Parliament was dissolved In it the Duke of Northumberland had carried this Point That the Nation made a publick Declaration of their dislike of the Duke of Somersets Proceedings which was the more necessary because the King had let fall words concerning his death by which he seemed to reflect on it with some concern and look'd on it as Northumberlands deed But the Act had passed with such difficulty that either the Duke did not think the Parliament well enough disposed for him or else he resolved totally to vary from the Measures of the Duke of Somerset who continued the same Parliament long whereas this that was opened on the first was dissolved on the last day of March. A Visitation for the Plate in the Churches Visitors were soon after appointed to examine what Church-plate Jewels and other Furniture was in all Cathedrals and Churches and to compare their account with the Inventories made in former Visitations and to see what was embezeled and how it was done And because the King was resolved to have Churches and Chappels furnished with that that was comely and convenient for the Administration of the Sacraments they were to give one or two Chalices of Silver or more to every Church Chappel or Cathedral as their discretions should direct them and to distribute comely Furniture for the Communion-Table and for Surplices and to sell the rest of the Linen and give it to the Poor and to sell Copes and Altar-Cloaths and deliver all the rest of the Plate and Jewels to the Kings Treasurer Sir Edm. Pecham This is spitefully urged by one of our Writers who would have his Reader infer from it that the King was ill principled as to the matters of the Church because when this Order was given by
Place to mention it here At Court many were afraid to move the King for her both the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner look'd on and were unwilling to hazard their own Interests to preserve her But as it was now printed And was preserv'd by Cranmer's means and both these appealed to Cranmer was the only Person that would adventure on it In his gentle way he told the King that she was young and indiscreet and therefore it was no wonder if she obstinately adhered to that which her Mother and all about her had been infusing into her for many Years but that it would appear strange if he should for this Cause so far forget he was a Father as to proceed to Extremities with his own Child that if she were separated from her Mother and her People in a little time there might be ground gained on her but to take away her Life would raise horror through all Europe against him By these means he preserved her at that time After her Mother's Death in June following she changed her note She submitted to her Father for besides the Declaration she then signed which was inserted in the former part of this Work she writ Letters of such submission as shew how expert she was at dissembling Three of these to her Father and one to Cromwell I have put in the Collection in which she Collect. Numb 3 4 5 6. with the most studied Expressions declaring her sorrow for her past stubbornness and disobedience to his most just and vertuous Laws implores his Pardon as lying prostrate at his Feet and considering his great Learning and Knowledg she puts her Soul in his Hand resolving that he should for ever thereafter direct her Conscience from which she vows she would never vary This she repeats in such tender words that it shews she could command her self to say any thing that she thought fit for her ends And when Cromwell writ to her to know what her Opinion was about Pilgrimages Purgatory and Reliques she assures him she had no Opinion at all but such as she should receive from the King who had her whole Heart in his keeping and he should imprint upon it in these and all other Matters whatever his inestimable Vertue high Wisdom and excellent Learning should think convenient for her So perfectly had she learned that stile that she knew was most acceptable to him Having copied these from the Originals I thought it not unfit to insert them that it may appear how far those of that Religion can comply when their Interest leads them to it From that time this Princess had been in all Points most exactly compliant to every thing her Father did And after his Death she never pretended to be of any other Religion than that which was established by him So that all that she pleaded for in her Brother's Reign was only the continuance of that way of Worship that was in use at her Father's Death But now being come to the Crown that would not content her yet when she thought where to fix she was distracted between two different Schemes that were presented to her On the one hand Gardiner and all that Party were for bringing Religion back to what it had been at King Henry's Death and afterward The Designs for changing Religion by slow degrees to raise it up to what it had been before his breach with the Papacy On the other hand the Queen of her own Inclination was much disposed to return immediately to the Union of the Catholick Church as she called it and it was necessary for her to do it since it was only by the Papal Authority that her Illegitimation was removed To this it was answered that all these Acts and Sentences that had passed against her might be annulled without taking any notice of the Pope Gardiner's Policy Gardiner finding these things had not such weight with her as he desired for she looked on him as a crafty temporizing Man sent over to the Emperor on whom she depended much to assure him that if he would perswade her to make him Chancellor and to put Affairs into his Hands he should order them so that every thing she had a mind to should be carried in time But Gardiner understood she had sent for Cardinal Pool so he writ to the Emperor that he knew his Zeal for the Exaltation of the Popedom would undo all therefore he pressed him to write to the Queen for moderating her heat and to stop the Cardinal 's coming over He said that Pool stood Attainted by Law so that his coming into England would allarm the Nation He observed that upon a double account they were averse to the Papacy The one was for the Church Lands which they had generally bought from the Crown on very easie terms and they would not easily part with them The other was The fear they had of Papal Dominion and Power which had been now for about 25 Years set out to the People as the most intollerable Tyranny that ever was Therefore he said it was necessary to give them some time to wear out these Prejudices and the precipitating of Councils might ruin all He gave the Emperor also secret Assurances of serving him in all his Interests All this Gardiner did the more warily because he understood that Cardinal Pool hated him as a false and deceitful Man Upon this the Emperor writ to the Queen several Letters with his own hand which is so hardly legible that it was not possible for me or some others to whom I shewed them to read them so well as to copy them out and one that was written by his Sister the Queen of Hungary and signed by him is no better but from many half Sentences I find that all was with a design to temper her that she should not make too much hast nor be too much led by Italian Counsels Upon the return of this Message the Seal which had been taken from Goodrick Bishop of Ely and put for some days in the keeping of Hare Master of the Rolls was on the 13th of August given to Gardiner who was declared Lord Chancellor of England He is made Chancellor and the conduct of Affairs was chiefly put in his hands So that now the measure of the Queen's Councils was to do every thing slowly and by such sure steps as might put them less in hazard The Duke of Northumb. and others Tried The first thing that was done was the bringing the Duke of Northumberland to his Trial. The old Duke of Norfolk was made Lord High Steward the Queen thinking it fit to put the first Character of honour on him who had suffered so much for being the Head of the Popish Party And here a subtle thing was started which had been kept a great Secret hitherto It was said the Duke of Norfolk had never been truly attainted and that the Act against him was not a true Act of Parliament so that without
Priest said all these things should be amended speedily and knowing that a good Dinner was the best way to temper Bishop Bonner he desired him to go and dine at his House but Bonner took it so ill Bonner's rage that Hadham which was one of his own Churches was an ill Example to those about it that he lost all patience and reaching at Dr. Bricket that was the Parson's Name to beat him he misguided the stroke which fell on Sir Thomas Josselin's Ear with great force Fecknam then Dean of Pauls in Dr. May's room studied to appease Josselin and said to him That the Bishop's being so long in the Marshalsea had so disordered him that in his Passion he knew not what he did but when he came to himself he would be sorry for what he had done Josselin answered he thought now that he was taken out of the Marshalsea he should be carried to Bedlam But Bonner continued in his Fury and though he had purposed to stay at his House there some days and had ordered Provisions to be made yet he would needs be gone though it disordered the rest of his Visitation for he came to every place sooner than he intended or had given notice The Carvers and makers of Statues had now a quick Trade for Roods and other Images which were to be provided for all Places Bonner had observed that in most Churches the Walls were painted with places of Scripture and in many places there were Passages written that either favoured the Marriage of the Clergy or were against the Corporal Presence and the Sacrifice of the Mass and the multiplicity of the Ceremonies of the Church So he did at his return send out Episcopal Letters on the 24th of October to raze all those Paintings Upon this it was generally said That the Scriptures must be dasht out to make way for the Images since they were so contrary one to another that they could not decently stand together There were many ludicrous things every where done in derision of the old Forms and of the Images Many Poems were printed with other ridiculous Representations of the Latin Service and the Pageantry of their Worship But none occasioned more laughter than what fell out at Pauls the Easter before the custom being to lay the Sacrament into the Sepulchre at the Even Song on Good-Friday and to take it out by break of day on Easter Morning At the time of the taking of it out the Quire sung these words Surrexit non est hic He is risen he is not here The Sacrament stollen But then the Priest looking for the Host found it was not there indeed for one had stollen it out which put them all in no small disorder but another was presently brought in its stead Upon this a Ballad followed that their God was stollen and lost but a new one was made in his room This Railery was so salt that it provoked the Clergy much They offered large Rewards to discover him that had stollen the Host or had made the Ballad but could not come to the knowledg of it But they resolved e're long to turn that mirth and pleasantness of the Hereticks into severe mourning And thus Matters went on to the 11th of November A New Parliament when the third Parliament was summoned In the Writ of Summons the Title of Supream Head of the Church was left out though it was still by Law united to the other Royal Titles And therefore this was urged in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign as a good reason for annulling that Parliament since it was not called by a lawful Writ Now was Cardinal Pool allowed to come into England The Emperor had this Summer brought him to Flanders where to make a-mends for the rudeness of stopping him on his way he desired him to mediate a Peace between France and him but that had no effect It soon appeared that all things were so well prepared by Gardiner's Policy and the Spanish Gold that it would be an easy Matter to carry every thing in this Session The Lord Paget and the Lord Hastings were sent from the King and Queen to bring the Cardinal over At the opening of the Parliament it was an unusual sight to see both King and Queen ride in state and come into it with two Swords of State and two Caps of Maintenance carried before them The Swords were carried one by the Earl of Pembroke the other by the Earl of Westmoreland and the Caps by the Earls of Arundel and Shrewsbury The first Bill put into the Lords House was the Repeal of the Attainder of Cardinal Pool The Attainder of Cardinal Pool repealed it began on the 17th and was sent down to the Commons on the 19th who read it three times in one day and sent it up This Bill being to be passed before he could come into England it was questioned in the House of Commons Whether the Bill could be passed without making a Session which would necessitate a Prorogation It was resolved it might be done so on the 22d the King and Queen came and passed it It set forth that the only reason of his Attainder was because he would not consent to the unlawful Separation and Divorce between King Henry and his most godly vertuous and lawful Wife Queen Katherine Therefore they considering the true and sincere Conscience of the Cardinal in that Point and his other many godly Vertues and Qualities did repeal that Act. He comes to Eondon On the 24th he came to London but without the Solemnities of a Legates Entry because the Pope's Authority was not yet set up by Law What Cardinal Pool Instructions were I do not know nor is it fully understood by Learned Men what was the Power of a Legat a Latere in those Days But I found in the King 's Paper Office the Original Bull of Cardinal Beaton's Legatine Power in Scotland which it seems was intercepted by some of the King's Ships in the passage bâ— Sea thither or was sent up to London by those who killed him anâ— possessed themselves of his Castle and Goods And I having mentioned this Bull to those Learned Men by whose direction I have governed my self in this Work I did by their advice give it a room in the Collection Col. Number 17. though it be large since no doubt Cardinal Pool's Bull was in the same form In it the Reader will clearly perceive what Authoâ—iâ—â— was lodged in the Legats to overthrow and dispense with almost all tâ—â— Rules and Canons of the Church only some peculiar things which were more conspicuously scandalous were still reserved to the Apostolick See it self whose singular Priviledg it has been always esteemed to dispense with the best things and allow of the worst so the Pretenders to those Graces payed proportionably for them this Authority was too Sacred to be trusted even to a Legat it being the Prerogative of the Popes themselves to be the most eminent
