their Contests about Superiority but never declared in St. Peter's Favour St. Paul withstood him to his Face and reckoned himself not inferour to him If the Dignity of a Person left any Authority with the City in which he sat then Antioch must carry it as well as Rome and Jerusalem where Christ suffered was to be prefererd to all the World for it was truly the Mother-Church Christ said to Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church The Ancients understood by the Rock either the Confession Peter had made or which is all one upon the matter Christ himself and tho it were to be meant of St. Peter all the rest of the Apostles are also called Foundations that of Tell the Church was by many Doctors of the Church of Rome turned against the Pope for a General Council The other Priviledges ascribed to St. Peter were either only a precedence of Order or were occasioned by his Fall as that Feed my Sheep it being a restoring him to the Apostolical Function St. Peter had also a limited Province the Circumcision as St. Paul had the Uncircumcision that was of far greater extent which shewed that he was not considered as the Universal Pastor In the Primitive Church St. Cyprian and other Bishops wrote to the Bishops of Rome as to their fellow Bishop Colleague and Brother they were against Appeals to Rome and did not submit to their Definition and in plain Terms asserted that all Bishops were equal in Power as the Apostles had been It is true the Dignity of the City made the Bishops of Rome to be much esteemed yet in the first Council of Nice the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch were declared to have the same Authority in the Countries about them that the Bishops of Rome had over those that lay about them It is true the East being over-run with Arrianism from which the West was better preserved the oppressed Eastern Bishops did take shelter in the Protection the Bishops of Rome gave them and as is natural to all People they magnified that Authority which was so useful to them But the second General Council indirectly condemned all Appeals to Rome for it decreed that every Province should be governed by its own Synod and allowed no higher Appeal but to the Bishops of the Diocess Constantinople being made the Imperial City the second and fourth General Council gave it equal Priviledges with Rome because it was new Rome which shews that the Dignity of the Sees flowed from the greatness of the Cities The African Churches condemned all Appeals to Rome and the Popes who complained of that pretended only to a Canon of the Council of Nice for it and then they did not talk of a Divine Right but search being made into all the Copies of the Canons of the Council that was found to be a Forgery When the Emperour Mauricius gave the Title Vniversal Bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinple Gregory the Great complained of the Ambition of that Title which he calls equal to the Pride of Lucifer and since England received the Faith by those whom he sent over it appeared from thence what was the Doctrine of that See at that time and by consequence what where the first Impressions made on the English in that matter It is true Boniface the third got the same Title by Phocas's Grant and Boniface the eighth pretended to all Power both spiritual and temporal but the Progress of their Usurpations and the Wars raised to maintain them were very visible in History The Popes swore at their Consecrations to obey the Canons of the eighth first General Councils which are manifested against Appeals and their Universal Jurisdiction small regard is to be had to the Decrees of latter Councils being Cabals pack'd and managed as the Popes pleased Several Sees as Ravenna Milan and Aquileia pretended Exemption from the Papal Authority Many English Bishops had asserted that the Popes had no Authority against the Canons and to that day no Canon the Popes made was binding till it was received which shewed the Pope's Authority was not believed founded on a divine Authority and the Contests that the Kings of England had with the Pope's concerning Investitures Bishops doing the King Homage Appeals to Rome and the Authority of Papal Bulls and Provisions shewed that the Pope's Power was believed subject to Laws and Custom and so not derived from Christ and St. Peter and as Laws had given them some Power and Princes had bin forced in ignorant Ages to submit to their Usurpations so they might as they saw cause change those Laws and resume their Rights The next Point inquired into was And for the King's Supremacy the Authority that Kings had in matters of Religion and the Church The King of Israel judged in all Causes and Samuel called Saul the Head of the Tribes David made many Rules about the Service at the Temple and declaring to Solomon what his Power was 1 Chron. 28.21 2 Chron. 8.14 15. he told him that the Priests were wholly at his Command and it is also said that Solomon appointed the Priests their Charges in the Service of God and that they departed not from his Commandment in any matter he turned out one High-Priest and put another in his room Jehoshaphat Hezekiah and Josias made also Laws about Ecclesiastical Matters In the New Testament Christ was himself subject to the Civil Powers and charged his Disciples not to affect Temporal Dominion They also wrote to the Churches to be subject to the Higher Powers and call them Supream and charge every Soul to be subject to them so in Scripture the King is called Head and Supream and every Soul is said to be under him which joyn'd together makes up this Conclusion that He is the supream Head over all Persons In the Primitive Church the Bishops only made Rules or Canons but pretended to no compulsive Authority but what came from the Civil Magistrate The Roman Emperours called Councils presided in them and confirmed them and made many Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Matters so did also Charles the Great The Emperours did also either chuse the Popes themselves or confirm their Elections Church-men taking Orders were not thereby discharged from the Obedience they formerly owed their Princes but remained still Subjects And tho the Offices of the Church had peculiar Functions in which the People were subject to them that did not deliver them from their Obedience to the King as a Father's Authority over his Children cuts not off the King's Power over him They found also that in all times the Kings of England had assumed an Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters Ina Alfred Edgar and Canetus had made many Laws about them so had also most of the Kings since the Conquest which appeared particularly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Contests that followed upon them and from the daies of King Ina they had granted Exemptions to Monasteries from the Episcopal Jurisdiction down to William the
Conquerors time besides many other Acts that clearly imported a Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes But they did at the same time so explain and limit this Power that it was visible they did not intend to subject Religion wholly to the Pleasure of the King for it was declared that his Power was only a Coercive Authority to defend the true Religion to abolish Heresies and Idolatries to cause Bishops and Pastors to do their Duties and in case they were negligent or would not amend their Faults to put others in their room Upon the whole matter they concluded that the Pope had no Power in England and that the King had an intire Dominion over all his Subjects which did extend even to the regulating of Ecclesiastical Matters These things being fully opened in many Disputes The Clergy submitted to it and published in several Books all the Bishops Abbots and Priors of England Fisher only excepted were so far satisfied with them or so much in love with their Preferments that they resolved to comply with the Changes which the King was resolved to make Fisher was in great esteem for Piety and strictness of Life and so much pains was taken on him A little before the Parliament met Cranmer proposed to him that he and any five Doctors he would choose and Stokesly with