antient amongst the Barons to the degree and dignity of Viscounts wherein that it may long flourish in plenty and happinesse is the daily prayer of Your Honours most obliged Servant THOMAS FVLLER THE Church-History OF BRITAIN KING HENRY the eighth Jan. 28. though dying excommunicate in the Church of Rome The hopefull beginning of King Edward had notwithstanding His Obsequies solemnly performed at Paris in France 1546. 7. by the command of Francis the French a Godwin in Edvardo â—exto pag. 158. King presuming so much on His own power and the Pope's patience otherwise such courtesie to His friend might have cost Him a curse to Himself Then began King Edward His Son Ann. Reg. Ed. 6. 1. to reign scarce ten years old Ann. Dom. full of as much worth as the model of His age could hold No pen passeth by Him without praising Him though none praising Him to His full deserts Yea Sanders himself having the stinch of his railing tongue over-sented with the fragrant ointment of this Prince's memory though jeering His for His want of age which was God's pleasure and not King Edward's fault and mocking Him for His Religion the others highest honour alloweth Him in other respects large commendations 2. No sooner was He come to the Crown Peace and prosperity to the Protestants in England but a peaceable dew refreshed Gods inheritance in England formerly patched with persecution and this good Angel struck off the fetters from many Peters in prison preserving those who were appointed to die Onely Thomas Dobbie Fellow of S. Johns in Cambridge committed to the Counter in Bread street and condemned for speaking against the Masse died of a natural death in respect of any publick punishment by Law inflicted on him but whether or no any private impression of violence hastened his end God alone knoweth His speedy death prevented the b Fox Acts Mon. Vol. 2. pag. 655. pardon which the Lord Protectour intended to send him Divine Providence so ordering it that he should touch not enter see not taste behold not reap benefit on earth of this Reformation Other Confessours which had fled beyond sea as John Hooper Miles c Senders de Schis Anglic. lib. 2. pag. 230. Coverdale c. returned with joy into their Countrey and all Protestants which formerly for fear had dissembled their religion now publickly professed the same Of these Archbishop Cranmer was the chiefest who though willingly he had done no ill and privately many good offices for the Protestants yet his cowardly compliance hitherto with Poperie against his conscience cannot not be excused Ann. Dom. 1546-47 serving the times present in his practice Ann Reg. Ed. 6 1. and waiting on a future alteration in his hopes and desires 3. Edward Semaure Commissionners sent into several Counties with Instructions to reform the King's Uncle lately made Lord Protectour Jan. 28. and Duke of Somerset ordered all in Church and State He by the King's power or if you please the King in his protection took speedy order for Reformation of Religion And being loth that the people of the Land should live so long in errour and ignorance till a Parliament should be solemnly summoned which for some Reasons of State could not so quickly be call'd in the mean time by His own Regall power and authority and the advise of His wise and honourable Counsell chose Commissioners and sent them with Instructions into severall parts of the Kingdome for the rooting out of superstition the substance whereof thirty six in number we have here presented The King's Injunctions 1. That all Ecclesiasticall persons observe the Lawes for the abolishing the pretended and usurped power of the Bishop of Rome and confirmation of the Kings authority and supremacie 2. That once a Quarter at least they sincerely declare the Word of God disswading their people from superstitious fancies of Pilgrimages praying to Images c. exhorting them to the works of faith mercy and charitie 3. That Images abused with Pilgrimages and offerings thereunto be forthwith taken down and destroyed and that no more wax-Candles or Tapers be burnt before any Image but onely two lights upon the high Altar before the Sacrament shall remain still to signifie that Christ is the very light of the world 4. That every Holy day when they have no Sermon the Pater noster Credo and Ten Commandements shall be plainly recited in the Pulpit to the Parishioners 5. That Parents and Masters bestow their Children and Servants either to learning or some honest occupation 6. That such who in Cases exprest in the Statute are absent from their Benefices leave learned and expert Curates 7. That within three Months after this Visitation the Bible of the larger volume in English and within twelve Months Erasmus his Paraphrase on the Gospel be provided and conveniently placed in the Church for people to read therein 8. That no Ecclesiasticall persons haunt Ale-houses or Taverns or any place of unlawfull gameing 9. That they examine such who come to confession to them in Lent whether they can recite their Creed Pater noster and ten Commandements in English before they receive the blessed Sacrament of the Altar or else they ought not to presume to come to Gods board 10. That none be admitted to preach except sufficiently licensed 11. That if they have heretofore extolled Pilgrimages Reliques worshipping of Images c. they now openly recant and reprove the same as a common errour groundlesse in Scripture 12. That they detect and present such who are Letters of the Word of God in English and Fautours of the Bishop of Rome his pretended power 13. That a Register-Book be carefully kept in every Parish for Weddings Christnings and Burialls 14. That all Ecclestasticall persons not resident upon their Benefices and able to dispend yearly twenty pounds and above shall in the presence of the Church-Wardens or some other honest men distribute the fourtieth part of their revenues amongst the poor of the Parish 15. That every Ecclesiasticall person shall give competent exhibition to so many Schollers in one of the Universities as he hath hundred pounds a year in Church promotions 16. That the fift part of their Benefices be bestowed on their Mansion-houses or Chancells till they be fully repaired 17. That he readeth these Injunctions once a Quarter 18. That none bound to pay Tithes detain them by colour of Duty omitted by their Curates and so redoub one wrong with another 19. That no person henceforth shall alter any Fasting-day that is commanded or manner of Common Prayer or Divine Service otherwise then specified in these Injunctions untill otherwise ordered by the Kings authority 20. That every Ecclesiasticall person under the degree of Batchelour of Divinity shall within three Months after this Visitation provide of his own the New Testament in Latine and English with Erasmus his Paraphrase thereon And that Bishops by themselves and their Officers shall examine
of much Uncleannesse it being appliable to them what the Apostle speaketh of others d Ephes 5. 12. It is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret And one may justly admire how these Canonists being pretended Virgins could arrive at the knowledge of the Criticismes of all Obscenity so that chast Love may lye seven and seven yeares in the undefiled Marriage bed and be utterly ignorant what the Language of Lust meaneth in such filthy Canons Yea when such Love by the help of an Interpreter shall understand the same it would blush for Shame were it not that that Red would be turned into Palenesse as amazed at so horrid Uncleanness 25. Some five yeares after 755 Kenulphus The Charter of Kenulphus to the Abbot of Abbington King of West-Saxons conferred large Priviledges on the Monastery of Abbington We will recite so much of his e Cited by Stanford l. 3. fol. 111. and this Charter was pleaded primo Hen. 7. fol. 23. 25. Charter as concerns us because usefull to shew the Power which Kings in that Age had in Ecclesiasticall Matters Kenulphus Rex c per liter as suas patentes consilio consensu Episcoporum Senatorum gentis suae largitus fuit Monasterio de Abbindon in Comitatu Barke ac cuidam Richino tunc Abbati Monasterii c. quandam ruris sui portionem id est quindecim Mansias in loco qui à ruricolis tunc nuncupabatur Culnam cum omnibus utilitatibus ad eandem pertinentibus tam in magnis quam in modicis rebus in aeternam haereditatem Et quod praedictus Richinus c. ab omni Episcopali jure in sempiternum esset quietus ut inhabitatores ejus nullius Episcopi aut suorum Officialium jugo inde deprimantur sed in cunctis rerum eventibus discussionibus causarum Abbatis Monasterii praedicti decreto subjiciantur Ita quod c. Kenulphus King c. by his Letters Patents with the advice and consent of the Bishops and Counsellours of His Country hath given to the Monastery of Abbindon in the County of Barks and to one Richine then Abbot of the Monastery c. a certain portion of his land that is to say fifteen Mansions in a place which then of the Inhabitants was called Culnam with all Profits to the same belonging as well in great as mean matters Anno Dom. 755 as an inheritance forever And that the aforesaid Richine c. should be for ever acquit from all Episcopal jurisdiction that the Inhabitants thereof be thenceforth oppressed with the yoke of no Bishop or his Officials but in all events of matters and discussions of causes they be subject to the decree of the Abbot of the aforesaid Monastery So that c. From this Charter S t. Edward a His Reports part 5. fol. 9. Cook the Kings Attorney inferreth that King Kenulphus had Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction in himself in that he had power to discharge and exempt this Abbot from the Iurisdiction of the Bishop Which Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction was alwayes invested in the Imperiall Crown of England and therefore the Statute made under Henry the eighth concerning the Kings Spirituall Authority was not introductory of a new Law but declaratory onely of an old 26. But Father Parsons for he it is who stands under the Vizard of the Catholick Divine The Cavills of Parsons against S t. Edw. Cook confuted in a Book wrote of set purpose against Master Attorney in this point will by no means allow King Kenulphus any Ecclesiasticall Power but by many Fetches seeks to evade so pregnant a Proof Arg. 1. First he b Catholick Divine alias Parsons in his answer to the Kings Attorney p. 95 96 c. pleadeth that in this Charter Kenulphus did not exempt the Abbot from all Iurisdiction Spirituall of the Bishop but from some Temporall Interest or Pretense which perhaps the Bishop of the Diocese claimed over the Lordship of Culnam Answ Perhaps commend not his Modesty but thank his Guiltinesse for his timorous Assertion saith he but how doth this appeare for he bringeth no proof and if he affirmeth it on free cost we can confute it as cheap by denying it Arg. 2. Secondly saith he the King exempted the Abbot ab omni Episcopali jure that is from all Right of the Bishop and not Iurisdiction Answ Sharp Wit to cut so small a Mote in two parts for no purpose seeing jus and Iurisdiction are often known to import the same sense Arg. 3. Thirdly he objecteth the words no way seem fitly to agree to be spoken of the Bishops Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction which run thus That the Abbot should be quiet from the Bishops Right and that the Inhabitants from thenceforward should not be oppressed by the Yoke of the Bishops officers Answ Why what Incongruity but that these words may be spoken as they are of Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction Is the word Yoke too course a Phrase to be applied to the Bishops Spirituall Power as they sometimes did manage it I appeale to those who felt it for no Yoke is heavy to him that puts it on but to those who bear it Mark by the way the word he rendereth Officers is in the Charter not Officiarii Lay-Latine but Officiales which is Church-language and the very dialect of the Court-Christian and should be translated Officials to whom Bishops committed their Spirituall Power But Parsons knew well how to lay his Thumb on what he would not have seen Arg. 4. Fourthly Howsoever it were it is manifestly false saith he that this Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction of King Kenulphus was derived from his Crown it might be he had it from the Pope which is most likely Answ Which is most unlikely for no Clause in the Charter relates to any delegate power and yet such a Passage might easily have been inserted yea could not justly have been omitted if he had claimed his Iurisdiction by Deputation from the Pope Arg. 5. Lastly which he saith seemeth to convince the whole matter and decide the very Case one a Harpsfield Hist Aug. seculo primo c. 9. ex Mariano Scoto Rethurus Abbot of Abbington went afterwards to Rome to obtain confirmation of the Priviledges of his Monastery from the See Apostolick Answ What of this This post-fact of Rethurus argues no Invalidity in Kenulphus his former Grant but rather shews the over-Officiousnesse of a pragmaticall Abbot who to ingratiate himself with the Pope craved of him what he had before Yea such cunning Compliance of the Clergy with his Holinesse by degrees fixed in him a supposed Ecclesiasticall Power paramount which really he never had nor rightly ever ought to have See here the King's Power in Church-matters in conferring Ecclesiasticall Priviledges and this single Threed we will twist with another Instance so strong that the Iesuites Art shall be unable to break it in sunder 27. By the Constitution of Augustine 758 first Arch-bishop of Canterbury
shall be requisite In pursuance of these their Instructions the Kings Commissioners in their respective Counties recovered much and discovered more of Church-wealth and Ornaments For some were utterly imbeziled by persons not responsible and there the King must lose his right More were concealed by parties not detectable so cunningly they carried their stealths seeing every one who had nimmed a Church-Bell did not ring it out for all to hear the sound thereof Many potent persons well known to have such goods shufled it out with their greatnesse mutually connived at therein by their equalls fellow-offenders in the same kinde However the Commissioners regained more than they expected confidering the distance of time and the cold scent they followed so many years after the Dissolution This Plate and other Church-Utensils were sold and advanced much money to the Exchequer An * Sir John Hayward Authour telleth us That amongst many which they found they left but one silver Chalice to every Church too narrow a proportion to populous Parishes where they might have left two at the least seeing for expedition sake at great Sacraments the Minister at once delivereth the wine to two Communicants But they conceived one Cup enough for a small Parish and that greater and richer were easily able to purchase more to themselves 2. All this Income rather stayed the stomack Durham Bishoprick dissolved than satisfied the hunger of the Kings Exchequer For the allaying whereof the Parliament now sitting conferred on the Crown the Bishoprick of Durham This may be called the English Herbipolis or Wirtz-burge it being true of both Dunelmia sola judicat Ense Stola The Bishop whereof was a Palatine or Secular Prince and his Seal in form resembleth Royalty in the Roundnesse thereof and is not Oval the badge of plain Episcopacy Rich and entire the revenues of this See such as alone would make a considerable addition to the Crown remote the scituation thereof out of Southern sight and therefore if dissolved the sooner out of mens mindes Besides Cuthbert Tunstall the present Bishop of Durham was in durance and deprived for his obstinacy so that so stubborn a Bishop gave * yet the Duke of Northumberland either was or was to be possessour thereof the State the fairer quarrell with so rich a Bishoprick now annexed to the Kings revenue 3. Well it was for this See Afterwards restored by Qu. Mary though dissolved that the lands thereof were not dispersed by sale unto severall persons but preserved whole and entire as to the main in the Crown Had such a dissipation of the parts thereof been made no lesse than a State miracle had been requisite for the recollection thereof Whereas now within two years after Queen Mary restored Tunstall to this Bishoprick and this Bishoprick to it self re-setling all the lands on the same 4. By this time A wood rather a wildernesse of the Popes Canons such Learned men as were employed by the King to reform the Ecclesiastical Laws had brought their work to some competent perfection Let me enlarge my self on this subject of concernment for the Readers satisfaction When the Pope had ingrossed to his Courts the cognizance of all causes which either looked glanced or pointed in the least degree at what was reduceable to Religion he multiplied Laws to magnifie himself Whose principal designe therein was not to make others good but himself great not so much to direct and defend the good to restrain and punish the bad as to ensnare and entangle both For such the number of their Clementines 〈◊〉 Intrd. Extravagants Provincialls Synodalls Glosses Sentences Chapters Summaries Rescripts Breviaries long and short Cases c. that none could carry themselves so cautiously but would be rendred obnoxious and caught within the compasse of offending Though the best was for money they might buy the Popes pardon and thereby their own innocence 5. Hereupon Two and thirty Regulatours of the Canon-Law when the Popes power was banished out of England his Canon-Law with the numerous Books and branches thereof lost its authority in the Kings Dominions Yet because some gold must be presumed amongst so much drosse grain amongst so much chaffe it was thought fit that so much of the Canon Law should remain as was found conformable to the Word of God and Laws of the Land And therefore King Henry the eighth was impowred by Act of Parliament to elect two and thirty able persons to reform the Ecclesiastical Laws though in His Reign very little to good purpose was performed therein 6. But the designe was more effectually followed in the daies of King Edward the sixth Contracted to eight by King Edward the 6. reducing the number of two and thirty to eight thus mentioned in His Letters Patents dated at Westminster the last year Novemb 11. Bishops Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury Thomas Goodrich of Elie. Divines Peter Martyr Richard Cox Civilians and Canonists Dr. William May. Dr. Rowland Taylor of Hadley Common Lawyers John Lucas Rich Goodrick Esquires It was not onely convenient but necessary that Common Lawyers should share in making these Church Constitutions because the same were to be built not onely sure in themselves but also symmetricall to the Municipall Lawes of the Land These Eight had power by the Kings Patents to call in to their assistance what persons they pleased and are said to have used the pens of Sir John Cheeke and Walter Haddon Dr. in Law to turn their Lawes into Latine 7. However Laws no Laws not stamped with Royall Authority these had onely a preparing no concluding power so that when they had ended their work two things were wanting to make these Ecclesiastical Canons thus by them composed have the validity of Laws First an exact review of them by others to amend the mistakes therein As where * Titulo de Divinis Officiâ—s cap. 6. they call the Common Prayer Book then used in England proprium perfectum omnis divini cultus judicem magistrum a title truly belonging onely to the Scripture Secondly a Royall ratification thereunto which this King prevented by death nor any of His Successours ever stamped upon it Indeed I finde in an * Iohn 〈◊〉 at the end of his Preface to his Book intituled Reformation no enemy to Her Majesty Author whom I am half-ashamed to alledge that Doctor Haddon Anno 12 or 13 Elizabeth delivered in Parliament a Latine Book concerning Church-Discipline written in the daies of King Edward the sixt by Mr. Cranmer Sir John Cheek c. which could be no other than this lately mentioned Which Book was committed by the House unto the said Mr. Haddon Mr. George Bromley Mr. Norton c. to be translated I conceive into English again and never after can I recover any mention thereof save that some thirteen years since * Anno 1640. A silent Convocation it was printed in London 8. A Parliament was called in the last of this Kings
Reign wherein no Church-matter was medled with save that therein a Subsidie granted by the Clergy was confirmed Such moneys being the Legacie of course which all Parliaments fairly coming to a peaceable end bequeath to their Sovereign As for the Records of this Convocation they are but one degree above blanks scarce affording the names of the Clerks assembled therein Indeed they had no Commission from the King to meddle with Church-businesse and every Convocation in it self is born deaf and dumb so that it can neither hear complaints in Religion nor speak in the redresse thereof till first Ephata be thou opened be pronounced unto it by Commission from Royall Authority 9. Now The true reason thereof the true reason why the King would not intrust the diffusive body of the Convocation with a power to meddle with matters of Religion was a just jealousie which He had of the ill affection of the major part thereof Ann. Dom. 1553. who under the fair rinde of Protestant profession Ann. Reg. Ed. 6. 7. had the rotten core of Romish superstition It was therefore conceived safer for the King to relie on the ability and fidelity of some select Confidents cordiall to the cause of Religion than to adventure the same to be discussed and decided by a suspitious Convocation 10. However Forty two Articles of Religion and the Kings Catechisme this barren Convocation is intituled the parent of those Articles of Religion fourty two in number which are printed with this Preface Articuls de quibus in Synodo Londinensi Anno Domini 1552. inter Episcopos alios eruditos viros convenerat With these was bound a Catechisme younger in age as bearing date of the next year but of the same extraction relating to this Convocation as authour thereof Indeed it was first compiled as appears by the Kings Patent prefix'd by a single Divine * ◠pio quodam crudito viro conscipto in the Kings Patent Consented and not consented to by the Convocation charactred pious and learned bu◠afterwards perused and allowed by the Bishops and other learned men understand it the Convocation and by Royall Authority commended to all Subjects commanded to all School Masters to teach it their Scholars 11. Yet very few in the Convocation ever saw it much lesse explicitly consented thereunto but these had formerly it seems passed over their power I should be thankfull to him who would produce the originall instrument thereof to the select Divines appointed by the King in which sense they may be said to have done it themselves by their Delegates to whom they had deputed their authority A case not so clear but that it occasioned a cavill at the next Convocation in the first of * See more thereof in the next year Queen Mary when the Papists therein assembled renounced the legality of any such former transactions Pretious King Edward the sixt now changed his Crown of Gold for one of Glory July 6. we will something enlarge our selves The death of K. Edward the sixt who was not cut out of His Mothers belly as is commonly reported to give posterity His true Character never meeting more virtues in so few years For His Birth there goeth a constant tradition that Caesar-like He was cut out of the belly of His Mother Jane Seymour though a great person of Honour deriving her Intelligence mediately from such as were present at Her Labour assured me of the contrary Indeed such as shall read the calm and serene style of that Letter which I have seen written though not by for that Queen and signed with Her own Signet after Her delivery cannot conjecture thence that any such violence was offered unto Her But see the Letter RIght trusty and welbeloved Queen Ianes Letter after Her Delivery to the Lords of the Councell We greet you well and forasmuch as by the inestimable goodnesse and grace of Almighty God We be delivered and brought in Childe-bed of a PRINCE conceived in most lawfull Matrimony between my Lord the Kings Majestie and Vs. Doubting not but that for the love and affection which you bear unto Vs and to the Common-wealth of this Realm thi◠knowledge shall be joyous and glad tidings unto you We have thought good to certifie you of this Iame To the intent ye might not onely render unto God condigne thanks and praise for so great a benefice but also continually pray for the long continuance and preservation of the same here in this life to the honour of God joy and pleasure of my Lord the KING and Vs and the universall weal quiet and tranquility of this whole Realm a a Extant in Sir Tho. Cottons Library sub Ner. cap. 10. ¶ Given under our Signet at my Lords Manour of Hampton-Court the 22 day of October And although this Letter was soon after seconded with b Extant ibid. another of a sadder subject here inserted subscribed by all the Kings Physitians yet neither doth that so much as insinuate any impression of violence on Her person as hastening Her death but seems rather to cast the cause thereof on some other distemper THese shall be to advise your Lordships of the Queens estate Yesterday afternoon She had a natural Lax A sadder Letter of Her Physitians unto them by reason whereof She began to lighten and as it appeared to amend and so continued till towards night All this night She hath been very sick and doth rather appare than amend Her Confessour hath been with Her Grace this morning and hath done that to his office appertaineth and even now is preparing to minister to Her Grace the Sacrament of Unction ¶ At Hampton-Court this Wednesday morning at eight a clock Your Lordships at Commandement Thomas Cutland Robert Karhold Edward Bayntam John Chambers Priest William Butts George Owen Impute we here this Extreme Unction administred to Her partly to the over-officiousness of some superstitious Priest partly to the good Ladies inability perchance insensible what was done unto her in such extremity otherwise we are confident that Her judgment when in strength and health disliked such practices being a zealous Protestant Which Unction did her as little good as the twelve Masses said for Her soul in the City of London at the Commandement of the Duke of Norfolk whether he did it to credit their Religion with the countenance of so great a Convert or did it out of the Nimiety of his own Love and Loyaltie to the Queen expressing it according to his own judgment without the consent if not against the will of the Queens nearest kindred 12. But leaving the Mother Prince Edw. towardlinesse in learning let us come to the Son who as he saith of himself in the Manuscript of His Life was for the first six years bred and brought up amongst the Women and then consigned to masculine Tuition under Doctor Richard Cox and Sir John Cheekè who taught Him Latine and John Belmain who
and Protestants wring their hands which our fathers found begun our selves see hightened and know not whether our children shall behold them pacified and appeased 4. But now a Parliament began at Westminster Alteration of Beligion enacted by the Parliament Wherein the Laws of King Henry the eighth against the See of Rome were renewed Jann 25. and those of King Edward the sixth in favour of the Protestants revived and the Laws by Queen Mary made against them repealed Uniformity of Prayer and Administration of Sacraments was enacted with a Restitution of first fruits Tenths c. to the Crown For all which we remit the Reader to the Statutes at large It was also enacted that whatsoever Jurisdictions Priviledges anâ— Spiritualls preeminences had been heretofore in Vse by any Ecclesiasticall Authority whatsoever to visit Ecclesiasticall men and Correct all manner of Errors Hereâ—es Schisms Abuses and Enormities should be for ever annexed to the Imperiall Crown of England if the Queen and her Successours might by their Letters patents substitute certain men to exercise that Authority howbeit with proviso that they should define nothing to be heresie but those things which were long before defined to be Heresies out of the Sacred Canonicall Scriptures or of the four Oecumenicall Councills or other Councills by the true and proper sence of the Holy Scriptures or should thereafter be so defined by authority of the Parliament with assent of the Clergy of England assembled in a Synod That all and every Ecclesiasticall Persons Magistrates Receivers of pensions out of the Exchequer such as were to receive degrees in the Vniversities Wards that were to sue their Liveries and to be invested in their Livings and such as were to be admitted into the number of the Queens servants c. should be tyed by oath to acknowledge the Queens Majesty to be the onely and supreme Governour of her Kingdoms the Title of Supreme head of the Church of England liked them not in all matters and causes as well spiritual as temporal all forrain Princes and Protestants being quite excluded from taking Cognizance of Causes within her Dominions 5. But the Papists found themselves much agrieved at this Ecclesiasticall Power Papists exceptions against the Queens Supremacy declared and confirmed to be in the Queen they complained that the simplicity of poore people was abused the Queen declining the Title Head and assuming the name Governour of the Church which though less offensive was more expressive So whil'st their ears were favoured in her waving the word their souls were deceived with the same sence under another Expression They cavilled how King a Sanders de Schismate Anglicano lib. 3. pag. 316. Henry the eighth was qualified for that Place and Power being a Lay-man King Edward double debarr'd for the present being a Lay-childe Queen Elizabeth totally excluded for the future being a Lay-woman b Hart against Rainolds pag. 673. They object also that the very c In Praefat. centur 7. writers of the Centuries though Protestants condemne such Headship of the Church in PRINCES and d Upon the 7. of Amos 3. The same how defended by Protestant Divines Calvin more particularly sharply taxeth Bishop Gardiner for allowing the same Priviledge to KING Henry the eighth 6. Yet nothing was granted the Queen or taken by her but what in due belonged unto her according as the most learned and moderate Divines have defended it For e Rainolds against Hart pag. 38. first they acknowledged that Christ alone is the Supreme Soveraign of the Church performing the Duty of an head unto it by giving it power of life feeling and moving and f Ephes 1. 22. him hath God appointed to be head of the Church and Col. 2. 19. by him all the body furnished and knit together by joynts and bands encreaseth with the encreasing of God This Headship cannot stand on any mortall shoulders it being as incommunicable to a Creature as a Creature is incapable to receive it There is also a peculiar Supremacy of Priests in Ecclesiasticall matters to preach the Word minister the Sacraments celebrate Prayers and practise the discipline of the Church which no Prince can invade without usurpation and the sin of Sacriledge for Incense it self did stink in the Nostrils of the God of heaven and h 2 Chr. 26. 19 provoked his Anger when offered by King Vzziah who had no calling thereunto Besides these there is that power which Hezekiah exercised in his Dominions Commanding the Levites and Priests to do their Duty and the People to serve the Lord. And to this power of the Prince it belongeth to restore Religion decayed reforme the Church Corrupted protect the same reformed This was that supremacy in Causes and over Persons as well Ecclesiasticall as Civil which was derived from God to the Queen annexed to the Crown disused in the dayes of her Sister whose blinde zeal surrendred it to the Pope not now first fixed in the Crown by this act of State but by the same declared to the Ignorant that knew it not cleared to the scrupulous that doubted of it and asserted from the Obstinate that denied it 7. As for Calvin How Dr. Rainolds answereth the exceptions to the contrary he reproveth not Reader it is D r. Rainolds whom thou readest the title of head as the Peotestants granted it but that sense thereof i against Hart pag. 673. which Popish Prelates gave namely Stephen Gardiner who did urge it so as if they had meant thereby that the King might do things in Religion according to his own will and not see them done according to Gods will namely that he might forbid the Clergie Marriage the laytie the Cup in the Lords Supper And the truth is that Stephen Gardiner was shamelessly hyperbolicall in fixing that in the King which formerly with as little Right the Pope had assumed Whether he did it out of mere flattery as full of adulation as superstition equally free in sprinkling Court and Church holy-water and as very a fawning Spaniel under King Henry the eighth as afterwards he proved a cruel Blood-hound under Queen Mary his Daughter Or because this Bishop being in his heart disaffected to the Truth Anno Dom. 1557. of set purpose betrayed it in defending it Anno Regin Eliza. 1. suting King Henries vast Body and Minde with as mighty yea monstrous a power in those his odious instances straining the Kings Authority too high on set purpose to break and to render it openly obnoxious to just exception The Centuriatoâ—s also well understood do allow and a Idem ibidem Confess the Magistrates Jurisdiction in Ecclesiasticall matters though on good reason they be enemies to this Usurpation of unlawfull power therein But I digresse and therein Transgresse seeing the large profecution hereof belongs to Divines 9. But Sanders taketh a particular exception against the Regular passing of this Act Sunders 〈…〉 Elizabeth shewing much Queen-Craft in