run so fast that the Bishops themselves were forced to moderate their Heats They all understood how much the Queen was set upon having the Church raised as high as could be and saw there was nothing so effectual to recommend any to her Favour as to move high in these Matters And though their Motions were thought too violent and rejected yet their Affections were thereby discovered so that they knew they should be looked on as Men deeply engaged in these Interests An Act declaring Treasons After this the Bill of Treasons was brought in This was also argued for some days in the House of Commons but at last agreed to By it any who denied the King's Right to the Title of the Crown with the Queen's or endeavoured to put him from it together with them that did several other Offences were to forfeit all their Goods and to be imprisoned during Life and Clergy Men were to be deprived by their Ordinaries In these cases the second Offence was to be Treason But if any should compass the King's Death and utter it by any overt Deed during his Marriage to the Queen the first Offence of this kind should be Treason It was also enacted that the Parliament having petitioned the King that if the Queen died with any Issue he would take on him the Government of them till they came of Age to which he had assented therefore if the Queen died before her Children came to be of Age the Government of the Kingdom should be in the King's Hands if it were a Son till he were eighteen or if a Daughter till she was fifteen Years of Age And in all that time the conspiring his Death was to be Treason The Witnesses were to be brought before the Parties and none was to be tried for any words but within six months after they were spoken Another against seditious words Another Act passed upon a Report made of some Heretical Preachers who had as was informed prayed in their Conventicles that God would turn the Queen's Heart from Idolatry to the true Faith or else shorten her days and take her quickly out of the way All therefore that so prayed for taking away the Queen's Life were to be judged Traitors but if they shewed themselves penitent for such Prayers they were not to be condemned of Treason but put to any Corporal Punishment other than Death at the Judges Discretion This was passed in great haste for it was thrice read in the House of Lords and passed on the 16th of January in which the Parliament was Dissolved There was another Act past against those that spread Lying Reports of any Noblemen Judges or great Officers that such as spread them should be imprisoned till they brought their Authors according to former Acts. If any spread such Reports of the King and Queen they were to be set on a Pillory and pay 100 l. or have their Ears cut off and be three months Prisoners and they were to pay 100 Merks and suffer one months Imprisonment though they had Authors for them if they reported them maliciously But if their Reports tended to the stirring of any Insurrection they were to lose their right Hands and upon a second Offence to suffer Imprisonment during their Lives but they were to be proceeded against within three months after the words so spoken All the Bills being ended the Parliament was dissolved on the 16th of January to Gardiner's Gardiner is in great esteem no small joy He had now performed all that he had undertaken to the Queen or the Emperor Upon which he had the Reputation that he was formerly in of a great Statesman and a dextrous manager of Affairs much confirmed and raised since he had brought about in so small a time so great a change where the Interests of those who consented to it seemed to lead them another wav To those who had apprehended the Tyranny of Rome he had said That as our former Kings had always kept it under in a great measure so there was less danger of that now since they saw that all Princes had agreed to preserve their own Rights entire against the Pope's Pretensions He shewed them that therefore all the Old Laws against Provisions from Rome were still kept in force And so upon Cardinal Pool's being called over there was a Commission sent him under the Great Seal bearing date the 10th of November authorising him to exercise his Legatine Power in England By this he shewed them that no Legat should ever come into England to execute any Power till his Faculties were seen and approved by the Queen Others thought this was but a vain Imagination for if the Papacy were once fully established and People again brought under the old Superstition of esteeming the Popes Christ's Vicars and the infallible Heads of the Church it would not be possible to retain the People in their Obedience since all the assistance that the Princes of Christendom of this time had from their Subjects in their Wars with the Popes flowed chiefly from this that they generally did no more submit implicitly to their Priests But if once that blind Obedience were restored it would be easy for the Priests by their privat dealings in Confession to overturn Governments as they pleased But that which stuck most was That the Church Lands were Great fear about the Church-Lands by the Cannon Law so indissolubly annexed to the Church that they could not be separated from it To this it was answered that they should secure it by a Law at Rome and should confirm all the Alienations that had been made both by consent of the Clergy and by the Pope's Authority committed to the Legat. Yet even that did not satisfy many who found some Laws in the Canon so strict that the Pope himself could not dispence with them If the Legate did it the Pope might refuse to confirm it and then it was nothing and what one Pope did another often recalled So it was said that this Confirmation was but an Artifice to make it pass the more easily Besides all observed that in the Cardinal's Confirmation of those Lands there was a charge given to all to be afraid of the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazar for using the Holy Vessels which was to pardon the thing and yet to call it a Sacrilege for which they might look for the Vengeance of God So that the Cardinal did at the same time both bind and loose and it was plain both by that Clause and the Repeal of the Statute of Mortmain that it was designed to possess People with the Opinion of the Sin of retaining Church-Lands It was thought this Confirmation was rather an Indemnity and Permission to keep them than a declaring the Possessors had any lawful Title to them So that when Men were near Death and could no longer enjoy those Lands themselves it was not to be doubted but the Terrors of Sacrilege and the Punishments due to it with
Extremity and Rigour And on the 25th there was a solemn Procession through London there went first 160 Priests all in their Copes eight Bishops next and last of all came Bonner himself carrying the Host to thank God for reconciling them again to his Church and Bonefires were burning all the Night And to keep up a constant remembrance of it it was ordered that St. Andrew's day should be still observed as the Anniversary of it and be called The Feast of the Reconciliation and Processions with all the highest Solemnities they at any time use were to be on that day They begin with Rogers and others But now they turned wholly to the Prosecution of the Hereticks There had been thirty of them taken at a Meeting near Bow Church where one Rose a Minister gave them the Communion according to the English Book of Service so they were all put in Prison On the 22d of January Rogers with others were brought before the Council He had been a Prebendary of Pauls and in a Sermon after the Queen was come to London had zealously asserted the Doctrine he had formerly preached and as it has been shewn was confined to his House upon the Tumult that had been at Pauls He was much pressed to fly over into Germany but he would not hearken to it though the Necessities of ten Children were great Temptations He was esteemed one of the most Learned of the Reformers so that when those of the Convocation were required to Dispute they desired that Ridley and he might be suffered to come and join with them It was resolved to begin with him and some others at the Council-Board to see if they could be easily brought over He was accordingly brought before the Council where being asked by Gardiner Whether he would knit himself to the Catholick Church and receive the Pope as the Supream Head He said He knew no other Head of the Church but Christ and for the Pope Who refusing to comply he had no more Authority in England than any other Bishop either by the Word of God or the Authority of the Church for 400 Years after Christ But they objecting that he had acknowledged King Henry to be Supream Head He answered He never acknowledged him so to be Supream as to forgive Sins bestow the Holy Ghost or be a Judg above the Word of God But as he was going to explain himself Gardiner pressed him to Answer plainly He Objected to Gardiner That all the Bishops had for many Years preached against the Pope Gardiner said They were forced to it by the Cruelty of the Times but they would Argue no more with him Now Mercy was offered if he rejected it Justice must come next Rogers said If they had been pressed to deny the Pope's Power by Cruelty would they now by the same Motives force others to acknowledg it for his part he would never do it Other ten were called in one after another and only one of them by the Lord Effingham's Favour was let go upon a general Question if he would be an Honest Man but all the rest answering resolutely were sent back to Prison and were kept much stricter than formerly none being suffered to come near them On the 28th of January the Bishops of Winchester London Duresm Were judged Salisbury Norwich and Carlisle sat in St. Mary Overies in Southwark where Hooper was first brought before them It needs not to be doubted but Bonner remembred that he had informed against him when he was deprived in King Edward's Time He had been summoned to appear before the Queen soon after she came to the Crown and it was pretended he owed her great Sums of Mony Many advised him not to appear for that it was but a pretence to put him and a great many more in Prison where they would be kept till Laws were made to bring them out to a Stake But he would not with-draw so now he and Mr. Rogers were singled out and begun with They were asked Whether they would submit or not they both refused to submit Rogers being much pressed and continuing firm in his Resolutions Gardiner said It was vain-glory in him to stand out against the whole Church He protested it was his Conscience and not Vain-glory that swayed him for his part he would have nothing to do with the Antichristian Church of Rome Gardiner said by that he condemned the Queen and the whole Realm to be of the Church of Antichrist Rogers said The Queen would have done well enough if it had not been for his counsel Gardiner said the Queen went before them in those Counsels which proceeded of her own motion Rogers said He would never believe that The Bishop of Carlisle said they could all bear him witness to it Rogers said they would all witness for one another Upon that the Comptroller and Secretary Bourn being there stood up in Court and attested it Then they asked Rogers What he thought of the Sacrament He said It was known he had never medled in that Matter and was suspected by some to be of a contrary Opinion to many of his Brethren but yet he did not allow of their Corporal Presence He complained that after he had been confined half a Year in his House they had kept him a Year in Newgate without any Fault for they could not say he had broken any of their Laws since he had been a Prisoner all the while so that meerly for his Opinion they were now proceeding against him They gave Hooper and him time till next morning to consider what they would do but they continuing in their former Resolution were declared obstinate Hereticks And Condemned and appointed to be degraded and so to be delivered into the Sheriffs hands Hooper was only degraded from the Order of Priesthood Then Rogers desired he might be suffered to speak with his Wife concerning his ten Children They answered She was not his Wife and so denied it Upon this they were led away to Newgate On the 4th of February early in the morning Rogers was called upon to make ready for Smithfield He was so fast asleep that he was not easily awakened he put on his Cloaths carelesly being as he said Rogers Martyrdom so soon to lay them off When he was brought to Bonner to be degraded he again renewed his desire to see his Wife but could not obtain it He was led to Smithfield where he was not suffered to make any Speech to the People so in a few words he desired them to continue in that Doctrine which he had taught them and for which he had not only patiently suffered all the bitterness and cruelty that had been exercised on him but did now most gladly resign up his Life and give his Flesh to the consuming Fire for a testimony to it He repeated the 51 Psalm and so fitted himself for the Stake A Pardon was brought if he would recant but he chose to submit to that severe but short
consent This could not come in time to Rome vvhereon the 23d of that month Caraffa vvas chosen Pope who was called Paul the Fourth Paul the 4th chosen Pope and vvho vvas as different from his Predecessor as any Man could be He had put on an appearance of great strictness before and had set up a Religious Order of Monks called Theatines But upon his coming to the Popedom he put on the greatest Magnificence possible and was the highest Spirited and bloodiest Pope that had been since Julius the Second's Time He took it for a great Honour that on the day of his Election the English Ambassadors entred Rome The English Embassadors come to Rome with a great Train of 140 Horse of their own Attendants On the 23 of June in the first Consistory after he was Crowned they were heard They fell prostrate at his Feet and acknowledged the Steps and Faults of their Schism enumerating them all for so the Pope had ordered it confessing they had been ungrateful for the many Benefits they had received from that Church and humbly asking pardon for them The Pope held some Consultation whether he should receive them since in their Credentials the Queen stiled her self Queen of Ireland that Title being assumed by King Henry in the Time of Schism It seemed hard to use such Ambassadors ill but on the other hand he stood upon his Dignity and thought it belonged only to his See to erect Kingdoms therefore he resolved so to temper the Matter that he should not take notice of that Title but should bestow it as a Mark of his Favour So on the 7th of June he did in private erect Ireland into a Kingdom and conferred that Title on the King and Queen and told them that otherwise he would not suffer them to use it in their Publick Audience And it is probable it was the Contest about this that made the Audience be delaied almost a month after their Arrival This being adjusted he received the Ambassadors graciously and pardoned the whole Nation and said That in Token of his esteem of the King and Queen he gave them the Title of the Kingdom of Ireland by that Supream Power which he had from God who had placed him over all Kingdoms to supplant the Contumacious and to build new ones But in his private Discourses with the Ambassadors he complained that the Church-Lands were not restored which he said was by no means to be endured The P. presses the restoring of the Church Lands for they must render all back to the last farthing since they belonged to God and could not be kept without their incurring Damnation He said he would do any thing in his power to gratifie the King and Queen but in this his Authority was not so large as to prophane the things dedicated to God This would be an Anathema and a Contagion on the Nation which would bring after it many Miseries History of the Council of Trent therefore he required them to write effectually about it he repeated this to them every time he spake to them and told them also that the Peter-pence must be paid in England and that he would send a Collector to raise it he himself had been imployed in that office when he was young and he said he was much edified to see the forwardness of the People especially those of the meaner sort in paying it and told them they must not expect S. Peter would open Heaven to them so long as they usurped his Goods on Earth The Ambassadors seeing the Pope's haughty temper that he could endure no contradiction answered him with great submission and so gained his Favour much but knew well that these things could not be easily effected and the Viscount Montacute was too deeply concerned in the matter himself to sollicit it hard for almost his whole Estate consisted of Abby Lands Thus was this business rather laid over than fully setled But now to return to the Affairs in England Instructions sent to the Justices for earching after all susâ—ected of Heresie There came Complaints from all places that the Justices of Peace were remiss in the matters of Religion and particularly in Norfolk that these things were ill looked to So Instructions were sent thither which will