five on his side should confer on that point and examine he Authorities that were on both sides he accepted of it and Stokesly wrote to him to name time and place but Fisher's Sickness hindered the Progress of that motion The Parliament met the 15th of January A Session of Parliament there were but seven Bishops and twelve Abbots present the rest it seems were unwilling to concur in making this change tho they complied with it when it was made Every Sunday during the Session a Bishop preached at St. Paul's and declared that the Pope had no Authority in England Before this they had only said that a General Council was above him and that the Exactions of that Court and Appeals to it were unlawful but now they went a strain higher to prepare the People for receiving the Acts then in Agitation On the 9th of March The Pope's Power taken away the Commons began the Bill for taking away the Pope's Power and sent it to the Lords on the 14th who past it on the 20th without any dissent In it they set forth the Exactions of the Court of Rome grounded on the Pope's Power of dispensing and that as none could dispense with the Laws of God so the King and Parliament only had the Authority of dispensing with the Laws of the Land and that therefore such Licenses or Dispensations as were formerly in use should be for the future granted by the two Arch-bishops some of these were to be confirmed under the Great Seal and they appointed that thereafter all Commerce with Rome should cease They also declared that they did not intend to alter any Article of the Catholick Faith of Christendome or of that which was declared in the Scripture necessary to Salvation They confirmed all the Exemptions granted to Monasteries by the Popes but subjected them to the King's Visitation and gave the King and his Council power to examine and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges granted by the Pope The Offenders against this Law were to be punished according to the Statutes of Premunire This Act subjected the Monasteries entirely to the King's Authority and put them in no small Confusion Those that loved the Reformation rejoyced both to see the Pope's Power rooted out and to find the Scripture made the Standard of Religion After this Act The Act of the Succession another past in both Houses in six Days time without any Opposition Settling the Succession of the Crown confirming the Sentence of Divorce and the King's Marriage with Queen Anne and declaring all Marriages within the Degrees prohibited by Moses to be unlawful All that had married within them were appointed to be divorced and their Issue illegitimated and the Succession to the Crown was settled upon the King's Issue by the prefent Queen or in default of that to the King 's right Heirs for ever All were required to swear to maintain the Contents of this Act and if any refused to swear to it or should say any thing to the Slander of the King's Marriage he was to be judged guilty of misprision of Treason and to be punished accordingly The Oath is also set down in the Journals of the House of Lords by which they did not only swear Obedience to the King and his Heirs by his present Marriage but also to defend the Act of Succession and all the Effects and Contents in it against all manner of Persons whatsoever by which they were bound to maintain the Divorce both against the Pope's Censures and the Emperour if he went about to execute them At this time An Act regulating the proceedings against Hereticks one Philips complained to the House of Commons of the Bishop of London for using him cruelly in Prison upon Suspicion of Heresy the Commons sent up this to the Lords but received no Answer So they sent some of their Members to the Bishop desiring him to answer the Complaints put in against him But he acquainted the House of Lords with it and they all with one consent voted that none of their House ought to appear or answer to any Complaint at the Bar of the House of Commons So the Commons let this particular Case fall and sent up a Bill to which the Lords agreed regulating the Proceedings against Hereticks That whereas by the Statute made by King Henry the Fourth Bishops might commit Men upon Suspition of Heresy and Heresy was generally defined to be whatever was contrary to the Scriptures or Canonical Sanctions which was liable to great Ambiguity therefore that Statute was repealed and none were to be committed for Heresy but upon a Presentment made by two Witnesses None were to be accused for speaking against things that were grounded only upon the Pope's Canons Bail was to be taken for Hereticks and they were to be brought to their Trials in open Court and if upon Conviction they did not abjure or were Relapses they were to be burnt the King 's Writ being first obtained This was a great check to the Bishop's Tyrrany and gave no smal comfort to all that favoured the Reformation The Convocation sent in a Submission at the same time The Submission of the Clergy by which they acknowledged That all Convocations ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and promised upon the Word of Priests never to make nor execute any Canons without the King's Assent They also desired That since many of the received Canons were found to be contrary to the King's Prerogative and the Laws of the Land there might be a Committee named by the King of 32 the one half out of both Houses of Parliament and the other
besides Adultery as for procuring Abortions treating for another Marriage being guilty of Treason or a Wifes going to Plays without her Husbands leave Nor did the Fathers in those times complain of those Laws This was also allowed by the Canons upon several occasions but after the State of Coelibate came to be magnified out of measure second Marriages were more generally condemned And this was heightned when Marriage was lookt on as a Sacrament Yet though no Divorces were allowed in the Church the Canonists found out many shifts for annulling Marriages from the beginning to those that could pay well for them All these things being considered the Delegates gave sentence confirming the second Marriage and dissolving the first Candlemass and Lent were now approaching Some Ceremonies abrogated so the Clergy and People were much divided with relation to the Ceremonies usual at those times By some Injunctions in K. Henry's Reign it had been declared that Fasting in Lent was only binding by a positive Law Wakes and Plough Moondays were also suppressed and hints were given that other customes which were much abused should be shortly put down The gross Rabble loved these things as matters of diversion and thought Divine Worship without them would be but a dull business But others lookt on these as Relicts of Heathenism since the Gentiles worshipped their Gods with such Festivities and thought they did not become the gravity and simplicity of the Christian Religion Cranmer upon this procured an Order of Council against the carrying of Candles on Candlemass day of Ashes on Ash-Wednesday and Palms on Palm-Sunday which was directed to Bonner to be intimated to the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury and was executed by him But a Proclamation followed against all that should make changes without Authority The creeping to the Cross and taking Holy Bread and Water were by it put down and power was given to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to certifie in the Kings name what Ceremonies should be afterwards laid aside and none were to preach out of their own Parishes without licence from the King or the Visitors the Arch-bishop or the Bishop of the Diocess Some questioned the Councils power to make such Orders the Act that gave authority to their Proclamations being repealed but it was said the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters might well justifie their making such ' Rules Febr. 8. Soon after this a General Order followed for a removal of all Images out of Churches There were every where great contests whether the Images had been abused to Superstition or not Some thought the consecration of them was an abuse common to them all Those also that represented the Trinity as a