quickly be perused and yet then no such effigiation was therein discovered which some nineteen weeks after became visible about the nineteenth of September following Surely had this pregnant straw gone out its full time of fourty weeks it would have been delivered of a perfect picture indeed whereas now miscarrying before that time wonder not if all things were not so complete therein 54. For the face therein was not so exact Not perfectly done as which might justly intitle heaven to the workmanship thereof Say not it was done in too small a scantling to be accurate for Deus est maximus in minimis Gods exquisitenesse appears the most in q Exod. 8. 18. modells Whereas when Witnesses were examined about this mock-miracle before the Archbishop of Canterbury Francis Bowen deposed that he believed that a good Artisan might have drawn one more curiously and Hugh Griffith himself attested that it was no more like Garnet than to any other man who had a beard and that it was so small none could affirm it to resemble him adding moreover that there was no glory or streaming raies about it which some did impudently report 55. However Garnet's beâ—tification occasioned by this mock-miracle this inspirited straw was afterward copied out and at Rome printed in pomp with many superstitious copartments about it as a coronet a crosse and nails more than ever were in the originall Yea this miracle how silly and simple soever gave the ground-work to Garnet's beatification by the Pope some moneths after Indeed Garnet complained before his death That he could not expect that the Church should own him for a Martyr and signified the same in his Letter to his dear Mistresse Anne but for her sirname call her Garnet or Vaux as you please because nothing of religion and onely practices against the State were laid to his charge It seemed good therefore to his Holinesse not to canonize Garnet for a solemn Saint much lesse for a Martyr but onely to beatificate him which if I mistake not in their heavenly heraldrie is by Papists accounted the least and lowest degree of celestiall dignity and yet a step above the Commonaltie or ordinary sort of such good men as are saved This he did to qualifie the infamie of Garnet's death and that the perfume of this new title might out-sent the stench of his treason But we leave this Garnet loth longer to disturb his blessednesse in his own place and proceed to such Church-matters as were transacted in this present Parliament 56. Evil manners prove often though against their will the parents of good laws Acts against Papists in Parliament but principally the Oath of Obedience as here it came to passe The Parliament begun and holden at Westminster the fifth of November and there continued till the 27 of May following enacted many things for the discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants extant at large in the printed Statutes Whereof none was more effectuall than that Oath of Obedience which every Catholick was commanded to take the form whereof is here inserted The rather because this Oath may be termed like two of Isaac's r Gen. 26. 20. 21. wells Esek and Sitnah Contention and Hatred the subject of a tough controversie versie betwixt us and Rome about the legall urging and taking thereof Protestants no lesse learnedly asserting than Papists did zealously oppose the same The form of which Oath is as followeth I A. B. doe truly and sincerely acknowledge professe testifie and declare in my conscience before God and the world That our Soveraigne Lord King James is lawfull and rightfull King of this Realm and of all other His Majesties Dominions and Countreys and that the Pope neither of himself nor by any authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any power or authority to depose the King or to dispose any of His Majesties Kingdomes or Dominions or to authorize any forraign Prince to invade or annoy Him or His Countâ—â— or to discharge any of His subjects of their allegiance and obedience to His Majestie or to give licence or leave to any of them to bear armes raise tumult or to offer any violence or hurt to His Majesties Royall Person State or Government or to any of His Majesties subjects within His Majesties Dominions Also I doe swear from my heart that notwithstanding any declaration or sentence of Excommunication or deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successours or by any authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King His Heires or Successours or any absolution of the said subjects from their obedience I will bear faith and true allegiance to His Majestie His Heires and Successours and Him and Them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against His or Their Persons Their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such sentence or declaration or otherwise and will doe my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto His Majestie His Heires and Successours all treasons and traiterous conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against Him or any of Them And I doe farther swear That I doe from my heart abhorre detest and abjure as impious and hereticall this damnable doctrine and position That Princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by Their subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full authority to be lawfully ministred unto me and doe renounce all Pardons and Dâ—spensations to the contrary And all these things I doe plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear according to these express words by me spoken and according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mentall evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And I doe make this recognition and acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly upon the true faith of a Christian So help me God This Oath was devised to discriminate the pernicious from the peaceable Papists Sure binde sure finde And the makers of this were necessitated to be larger therein because it is hard to strangle equivocation which if unable by might to break will endeavour by slight to slip the halter 57. No sooner did the newes thereof arrive at the ears of his Holiness The Pope his two Breve's against this Oath but presently he dispatcheth his Å¿ See K. James his Works pag. 250. Breve into England prohibiting all Catholicks to take this Oath so destructive to their own souls and the See of Rome exhorting them patiently to suffer persecution and manfully to endure martyrdome And because report was raised that the Pope wrote this
professor and first read the Grammar c Lib. 8 Epist 1 of Chrysolor as to a thin Auditory whose number increased when he began the Grammar of Theodorus Then took he by grace freely granted him the degree of Bachelor in Divinity such his commendable modesty though over-deserving a Doctorship d Caius Hist Cant. Acad lib. 2. pag. 127. to desire no more as yet because the main of his studies were most resident on Humanity Here he wrote a small Tract de Conscribendis Epistolis set forth by Sibert Printer e Idem ibidem to the University Some years after he took upon him the Divinity Professors place understand it the Lady Margarets invited thereunto not with the salary so f Lib. 8. Epist 3 small in it self but with desire and hope to doe good in the imployment 50. If any finde him complaining No mercâ—nary writers in Cambridge Hîc ô Academiam nullus c. Here 's an University indeed wherein none can be g Lib. 8. Epist 6 found who will at any rare be hired to write but indifferently Know this might tend much to his trouble but sounds nothing to the disgrace of Cambridge Indeed in Dutch Academies many poor People made a mean livelyhood by writing for others though but liberal Mechanicks in their imployment Cambridge within few yeers much improved in Learning No such mercenary hands in Cambridge where every one wrote for himself and if at any time for others he did it gratis as a courtesy for good will no service for reward 51. How much Cambridge was lately improved in learning the same Author doth thus acquaint us lib. 2 Epistola 10. Almost thirty yeers agoe saith he nothing else was handled Anno Dom. 1504 or read Anno Regis Hen. 7. 20. in the Schools of Cambridge besides ALEXANDER THE LITTLE LOGICALS as they call them and those old dictates of ARISTOTLE and questions of SCOTUS In processe of time there was an accession of good learning the knowledge of Mathematiques came in a new and indeed a renewed ARISTOTLE came in So many Authors came in whose very names were anciently unknown To wit it hath flourished so much that it may contend with the prime Schools of this age and hath such Men therein to whom if such he compared that were in the age before they will seem rather shadows of Divines then Divines 52. Take also the comparative character of Cambridge Erasmus his Judgment of Camb and Ox. weighed at this time with Oxford whil'st the judicious hand of Erasmus thus holdeth the beam of the ballance John f Lib 17 Epist 11. Bishop of Rochester one a Man a true Bishop a true Divine told me some three yeers since that in Cambridge whereof he is perpetuall Chancellor in stead of sophisticall querks now sober and sound disputations are agitated amongst Divines whence men depart not only learneder but better Oxford University by the help of some Monks did at first make some resistance but such were curbed with the power of Cardinall Wolsey and the Kings Authority who envied so great good to that most famous and ancient School 53. A second of the same kind will not be amiss to present A second a third verdict of the same g Lib. 6 Epist 1. England saith he hath two most noble Universities Cambridge and Oxford in both of these the Greek tongue is taught but in Cambridge quietly because John Fisher Bishop of Rochester sits Governor of the School not only for his learnings sake but for his Divine life But when a certain young man at Oxford not meanly learned did happily enough professe the Greek tongue there a barbarous Fellow in a popular Sermon began to raile against the Greek tongue with great and bainous revilings And in another place h Lib. 6. Epist 27. By the wisdome of Thomas Cardinall of York the School of Oxford shall be adorned not only with all kind of Tongues and learning but also with such Manners which become the best Studies For the University of Cambridge long agoe doth flourish with all ornaments John Bishop of Rochester being the Chancellor thereof 54. But too tart His Character of Cambridge Towns-men and severe is Erasmus his censure of Cambridge Towns-men i Lib. 8. Epist 8. 9. Vulgus Cantabrigiense inhospitales Britannos antecedit qui-cum summa rusticitate summam malitiam conjunxere Cambridge Towns-men goe beyond the inhospitable Britains who have malice joyned with their Clownishnes And although some will say the Towns-men are no Changelings at this day yet seeing Cambridge is sometimes called CIVITAS and often URBS some of her inhabitants expresse much Civility and Urbanity in their behaviour Rich. Burton Vice-chan William Lambert Edmond Page Proc. Drs. of Divin 2. Bac. of Divin 7. Mars of Arts 18. Bac. of Law 6. Bac. of Arts 23. Henry Kele Maior SECTION VI. Anno Regis Hen. 7. 21 EDV. BENLOSSIO Armigero Anno Dom. 1505 MECAENATI suo benevolo SEptem Principum Aulas transmarinas ni malè memini te perlustrâsse accepi In quibus splendidae vestes dubiae dapes ingens famulitium continuus strepitus multa denique Confusio quae in Regum Hospitiis Honoris ergô Magnificentia est nominanda En tibi plures Musarum Aulas sic oppositè Collegia dicuntur in hâc Historiâ nostrâ descriptas Esto tu aequissimus Arbiter cùm utraque tibi notissima Aulicorum an Academicorum vita sit beatior Non dubito te Musicolarum placidam quietem vestitum simplicem vultum tenuem fercula vacua mentes plenas phaleratis Palatinorum miseriis ac eorum tolerabili vanitati praelaturum Praesertim Joannense Collegium dulcedine suâ te allecturum spero cùm tibi olim Natale solum ubi Literis fuisti innutritus et cui Donaria non contemnenda dedisti plura et preciosiora ni fallor daturus si omnia justae tuae expectationi respondissent 1. HEnry the seaventh came to Cambridge King Henry comes to Cambridge where he bestowed an hundred Marks on the University and fourty pounds a fair summe in that age from so thrifty a King on the fabrick of St. Maries where the Scholars meet weekly at publick Sermons and yearly at the Commencement 2. The mention of St. Maries mindeth me of Church-work indeed The building of St. Martus so long it was from the founding to the finishing thereof as Begun May the sixteenth 1478 Anno Dom. 1505 when the first stone thereof was laid in the 17 th of Edward the fourth Anno Regis Hen 7. 21. The Church ended but without a Tower or Belfree 1519. in the 11 th of Henry the eighth The Tower finished 1608. in the sixth of King James So that from the beginning to the ending thereof were no fewer than an hundred and thirty years There was expended in the structure of the Church alone Caiu Hist Acad Cantab. lib. 1. pag 90.
Monarchy was desultory and moveable sometimes the West-Saxon sometimes the Mercian sometimes the Northumberland King ruled over the rest But henceforward Egbert fixed the supreme Soveraignty in himself and his Posterity for though afterwards there continued some other Petty Kings as Kenulph King of Merâ—ia c. yet they shined but dimly as the Moon when the Sun is risen and in the next Age were utterly extinguished So that hereafter we shall double our Files and for the better regulating of time next the Columne of the year of our Lord adde another of the Reign of our English Kings THE NINTH CENTURY Anno Regis Egberti Anno Dom. To M r. William and M r. Robert Christmas Merchants of London YOu are both Brethren by Birth and by your joynt Bounty on my Endeavours It is therefore pitty to part you May no other Difference be in your Hearts then vvhat Herauldry allovves in your Armes onely to distinguish the Age of the Elder from the Younger that so the Memory of your happy Father may survive in you his hopefull Children 1. THen Kenulph 1 King of Mercia 801 sent a Letter to Leo the third The Arch-bishoprick restored to Canterbury at the instance of King Kenulph Pope by Aethelard the Arch-bishop to this effect That whereas the Metropolitan Seat by Authority Apostolick was primitively fixed at Canterbury where the blessed Body of Augustine was buried and whereas lately King Offa out of Opposition to Arch-bishop Lambert had removed the same Seat to Lichfield and procured from Pope Adrian the same Translation to be confirmed Kenulph a Malmesb. de Gestis Reg. lib. 1. c. 4. requested his Holinesse so farre to concurre with the generall Desire of the English Nation as to revoke the Act of his Predecessour and restore the Arch-bishoprick to it's proper place And knowing that Sutes in the Court of Rome speed no whit the lesse when accompanied with Gifts he sent his Holinesse 120. b Mancusae quasimanucusae a coyn about the valuation whereof is much variety The first most formall subscription in a Synod Mancuses for a Present The Gift was kindly accepted the Arch-bishop courteously entertained the Request bountifully granted and thus the Arch-bishops See dislocated or out of joynt for a time was by the hands of his Holinesse set right again 2. Aethelard returning home 3 called a Synod at Clives-Ho 803 in Kent not farre from Rochester where by Power from the Pope he riveted the Arch-bishoprick into the City of Canterbury the Synod denouncing heavy Penalties to any that hereafter should endeavour to divide them so that it is believed that the Arch-bishops See may as easily be wholly dissolved as hence removed The Subscriptions in this Council were the most formall and solemn of any so ancient The Reader will not be offended with their hard c The originall is extant in the Records of Canterbury copied out by S t. Henry Spelman in his Councils pag. 325. Names here following seeing his Eye may run them over in perusing them though his Tongue never touch them in pronouncing them Diocese Bishops Abbots Presbyters Deacons Canterbury Aethelard Arch. Aethilheah Feologeld Wulfheard VVernoth Beornmod Vulfraed Arch. Lichfield Aldulf Higherth Lulls Monn VVigfreth Eadhere Cuthberth 00000000 Leicester Werenberth Falmund Pr. Beomia Pr. Forthrod Pr. Wigmund Pr. Eadberth 00000000 Sydnacester Eadulf Eadred Pr. Daeghelm Pr. Plegberth Eadulf Hereberth 00000000 Worcester Daenebreth Higberth Thineferth Pega Freothomund Pr. Coenferth 00000000 Hereford Vulfheard Cuthraed Srygol Dygoga Monn Heathobald Shireburn VVigberth Muda Eadberth Beorthmund 000000 00000000 Winchester Almund Cuthberth Mark Cumba Lulla Northeard Vngthe 00000000 Helmham Ealheard 000000000 Folcberth Frithoberth Eadberth Vulflab Hunfride Dunwich Fidsrith Vulfheard Lulla Ceolhelm Cynulfe Tydberth Eadberth London Osmond Heahstan Plegberth VVigheard Tidhun Frithorad Ethelhelme 00000000 Rochester VVaermund 00000000 Lullingo Tuda Beagnoth Heathoberth VVigheard 00000000 Selsey VVeothun Ceolmund Duud Eadberth Beorcol Hethfride a Doubtfull whether priests or deacons Cynebald 00000000 Arch-Bishop 1 Presbyters 39 82 in all Bishops 12 Archdeacon 1 Abbots 26 Deacons 3 3. Now to make a short but necessary Digression Some observables on the method and manner of their meeting in this Synod we may observe That Bishops appeared personally and the rest of the Clergy were represented Monks in their Abbots and the Seculars in the Priests and Deacons of their Diocese respectively Such Abbots as in this Catalogue have the addition of Pr. were also Priests and so present in a double Capacity though perchance they made onely use of their Abbotship No Deans appear here as a Dignity of farre later Institution The Bishops in the order of their Subscriptions seem to observe Seniority of their Consecrations and not Dignity of their Bishopricks seeing London lags one of the last to which our Church a Harpsfield Hist Ang. pag. 743. Heraulds did afterwards assign the highest place next the Arch-bishops onely Lichfield may seem to have had the Preccedency by the Courtesie of the Synod that the lost Dignity thereof might be buried in Honour being so lately the Seat of an Arch-bishop Lastly this was but a Provinciall Council for Canterbury alone York with his two Suffragans Lindisfern and Hexham not mentioned in the meeting Thus as the Anatomie of a little Child representing all Parts thereof is accounted a greater Rarity then the Sceleton of a man of full Statute so I conceive it more acceptable to the studious in Antiquity to behold the Form of these Synods with the distinct Members thereof in the Infancy of the Saxon Church then to see a compleat Council in after-Ages when grown to full Perfection 4. Passe we by some Petty Synods celebrated in the Reign and Countrey of King Kenulph of Mercia 16 Eminent was the Council at Celichyth under VVolfred who succeeded Aethelard Arch-bishop of Canterbury 816 Wherein The Acts of the Council at Colichyth amongst other things slight or superstitious was decreed 1. That the Catholick Faith should be kept and ancient Canons observed 2. That b See S r. Hen. Spelman in his Councills pag. 328. new Churches should be consecrated with Holy-water by their Bishops and the Saint somewhere painted therein to whom the same is dedicated 3. That all in Christian Charity mutually love one another 4. That Abbots and Abbesses be blamelesse persons chosen by the Bishop with the consent of the Convent 5. That no Scotch-man baptize or administer the Eucharist in England it being uncertain whether or by whom they are ordained We may discover herein some remaining Dreggs of the long-lasting Difference about the Celebration of Easter which made the suspicious English still to harbour a causelesse prejudice against the Scotch Priesthood 6. That the judiciall Sentences of Bishops in former Synods remain ratified as also all their Acts solemnly signed with the Crosse 7. That no Abbey-lands be leased out longer then in dies spatium unius hominis that is as I take
suspect that Dunstan who could blow Coals elsewhere as well as in his Furnace though at distance vertually or rather viciously present had a Finger yea a Hand therein Heart-broken with these Rebellions 958 King Edwin died in the Flower of his Age. 5 Edgati 1 24. Edgar succeeds him Dunstan recalled by King Edgar and takes a double Bishoprick and recalls Dunstan home 959 receiving him with all possible Affection 2 Yea now Dunstan's Stomack was come down and he could digest a Bishoprick which his Abstemiousness formerly refused And one Bishoprick drew down another VVorcester and London not successively but both a-breast went down his Conscience Yea never Age afforded more Pluralist Bishops In this Kings reign Letine held b Vid. Antiq. Britan. p. 83. Lincoln and Leicester oswald a great Monk-monger of whom hereafter held York and VVorcester Aldulph his Successour in both Churches did the like pardoned yea praised for the same though Woolstan because no favourer of Monks is reproved for the like Plurality Thus two men though doing the same thing do not the same thing Bigamy of Bishopricks goes by Favour and it is condemnable in one what is commendable in another Anno Regis Edgari 2 Odo Severus Anno Dom. 959 Arch-bishop of Canterbury being ceremoniously to consecrate Dunstan Bishop of VVorcester used all the Formalities fashionable at the Consecration of an a Antiq. Britan ibidem Arch-bishop And being reproved for the same he answered for himself That he foresaw that Dunstan instantly after his death would be Arch-bishop of Canterbury And therefore a compendious way to spare Paines he onely by a provident Prolepsis ante-dated his Consecration Surely whosoever had seen the decrepit age of Odo the affection of King Edgar to Dunstan the affection of Dunstan to Dignity needed no extraordinary prophetical Spirit to presage that on the supposition of Dunstan's surviving him he should succeed him in the Arch-bishoprick of Canterbury 25. Yea King Edgar was so wholly Dunstanized Oswald's Law to eject secular Priests that he gave over his Soul Body and Estate to be ordered by him and two more then the Triumvirate who ruled England namely Ethelwald Bishop of Winchester and Oswald Bishop of Worcester This Oswald was the man who procured by the Kings Authority the Ejection of all Secular Priests out of Worcester and the placing of Monks in their Room which Act was called Oswald's Law in that Age. They might if it pleased them have stiled it Edgar's Law the Legislative Power being then more in the King then in the Bishop This Oswald's Law afterwards enlarged it self over all England Secular Priests being thrown out and Monks every where fixed in their rooms till King Henry the eighth his Law outed Oswald's Law and ejected those Drones out of their Habitations 26. King Edgar violated the Chastity of a Nun at Wilton Dunstan's disciplining of king Edgar Dunstan getting notice thereof refused at the Kings Request to give him his Hand because he had defiled a Daughter of God as he termed her Edgar hereby made sensible of his Sin with Sorrow confessed it and Dunstan now Arch-bishop of Canterbury enjoyned him seven years Penance for the same Monks endeavour to inforcea mock-Parallel betwixt David and Edgar Nathan and Dunstan herein Sure I am on David's profession of his Repentance Nathan presently pronounced Pardon b 2 Sam. 12. 13 the Lord also hath put away thy Sin thou shalt not die consigning him to be punished by God the Principall using an Undutifull Son Treacherous Servants and Rebellious Subjects to be the Instruments thereof but imposing no voluntary Penance that David should by Will-worship undertake on himself All that I will adde is this If Dunstan did septennary Penance to expiate every mortall Sin to use their own Termes he committed he must have been a Methusalah extremely aged before the day of his Death 27. More commendable was Dunstan's Carriage towards an English Count 12 who lived incestuously with his own Kinswoman 969 Dunstan admonished him once And carriage towards an incestuous Count. twice thrice nothing prevailed whereupon he proceeded to Excommunicate him The Count slighted his Excommunication conceiving his Head too high for Church-Censures to reach it King Edgar falsly informed desires Dunstan to absolve him and is denied Yea the Pope sends to him to the same Purpose and Dunstan persists in his c Osbern in vita Dunstani Refusall At last the Count conquered with Dunstan's Constancy and the sense of his own Sin came into a Nationall Council at Canterbury where Dunstan sate President active therein to substitute Monks in the places of Secular Priests on his bare Feet with a Bundle of Rods tendering himself to Dunstan's Chastisement This wrought on Dunstan's mild Nature scarce refraining from Teares who presently absolved him 28. Three things herein are remarkable Observations thereon First that Bribes in the Court of Rome may purchase a Malefactor to be innocent Secondly that the Pope himself is not so infallible but that his Key may misse the Lock and he be mistaken in matter of Absolution Thirdly that men ought not so with blind Obedience to obey his pretended Holinesse but that if with Dunstan here they see just Cause to the contrary it is no Mortall Sin to disobey his Commands 29. The Apprentiship of Edgar's Penance long since expired Edgar's Canons why by us here related he flourished in all Monarchicall Lustre sole Founder of many Co-founder of more Benefactor to most Abbeys in England Anno Dom. 969 And as he gave new Cases to most Monasteries repairing their outward Buildings so he gave new Linings to all Anno Regis Edgari 12 substituting Monks in stead of the Secular Priests whom he expelled Many Ecclesiasticall Canons were by him ordained which at large are presented in S t. Henry Spelman and which I have neither List nor Leisure to recount in this my History Our Women have a Proverb It is a sad Burden to carry a dead mans Child and surely an Historian hath no heart to take much Pains which herein are Pains indeed to exemplify dead Canons dead and buried long since as most relating to Monkery this Age wherein we live being little fond of Antiquity to know those things which were antiquated so many yeares since 30. Now though the Devotion of King Edgar may be condemned to be byassed to Superstition Edgar a most triumphant King yet because the Sincerity of his Heart sought to advance Gods Honour according to the Light in those dark dayes he appears one of the most puissant Princes that ever England enjoyed both in Church and Common-wealth I have read in a most fair and authentick guilded a Extant in the precious Library of S r. Tho. Cotton Manuscript wherein he stileth himself Gods Vicar in England for the ordering Ecclesiasticall matters a Title which at this day the Pope will hardly vouchsafe to any
last bee let in when they had paid dear for a dispensation 19. Lanckfranck likewise charged Remigius And against Remigius elect of Lincoln elect of Lincoln as irregular because guilty of Simony Yet he did not tax him with a penny of money either paid or contracted for onely charged him that officio b Eadmerus ibid. emerar by service-Simony he had purchased the place of King William so that his officiousness to comply with the Kings pleasure had made him injurious and vexatious unto the people Here all things were referred to Lanckfrancks own arbitration whom the Pope of an accuser made a Judg so far as either to admit or exclude the aforesaid Prelates affirming that if any unworthiness crept into English preferment be it charged on Lanckfranck his account whom he made sole judg of mens merits to any promotion 20. But all is well Lanckfranck his return and imployment that ends well and so did this contest Lanckfranck having first given them a taste of his power did afterwards give them a cast of his pitty and favourably accepted them both into their places Hence they all post homewards where we leave Lanckfranck safely arrived and foundly employed in variety of business 1. In asserting the superiority of his See above York 2. In defending his Tenants in what Diocess soever from the visitations of their respective Bishops which gave the first original to Peculiars 3. In repairing his Church of Canterbury lately much defaced with fire 4. In casting out Secular Priests and substituting Monks in their room 5. Lastly in recovering lands long detained from his See Nor was he affrighted with the heighth and greatness of Odo Bishop of Bayeux though half-brother to King William and Earl of Kent but wrestled a fair fall with him in a legal trial and cast him flat on his back regaining many Lordships which Odo had most unjustly invaded Such as desire more of Lanckfranck his character let them consult Eadmerus a Monk of Canterbury and therefore prodigal in Lanckfrancks praise an Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and great promoter of monastical life Indeed there was a design driven on by Walkeline Bishop of Winchester who had privately wrought the King to abet it to reinduce Secular Priests into Monks places till Lanckfranck getting notice defeated the plot procuring that all such Monks whom he had first fastened in their Covents were afterwards riveted therein by Papal authority 21. About this time a constitution was made Bishops Sees removed from villages to cities that Bishops should remove their Sees from petty towns to populous places This reason being rendred for their removal Ne vilesceret Episcopalis dignitas by their long living in so little villages Such Bishops Churches could not properly be called Cathedrals who fate not upon chairs but low stools so inconsiderably small were some places of their residences A fair candle-stick advantagiously set in some sense may be said to give light to the candle it self and Episeopal lustre will be the brighter if placed in eminent Cities Besides Bishops having now gotten Canon-Law and distinct Courts by themselves much people repaired unto their Consistories which conveniently could not be accommodated in little villages but required bigger places for their better entertainment In order to this command the Bishop of Dorchester near Oxford removed to Lincolne as somewhat before Selsey was translated to Chichester and Sherborne to Sarisbury and not long after Thetford to Norwich Now as these Cities to which they removed being great before grew greater afterwards so those places which they left Dorchester and Selsey especially decayed to contemptible villages it faring with places as with persons the rich grow richer still and the meaner are daily diminished 22. As these Bishops accounted themselves well busied Wolstans sunplicity faveth his Bisho prick in removing their Bishopricks so some I am sure were ill imployed in endeavouring to remove a good Bishop I mean Wolstan from his Church of Worcester As the Poëts saign of Janus that he had two faces because living before and after the flood so this Wolstan may be charactered accordingly made Bishop before but continuing his place long after the Norman inundation But in what sense soever he may be said to have two faces he had but one heart and that a single and sincere one to God and all goodness yet his adversaries heaved at him to cast him out of his Bishoprick because an Englishman of the old stamp but he fate safe right-poised therein with his own gravity and integrity And being urged to resign his staff and ring ensignes of his Epifcopacy he refused to surrender them to any man alive but willingly offered them up at the Tomb of Edward the Confessor from whom he received them This his gratitude to his dead Patron and candid simplicity in neglecting the pomp of his place procured him much favour and occasioned his peaceable confirmation in his Bishoprick 23. At this time several Liturgies were used in England The original of Secundum usum Sanum which caused confusion and much disturbed mens devotions Yea which was worse a brawle yea a battel happ'ned betwixt the English Monks of Glassenbury and Thurstan their Norman Abbot in their very Church obtruding a Service upon them which they dislik'd Unfit persons to fight being by their profession men of peace and unfitter the place for a quarrel * 1 Cor. 11. 22. Have ye not houses to eat and drink in saith S t Paul to the Corinthians or despise ye the Church of God Was there no other room in their Covent for them to fall out and fight in but their Church alone Here was an Holy War indeed when Church-forms candle-sticks and Crucifixes were used for shields by the Monks against the Abbot's armed-men brought in against them Nor was Holy-water onely but much bloud spilled in the place eight Monks being wounded and * Fulegium an ancient and authenick Chronicle cited by Mr. Fox pag. 233. two slain or if you will sacrificed near the steps of the High Altar But this accident ill in it self was then conceived good in the event thereof because occasioning a settlement and uniformity of Liturgie all over England For hereupon Osmund Anno Dom. 1081 Bishop of Salisbury devised that Ordinary or form of Service which hereafter was observed in the whole Realm his Churches practice being a precedent and the devotion therein a direction to all others Hence forward the most ignorant Parish-Priest in England though having no more Latin in all his treasury yet understood the meaning of Secundum usum Sarum that all Service must be ordered According to the course and oustome of Salisbury Church 24. I finde no Jews in England no deviation I hope from Church-History The first coming of the Iews into England to touch at the Synagogue before the Reign of the Conqueror who a Srows Survey of London in Coleman street Ward brought many from Roan in Normandy and