be found in the Collections requiring the Justices to divide themselves into ten or twelve Districts that they might more narrowly look into all particulars Collect. Numb 19. that they should encourage the Preachers sent to instruct that County and turn out such as did not come to Church or conform in all things but chiefly the Preachers of Heresie that the Justices and their Families should be good examples to the rest that they should have one or two in every Parish to be secretly instructed for giving information of every thing in it and should look strictly to all vagabonds that wandred about and to such as spread false reports This was thought to have so much of the Inquisition in it that it was imputed to the Counsels of the Spaniards And they seem'd to have taken their pattern from the base Practices of those called Delatores that are set out by Tacitus as the greatest abuse of Power that ever was practised by the ill Emperors that succeeded Augustus who going into all companies and complying with what might be acceptable to them engaged Men into discourses against the State and then gave such Informations against them which without their discovering themselves by being brought to prove them were made use of to the ruin of the accused Persons This was certainly very contrary to the freedom of the English temper and helpt to alienate them the more from the Spaniards But it may be easily imagined that others were weary of severities when Bonner himself grew averse to them He complained Bonner grows unwilling to persecute any more that the matter was turned over upon him the rest looking on and leaving the execution of these Laws wholly to him So when the Justices and Sheriffs sent up Hereticks to him 1554. But is required to proceed by the King and Queen he sent them back and refused to meddle further Upon which the King and Qâ—een writ to him on the 24th of May complaining of this and admonished him to have from henceforth more regard to the Office of a good Pastor and Bishop and when such Offenders were brought to him to endeavour to remove them from their Errors or if they were obstinate to proceed against them according to Law This Letter he caused to be put in his Register from whence I copied it and have placed it in the Collections Coll. Number 20. Whether he procured this himself for a colour to excuse his Proceedings or whether it was sent to him by reason of his slackness is not certain but the latter is more probable for he had burnt none during five weeks but he soon redeemed that loss of time The Queens delivery is expected
he said they were Mathew Mark Luke and John that were still shut up for the People longed much to see them abroad She answered him as pleasantly she would first talk with themselves and see whether they desired to be set at such liberty as he requested for them A Consultation about the change of Religion Now the two great things under Consultation were Religion and Peace For the former some were appointed to consider how it was to be Reform'd Beal a Clerk of the Council gave advice to Cecil that the Parliaments under Queen Mary should be declared void the first being under a force as was before related and the Title of Supream Head being left out of the Summons to the next Parliament before it was taken away by Law from whence he inferred that both these were not lawfully held or duly summoned and this being made out the Laws of King Edward were still in force but this was laid aside as too high and violent a way of proceeding since the annulling of Parliaments upon little errors in Writs or some particular disorders was a Precedent of such consequence that to have proceeded in such a manner would have unhinged all the Government and security of the Nation More moderate Courses were thought on The Queen had been bred up from her Infancy with a hatred of the Papacy and a Love to the Reformation But yet as her first Impressions in her Fathers Reign were in favour of such old Rites as he had still retained so in her own Nature she loved State and some Magnificence in Religion as well as in every thing else She thought that in her Brothers Reign they had stript it too much of external Ornaments and had made their Doctrine too narrow in some Points therefore she intended to have some things explained in more general terms that so all Parties might be comprehended by them She inclined to keep up Images in Churches and to have the manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament left in some general words that those who believed the Corporal Presence might not be driven away from the Church by too nice an Explanation of it Nor did she like the Title of Supream Head she thought it imported too great a Power and came too near that Authority which Christ only had over the Church These were her own private thoughts She considered nothing could make her Power great in the World abroad so much as the uniting all her People together at home Her Fathers and her Brothers Reign had been much distracted by the Rebellions within England and she had before her Eyes the Instance of the Coldness that the People had expressed to her Sister on all occasions for the maintaining or recovering of the Dominions beyond Sea Therefore she was very desirous to find such a Temper in which all might agree She observed that in the Changes formerly made particularly in renouncing the Papacy and making some Alterations in Worship the whole Clergy had concurred and so she resolved to follow and imitate these by easie steps There was a long Consultation had about the Method of the Changes she should make The substance of which shall be found in the Collection in a Paper where in the way of Question and Answer A Method of doing it proposed Collection Number 1. the whole design of it is laid down This Draught of it was given to Sir William Cecil and does exactly agree with the account that Cambden gives of it That Learned and Judicious Man has written the History of this Queens Reign with that Fidelity and Care in so good a Stile and with so much Judgment that it is without question the best part of our English History but he himself often says that he had left many things to those who should undertake the History of the Church therefore in the Account of the beginnings of this Reign as I shall in all things follow him with the credit that is due to so extraordinary a Writer so having met with some things which he did not know or thought not necessary in so succinct a History to enlarge on I shall not be afraid to write after him though the Esteem he is justly in may make it seem superfluous to go over these matters any more It seemed necessary for the Queen to do nothing before a Parliament were called The Heads of it for only from that Assembly could the affections of the People be certainly gathered The next thing she had to do was to ballance the dangers that threatned her both from abroad and at home The Pope would certainly excommunicate and depose her and stir up all Christian Princes against her The King of France would lay hold of any opportunity to embroil the Nation and by the assistance of Scotland and of the Irish might perhaps raise troubles in her Dominions Those that were in Power in Queen Maries time and remained firm to the old Superstition would be discontented at the Reformation of Religion the Bishops and Clergy would generally oppose it and since there was a necessity of demanding Subsidies they would take occasion by the discontent the People would be in on that account to inflame them and those who would be dissatisfied at the retaining of some of the old Ceremonies would on the other hand disparage the Changes that should be made and call the Religion a Cloak'd-Papistry and so alienate many of the most zealous from it To remedy all these things it was proposed to make Peace with France and to cherish those in that Kingdom that desired the Reformation The Curses and Practises of Rome were not much to be feared In Scotland those must be encouraged who desired the like change in Religion and a little Money among the Heads of the Families in Ireland would go a great way And for those that had borh Rule in Queen Maries time ways were to be taken to lessen their credit throughout England they were not to be too soon trusted or employed upon pretence of Turning but those who were known to be well affected to Religion and the Queens Person were to be sought after and encouraged The Bishops were generally hated by the Nation It would be easie to draw them within the Statute of Praemunire and upon their falling into it they must be kept under it till they had renounced the Pope and consented to the Alterations that should be made The Commissions of the Peace and for the Militia were to be carefully reviewed and such Men were to be put in them as would be firm to the Queens Interests When the Changes should be made some severe punishments would make the rest more readily submit Great care was to be had of the Universities and other publick Schools as Eaton and Winchester that the next Generation might be betimes seasoned with the Love and Knowledge of Religion Some learned Men as Bill Parker May Cox Whitehead Grindall Pilkington and Sir Thomas Smith were to be ordered
on the Dead or cast the burthen of it wholly upon her Sister But she assured them if ever she married she would make such a Choice as should be to the satisfaction and good of her People She did not know what credit she might yet have with them but she knew well she deserved to have it for she was resolved never to deceive them Her People were to her in stead of Children and she reckoned her self married to them by her Coronation They would not want a Successor when she died and for her part she should be well contented that the Marble should tell Posterity HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN She took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her hearty thanks for the care the Commons had of her The Journals of the House of Lords are imperfect so that we find nothing in them of this matter yet it appears that they likewise had it before them for the Journals of the House of Commons have it marked that on the fifteenth of February there was a Message sent from the Lords desiring that a Committee of thirty Commoners might meet with twelve Lords to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen should marry The Committee was appointed to treat concerning it but it seems the Queen desired them to turn to other things that were more pressing for I find nothing after this entred in the Journals of this Parliament concerning it On the ninth of February the Lords past a Bill for the Recognizing of the Queens Title to the Crown They recognize her Title to the Crown It had been considered whether as Queen Mary had procured a former Repeal of her Mothers Divorce and of the Acts that passed upon it declaring her Illegitimate the like should be done now The Lord Keeper said The Crown purged all defects and it was needless to look back to a thing which would at least cast a reproach on her Father the enquiring into such things too anxiously would rather prejudice than advance her Title So he advised that there should be an Act passed in general words asserting the lawfulness of her descent and her Right to the Crown rather than any special Repeal Queen Mary and her Council were careless of King Henry's Honour but it became her rather to conceal than expose his Weakness This being thought both Wise and Pious Council the Act was conceived in general Words That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and of the Realm she was their lawful Queen and that she was rightly lineally and lawfully descended from the Royal Blood and that the Crown did without all doubt or ambiguity belong to her and the Heirs to be lawfully begotten of her Body after her and that they as representing the Three Estates of the Realm did declare and assert her Title which they would defend with their Lives and Fortunes This was thought to be very wise Council for if they had gone to repeal the Sentence of Divorce which passed upon her Mothers acknowledging a Precontract they must have set forth the force that was on her when she made that Confession and that as it was a great dishonour to her Father so it would have raised discourses likewise to her Mothers prejudice which must have rather weakned than strengthened her Title And as has been formerly observed this seems to be the true reason why in all her Reign there was no Apology printed for her Mother There was another Act passed for the restoring of her in Blood to her Mother by which she was qualified as a private Subject to succeed either to her Grand-fathers Estate or to any others by that Blood But for the matters of Religion the Commons began The Acts that were passed concerning Religion and on the fifteenth of February brought in a Bill for the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church On the 21st a Bill was read for annexing the Supremacy to the Crown again and on the 17th of March another Bill was brought in confirming the Laws made about Religion in King Edwards time and on the 21st another was brought in That the Queen should have the Nomination of the Bishops as it had been in King Edwards time The Bill for the Supremacy was past by the Lords on the 18th of March the Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute and the Bishops of London Winchester Worcester Landaffe Coventry and Litchfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting But afterwards the Commons annexed many other Bills to it as that about the Queens making Bishops not according to the Act made in King Edwards time but by the old way of Elections as it was Enacted in the 25th Year of her Fathers Reign with several Provisoes which passed in the House of Lords with the same dissent By it all the Acts past in the Reign of King Henry for the abolishing of the Popes Power are again revived and the Acts in Queen Maries time to the contrary are repealed There was also a Repeal of the Act made by her for proceeding against Hereticks They revived the Act made in the first Parliament of King Edward against those that spoke irreverently of the Sacrament and against private Masses and for Communion in both kinds And declared the Authority of Visiting Correcting and Reforming all things in the Church to be for ever annexed to the Crown which the Queen and her Successors might by her Letters Patents depute to any Persons to exercise in her Name All Bishops and other Ecclesiastieal Persons and all in any Civil Imployment were required to swear that they acknowledged the Queen to be the Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions that they renounced all Forreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and true Allegiance Whosoever should refuse to swear it was to forfeit any Office he had either in Church or State and to be from thenceforth disabled to hold any Imployment during Life And if within a Month after the end of that Session of Parliament any should either by discourse or in writing set forth the Authority of any Forreign Power or do any thing for the advancement of it they were to forfeit all their Goods and Chattels and if they had not Goods to the value of twenty Pounds they were to be Imprisoned a whole year and for the second offence they were to incur the Pains of a Praemunire and the third offence in that kind was made Treason To this a Proviso was added That such Persons as should be Commissioned by the Queen to Reform and Order Ecclesiastical Matters should judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so Judged by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or by any other General Council in which such Doctrines