man with three faces in one head or as an old man with a young man before him and a Dove over his head and some where the Blessed Virgin was represented as assumed into it gave so great scandal that it was no wonder if men as they grew to be better enlightned could no longer endure them The only occasion given to censure in this order was that all Shrines and the Plate belonging to them were appointed to be brought in to the Kings use A Letter was at that time writ to all Preachers requiring them to exhort the people to amend their lives and forsake Superstition but for things not yet changed to bear with them and not to run before those whom they should obey Some hot men condemned this temper as savouring too much of carnal Policy but it was said that though the Apostles by the gift of Miracles had sufficient means to convince the World of their authority Yet they did not all at once change the customes of the Mosaical Law but proceeded by degrees and Christ forbid the pulling up the Tares lest good Wheat should be pulled up with them so it was fit to wean people by degrees from their former superstition and not to run too fast Eighteen Bishops and some Divines were now imployed to examine the Offices of the Church to see which of them needed amendment A new Office for the Communion They began with the Eucharist They proceeded in the same manner that was used in the former Reign For every one gave in his opinion in Writing in answer to the questions that were put to them Some of these are still preserved which were concerning the Priests sole communicating and Masses satisfactory for the dead the Mass in an unknown tongue the hanging it up and exposing it and the Sacrifice that was made in it In most of those Papers it appears that the greatest part of the Bishops were still leavened with the old superstition at least to some degree It was clearly found that the plain Institution of the Sacrament was was much vitiated with a mixture of many Heathenish Rites and Pomps on design to raise the credit of the Priests in whose hands that great performance was lodged This was at first done to draw over the Heathens by those splendid Rites to Christianity but Superstition once begun has no bounds nor measures and ignorance and barbarity encreasing in the darker ages there was no regard had to any thing in Religion but as it was set off with much Pageantry And the belief of the Corporal presence raised this to a great height The Office was in an unknown tongue all the Vessels and Garments belonging to it were consecrated with much devotion a great part of the Service was secret to make it look like a wonderful charm the Consecration it self was to be said very softly for words that were not to be heard agreed best with a change that was not to be seen The many Gesticulations and the magnificent Processions all tended to raise this Pageantry higher Masses were also said for all the turns and affairs of humane life Trentals a custome of having thirty Masses a year on the chief Festivities for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was that which brought the Priests most Money for these were thought Gods best days in which aecess was easier to him On Saints days in the Mass it was prayed that by the Saints Intercession the Sacrifice might become the more acceptable and procure a larger Indulgence which could not be easily explained if the Sacrifice was the death of Christ besides a numberless variety of other Rites so many of the Relicts of Heathenism were made use of for the corrupting of the holiest institution of the Christian Religion The first step that was now made was a new Office for the Communion that is the distribution of the Sacrament for the Office of Consecration was not at this time touched It differs very little from what is still used In the Exhortation Auricular Confession to a Priest is left free to be done or omitted and all were required not to judge one another in that matter There was also a denunciation made requiring impenitent sinners to withdraw The Bread was to be still of the same form that had been formerly used
In the distribution it was said The Body of our Lord c. preserve thy Body and The Blood of our Lord c. preserve thy Soul This was Printed with a Proclamation requiring all to receive it with such Reverence and Uniformity as might encourage the King to proceed further and not to run to other things before the King gave direction assuring the people of his earnest zeal to set forth Godly Orders and therefore it was hoped they would tarry for it The Books were sent over England and the Clergy were appointed to give the Communion next Easter according to them Many were much offended to find Confession left indifferent Auricular Confession examined so this matter was examined Christ gave his Apostles a power of binding and loosing and S. James commanded all to confess their faults to one another In the Primitive Church all that denied the Faith or otherwise gave scandal were separated from the Communion and not admitted to it till they made publick Confession And according to the degrees of their sins the time and degrees of publick Penitence and their Separation were proportioned Which was the chief subject of the Consultations of the Councils in the fourth and fifth Centuries For secret sins the people lay under no obligation to confess but they went often to their Priests for direction even for these Near the end of the fifth Century they began to have secret Penances and Confessions as well as publick But in the seventh Century this became the general practice In the eighth Century the Commutation of Penance for Money or other Services done the Church was brought in Then the Holy Wars and Pilgrimages came to be magnified Croisadoes against Hereticks or Princes deposed by the Pope were set up instead of all other Penances Priests also managed Confession and Absolution so as to enter into all mens secrets and to govern their Consciences by them but they becoming very ignorant and not so associated as to be governed by Orders that might be sent them from Rome the Friers were every where imployed to hear Confessions and many reserved Cases were made in which the Pope only gave Absolution these were trusted to them and they had the Trade of Indulgences put in their hands which they managed with as much considence as Mountebanks used in selling their Medicines with this advantage that the ineffectualness of their devices was not so easily discovered for the people believed all that the Priests told them In this they grew to such a pitch of confidence that for saying some Collects Indulgences for years and for Hundreds Thousands yea a Million of years were granted so cheap a thing was Heaven made This trade was now thrown out of the Church and private Confession was declared indifferent But it was much censured that no Rules for Publick Penance were set up at this time but what were corrupted by the Canonists The people did not think a Declarative Absolution sufficient and thought it surer work when a Priest said I Absolve thee though that was but a late Invention Others censured the words of distribution by which the Bread was appropriated to the Body and the Cup to the Soul And this was soon after amended only some words relating to it are still in the Collect We do not presume The affairs of State took up the Council Gardiner is imprisoned as much as the matters of Religion imployed the Bishops the War with Scotland grew chargeable and was supported from France but the sale of the Chantry Lands brought the Council in some Money Gardiner was brought into new trouble many complaints were made of him that he disparaged the Preachers sent with the Kings licence into his Diocess and that he secretly opposed all Reformation So being brought before the Council he denied most of the things objected to him and offered to explain himself openly in a Sermon before the King The Protector prest him not to meddle in matters not yet determined particularly the presence of Christ in the Sacrament and to assert the Kings power though he was under age and the Authority of the Council for the Clergy began generally to say that