the English he instantly and actually repealed for his brother William had put all the Land out of love and liking of fair promises the cruel Norman Laws Laws written in bloud made more in favour of Deer then of Men more to manifest the power and pleasure of the imposer then for the good and protection of the Subject wherein sometimes mens mischances were punished for their misdeeds Yea in a manner King Heary gave eyes to the blind in winter-nights I mean light to them who fomerly lived though in their own houses in uncomfortable darkness after eight a clock when heretofore the Curseu-bell did ring the knell of all the fire and candle-light in English families But now these rigorous Edicts were totally repealed the good and gentle Laws of Edward the Confessor generally revived the late Kings extorting Publicanes whereof Ranulf Flambard Bishop of Durham the principal closely imprisoned the Court-corruption by the Kings command studiously reformed adultery then grown common with the loss of virility severely punished Anselme from exile speedily recalled after his return by the King heartily welcomed by the Clergie solemnly and ceremoniously received he to his Church his lands and goods to him fully restored English and Normans lovingly reconciled all interests and persons seemingly pleased Robert the Kings elder brother though absent in the Holy-Land yet scarcely missed and so this Century with the first year of King Hearie's reign seasonably concluded The end of the eleventh Century CENT XII Anno Regis Hen. 1. 2 Anno Dom. 1101. JOHANNI FITZ-JAMES DE LEUSTON In Com. Dorset ARMIG NOn desunt in hoc nostro saeculo qui Librorum Dedicationes penè ducunt superstitiosum planè superfluum sic enim argutuli ratiocinantur Liber si bonus Patrono non indiget sno Marte pergat sin malus Patrono ne sit dedecori suo merito pereat Habeo tamen quod huic dilemmati possim regerere Liber Meus nec bonus nec malus sed quiddam medium inter utrumque Bonum ipse non ausum pronuntiare cum plurimis Mendis Laboret Malum alii spero non dijudicent cum Legentibus possit esse usui Sub hác dubiâ Conditione vel Adversariis nostris Judicibus opus hoc nostrum Patronum sibi asciscere potest debet Et sub alis Clientelae tuae qui tam MARTE praestas quà m MERCURIO foveri serìo triumphat 1. GRrave Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Hen. 1 2. espoused and married Maud daughter of Malcolme King of the Scots 1101 and S t Margaret his wife to Henry King of England The Hellish imprecation of Maud when married to King Henry Shee had been a professed Votary and was pressed by the importunity of her parents and friends for Politick ends to this marriage insomuch as in the bitterness of her soul able to appale the writer hereof seeing his ink out-black'd with her expression she devoted the fruit of her body to the Devil because they would not permit her to perform her promise of Virginity Thus a Hist Ang. in Hen. 1. anno 1101. Matthew Paris But the Reader reserveth his other ear for the relation of Eadmerus reporting this story after a different yea contrary manner as followeth 2. The aforesaid Maud when a Girle The story otherwise told by Eadmerus an eye and ear witness lived under the tuition and correction of Christian her Aunt and Abbess of Wilton at what time the Norman souldiers conquering the Kingdom did much destroy and more endanger virgins by their violence Christian therefore to preserve this her Neete clapt a black cloath on her head in imitation of a Nuns vail which she unwillingly ware in the presence of her Aunt but in her absence off it went from above her head to under her heals so that in despightful manner she used to tread and trample upon it Yea if Malcolme her father chanced to behold her wearing that mock-vail with rage he would rend it off cursing the causers of it and avowing that he intended her no votary but a wife to Count Alan Besides two grave Arch-Deacons sent down to Wilton to enquire into the matter reported that for ought they could learn from the Nuns there this Maud was never solemnly entered into their order Hereupon a Councel was called of the English Clergy wherein some grave men attested of their own knowledg that at the Norman conquest to avoid the fury of the souldiery many maids out of fear not affection for protection not piety made a Cloyster their refuge not their choice were Nuns in their own defence running their heads but without their hearts into a vail And in this case it was resolved by learned Lanckfranck that such virgins were bound by an extraordinary obligation above other women b Eadmerus Novorum lib. 5. pag. 57 58. Debitam castitati reverentiam exhibere Nullam Religionis continentiam servare which is in effect that they must be chaste wives though they need not be constant maids These things alledg'd and prov'd Anselme pronounced the Nunship of Maud of none effect and solemnly married her to King Henry However some infer the unlawfulness of this match fron the unhappiness of their children all their issue male coming to untimely deaths But sad events may sometimes be improved by mens censures further then they were intended by Gods Justice and it is more wisdom seriously to observe them to the instructing of our selves then rigidly to apply them to the condemning of others The rather because Maud the Empress their sole surviving childe seemed by her happiness to make reparation for the infelicity of all the rest 3. Next year a more solemn Synod was summoned by Anselme A grand Synod of the Clergy and Laytie with the Constitutions thereof with the Kings consent 1102 held at Westminster whereat 3. besides Bishops were present at Anselmes request from the King the chief Lay-Lords of the Land and this Reason rendred Forasmuch as that whatsoever should be determined by the Authority of the said Councel might be ratified and observed by the joynt care and solicitousness of both estates But whether the Lords were present as bare spectators and witnesses to attest the fair Transaction of matters which some will conceive to little or whether they had a power to vote therein which others will adjudg too much is not clearly delivered Here we insert the constitutions of this Synod And let none say that it is vain to look after the Cobwebs when the besom of Reformation hath swept them away seeing the knowledg of them conduce much to the understanding of that Age. 1. That the a Fadmerus Hist Novorum lib. 3. pag. 67. 68. Heresie of Symony be severely punished for which several Abbots were then and there deposed 2. That Bishops undertake not the Office of secular Pleas wearing an habit beseeming Religious Persons and not be like Lay-men in their Garments and that alwayes and every where
to receive large summes of money for his leave after whose faculties obtained if such marriage were against the Law of God men did sin not with less guiltiness but more Expences 26. That the Bodies of the Dead be not carried to be buried out of their own Parishes so that the Parish Priest should lose his due unto him 27. That none out of a rash novelty which we know to have happened exhibit reverence of Holiness to any Bodies of the Dead fountains or other things without Authority from the Bishop 28. That none persume hereafter what hitherto men used in England to sell Men like bruite Beasts Anno Dom. 1102. This Constitution as all others which concerned the Subjects Civil right found not general obedience in the Kingdom For the proceedings of the Canon Law were never wholly received into practice in the Land but so as made subject in whatsoever touched temporals to secular Laws and national Customs And the Laytie at pleasure limited Canons in this behalf Nor were such sales of servants being mens proper goods so a See Mr Selden spicileg ad Eadmerum pag. 208. weakned with this prohibition but that long after they remained legal according to the Laws of the Land 29. That the sin of Sodometry both in Clergie and Laytie should be punished with heavy Censures Remarkable that the same Synod which forbad Priests Marriage found it needful to punish Sodometry an Italian Vice beginning now to be naturaliz'd in England For those who endeavour to make the way to heaven narrower then God hath made it by prohibiting what he permits do in event make the way to hell wider occasioning the committing of such sins which God hath forbidden We may further observe that the plaister now applied to the rotten sore of Sodometry was too gentle too narrow and too little time laid on Too gentle for whereas the sin is conceived to deserve death it was onely slubber'd over that the party convict of this Wickedness if in Orders was admitted to no higher honour and deposed from what he had till restored again on his repentance Too narrow if it be true what one observes that b Bale in the Acts of English Votaries second part chap. 74. MONKS as neither merely Lay nor Priests were not threatned with this Curse where all was hidden in Cloysters Lastly too little time laid on for whereas at first it was constituted that such Excommunication of Sodomites convicted should solemnly be renewed every Lords Day this short-liv'd Canon did die in the birth thereof and Anselme himself c Eadmerus ut prius postponi concessit suffered it to be omitted on pretence that it put beastly thoughts into many mens mindes whose corruption abused the punishment of sin in the provocation thereof whilest others conceive this relaxation indulged in favour to some great offenders who hardened in Conscience but tender in Credit could not endure to be so solemnly publickly and frequently grated with the shame of the sin they had committed So much for the Constitutions of that Synod wherein though Canons were provided for Priests Cap a Pe from the shavnig to the shooes yet not a syllable of their instructing the people and preaching Gods word unto them We must not forget that men guilty of Simony in the first Canon are not taken in the Vulgar acception for such as were promoted to their places by money but in a new coyned sence of that word for those who were advanced to their Dignities by investiture from the King which gave occasion to the long and hot Broil happening betwixt King Henry and Anselme which now we come to relate 4. The King commanded him to Consecrate such Bishops 4. as he lately had invested 1103 namely An selme refuseth to consecrate the Kings Bishops William of Winchester Roger of Hereford c. which Anselme refused because flatly against the Canon newly made in the Councel of Rome by Pope Vrban that any who had their entrance by the Authority of temporal Princes should be admitted to Bishopricks Hereupon the King enjoyned Gerard Arch-Bishop of York to Consecrate them who out of opposition to Anselme his Competitour was as officious to comply with the King King as the other was backward Anno Dom. 1105. hoping thereby to hitch his Church a degree the higher Anno Regis Hen. 16. by help of his Royal Favour Here hapned an unexpected accident For William Bishop of Winchester refused Consecration from the Arch-Bishop of York and resigned his staff and ring back again to the King as illegally from him This discomposed all the rest For whereas more then the moity of Ecclesiastical persons in England were all in the same condemnation as invested by the King the very multitude of offenders would have excused the offence if loyal to their own cause Whereas now this defection of the Bishop of Winchester so brake the ranks and maimed their entireness that their cause thereby was cast by their own confession and so a party raised among them against themselves 5. Soon after Anselme sent to Rome the King was contented that Anselme should go to Rome to know the Popes pleasure herein But one none of the Conclave without a prophetical spirit might easily have foretold the resolution of his Holiness herein never to part with power whereof how injuriously soever though but pretendedly possessed Anselme for his complyance with the Pope herein is forbidden to return into England while the King seiseth on his temporalities 6. However The king parts with his investing of Bishops not log after 1106. by mediation of friends 7. they are reconciled the King disclaiming his right of Investitures a weak and timerous act of so wise and valiant a Prince whose Predecessors before the Conquest held this power though some time loosely in their own hands and his Predecessors since the Conquest grasp'd it fast in their fist in defiance of such Popes as would finger it from them Whereas now he let it go out of his hand whilest his Successors in vain though with a long arme reach't after it to recover it And now Anselme who formerly refused consecrated all the Bishops of vacant Sees amongst whom Roger of Sarisbury was a prime person first preferred to the Kings notice because he began prayers quickly and caded them speedily for which quality he was commended as fittest for a Chaplain in the Camp and was not unwelcome to the Court on the same account 7. Anselme having devested the King of investing Bishops one of the fairest roles in his Ward-robe did soon after deprive the Clergie of one half of themselves Anselme forbids Priests marriage For in a solemn Synod he forbad Priests Marriage wherein 1107 as charitably we believe 8. his intentions pious and commendable and patiently behold his pretences specious and plausible so we can not but pronounce his performance for the present injurious and culpable and the effects thereof
name is written with a Local Tinesis D'Acres 2. Joan Daughter to Edward the first King of England is called D'Acres because Born there 3. They gave their Armes Gules three Scollops-shels Argent Which Scollop-shels I mean the nethermost of them because most concave and capacious smooth within and artificially plated without was of times Cup and Dish to the Pilgrims in Palestine and thereupon their Armes often charged therewith Since suddenly all is vanished when I found c Camd. Brit. in Cumberland pag. 776. Dacor a Rivolet in Cumberland so ancient that it is mentioned by Bede himself long before the Holy War was once dreamed of which gave the name to Dacres Castle as that their prime seat to that Family 18. Before we go further Cressant and Stat why the Device of K. Richard the first in his voyage to the Holy Land be it here observed that when King Richard the first went into Palestine he took up for his Device in his Ensign a Cressant and a Star but on what account men variously conjecture Some conceive it done in affront to the Sultan Saladine the Turk giving the Half Moon for his Armies But this seems unlikely both because a Cressant is not the posture of the Turkish Moon and because this was a preposterous method with a valiant man at his bare setting forth who would rather first win before wear the Armes of his Enemies Others make a modest yea Religious meaning thereof interpreting himself and his souldiers by the Cressant and Star expecting to be inlightened from above by the beams of succeâ—s from the Sun of Divine Providence Indeed it would trouble a wise man but that a wise man will not be troubled therewith to give a reason of King Richards fancy it being almost as easie for him to foretel ours as for us infallibly to interpret his design herein However we may observe many of the principal persons which attended the King in this War had their Shields be-Cressanted and be-Starred in relation to this the Royal Device 19. Thus Michael Minshul of Minshul in Cheshire The Armes of the ancient Family of Minshull serving King Richard in this war had not onely the Cressant and Star given him for his Armes but since also that Family hath born for their Crest two Lions paws holding a Cressant And I have seen a Patent d Viz. July 4. 1642. lately granted by the Lord Marshal to a Knight e Sir Richard Minshull of Burton in Bucks deriving himself from a younger branch of that Family assigning him for distinction to change his Crest into the Sultan kneeling and holding a Cressant 20. And thus the Noble Family of Saint-John whereof the Earl of Bullingbrock As also of the noble S. Johns and Sackvile c. give for their Paternal Coat Argent two Stars Or on a Chief Gules These Stars first give us a dim light to discover their Service in the Holy Land who since are beholding for perfecter information to one now scarce counted a Rimer formerly admitted for a Poet acquainting us with this and another Noble Family adventuring in the Holy War namely the Sackviles still flourishing in the Right Honourable the Earl of Dorcet a Robert of Glocester King Richard wyth gud entent To yat cite of b Jafes that is Joppa in Palestine Jafes went On morn he sent aftur Sir Robart Sakebile Sir William Wateruile Sir Hubart and Sir Robart of Turnham Sir Bertram Brandes and John de S t John Yet the Armes or Crest of the Sackviles give us not the least intimation of the Holy War And indeed no rational man can expect an universal conformity in so much variety of fancies that all the Armes of the adventurers thither should speake the same Language or make some sign of their service therein 21. I finde c Haekluit in his first volume of voyages S r Frederick Tilney Knighted at Acres in the Holy Land 3. in the third year of King Richard the first 1192. he was a man Magnaestaturae potens corpore The worshipful Family of the Tilnes Sixteen Knights in a direct line of that name succeeded in that Inheritance Whose heir general was married to the Duke of Norfolk whilest a male branch if not which I fear very lately extinct flourished since at Shelleigh in Suffolke 22. When I look upon the ancient Armes of the Noble Family of the Villiers The most honourable Ancestors of the Villiers wherein there is Pilgrim on Pilgrim I mean five Scallops O R on the Cross of S t george I presently concluded one of that Family attended King Richard in the Holy Land But on better enquiry I finde that this Family at their first coming into England bare Sable three Cinquefoyles Argent and that S r Nicholas de Villiers Knight changed this d Burton in his description of Leicester-shire Coat in the Reign not of Richard but Edward the first whom he valiantly followed in his Wars in the Holy Land and elsewhere 23. I will conclude with the Noble Family of Berkely The Armes of the Berkeleys then which none of England now eminently existing was more redoubted in the Holy war All know their disent from Harding Son to the King of Denmark whose Armes are said to be Gules Three Danish Axes O R or as others suppose with more probability I conceive onely a plain Cheveron though some three hundred years since they have filled their Coat with Ten Crosses Patte OR in remembrance of the Atchievements of their Ancestors in that service For I finde that Harding of England Landed at e Chronicon Jerusalem lib. 9. cap. 11. Joppa July the third in the second year of King Baldwin with a Band of stout Souldiers where he relieved the Christians besieged therein 24. But I have been too tedious More Church-men abroad then Church-business at home intending onely a short Essay and to be let me call it an honest Decoy by entering on this subject to draw others into the compleating thereof during the whole extent of the Holy war The best is for the present we have had good leisure these Martial times affording but little Ecclesiastical matter For at this present much of the English Church was in Palestine where Baldwin Arch-Bishop of Canterbury ended his life before the Siege of Acres and where Hubert Walter Bishop of Sarisbury was a most active Commander besides many moe of the eminent Clergies ingaged in that service Yet many did wish that one Clergy-man more had been there to keep him from doing mischief at home namely William Longcamp Bishop of Elie who plaied Rex in the Kings absence so intolerable a Tyrant was he by abusing the Royal Authority committed unto him And it is a wonder that he being indeed a Norman born but holding so many and great offices in this land should not be able to speak one word of good f Goodwin in his catalogue of
They also complained With great earnestnesse that when such Merchants troubled in the Courts Christian addressed themselves for remedy to the Chancery and moved therein for a Prohibition which in such cases is to be granted unto them by vertue of a Statute made in the forty fift year of King Edward the third yet such a writ of Prohibition and attachment was against all law and right denyed them Wherefore they humbly desired the King to ordaine by authority of the present Parliament that such who shall find themselves grieved may hereafter have such writs of Prohibition and upon that Attachments aswell in the Chancery as in the Kings and Common-Bench at their choice * Ex Archivis in Tur. Londin undecimo Hen. sexti And that the said Writs of Prohibition and Attachment issuing out of the said Benches have the said force and effects as the Original writs of Prohibition and Attachment so issuing out of the Chancery of our Lord the King 70. To this it was returned Yet not fully redressed the King will be advised the civilest expression of a Denial However we may observe that for a full hundred years viz. from the middle of King Edward the third to and after this time no one Parliament passed wherein this Grievance was not complained on So that an Acorn might become an Oake and good Timber in the term wherein this molestation for the Tithes of wood under the pretence of Silva Cedua did continue But it seems it was well Ordered at last finding future Parliaments not complaining thereof 71. At this time William Linwood finished his industrious and usefull work of his Constitutions William Linwood his Constitutions set forth He was bred in Cambridge first Schollar of Gonvile then Fellow of Pembroke-Hall His younger years he spent in the studie of the Laws whereby he gained much wealth and more reputation Afterwards quitting his practice he betook himself to the Court and became Keeper of the Privie-Seale unto King Henry the fifth who employed him on a long and important Embassy into Spain and Portugal 72. Linwood being no less skilful in Civil than Canon Law First imployed Embassador into Portugal performed the place with such exemplarie industrie and judgement that had not the Kings suddain death prevented it he had been highly advanced in the Common-wealth Afterwards he reassumed his Officials place of Canterburie and then at spare houres collected and digested the Constitutions of the fourteen latter Archbishops of Canterbury from Stephen Langton to Henry Chicheley unto whom he dedicated the Work submitting the censure thereof to the Church 73. A worthy Work highly esteemed by forraign Lawyers not so particularly Provincial for England His work printed and prized beyond sea but that they are usefull for other Countries his Comment thereon being a Magazine of the Canon-Law It was printed at Paris 1505. but at the cost and charges of William Bretton an honest Merchant of London revised by the care of Wolfgangus Hippolius and prefaced unto by Jodocus Badius This Linwood was afterward made Bishop of Saint Davids whose works though now beheld by some as an Almanack out of date will be valued by the judicious whilst Learning and Civility have a being CENT XV. Anno Regis TO M r THOMAS RICH Anno Dom. Late of LONDON Esquire Great is the praise S. Paul * * Rom. 16. 23. gives to Gaius stiling him his host and of the whole Church Surely the Church then was very little or Gaius his house very large Now Hosts commonly are Corpulent persons but Gaius not so it being more then suspicious that he was afflicted with a faint body as may be collected from the words of ††3 John 2. S. John I wish that thou maist prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth You are Sir the Entertainer-general of good men many a poor Minister will never be wholly Sequestred whilest you are living whose Charity is like to the winde which cannot be seen but may be felt And God hath dealt with you more bountifully then with Gaius blessing you in all dimentions of Soul Body and Estate and my prayers shall never be wanting for the continuance and increase thereof 1. THis year began the smart and active Councel of Basil Hen. 6 12. to which our Ambassadours were to represent both their Soveraign 1434. and the English Nation English Ambassadors sent to Basil where they were received with honour and respect the reputation of King Henry his Holiness adding much to their credit Foraigners there being very inquisitive of them to be satisfied in the particulars of his devotion which by them was represented much to their Masters advantage But it is worth our pains to peruse the Commission they carried with them REx omnibus quos c. Anno Dom. 1434 salutem Anno Regis Hen. 6. 12. Sciatis quòd cum juxta decreta Constantiensis Concilii praesens Concilium Basileense actualiter celebretur sub sanctissimo Patre Domino Eugenio Papa quarto Nos eidem Concilio nedum ex parte ejusdem Concilii per suos Oratores nobis ex hac causa specialiter destinatos verum etiam Apostolicis Imperialibus ac aliorum quamplurimorum sanctae Matris Ecclesiae Patrum Principum saecularium literis creberrimè instigati ad Dei laudem sanctae Matris Ecclesiae prosperitatem optatam honorem praesertim ob fidei Catholicae exaltationem interesse cupientes variis diversis causis rationabiliter praepediti quo minus personaliter eidem interesse poterimus ut vellemus venerabiles Patres Robertum Londoniensem Philippum Lexovieasem Johannem Roffensem Johannem Bajocensem Bernardum Aquensem Episcopos ac carissimum consanguineum nostrum Edmundum Comitem Moritonii dilectos nobis Nicholaum Abbatem Glastoniensem Willielmum Abbatem Ecclesiae beatae Mariae Eborum Willielmum Priorem Norwincensem nec non dilectos fideles nostros Henricum Broumflete Militem Magistrum Thomam Broun utriusque Juris Doctorem Sarum Decanum Johannem Colluelle Militem Magistrum Petrum c c Or Maurison Mauricii Doctorem in Theologia Magistrum Nicholaum David Archidiaconum Constantiensem Licentiatum in utroque Jure nostros Ambassiatores Oratores veros indubitatos Procuratores Actores Factores Nuncios speciales constituimus facimus deputamus per praesentes dantes eis ipsorum majori parti potestatem mandatum tam generale quam speciale nomine nostro pro nobis in eodem Concilio interessendi tractandi communicandi concludendi tam de hiis quae fidei Orthodoxae fulcimentum Regumque ac principum pacisicationem concernere poterunt nec non de super pace perpetua guerrarúmve abstinentia inter Nos Carolum Adversarium nostrum de Francia ac etiam tractandi communicandi appunctuandi consentiendi insuper si opus fuerit dissentiendi hiis quae juxta deliberationem
desperately say his foes fell in the midst of his enemies and his corps were disgracefully carried to Leicester without a rag to cover his nakedness as if no modest usage was due to him when dead who had been so shameless in his cruelty when alive The Crown ornamental being found on his head was removed to the Earls and he Crowned in the field and Te Deum was solemnly sung by the whole Army 15. Soon after King Henry married the Lady Elizabeth Hen. 7 1. eldest Daughter unto King Edward the fourth Henry the seventh his sixfold title to the Crown whereby those Roses which formerly with their prickles had rent each other were united together Yea sixfold was King Henry his title to the Crown First Conquest Secondly Military election the Souldiers crying out in the field King Henry King Henry Thirdly Parliamentary Authority which setled the Crown on Him and His Heirs Fourthly Papal confirmation his Holiness forsooth concurring with his religious complement Fifthly Discent from the House of Lancaster But that all know was but the back-door to the Crown and this Henry came in but by a window to that back-door there being some bastardy in his pedigree but that was salved by post-legitimation Sixthly Marriage of King Edwards Daughter the first and last being worth all the rest Thus had he six strings to his bow but commonly he let five hang by and onely made use of that one which for the present he perceived was most for his own advantage Yet for all these his Titles this politick Prince thought fit to have his Person well secured and was the first King of England who had a standing Guard to attend him 16. Thomas Bourchier Cardinal 2. and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 1586 had the honour first to marry The death of Arch-Bishop Bourchier then to Crown King Henry and the Lady Elizabeth And then having sitten in a short Synod at London wherein the Clergie presented their new King with a tenth quietly ended his life having sate in his See two and thirty years He gave an hundred and twenty pounds to the University of Cambridg which was joyed with another hundred pounds which M r Billingforth Master of Bennet Colledg had some years before given to the said University and this joint stock was put into a Chest called at this day the Chest of Billingforth and Bourchier and Treasurers are every year chosen for the safe keeping thereof 17. John Morton born say some at Beare John Morton succeeded him but more truly at S t Andrews Milbourne in Dorcet-shire where a worshipful family of his name and lineage remain at this day succeeded him in the See at Canterbury He was formerly Bishop of Elie and appointed by Edward the fourth one of the Executors of his Will and on that account hated of King Richard the third the Excutioner thereof He was as aforesaid imprisoned because he would not betray his trust fled into France returned and justly advanced by King Henry first to be Chancellor of England and then to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 18. Now began the Pope to be very busie by his Officers A gift not worth the taking to collect vast summes of money in England Anno Dom. 1486 presuming at the Kings connivance thereat Anno Regis Hen. 7 2. whom he had lately gratified with a needless Dispensation to Legitimate his Marriage with the Lady Elizabeth his Cousin so far off it would half pose a Herald to recover their Kindred For 1. Edward the third on Philippa his Queen begat 2. Lyonel Duke of Clarence who on Elizabeth his Lady begat 3. Philippa on whom Edward Mortimer Earl of March begat 4. Roger Earl of March who on begat 5. Anne on whom Richard Plantagenet Duke of York begat 6. Edward the fourth king of England who on Elizabeth woodvile begat 7. Elizabeth his Eldest Daughter who was married unto 2. John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster who of Katharine Swinford begat 3. John de Beaufort Duke of Somerset who on begat 4. John Beausort Duke of Somerset who on Marg. Beauchamp begat 5. Margaret on whom Edmund Tuther Earl of Richmond begat 6. Henry Earl of Richmond afterwards 7 th of that name King of England Neither Law Divine or Civil forbad marriage at this distance but the Pope would be over-officious both to oblige the King and interest himself as if no Princes could well be married except the Pope had a finger in joining their hands together 19. Exorbitancies of Sanctuaries retreuched More material to the King was the help of his Holiness 1487 to regulate the exorbitancies of abused Sanctuaries 3. In this age could an offendor get such an house over his head he accounted himself instantly innocent though not is conscience yet as to outward punishment the Kings enemies once Sanctuaried daring him no less then the Jebusites in their strong fort of Sion defied David a 2 Sam. 5. 6. Though shalt not come in hither The Pope therefore in favour of the King and indeed of equity it self ordered 1. b Lord Verulam in Hen 7. pag. 39. That if any Sanctuary man did by might or otherwise get out of Sanctuary privily and commit mischief and trespass and then come in again he should lose the benefit of Sanctuary for ever after 2. That howsoever the person of the Sanctuary man was protected from his Creditors yet his goods out of Sanctuary should not 3. That if any took Sanctuary for cause of Treason the King might appoint him keepers to look to him in Sanctuary Surely had the King been pleased to interpose his own power he might have reformed these abuses but he thought fitter to make use of the Popes Spiritual artillery against these Spiritual Castles of Rebellion that he might not seem to intrench on their lawful priviledges having formerly at least in pretence appeared a great Patron of Sanctuaries and a severe punisher of the unjust infringers thereof On which account this King who was never uxorious husband nor over-dutiful son in law confined the Queen Dowager his wives Mother to a Religious House in Bermansey because three years since she had surrendred her two Daughters out of the Sanctuary at Westminster Anno Regis Hen. 7 4. to Richard Duke of York Anno Dom. 1488 20. A Synod was holden by Arch-Bishop Morton at London Two Synods at London wherein the Luxury of the London a Antiquit. Brit. Pag. 298. Clergie in cloaths that City alwayes the staple of bravery with their frequenting of Taverns was forbidden such Preachers also were punished who with popular applause enveighed against Bishops in their absence the next year also a Synod was called but little therein effected but vast summes of money granted by the Clergie to the King 21. John Giglis an Italian Italians good at getting and holding about this time imployed by the Pope 5. got an infinite mass of money 1489 having power from