Litchfield Chester Carlisle and Lincoln and Doctors Cole Harpsfield Langdale and Chedsey on the Popish side and Scory late Bishop of Chichester Cox Whitehead Grindal Horn Sands Guest Almer and Jewel for the Protestants The last of March was appointed to be the first day of Conference where the Privy Council was to be present and the Lord Keeper was to see that they should not depart from the Rules to which they had agreed The noise of this drew vast numbers of People to so unusual a sight it being expected that there should be much fairer dealings now than had been in the Disputes in Queen Maries time The whole House of Commons came to hear it as no doubt the Lords did also though it is not marked in their Journal At their meeting the Bishop of Winchester said their Paper was not quite ready and pretended they had mistaken the Order But Dr. Cole should deliver what they had prepared though it was not yet in that order that they could copy it out The Secret of this was the Bishops had in their private Consultations agreed to read their Paper but not to give those they called Hereticks a Copy of it They could not decently refuse to give a publick account of their Doctrine but they were resolved not to enter into Disputes with any about it This seemed to be the giving up of the Faith if they should suffer it again to be brought into question Besides they look'd on it as the Highest Act of Supremacy for the Queen to appoint such Conferences for she and her Council would pretend to judge in these Points when they had done disputing For these Reasons they would not engage to make any Exchange of Papers The Lord Keeper took notice that this was contrary to the Order laid down at the Council Board to which the Arch-bishop of York had in their Names consented But they pretending they had mistaken the Order Cole was appointed to deliver their Minds which he did in a long Discourse the greatest part of which he read out of a Book that will be found in the Collection Collection Number 4. For though they refused to deliver a Copy of it yet Parker some way procured it among whose Papers I found it The Substance of it was Arguments for the Latin Service That although it might seem that the Scriptures had appointed the Worship of God to be in a known Tongue yet that might be changed by the Authority of the Church which had changed the Sabbath appointed in the Scripture without any Authority from thence Christ washed his Disciples Feet and bid them do the like yet this was not kept up Christ Instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood after Supper and yet the Church appointed it to be received fasting so had the Church also given it only in one kind though Christ himself gave it in both And whereas the Apostles by Authority from the Holy Ghost commanded all Believers to abstain from Blood yet that was not thought to oblige any now and though there was a Community of Goods in the Apostles times it was no obligation to Christians to set up that now so that this matter was in the Power of the Church And since the Church of Rome had appointed the Latin Service to be every where used it was Schismatical to separate from it for according to Ireneus all Churches ought to agree with her by reason of her great Preeminence Upon which they run out largely to shew the mischiefs of Schism both in France Spain Germany and in other Countries And for the Brittains and Saxons of England their first Apostles that converted them to Christianity were Men of other Nations and did never use any Service but that of their Native Language All the Vulgar Tongues did change much but the Latin was ever the same and it was not fit for the Church to be changing her Service The Queen of Ethiopia's Eunuch read Isaiah's Book though he understood it not upon which God sent Philip to him to expound it So the People are to come to their Teachers to have those things explained to them which they cannot understand of themselves There were many Rites in the Jewish Religion the signification whereof the People understood as little then as the Vulgar do the Latin now and yet they were commanded to use them The People were to use their private Prayers in what Tongue they pleased though the publick Prayers wâ—â—â— put up in Latin and such Prayers may be for their profit though they understand them not as absent Persons are the better for the Prayers which they do not hear much less understand They said it was not to be thought that the Holy Ghost had so long forsaken his Church and that a few lately risen up were to teach all the World They concluded that they could bring many more Authorities but they being to defend a Negative thought it needless and would refer these to the Answers they were to make Arguments against it When this was done the Lord Keeper turned to those of the other side and desired them to read their Paper Horn was appointed by them to do it He began with a short Prayer to God to enlighten their minds and with a Protestation that they were resolved to follow the Truth according to the Word of God Then he read his Paper which will be also found in the Collection Collection Number 3. They founded their Assertion on St. Pauls words who in the 14th Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians had treated on that Subject of set purpose and spake in it not only of Preaching but of Praying with the Understanding and said that the Unlearned were to say Amen at the giving of Thanks From that Chapter they argued that St. Paul commanded that all things should be done to Edification which could not be by an unknown Language He also charged them that nothing should be said that had an uncertain sound and that as the sound of a Trumpet must be distinct so the People must understand what is said that so they might say Amen at the giving of Thanks He also required those that spake in a strange Language and could not get one to interpret to hold their peace since it was an absurd thing for one to be a Barbarian to others in the Worship of God and though the speaking with strange Tongues was then an extraordinary Gift of God yet he ordered that it should not be used where there was no Interpreter They added that these things were so strictly commanded by St. Paul that it is plain they are not indifferent or within the Power of the Church In the Old Testament the Jews had their Worship in the Vulgar Tongue and yet the new Dispensation being more Internal and Spiritual it was absurd that the Worship of God should be less understood by Christians than it had been by the Jews The chief end of Worship is according to
had been left out in his second Liturgy as favouring the Corporal Presence too much and in stead of them these words were ordered to be used in the distribution of that Sacrament Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving and Drink this in remembrance that Christs Blood was shed for thee and be thankful They now joyned both these in one Some of the Collects were also a little altered and thus was the Book presented to the House But for the Book of Ordination it was not in express terms named in the Act which gave an occasion afterwards to question the lawfulness of the Ordinations made by that Book But by this Act the Book that was set out by King Edward and confirmed by Parliament in the fifth Year of his Reign was again authorized by Law and the Repeal of it in Queen Maries time was made void So the Book of Ordinations being in that Act added to the Book of Common-Prayer it was now legally in force again as was afterwards declared in Parliament upon a Question that was raised about it by Bonner The Bill that was put in on the 15th of February concerning the new Service being laid aside a new one was framed and sent up by the Commons on the 18th of April and debated in the House of Lords Debates about the Act of Ueiformity Heath made a long Speech against it rather Elegant than Learned He enlarged much on the several Changes which had been made in King Edward's time he said that both Cranmer and Ridley changed their Opinions in the matter of Christ's presence he called Ridley the most notably learned Man that was of that way These Changes he imputed to their departing from the Standard of the Catholick Church he complained much of the robbing of Churches the breaking of Images and the Stage-Plays made in mockery of the Catholick Religion Upon all these Reasons he was against the Bill The Bishop of Chester spake also to it He said the Bill was against both Faith and Charity that Points once defined were not to be brought again into question nor were Acts of Parliament Foundations for a Churches Belief he enlarged on the Antiquity of their Forms and said it was an insolent thing to pretend that our Fathers had lived in Ignorance The Prophets oftentimes directed the Israelites to ask of their Fathers Matters of Religion could not be understood by the Laity It was of great consequence to have their Faith well grounded Jeroboam made Israel to Sin when he set up a new way of Worship and not only the Orthodox but even the Arrian Emperours ordered that points of Faith should be examined in Councils Gallio by the light of Nature knew that a Civil Judge ought not to meddle with matters of Religion In the Service-Book that was then before them they had no Sacrifice for their Sins nor were they to adore Christ in the Host and for these reasons he could not agree to it but if any thought he spoke this because of his own concern or pittied him for what he might suffer by it he would say in the words of our Saviour Weep not for me Weep for your selves After him spake Fecknam Abbot of Westminster He proposed three Rules by which they should judge of Religion it 's Antiquity its constancy to it self the influence it had on the Civil Government he said the old Religion began in the time of King Lucius according to Gildas the Book now proposed was not used before the two last years of King Edward the one was always the same the other was changed every second year as appeared in the point of the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament there had been great Order and Obedience in Queen Maries Reign but now every where great Insolences were committed by the People with some very indecent Prophanations of the most holy things he recommended to them in St. Austines words the adhering to the Catholick Church the very name Catholick which Hereticks had not the confidence to assume shewed their Authority The Consent of the whole Church in all Ages with the perpetual Succession of Pastors in St. Peter's Chair ought to weigh more with them than a few new Preachers who had distracted both Germany and England of late Thus I have given the substance of their Speeches being all that I have seen of that side I have seen none at all on the other side tho it is not probable but some were made in defence of the Service as well as these were against it But upon this Occasion I shall set down the substance of the second Paper which the Reformed Divines had prepared on the second point for the Conference about the Authority of every particular Church to change or take away Ceremonies I do not put it in the Collection because I have not that which the Papists prepared in Opposition to it But the heads of this Paper were as followeth Arguments for the Changes made in the Service It is clear by the Epistles which St. Paul writ to the Corinthians and other Churches that every Church has Power in it self to order the Forms of their Worship and the administration of the Sacraments among them so as might best tend to Order Edification and Peace The like Power had also the seven Angels of the Churches to whom St. John writ And for the first three Ages there was no General Meeting of the Church in Synods but in those times the neighbouring Pastors and Bishops by mutual advice rather than Authority ordered their affairs and when Heresies sprung up they condemned them without staying for a General Determination of the whole Church There were also great differences among them in their Customs as about observing Lent and Easter Ceremonies grew too soon to a great number When Errors or Abuses appeared private Bishops reformed their own Diocesses So those who came in the room of Arrian Bishops even when that Heresie was spread over all the East and the See of Rome it self was defiled with it yet reformed their own Churches Ambrose finding the custom of Feasting in Churches on the Anniversaries of the Martyrs gave occasion to great Scandals took it away Even in Queen Maries time many of the old Superstitions of Pilgrimages and Reliques which had been abolish'd in King Henry's time were not then taken up again from which they argued that if some things might be altered why not more So that if there was good reason to make any Changes it could not be doubted but that as Hezekiah and Josiah had made by their own power so the Queen might make Reformations which were not so much the setting up of new things as the restoring of the state of Religion to what it was anciently which had been brought in by consent of Parliament and Convocation in King Edward's time The Rules they offer'd in this Paper about Ceremonies were that
being so meanly qualified that he could not serve her in that high station but in any other inferiour Office he should be ready to discharge his Duty to her in such a Place as was suitable to his infirmity But in the conclusion he submitted himself to Her pleasure In the end he was with great difficulty brought to accept of it So on the 8th day of July the Conge d' Elire was sent to Canterbury and upon that on the 22d of July a Chapter was summoned to meet the first of August where the Dean and Prebendaries meeting they according to a method often used in their Elections did by a Compromise refer it to the Dean to name whom he pleased and he naming Doctor Parker according to the Queen's Letter they all confirmed it and published their Election singing Te Deum upon it On the 9th of September the Great Seal was put to a Warrant for his Consecration directed to the Bishops of Duresm Bath and Wells Peterborough Landaff and to Barlow and Scory stiled only Bishops not being then elected to any Sees requiring them to Consecrate him From this it appears that neither Tonstal Bourn nor Pool were at that time turned out It seems there was some hope of gaining them to obey the Laws and so to continue in thâ—ir Sees EFFIGIES MATTHAEI PARKERI ARCHIEPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS R. White sculp Natus Nordorici 1504 August 6. Decanê° Lincoln sub Edrardo VI. Consecr Archiep. Cantuariensis 1559 Dec. 17. Obijt 1575. Maij 17. Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in St. Pauls Church yard I have given the more distinct Account of these Promotions The Fable of the Nags-head confuted because of a most malicious Slander with which they were asperst in after-times It was not thought on for forty years after this But then it was forged and publish'd and spread over the World with great confidence That Parker himself was not legally nor truly Consecrated The Author of it was said to be one Neale that had been sometime one of Bonner's Chaplains The Contrivance was that the Bishop of Landaff being required by Bonner not to Consecrate Parker or to give Orders in his Diocess did thereupon refuse it Upon that the Bishops Elect being met in Cheapside at the Nags-head-Tavern Neale that had watch'd them thither peep'd in through an hole of the Door and saw them in great disorder finding the Bishop of Landaff was intractable But as the Tale goes on Scory bids them all kneel and he laid the Bible upon every one of their Heads or Shoulders and said Take thou Authority to Preach the Word of God sincerely and so they rose up all Bishops This Tale came so late into the World that Sanders and all the other Writers in Queen Elizabeth's time had never heard of it otherwise we may be sure they would not have concealed it And if the thing had been true or if Neale had but pretended that he had seen any such thing there is no reason to think he would have suppressed it But when it might be presumed that all those persons were dead that had been present at Parker's Consecration then was the time to invent such a Story for then it might be hoped that none could contradict it And who could tell but that some who had seen Bishops go from Bow-Church to dine at that Tavern with their Civilians as some have done after their Confirmation might imagine that then was the time of this Nags-head-Consecration If it were boldly said one or other might think he remembred it But as it pleased God there was one then living that remembred the contrary The old Earl of Nottingham who had been at the Consecration declared it was at Lambeth and described all the Circumstances of it and satisfied all reasonable men that it was according to the Form of the Church of England The Registers both of the See of Canterbury and of the Records of the Crown do all fully agree with his Relation For as Parker's Conge d' Elire with the Queen's Assent to his Election and the Warrant for his Consecration are all under the Great Seal So upon the Certificate made by those who Consecrated him the Temporalties were restored by another Warrant also enrolled which was to be shewed in the House of Lords when he took his Place there Besides that the Consecrations of all the other Bishops made by him shew that he alone was first Consecrated without any other And above all other Testimonies the Original Instrument of Archbishop Parker's Consecration lies still among his other Papers in the Library of Corpus Christi College at Cambridge which I saw and read It is as manifestly an Original Writing Coll. Numb 9. as any that I ever had in my hands I have put it in the Collection for the more full discovery of the Impudence of that Fiction But it served those ends for which it was designed Weak people hearing it so positively told by their Priests came to believe it and I have my self met with many that seemed still to give some credit to it after all that clear Confutation of it made by the most Ingenious and Learned Bishop Bramhall the late Primat of Ireland Therefore I thought it necessary to be the larger in the Account of this Consecration and the rather because of the influence it hath into all the Ordinations that have been since that time derived down in this Church Some excepted against the Canonicalness of it because it was not done by all the Bishops of the Province and three of the Bishops had no Sees when they did it and the fourth was only a Suffragan-Bishop But to all this it was said That after a Church had been over-run with Heresy those Rules which were to be observed in its more setled state were always superseded as appears particularly when the Arrian Bishops were turned out of some great Sees for the Orthodox Bishops did then ordain others to succeed them without judging themselves bound by the Canons in such Cases And Bishops that had been rightly Consecrated could certainly derive their own Character to others whether they were actually in Sees or not And a Suffragan-Bishop being Consecrated in the same manner that other Bishops were tho he had a limited Jurisdiction yet was of the same Order with them All these things were made out with a great deal of Learning by Mason who upon the publishing of that Fiction wrote in Vindication of the English Ministry Thus were the Sees filled the Worship Reformed and the Queen's Injunctions sent over England Three things remained yet to be done The first was To set out the Doctrine of the Church as it had been done in King Edward's Time The second was To Translate the Bible and publish it with short Notes And the third was To regulate the Ecclesiastical Courts The Bishops therefore set about these And for the first Though they could not by publick Authority set out the Articles of
said Alms whereby they may buy some kind of Stuff by the working sale and gains whereof they may repay the Sum borrowed and also well relieve themselves or else the said Church-Wardens to buy the Stuff themselves and pay the Poor for their working thereof and after sale of the same to return the Sum with the Gain to the said Chest there to remain to such-like use Item Forasmuch as heretofore you have not by any means diligence or study advanced your selves unto knowledg in God's Word and his Scriptures condignly as appertaineth to Priests and Dispensators of God's Testament to the intent you may hereafter be of better ability to discharge your selves towards God and your Offices to the World you shall daily for your own study and knowledg read over diligently and weigh with judgment two Chapters of the New Testament and one of the Old in English and the same shall put in ure and practice as well in living as preaching at times convenient when occasion is given Item Forasmuch as Drunkenness Idleness Brawls Dissention and many other Inconveniences do chance between Neighbour and Neighbour by the assembly of People together at Wakes and on the Plough Mundays it is therefore ordered and enjoined That hereafter the People shall use make or observe no more such Wakes Plough Mundays or drawing of the same with any such Assembly or Rout of People or otherwise as hath been accustomed upon pain of forfeiting to the King's Highness 40 s. for every Default to be paid by the Owner of the Plough and Housholder whereunto the said Plough is drawn or Wakes are kept The Names of the Visitors Sir John Markham John Hearn Thomas Gragrave Roger Tongue William Moreton Edmund Farley Number 22. A Proclamation against those that do innovate alter or leave down any Rite or Ceremony in the Church of their private Authority and against them which Preach without License Set forth the 6th day of February in the Second Year of the King's Majesty's most gracious Reign Ex Reg. Cranmer Fol. 111. THe King's Majesty by the advice of his most entirely beloved Vncle the Duke of Somerset Governor of his most Royal Person and Protector of all his Realms Dominions and Subjects and others of his Counsel Considering nothing so much to tend to the disquieting of this Realm as diversity of Opinions and variety of Rites and Ceremonies concerning Religion and worshipping of Almighty God and therefore studying all the ways and means which can be to direct this Church and the Cure committed to his Highness in one and most true Doctrine Rite and Vsage yet is advertised That certain private Curats Preachers and other Lay-men contrary to their bounden Duties of Obedience do rashly attempt of their own and singular Wit and Mind in some Parish-Churches and otherwise not only to perswade the People from the old and accustomed Rites and Ceremonies but also themselves bringeth in new Orders every one in their Church according to their Phantasies the which as it is an evident token of Pride and Arrogance so it tendeth both to Confusion and Disorder and also to the high displeasure of Almighty God who loveth nothing so much as Order and Obedience Wherefore his Majesty straitly chargeth and commandeth That no manner of Person of what Estate Order or Degree soever he be of his private Mind Will or Phantasie do omit leave done change alter or innovate any Order Rite or Ceremony commonly used and frequented in the Church of England and not commanded to be left undone at any time in the Reign of Our late Soveraign Lord his Highness Father other than such as his Highness by the Advice aforesaid by his Majesty's Visitors Injunctions Statutes or Proclamations hath already or hereafter shall command to be omitted left innovated or changed but that they be observed after that sort as before they were accustomed or else now sith prescribed by the Authority of his Majesty or by the means aforesaid upon pain That whosoever shall offend contrary to this Proclamation shall injure his Highness Indignation and suffer Imprisonment and other gxievous Punishments at his Majesty's Will and Pleasure Provided always that for not bearing a Candle upon Candlemass-day not taking Ashes upon Ash-wednesday not bearing Palm upon Palm-Sunday not creeping to the Cross not taking Holy Bread or Holy Water or for omitting other such Rites and Ceremonies concerning Religion and the Vse of the Church which the most Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by his Majesty's Will and Commandment with the Advice aforesaid hath declared or hereafter shall declare to the other Bishops by his Writing under Seal as heretofore hath been accustomed to be omitted or changed no Man hereafter be imprisoned nor otherwise punished but all such things to be reputed for the observation and following of the same as though they were commanded by his Majesty's Injunctions And to the intent that rash and seditious Preachers should not abuse his Highness People it is his Majesty's Pleasure That whosoever shall take upon him to Preach openly in any Parish-Church Chappel or any other open place other than those which he licensed by the King's Majesty or his Highness Visitors the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury or the Bishops of the Diocess where he doth preach except it be Bishop Parson Vicar Dean Warden or Provost in his or their own Cure shall be forthwith upon such attempt and preaching contrary to this Proclamation be committed to Prison and there remain until such time as his Majesty by the advice aforesaid hath taken order for the further punishment of the same and that the Premises should be more speedily and diligently done and performed his Highness giveth straitly in Commandment to all Iustices of Peace Mayors Sheriffs Constables Headborroughs Church-wardens and all other his Majesty's Officers and Ministers and Rulers of Towns Parishes and Hamlets that they be diligent and attendent to the true and faithful execution of this Proclamation and every part thereof according to the intent purport and effect of the same And that they of their proceedings herein or if any Offender be after they have committed the same to Prison do certifie his Highness the Lord Protector or his Majesty's Council with all speed thereof accordingly as they tender his Majesty's Pleasure the Wealth of the Realm and will answer to the contrary at their uttermost perils God save the King Number 23. An Order of Council for the Removing of Images AFter our right hearty Commendations to your good Lordship Regist Cranmer Fol. 32. where now of late in the King's Majesty's Visitation among other Godly Injunctions commanded to be generally observed throughout all Parts of this his Highness Realm one was set forth for the taking down all such Images as had at any time been abused with Pilgrimages Offerings or Censings Albeit that this said Injunction hath in many parts of the Realm been well and quietly obeyed and executed yet in many other places much strife and
God's Quarrel by mean of which my presence many things should be stated that for Superiority and otherwise in times past hath been occasion of disagreement amongst Princes Albeit peradventure the greatest respect shall not now be had hereunto nor this be the best Elective to win the Cardinals Favour wherein you must therefore use your self by your wisdoms as you shall see the time season and care to require assuring them for the removing of the doubt in changing of the See or not speedy repair thither that after the Election once passed and notified to me I would not fail by God's Grace within three months to be in Rome there and in the parts thereabout to remain during my Life whereof ye may make faithful assurance By these and other good means and promises on the King's behalf of large Rewards which his Highness referreth to your discretion and is contented to perform that which ye do therein It is not to be doubted but that you shall obtain the Favours of many of them so as if respect may be had to the Honour of the See Apostolic and the Surety of Italy the Tranquility of Christendom the Defence of the same against the Infidels the Exaltation of the Faith the Persecution of Christ's Enemies the Increase and Weal of the College of Cardinals with their Advancement and Promotion gentle frank and liberal entertainment of them and generally to the benefit of all Holy Church The King's Grace supposeth his mind and desire herein with your good means diligence and sollicitations is not unlike to take good effect wherein for the more authority and better conducing of your purpose the pleasure of his Grace is That you join with the Emperor's Ambassadors as far as you may see and perceive them to favour this the King's Intent like-as his Grace thinketh that according to the often Conferences Communications Promises and Exhortations made by the Emperor to me in this behalf and according to my said Lady Margaret's desire or offer they have commandment to do In the politick handling of all which Matters the King's Highness putteth in you his special trust and confidence so to order your self in the Premises as you shall perceive to accord with the inward desire of his Grace and the state and disposition of the thing there for which purpose his Grace hath furnished you at this time jointly or severally with two sundry Commissions the one general for me and in my favour by the which you have ample Authority to bind and promise on the King's behalf as well gift of Promotions as also as large sums of Mony to as many and such as you shall think convenient and as sure ye may be whatsoever ye shall promise bind his Grace and do in that behalf his Highness will inviolably observe keep and perform the other special as afore Letters to the College of two effects the one for the Cardinal de Medices and the other for me with other particular Letters in my favour all which his pleasure is That you shall use in manner and form aforesaid that is to say If you shall perceive the Affair of the Cardinal de Medicis to be in such perfect train that he is like to have the same Dignity ye then proceed to that which may be his furtherance using nevertheless your particular labour for me if you think it may do good after such sort as ye shall not conceive any ingratitude or unkindness therein And if you may see that the said Cardinal de Medicis be not in such great likelihood thereof then considering that as the King's Grace and I think verily he will do his best for me ye shall effectually set forth your practices for attaining and winning as many Friends for me as possible may be delivering your Letters for the Intent as you shall see cause Wherein you being now furnished for both Purposes and also having one of the Commissions general and indifferent without any Person therein specially recommended things be to be done or omitted as you shall know to stand with the state or commodity of the Affairs there with the Ground of the King's Mind to you now declared shall be your best and perfect Instruction and as you shall do or know herein so the King's Grace desireth you often and speedily to advertise me by your Letters having no doubt but that his Highness will see your travels diligence and pains in this behalf so to be considered as you shall have cause to think the same well employed and bestowed And my Lord of Bath as you do know well because Mr. Pace at the time of the last Vacation was sent purposely from hence with Commission and Instruction for that Matter the King and I supposing that upon knowledg of this news he being at Milan would incontinently repair unto Rome hath therefore made the foresaid Commissions and also this Letter to be directed unto you jointly and severally willing you in such substantial and discreet wise to proceed in that Matter not forbearing any thing that may be to the furtherance thereof as his Grace and my special Trust is in you And thus most heartily fare you well At my Mannor of Hampton-Court the 4th day of October The rest is the Cardinal 's own Hand MY Lord of Bath the King hath willed me to write unto you That his Grace hath a marvellous Opinion of you and you knowing his mind as you do his Highness doubteth not but this Matter shall be by your Policy set forth in such wise as that the same may come to the desired effect not sparing any reasonable Offers which is a thing that amongst so many needy Persons is more regarded than per-case the Qualities of the Person ye be wise and ye wot what I mean trust your self best and be not seduced by fair words and specially of those which say what they will desire more their own preferment than mine Howbeit great dexterity is to be used and the King thinketh that all the Imperials shall be clearly with you if Faith be in the Emperor The young Men which for the most part being needy will give good ears to fair Offers which shall be undoubtedly performed the King willeth you neither to spare his Authority or his good Mony or Substance You may be assured whatsoever you promise shall be performed and our Lord send you good speed Your loving Friend T. Cardinalis Eborac Number 49. A Memorial given by the King's Majesty with the Advice of his Highness Council to the Lord Russel Lord Privy-Seal the Lord Paget of Beaudesert Sir William Petre Kt. and one of his Highness two Principal Secretaries and Sir John Mason Kt. his Majesty's Secretary for the French Tongue being sent at this present in Commission to treat and conclude upon a Peace with certain Commissioners sent from the French King at this time for the same purpose An Original EDWARD R. Cotton Libr. Caligula E. 1 FIrst As touching the Place of their Meeting