though they acknowledged the Kings Supremacy yet they would not yield it to the Council and seemed to place it in some extraordinary grace conferred on the King by the Anointing in the Coronation So the Protector desired Gardiner to declare himself in those points but when he came to preach on St. Peters day he inveighed against the Popes Supremacy and asserted the Kings but said nothing of the Council nor the Kings power under Age he also justified the suppression of Monasteries and Chantries and the putting down Masses satisfactory as also the removing of Images the Sacrament in both kinds and the new Order for the Communion but did largely assert the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament Upon which there was a noise raised by hot Men of both sides during the Sermon and this was said to be a stirring of sedition and upon that he was sent to the Tower This way of proceeding was thought contrary both to Law and Justice and as all violent courses do this rather weakned than strengthned those that were most concerned in it Cranmer did at this time set out a large Catechism which he dedicated to the King He insisted much on shewing that Idolatry had been committed in the use of Images he asserted the Divine Institution of Bishops and Priests and their authority of Absolving sinners and expressed great Zeal for setting up Penitentiary Canons and exhorted the People to discover the state of their Souls to their Pastors from this it appears that he had changed the opinions he formerly held against the Divine Institution of the Ecclesiastical Offices But now a more general Reformation of the whole Liturgy was under consideration A new Liturgy composed that all the Nation might have an Uniformity in the Worship of God and be no more cantoned to the several Uses of Sarum York Lincoln Hereford and Bangor Anciently the Liturgies were short and had few Ceremonies in them Every Bishop had one for his own Diocess but in the African Churches they began first to put them into a more Regular Form Gregory the Great labour'd much in this yet he left Austin the Monk to his liberty either to use the Roman or French forms in England as he found they were like to tend most to Edification Great Additions were made in every Age for the private Devotions of some that were reputed Saints were added to the Publick offices and mysterious significations were invented for every new Rite which was the chief study of some Ages and all was swelled up to a vast bulk It was not then thought on that praying by the spirit consisted in the inventing new words and uttering them with warmth and it seemed too great a subjection of the People to their Priests that they should make them joyn with them in all their heats
dispense with the Laws of God which were not subject to him And it had been judged in the Rota at Rome when a Dispensation was asked for a King to marry his Wives Sister that it could not be granted and when Precedents were alledged for it it was answered that the Church was to be governed by Laws and not by Examples and if any Pope had granted such Dispensation it was either out of Ignorance or Corruption This was not only the Opinion of the School-men but of the Canonists tho they are much set on raising the Pope's Power as high as is possible And therefore Alexander the third refused to grant a Dispensation in a like case tho the Parent had sworn to make his Son marry his Brother's Widow others went further and said The Pope could not dispense with the Laws of the Church which several ancient Popes had declared against and it was said that the fulness of Power with which the Pope was vested did only extend to the pastoral Care and was not for Destruction but for Edification and that as St. Paul opposed St. Peter to his Face so had mnay Bishops withstood Popes when they proceeded against the Canons of the Church So both Laurence and Dunstan in England had proceeded to Censures notwithstanding the Pope's Authority interposed to the contrary and no Authority being able to make what was a Sin in it self become lawful every Man that found himself engaged in a sinful course of Life ought to forsake it and therefore the King ought to withdraw from the Queen and the Bishops of England in case of refusal ought to proceed to Censures Upon the whole matter Tradition was that upon which all the Writers of Controversy particularly now in the Contests with the Lutherans founded the Doctrine of the Church as being the only infallible Exposition of the doubtful parts of Scripture and that being so clear in this matter there seemed to be no room for any further Debate On the other hand Arguments against it Cajetan was the first Writer that against the stream of former Ages thought that the Laws of Leviticus were only Judiciary Precepts binding the Jews and were not moral his Reasons were that Adam's Children must have married in the Degrees there forbidden Jacob married two Sisters and Judah according to custom gave his two Sons and promised a third to the same Woman Moses also appointed the Brother to marry the Brother's Wife when he died without Issue But a Moral Law is for ever and in all Cases binding and it was also said that the Pope's power reached even to the Laws of God for he dispensed with Oaths and Vows and as he had the Power of determining Controversies so he only could declare what Laws were moral and indispensable and what were not nor could any Bishops pretend to judg concerning the extent of his Power or the validity of his Bulls To all this those that writ for the King answered That it was strange to see Men who pretended such Zeal against Hereticks follow their Method which was to set up private reasonings from some Texts of Scripture in opposition to the received Tradition of the Church which was the bottom in which all good Catholicks thought themselves safe and if Cajetan wrote in this manner against the received Doctrin of the Church in one Particular why might not Luther take the same liberty in other Points They also made distinction in moral Laws between those that were so from the nature of the thing which was indispensable and could in no Case be lawful and to this sort no Degrees but those of Parents and Children could be reduced other Moral Laws were only grounded upon publick Inconveniencies and Dishonesty such as the other Degrees were for the Familiarities that Persons so nearly related live in are such that unless a Terrour were struck in them by a perpetual Law against such mixtures Families would be much defiled But in such Laws tho God may grant a Dispensation in some particular Cases yet an Inferiour Authority cannot pretend to it and some Dispensations granted in the latter Ages ought not to be set up to ballance the Decisions of so many Popes and Councils against them and the Doctrine taught by so many Fathers and Doctors in former times Both sides having thus brought forth the strength of their Cause it did evidently appear That according to the Authority given to Tradition in the Church of Rome the King had clearly the Right on his side and that the Pope's Party did write with little sincerity in this matter being guilty of that manner of arguing from Texts of Scriptures for which they had so loudly charged the Lutherans The Queen continued firm to her Resolution of leaving the matter in the Pope's Hands and therefore would hearken to no Propositions that were made to her for referring the matter to the Arbitration of some chosen on both sides A Session of Parliament followed in January in which the King made the Decisions of the Universities and the Books that were written for the Divorce A Session of Parliament be first read in the House of Lords and then they were carried down by Sir Thomas More and 12 Lords both of the Spirituality and Temporality to the Commons There were twelve Seals of Universities shewed and their Decisions were read first in Latin and then Translated into English There were also an hundred Books shewed written on the same Argument Upon the shewing these the Chancellor desired them to report in their Countries that they now clearly saw that the King had not attempted this matter of his meer will