distanced but the breadth of the Street from S t Pauls Church The Mercers made Overseers thereof should not be intrusted to the inspection of his successors the Dean and Chapter of Pauls but committed to the care of the Company of the Mercers for the managing thereof But f In his Epistle unto Jodocus Jonâ—s Erasmus rendreth a good reason from the mouth and minde of Collet himself who had found by experience many Lay-men as consciencious as Clergy-men in discharging this trust in this kinde conceiving also that whole Company was not so easie to be bowed to corruption as any single person how publick and eminent soever 16. For my own part Out of provident prescience I behold Collets act herein not onely prudential but something Prophetical as foreseeing the ruine of Church-lands and fearing that this his School if made an Ecclesiastical Appendent might in the fall of Church-Lands get a bruise if not lose a limb thereby 17. William Lily was the first School-master thereof by Collets own appointment An excellent Scholar born at Odiam in Hampshire and afterward he went on Pilgrimage as far as g Pitzaeus de Ang. Scriptor pag. 697. Jerusalem In his return through Italy he applied himself to his studies And because some perchance would be pleased to know the Lilies of Lily I mean his Teachers and Instructers know that John Sulpitius and Pomponius Sabinus two eminent Criticks were his principal informers Returning home into his native Country well accomplished with Latin Greek and all Arts and Sciences he set forth a Grammer which still goes under his name and is universally taught all over England 18. Many were the Editions of this Grammer â—is Grammer 〈◊〉 the first forth Anno 1513. Anno Dom. 1519 when Pauls School was Founded as appears by that instance Anno Ragis Hen. 8 11. Meruit sub Rege in Galliâ relating to Maximilian the German Emperour who then at the Siege of Therovenne in Flanders fought under the banner of Kings Henry the eighth taking an a Godwins Annals pag. 16. hundred crowns a day for his pay Another Edition Anno 1520. when audito Rege Doroberniam proficisci refers to the Kings speedy journey into Canterbury there to give entertainment to Charles the fifth Emperour lately landed at Dover 19. Formerly there were in England almost as many Grammers as Schoolmasters And privileged by authority children being confounded not onely with their variety but sometimes contrariety thereof rules being true in the one which were false in the other Yea which was the worst a boy when removed to a new School lost all he had learned before whereupon King Henery endeavoured an uniformity of Grammer all over his Dominions that so youths though changing their School-masters might keep their learning This was performed and William Lilies Grammer enjoyned universally to be used Astipend of four pounds a year was allowed the Kings Printer for Printing of it and it was penall for any publickly to teach any other I have been told how larely Bishop Buckeridge examining a Free-School in his Diocess of Rochester the Scholars were utterly ignorant of Lilies rules as used to others whereat the Bishop exclaimed what are there Puritans also in Grammer 20. I deny not but some since have discovered blasted leaves in out Lily observing defects and faults therein and commendable many persons pains in amending them however it were to be desired that no needless variations be made and as much left of Lily as may be The rather because he submitted his Syntaxis to the judgment of b Pitzaeus ut prius Erasmus himself so that it was afterward printed amongst his works Indeed Quae Genus was done by Thomas Robinson and the Accidens as some will have it by other Authors after Lily was dead and Prince Edward born of and for whom it was said Edvardus is my proper name And thus we take out leave both of Lily and Pauls-School flourishing at this day as much as ever under the care of M r John Langly the able and Religious School-master thereof 21. King Henry had lately set forth a Book against Luther King Henry writes against Luther endeavouring the confutation of his opinions as novel and unfound None suspect this Kings lack of learning though many his lack of leisure from his pleasures for such a design however it is probable some other Gardner gathered the flowers made the collections though King Henry had the honour to wear the posie carrying the credit in the title thereof 22. To require his pains Stiled by the Pope Desender of the Faith the Pope honoured him and his successors with a specious title A Defender of the c Jude 3. Faith Indeed it is the bounden Duty of every Christian earnestly to contend for the faith which once was given to the Saints but it is the Dignity of few men and fewer Princes to be able effectually to appear in Print in the Vindication thereof 23. There is tradition His Jesters reply that King Henry's Fool though more truly to be termed by another name coming into the Court and finding the King transported with an unusual joy boldly asked of him the cause thereof to whome the King answered it was because that the Pope had honoured him with a stile more eminent then any of his Ancestours O good Harry quoth the Fool let Theu and I defend one another and let the faith alone to defend it self Most true it is that some of his Successors more truly deserved the Title then he to whom it was given who both learnedly then solidly engaged their pens in the asserting of true Religion 24. At this time Wolsey his unlimited power and pride though King Henry wore the sword Cardinal Wolsey bare the stroke albo're the Land being Legate de Latere by vertue whereof he visited all Churches and Religious Houses even the Friers Observants themselves notwithstanding their stoutness and stubbornness that first d Fox Acts Monumnets opposed him Papal and Royal power met in him being the Chancellor of the Land Anno Regis Hen. 8 13. and keeping so many Bisshopricks in Commendam Anno Dom. 1521 his yearlie income is said to equal if not exceed the Revenues of the Crown 25. The more the pitty that having of his own such a flock of preferment nothing but the poor mans a 2 Sam. 12 3. Ewe-lamb would please him He was the first confoundder of abbies so that being to Found two Colledges he seised on no fewer then fourty small Monasteries turning their inhabitants out of house and home and converting their means principally to a Colledg in Oxford This alienation was confirmed by the present Pope Clement the seventh so that in some sort his Holiness may thank himself for the demolishing of Religious Houses in England 26. For the first breach is the greatest in effect 16. And Abbies having now lost their Virginity
ejusdem Provinciae ad conveniendum eorum vobis in Ecclesia Sancti Pauli London vel alibi prout melius expedire videritis cum omni celeritate accommoda modo debito convocari faciatis Ad tractandum consentiendum concludendum super praemissis aliis quae sibi clarius proponentur tunc ibidem exparte nostrâ Et hoc sicut nos statum Regni nostri honorem utilitatem Ecclesiae praedictae diligitis nullatenus omittatis Teste me ipso c. 7. In this Writ we may observe first Observations thereon that from the word Convocari faciatis the word Convocation took its denomination being formerly called Synods as lately since our Scotizing termed Assemblies Secondly that clause in Ecclesia Sancti Pauli London vel alibi prout melius expedire videritis pointeth at a power placed or rather a Liberty left to the Arch-Bishops to call their Synods elsewhere in case they adjudged it more convenient But because the Arch-Bishops and Bishops might the better attend their business in Parliaments henceforward commonly kept at the same time with Convocations S r Pauls in London was generally preferred for the place of their convention Thirdly this Writ was used even after the Reformation mutatis mutandis namely the title of Apostolical Legate to the Arch-Bishop being left out as also the names of Priors and Abbots are extinguished Lastly of this third Sort of Convocations was all those kept by Thomas Arundel and the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury his successors unto Thomas Cranmer or if you will from the sixteenth of Richard the second unto the twenty fifth of King Henry the eighth These Convocations did also make Canons as in Lynwood his Constitutions do appear which were binding although none other then Synodical authority did confirm them 8. The last sort of Convocations remains The last sort of Convocations called since the Statute the twenty fifth of King Henry the eighth that none of the Clergie should presume to attempt alledge claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodals or any other Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by whatsoever name or names they may be called in their Convocation in time coming which alwayes shall be assembled by the Kings Writ unless the same Clergie may have the Kings most Royal Assent and Licence to make promise and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodical upon pain of every one of the said Clergie doing the contrary to this Act and thereof convicted to suffer imprisonment and making Fine at the Kings will Since this year from Arch-Bishop Cranmer to Arch-Bishop Laud all Convocations so long as they lasted are born tongue-tied till the King did cut the string thereof with his Letters Patent allowing them leave to debate on matters of Religion Otherwise what they conclude are arrows without piles daggers without points too blunt to pierce into the practise of others but sharp enough to wound themselves and bring them within the compass of a Praemunire Yea even such Convocations with the Royal assent subject not any for recusancy to obey their Canons to a civil penalty in person or property until confirmed by Act of Parliament 9. This I humbly conceive to be the difference betwixt the three kindes of Convocations The Authors submission submitting what I have written to the censure and correction of the Learned in the Law conscious of my own ignorance therein as indeed such skill neither is to be expected or required in one of my profession who am ready with willingness yea with cheerfulness yea with thankfulness to God and man publickly to recall and retract what any such convince me to have mistaken herein hoping that my stumbling in so dark a subject may prevent the failing of others 10. There goeth a tradition taken up by many without examination that anciently the Clergie sat as one body with the Parliament A vulgar Errour and were not divided till in the Reign of King Henry the eighth as a * Calebut Downing modern Author hath written in a Tract But when I asked of Him where he had read the same he cited a French Letter of Cardinal Sadolets Strange that a Foraigner should be more seeing herein then any of our Native Authors and Records that I ever could behold But it may be the Error had its Original hence because anciently Bishops sitting in the Parliament did not alwayes appear personally or by the proxie of men of their own order but sometimes sent one or more of the inferiour Clergie to represent them if it be true what I have read in a small English book bearing the name of M r Selden but I question whether avowed by him of the proceedings in Parliament 11. John Fryth sealed the Truth with his bloud The Martyrdom of John Fryth one who justly may be said aged sixty at six and twenty so young was he Martyred such his learning Anno Dom. 1533 gravity Anno Regis Hen. 8 25. and constancy It was chiefly charged on him that he denyed the believing of the real presence in the Sacrament understand him de modo thereof to be an Article of the Faith though confessing Christ really present in the bread so he might not be compelled to the worshipping thereof But these things are set down largely in M r Fox Onely I will add that persons out of groundlesse suggest two scandals on this good man and his wives memory One that he was guilty of some practise against the State meerly because he was committed to the Tower The other that his wife being beyond the Seas with M r Tyndal expressing himself content with the will of God that for her sake she would not have the glory of God hindered desired to be rid of her husbands life that M r Tyndal might the more freely enjoy her company Thus this Jesuite being himself a Bastard measureth others by the chastity of his own Parents Indeed the aforesaid Tyndal much exhorted Fryth to patient suffering but not as those Cowardly Captains which encourage others to fight and themselves forsake the field because afterwards he valiantly brought up the rear and suffered for the same cause two years after 12. John Fisher Bishop of Rochester Bishop Fishers Letter for new cloaths and a Confessour was now prisoner in the Tower 1534 where he was but coursely used as appears by a Letter to M r Secretary Cromwel 26. a a Ex literis in Bibliothecâ Cottoniana FUrthermore I beseche yow to be gode Master unto me in my necessitic for I have neither Shirt nor Sute nor yet other Clothes that ar necessary to me to weare but that be ragged and torn to shamefully And now in mine Age my stomake may not away but with a few kind of meats which if I want I decay forthwith and fall into coffs and diseases of my body and cannot keep my selfe in health And as our Lord knoweth I
though perchance wisely for the State not warily for himself Indeed it is impossible for such Officers managing not onely multitudes but multiplicity of matters but that in some things they must mistake As in c Prov. 10. 19. many words there wanteth not iniquity so in the Actours of many affairs faults are soon found out He was also accused to set at liberty certain persons not capable of it for granting Licenses and Commissions destructive to the King's authority for being guilty of Heresie himself and favouring it in others Trayterous speeches were also charged upon him spoken two years before in the Church of S. Peter's in the Poor in Broad street the avouchers thereof pretending that as hitherto they had concealed them for love of themselves fearing Cromwel's greatnesse so now for the love of the King they revealed the same Indeed on the first manifesting of the King's displeasure against him the foes of Cromwel had all their mouthes open and his friends their mouthes shut up 24. The mention of S. Peter's in Broad-street An injurious Act to many poor people charged on the Lord Cromwell mindeth me of a passage not unworthy to be recited of an injury offered by this Lord Cromwell to many poor men in the same Parish And because every one is best able to tell his own tale take it in the words of John d Survey of London p. 187. Stow being himself deeply concerned therein The Lord Cromwell having finished his house in Throgmorton-street in London and having some reasonable plot of ground left for a garden caused the pales of the gardens adjoyning to the North part thereof on a sudden to be taken down two and twenty foot to be measured forth-right into the North of every man's ground a line there to be drawn a trench to be cast a foundation laid and an high brick-wall to be builded My father had a garden there and there was an house standing close to his South-pale this house they loosed from the ground and bare upon rowlers into my father's garden two and twenty foot ere my father heard thereof no warning was given him nor other answer when he spake to the Surveyors of that work but that their Master Sir Thomas commanded them so to doe no man durst goe to argue the matter but each man lost his land and my father paid his whole rent which was six sâ—illings eight pence the year for that half which was left Thus much of mine own knowledge have I thought good to note that the sudden rising of some men causeth them to forget themselves I am moved the rather to believe our Authour herein because elsewhere he alloweth this Lord his deserved praise for his virtues and especially his Hospitality affirming e Survey of London p. 74. he had often seen at the Lord Cromwell's gate above two hundred persons served twice every day with meat and drink sufficient Nor can I see what may be said in excuse of this oppression except any will plead that Abimelech's servants violently f Gen. 21. 26. took away the wells from Abraham and yet Abimelech himself never knew more or lesse thereof 25. As for the passionate expressions of Cromwell The worst passionate Speech objected against him a g Sir I. Strode of Parubam in Dorcet-shire Knight aged well-nigh eighty whose Mother was Daughter to the Lord Cromwell's Son hath informed me That the principall passage whereon the Lord's enemies most insisted was this It being told the L. Cromwell that one accused him for want of fidelity to the King Cromwell returned in passion Were he here now I would strike my dagger into his heart meaning into the heart of the false Accuser and therein guilty of want of charity to his fellow-subject not of loyaltie to his Sovereign But seeing the words were a measuring cast as uttered though not as intended to whom they should relate the pick-thank Repeater avowed them uttered against the King Himself So dangerous are dubious words and ambiguous expressions when prevalent power is to construe and interpret the meaning thereof 26. Ten daies after his Arrest His Speech on be scaffold he was attainted of high Treason in Parliament and brought on the Scaffold the next week to execution Here he spake the following words unto the people which the Reader is requested the more seriously to peruse July 19. that thereby he may be enabled to passe if concerned therein his verdict in what Religion this Lord died I Am come hither to die 29. and not to purge my selfe as some think peradventure that I will For if I should so doe I were a very wretch and miser I am by the law condemned to die and thank my Lord God that hath appointed me this death for mine offence For since the time that I have had years of discretion I have lived a sinner and offended my Lord God for the which I aske him heartily forgivenesse And it is not unknown to many of you that I have been a great traveller in this world and being but of base degree I was called to high estate and since the time I came thereunto I have offended my Prince for the which I aske Him heartily forgivenesse and beseech you all to pray to God with me that he will forgive me And now I pray you that be here to bear me record I die in the Catholick Faith not doubting in any Article of my faith no nor doubting in any Sacrament of the Church Many have slandered me and reported that I have been a bearer of such as have maintained evil opinions which is untrue But I confesse that like as God by his Holy Spirit doth instruct us in the truth so the Devil is ready to seduce us and I have been seduced but bear me witnesse that I die in the Catholick Faith of the Holy Church And I heartily desire you to pray for the King's Grace that He may long live with you in health and prosperity and that after Him His son Prince Edward that goodly impe may long reign over you And once again I desire you to pray for me that so long as life remaineth in this flesh I waver nothing in my faith And so making his Prayer c. The generall terms wherein this his Speech is couched hath given occasion for wise men to give contrary censures thereof Fox in his Marginall Note on this Speech pag. 515. A true Christian Confession of the Lord Cromwell at his death Lord Herbert in the Index of his History under C. Cromwell died a Roman-Catholick notwithstanding he had been such a destroyer of the Church True it is so warie were Cromwell's expressions that Luther and Bellarmine might in their own persons have said the same without any prejudice to their own principles and many conceive that the most which these his words amount to will but make him an six-Articles Protestant 27. But let Cromwell's politick Speech be in part expounded by
represent And seeing Sir Thomas More would have his own jests when dying no wonder if he makes others to jeer when dead 6. These two Supplications pressing both together for audience and reception The first Supplication best received that of the Beggars on earth found the best entertainment Whether because it came first which we know is great advantage in Beggars first come first served Or because these Terrestrial beggars were neerer at hand and so best able to manage their own suit whilst those in Purgatory were conceived at a greater distance Or chiefly because their Supplication suggested matter of profit to the King and His Courtiers and such whispers sound loud and commonly meet with attentive ears And as an introduction to the dissolution of all Abbeys spies were sent forth to make strict discovery of mens behaviours therein Indeed the Lord Cromwell Scout-Master-Generall in this designe stayed at the Court whilst his subordinate Emissaries men of as prying eyes as afterwards they proved of gripple hands sent unto him all their intelligence in manner and form as in due time shall ensue The lesser Monasteries bestowed on the King NOW because some moneths were imployed in that service before a perfect account was returned to the Lord Cromwell The suppressing of the smaller Monasteries may here seasonably be inserted For in the twenty seventh of the King's Reign Anno 1539 a motion was made in Parliament A gainfull motion made for the King That to support the King's States and supply His wants all Religious Houses might be conferred on the Crown which were not able clearly to expend above Two hundred pounds a year 2. Some may report Reported by mistake opposed by Bishop Fisher that John Fisher Bishop of Rochester earnestly though pleasently opposed the motion by alledging an Apologue out of Aesope That the Helve of the Axe craved a Handle of the wood of Oaks onely to cut off the Serebowes of the Tree but when it was a complete Instramentall Axe it felled down all the wood Applying it That the grant of these smaller Houses would in fine prove destructive to all the rest But Fisher being now in his grave this could not be spoken in this Parliament which with more probability was formerly urged by him against Cardinal Wolsey in dissolving the forty Houses whereof before 3. This Proposition found little opposition in either Houses Easily passed in Parliament Henry the eighth was a King and His necessities were Tyrants and both suing together for the same thing must not be denied besides the larger thongs they cut out of other mens leather the more intire they preserved their own hide which made the Parliament to ease their own purses by laying the load on those lesser Houses which they accordingly passed to the Crown 4. The Lord Herbert in his a Of Henry 8 pag. 376. Historie complaineth and that justly That this Statute for dissolution of the lesser Monasteries doth begin very bluntly A Preamble of importance restored out of the Records to the Printed Statute without any formall Preamble in the Printed Books they are Published It seemeth that herein he never searched the Record it self otherwise industrious in that kinde to which a solemn Preface is prefixed shewing some Reasons of the dissolution and pious uses to which they were attained In form as followeth The Preamble is this Forasmuch as manifest sin vitious carnall and abominable living is daily used and committed commonly in such little and small Abbeys Priories and other religious houses of Monks Canons and Nuns where the Congregation of such religious persons is under the number of twelve persons whereby the Governours of such religious Houses and their Covent spoile destroy consume and utterly waste as well the Churches Monasteries Priories principall Houses Farms Granges Lands Tenements and Hereditaments as the ornaments of the Churches and their goods and Chattels to the high displeasure of Almighty God slander of good Religion and to the great infamy of the King's Hignesse and the Realm if redresse should not be had thereof And albeit that many continuall Visitations hath been heretofore had by the space of two hundred years and more for an honest and charitable reformation of such unthrifty carnall and abominable living yet neverthelesse little or no amendment is hitherto had but their vitious living shamefully increaseth and augmenteth and by a cursed custome so grown and infested that a great multitude of the religious persons in such small Houses do rather choose to rove abroad in Apostasie than to conform themselves to the observation of good Religion so that without such small Houses be utterly suppressed and the Religion therein committed to the great and honourable Monasteries of Religion in this Realm where they may be compelled to live religioussly for reformation of their lives there can else be no redresse nor reformation in that behalf In consideration whereof the King 's most royall Majesty being Supreme head in earth under God of the Church of England daily studying and devising the increase advancement and exaltation of true doctrine and virtue in the said Church to the onely glory and honour of God and the totall extirping and destruction of vice and sin having knowledge that the premises be true as well by the compts of his late visitations as by sundry credible informations considering also that divers and great solemn Monasteries of this Realm wherein thanks be to God Religion is right well kept and observed be destitute of such full numbers of religious persons as they ought and may keep have thought good that a plain Declaration should be made of the premises as well to the Lords spirituall and Temporall as to other His loving Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled WHEREUPON the said Lords and Commons by a great deliberation finally be resolved That it is and shall be much more to the pleasure of Almighty God and for the honour of this His Realm that the possessions of such small religious Houses not being spent spoiled and wasted for increase of maintenance of sin should be used and converted to better uses and the unthrifty religious persons so spending the same to be compelled to reform their lives And hereupon most humbly desire the King's Highnesse that it may be enacted by authority of this present Parliament That His Majesty shall have to Him and to Hit Heirs for ever all and singular such Monasteries His Majesty shall have and enjoy c. As it foloweth in the printed b Cap. 28. Statute In this Preamble two principles are laid down of infallible truth Two principles which must not be questioned and posterity must not be so presumptuous as to question them 1. The smallest Convents were the greatest sinners and they who had the least lands led the leudest lives 2. It was harder to reform little Covents than those that were greater It seems such small Houses like little fishes could not be caught with the
Isabell Sackvile Lady Prioresse of Clarkenwell is an eminent instance of longevity in this kinde For 1. In the one and twentieth of King Henry the seventh she was a * To be seen in the pedegree of the Barl of Dorset Weaver fun Mon. pag. 429. Nun in Clarkenwell-Priory when a Legacy was bequeathed her as Niece by William Sackvile Esquire and must be then conceived fifteen years of age 2. She was the last Prioresse of Clarkenwell at the dissolution thereof 3. She died in the twelfth of Queen Elizabeth as appears by her Epitaph in Clarkenwell-Church and by Computation must be allowed Eighty years of age But farre older was that Monk or Nun I am * Attested by 〈◊〉 Pymme's Kinsman to Godfrey Bp. of Gloucester See his printed Paper assured of the Story not the Sex to whom Living in or neer Hampshire Mr. John Pymme then an Officer in the Exchequer paid the last payment of his Pension about the fift year of King James SECTION VI. DOMINO THOMAE TREVOR Juniori Equiti Aurato MVlti sunt praeproperi Haeredes qui nimiâ parentum vivacitate cruciantur Hi languidâ expectatione macrescunt postquam Rura Paterna spe vanâ devoraverant At Tu è contra Venerandi Patris tui Canitiem si fieri posset immortalem reddere conaris cum eam perpetuo Obsequio humilime colas quo efficacius Kardiacum ad Senectutem ejus elongandam nequit confici Non in Patris sed â—undi senescentis Annos inquiris cum Historiâ plurimum delecteris cujus ope si Praeterita cum Praesentibus conferantur conjectura de Futuris statui potest quo nomine hoc opus nostrum tibi non ingratum fore confido Deus â—e Lectissimâmque Conjugem beat prole patrizante non tam privato commodo quà m Bono Publico ne Respulica tantarum virtutum Haeredi destituatur Of the Erection Officers Vse Continuance and Abolishing of the Court of Augmentation DUring the scuffling for Abbey-land Augmentation Court when erected in the 27 year of King Henry the eighth the Court of Augmentation was set up by Act of Parliament to be a Court of Record and to have an authentick Great Seal besides a Privie Seal and several Officers appointed for management thereof with large fees allowed unto them I finde the same exemplified in a fair Vellum Manuscript which lately was Archbishop Parkers since the Lord Cokes whence I transcribed as followeth Sir Rich Sackvile Chancellor three hundred pounds yearly Fee forty pounds Diet and six shillings eight pence for every Seale Sir Jo Williams Treasurer three hundred and twenty pounds Fee Sir Will Cavendish Treasurer of the King's Chamber one hundred pounds Fee one hundred pound Dyet and ten pounds Boat-hire Sir Thomas Moyle Sir Walter Mildmay Generall Receivers to each two hundred pounds Fee and twenty pounds Diet. Rich Goodrich Attorney one hundred pounds Fee and twenty marks Diet. Jo Gosnall Solicitor eighty pound Fee Diet twenty marks Besides Masters and Surveyors of the woods Clerks Keepers of Records Ushers Messengers Assistants Carpenter and Mason to the Court Auditors Receivers Surveyors Woodwards for every County the totall summe of their Fees yearly amounting unto Seven thousand two hundred forty nine pounds ten shillings and three pence This Catalogue by the persons mentioned therein seems taken towards the end of Edward the sixt when the Court began to decline 2. It belonged unto this Court to order The imployment of the Offiâ—eâ—s in this Court survey and govern sell let set all Manours lands tenements rents services tythes pensions portions advowsons patronages and all hereditaments formerly belonging to Priories and since their dissolution to the Crown as in the printed Statute * An. 17 HeÌ„ 8. cap. 27. more largely doth appear All persons holding any Leases Pensions Corodies c. by former grants from the Covents came into the Court produced their Deeds and upon examination of the validity thereof had the same allowed unto them And although providence for themselves and affection to their kindred prompted many Fryers and Covents foreseeing their rottering condition to antedate Leases to their friends just at the dissolution yet were they so frighted with fear of discovery that very few frauds in that kinde were committed The Court was very tender in continuing any Leases upon that least legall consideration 3. But after some continuance of this Court Motives for the dissolution of this Court the King 's urgent occasions could not stay for the slow coming in of money from the yearly Revenues of Abbey-land insomuch that He was necessitated to sell out-right a great part of those Lands for the present advance of Treasure and thereby quickly was the Court of Augmentation diminished The King therefore took into consideration to dissolve it as superfluous wherein the Officers were many their Pensions great Crown profits thereby small and Causes therein depending few so that it was not worth the while to keep up a Mill to grinde that grist where the Toll would not quit cost It was therefore resolved to stop up this by stream that all causes therein should run in the antient channell of the former Courts of Westminster 4. Indeed in the 7 of King Edw. 6. Finally dissolved in the first year of Queen Mary a doubt did arise amongst the Learned in the Laws whether the Court of Augmentation the Commencement whereof was first had by authority of Parliament would legally be dissolved extinguished and repealed by the King's Letters Patents And the Officers thereof wonder not if they stickled for their own concernments did zealously engage on the Negative Wherefore it was enacted by Parliament That the King during His naturall life had present power by His Letters Patents to alter unite annex reduce or dissolve any of those new erected Courts by His own Letters Patents And the same Act was confirmed in the first year of Queen Mary when the short-lived Court of Augmentation was dissolved as which from the birth thereof 1535 to the extinguishing 1553 survived but eighteen years The Lands of Chanteries free Chappels and Colledges dissolved KIng Henry the eighth his expences like sandy ground Prodigality alwaies wanteth suddenly suckt up the large shower of Abbey lands and little signe or shew was seen thereof yea such the parching thirst of his pressing occasions that still they called aloud for more moysture for whose satisfaction the Parliament in the 38 year of His Reign put the Lands of all Colledges Chanteries and free Chappels in His Majesties full disposition 2. This King made three meals King Henry's three meals on Abbey-lands or if you will one meal of three courses on Abbey-lands besides what Cardinal Wolsey the King's Taster herein had eat before-hand when assuming smaller Houses to endow his two Colledges 1. When Religious Houses under two hundred pounds a yeare â— Anno 1535 were granted to Him by the Parliament 2. When all greater Monasteries â— 1538 3. When Colledges Chanteries and Free