clam Autographum surripuerat 5. Septemb. Anno Dom. 1553. Number 9. The Conclusion of Cardinal Pool's Instructions to Mr. Goldwell sent by him to the Queen An Original Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. FOr the conclusion of all that is comprised in your Instruction as that the which containeth the whole Sum of my poor Advice and Counsel it pleaseth her Grace to ask of me you shall say That my most humble desire is that in all deliberation her Grace shall make touching the maintenance of her State the same will ever well ponder and consider what the Providence of God hath shewed therein above that which hath been shewed in her Predecessors Kings of this Realm in this one Point which is to have the Crown not only as a King's Daughter and Heir but hath ordered that this Point of right Inheritance shall depend as it doth of the Authority he hath given to his Church and of the See of Rome which is the See Apostolick approving her Mother to be Legitimate Wife of King Henry the Eighth whereby she is bound afore God and Man as she will show her self the very Daughter of the said King Henry the Eighth right Heir of the Crown so also to show her self right Daughter of the Church and of them that be resident in the See Apostolick who be the right Heirs of Peter to whom and his Successors Christ chief Head of the Church in Heaven and in Earth hath given in Earth to bear his Place touching the Rule of the same Church and to have the Crown thereof which well considered and pondered her Grace shall soon see how in her Person the Providence of God hath joined the Right she hath by her Father in the Realm with the Right of the Church that she cannot prevail by the one except she join the other withal and they that will separate these two take away not only half her Right but her whole Right being not so much Heir because she is King Henry's only Daughter without Issue Male as she is his lawful Daughter which she hath by the Authority of the Church Which thing prudently and godly considered she cannot but see what faithful counsel this is That above all Acts that in this Parliament shall be made doth advertise her Grace to establish that the which pertaineth to the establishing of the Authority of the Church and the See of the same what rendering to him that is right Successor to Peter therein his right Title of Head in the Church in Earth without the which she cannot be right Head in the Realm and this established all Controversy is taken away and who will repine unto this he doth repine unto her right of the Crown Wherefore this is my first Advice That this Point above all other should be entreated and enacted in the Parliament and so I know her Graces full mind was and is that it should be But she feareth Difficulties and hereupon dependeth that her Grace asketh my poor Advice how these Difficulties may be taken away Unto this you may say That they must be taken away by the help of him that by his high Providence above Man's expectance hath given her already the Crown Which will have as well this second Act known of the maintainance thereof to depend of him as the first in attaining thereto And to have his help the mean is by humble Prayer wherein I would advertise her Highness not only to give her self to Prayer but also by Alms to the needy excitate the Minds of others to Prayer these be the means of most efficacy and with this to take that ardent Mind to establish the Authority of the Church casting away all fear of Man that she to be to have her Crown and not so much for her own sake as for the Honour of God which gave her the Crown And if any Difficulty should be feared in the Parliament herein leave the honour to take away the difficulty thereof to none other but assume that person to her self as most bound thereto and to propone that her self which I would trust to be of that efficacy that if inwardly any Man will repugn outwardly the Reasons be so evident for this part that joined with the Authority of her Person being proponent none will be so hardy temerarious nor impious that will resist And if in this deliberation it should seem strange to put forth these Matters in the Parliament as I have said in the Instructions without communicating the same with any of her Council I would think it well her Grace might confer it with two of the chiefest that be counted of the People most near her favour one Spiritual and another Temporal with declaring to them first how touching her Conscience afore God and her Right afore the World she can never be quiet until this Matter be stablished touching the Authority of the Church requiring their uttermost help in that as if she should fight for the Crown her Majesty may be sure she putting the same forth with that earnest manner they will not lack to serve her and they may serve quietly in the Parliament after her Grace hath spoken to prosecute and justify the same with efficacy of words to give all others example to follow her Grace leaving this part unto them That if the Name of Obedience to the Pope should seem to bring as it were a Yoke to the Realm or any other kind of servitude beside that it should be profitable to the Realm both afore God and Man that her Grace that bringeth it in again will never suffer it nor the Pope himself requireth no such thing And herein also that they say That my Person being the Mean to bring it in would never agree to be an Instrument thereof if I thought any thraldom should come thereby they shall never be deceived of me And if they would say beside I would never have taken this Enterprize upon me except I thought by the same to bring great Comfort to the Country wherein the Pope's Authority being accepted I would trust should be so used that it might be an Example of Comfort not only to that Country but to all other that hath rejected it afore and for that cause hath been ever since in great misery This is the sum of all my poor Advice at this time in this Case whereof I beseech Almighty God so much may take effect as shall be to his Honour and Wealth to her Grace and the whole Realm besides Amen Number 10. A Copy of a Letter with Articles sent from the Queens Majesty unto the Bishop of London and by him and his Officers at her gracious Commandment to be put in speedy execution with effect in the whole Diocess as well in places exempt as not exempt whatsoever according to the Tenour and Form of the same Sent by the Queen's Majesty's Commandment in the Month of March Anno Dom. 1553. By the QUEEN RIght Reverend Father in God Right trusty and well-beloved We
in the possession of the Temporality that it may please your good Lordships by your discreet Wisdoms to foresee and provide that by this our Grant nothing pass which may be prejudicial or hurtful to any Bishop or other Ecclesiastical Person or their Successors for or concerning any Action Right Title or Interest which by the Laws of this Realm are already grown or may hereafter grow or rise to them or any of them and their Successors for any Lands Tenements Pensions Portions Tithes Rents Reversions Service or other Hereditaments which sometime appertained to the said Bishops or other Ecclesiastical Persons in the Right of their Churches or otherwise but that the same Right Title and Interest be safe and reserved to them and every of them and their Successors according to the said Laws And further whereas in the Statute passed in the first Year of Edward the Sixth for the suppressing of all Colleges c. Proviso was made by the said Statute in respect of the same Surrender that Schools and Hospitals should have been erected and founded in divers parts of this Realm for the good education of Youth in Vertue and Learning and the better sustentation of the Poor and that other Works beneficial for the Common-Weal should have been executed which hitherto be not performed according to the meaning of the said Statute it may please your good Lordships to move the King 's and the Queen 's most Royal Majesty and the Lord Cardinal to have some special consideration for the due performance of the Premises and that as well the same may the rather come to pass as the Church of England which heretofore hath been hononourably endowed with Lands and Possessions may have some recovery of so notable Damages and Losses which she hath sustained It may please their Highness with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same to repeal make frustrate and void the Statute of Mortmayn made in the seventh Year of Edward the First otherwise intituled de Religiosis and the Statute concerning the same made the 15th Year of King Richard the Second And all and every other Statute and Statutes at any time heretofore made concerning the same And forasmuch as Tythes and Oblations have been at all times assigned and appointed for the sustentation of Ecclesiastical Ministers and in consideration of the same their Ministry and Office which as yet cannot be executed by any Lay Person so it is not meet that any of them should perceive possess or enjoy the same That all Impropriations now being in the hands of any Lay Person or Persons and Impropriations made to any secular use other than for the maintenance of Ecclesiastical Ministers Universities and Schools may be by like Authority of Parliament dissolved and the Churches reduced to such State as they were in before the same Impropriations were made And in this behalf we shall most humbly pray your good Lordships to have in special Consideration how lately the Lands and Possessions of Prebends in certain Cathedral Churches within this Realm have been taken away from the same Prebends to the use of certain private Persons and in the lieu thereof Benefices of notable value impropriated to the Cathedral Churches in which the said Prebends were founded to the no little decay of the said Cathedral Churches and Benefices and the Hospitality kept in the same Farther Right Reverend Fathers we perceiving the godly forwardness in your good Lordships in the restitution of this noble Church of England to the pristine State and Unity of Christ's Church which now of late Years have been grievously infected with Heresies perverse and schismatical Doctrine sown abroad in this Realm by evil Preachers to the great loss and danger of many Souls accounting our selves to be called hither by your Lordships out of all parts of the Province of Canterbury to treat with your Lordships concerning as well the same as of other things touching the State and Quietness of the same Church in Doctrine and in Manners have for the furtherance of your godly doing therein devised these Articles following to be further considered and enlarged as to your Lordships Wisdoms shall be thought expedient Wherein as you do earnestly think many things meet and necessary to be reform'd so we doubt not but your Lordships having respect to God's Glory and the good Reformation of things amiss will no less travel to bring the same to pass And we for our part shall be at all times ready to do every thing as by your Lordships Wisdoms shall be thought expedient 1. We design to be resolved Whether that all such as have preach'd in any part within this Realm or other the King and Queen's Dominions any Heretical Erroneous or Seditious Doctrine shall be called before the Ordinaries of such Places where they now dwell or be Benefic'd and upon examination to be driven to recant openly such their Doctrine in all Places where they have preach d the same And otherwise Whether any Order shall be made and Process to be made herein against them according to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church in such Case used 2. That the pestilent Book of Thomas Cranmer late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury made against the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and the Schismatical Book called The Communion Book and the Book of Ordering of Ecclesiastical Ministers all suspect Translations of the Old and New Testament the Authors whereof are recited in a Statute made the Year of King Henry the Eighth and all other Books as well in Latin as in English concerning any Heretical Erroneous or Slanderous Doctrine may be destroyed and burnt throughout this Realm And that publick Commandment be given in all Places to every Man having any such Books to bring in the same to the Ordinary by a certain day or otherwise to be taken and reputed as a favourer of such Doctrine And that it may be lawful to every Bishop and other Ordinary to make enquiry and due search from time to time for the said Books and to take them from the Owners and Possessors of them for the purpose abovesaid 3. And for the better repress of all such pestilent Books That Order may be taken with all speed that no such Books may be printed uttered or sold within this Realm or brought from beyond the Seas or other parts into the same upon grievous pains to all such as shall presume to attempt the contrary 4. And that the Bishops and other Ordinaries may with better speed root up all such pernicious Doctrine and the Authors thereof We desire that the Statutes made Anno quinto of Richard the Second Anno secundo of Henry the Fourth and Anno secundo of Henry the Fifth against Hereticks Lollards and false Preachers may be by your Industrious Suit reviv'd and put in force as shall be thought convenient And generally that all Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Ordinaries may be restored to their Pristine