and pleasure but for the discharge of his Conscience and the security of the Succession of the Crown This was also brought into the Convocation who declared themselves satisfied concerning the unlawfulness of the Marriage but the Circumstances they were then in made that their Declaration was not much considered for they were then under the lash All the Clergy of England were sued as in the case of a Premunire for having acknowledged a Forreign Jurisdiction and taken out Bulls and had Suits in the Legatine Court The Kings of England did claim such a Power in Ecclesiastical matters The Laws of England against Bulls from Rome as the Roman Emperours had exercised before the fall of that Empire Anciently they had by their Authority divided Bishopricks granted the Investitures and made Laws both relating to Ecclesiastical Causes Persons When the Popes began to extend their Power beyond the Limits assigned them by the Canons they met with great opposition in England both in the matter of Investitures Appeals Legates and the other Branches of their Usurpations but they managed all the Advantages they found either from the Weakness or ill Circumstances of Princes so steadily that in Conclusion they subdued the World And if they had not by their cruel Exactions so oppressed the Clergy that they were driven to seek Shelter under the Covert
second him in his Suit He encouraged him to proceed to a second Marriage without more adoe and assured him he would stand by him in it And told him he intended to restrain the payment of Annats to Rome and would ask of the Pope a Redress of that and other Grievances and if it was denied he would seek other Remedies in a Provincial Council An Enterview was proposed between the Pope and Him to which he desired the King go with him and King the was not unwilling to it if he could have assurance that his Business would be finally determined The Pope offered to the King to send a Legate to any indifferent place out of England to form the Process reserving only the giving Sentence to himself And proposed to him and all Princes a General Truce that so he might call a General Council The King answered that such was the present State of the Affairs of Europe that it was not seasonable to call a General Council that it was contrary to his Prerogative to send a Proxy to appear at Rome That by the Decrees of General Councils all Causes ought to be judged on the place and by a Provincial Council and that it was fitter to judge it in Engiand than any where else And that by his Coronation Oath he was bound to maintain the Dignities of his Crown and the Rights of his Subjects and not to appear before any forraign Court So Sir Thomas Elliot was sent over with Instructions to move that the cause might be judged in England Yet if the Pope had real Intentions of giving the King full Satisfaction he was not to insist on that And to make the Cardinal of Ravenna sure he sent him the offer of the Bishoprick of Coventry and Litchfield Nov. 14. The King marries Ann Bolleyn then vacant Soon after this the King married Ann Bolleyn Rowland Lee afterwards Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield did officiate none being present but the Duke of Norfolk and her Father her Mother and her Brother and Cranmer It was thought that the former Marriage being null of it self the King might proceed to another And perhaps they hoped that as the Pope had formerly proposed this Method so he would now approve of it But tho the Pope had joyned himself to France yet he was still so much in fear of the Emperour that he resolved not to provoke him and so was not wrought on by any of the Expedients which Bennet proposed which were either to judge the Cause in England according to the Council of Nice or to refer it to the Arbitration of some to be named by the King and the King of France and the Pope for all these he said tended to the Diminution of the Papal Power A new Citation was issued out for the King to answer to the Queen's Complaints but the King's Agents protested that he was a Soveraign Prince that England was a free Church over which the Pope had no just Authority and that the King could expect no Justice at Rome where the Empeperours Power was so great At this time the Parliament met again and past an Act The Parliament condemns Appeals to Rome condemning all Appeals to Rome In it they set forth That the Crown was Imperial and that the Nation was a compleat Body having full Power to do Justice in all Cases both Spiritual and Temporal And that as former Kings had maintained the Liberties of the Kingdom against the Usurpations of the See of Rome so they found the great Inconveniencies of allowing Appeals in Matrimonial Causes That they put them to great Charges and accasioned many Delayes Therefore they enacted That thereafter those should be all judged within the Kingdom and no regard should be had to any Appeals to Rome or Censures from it But Sentences given in England were to have their full Effect and all that executed any Censures from Rome were to incur the pains of Premunire Appeals were to be from the Arch-deacon to the Bishop and from him to the Archbishop And in the Causes that concerned the King the Appeal was to be to the upper House or Convocation There was now a new Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer made Archbishop of Canterbury Warham died the former Year He was a great Patron of Learning a good Canonist and wise States-man but was a cruel Persecutor of Hereticks and inclined to believe Fanatical Stories Cranmer was then in Germany disputing in the King's Cause with some of the Emperour 's Divines The King resolved to advance him to that Dignity and sent him word of it that so he might make haste over But a Promotion so far above his Thoughts had not its common Effects on him He had a true and primitive Sense of so great a Charge and instead of aspiring to it he was afraid of it he both returned very slowly to England and used all his Endeavours to be excused from that Advancement But this declining of Preferment being a thing of which the Clergy of that Age were so little guilty discovered That he had Maximes very far different from most Church-men Bulls were sent for to Rome in order to his Consecration which the Pope granted tho it could not be very grateful to him to send them to one who had so publickly disputed against his Power of dispensing all the Composition that was payed for them was but 900 Ducats which was perhaps according to the Regulation made in the Act against Annats There were 9 several Bulls sent over one confirming the King's Nomination a Second requiring him to accept it a Third absolving him from Censures a Fourth to the Suffragan Bishops a Fifth to the Dean and Chapter a Sixth to the Clergy a Seventh to the Laity an Eighth to the Tenants of the See requiring all these to receive him to be their Archbishop a Ninth requiring some Bishops to consecrate him the Tenth gave him the Pall and by the Eleventh the Archbishop of York was required to put it on him The putting all this in so many different Bulls was a good Contrivance for raising the Rents of the Apostolick Chamber On the 30 of March Cranmer was consecrated by the Bishops of Lincoln Exeter and St. Asaph The Oath to the Pope was of hard Digestion So he made a Protestation before he took it that he conceived himself not bound up by it in any thing that was contrary to his Duty to God to his King or Country and he repeated this when he took it so that if this seemed too artificial for a Man of his sincerity yet he acted in it fairly The Convocation condemns the King's Marriage and above Board The Convocation had then two Questions before them the first was Concerning the Lawfulness of the King's Marriage and the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation the other was of Matter of Fact Whether P. Arthur had consummated the Marriage or not For the first the Judgments of 19 Universities were read and after a