them how much they have profited in the study of holy Scripture 21. That in the time of High Masse be that sayeth or singeth a Psalm shall read the Epistle and Gospel in English and one Chapter in the New Testament at Mattens and another at Evensong and that when nine Lessons are to be read in the Church three of them shall be omitted with Responds And at Evensong the Responds with all the Memories 22. That to prevent in Sick persons the damnable vice of Despair They shall learn and have alwaies in readinesse such comfortable places and sentences of Scripture as doe set forth the mercy benefits and goodnesse of God Almighty towards all penitent and believing persons 23. To avoid all contention and strife which heretofore have risen amongst the Kings subjects by challenging of Places in Procession no Procession hereafter shall be used about the Church or Church-yard but immediately before high Masse the Letany shall be distinctly said or sung in English none departing the Church without just cause and all ringing of Bells save one utterly forborne 24. That the Holy-day at the first beginning Godly instituted and ordained be wholly given to God in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publick prayers in acknowledging their offences to God and amendment in reconciling themselves to their Neighbours receiving the Communion visiting the sick c. Onely it shall be lawfull for them in time of harvest to labour upon Holy and Festival-daies and save that thing which God hath sent and that scrupulosity to abstain from working upon those daies doth grievously offend God 25. That no Curate admit to the Communion such who are in ranchor and malice with their neighbours till such controversies be reconciled 26. That every Dean Arch-Deacon c. being a Priest preach by himself personally twice a year at least 27. That they instruct their people not obstinately to violate the Ceremonies of the Church by the King commanded to be observed and not as yet abrogated And on the other side that whosoever doth superstitiously abuse them doth the same to the great perill of his souls health 28. That they take away and destroy all Shrines covering of Shrines Tables Candlesticks Trindills or rolls of Wax Pictures Paintings and other Monuments of fained Miracles so that no memory of them remain in Walls or Windows exhorting their Parishioners to doe the like in their severall houses And that a comely Pulpit be provided in a convenient place 29. That a strong Chest be provided with a hole in the upper part thereof with three Keyes thereunto belonging be provided to receive the charity of people to the poor and the same at convenient times distributed unto them in the presence of the Parish 30. That Priests be not bound to go to visit Women lying in Child-bed except in times of dangerous sicknesse and not to fetch any Coarse except it be brought to the Church yard 31. That to avoid the detestable sin of Simonie the Seller shall lose his right of Patronage for that time and the Buyer to be deprived and made unable to receive Spirituall promotion 32. That because of the lack of Preachers Curats shall read Homilies which are or shall be set forth by the Kings Authority 33. Where as many indiscreet persons doe uncharitably contemn and abuse Priests having small learning his Majesty chargeth his Subjects that henceforth they be reverently used for their Office and Ministration sake 34. That all persons not understanding Latine shall pray on no other Primmer but what lately was set forth in English by K. Henry the eighth and that such who have knowledge in Latine use none other also and that all Craces before and after meat be said in English and no Grammer taught in Schools but what is set forth by Authority 35. That Chantery Priests teach youth to read and write 36. That when any Sermon or Homily shall be had the Prime and Houres shall be omitted ⧠The form of bidding the Common Prayers YOu shall pray for the whole Congregation of Christs Church and specially for this Church of England and Ireland wherein first I commend to your devout prayers the Kings most excellent Majesty Supreme Head immediately under God of the spirituality and temporalty of the same Church And for Queen Katharine Dowager and also for my Lady Mary and my Lady Elizabeth the Kings sisters Secondly You shall pray for my Lord Protectors grace with all the rest of the Kings Majesties Councell for all the Lords of this Realm and for the Clergie and the Commons of the same beseeching Almighty God to give every of them in his degree grace to use themselves in such wise as may be to Gods glory the Kings honour and the weal of this Realm Thirdly You shall pray for all them that be departed out of this world in the faith of Christ that they with us and we with them at the Day of Judgment may rest both body and soul with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdome of heaven Observations on the Kings Injunctions Let us here admire Gods wisdome in our first Reformers The wisdome of our Reformers who proceeded so moderately in a matter of so great consequence To reform all at once had been the ready way to reform nothing at all New wine must be gently powred into old bottles lest the strenght of the liquor advantaged with the violence of the infusion break the vessel Iacob could not keep pace with Esau presumed fleet on foot as used to hunting whilest he had in his company the * Gen. 33. 13. tender children and flocks with young which if over driven one day would die And though no doubt he himself was foot-man enough to go along with his Brother yet he did lead on softly according as the cattle and children were able to endure Thus our wise Reformers reflected discreetly on the infirmities of people long nouzled in ignorance and superstition and incapable of a sudden and perfect alteration On this account in the third Injunction they reduced Candles formerly sans number in Churches to two Onely two lights left upon the high Altar before the Sacrament these being termed lights shews they werenot luminacaeca but burning Know also that at this time there was an universall dilapidation of Chancells and men had seen so many Abbey-Churches pluckt down that they even left Parish-Churches to fall down on themselves now to repair them all at once would have stopt the holes in the Chancells and made one in the states of the Ministers It was therefore in the sixteenth Injunction ordered That a fift part of their means should be imployed therein whereby the work was effectually done without any great dammage to the Repairers By Memories appointed to be omitted What meant by Memories Injunction 21. we understand the Obsequia for the dead which some say succeeded in the place of the Heathen Roman Parentalia The abolishing Processions is politickly
of the most grave Bishops and others assembled by the King at His Castle at Windsor and when by them compleated set forth in Print 1548 with a Proclamation in the Kings name to give authority thereunto being also recommended unto every Bishop by especiall c See a form of them in Fox's Acts Mon. â—ol 1491. Letters from the Lords of the Councell to see the same put in execution And in the next year a penalty was imposed by Act of Parliament on such which should deprave or neglect the use thereof Some exceptions being taken by Mr. Calvin abroad and some Zealots at home at the former Liturgie the Booke was brought under a review and by a b 5 6 of Edward the sixt cap. 1. Statute in Parliament it was appointed That it should be faithfully and godly perused explained and made fully perfect In the first of Qu. Elizabeth 1559 it was committed by the Queen to the care of some learned men by whom it was altered in some few passages and so presented to the Parliament and by them received and established Persons imployed therein 1. Tho Cramer Archbishop of Canterbury 2. George Day Bishop of Chichester 3. Tho Goodrich Bishop of Ely 4. Johan Skip Bishop of Hereford 5. Hen Holbeach Bishop of Lincolne 6. Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rochester 7. Tho Thileby Bishop of Westminster 8. Doctor May Dean of S. Pauls 9. John Tailer then Dean afterwards Bishop of Lincolne 10. Doctor Haines Dean of Exeter 11. Doctor Robertson afterwards Dean of Durham 12. Doctor John Redman Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge 13. Doctor Richard Cox then Almoner to the King afterwards Bishop of Ely Persons imployed therein Wee meet not with their particular names but may probably conceive they were the same with the former for the main though some might be superadded by Royal appointment Persons imployed therein 1. Master Whitehead once Chaplaine to Queen Anna Bullen 2. Matthew Parker afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury 3. Edmund Grindall afterwards Bishop of London 4. Richard Cox afterwards Bishop of Ely 5. James Pilkinton afterwards Bishop of Durham 6. Doctor May Deane of St. Pauls and Master of Trinity Coll in Cambridge 7. Sir Tho Smith principall Secretary of Estate As for the fourth and last Edition of the Liturgie in the first of King James 1603 with some small alterations in the Rubrick after the Conference at Hampton-Court thereof God willing in due time hereafter 5. The Book of Books still remains I mean the Bible it selfe Know then that some exceptions being taken at Tindalls Translation the Bishops then generally Popish complied so farre in a * set down at large in the Register of Archbishop Warbam Conference with the desires of King Henry the eighth that on condition the people would give in Tindalls pretended false Translation they would set forth another better agreeing with the Originall And although this took up some time to effect the work being great in it self and few workmen as yet Masters of the Mysterie of PRINTING yet at last it was accomplished but more purely and perfectly done in after Ages as by the ensuing parallels will appear The first Traslation of the Bible The second Translation of the Bible The third Translation of the Bible Set forth in the Reigne of K. Henry the eighth An. 1541. countenanced with a grave pious Preface of Archbishop Cranmer and authorized by the Kings Proclamation dated May the 6. Seconded also with c Extant in Sir Thomas Cotions Library Instructions from the King to prepare people to receive benefit the better from so heavenly a treasure it was called The BIBLE of the greater Volume rather commended than commanded to people Few Countrey-Parishes could go to the cost of them though Bishop Bonner caused six of them to be chained in the Church of S. Pauls in convenient places Set forth in the Reign of K. Edward the sixt and not onely suffered to be read by particular persons but ordered to be read over yearly in the Congregation as a principall part of Divine Service Two severall Editions I have seen thereof one set forth 1549 the other 1551 but neither of them divided into verses Set forth in the second of Qu. Elizabeth the last Translation was again review'd by some of the most learned Bishops appointed thereunto by the Queens Commission whence it took the name of the Bishops BIBLE and by the Queens sole commandement reprinted and left free and open to all Her well affected Subjects As for the last and best Translation of the Bible in the Reign of King James by a select company of Divines imployed therein in due time by Gods assistance largely thereof 6. And now we shall come to small game rather than shut out not caring how low we descend so be it we may satisfie the Reader and inform posterity presenting a Catalogue of such Proclamations which the King set forth in the foure first years having any tendency or relation to Ecclesiasticall matters 1. A Proclamation concerning the effectuall payment of Pensions due out of the Court of Augmentations to any late Abbot Prior c. which it seemeth lately were detained Anno 1 o Edvardi sexti Septem 18. 2. A Proclamation concerning the irreverent Talkers of the Sacrament For after the Transubstantiation and the superstition of the Corporall presence was removed many persons no lesse ignorant than violent fell from adoring to contemning of the holy Elements till retrenched by this Proclamation set forth 1 o Edvardi sexti Decemb. 27. 3. A Proclamation for abstaining from flesh in Lent-time Anno 1 o Edvardi sexti Januarii 16. 4. A Proclamation against such as innovate a Ceremony 1548. or Preach without licence 2. Anno 2 o Evardi sexti Febr. 6. 5. A Proclamation inhibiting Preachers Anno 2 o Edvardi sexti April 24. Whereof this was the occasion certain Popish Preachers disaffected to the Kings Government endevoured in their Sermons to possesse people of scandalous reports against the King as if He intended to lay strange exactions on the people and to demand Half-a-Crown a piece of every one who should be Married Christned or Buried To prevent further mischief the King ordered by Proclamation That none should Preach except licensed under the Seals of the Lord Protector or Archbishop of Canterbury 6. A Proclamation for the Inhibition of all Preachers the second of Edward the second Sept. 23. Because this Proclamation is short hard to be come by and if I mistake not conducing much to acquaint us with the character of those times it may be acceptable here to exemplifie the same WHereas of late by reason of certaine controversious and seditious Preachers the Kinges Majestie moved of tender zeale and love which He hath to be quiet of His Subjects by the advise of the Lord Protectour and other His Highnesse Councell hath by Proclamation inhibited and commanded That no manner of person except such as was licenced by His Highnesse
The Lady Mary 28. after long Communication was content to come to Lees Ann. Dom. 1549 to the Lord Chancellours and then to Hunsdon but She utterly denied to come to the q q She loved to deale with the King her Brother eminus by Letters but in no wise comminus by discourse Besides she hated coming to the Court suspecting some harsh usage to her Person and jealous of being put into Restraint Court or Oking at that time The Lord Chancellor fell sore sick Aug. 13. with 40 more of his r r Lees in Essex a County generally not very healthfull where Agues sit as close and sometimes last as long as a new suit house that the Lady Mary came not thither at this time There were Letters sent to every Bishop to pull downe the Altars Nov. 19. There were Letters sent for the taking of certain Å¿ Å¿ Of these Francis Mallet last * * Sceletos Cant. MS. Master of Michael House in Cambridge was the chief He having leave from the Councell to officiate Masse onely in the presence of the Lady Mary presumed on the same liberty in her absence Whereupon he was notwithstanding his Ladies refusall to surrender him fetcht from her by force and committed to prison Chaplains of the Lady Mary Dec. 15. Edw. sexâ—i 4. for saying Masse which She denied Whaley was examined for perswading divers Nobles of the Realm to make the Duke of Somerset t t Now where the seeds sown and the foundation laid of the Protectours overthrow which ensued not long after Proâ—ector at the next Parliament Febr. 6. stood to the Denial the Earle of Rutland affirmed it manifestly The Bishop of Winchester after a long triall was deposed his Bishoprick 17. It seems some legall formalities were pretended wanting in Gardiner his deprivation For in my memory a Suit was commenced to overthrow a long Lease made by Bishop Poinet Gardiner's successour in Winchester on this point that Gardiner still remained lawfull Bishop but nothing therein was effected 23. Come we now to the saddest difference that ever happened in the Church of England The conception of non-conformity if we consider either the time how long it continued the eminent persons therein ingaged or the dolefull effects thereby produced It was about matters of conformity Alas that men should have lesse wisdome than locusts which when sent on God's errand Did not * * Joel 2. 8. thrust one another whereas here such shoving and shouldring and hoising and heavings and justleing and thronging betwixt Clergie-men of the highest parts and places For now non-conformity in the daies of King Edward was conceived which afterward in the Reign of Queen Mary but beyond Sea at Frankford was born which in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth was nursed and weaned which under King James grew up a young youth or tall stripling but towards the end of King Charles His Reign shot up to the full strength and stature of a man able not onely to coap with but conquer the Herarchie its adversary 24. Two opposite parties now plainly discovered themselves The favourers and opposers thereof driving on different interests Ann. Reg. Ed. 6. 4. under their respective Patrones Ann. Dom. 1550. Founders of Conformity 1. Such as remained here all the Reign of King Henry the eighth and weathered out the tempest of His tyrannie at open Sea partly by a politick compliance and partly by a cautious concealment of themselves 2. These in the daies of King Edward the sixt were possessed of the best preferments in the land 3. And retained many ceremonies practiced in the Romish Church conceiving them to be antient and decent in themselves 4. The authority of Cranmer and activity of Ridley headed this party the former being the highest the latter the hottest in defence of conformity Founders of Non-conformity 1. Such as fled hence beyond the Seas chiefly into Germany where living in States and Cities of popular Reformation they suck'd in both the aire and discipline of the place they lived in 2. These returning late into England were at a losse for meanes and maintenance onely supported with the reputation of being Confessors rendring their patience to the praise and their persons to the pity of all conscientious people 3. And renounced all ceremonies practiced by the Papists conceiving that such ought not onely to be clipt with the sheers but to be shaved with a raizor yea all the stumps thereof to be pluckt out 4. John Rogers Lecturer in S. Pauls and Vicar of S. Sepulchres with John Hooper afterwards Bishop of Glocester were Ring-leaders of this party This Iohn Hooper was bred in Oxford well skill'd in Latine Greek and Hebrew a little of the last would go farre in this Age and afterwards travelled over into Switzerland Yea he seemed to some to have brought Switzerland back with him in his harsh rough and unpleasant behaviour being grave into rigour and severe into surliness Yet to speak truth all Hoopers ill nature consisted in other mens little acquaintance with him Such as visited him once condemned him of over-austerity who repaired to him twice onely suspected him of the same who conversed with him constantly not onely acquitted him of all morosity but commended him for sweetness of manners which saith my Author Godwin in the Bishops of Glocester endeared him to the acquaintance of Bullinger This Hooper was preferred to be Bishop of Glocester by the special favour of his Patrone Iohn Earl of Warwick afterward Duke of Northumberland 25. The worst was Hooper refuseth to wear the Episcopal habit when Hooper came to be consecrated Bishop of Glocester he scrupled the wearing of certain Episcopall ornaments Rochet Chimere Square-cap c. producing a Letter from the Earl of Warwick omniprevalent then at Court in the declining of his Corrival the Duke of Somerset that he might be favourably dispensed with therein according to the tenour ensuing to Archbishop Cranmer AFter my most hearty commendations to your Grace these may be to desire the same that in such reasonable things wherein this beâ—rer my Lord Elect of Glocester craveth to be born withall at your hands you would vouch safe to shew him your Graces favour the rather at this my instance Which thing partly I have taken in hand by the Kings Majesties own motion The matter is weighed by His Highnesse none other but that your Grace may facilely condescend thereunto The principall cause is that you would not charge this said Bearer with an Oath burdenous to his conscience And so for lack of time I commit your Grace to the tuition of Almighty God Your Graces most assured loving friend July 23. John Warwick What this Oath was because not expressed is variously conjectured Parsons to render Hooper more odious will have it the Oath of Supremacy which in my opinion is improbable it being utterly unlikely that the King would dispense with any from taking Oath
off my good Unkle Somerse ' s head And it is generally conceived that grief for his death caused K. Edwards Consumption who succeeded not to any Consumptive Inclination as hereditary from His Extraction from a Father but little past and a Mother just in the strength of Their Age. 16. However An uncertain report I finde in a * Image of both Churches page 423. Popish Writer that it was said That the Apothecary who poisoned him for the horrour of the offence and the disquietnesse of his conscience drowned himself And that the Landresse who washed His shirt lost the skin off her fingers But if his History be no better than his Divinity we that justly condemn the one can doe no lesse than suspect the other 17. We will conclude this Kings most Pious life with that His most devout Prayer on His Death-Bed The Prayer of K. Edward on his death-bed which God heard and graciously answered for the good of the Church of England d Fox Acts Mon. p. 13â—5 LOrd God deliver Me out of this miserable and wretched life and take Me among thy chosen Howbeit not my will but thy will be done Lord I commit my spirit to thee O Lord thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee yet for thy chosens sake send me life and health that I may truly serve thee Oh my Lord God blesse thy people and save thine inheritance Oh Lord God save thy chosen People of England Oh my Lord God defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my People may praise thy holy Name for Jesus Christs sake 17. One of the last Sermons King Edward heard Opposers of the Liturgie grow a strong was preached before Him by Hugh Latimer at what time their party began to spread and increase who opposed the Liturgie witnesse this passage in his Sermon * Latimers Semons printed Anno 1607. pag. 83. I have heard say when that the good Queen that is gone had ordained in her House daily Prayer both before Noon and after Noon the Admirall getteth him out of the way like a Mole digging in the earth He shall be Lots Wife to me as long as I live He was I heard say a Covetous man a covetous man indeed I would there were no more in England He was I heard say an Ambitious man I would there were no more in England He was I heard say a Seditious man a Contemner of Common-Prayer I would there were no more in England Well! he is gone I would he had left none behinde him A passage so informative to the Church History of that Age must not passe without some observation thereon The good Queen is gone this was Queen Katharine Par the Relict of King Henry the eighth who some two years since died in Child-bed The Admirall This was Thomas Lord Seymour her Husband Getteth himself out of the way Here is the question on what terms he absented himself whether on Popish or Non Conformist In proof whereof he is compared to Lots Wife which importeth a looking back and reflexion on former practise  Being termed herein Seditious and not Superstitious it intimates that a factious Principle made him distast the Common-Prayer A Contemner of the Common Prayer I wish there were no more This probably relates unto a potent Party disaffected to the Liturgie which now began to be very considerable in England but if the premisses be rightly collected much too blame in the judgment of godly Master Latimer 18. The dislikers of the Liturgie bare themselves high upon the judgment of Master Calvin in his Letter four year since to the Duke of Somerset Lord Protectour now no longer a privacie because publickly printed in his Epistles And yet Master Calvin is therein very positive for a set Forme Mr. Calvin's 3 Reasons for a set Form of Prayer whose words deserve our Translation and observation * Libro Epist pag. 69. Formulam precums rituum Ecclesiasticorum valde probo ut certa illa extet A quâ ne Pastoribus discedere in functione sua liceat 1. Ut consulatur quorundam simplicitati imperitiae 2. Ut certius constet omnium inter se Ecclesiarum consensus 3. Ut obviam ineatur desultoriae quorundam levitati qui novationes quasdam affectant Sic igitur statum esse Catechismum oportet statam Sacramentorum administrationem publicam item precum formulam I doe highly approve that there should be a certain Form of Prayer and Ecclesiasticall Rites From which it should not be lawfull for the Pastors themselves to discede 1. That provision may be made for some peoples ignorance and unskilfulnesse 2. That the consent of all Churches amongst themselves may the more plainly appear 3. That order may be taken against the desultorie levity of such who delight in innovations Thus there ought to be an established Catechisme an established Administration of Sacraments as also a publick Form of Prayer So that it seems not a Form but this Form of Prayer did displease and exceptions were taken at certain passages still in the Liturgie though lately reviewed by the Bishops and corrected 19. Whilst mutuall animosities were heightned betwixt the Opposers and Assertors of the Liturgie Wanton fâ—owardnesse jâ—stly punished Providence put a period for a time to that Controversie in England Such who formerly would not soon after durst not use the Common Prayer Masse and Popery being set up by Queen Mary in the room thereof Thus when Children fall out and fight about the candle the Parents comming in and taking it away leave them to decide the differences in the dark The end of the Reign of King EDWARD the sixt THE Church-History OF BRITAINE The Eighth BOOK CONTAINING THE PERSECUTIONS Under the Reign of QUEEN MARY SIC OMNI TEMPORE VERDO LONDON Printed in the Year M.DC.LV. Punishment for their going naked that what sometimes they affect of Fancy should alwayes be enjoyned them by Authority till the Cold converted them into more Civility In vain do they plead for their Practise the Precedent of the Prophet * Isaiah 20. 3. Isaiah going naked for three years Whose act was extraordinary and mystical having an immediate command from God for the same As well may they in Imitation of Hos ea 1. 2. Hosea take a known harlot to their wives which I beleeve they would not willingly do though they have made Harlots of other mens wives if all be true reported of them Their other Opinion is that THOU and THEE is the Omer of Respect to be measur'd out to every single person allowing the hiest no more the lowest no less be he to speak in their own * Pamphlet called the Language of truth pag. 2. Phrase either King Lord Judge or Officer We will take their words asunder as the wheels of a watch only scowre them and then put them together again King though none at this present in the
were some earnest determination against them and at length they were brought before the King Himself there being present all the whole Council And the King demanded of them why they had not made His Book according to His commandment and refused that to doe with sharp words and angry countenance and the said Sr. Edward opened unto His Highnesse the cause why they did it not and he and other had before declared and opened to the Councill that if the writings were made they were of no effect nor force but utterly void when the King should decease and the Statute of Succession not impaired nor hurted for these will not be taken away but by the same authority they were made and that was by Parliament To that said the King we minde to have a Parliament shortly not telling when which was the first time that the said Sr. Edward heard of any Parliament to be 〈◊〉 Whereunto he said if His pleasure were so all might be deferred to the Parliament and all dangers and perils saved Whereunto the King said he would have this done and after ratifie it by Parliament And after commanded them very sharply upon their allegiance to make it and there were divers of the Lords that stood behind the said Sr. Edward said and if they refused to do that they were traitours And the said Sr. Edward was in great fear as ever he was in all his life before seeing the King so earnest and sharpe and the said Duke so angry the day before who ruled the whole Councill as it pleased him and were all affraid of him the more is the pitty so that such cowardnesse and feare was there never seen amongst honourable men as it hath appeared The said Sr. Edward being an old weak man and without comfort began to consider with himself what was best to be done for the safeguard of his life which was like to chance in that fury and great anger presently And remembring that the making of the said writing was not presently treason by the Statute of Anno primo because this word Successour would take no place while the King was living and determined with himself not to meddle nor execute any thing concerning the same after the death of the King which he hath truly kept hereunto And also remembring that the Queens Highnesse that now is should come by Act of Succession as a purchaser by the law might not lawfully punish treason or contempt committed in the Kings life he said unto the King that he had served His most noble Father many yeers and also His Highnesse during His time Anno Dom. 1553 and loth he would be to disobey His commandment Anno Regin Mar. 1. for his own part he would obey it so that His Highnesse would grant to them His commandment license and commission under His great Seal for the doing making and executing of all things concerning the same and when the things were done that they might have a general pardon All which Commission and pardon was as much as the said Sr. Edward could invent to help this danger over and besides the things above remembred which Commission and pardon the King granted them saying it was but reason that they should have them both and the Commission is passed the Great Seal and the Pardon was signed and as far as he knew sealed All the said matters considered the said Sr. Edward said for his part he would obey the Kings commandment and so did M. Bromley say the same and the King said to Sr. John Baker what say you you said never a word today who as I take it agreed to the same Mr. Gosnold required a respite for he was not yet perswaded to do the thing required How the said Duke and the Earl of Shrewsburie handled him he can tell best himself And after upon the said Sr. Edwards motion the King gave him licence to be advised untill upon the morrow who of himself being in great fear was content to obey the Kings commandment and so the doers and makers of the said Book with sorrowfull hearts and with weeping eyes in great fear and dread devised the said Book according to such Articles as were signed with the Kings proper hand above and beneath and on every side And their said Commission with Articles so signed with the Kings hand and the Book drawn in paper were conveyed from the Court to the Lord Chancelors to be ingrossed in parchment and to passe the great Seal which was done accordingly And on the morrow next after the last Terme ended the said Sr. Edward and all the Judges were sent for he puts his hand to the Book in parchment sealed with the Great Seal and so did many others The said Book of Articles so signed remaineth with the Lord Chancellour Bishop of Eely but who conveyed the said Paper Book into the Chancery or who wrot them or who set their hands to the same Book the said Sr. Edward till he see them he cannot tell but he will not denie but he was privie to the making of them as he hath before said and that he came to the knowledge of the matter by the Articles unsigned and by the Articles signed with the Kings hand and both delivered unto him by the Kings own hands Who put the King in minde to make the said Articles or whowrote them or any of them or by whose procurement or counsell they were made or by what means he and others were called unto this matter he knoweth not but he thinks in his conscience the King never invented this matter of Himself out by some wonderfull false compasse he prayeth God the truth may be known as he doubts not it will be And further he and all his company as well before the King as before the Lords at all times said that their writings before they were made and after they were made were of no value force nor effect to any intent constitution or purpose after the Kings death and there is no remedy to help this but by Parliament And that after the said Thursday being the morrow after the Terme last past that he by any writing printing overt deed or act never did any thing sithence the same day in the Kings life ne sithence the death of the King for he determined with himself to be no executour of the said devise whatsoever should chance of it nor ever medled with the Councill in any thing nor came amongst them untill the Queens Grace that now is was proclaimed Queen in London nor never executed Commission Proclamation or other commandment from the Ladie Jane nor Her Councill but commanded my son to serve the Queens Grace that now is and to go to Sr. Thomas Tresham and Buckingham-shire-men that went to her Grace to defend Her which he so did to my no little cost The case thus stated these notes follow written with the same hand Now that it is to be considered the great fear the said Sr. Edward was
assuredly expect from him If before and above all things seeking for that one thing which is needfull the rather because God hath done great things for you already for which you have cause to rejoyce A great and good * 1 Sa. 18. 23 man said to his fellow-servants Seemeth it a small thing to you to be Son in-law to a King A greater honour was done to your first Ancestor who was SON TO A KING namely to Hardinge King of Denmark whence Fitz-Harding your most ancient sir-name But labour SIR for a higher honor then both Even to be led by GODS SPIRIT and then you shall be even in the language of the Apostle himself * Rom. 8. 14. FITZ-DIEU A SON OF GOD. Now as your Eminent bounty unto me may justly challenge the choicest of my best endeavours So the particular motive inducing me to dedicate this Booke to your honor is because it containeth the reign of Queen Elizabeth to whom you are so nearly related Whose * The heir generall of George Carâ—e L. Hunsdon whose Grandmother Mary was second Sister to Anne Bollen Grandmother proved her heir by ANNE BOLLEN her mother In which capacity some of that Queens or rather the Lady Elizabeths moveables and Jewels which were her Mothers descended unto her You may therefore challenge an interest most properly in this part of my History And now what remaineth but my humble and hearty prayers to the Divine Majesty for his blessing on your selfe and on your hopefull Issue That God would plentifully powre all his fauours of this and a better life upon them Suspect me not Sir for omitting because not expressing your noble Consort We finde in the fourth commandement Thou and thy Son and thy Daughter c. Where Divines render this reason why the wife is not mentioned because the same person with the Husband On which account your second self is effectually included within the daily devotions of Your bounden Orator Thomas Fuller THE CHVRCH-HISTORY OF BRITAINE Anno. Regin Eliza. 1. SECTION I. CENT XVI Anno. Dom. 1559 1. FOr the first six weeks the Queen Her slow but sure pace of Reformation and her wife councell suffered matters to stand in their former state without the least change as yet not altering but consulting what should be altered Thus our Saviour himself coming into the Temple and finding it profaned with sacriledge when he had looked round about upon all things a Mar. 11. 11. departed for the evening contenting himself with the survey of what was amisse and deferring the reformation thereof till the next morning but on the first b Holinshed 1. year of Q. Elizabeth pag. 1172. of January following being Sunday the best new-yeers-gift that ever was bestowed on England by vertue of the Queens Proclamation the Letanie was read in English with Epistles and Gospels in all Churches of London as it was formerly in her Graces own Chappel 2. But some violent Spirits The forwardness of private men in publique reformation variously censured impatient to attend the leisure by them counted the lazinesse of authority fell before hand to the beating down of superstitious Pictures and images and their forward zeal met with many to applaud it For Idolatry is not to be permitted a moment the first minuite is the fittest to abolish it All that have power have right to destroy it by that Grand charter of Religion whereby every one is bound to advance Gods glory And if Soveraâ—gns forget no reason but Subjects should remember their duty But others condemned their indiscretion herein for though they might reforme their private persons and families and refraine to communicate in any outward act contrary to Gods word yet publique reformation belonged to the Magistrate and a good deed was by them ill done for want of a calling to do it However the Papists have no cause to tax them with over-forwardness in this kinde the like being done by them in the beginning of Queen Maries raigne whilst the laws of King Edward the Sixth stood as yet in full force when they prevented authority as hath been c See â—6 Cent. 2 part â— paragraph formerly observed thus those who are hungry and have meat afore them will hardly be kept from eating though Grace be not said and leave given them by their superiours 3. Now the tidings of Queen Elizabeths peaceable coming to the crown Anno. Dom. 1558. was no sooner brought beyond the Seas but it fitted the English Exiles with unspeakable glandness 〈…〉 being instantly at home in their hearts and not long after with their bodies I knew one right well whose father amongst them being desperately diseased was presently and perfectly cured with the cordiall of this good news and no wonder if this Queen recovered sick men which revived religion it self Now the English Church at Geneva being the greatest opposer of ceremonies sent their letter by William Ceth to all other English Congregations in Germany and especially to those of Frankford congratulating their present deliverance condoling their former discords counselling and requesting that all offences heretofore given or taken might be forgiven and forgotten and that for the future they might no more fall out about sâ—perfluous ceremonies a It was dated Decem. 15. but not received till about Ianuâ—r the second see 〈◊〉 at Frankford pag. 162. But this letter came too late because the principall persons concerned in that controversie with whom they sought a charitable reconciliation were departed from Frankford I think towards England before the messenger arrived and so the motion missed to take effect Some suppose had it come in season it might have prevailed much that both parties in gratitude to God would in a bonefire of their generall joy have burnt this unhappy bone of dissention cast betwixt them Others considering the distance of their principles and difference of their spirits conceive such an agreement neither could be wrought nor would be kept betwixt them For it is the property of cold to congregate together things of different kinds and if the winter of want pinching them all with poverty could not freeze their affections together less likely was it that the warmth of wealth in their native Soâ—le would conjoyne them in amity but rather widen them further asunder as indeed it came to passe For as the rivers of Danubius and Savus in Huagarie though running in the same channell yet for many miles keep different streames visible in their party-coloured waters which do rather touch then unite yea the fishes peculiar to one stream are not found in another So these opposite parties returning home though concurring in doctrine under the generall notion of Protestants were so reserved in severall disciplines to themselves with their private favourites and followers that they wanted that comfortable communion which some hop'd and all wished would be amongst them Till at last they brake out into dolefull and dangerous opposition whereat all Papists clap