or any of them shall be found as well in Printers Houses and Shops as elsewhere willing you and every of you to search for the same in all Places according to your discretions And also to enquire hear and determine all and singular Enormities Disturbances Misbehaviours Misdemeanours and Negligences done suffered or committed in any Church Chappel or other hallowed Place within this Realm And also for and concerning the taking away or the with-holding of any Lands Tenements Goods and Ornaments Stocks of Mony or other things belonging to any of the same Churches and Chappels and all Accompts and Reckonings concerning the same And also to enquire and search out all such Persons as obstinately do refuse to preach the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar to hear Mass or come to their Parish or other convenient Places appointed for Divine Service and all such as refuse to go in Processions to take Holy Water or Holy Bread or otherwise do misuse themselves in any Church or other Hallowed Place wheresoever any of the same Offences have been or hereafter shall be committed within this Our said Realm Nevertheless Our Will and Pleasure is That when and as often as any Person or Persons hereafter to be called or convented before you do obstinately persist or stand in any manner of Heresy or heretical Opinions that then ye or three of you do immediately take order that the same Person or Persons so standing or persisting be delivered and committed to his Ordinary there to be used according to the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Laws And also We give unto you or three of you full Power and Authority to enquire and search out all Vagabonds and Masterless Men Barretors Quarrellers and suspect Persons Vagrant or abiding within the City of London or ten miles compass of the same and all Assaults and Affrays done and committed within the same City and Compass And further to search out all Wastes Decays and Ruines of Churches Chancels Chappels Parsonages and Vicarages in whatsoever Diocess the same be within this Realm Giving to you or any three of you full Power and Authority by virtue hereof to hear and determine the same and all other Offences and Matters above specified and rehearsed according to your Wisdoms and Consciences and Discretions willing and commanding you or three of you from time to time to use and devise all such politic ways and means for the trial and searching out of the Premises as by you or three of you shall be thought most expedient and necessary and upon enquiry and due proof had known perceived and tried out by the Confession of the Parties or by sufficient Witnesses before you or three of you concerning the Premises or any part thereof or by any other ways or means requisite to give and award such punishment to the Offenders by Fine Imprisonment or otherwise and to take such order for redress and reformation of the Premises as to your Wisdoms or three of you shall be thought meet and convenient Further willing and commanding you and any three of you in case you shall find any Person or Persons obstinate or disobedient either in their appearance before you or three of you at your calling or assignment or else in not accomplishing or not obeying your Decrees Orders and Commandments in any thing or things touching the Premises or any part thereof to commit the same Person or Persons so offending to Ward there to remain till they be by you or three of you enlarged and delivered And We give to you and any three of you full Power and Authority by these Presents to take and receive by your Discretions of every Offender or suspect Person to be convented or brought before you a Recognizance or Recognizances Obligation or Obligations to Our use of such Sum or Sums of Mony as to you or three of you shall seem convenient as well for the personal appearance before you of any such suspect Person or for the performance and accomplishment of your Orders and Decrees in case you shall think so convenient as for the sure and true paiment of all and every such Fine and Fines as shall hereafter be by you or three of you taxed or assessed upon any Offender that shall be before you or three of you duly convinced as is aforesaid to Our use to be paid at such days and times as by you or three of you shall be sealed limited or appointed And you to certifie any such Recognizance or Obligation as being taken for any Fine or Fines not fully and wholly paid before you under your Hands and Seals or the Hands and Seals of three of you into Our Court of Chancery to the intent We may be thereof duy answered as appertaineth And furthermore We give to you or three of you full Power and Authority by these Presents not only to call afore you all and every Offender and Offenders and all and every suspect Person and Persons in any of the Premises but also all such and so many Witnesses as ye shall think meet to be called and them and every of them to examine and compel to Answer and Swear upon the Holy Evangelist to declare the Truth in all such things whereof they or any of them shall be examined for the better trial opening and declaration of the Premises or of any part thereof And furthermore Our Will and Pleasure is that you or three of you shall name and appoint one sufficient Person to gather up and receive all such Sums of Mony as shall be assessed or taxed by you or three of you for any Fine or Fines upon any Person or Persons for their Offence and you or three of you by Bill or Bills signed with your Hands shall and may assign and appoint as well to the said Person for his pains in receiving the said Sums as also to your Clark Messengers and Attendants upon you for their travel pains and charge to be sustained for Us about the Premises or any part thereof such sum and sums of Mony for their Rewards as by you or three of you shall be thought expedient Willing and commanding you or three of you after the time of this Our Commission is expired to certify into our Exchequer as well the Name of the said Receiver as also a note of such Fines as shall be set or taxed before you to the intent that upon the determination of the account of the same Receiver We may be answered that that to Us shall justly appertain Willing and Commanding also all Our Auditors and other Officers upon the sight of the said Bills signed with the Hands of you or three of you to make to the said Receiver due allowance according to the said Bills upon his account Wherefore We Will and Command you our said Commissioners with diligence to execute the Premises with effect any of Our Laws Statutes Proclamations or other Grants Priviledges or Ordinance which be or may seem to be contrary to the Premises notwithstanding And
the Writings of the Disciples and of the Prophets are read as much as may be Afterwards when the Reader doth cease the Head-Minister maketh an Exhortation exhorting them to follow so honest things After this we rise all together and offer Prayers which being ended as we have said Bread Wine and Water are brought forth then the Head-Minister offereth Prayers and Thanksgivings as much as he can and the People answereth Amen These words of Justin who lived about 160 Years after Christ considered with their Circumstances declare plainly That not only the Scriptures were read but also that the Prayers and Administration of the Lord's Supper were done in a Tongue understood Both the Liturgies of Basil and Chrysostom declare That in the Celebration of the Communion the People were appointed to answer to the Prayer of the Minister sometimes Amen sometimes Lord have mercy upon us sometimes And with thy Spirit and We have our Hearts lifted up unto the Lord c. Which Answers they would not have made in due time if the Prayers had not been made in a Tongue understood And for further proof Basil Epist 63. let us hear what Basil writeth in this Matter to the Clerks of Neocesarea Caeterum ad Objectum in Psalmodiis crimen quo maximè simpliciores terrent Calumniatores c. As touching that is laid to our charge in Psalmodies and Songs wherewith our Slanderers do fray the Simple I have this to say That our Customs and Usage in all Churches be uniform and agreeable For in the Night the People with us riseth goeth to the House of Prayer and in Travel Tribulation and continual Tears they confess themselves to God and at the last rising again go to their Songs or Psalmodies where being divided into two parts sing by course together both deeply weighing and confirming the Matter of the Heavenly Saying and also stirring up their Attention and Devotion of Heart which by other means be alienated and pluck'd away Then appointing one to begin the Song the rest follow and so with divers Songs and Prayers passing over the Night at the dawning of the Day all together even as it were with one Mouth and one Heart they sing unto the Lord a new Song of Confession every Man framing to himself meet words of Repentance If ye will flee us from henceforth for these things ye must flee also the Egyptians and both the Lybians ye must eschew the Thebians Palestines Arabians the Phenices the Syrians and those which dwell besides Euphrates And to be short all those with whom Watchings Prayers and common singing of Psalms are had in honour These are sufficient to prove that it is against God's Word and the Use of the Primitive Church to use a Language not understood of the People in Common Prayer and Ministration of the Sacraments Wherefore it is to be marvelled at not only how such an Untruth and Abuse crept at the first into the Church but also how it is maintained so stifly at this Day And upon what ground these that will be thought Guides and Pastors of Christ's Church are so loath to return to the first Original of St. Paul's Doctrine and the Practice of the Primitive Catholick Church of Christ J. Scory D. Whithead J. Juel J. Almer R. Cox E. Grindal R. Horn. E. Gest. The God of Patience and Consolation give us Grace to be like minded one towards another in Christ Jesus that we all agreeing together may with one mouth praise God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen Number 4. The Answer of Dr. Cole to the first Proposition of the Protestants at the Disputation before the Lords at Westminster Est contra Verbum Dei consuetudinem veteris Ecclesioe Linguâ Populo ignotâ uti in publicis precibus Administratione Sacramentorum Most Honourable Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. VVHereas these Men here present have declared openly That it is repugnant and contrary to the Word of God to have the Common Prayers and Ministration of the Sacraments in the Latin Tongue here in England and that all such Common Prayer and Ministration ought to be and remain in the English Tongue Ye shall understand that to prove this their Assertion they have brought in as yet only one place of Scripture taken out of St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians Cap. 14. with certain other places of the Holy Doctors whereunto answer is not now to be made But when the Book which they read shall be delivered unto us according to the appointment made in that behalf then God willing we shall make answer as well to the Scripture as other Testimonies alledged by them so as all good Men may evidently perceive and understand the same Scripture to be misconstrued and drawn from the native and true sense And that it is not St. Paul's mind there to treat of Common Prayer or Ministration of any Sacraments And therefore we now have only to declare and open before you briefly which after as opportunity serves in our Answer shall appear more at large causes which move us to persist and continue in the order received and to say and affirm that to have the Common Prayer or Service with the Ministration of the Sacraments in the Latin Tongue is convenient and as the state of the Cause standeth at this present necessary Second Section 1. And this we affirm first because there is no Scripture manifest against this our Assertion and Usage of the Church And though there were any yet it is not to be condemn'd that the Church hath receiv'd Which thing may evidently appear in many things that were sometime expresly commanded by God and his Holy Apostles 2. As for Example to make the Matter plain ye see the express Command of Almighty God touching the observation of the Sabbath-Day to be changed by Authority of the Church without any Word of God written for the same into the Sunday The Reason whereof appeareth not to all Men and howsoever it doth appear and is accepted of all good Men without any Controversy of Scripture yea without any mention of the Day saving only that St. John in his Apocalyps nameth it Diem Dominicam In the change whereof all Men may evidently understand the Authority of the Church both in this cause and also in other Matters to be of great weight and importance and therein esteemed accordingly 3. Another Example we have given unto us by the Mouth of our Saviour himself who washing the feet of his Disciples said I have herein given you an Example that as I have done even so do you Notwithstanding these express words the Holy Church hath left the thing undone without blame not of any Negligence but of great and urgent Causes which appeareth not to many Men and yet universally without the breach of God's Commandment as is said left undone Was not the Fact also and as it seemeth the express Commandment of Christ our Saviour changed and altered by the Authority
of the Church in the highest Mystery of our Faith the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar For he ministreth the same as the Scripture witnesseth after Supper And now if a contentious Man would strain the Fact to the first Institution St. Augustine answereth not by Scripture for there is none to improve it but indeed otherwise even as the Apostles did Visum est Spiritui sancto ut in honorem tanti Sacramenti in os Christiani hominis prius intret Corpus Dominicum quam exteri cibi It is determin'd saith St. Augustine by the Holy Ghost that in the honour of so great a Sacrament the Body of our Lord should enter first into the Mouth of a Christian Man before other external Meats So that notwithstanding it was the Fact of Christ himself yet the Church moved by the Holy Ghost as is said hath changed that also without offence likewise By the which Sentence of St. Augustine manifestly appeareth that this Authority was deriv'd from the Apostles unto this Time the which same Authority according to Christ's Promises doth still abide and remain with his Church 4. And hereupon also resteth the Alteration of the Sacrament under one kind when-as the multitude of the Gentiles entred the Church instructed by the Holy Ghost understood Inconveniencies and partly also Heresy to creep in through the Ministration under both kinds and therefore as in the former Examples so in this now the Matter nothing diminished neither in it self nor in the Receivers and the thing also being received before by a common and uniform Consent without contradiction the Church did decree that from henceforth it should be received under the form of Bread only and whosoever should think and affirm that Whole Christ remained not under both kinds pronounc'd him to be in Heresy 5. Moreover we read in the Acts whereas it was determined in a Council holden at Hierusalem by the Apostles that the Gentiles should abstain from Strangled an◠Blood in these words Visum est Spiritui Sancto Nobis c. It is decreed by the Holy Ghost and Vs say the Apostles that no other burden be laid upon you than these necessary things That ye abstain from things offered up unto Idols and from Blood and from that is strangled and from Fornication This was the Commandment of God for still it is commanded upon pain of damnation to keep our Bodies clean from Fornication and the other join'd by the Holy Ghost with the same not kept nor observed at this day 6. Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles it appeareth That among them in the Primitive Church all things were common They sold their Lands and Possessions and laid the Mony at the Feet of the Apostles to be divided to the People as every Man had need insomuch that Ananias and Saphira who kept back a part of their Possession and laid but the other part at the Apostles Feet were declared by the Mouth of St. Peter to be tempted by the Devil and to lye against the Holy Ghost and in example of all other punish'd with sudden Death By all which Examples and many other it is manifest that though there were any such Scripture which they pretend as there is not yet the Church wherein the Holy Ghost is alway resident may order the same and may therein say as truly Visum est Spiritui Sancto Nobis as did the Apostles For Christ promised unto the Church That the Holy Ghost should teach them all Truth and that He himself would be with the same Church unto the Worlds end And hereupon we do make this Argument with St. Augustine which he writeth in his Epistle ad Januarium after this sort Ecclesia Dei inter multam paleam multaque Zizania constituta multa tolerat tamen quae sunt contra fidem vel bonam vitam non approbat nec tacet nec facit To this Major we add this Minor But the Catholick Church of God neither reproveth the Service or Common Prayer to be in the Learned Tongue nor yet useth it otherwise Therefore it is most lawful and commendable so to be Third Section Another Cause that moveth us to say and think is That otherwise doing as they have said there followeth necessarily the breach of Unity of the Church and the Commodities thereby are withdrawn and taken from us there follows necessarily an horrible Schism and Division In alteration of the Service into our Mother Tongue we condemn the Church of God which hath been heretofore we condemn the Church that is present and namely the Church of Rome To the which howsoever it is lightly esteemed here among us the Holy Saint and Martyr Ireneus saith in plain words thus Ad hanc Ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnes alias Ecclesias convenire hoc est omnes undique Fideles It is necessary saith this Holy Man who was nigh to the Apostles or rather in that time for he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostolorum that all Churches do conform themselves and agree with the See or Church of Rome all Churches that is to say as he declareth himself all Christian and Faithful Men. And he alleadgeth the Cause why it is necessary for all Men to agree therewith propter potentiorem principalitatem for the greater Preeminence of the same or for the mightier Principality From this Church and consequently from the whole Universal Church of Christ we fall undoubtedly into a fearful and dangerous Schism and therewith into all Incommodities of the same That in this doing we fall from the Unity of the Church it is more manifest than that we need much to stand upon St. Augustine Contra Cresconium Grammaticum putting a difference between Heresis and Schisma saith Schisma est diversa sequentium secta Heresis autem Schisma inveteratum To avoid this horrible Sin of Schism we are commanded by the words of St. Paul saying Obsecro vos ut id ipsum dicatis omnes non sint in vobis Schismata And that this changing of the Service out of the Learned Tongue is doing contrary to the Form and Order universally observed is plain and evident to every Man's Eye They are to be named Hereticks saith he which obstinately think and judg in Matters of Faith otherwise than the rest of the Church doth And those are called Schismaticks which follow not the Order and Trade of the Church but will invent of their own Wit and Brain other Orders contrary or diverse to them which are already by the Holy Ghost universally establish'd in the Church And we being declin'd from God by Schism note what follows There is then no Gift of God no Knowledg no Justice no Faith no Works and finally no Vertue that could stand us in stead though we should think to glorify God by suffering Death as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 13. Yea there is no Sacrament that availeth to Salvation in them that willingly fall into Schism that without fear
for it but the Author's word and Poets must make Circumstances as well as more signal Contrivances to set off their Fables But there was no occasion for Bucer's saying this since he never declared against the Corporal Presence but was for taking up that Controversy in some general Expressions So it was not suitable to his Opinion in that Matter for him to talk so loosely of the Scriptures And is it credible that a Story of this nature should not have been published in Queen Mary's Time and been made use of when he was condemned for an Heretick and his Body raised and burnt But our Author perhaps did not think of that 15. He says Pag. 191. Peter Martyr was a while in suspence concerning the Eucharist and stayed till he should see what the Parliament should appoint in that Matter P. Martyr argued and read in the Chair against the Corporal Presence four Years before the Parliament medled with it For the second Common-Prayer Book which contained the first publick Declaration that the Parliament made in this Matter was enacted in the fifth Year of King Edward and Peter Martyr from his first coming to England had appeared against it 16. He said The first Parliament under King Edward Pag. 193. appointed a new Form to be used in ordaining Priests and Bishops who till that time had been Ordained according to the Old Rites save only that they did not swear Obedience to the Pope This is a further Evidence of our Author's care in searching the printed Statutes since what was done in the Fifth Year of this Reign he represents as done in the First His Design in this was clear he had a mind to possess all his own Party with an Opinion that the Orders given in this Church were of no force and therefore he thought it a decent piece of his Poem to set down this Change as done so early since if he had mentioned it in its proper place he knew not how to deny the validity of the Orders that were given the first four Years of this Reign which continued to be conferred according to the old Forms 17. He says The Parliament did also at the same time Ibid. confirm a new Book of Common-Prayer and of the Administration of the Sacraments This is of a piece with the former for the Act confirming the Common-Prayer Book which is also among the Printed Statutes passed not in this Session of Parliament but in a second Session a Year after this These are Indications sufficient to shew what an Historian Sanders was that did not so much as read the Publick Acts of the Time concerning which he writ 18. He says They ordered all Images to be removed Ibid. and sent some lewd Men over England for that effect who either brake or burnt the Images of our Saviour the Blessed Virgin and the Saints therein declaring against whom they made War and they ordered the King's Arms three Leopards and three Lillies with the Supporters a Dog and a Serpent to be set in the place where the Cross of Christ stood thereby owning that they were no longer to worship Jesus Christ whose Images they broke but the King whose Arms they set up in the room of those Images In this Period there is an equal mixture of Falshood and Malice 1. The Parliament did not order the removal of Images It was done by the King's Visitors before the Parliament sat 2. The total removal of Images was not done the first Year only those Images that were abused to Superstition were taken down and a Year after the total removal followed 3. They took care that this should be done regularly not by the Visitors who only carried the King's Injunctions about it but by the Curats themselves 4. They did not order the King's Arms to be put in the place where the Cross had stood It grew indeed to be a custom to set them up in all Churches thereby expressing that they acknowledged the King's Authority reached even to their Churches but there was no Order made about it 5. I leave him to the Correction of the Heraulds for saying the King's Arms are Three Leopards when every Body knows they are three Lions and a Lion not a Dog is one Supporter and the other is a Dragon not a Serpent 6. By their setting up the King's Arms and not his Picture it is plain they had no thought of worshipping their King but did only acknowledg his Authority 7. It was no less clear that they had no design against the Worship due to Jesus Christ nor that inferiour respect due to the Blessed Virgin and Saints but intended only to wean the People from that which at best was but Pageantry but as it was practised was manifest Idolatry And the painting on the Walls of the Churches the Ten Commandments the Creed the Lord's Prayer with many other passages of Scripture that were of most general use shewed they intended only to cleanse their Churches from those mixtures of Heathenism that had been brought into the Christian Religion Pag. 193. 19. He says They took away the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ that they might thereby give some colour to the converting of the Sacred Vessels to the King's use They took away no part of the Institution of Christ for they set it down in the Act past about it and recited all the words of the first Institution of the Sacrament they only condemned private Masses as contrary to Christ's Institution They did not convert the Holy Vessels to the King's use nor were they taken out of the Churches till five Years after this that the Necessities of the Government either real or pretended were alleged to excuse the taking away the superfluous Plate that was in Churches But this was not done by Act of Parliament but by Commissioners empowred by the King who were ordered to leave in every Church such Vessels as were necessary for the Administration of the Sacraments Ibid. 20. He says The Parliament ordered the Prayers to be in the Vulgar Tongue and upon that he infers that the Irish the Welsh and the Cornish-men were now in a much worse condition than before since they understood no English so that the Worship was to them in a Tongue more unknown than it had formerly been The Parliament made no such Order at this Time the Book of Common Prayer was set out first by the King's Authority and ratified by the subsequent Session of Parliament There was also a Design which though it was then accomplished yet it was done afterwards of translating the Liturgy into these Tongues but still the English was much more understood by all sorts of Men among them than the Latin had been 21. He says The Office of the Communion Pag. 194. appointed by this Parliament differed very little from the Mass save that it was in English The Error of the Parliaments appointing the new Offices runs through all he says on this
He says Mary Queen of Scots was married to the Dolphin of France She was then but a little past ten Years old and was not married to the Dolphin till five Years after this Pag. 229. 55. He says Queen Mary as soon as she came to the Crown without staying for an Act of Parliament concerning it laid aside the prophane Title of being Head of the Church We may expect as true a History of this Reign as we had of the former when in the first Period of it there is so notorious a Falsehood She held two Parliaments before she laid aside that Title for in the Writ of Summons for both she was stiled Supream Head of the Church and all the Reformed Bishops were turned out by virtue of Commissions which she issued out as Supream Head There was also a Visitation made over England by her Authority and none were suffered to preach but upon Licenses obtained under her great Seal so that she both retained the Title and Power of Supream Head a Year after she came to the Crown Ibid. 56. He says She discharged the Prisoners she found in the Tower recalled the Sentence against Cardinal Pool and discharged a Tax due to her by the Subjects The Queen did free the Prisoners of the Tower at her coming to the Crown and discharged the Tax at her Coronation but for recalling the Sentence against Cardinal Pool that being an Act of Parliament she could not recal it nor was it done till almost a Year and an half after her coming to the Crown Ibid. 57. He says She took care of the Coin that her Subjects might suffer no more by the embasing it so that they all saw the difference between a Catholick and Heretical Prince I do not find any care was taken of the Coin all her Reign and the bringing that to a just Standard is universally ascribed to Queen Elizabeth If there was a publick joy upon her coming to the Crown it did not last long and there was a far greater when she died This Observation is much more proper to the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign who began and continued to Reign with so great and so interrupted a Felicity that none but a Writer like our Author would have made such a Remarque on the beginnings of this Reign 58. He says She overcame Wiat's Rebellion Pag. 230. rather by her own Faith than by any Force she had about her This is to make the Reader think she defeated Wiat as Gideon did the Amalekites but Wiat brought up not above 3000 Men and she had thrice that number about her It was a desperate Attempt and that which was rather the effect of a precipitated Design than of prudent Counsel 59. He says She put her Sister in the Tower Ibid. when it had appeared to the Senate which in his Style is the Parliament that she had been engaged in Wiat's Conspiracy This is said to cover her barbarous Cruelty towards her Sister the Matter never came before the Parliament and there was no ground ever given to justify the Suspicion It is true Wiat hoping to have saved his Life by so foul a Calumny accused her but when he saw he must die he vindicated her openly on the Scaffold It is certain if they could have found any Colours to have excused severe proceedings against her both the Queen and the Clergy who governed her were much enclined to have made use of them 60. He says Pag. 231. The Queen was more ready to pardon Crimes against her self than Offences against Christ and Religion The more shame for those who governed her Conscience that made her so implacable to all whom she esteemed Hereticks since the Christian Religion came not into the World as the Author of it says of himself to destroy Mens Lives but to save them Yet she was not so merciful as he would represent her witness her Severities against her Sister and against Cranmer even after he had signed the Recantation of his former Opinions 61. He says Though some of the Bishops were guilty of Treason Ibid. yet she would not have them to be tried by the Temporal Laws and referred even Cranmer himself to the Spiritual Jurisdiction Cranmer was tried for Treason by virtue of a Commission issued out by the Queen and all the other Reformed Bishops were turned out by Delegates empowred for that end by the Queen's Commissions 62. He says Ibid. Cranmer was condemned of Treason in the Parliament He was found Guilty of Treason by a Jury of Commissioners and thereupon condemned by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer and not by the Parliament It is true the Parliament did afterwards confirm the Sentence 63. He says Before he was Condemned Ibid. he feigned himself a Catholick and signed his Retractation seventeen times with his own hand But the Bishops discovering his Hypocrisie degraded him and delivered him to the Secular Arm upon which he was burnt at Oxford The Popish Party have but too great Advantages against Cranmer in this last part of his Life so it was needless for our Author to have mixed so much falshood with this Account but he must go on in his ordinary method even though it is not necessary for any of the Ends he had set before himself Cranmer stood out above two Years and a half in all which time he expressed great constancy of mind and a readiness to die for that Faith which he had before taught nor would he fly beyond Sea though he had many opportunities to do it and had reason enough to apprehend he could not escape at home Upon his constant adhering to his former Doctrines he was Condemned Degraded and appointed to be burnt and then the fears of Death wrought that effect on him that he did recant which he signed thrice but the Queen being set on Revenge would needs have him burnt after all that so there was no discovery made of his Hypocrisie nor was there a Sentence past upon it but he for all his Recantation was led out to be burnt and then he returned back to his former Doctrines and expressed his Repentance for his Apostacy with all the seriousness and horror that was possible Ibid. 64. He says The Laws for burning Hereticks were again revived and by them not only Cranmer but some hundreds of the false Teachers were burnt A Man's Inclinations do generally appear in the Lies he makes so it seems our Author wished it had been as he relates it was but so far it was from this number that there was not above a quarter of a hundred of the Ministers burnt there were some hundreds of others burnt so ignorant was he of our Affairs Page 232. 65. He says The Queen did at first command all the Strangers that were Hereticks to leave the Kingdom upon which above 30000 as was reckoned went out of England The greatest number of the Strangers were the Germans and of these not above