and Industry and so was on all accounts well prepared for that Work to which the Providence of God did now call him And tho he was in some things too much subject to the King 's Imperious Temper yet in the matter of the six Articles he shewed that he wanted not the Courage that became a Bishop in so Critical an Affair as that was Cromwel was his great and constant Friend a man of mean Birth but of excellent Qualities as appeared in his adhering to his Master Wolsey after his fall a rare Demonstration of Gratitude in a Court to a disgraced Favourite And in his greatest height he happening to see a Merchant of Lucca who had pitied and relieved him when he was in Italy but did not so much as know him or pretend to any returns for the small Favours he had formerly shewed him and was then reduced to a low condition treated him with such acknowledgments that it became the Subjects of several Pens which strove who should celebrate it most As these set themselves to carry on a Reformation Others oppose it much there was another Party formed that as vigourously opposed it headed by the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner and almost all the Clergy went into it They perswaded the King that nothing would give the Pope or the Emperour such Advantages as his making any Changes in Religion and it would reflect much on him if he who had writ so learnedly for the Faith should in spite to the Pope make any Changes in it Nothing would encourage other Princes so much to follow his Example nor keep his Subjects so much in their Duty to him as his continuing stedfast in the Antient Religion These things made great Impressions on him But on the other hand Cranmer represented to him that if he rejected the Pope's Authority it was very absurd to let such Opinions or Practices continue in the Church that had no other Foundation but Papal Decrees and therefore he desired that this might be put to the Trial he ought to depend on God and hope for good Success if he proceeded in this matter according to the Duty of a Christian Prince England was a compleat Body within its self and tho in the Roman Empire when united under one Prince General Councils were easily assembled yet now that was not to be so much depended on but every Prince ought to reform the Church in his Dominions by a National Synod and if in the Antient Church such Synods condemned Heresies and reformed Abuses that might be much more done when Europe was divided into so many Kingdoms It was visible that tho both the Emperour and the Princes of Germany had for 20 Years desired a Ceneral Council it could not be obtained of the Pope he had indeed offered one at Mantua but that was only an Illusion Upon that the Kiug desired some of his Bishops to give their Opinion concerning the Emperour's Power of calling Councils The Opinion of some Bishops of a General Council So Cranmer Tonstall Clark of Bath and Wells and Goodrick of Ely made answer That tho Ancient Councils were called by the Roman Emperours yet that was done by reason of the Extent of their Monarchy that was now ceased but since other Princes had an entire Monarchy within their Dominions Yet if one or more of those Princes should agree to call a Council to a good Intent and desire the Concurrence of the rest they were bound by the Rule of Charity to agree to it They were also of Opinion that none but Bishops and Priests had Right to a definitive Voice in matters of Doctrine Cranmer also made a long Speech at that time Heads of a Speech of Cranmers setting forth the necessity of a Reformation It is probable it was in the House of Peers for it begins My Lords He begun with the Impostures and Deceit used by the Canonists and other Courtiers at Rome Then he speak to the Authority of a General Councils he shewed that it flowed not from the Number of the Bishops but from the matter of their Decisions which were received with an Universal Consent for there were many more Bishops at the Council of Arimini which was condemned than either at Nice or Constantinople which were received Christ had named no Head of the whole Church as God had named no Head of the World but that grew up for Orders sake as there were Arch-bishops set over Provinces yet some Popes were condemned for Heresy as Liberius and others If Faith must be shewed by Works the ill Lives of most Popes of late shewed that their Faith was to be suspected and all the Priviledges which Princes or Synods granted to that See might be recalled Popes ought to submit themselves to General Councils and were be tried by them he shewed what were the present Corruptions of the Pope and his Court which needed Reformation The Pope according to the Decree of the Council of Basil was the Churches Vicar and not Christ's and so was accountable to it The Churches of France declared the Council to be above the Pope which had been acknowledged by many Popes themselves The Power of Councils had also Bounds nor could they judg of the Rights of Princes or proceed to a Sentence against a King nor were their Canons of any force till Princes added their Sanctions to them Councils ought also to proceed moderately even against those that held Errors and ought not to impose things indifferent too severely The Scriptures and not Men's Traditions ought to be the Standards of their Definitions The Divines of Paris held That a Council could not make a new Article of Faith that was not in the Scriptures and all Christ's Promises to the Church were to be understood with this condition if they kept the Faith therefore there was great reason to doubt concerning the Authority of a Council some of them had contradicted others and many others were never received The Fathers had always appealed to the Scriptures as Superiour in Authority to Councils by which only all Controversies ought to be decided yet on the other hand it was dangerous to be wise in ones own Conceit and he thought when the Fathers all agreed in the Exposition of any place of Scripture that ought to be look'd on as flowing from the Spirit of God He shewed how little Regard was to be had to a Council in which the Pope presided and that if any common Error had past upon the World when that came to be discovered every one was at liberty to shake it off even tho they had sworn to maintain that Error this he applied to the Pope's Authority In conclusion he promised to entertain them with another Discourse of the Authority that all Bishops had in their Sees and that Princes had within their Dominions But I could never recover that and probably it is lost This was the state of the Court after King Henry had shaken off the Pope's Power
The State of England and assumed a Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs The Nobility and Gentry were generally well satisfied with the Change but the Body of the People was more under the Power of the Priests and they studied to infuse in them great Fears of a Change in Religion It was said the King was now joyning himself to Hereticks that both the Queen Cranmer and Cromwell favoured them It was left free to dispute what were Articles of Faith and what were only the Decrees of Popes and Changes would be made under this Pretence that they only rejected those Opinions which were supported by the Papal Authority The Monks and Friars saw themselves left at the King's Mercy Their Bulls could be no longer useful to them The trade of new Saints or Indulgences was near an end they had also some Intimations that Cromwell was forming a Project for suppressing them so they thought it necessary for their own Preservation to imbroil the King's Affairs as much as was possible therefore both in Confessions and Discourses they were infusing into the People a dislike of the King's Proceedings and this did so far work on them that if the Emperour's Affairs had been in such a condition that he could have made War on the King he might have done it with great Advantage and found a strong Party in England on his side But the Practices of the Clergy at home and of Cardinal Pool abroad the Libels that were published and the Rebellions that were afterwards raised in England wrought so much on the King's Temper that was naturally imperious and boisterous that he became too apt to commit Acts of the highest Severity and to bring his Subjects into Trouble upon the slightest Grounds and his new Title of Head of the Church seemed to have encreased