legall Tryall is the greatest torment in the World God keepe all good men from feeling and chiefly from deserving it I am the easier induced to believe the Exquisitenesse of the Torture being sensible in my self by your bounty what a burden it is for One who would be ingenuous to be Loaded with Curtesies which He hath not the least hope to requite or deserve 1. IN this year began the Suit betwixt Robert Horne Bishop of Winchester The suit betwixt Bp. Horne and Bonner and Edmund Bonner late Bishop of London on this occasion All Bishops were impowred by the statute quinto Elizabethae to tender the Oath of Supremacy to all persons living within their Diocess Now Bishop Bonner was within the Diocess of Winchester full ill against his will as being a Prisoner in the Marshall-See in Southwarke to whom Horne offered this Oath and he refused the taking thereof Hereupon his refusall was returned into the Kings-Bench and he indicted on the same Being indicted he appeared there confessed the fact but denied himself culpable and intending to traverse the Indictment desired that Councell might be assigned him S r. Robert Cateline then Chief Justice granted his motion and no meaner then Ploydon that eminent Lawyer Christopher Wray afterwards Lord Chief Justice and Lovelace were deputed his Councell 2. First they pleaded for their Client Bonner his Councell that Bonner was indicted without the title and addition of Bishop of London and only stiled Doctour of Law and one in Holy Orders But the Judges would not allow the exception as legall to avoid the Indictment 3. Secondly Their 1. Plea 2. Exception they pleaded that the Certificate entred upon Record was thus brought into the Court. Tali die anno per A. B. Cancellarium dicti Episcopi Winton And did not say per mandatum Episcopi for the want of which clause Bonner his Councell took exceptions thereat sed non allocatur because the Record of it by the Court is not of necessity 4. Pass we by their third exception Main matter debared by the Judges that he was indicted upon that Certificat in the County of Middlesex by the common Jury of enquest in the Kings-Bench for that County It being resolved by the Judges that his triall could not be by a Jury of Middlesex but by a Jury of Surrie of the neighbourhood of Southwark The main matter which was so much debated amongst all the Judges in the Lord Cateline his chamber was this Whether Bonner could give in evidence of that issue that he had pleaded of not guilty that Horne Bishop of Winchester was not a Bishop tempore oblationis Sacramenti at the time wherein he tendred the oath unto Bonner And it was resolved by them a Dyer fol. 234 Mich. 6. 7. El. z. plaâ—â—to 15. all that if the truth of the matter was so indeed that he might give that in evidence upon that issue and that the Jury might trie whether he was a Bishop then or no. 5. Whilest this suit as yet depended Divided by the Parliament Eliz. 8. Sept. 30. 1567. the Queen called a Parliament which put a period to the controversie and cleared the legality of Horne his Episcopacy in a Satute enacting That all persons that have been or shall be made oâ—d red or consicrate Arch-Bishops Bishops Priests Ministers of Gods Holy Word and Sacraments or Deacons after the forme and order prescribed in the said order and form how Arch-Bishops Bishops Priests Deacons and Ministers should be consecrated made and ordered be in very deed and also by authority hereof declared and enacted to be and shall be Arch-Bishops Bishops Priests Ministers and Deacons and rightly made consecrated and ordered Any Statute law Canon or other thing to the contrary notwithstanding 6. However it immediately followeth A favourable proviso Provided alwayes and nevertheless be it enacted by the authority aforesaid that no person or persons shall at any time hereafter be impeached or molested in body lands livings or goods by occasion or mean of any Certificate by any Arch-Bishop or Bishop heretofore made or before the last day of this present Session of Parliament to be made by vertue of any Act made in the first Session of Parliament touâ—hing or concerning the refusal of the oath declared and set forth by Act of Parliament in the first yeer of the Reign of our said Soveraign Ladie Queen Elizabeth Any thing in this Act or any other Act or Statute her tofâ—re made to the contrary notwithstanding 7. The seasonable interposing of this Statute made it a Drawn battell betwixt Horne and Bonner Their suit superseded The former part thereof here alledged cleared Horne his Episcopacy from all cavils of law the later Proviso was purposely inserted in favour of Bonner who here himself found that which he never shewed to others that he as all other Popish Bishops deprived might be no more molested for refusing the Oath of Supremacy The Parliament saw they had already lost their livelihood and liberties for their erroneous consciences and had received their thirty nine stripes more then which the State thought not fit to inflict lest their justice should degenerate into cruelty 8. The enacting of this Statute did not stop the railing mouths of Papists against our Bishops but only made them alter their note and change their tune in reviling them Formerly they condemned them as illegall whose calling was not sufficiently warranted by the laws of the Land henceforward * 〈…〉 Sanders and others railed on them for Parliamentary Bishops deriving all their Power and Commission from the State But as well might the Jesuits terme b 〈…〉 pag. 449. Cuâ—on 17. Shemaiah Nethaniah Prerogative Levites because sent by Jehâ—saphat to preach the word to the people of the Land For that good King did not give but quicken and encourage their Commission to teach as here the Parliament did only publish notifie and declare the legall authority of the English Bishops whose Call and Consecration to their place was formerly performed derived from Apostolicall or at leastwise Ecclesiastical institution 9. These were the prime of the first Set of Puritans Anno Regin Eliza. 8. Anno Dom. 1567. The Ring leader of the second set of Nonconformiâ—â—s which being very aged expired for the most part at or about this time when behold another generation of Active and zealous Nonconformists succeeded them Of these Coleman Button Halingham and Benson whose Christian names I cannot recover were the chief inveighing against the established Church-Discipline accounting every thing from Rome which was not from Geneva endeavouring in all things to conforme the government of the English Church to the Presbyterian Reformation Add these three more though of inferiour note to the aforesaid Quaternion William White Thomas Rowland Robert Hawkins all beneficed within the Diocess of London and take a tast of their Spirits out of the Register thereof 10. For this
and Chancellour Hatton with other of the Privie Councellors pretending himself sent from Heaven to reform Church and State and bring in a new discipline into both by extraordinary means 35. Proclaimed by his two Prophets Afterwards he gave it out that the principall spirit of the Messias rested in him and had two Attendants Edmund Coppinger the Queens servant and one of good descent for his prophet of mercy July 16. And Henry Arthington a York-shire Gentleman for his prophet of Judgment These proclaimed out of a Cart in Cheap-side that Christ was come in Hacket with his fan in his hand to purge the godly from the wicked with many other precedent concomitant and consequent impieties For who can otherwise conceive but such a prince-principall of Darkness must be proportionably attended with a black guard of monstrous Opinions and expressions They cryed also Repent England Repent Good counsell for all that heard but best for them that gave it With much adoe such the press of people they got home to broken-wharf where Hacket lay and next day all three were sent to Bridewell though some conceived Bedlam the more proper place for them And some dayes after Hacket being solemnly arraigned before the Judges at Westminster demeaned himself very scornfully but was found guilty on a double inditement and condemned 36. An adventure with more boldness then discretion During his imprisonment in Bridewell one D r. Childerly Rector of S t. Dunstans in the East repaired unto him and proffered to gripe arms with him and try the wrists which Hacket unwillingly submitted to do Though otherwise boasting himself invulnerable and impenetrable The Doctor though with some difficulty Hacket being a foul strong lubber yet fairly twisted his wrists almost to the Breaking thereof but not to the bowing of him to any confession or remorse Whilst the other presently hasteth home to his house lock'd himself up in his Study and with fasting and prayer beg'd pardon of God for his pride and boldness that having neither promis'd precept or precedent for his practise in scripture he should adventure on such a triall wherein justly he might have been worsted for his presumption and discreet men will more commend the relenting tenderness of his heart then the slight and strength of his hands 37. 〈…〉 Hacket was brought to the Gibbet near to the Cross in Cheap-side and there 〈◊〉 forth most blasphemous execrations till the halter stopped his breath I know what one Lawyer pleadeth in his behalf though it be little credit to be the Advocate of such a Client That the Bishops had made 〈◊〉 mâ—dd with persecuting of him Sure it was if he were madd not any 〈◊〉 but overmuch pride made him so and sure it is he discovered no distemper in other particulars personating at least wise if not performing all things with a composed gravity But there is a madness which Physicians count most uncurable and call it Modesta Insania when one is mad as to one particular point alone whilst serious and sober in all other things Whether Hacket were not toucht with this or no I will not decide but leave him to stand or fall to his own master Coppinger died in Bridewell starving himself as it is said by wilfull abstinence Arthington the prophet of judgment lived to prove the object of Gods and the Queens mercy and printed a plain book of his hearty repentance Happy herein that he met with a generall belief of his serious sorrow and sincere amendment 38. 〈…〉 This businesse of Hacket happened very unseasonably for the Presbyterians True it is they as cordially detested his blasphemies as any of the Episcopall party And such of them as loved Hacket the Nonconformist abhorred Hacket the Heretick after he had mounted to so high a pitch of Impiety But besides the glutenous nature of all aspersions to stick where they light they could not wash his odium so fast from themselves but their Adversaries were as ready to rub it on again This rendred them at this time so hated at Court That for many moneths together no Favourite durst present a petition in their behalf to the Queen being loath to lose himself to save others so offended was her Majesty against them 39. Mr Stone by his confession discovereth the meeting of the Brethren with the circumstances thereof The same day wherein Hacket was executed Thomas Stone Parson of Warkton in Northampton-shire by vertue of an Oath tendered him the day before by the Queens Atturney and solemnly taken by him was examined by the Examiner for the Starr-Chamber in Grayes Inne from six of the clock in the morning till seaven at night to answer unto thirty three Articles but could only effectually depose to these which follow faithfully by me transcribed out of a confession written with his own hand and lately in my Possession 1. Interrog Who and how many assembled and met together with the said Defendents T. C. H. E. E. S. c. all or any of them where when how often c The answer of T. S. to the Interrog touching the Circumstances of 1 Places of meeting 1 Greater 2 Lesse 1 In London 2 In Cambridge S t Johns College 1 Travers 2 Egertons 3 Gardeners 4 Barbers Houses 1 In Northampton 1 Johnsons 2 Snapes Houses 2 In Kettering or near it 1 Dammes 2 Stones Houses 2 Times 1 Since the beginning of the last Parliament 2 Sundry times at London how oft he remember'd not 3 Sundry times at Northampton how oft not remembred 4 Sundry times at Kettering how not remembred 5 Once at Cambridge about Sturbridge fair time was 1. or 2. years 6 Once at London a little before M r Cartwright was committed at M r Gardeners house 7 Once at this Deponents house the certain time not remembred 3 persons 1 Meeting in London joyntly or severally M r Travers M r Chark M r Egerton M r Gardener M r Barber M r Brown M r Somerscales M r Cartwright M r Chatterton M r Gyfford M r Allen M r Edmands M r Gyllybrand M r Culverwell M r Oxenbridge M r Barbon M r Fluddâ— This Deponent 2 Meeting in Camb. M r Chatterton and others of Cambridge M r Cartwright M r Gyfford M r Allen M r Snape M r Flâ—dde This Deponent 3 persons 3 Meeting in Northampton joyntly or severally M r Johnson M r Snape M r Sybthorpe M r Edwards M r Fludde This Deponent M r Spicer M r Fleshware M r Harrison M r Littleton M r Williamson M r Rushbrook M r Baxter M r Barbon M r King M r Proudtome M r Massie M r Bradshaw 4 Meeting at Kettering or nere to it M r Dammes M r Pattison M r Okes M r Baxter M r Rushbrook M r Atkinson M r Williamson M r Massie This Deponent 2 Interrog Who called these Assemblies by what Authority how or in what sort Answer That he knew not by whom they were called neither knew he any other Authority therein saving
certainly cause suspition slalnder c. 14. The concealing argueth either some guiltiness or at the least some faintness and fear to be seen or known in these Actions 15. It leaveth the truth which now travaileth poor naked destitute and void of friends it casteth the care credit countenance defence and maintenance of it upon those few which are in prison which ought to be supported and maintained by all 16. It leaveth the burden upon eight or nine mens shoulders which ought to be eased by many What satisfaction this gave to his party I know not sure I am the Bishops till his dying day beheld him as an ingenuous man carrying his conscience with the reason thereof in his own brest and not pinning it on the president of any other whereupon they permitted him peaceably to possess his parsonage being none of the meanest though he continued a stiffe Non conformist only quietly enjoying his own opinion Indeed he was a down-right Nathanael if not guilty of too much of the dove in him faulty in that defect wherein more offend in the excess not minding the world so much as became a provident parent But we leave him when we have told the Reader that he was bred a Student in Christ-Church and was a Brian Twine in Appendice Ant. Ac. Oxon. Proctor of Oxford Anno 1580 and died quietly an old man Anno 1617 at Warkton in Northampton-shire 41. Synodicall meetings finally blasted Thus one link being slipp'd out the whole chain was quickly broken and scattered Stone his discovery marr'd for the future all their formal meetings as Classically or Synodically methodized If any of these Ministers hereafter came together it was for visits not visitations to enjoy themselves not enjoyn others orders to be observed by them 42. Perkin's piety 〈…〉 Whereas M r Stone confesseth their meeting in Cambridge with M r Chatterton and others I finde some of these others a Dr Banerâ—st in his book of dangerous positions chap. 7. p. 59. elsewhere specified namely M r Perkins and M r Thomas Harrison afterwards the reverend Vice-Master of Trinity-Colledge both of them concurring though neither of them very active in this cause M r Perkins whatsoever his judgement was in point of Church-discipline never publickly medled with it in his preaching and being pressed by others about the lawfullness of subscription he declined to manifest his opinion therein glad to enjoy his own quiet and to leave others to the liberty of their own consciences Solomons observation found truth in him b Prov. 16. 7â— When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him whose piety procured freedom to his preaching and fair respect to his person even from those who in affections differed and in opinion dissented from him for all held Perkins for a Prophet I mean for a painfull and faithfull dispenser of Gods will in his word 43. Transition to a more pleasant subject But I am weary of writing these sad dissentions in our Church and fain would pass over to some more pleasing subject from the renting of Gods Church to the repairing of it from the confounding thereof to the founding and building of some eminent place for learning and religion But finding none of that nature this very year in England I am fain to seek one beyond the seas and at last have lighted on the University and Colledge of Dublin which now began to be erected 44. The foundation of an University in Dublin Anciently Ireland was the Seminary of Saints people from all parts of Christendome repairing thither there to finde and thence to fetch the perfect pattern of Monastical devotion Many hundred years after namely in the Reign of King Edward the Second Alexander Bickner Arch-Bishop of Dâ—blin obtained licence of the Pope to erect an University in Dublin but the designe succeeded not according to his desire and others expectation Now at the last the same was effected by Royall Authority and a Colledge there erected and dedicated to the Holy Trinity This mindeth me of a pleasant passage In the Reign of King Henry the eighth it was enjoyned that all Churches dedicated to S t Thomas Becket should be new named and consigned over to some real Saint Now whilest country people sate in consultation what new Saint such Churches should assume being divided in their opinions to whom the same should be dedicated an old man gave this advice Even dedicate it to the Holy Trinity which will last and continue when all other Saints may chance to be taken away 45. The severall Benefactors thereto Many eminent persons concurred to advance so worthy a work And because we are to speak of a Colledge wherein seniority takes place we will rank these persons not according to their dignity but time of their benefaction 1. Henry Vsher then Arch-Deacon of Dublin bred in Cambridge afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh and uncle to James Vsher the present Arch-Bishop thereof took a journey with much danger into England and with more difficulty procured the Mort-main from 2. Queen Elizabeth who graciously granted it naming the Corporation Collegium Sanctae ac Individuae Trinitatis ex fundatione Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin 3. William Cicill Baron of Burleigh Anno Dom. 1591. and treasurer of England is appointed in the Mort-main first Chancellour of the University Anno Regin Eliza. 34. as being an active instrument to procure the same 4. S r William Fitz-Williams Lord Deputy of Ireland whose Arms are deservedly graven over the Colledge gate issued out his letters for collection to all the Counties in Ireland to advance so good a designe and the Irish though then generally Papists were very bountifull thereunto 5. M r Luke Chaloner Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge received and disbursed the monies had the oversight of the fabrick which he faithfully procured to be finished meriting that verse inscribed on his fair monument in Dublin Colledge Chappel built by his * Since married to the Arch-Bishop of Armagh daughter Conditur hoc Tumulo Chaloneri triste Cadaver Cujus ope precibus conditur ista domus This Tomb within it here contains Of Chalnor the sad Remains By whose prayer and helping hand This House erected here doth stand 6. The Major and Aldermen of Dublin bestowed on the Colledge the sight thereof with some accommodations of considerable grounds about it being formerly a Religious house termed Allhallows which at the suppression of Abbies was bestowed on their Corporation 7. Adam Loftus Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge at this present Arch-Bishop of Dublin and Chancellour of Ireland was the first Master of the Colledge holding it as an honorarie title though not so much to receive credit by as to return lustre to the place 8. S r Warham Saint-Leger was very bountifull in paying yearly pensions for the maintenance of the first students thereof before the Colledge was endowed with standing revenues
to affirm that those Articles of Lambeth were afterwards forbidden by publick Authority but when where and by whom he is not pleased to impart unto us And strange it is that a publick prohibition should be whispered so softly that this Author alone should hear it and none other to my knowledge take notice thereof 27. How variously forraign Divines esteemed of them As for forrain Divines just as they were biased in judgement so on that side ran their Affections in raising or decrying the esteem of these Articles some a Thysias twice printed them at Hardâ—ovick Anno 1613. printed set forth and b Bogerman in his 107. 108. notes on the second part of Grotius cited them as the sence of the Church of England others as fast slighted them as the narrow positions of a few private and Partial persons As for Corvinus as we know not whence he had his intelligence so we finde no just ground for what he reporteth that Arch-Bishop Whitgift for his pains incurred the Queens displeasure and c In his answer to the notes of Bogerman 2 part pag. 566. and so forward to pag. 570. a Praemunire We presume this forrainer better acquainted with the Imperial Law and locall customes of Holland then with our municipal Statutes and the nature of a Praemunire Indeed there goes a tradition that the Queen should in merriment say jestingly to the Arch-BP My Lord I now shall want no mony for I am informed all your goods are forfeited unto me by your calling a Councel without my consent but how much of truth herein God knows And be it referred to our learned in the Law whether without danger of such a censure the two Arch-Bishops by vertue of their place had not any implicite leave from the Queen to assemble Divines for the clearing declaring and asserting of difficult Truths provided they innovate or alter nothing in matters of Religion 28. And now I perceive These Articles excellent witnesses of the general doctrine of England I must tread tenderly because I goe not as before on mens graves but am ready to touch the quick of some yet alive I know how dangerous it is to follow Truth too nere to the heels yet better it is that the teeth of an Historian be struck out of his head for writing the the Truth then that they remain still and rot in his Jaws by feeding too much on the sweet-meats of flattery All that I will say of the credit of these Articles is this That as Medalls of Gold and Silver though they will not pass in payment for currant coyne because not stamped with the Kings Inscription yet they will goe with Goldsmiths for as much as they are in weight So though these Articles want Authentick Reputation to pass for Provinciall Acts as lacking sufficient Authority yet will they be readily received of Orthodox Christians for as far as their own purity bears conformity to Gods word And though those learned Divines be not acknowledged as competent Judges to pass definitive Sentence in those Points yet they will be taken as witnesses beyond exception whose testimony is an infallible evidence what was the generall and received doctrine of England in that Age about the forenamed controversies 29. This year ended the life Bp. Wickham Dr Whitakers Dan. Halsworth and Râ—b Southwell end their lives First of Doctor William Wickam bred in Kings Colledge in Cambridge first Bishop of Lincoln after of Winchester whose namesake William Wickham in the Reign of King Edward the third sat in the same See more years then this did weeks Indeed we know little of his life but so much of his death as we must not mention it without some pitty to him whil'st in pain and praise to God for our own health such was his torture with the stone before his death that for d Bp Goodwin in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Winchester 14 days together he made not water Secondly Worthy Doctor William Whittakers whose larger character we reserve God-willing for our History of Cambridge And amongst the Romanists Daniel Halseworth who as e De Angliae scriptoribus Aetate â—6 pag. 794. Pitzaeus describes him Papists give no scant measure in praising those of their own Party was well skill'd in Latin Greek and Hebrew and Elegant Poet Eloquent Orator acute Philosopher expert Mathematician deep-studied Lawyer and excellent Divine flying from England he lived successively in Savoy Rome and Millain having too many professions to gather wealth and with all his Arts and Parts both lived in Poverty and died in Obscurity More eminent but more infamous was the death of Robert Southwell a Jesuite born in f Idem ibidem Suffolk bred beyond the Seas where he wrote abundance of Books who returning into England was executed March the third for a Traitor at London and honoured for a Martyr amongst men of his own Religion 30. The Secular Priests continued their complaints Anno Regin Eliza. 39. Anno Dom. 1596. The complaint of the Seculars against the Jesuits and principally against Parsons as against Jesuits in general so particularly against Robert Parsons This Parsons about 18 years since was in England where by his statizing and dangerous activity he had so incensed the Queens Councell that the Secular Priests made him a main occasion why such sharp laws were so suddenly made against a DeclaratioÌ„ motuum ad Clementein ecitaâ—um pag. 24. Catholicks in England But no sooner did danger begin to appear but away went Parsons beyond the Seas wherein some condemned his cowarliness and others commended his policy seeing such a commander in chief as he was in the Romish cause ought to repose his person in safety and might be never the less vertually present in the fight by the issuing out of his orders to meaner officers Nor did Parsons like a wheeling Cock turn aside with intent to return but ran quite out of the Cockpit and then crowed in triumph when he was got on his own dunghil safely resident in the City of Rome Here he compiled and hence he dispatched many letters and libels into England and amongst the rest that Book of the succession to the English entit'ling the Spaniard thereunto setting it forth under the false name of b Camdens Eliz. in Anno 1594. p. 72. Dolman an honest harmless Secular Priest and his professed Adversary And surely Parsons was a fit fellow to derive the pedigree of the Kings of England who might first have studied to deduce his own descent from a lawfull Father being himself otherwise called Cowback c Watsons Quâ—â—libets p. 109 236. filius populi et filius peccati as Catholicks have observed Many letters also he sent over full of threats and assuring his party that the land would be invaded by forrainers writing therein not what he knew or thought was but what he desired and endeavoured should be true Some of these letters being intercepted made the
supreme head of the Church and charged her as she would answer it at Gods Tribunall to take care of Christ his Evangil in suppressing the Popish Prelates who withstood the same But how long trow did you this continue Even till by her authority the Popish Bishops were repressed and Knox with his adherents being brought in made strong enough Then began they to make small account of her supremacy when according to that more light wherewith they were illuminated they made a farther reformation of themselves How they used the poore Lady my Mother is not unknowne and how they dealt with me in my minority I thus apply it My Lords the Bishops I may * This be said putting his hand to his bat thank you that these men plead thus for my Supremacy They think they cannot make their Party good against you but by appealing unto it but if once you were out and they in I know what would become of my Supremacy for NO BISHOP NO KING I have learned of what cut they have been who preaching before me since my coming into England passed over with silence my being Supreme Governour in causes Ecclesiasticall Well Doctour have you any thing else to say Dr. Reyn. No more if it please your Majesty His Majesty If this be all your Party hath to say I will make them conforme themselves or else I will harrie them out of the Land or else doe worse Thus ended the second dayes Conference Jan. 18 and the third began on the Wednesday following many Knights Civilians and Doctours of the Law being admitted thereunto because the High Commission was the principall matter in debate His Majesty I understand that the parties named in the High Commission are too many and too mean and the matters they deale with base such as Ordinaries at home in their Courts might censure Arch-b of Cant. It is requisite their number should be many otherwise I should be forced often-times to sit alone if in the absence of the Lords of the Council Bishops and Judges at Law some Deanes and Doctours were not put into that Commission whose Attendance I might command with the more Authority I have often complained of the meannesse of matters handled therein but cannot remedy it For though the Offence be small that the Ordinary may the Offender oft-times is so great and contumacious that the Ordinary dâ—re not punish him and so is forced to crave help at the High Commission A nameless L d. The Proceedings in that Court I dare not guess him for fear of failing are like the Spanish Inquisition whereiu men are urged to subscribe more than Law requireth and by the Oath ex officio forced to accuse themselves being examined upon twenty or twenty four Articles on a sudden without deliberation and for the most part against themselves In proof hereof he produced a Letter of an antient honourable Counsellour An. 1584. verifying this usage to two Minsters in Cambridge shire Arch-b of Cant. Your Lordship is deceived in the manner of proceeding For if the Article touch the Party for Life Liberty or Scandall he may refuse to answer I can say nothing to the particulars of the Letter because twenty yeares since yet doubted not but at leisure to give your Lordship satisfaction L d. Chancel There is necessity Here we omit a discourse about Subscription because not methodiz'd into the Speech of severall persons and use of the Oath Ex officio in divers Courts and Causes His Majesty Indeed civil Proceedings onely punish Facts but it is requisite that Fame and Scandals be looked unto in Courts Ecclesiasticall and yet great moderation is to be used therein 1. In gravioribus criminibus 2. In such whereof there is a publique Fame caused by the inordinate demeanour of the Offender And here he soundly described the Oath ex officio for the ground thereof the Wisdome of the Law therein the manner of proceeding thereby and profitable effect from the same Arch-b of Cant. Undoubtedly your Majesty speaks by the speciall assistance of Gods Spirit BP of Lond. I protest my heart melteth with joy that Almighty God of his singular mercy * This he spake on his knee hath given us such a King as since Christs time the like hath not beene Then passed there much discourse between the King the Bishops and the Lords about the quality of the Persons and Causes in the High Commission rectifying Excommunications in matters of lesse moment punishing Recusants providing Divines for Ireland Wales and the Northern Borders Afterwards the four Preachers were called in and such alterations in the Lyturgie were read unto them which the Bishops by the Kings advice had made and to which by their silence they seemed to consent His Majesty I see the exceptions against the Communion-book are matters of weakness therefore if the persons reluctant be discreet they will be won betimes and by good perswasions If indiscreet better they were removed for by their factions many are driven to be Papists From you Dr. Reynolds and your Associates I expect obedience and humility the marks of honest and good men and that you would perswade others abroad by your example Dr. Reyn. We here do promise to performe all duties to Bishops as Reverend Fathers and to joyne with them against the common Adversary for the quiet of the Church Mr. Chader I request * This he spake kneeling the wearing of the Surplice and the Cross in Baptism may not be urged on some godly Ministers in Lancashire fearing if forced unto them many won by their preaching of the Gospel will revolt to Popery and I particularly instance in the Vicar of Ratsdale Ar-b of Cant. You could not have light upon a worse for not many yeares agoe as my Lord * Who being there present averred the same Chancellor knowes it was proved before me that by his unreverent usage of the Eucharist dealing the Bread out of a Basket every man putting in his hand and taking out a piece he made many loath the Communion and refuse to come to Church His Majestie It is not my purpose and I dare say it is not the Bishops intent presently and out of hand to enforce these things without Fatherly Admonitions Conferences and Perswasions premised but I wish it were examined whether such Lancashire Ministers by their paines and preaching have converted any from Popery and withall be men of honest Life and quiet Conversation If so let Letters be written to the Bishop of * This was Râ—ch Vaughan afterwards Bishop of Lond. Chester who is grave and good man to that purpose that some favour may be afforded unto them and let the Lord Arch-bishop write the Letters BP of Lond. If this be granted the copie of these Letters will flie all over England and then all non conformists will make the like request and so no fruit follow of this Conference but things will be worse than they were before I desire therefore a