his former Vanity and made him fancy that all his Subjects were bound to regulate their Belief by the measures he set them He had now raigned 25 Years in all which time none had suffered for Crimes against the State but Pool Earl of Suffolk and Stafford Duke of Buckingham the former was executed in Obedience to his Father's last Commands the latter fell by Cardinal Wolsey's Malice he had also been inveigled by a Priest to imagine he had a Right to the Crown but in the last ten Years of his Life Instances of Severity returned more frequently The Bishops and Abbots did what they could to free the King of any Jealousies that might be raised in him concerning them and of their own accord before any Law was made about it they swore to maintain the King's Supremacy The first Act of it was the making Cromwell Vicar General and Visitor of all the Monasteries and Churches of England with a Delegation of the King's Supremacy to him he was also empowered to give Commissions subaltern to himself and all Wills where the Estate was in value above 200 l. were to be proved in his Court This was afterwards enlarged and he was made the King's Vicegerent in Ecclesiastical Matters and had the Precedence of all next the Royal Family and his Authority was in all Points the same that the Legates had in time of Popery for as the King 's came in the Popes room so the Vicegerent was what the Legates had been Pains was taken to engage all the Clergy to declare for the Supreamacy At Oxford a publick Determination was made to which every Member assented that the Pope had no more Authority in England than any other Forreign Bishop The Franciscans at Richmond made some more Opposition they said by the Rule of St. Francis they were bound to obey the Holy See The Bishop of Litchfield told them that all the Bishops in England all the Heads of Houses and the most learned Divines had signed that Proposition St. Francis made his Rule in Italy where the Bishop of Rome was Metropolitan but that ought not to extend to England and it was shewed that the Chapter cited by them was not written by him but added since yet they continued positive in their refusal to sign it It was well known that all the Monks and Friars A general Visitation proposed tho they complied with the Time yet they hated this new Power of the King 's the People were also startled at it so one Dr. Leighton that had been in the Cardinal's Service with Cromwell proposed a General Visitation of all the Religious Houses in England and thought that nothing would reconcile the Nation so much to the King's Supremacy as to see some good Effect flow from it Others thought this was too hardy a Step and that it would provoke the Religious Orders too much Yet it was known that they were guilty of such Disorders that nothing could so effectually keep them in awe as the enquiring into these Cranmer led the way to this by a Metropolitical Visitation for which he obtained the King's Licence he took care to see that the Pope's Name was struck out of all the Offices of the Church and that the King's Supremacy was generally acknowledged In October the General Visitation of the Monasteries was begun Instructions and Injunctions for it which was cast into several Precincts Instructions were given them directing them what things to enquire after as whether the Houses had the full number according to their Foundation and if they performed Divine Worship in the appointed Hours what Exemptions they had what were their Statutes how their Heads were chosen and how their Vows were observed Whether they lived according to the Severities of their Orders how the Master and other Officers did their Duties how their Lands and their Revenues were managed what Hospitality was kept and what care was taken of the Novices what Benefices were in their Gift and how they disposed of them how the Inclosures of the Nunneries were kept whether the Nuns went abroad or if Men were admitted to come to them how they imploied their time and what Priests they had for their Confessors They were also ordered to give them some Injunctions in the King's Name That they should acknowledge his Supremacy and maintain the Act of Succession and declare all to be absolved from any Rules or Oaths that bound them to obey the Pope and that all their Statutes tending to that should be razed out of their Books That the Abbots should not have choice Dishes but plain Tables for Hospitality and that the Scriptures shoul be read at Meals that they should have daily Lectures of Divinity and maintain some of every House at the University The Abbot was required to instruct the Monks in true Religion and to shew them that it did not consist in outward Ceremonies but in Cleanness of Heart and Purity of Life and the worshiping of God in Spirit and Truth Rules were given about their Revenues and against admitting any under 20 Years of Age. The Visitors were empower'd to punish Offenders or to bring them to answer before the Visitor General What the Ancient
officious Courtiers are apt to do often without any good Grounds so that Silence was made an Argument of her Guilt and that she could not be defended But perhaps that was an effect of the Wisdom of the Ministers of that time who would not suffer so nice a Point upon which the Queen's Legitimation depended to be brought into dispute The day after Anne Boleyn's Death the King married Jane Scimour who gained more upon him than all his Wives ever did But she was happy that she did not out-live his Love to her Lady Mary was advised upon this turn of Affairs Lady Mary 's Submission oo the King to make her Submission to the King she offered to confess the Fault of her former Obstinacy and in General to give up her Understanding entirely to the King but that would not satisfy unless she would be more particular so at last she was prevailed with to do it in the fullest Terms that could be desired She acknowledged the King to be the Supream Head on Earth under Christ of the Church of England and did renounce the Bishop of Rome's Authority and promised in all things to be obedient to the Laws that were made which she said flowed from her inward Belief and Judgment and in which she would for ever continue and she did also acknowledg that the King's Marriage with her Mother was by God's Law and Man's Law unlawful and incestuous all this she writ with her own Hand and subscribed it upon which she was again received into Favour and an Establishment was made for a Family about her in which 40 l. a quarter was all the Allowance for her Privy Purse so great was the Frugality of that time Lady Elizabeth continued to be educated with great Care and was so forward that before she was four Years old she both wrote a good Hand and understood Italian for there are Letters extant written by her in that Language to Queen Jane when she was with child in which she subscribed Daughter On the 8th of June the Parliament met A Farliament meets which shews that it was summoned before the Justs at Greenwich The Chancellour told them that the King had called them to settle the Succession of the Crown in case he should dye without Children lawfully begotten and to repeal the Act made concerning his Marriage with Queen Anne It seems the Parliament was not at first easily brought to comply with these things and that it was necessary to take some pains to prepare them to it For the Bill of Succession was not put in till the 30th of June but then it was quickly dispatched without any Opposition by it the Attainder of Queen Anne and her Complices is confirmed both the Sentences of Divorces pass'd upon the King 's two former Marriages were also confirmed and the Issue by both was illegitimated and for ever excluded from claiming the Crown by Lineal Descent And the Succession was established on the King's Issue by his present Queen or any whom he might afterwards marry But it not being fit to declare who should succeed in default of that lest the Person so named might be thereby enabled to raise Commotions in Confidence of the King's Wisdom and Affection to his People they left it to him nominate his Successors either by Letters Patents or by his last Will signed by his Hand