with sophistical Qualifications So that he was accused to aime neither at the Satisfaction of the Learned Ann. Dom 1611. Ann. Regis Jac. 9 whom he had formerly offended nor the Safety of the Ignorant whom he might hereafter deceive but meerly his own Security for the present His grand Evasion was this That what he had wrote before was but probably propounded not dogmatically delivered But alas how many silly Souls might easily be infected mistaking his slenting Problemes for downright Positions In a word he took not out any Venome but put in more Honey into his Opinions which the corruption of Mans Nature would swallow with more greedinesse And how dangerous it is for wit-wanton Men to dance with their nice Distinctions on such Mysticall Precipices where Slips in jest may cause deadly Downfalls in earnest the Roman Orator doth in part pronounce Mala est impia consuetudo contra Deum disputandi sive seriò id fit sive simulatè 5. Now King JAMES being as little Satisfied in Judgment with the Writings of Vorstius in his own Defence K. James setteth forth a Declaration against Vorstius siâ—st written in French Since by His leave Translated into English and amongst His other Works as ill pleased in Point of Honour with the doings of the States in return to His Request gave Instructions to His Ambassadour to make Publick Protestation against their Proceedings which Sir Ralph Wynwood in Pursuance of his Masters Command most solemnly performed Nor did His Majesties Zeal stop here with Joash King of Israel smiting onely but thrice and then desisting but after His Request Letter and Protestation had missed â—heir Desired effect He wrote in French a Declaration against Vorstius A Work well beseeming the DEFENDOR OF THE FAITH by which Title to use His Ambassadours Expression He did more value Himself than by the Style of KING OF GREAT BRITAIN Once I intended to present the Reader with a Brief of His Majesties Declaration till deterred with this Consideration that although great Masses of Lead Tinne and meaner Metals may by the extraction of Chymists be epitomized and abridged into a Smaller quantity of Silver yet what is altogether Gold already cannot without extraordinary damage be reduced into a Smaller Proportion And seeing each word in His Majesties Declaration is so pure and pretious that it cannot be lessened without losse we remit the Reader to the same in His Majesties Works And so take our Leave of Verstius for the present whose Books by the KING's Command were publickly burnt at St. Paul's Crosse in London and in both Universities 6. But leaving this Outlandish let us come to our English Vorstius though of farre lesse Learning The character of Bartholomew Legate of more Obstinacy and dangerous Opinions I mean that Arrian who this year suffered in Smithfield His name Bartholomew Legate native County Essex person comely complexion black age about fourty years Of a bold spirit confident carriage fluent tongue excellently skilled in the Scriptures and well had it been for him if he had known them lesse or understood them better whose ignorance abused the Word of God therewith to oppose God the Word His conversation for ought I can learn to the contrary very unblameable And the poyson of Hereticall Doctrine is never more dangerous than when served up in clean cups and washed dishes 7. King JAMES caused this Legate often to be brought to Him Discourse beâ—twixt K. James and Legate and seriously dealt with him to endevour His conversion One time the KING had a designe to surprize him into a Confession of Christs Deity as His Majesty afterwards declared to a right reverend g James Archbishop of Armagh from whose mouth I had the Relation Prelate by asking him Whether or no he did not daily pray to Jesus Christ Which had he acknowledged the KING would infallibly have inserted that Legate tacitly consented to Christs Divinity as a searcher of the hearts But herein His Majesty failed of His expectation Legate returning That indeed he had prayed to Christ in the daies of his ignorance but not for these last seven years Hereupon the KING in choler spurn'd at him with His foot Away base Fellow saith He it shall never be said that one stayeth in My presence that hath never prayed to our Saviour for seven years together 8. Often was he covented before the Bishops in the Consistory of St. Pauls Bishop King gravâ—llâ—â—h him with a place of Scripture where he persisted obstimate in his Opinions flatly denying the Authority of that Court. And no wonder that he slighted the power of earthly Bishops denying the Divinity of Him Who is h 1 Pâ—t 2. 25. The Shepheard and Bishop of our souls The dispatation against him was principally managed by John King Bishop of London who gravelled and utterly confuted him with that place of Scripture John 17. 5. And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was This Text I say was so seasonably alledged so plainly expounded so pathetically enforced by the eloquence and gravity of that Bishop qualities wherein he excelled that it gave marvellous satisfaction to a multitude of people there present that it is conceived it happily unproselyted some inclinable to his Opinions though Legate himself remained pertinatious both against the impressions of Arguments and Scripture daily multiplying his enormous Opinions It is the happinesse nature indulgeth to monsters that they are all barren whereas on the contrary monstrous positions are most procreative of the like or worse than themselves 9. Before we set down his pestilent Opinions Wholsome caution premised before the naming of Legate's blasphemies may Writer and Reader sence themselves with prayer to God against the infection thereof lest otherwise touching such pitch though but with the bare mention defile us casually tempting a temptation in us and awaking some corruption which otherwise would sleep silently in our souls And if notwithstanding this our caution any shall reap an accidental evil to themselves by reading his damnable Opinions my pen is no more accessary to their harm than that Apothecarie is guilty of murder if others out of a licourish curiosity kill themselves with that poyson which he kept in his shop for soveraigne use to make Antidotes thereof His damnable Tenets were as followeth 1. That the Creed called the Nicene Creed and Athanasius Creed contain not a Profession of the true Christian Faith 2. That Christ is not God of God begotten not made but begotten and made 3. That there are no Persons in the Godhead 4. That Christ was not God from everlasting but began to be God when he took flesh of the Virgin Mary 5. That the world was not made by Christ 6. That the Apostles teach Christ to be Man onely 7. That there is no generation in God but of creatures 8. That this assertion God to be made Man is contrary
their recreations on the Sunday the Papists in this Realm being thereby perswaded that no honest mirth or recreation was tolerable in our Religion Whereupon the Court being then at Greenwich He set forth a Declaration to this effect That for His good peoples lawfull recreations His pleasure was that after the end of Divine Service they should not be disturbed letted or discouraged from any lawfull recreations Such as dancing either of men or women archerie for men leaping vaulting or any such harmless recreations Nor from having of May-games Whitsun-ales or Morice-dances and setting up of May-poles or other sports therewith used so as the same be had in due and convenient time without impediment or let of Divine Service and that women should have leave to carry rushes to the Church for the decoring of it according to their old custome withall prohibiting all unlawfull games to be used on the Sundaies onely as bear-baiting bull-baiting interludes and at all times in the meaner sort of people by Law prohibited bowling 59. But when this Declaration was brought abroad The various effects thereof it is not so hard to believe as sad to recount what grief and distraction thereby was occasioned in many honest mens hearts who looked on it not as locall for Lancashire but what in processe of time would enlarge it self all over a So it was in the Reign of King Charles Anno 1633. England Some conceived the recreations specified impeditive to the observation of the Lords day yea unsuitable and unbeseeming the essentiall duties thereof But others maintained that if private mens speeches must not be pressed to an odious construction much more men were bound candidly to interpret the Acts of Authority and in charity must presume and be perswaded that religious Princes will command nothing what they conceive either to be unjust or not expedient all things considered They considered moreover which was mainly material that this Declaration was not dogmatical or doctrinal to say or averre these things to be Theologically lawfull but it was Edictum Civile what the King thought fit upon just reasons to permit without restraint or punishment The hardnesse of mens hearts on one side which will break loose though restrained and the hope of gaining others on the other side by a favourable allowance might be just motives in Authority to give way to things civiliter that they may be done impunè and yet not prejudice any point of Religion and not be done licitè as in Divorces extra casum adulterii Usurie c. 60. But the difficulty was encreased Reasons of the reâ—aâ—ers to publish this Declaration when Ministers daily feared to be urged upon their Canonicall obedience to promulgate and publish the said Declaration in their Parish Churches which some resolved flatly to refuse especially such who formerly had strictly preached and pressed the observation of the Lords-day alledging for and applying to themselves that place of Saint Paul b Gal. 2. 18. For if I build again the things which I have destroyed I make my self a transgressour Besides this they enforced the Reasons following for their Recusancie Yea though the KING Himself should enjoyn them on their Alleageance 1. That the publishing of this Declaration would be interpretativè an approbation thereof whereas on the contrary they are c Ephes 5. 11. commanded to have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darkness but rather to reprove them 2. That hereby they should draw a just woe upon them pronounced by the Prophet d Isa 10. 1. Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievousness which they have prescribed Where as the e Junius Piscator on the place Learned interpret even publick Notaries which are but instrumental are threatned with a curse 3. That the promulgation of a Law is de essentia Legis so that people would neither take notice of this Declaration nor liberty by it till it were published and so the Publisher should per se be a Promoter of a sin 4. That Obedience to Authority obligeth onely in licitis honestis and the f 2 Cor. 13. 10. Apostle confesseth That he himself had power to edification and not to destruction whereunto the publishing thereof did manifestly tend 61. On the other side The Arguments for the lawful publishing of the Declaration some learned and pious Ministers who in their judgments were convinced that some of the aforesaid recreations were incompatible with the sanctification of the Sabbath notwithstanding in case His MAJESTY should enjoyn it on serious deliberation resolved in obedience to the KING publickly to read or cause the reading of the Declaration not looking at the contents therein but at the Authority commanding the publication thereof the rather because no Subscription was required or Vocall assent to approve what therein was contained to be just or affirm it to be true but a bare ministerial declaring of the KING's will and pleasure therein which they conceived themselves bound in conscience to perform for the Reasons ensuing 1. The refusal well observed doth resolve into a principle which would take away the necessity of Obedience universally when the Partie commanded can pretend the Magistrate ought not to command him any such thing and if the PRINCE must suspend His Edicts upon each Subjects doubt He should never set forth any considering the variety of judgments and the distractions which are in His Subjects 2. A Sheriffe may yea must disperse the KING his Proclamations which he liketh not and a Clerk at the command of his Master a Justice of Peace may lawfully write the Mittimus of that person to Prison whom in his parricular judgment he conceiveth to be innocent and what is most proper to our purpose because a religious instance a Minister without any sin may safely pronounce an Excommunication legally delivered unto him though in his own private conscience he be convinced that the Partie is unjustly excommunicated 3. There are many precedents hereof in antiquity A Father g Optatus Melâ—vitanus lib. 7. gives this censure that when the Jewes commanded by Antiochus gave up the Divine Books to His Officers to be destroyed it was Peccatum imperantis minantis non populi cum dolore tremore tradentis A sinne of Him that commanded and threatned it not of the people who surrendred up those Volumes with fear and sorrow And Saint h Contra Faustum lib. 22. cap. 75. Augustine resolveth it in the case of a Christian Souldier fighting under a sacrilegious Emperour that though he be not satisfied in the lawfulnesse of the commands he may notwithstanding lawfully obey Ita ut fortasse reum faâ—iat Regem iniquitas imperandi innocentem militem ostendat ordo serviendi And what is most apposite to the matter in hand because the Edict of a godly Emperour seriously distasted by a godly Bishop Mauritius set forth a command That no Souldier should be admitted into a Monasterie and
Thirdly because in fine it proved nothing though kept on foot so long till K. James by endeavouring to gain a Daughter-in Law had in effect lost His own Daughter Her Husband and Children being reduced to great extremities 7. Truly K. James never affected his Son in Law 's acceptance of the Bobemian Crown A Crown not joyed in nor promised Himself any good successe thence though great the hope of the German Protestants therein Indeed some of them were too credulous of a blinde Prophesie commonly currant amongst them POST TER VIGINTI CESSABIT GLORIA QUINTI Expecting the ending of the Austrian Family sixty years being now expired since the death of Charles the fift but discreet persons slighted such vanities and the Quinti had like to have proved the extirpation of Frederick fift of that name Palatine of Rhyne had not God almost miraculously lately countermanded it 8. Yea K. Iames accused by some K. James privately foretold to some principal persons that this matter would prove the ruine of his Daughter There want not some who say That he went about to virefie his own Prediction by not sending seasonable succours for their assistance who had He turned His Embassies into Armies might probably have prevented much Protestant misery 9. Others excuse K. James Defended by others partly from the just hopes He had to accommodate all interests in a peaceable way partly from the difficulty of conveying effectual forces into so farre distant a Countrey 10. Mean time both the Palatinates were lost Both the Palatinates lost the Upper seized on by the Emperour the Neather but higher in value by the King of Spaine the City of Heidelberg taken and plunder'd and the inestimable Library of Books therein carried over the Alpes on Mules backs to Rome Each Mule laded with that learned burthen had a silver-plate on his forehead wherein was engraven FERO BIBLIOTHECAM PRINCIPIS PALATINI Now those Books are placed in the Popes Vatican entituling Protestants to visit the place who one day may have as good successe as now they have just right to recover them 11. As for the Palatinate Land of Promise Now Land of Performance Satyricall tongues commonly called it the Land of Promise so frequently and so solemnly was the restitution thereof promised to King James fed only with delayes which amounted to mannerly denials Since it hath pleased God to turn this Land of Promise into a * The nether Palatinate Land of Performance the present Palatine being peaceably possessed thereof 12. Prince Charles Prince Charles goes to Spain with the Duke of Buckingham lately went privately through France where He saw the Lady whom afterwards He married into Spain It is questionable whether then more blamed K. James for sending him or afterwards blessed God for his safe return Sumptuous his entertainment in the Spanish Court where it was not the Kings fault but Kingdomes defect that any thing was wanting He quickly discovered the coursness of fine-pretending wares at distance are easily confuted neer hand that the Spanish State had no minde or meaning of a Match as who demanded such unreasonable Liberty in education of the Royall Off-spring in case any were born betwixt them and other Priviledges for English Papists that the King neither could nor would in honour or conscience consent thereunto However Prince Charles whose person was in their power took his fair farewell with courteous compliance 12. Though He entred Spain like a private person His return * Sept. 12. He departed it like Himself and the Son of his Father * The Reader is requested to pardon our short setting back of time a stately Fleet attending Him home Foul weather forced them to put in at the Isse of Syllie the parings of England South-west of Cornwall where in two daies they fed on more and better flesh than they found in Spain for many moneths Octob. 5. 6. Soon after He arrived at Portesmouth and the next day came to London to the great rejoicing of all sorts of people signified by their bonefires ringing of bells with other externall expressions of joy 13. King James now despaired of any restitution The Palatinate beheld desperate especially since the Duke of Bavaria was invested in the upper Palatinate and so His Son-in-Laws Land cantoned betwixt a Duke a King and an Emperour Whose joynt consent being requisite to the restoring thereof One would be sure to dissent from the seeming-consenting of other two Whereupon King James not onely broke off all treaty with Spaine but also called the great Councill of his Kingdome together 14. Indeed An happy Parliament the Malecontents in England used to say That the King took Physick and called Parliaments both alike using both for meer need and not caring for either how little time they lasted But now there hapned as sweet a compliance betwixt the King and his Subjects as ever happen'd in mans memory the King not asking more than what was granted Both Houses in the Name of the whole Kingdome promising their assistance with their lives and fortunes for the recovery of the Palatinate A smart Petition was presented against the Papists and order promised for the education of their Children in true Religion 15. As for the Convocation contemporary with this Parliament The Convocation large Subsidies were granted by the Clergie otherwise no great matter of moment passed therein I am informed Doctor Joseph Hall preached the Latine Sermon and Doctor Donne was the Prolocutor 16. This is that Doctor Donne Doctor Donne Prolocutor born in London but extracted from Wales by his Mother-side great-great Grandchilde to Sir Thomas More whom he much resembled in his endowments a great Traveller first Secretary to the Lord Egerton and after by the perswasion of K. James and encouragement of Bishop Morton entred into Orders made Doctor of Divinity of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge and Dean of S. Pauls whose Life is no lesse truly than elegantly written by my worthily respected friend Mr. Isaac Walton whence the Reader may store himself with further information 17. A Book was translated out of the French Copie A Book falsly fathered on I. Casaubon by Abraham Darcye intituled The Originall of Idolatry pretended made by Dr. Isaac Casaubon dead ten years before dedicated to Prince Charles but presented to King James and all the Lords of the Councill A Book printed in French before the said Isaac Casaubon was born whose name was fraudulently inserted in the Title-page of the foregoing Copie 18. Merick Casaubon his Son then Student of Christs-Church The falshood detected by Letter informed King James of the wrong done to his Father by making him the Authour of such a Book contrary to his Genius and constant profession being full of impertinent allegations out of obscure and late Authors whom his Father never thought worthy the reading much lesse the using their Authority His Majestie was much incensed hereaâ— and Doctor
others grumbling at it as too much for what by them was performed And now what place more proper for the building of Sion as they propounded it then the Chamber of Jerusalem the fairest in the Deans Lodgings where King Henry the fourth died and where these Divines did daily meet together 7. Be it here remembred The superadded Divines that some besides those Episcopally affected chosen to be at this Assembly notwithstanding absented themselves pretending age indisposition c. as it is easie for able unwillingness to finde out excuses and make them probable Fit it was therefore so many evacuities should be filled up to mount the Meeting to a competent number and Assemblies as well as Armies when grown thin must be recruited Hence it was that at severall times the Lords and Commons added more Members unto them by the name of the Super-added Divines Some of these though equall to the former in power were conceived to fall short in parts as chosen rather by the affections of others then for their own abilities the Original members of the Assembly not overpleased thereat such addition making the former rather more then more considerable 8. One of the first publick Acts The Assemblies first petition for a fast which I finde by them performed was the humble presenting of a Petition to both Houses for the appointing of a solemn fast to be generally observed And no wonder if their request met with fair acceptance and full performance seeing the Assemblies Petition was the Parliaments intention and this solemn suite of the Divines did not create new but quicken the old resolutions in both Houses presently a Fast is appointed July 21. Frid. and accordingly kept on the following Friday M r Boules and M r Newcomen whose sermons are since printed preaching on the same and all the rest of the particulars promised to be taken into speedy consideration 9. It was now projected to finde out some Band or Tie The Covenent entreth England for the streighter Vnion of the English and Scotish amongst themselves and both to the Parliament In order whereunto the Covenant was now presented This Covenant was of Scottish extraction born beyond Tweed but now brought to be bred on the South-side thereof 10. The House of Commons in Parliament The Covenant first taken and the Assembly of Divines solemnly took the Covenant at S t. Margarets in Westminster 11. It was ordered by the Commons in Parliament that this Covenant be forthwith printed and published Commanded to be printed 12. Divers Lords Taken by Gentlemen Knights Gentlemen Collonels Officers Souldiers and others Sept. 27. Wed. 29. Frid. then residing in the City of London met at S t Margarets in Westminster and there took the said Covenant M r Coleman preaching a Sermon before them concerning the piety and legality thereof 13. It was commanded by the authority of both Houses Enjoyned all in London that the said Covenant on the Sabbath day ensuing Frid. Octo. 1. Sund. should be taken in all Churches and Chappels of London within the lines of Communication and thoroughout the Kingdom in convenient time appointed thereunto according to the Tenour following A Solemn league and Covenant for Reformation and defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the peace and safety of the three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdom of England Scotland and Ireland by the providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the honour and happiness of the Kings Majesty and his posterity and the true publick liberty safety and peace of the Kingdom wherein every ones private condition is included And calling to minde the Treacherous and Bloody Plots Conspiracies attempts and Practises of the enemies of God against the true Religion and the professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time encreased and exercised whereof the deplorable estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England the dangerous estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplications Remonstrances Protestations and sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practises of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of Gods people in other nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most High God do swear That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God endeavour in our several places and callings the preservation of the reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common enemies the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches and shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith form of Church-Government directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our posterity after us may as Brethren live in faith and love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacie that is Church-government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchie Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his name one in the three Kingdomes We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our estates and lives mutually to preserve the Rights and priviledges of the Parliaments and the due liberties of the kingdomes and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesty his person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and liberties of the Kingdoms that the world may bear witness with our consciences of our loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evill instruments
They are loath therefore to make a blind promise for fear of a lame performance 19. As for the Reforming of Religion which necessarily implies a changing thereof of England Nor without a double scandal and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government they cannot consent thereunto without manifest scandal both to Papists and Separatists For besides that they shall desert that just cause which many pious Martyrs Bishops and Divines of our Church have defended both with their inke and blood writings and sufferings hereby they shall advantage the cavils of Papists against our Religion taxing it of uncertainty not knowing where to fix our feet as allways altering the same Yea they shall not only supply Papists with pleas for their Recusancy Sectaries for their Separation acknowledging something in our Church-Doctrine and Service not well agreeing with Gods-word but also shall implicitly confess Papists unjustly punished by the Penal-Statutes for not conforming with us to the same Publick-Service wherein somethings are by our selves as well as them misliked and disallowed 20. Nor can they take this Covenant without injury and perjury to themselves Injury to themselves Injurie by insnaring their consciences credits and estates if endeavouring to reform Religion under the notion of faulty and vicious to which formerly they had subscribed enjoyned thereto by the b b 13. Eliz. cap. 12. Law of the Land not yet abrogated never as yet checked by the regrets of their own consciences nor confuted by the reasons of others for the doing thereof 21. Perjury Perjury to their souls as contrary to the Protestation and solemn vow they had c c May the 5. 1641. lately taken and Oath of Supremacy swearing therein to defend all the Kings Rights and Priviledges whereof His Spiritual Jurisdiction in reforming Church-matters is a principal Now although a latter oath may be corroborative of the former or constructive of a new obligation consistent therewith yet can it not be inductive of a tie contrary to an oath lawfully taken before Exceptions to the Second Article 22. It grieveth them therein to see Prelacy so unequally yoak'd Ill but forc'd 〈◊〉 of Prelacy Popery being put before it Superstition Heresie Schisme and Prophaneness following after Such the pleasure of those that placed them though nothing akin in themselves But a captive by the power of others may be fettered to those whom he hates and abhorres Consent they cannot to the extirpation of Prelacy Foure reasons against extirpation of Prelacy neither in respect Of 1 The thing it self being perswaded that neither Papal Monarchie nor Presbyterian Democracie nor Independant Anarchie are so conformable to the Scriptures as Episcopal Aristocracy being if not of Divine in a strict sence of Apostolical Institution confirmed with Church-practice the best Comment on Scripture when obscure for 1500 years and bottomed on the same foundation with Infants-Baptisme National Churches observing the Lords-day and the like 2 Themselves of whom 1 All when taking degrees in the University 2 Most as many as are entred into Holy-Orders 3 Not a few when lately petitioning the Parliament for the continuing of Episcopacy 4 Some being members of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches have subscribed with their hands and with their corporal oaths avowed the justification and defence of that government 3 Church of England fearing many mischiefs from this alteration felt sooner than seen in all great and sudden changes especially because the Ecclesiastical Government is so interwoven in many Statutes of the land And if Schisms so encrease on the Suspension what is to be expected on the Extirpation of Episcopacy 4 His Majesty as contrary to their Oath of Supremacy wherein they were bound to maintain His Priviledges amongst which a principal is that He is Supreme moderator over all Causes and Persons Spiritual wherein no change is to be attempted without his consent Dignity The Collations of Bishopricks and Deanries with their profits in their vacancies belonging unto Him and the First-fruits and Tenths of Ecclesiastical Dignities a considerable part of the Royal Revenue Here we omit their Plea whose chief means consisting of Cathedral preferment alledge the like not done from the beginning of the world that men though deserving deprivation for their offences should be forced to swear sincerely seriously and from their souls to endeavour the rooting out of that whence their best livelihood doth depend Exceptions against the Third Article 23. It grieveth them herein to be sworn to the Preservation of the Priviledges of Parliament and liberties of the Kingdom at large and without any restriction being bound in the following words to defend the Kings person and Authority as limited in the preservation and defence of true Religion and the Liberties of the Realm enlarging the former that the later may be the more confined 24. They are jealous what should be the cause of the inversion of the method seeing in the Solemn Vow and Protestation the Defence of the Kings Person and Authority is put first which in this Covenant is postposed to the Priviledges of Parliament However seeing the Protestation was first taken the Covenant as the younger cannot disinherit the elder of the possession which it hath quietly taken in mens consciences Exceptions to the Fourth Article 25. They are unsatisfied whether the same imposeth not a necessity for children to prosecute their Parents even to death under the notion of Malignants against all rules of Religion and humanity For even in case of Idolatry children under the old * * Deut. 13. 6. law were not bound publickly to accuse their Parents so as to bring them to be stoned for the same though such unnaturall cruelty be foretold by our * * Mat. 10. 21. Saviour to fall out under the Gospell of those that shall rise up against their Parents and cause them to be put to death Exceptions to the Fifth Article 26. They understand not what is meant therein by the happiness of a blessed peace betwixt these Kingdoms whereof Ireland must needs be one whilest the same is rent with a wofull warr and the other two lands distracted with homebred discords whereof no settlement can be hoped untill first all interests be equally stated and the Kings Authority Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of Subjects justly bounded and carefully preserved Exceptions to the Sixth Article 27. They are unsatisfied therein as wholy hypothetical supposing what as yet is not cleared by solid arguments viz. that this is the common cause of Religion Liberty and peace of the Realms c. And if the same be granted it appeareth not to their conscience that the means used to promote this Cause are so lawfull and free from just objections which may be raised from the Laws of God and man Exceptions to the Conclusion 28. They quake at the mention that the taking of this Covenant should encourage other Churches groaning under the yoak of Antichristian Tyranny to joyn in the same fearing the dangerous consequences
where we shall not finde them as we might justly expect all of one tongue and of one language there being some not concurring with the major part and therefore stiled Dissenting Brethren I know the Scotchs Writers call them of the Separation but because mollifying terms are the best Poultesses to be applyed to the first swellings of Church-differences we decline these words of distast They are also commonly called Independents though they themselves if summoned by that name will return to Vouz avez thereunto as to a word odious and offensive in the common seund and notation thereof For Independency taken for absolute subsistence Without relation to 1 God 2 King or State 3 Other Churches 4 Particular Christians is Prophane Blasphemous Seditious and Treacherous Proud and Ambitious Churlish and Uncharitable These Dissenting Brethren or Congregationalists were but five in the Assembly though many more of their judgements dispersed in the land 1 Namely Thomas Goodwin bred first in Christs-Col then fellow of Katherine Hall in Cambridge 2 Philip Nye who had his education in Oxford William Bridge fellow of Emanuel Colledg in Cambridge all three still alive 4 Sidrach Simson of Queens 5 Jeremiah Burroughs of Emanuel Col. in Cambridge both deceased It is our unhappiness that in writing their story we have little save what we have collected out of the writings of pens professedly engaged against them and therefore the less credit is to be given thereunto However in this Narration there is nothing of my own so that if any falsehoods therein they must be charged on their account whom the Reader shall behold cited in the margin Otherwise I confess my personal respects to some of the afore named dissenters for favours received from them 36. The cause of their first departing the land Some ten years since the sinful corruptions to use their own a a Apostolical narration p. 2 language of the worship and government in this Church taking hold on their consciences unable any longer to comport therewith they deserted their Native Country This we beleeve the true cause of their departure not what b b Mr Edwards in his Answer to the Apol. Narr some suggest that one for debt and another for danger to answer some ill interpreted words concerning the Scots were forced to forsake the Land And although I will not say they left not an hoof of their Estates behinde them here they will confess they conveyed over the most considerable part thereof Many wealthy Merchants and their families went over with them so that of all Exiles for so they stile themselves these may seem most like Voluntary Travellers for good company though of all Travellers most like to Exiles 37. Their reception beyond the seas in Holland was faire and civill Are kindly entertained in Holland where the States who though they tolerate own not all Religions were interpreted to acknowledge them and their Churches by many signs of their favour First By granting them their own Churches to assemble in for Divine Worship where their own Country men met also the same day but at different hours for the same purpose By permitting the ringing of a c c Apol. Nar. pag. 7. Bell to call people to their Publick meetings which loudly sounded the States consent unto them as not allowed to such clandestine Sects which shelter themselves rather under the permission then Protection thereof By assigning a full and liberal maintenance annually for their Ministers as also wine for their Communions Nor can there be a better evidence of giving the right hand of Fellowship then to give the full hand of liberality A moitie of this people fixed at Roterdam where they landed the other travelled up higher for better aire to Wianen and thence soon after removed to Arnhein a sweet and pleasant City No part of Holland largely d d Otherwise Arnhein is in Gelderland taken affording more of England therein resembled in their letters to their Friends to Hertford or Bury in Suffolk 38. Then fall they to consult of Church-Discipline How qualified to finde out the truth professing themselves a mere abrasa tabula with Virgin judgements longing only to be married to the truth Yea they looked upon the word of Christ Reader it is their own e e Apol. Nar. pag. 3. expression as unpartially and unprejudicedly as men made of flesh and blood are like to do in any juncture of time that may fall out the place they went to the condition they were in and company they went with affording no temptation to byasse them anyway 39. And first they lay down two grand ground-works Their two chief ground-works on which their following Fabrick was to be erected 1. Only to take what was held forth in Gods word leaving nothing to Church-practice or humane prudence as but the Iron leggs and Clay toes of that Statute whose head and whole body ought to be of pure Scripture-Gold 2. Not to make their present judgement binding unto them for the future Their adversaries cavil hereat as a reserve able to rout all the Armys of Arguments which are brought against them that because one day teacheth another they will not be tyed on Tewsday morning to maintain their Tenents on Munday night if a new discovery intervene 40. In pursuance of these principles they pitched on a middle way as generally the posture of truth betwixt Presbytery Coordination of Churches as too rigorous imperious and conclusive and Brownisme as too vage loose and uncertain Their main platform was that Churches should not be subordinate Parochial to Provincial Provincial to National as Daughter to Mother Mother to Grandmother but Coordinate without Superiority except Sentority of Sisters containing no powerfull influence therein Thus the Church formerly like a Chain with links of dependency on one another should hereafter become like an heap of rings each entire in it self but as they thought far purer then was ever seen before 41. The manner of their Church-service The manner of their Church-service according to their own a a Apol. Nar. pag. 8. relation was performed in form following 1. Publick and solemn prayers for Kings and all in Authority Reading the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament with exposition thereof on occasion Administration of the two Sacraments Baptisme to Infants and the Lords Supper Singing of Psalms and collection for the Poor every Lords-day For Publick Officers they had Pastors Teachers and Ruling Elders not Lay but Ecclesiastick persons and Deacons As for Church-censures they resolved only on Admonition and Excommunication the latter whereof was never handselled in their b b Apol. Nar. pag. 9. Church as no reason that the rod though made should be used where the Children are all quiet and dutifull Synods they account usefull and in some cases necessary yet so that their power is but Official not Authoritative whereby they may declare the truth not enjoyn obedience thereunto Or take it in the
honoured the pious intentions and Magnificence of his royal Progenitors acknowledging the Ornamental Accessions to the Persons made no Substantiall change in the Office but still is remained to be proved that Primitive Episcopacy and Present Hierarchie are the same 29. They affirmed also that the power of Episcopacy under Christian and Pagan Princes is one and the same though the exercise be not but acknowledging the subordination thereof to the soveraign power with their accountableness to the Laws of the Land 30. They conclude with thanks to his Majesties condescension in vouchsafing them the Liberty and Honour in examining his learned reply praying God that a Pen in the hand of such Abilities might ever be employ'd in a subject worthy thereof 31. Some dayes after his Majesty returned his last paper wherein he not only acknowledgeth the great pains of these Divines to informe his judgement according to their perswasions but also took especiall notice of their Civilities of the Application both in the beginning and body of their Reply 32. However he told them they mistook his meaning when they of a Writ of Partition as if his Majesty had cantoned out the Episcopal Government one part to the Bishops another to the Presbyterians alone whereas his meaning was that the Office of teaching is common to both alike but the other of Governing peculiar to Bishops alone 33. I know not what Truth there was in and by consequence what Truth is to be given to their intelligence Tanta sides quanius Author who have reported and printed that in Order of a pacification his Majesty condescended 1. That the Office of Ordination for the space of three years should not be exercised by the Bishops without the assent of the Presbyterie and if this did not please 2. That it should be suspended until twenty of his own Nomination consulting with the Synod assembled by the appointment of the Houses should determine some certainty touching some Ecclesiastical Government 3. That in the mean time the Presbyterie should be setled for experimentsake 4. That though he would not suffer Bishops Lands to be sold and alienated from the Church yet he permitted them to be Let out for ninety nine years paying a small price yearly in Testimony of their Hereditary Right for the maintenance of Bishops 5. That after that time expired they should return to the Crown to be employed for the use of the Church Here some presumed to know his Majesties intention that he determined with himself in the interim to redeem them by their own Revenues and to refund them to Ecclesiastical uses which is proportionable to his * For he gave the Duke of Richmond the entire revenues of the Arch-bishoprick of Glascough in Scotland to hold them until he should furnish him with lands of the same value expressing then his resolution to restore them to the Church large heart in matters of that nature 34. * The King fetch'd from the Isle of Wight and condâ—mned at London Many now did hope for a happy Agreement betwixt the King and Parliament when Divine Providence whose wayes are often above Reason but never against Right had otherwise ordered it and seeing it was Gods will it shall be ours to submit thereunto Oh what can * Prov. 271. a day bring forth especially some pregnant day in the Crisis of Matters producing more than what many barren years before beheld The Kings person is seized on and brought up to London arraign'd before a select Committee for that purpose indicted and upon his refusal to own their Authority finally condemned But these things belong to the Historian of the state and this subject in it self is not so amiable and tempting as to invite us to trespas in the property of others in Courting the prosecution thereof 35. * Extremum hunc concede mihi My Cue of entrance is to come in where the State-Writer doth go out whose Pen hath alwayes followed the Confessors into the Chambers of dying people and now must do its last Devoire to my gracious Master in describing his pious death and Solemn Burial 36. * He heareth the last sermon Having received in himself the sentence of death Jan. 28. Sund. D r Juxon Bishop of London preached privately before Him at S. James on the Sunday following his text Romans 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel 37. Next Tuesday being the day of His dissolution And receives the Communion in the morning alone He received the Communion Jan. 30. Tues from the hands of the said Bishop At which time he read for the second lesson the 27 th Chapters of S. Matthew containing the history of the death and passion of our Saviour Communion ended the King heartily thanked the Bishop for selecting so seasonable and comfortable a portion of Scripture seeing all humane hope and happiness is founded on the sufferings of our Saviour The Bishop modestly disavowed any thanks due to himself it being done merely by the direction of the Church of England whose Rubrick appointeth that Chapter the second morning-lesson for the thirtieth of January 38. His houre drawing nigh Is patient when affronted He passed thorough the Parke to White-Hall As He alwayes was observed to walk very fast so now He abated not any whit of His wonted pace In His passage a sorry fellow seemingly some mean Citizen went abrest along with Him and in an affront often stared His Majesty in the face which caused Him to turn it another way The Bishop of London though not easily angred was much offended hereat as done out of despiteful designe to discompose Him before His death and moved the Captain of the guard he might be taken away which was done accordingly 39. Entring on the floore of death His last question He asked of Collonel Tomlingson who attended there whether He might have the liberty to dispose of His own body as to the place and manner of the burial thereof The Collonel answered that he could give his Majesty no account at all therein 40. His Majesty held in his hand a small piece of paper And Speech falsely printed some four inches square containing heads whereon in His speech He intended to dilate and a tall souldier looking over the Kings shoulders read it as the King held it in His hand As for the speech which passeth in print for the Kings though taken in short-hand by one eminent therein it is done so defectively it deserveth not to be accounted His speech by the testimony of such as heard it His speech ended He gave that small paper to the BP of London 41. After His death Trouble well prevented the officers demanded the paper of the Bishop who because of the depth of his pocket smallness of that paper and the mixture of others therewith could not so soon produce it as was required At last he brought it forth
exeant infra quindecim dies postquam hoc clamatum fuerit Et si ultra terminum illum inventi fuerint in eadem villa hujusmodi Clerici capiantur in prisonam nostram mittantur Teste meipso apud Oxon. 3 Maii Anno Regni nostri 15. Thus the Sheriff was impowered with a Posse Comitatus to redresse this grievance May 3 but whether or no with a Velle Comitatus I know not Sure I am these Clerks-no-Clerks disturbed the University for many yeers after 36. The Townesmen of Cambridge began now most unconscionably to raise and rack the rent of their houses wherein the Scholars did sojourn The unconscionablenes of the Townsmen Every low Cottage was high valued Sad the condition when Learning is the Tenant and Ignorance must be the Landlord It came at last to this pass that the Scholars wearied with exactions were on the point of departing to finde a place where they might be better accommodated on more reasonable conditions 37. Here the King seasonably interposed his power Regulated by the Kings Letters appointing 1231 that two Masters of Arts and two honest Townsmen should be deputed as Chancellors 15 conscientiously to moderate the rigour of covetousnesse And seeing Scholars would hire as cheap and Townsmen would let as dear as they could the aforesaid four persons indifferently chosen out of both Corporations were to order the price betwixt both according to the tenor of the Kings Letter ensuing Rex f f The same Letters in effect were often confirmed by the King in the 50 year of his Reign Majorì Ballivis Cantabr salutem Satis constat vobis quòd apud villam nostram Cantabr studendi causae è diversis patribus tam cismarinis quà m transmarinis Scholarium confluit multitudo quod valde gratam habemus acceptamus cum exemplum toti Regno nostro commodum non modicum honor nobis accrescat vos specialiter inter quos fideliter conversantur studentes non mediocriter gaudere debetis laetari Audivimus autem quòd in hospitiis vestris locandis tam graves onerosi estis scholaribus inter vos commorantibus quòd nisi mensurabiliùs modestiùs vos habueritis erga ipsos in hac parte exactione vestra faciente oportebit ipses villam vestram exire studio suo relicto à terra nostra recedere quod nullatenus vellemus Et ideo vobis mandamus firmiter injungentes quatenus super praedictis hospictis locandis vos mensurantes secundū consuetudinem Universitatis per duos Magistros dues probes legales homines de villa◠nostra ad hoc assignandos hospicia praedicta taxari secundū corum taxationem ea locari permittatis taliter vos gerentes in hac parte ne si secus egeritis propter quod ad nos debeat clamor pervenire ad hoc manum apponere debeamus Teste meipso apud Oxon. tertio die Maii anno regni nostri xv ✚ Ex Rotulo claus de anno xv Regis Henrici tertii in dors in Turre London Ex. per Guil. Ryley See we here Cambridge appeareth not as an infant of yesterday but a grave Matron of great age witnesse those words according to the custom of the University which shew her gravity and gray hairs at the time of the date thereof 38. This was the first original of the Taxatores or Taxers in Cambridge The original of Taxers so called at first from taxing prizing or rating the rents of houses Their name remains but office is altered at this day For after the bounty of Founders had raised Halls and Colledges for Scholars free abode their liberality gave the Taxers a Writ of ease no more to meddle with the needless prizing of Townsmens houses However two Taxers are still annually chosen whose place is of profit and credit as employed in matters of weight and to see the true gage of all measures especially such as concern the victuals of Scholars For where the belly is abused in its food the brains will soon be distempered in their study 39. Turnaments and Tilting of the Nobility and Gentry were commonly kept at Cambridge The ill 〈◊〉 of Turnament◠to the great annoyance of the Scholars Many sad casualties were caused by these meetings though ordered with the best caution Armes and leggs were often broken as well as spears Much lewd people waited on these assemblies light Housewives as well as light Horsmen repaired thereunto Yea such the clashing of swords the ratling of Arms the sounding of trumpets the neighing of horses the shouting of men all day-time with the roaring of riotous Revellers all the night that the Scholars studies were disturbed safety endangered lodging straightned charges enlarged all provisions being unconscionably enhanced In a word so many war-horses were brought hither that Pegasus himself was likely to be shut out For where Mars keeps his Term there the Muses may even make their Vacation 40. The King being complained to thereof 29 did plainly shew 1245 that he preferred the quiet of the University before the profit of the Town of Cambridge Forbidden within five miles of Cambridge gaining much money by these meetings And therefore by his Letters he enjoined that no Tilting should be kept within five miles of Cambridge And yet so stout and sturdy were martial men in that age that they hardly obeyed him Yea I finde one * Ex Arch◠is Acad. Cant. 〈◊〉 ganter descript impensts R. Harrei ex Turre Londinenst Ralph de Kamois a bold Chevalier who notwithstanding the premisses kept a riotous Tilting in the very town of Cambridge but soon after he was deeply fined for his high contempt on the paiment whereof and his humble submission before the Earls of Cornwall Lecester and Norfolk he was forgiven 41. Let us look on these Turnaments unrelated to Cambridge as they were in themselves Mothers of misrule and we shall finde them the mothers constantly of misrule commonly of mischief Their very use in their first constitution was no better tham an abuse to cover malice under the cloak of manhood and merriment Many brought personal grudges some family-feuds into the field with them fewer returned than went forth as either casually cut off or intentionally murdered 42. One instance of the former out of many A sad chance though full twenty four miles from Cambridge Gilbert Mareshall Earl of Pembroke a potent Peer of the Land proclaimed a disport of Turnament of running on Hors-back with Launces in defiance of the Kings Authority who had inhibited the same at Ware in g Camdens Brit. in Hertfordshire Hertford-shire under the name forsooth of Fortune as if Providence had nothing to doe in such wild recreations But so it fortuned that this Gilbert cast bruised and kild by his own horse soon ended the mirth of the meeting Call it not therefore cowardise but conscience and charity in the Church which taking these Turnaments no better
seaven hundred ninety five pounds two shillings and a penny all bestowed by charitable people for that purpose Amongst whom Thomas Barow Dr. of Civil law Arch-deacon of Colchester formerly Fellow of Kings hall and Chancellor of his house to King Richard the third gave for his part two hundred and fourty pounds 55. One may probably conjecture The foundation of Christs-Colledge that a main motive which drew King Henry this year to Cambridge was with his presence to grace his mothers foundation of Christs-Colledge now newly laid without Barnwell-gate over against St. Andrews-Church in a place where Gods house formerly stood founded by King Henry the sixth This King had an intention had not deprivation a civil death prevented him to advance the Scholars of this foundation to the full number of sixty though a great fall never more than foure lived there for lack of maintenance Now the Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond and Darby acounting her self as of the Lancaster-line heir to all King Henries godly intentions onely altered the name from Gods-house to Christs-Colledge and made up the number viz. One Master twelve Fellows fourty seaven Scholars in all sixty 56. Great and good were the lands The fair endowments thereof which this Lady by her last Will bestowed on this Colledge in severall Counties In Cambridge-shire the Manors of Malton Meldred and Beach with divers lands and rents elsewhere in that County Leicester-shire Aliàs Disworth the Manor of Ditesworth with lands and tenements in Ditesworth Kegworth Hathern and Wolton Northfolk All these I have transcribed out of her last Will. the Abbey of Creyke which was in the Kings hands as dissolved and extinct settled by the Popes authority and the Kings licence Essex the Manor of Royden Wales Manibire an Impropriation This Lady being of Welsh affinity a Teuther by marriage and having long lived in Wales where her Sonne King Henry the seaventh was born in Pembroke thought fitting in commemoration thereof to leave some Welsh land to this her foundation 5. Once the Lady Margaret came to Christs-Colledge A Lady of pity to be hold it when partly built This I heard in a Clerum from Dr. Collings and looking out of a window saw the Deane cal a faulty Scholar to correction to whom she said Lentè lentè gently gently as accounting it better to mitigate his punishment than procure his pardon mercy and justice making the best medley to offenders 6. John Maior a Scotishman John Maior a Student in Christs Colledge and a Scotish Historian of good account was onely for the terme of three moneths a Student in this Colledge as himself acknowledgeth He reporteth that the Scholars of Cambridge in his time Lib. de gest Scotorum c. 5. usually went armed with bowes and swords which our learne * Cain Hist Ac. Can. p. 74 Antiquary is very loth to beleeve except it was John Maior his chance to come to Cambridge in that very juncture of time when the Scholars in fend with the Townsmen stood on their posture of defence Thus Pallas her self may sometimes be put to it to secure her wit by her weapons But had Maior lived as many years as he did but moneths in this University he would have given a better account of their peaceable demeanour 7. John Leland John Leyland Fellow therein that learned Antiquary was a Fellow of this Foundation as he gratefully professeth Anno Regis Hen. 7. 21 I account it therefore in my self an excusable envie Anno Dom. 1505 if repining that the rare Manuscripts of his collections were since his death bestowed on Oxford Library In vita Regis Seberti fol. 70 and not here where he had his education But I remember a Maxime in our Common Law wherein the Lands such are Books to Scholars of a Sonne deceasing without heirs fall rather to his Uncle or Aunt than Father or Mother 7. Many yeers after the founding of this Colledge Reformation of augmentation complaint was made to King Edward the sixth of superstition therein the Master and twelve Fellowes of this Christ-Colledge superstitiously alluding to Christ and his twelve Apostles Probably the peevish informers would have added that the Discipuli or Scholars in this House were in imitation of Christs seventy Disciples save the number corresponds not as being but fourty seven by the originall foundation Hereupon King Edward altered this number of twelve not by Subtraction the most easie and profitable way of reformation but Addition founding a thirteenth Fellowship and three Scholarships out of the impropriation of Bourn which he bestowed on the Colledge and so real charity discomposed suspected superstition This good King also gave the Colledge in lieu of the Mannor of Royden which he took from it the entire revenues of Bromwell Abbey such was his bountifull disposition Nor can it be proved that in his own person he ever did to any an injurious action though too many under him if those may be termed under him who did what they pleased themselves were too free of their favours in that nature 9. It may without flattery be said of this house The worthies of this Colledge Many daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all if we consider the many Divines who in so short a time have here had their education Prov. 31. 29. Let Papists tell you of Richard Reignalds Doctor of Divinity a Monk of Zion of William Eximew a Carthusian both bred here and martyred say they for the Catholique cause Anno 1535. of Richard Hall who ran beyond the Seas Pitzeut in Cent. ult became Canon of Cambray and wrote the manuscript-life of Bishop Fisher we chiefly take notice of the Divines bred here since the Reformation Masters Bishops Benefactors 1 John Sickling Fellow of Gods-House first Master 2 Richard Wiat Dr. of Divinity 3 Thomas Tompson D. D. a good Benefactor 4 John Watsonne D. D. 5 Henry Lockwood D. D. 6 Richard Wilks D. D. chosen 1549. 7 Cuthbert Scot D. D. chosen 1553. 8 William Taylor D. D. chosen 1557. 9 Edward Hawford D. D. chosen 1559. he was a good Benefactor 10 Edmond Barwell D. D. chosen 1581. 11 Valentine Carey D. D. chosen 1610. 12 Thomas Bainbrigg D. D. chosen 1620. 13 Samuel Bolton 14 Ralph Cudworth 1 Hugh Latimer Bishop of Worcester 1535. and Martyr 2 Nicholas Heth * So saith Dr. Willet in his dedication of his Comment on Samuel to this Colledge Indeed I finde one Heth but not his Christian name fellow of this Colledge 1520 Archbishop of York 1553. 3 Cuthbert Scot Bishop of Chester 1556. 4 William Hughs Bishop of St Asaph 1573. 5 Anthonie Watson Bishop of Chichester 1596. 6 Valentine Carey Bishop of Exeter 1620. D. Johnson Arch-bishop of Dublin Brute Babington Bishop of Derrie in Ireland George Dounham Bishop of Derrie in Ireland William Chappel Bishop of in Ireland William Chappel Bishop of in Ireland 1 John Fisher Bishop of
put on a civil account Good policie Injunction 23. to avoid contention about places Indeed peoples pride herein consisted in pretended humility which the Injunction at large termeth a fond Courtesie For in a mock-practise of the Apostles * Rom. 12. 12. precept in honour preferring one another they strained courtesie to goe last Where by the way I conceive that accounted the highest place which was next the Crosse bearer or next the Priest carrying the Host Quaere whether in the 24 Injunction labouring in time of Harvest on Holy-daies and Festivals relateth not onely to those of Ecclesiasticall constitution as dedicated to Saints or be inclusive of the Lords day also Mr. Calvin in his Letter to the Lord * pag. 187 188. Protector Mr. Calvin dissents disliketh the praying for the dead and this is one of those things which he termed tolerabiles ineptias Englished by some tolerable fooleries more mildly by others tolerable unfitnesses In requital whereof Bishop Williams was wont to say That Master Calvin had his tolerabiles morositates And thus moderately did our first Reformers begin Moderation 〈◊〉 farre as the subject they wrote on would give them leave for as carefull Mothers and Nurses on condition they can get their Children to part with knives are contented to let them play with raitles So they permitted ignorant people still to retain some of their fond and foolish Customes that they might remove from them the most dangerous and destructive Superstitions Come we now to give in a List of such principall Books which in the Reign of this King and His Father The Protestant Library as Preparatory to and Introductive of Reformation And to bring them high enough we will begin with HEN 7th Prayers printed by the Commandements of the moost hye and vertuous Princesse our lyege Lady Elizabeth by the grace of God Quene of England and of France and also of the right hye and moost noble Princesse Margarett mother to our Soveraign Lord the King c. without the year when printed HEN 8th The Institution of a Christian man contayneng the Exposition of the Commune Crede of the seaven Sacraments of the ten Commandements and of the Pater noster and the Ave Maria Justification and Purgatory London by Tho Barthelet 1537. A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christen man set furthe by the Kynges Majestie of England c. London by Tho Barthelet 1543. HEN 8th Henry the eighth his Epistle to the Emperour Christen Princes and all true Christen men desiring peace and concord amonges them Against the power of the Pope and concerning a Generall Councell London by Tho Barthelet 1538. A Protestation made for the most mighty and most redoubted King of England c. and his hole Counsell and Clergie wherein is declared that neither His Highnesse nor His Prelates neyther any other Prince or Prelate is bound to come or send to the pretended Councell that Paul Bishop of Rome first by a Bull indicted at Mantua a Citie in Italy and now alate by an other Bull hath proroged to a place no man can telle where London by Tho Barthelet 1537. Articles devised by the Kinges Highnes Majestie to stablishe Christen quietnes and unitie amonge us and to avoyde contentious opinions which Articles be also approved by the consent and determination of the hole Clergie of this Realme Lond Tho Barthelet 1536. Injunctions to the Clergie 1536. M. Sc. Articles devised by the holle consent of the Kinges most honourable Counsayle His Graces licence opteyned thereto not only to exhorte but also to enfourme His loving Subjects of the trouth London Tho Barthelet 1533. Orarium seu libellus Precationum per Regiam Majestatem Clerum Latinè editus Ex officina Richard Graftoni 1545. Pia Catholica Christiani hominis institutio Londini apud Thomam Barthelet 1544. Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarū ex authoritate primum Regis Hen 8. inchoata deinde per Regem Edw 6. provecta c. Londini ex officina Jo Day 1571. EDW 6th Injunctions given by the most excellent Prince Edward the sixt by the grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defendor of the Fayth and in yearthe under Christ of the Church of England and of Ireland the Supreeme Hedde to all and singuler His loving Subjects aswell of the Clergie as of the Laietie By R. Grafton 1547. Articles to be enquired of in the Kynges Majesties visitation By Rich Grafton Cum privilegio Communion book translated into French for Jersey and Garnesey 1553. EDW 6th The Booke of Common-Prayer and Administration of Sacraments c. London 1549. 1552. The forme and manner of making and consecrating Bishops Priests and Deacons 1552 1549. The Copie of a Letter sent to all those Preachers which the Kings Majestie hath licensed to preach from the Lord Protectors Grace and others of the Kinges Majesties most Honourable Councell The 23 of May 1548. Catechismus brevis Christianae disciplinae summam continens omnibus ludimagistris authoritate Regiâ commendatus Londini 1553. Articuli de quibus in Synodo Londinensi 1552. ad tollenda◠opinionum dissensionem consensum verae religionis firmandum inter Episcopos alios eruditos atque pios viros-convenerat Regia similiter authoritate promulgati Londini The Primer or Booke of Prayers translated out of Hen the 8 ths Orarium London by Rich Grafton 1547. Certain Sermons viz the first part of the Church Homilies appointed by the Kinges Majestie to be read everie Sonday and Holy day c. 1549 1547. A Primer or Booke of private Prayer c. in the 7 yeare of Ed 6. Ex officina Wilhelmi Seres 1552. The order of the Communion with the Proclamation London by Rich Grafton 1548. Q. MARIE The Primer in Latin and English after the use of Sarum London 1555. Edm Bonners Catechisme 1555. with Homelies composed by H. Pendleton and Jo Harpesfield London 1555. These are the principall State-books which that Age produced not mentioning such as numberlesse which private persons set forth onely I cannot as yet recover the Lord Cromwell's Catechisme except it be concealed under another name amongst the Books aforementioned 4. Come we now to the Liturgie which in the Reign of K. Henry the eighth was said or sung all in Eatine save only the Creed Pater noster and ten Commandements put into English by the Kings command Anno 1536. Nine years after viz 1545 the Letanie was permitted in English and this was the farthest pace which the Reformation stept in the Reign of King Henry the eighth Ann. Dom. 1547. But under His son King Edward the sixt a new form of Divine worship was set forth in the vulgar Tongue which passed a threefold purgation The first Edition of the Liturgie or Common-Prayer The 2 d Edit of the Liturgy or Common-Prayer The 3 d Edit of the Liturgy or Common-Prayer In the first year of King Edward the sixt it was recommended to the care