and promised to obey the Persons so nominated by him It was declared Treason to maintain the Lawfulness of his former Marriages or of his Issue by them and it was made not only Treason but a forfeiture of the Right of Succession if any of those whom the King should name in default of others should endeavour to get before them The Scots complained of this Act and said their Queen Dowager being King Henry's Eldest Sister could not be put by her Right after the King 's lawful Issue But by this the King was now made Master indeed and had the Crown put entirely in his Hands to be disposed of at his Pleasure and his Daughters were now to depend wholly on him He had it also in his Power in a great measure to pacify the Emperour by providing that his Kinswoman might succeed to the Crown Pope Clement the 7th Pope Paul the 3d proposes a Recoaciliation with the King was now dead and Farnese succeeded by the Name of Paul the 3d who after an unsuccesful Attempt which he made for reconciling himself with the King when that was rejected and Fisher was beheaded thundered out a most terrible Sentence of Deposition against him Yet now since both Queen Katherine and Queen Anne upon whose account the Breach was made were out of the way he thought it a fit time to try what might be done and ordered Cassali to let the King know that he had always favoured his Cause when he was a Cardinal that he was driven very much against his Mind to pass Sentence against him and that now it would be easy for him to recover the Favour of the Apostolick See But the King instead of hearkening to the Proposition Acts against the Pope's Power got two Acts to be pass'd The one was for the utter extinguishing the Pope's Authority and it was made a Premunire for any to acknowledg it or to perswade others to it And a strict Charge was given to all Magistrates under severe Penalties to enquire after all Offenders By another all Bulls and all Priviledges flowing from them were declared null and void only Marriages or Consecrations made by virtue of them were excepted All who enjoyed Priviledges by these Bulls were required to bring them into the Chancery upon which the Arch-bishop was to make them a new Grant of them and that being confirmed under the Great Seal was to be of full force in Law Another Act pass'd explaining an Exception that was in the Act for the Residence of all Incumbents by which those who were at the Universities were dispensed with upon which many went and lived idlely there It was therefore now declared that none above the Age of fourty except Heads and publick Readers should have the Benefit of that Proviso and that none under that Age should be comprehended in it except they performed their Exercises Another Act pass'd in Favour of the King's Heirs if they should Reign before they were of full Age that they might any time before they were 24 repeal by Letters Patents all Acts made during their Minority All these things being concluded the Parliament after it had sate six Weeks was dissolved The Convocation examines some points of Religion The Convocation sate at the same time and was much imployed for the House of Lords was oft adjourned because the Spiritual Lords were busy in the Convocation Latimer preached the Latine Sermon he was the most celebrated Preacher of that time the Simplicity of his matter and his Zeal in expressing it being preferred to more elaborate Composures They first confirmed the Sentence of the Divorce of
King's Supremacy Others were also suspected of favouring them and of receiving Books sent from beyond Sea against the King's Proceedings and were shut up in their Cells in which most of them died The Prior was a Man of extraordinary Charity and Good-Works as the Visitor reported But he was made resign with this Preamble That many of the House had offended the King and deserved that their Lives should be taken and their Goods confiscated and therefore to avoid that they surrendered their Houses Great Complaints were made of the Visitors as if they had used undue Practices to make the Abbots and Monks surrender and it was said that they had in many Places embezell'd much of the Plate to their own Uses and in particular it was complained that Dr. London had corrupted many Nuns They on the other hand published many of the vile Practices that they found in those Houses so that several Books very indecently writ were printed upon this Occasion but on so foul a Subject it is not fit to stand long No Story became so publick as that of the Prior of the crossed Friers in London who was found in bed with a Whore at Noon-day He fell down on his Knees and beg'd that they who surprised him would not discover his shame They made him give them 30 l. which he protested was all he had and he promised them as much more But he not keeping his word to them a Suit followed upon it Yet all these personal Blemishes did not work much on the People It seemed unreasonable to extinguish Noble Foundations for the fault of some Individuals Therefore another way was taken which had a better effect They discovered many Impostures about Relicks The Impostures of Images discovered and wonderful Images to which Pilgrimages had been wont to be made At Reading they had an Angel's Wing which brought over the Spear's Point that pierced our Saviour's Side As many pieces of the Cross were found as joined together would have made a big Cross The Rood of Grace at Boxley in Kent had been much esteemed and drawn many Pilgrims to it It was observed to bow and roul its Eyes and look at times well pleased or angry which the credulous Multitude imputed to a Divine Power But all this was discovered to be a Cheat and it was brought up to St. Paul's Cross and all the Springs were openly shewed that governed its several Motions At Hales in Glocestershire the Blood of Christ was shewed in a Vial and it was believed that none could see it who were in mortal Sin And so after good Presents were made the deluded Pilgrims went way well satisfied if they had seen it This was the Blood of a Duck renewed every Week put in a Vial very thick of one side as thin on the other and either side turned towards the Pilgrim as the Priests were satisfied with their Oblations Several other such like Impostures were discovered which contributed much to the undeceiving the People The richest Shrine in England was Thomac Beckets at Canterbury Becket's Shrine broken whose Story is well known After he had long imbroiled England and shewed that he had a Spirit so turned to Faction that he could not be at quiet some of Henry the Second's Officious Servants killed him in the Church of Canterbury He was presently Canonized and held in greater esteem than any other Saint whatsoever so much more was a Martyr for the Papacy valued than any that suffered for the Christian Religion And his Altar drew far greater Oblations than those that were dedicated to Christ or the blessed Virgin as appears by the accounts of two of their Years In one 3 l. 2 s. 6 d. And in another not a Penny was offered at Christ's Altar There was in the one 63 l. 5 s. 6 d. and in the other 4 l. 1 s. 8 d. offered at the Blessed Virgin 's Altar But in these very Years there was 832 l. 12 s. 3 d. and 964 l. 6 s. 3 d. offered at St. Thomas's Altar The Shrine grew to be of inestimable Value Lewis the Seventh of France came over in Pilgrimage to visit it and offered a Stone valued to be the richest in Europe He had not only one Holy Day the 29th of December called his Martyrdom but also the Day of his Translation the 7th of July was also a Holy Day and every 50th Year there was a Jubily and an Indulgence granted to all that came and visited his Tomb And sometimes there were believed to be 100000 Pilgrims there on that Occasion It is hard to tell whether the Hatred to his seditious Practices or the Love of his Shrine set on King Henry more to Unsaint him His Shrine was broken and the Gold of it was so heavy that it filled two Chests which took Eight men a piece to carry them out of the Church and his Skull which had been so much worshipped was proved to be an Imposture for the true Skull was with the rest of his Bones in his Coffin his Bones were either burnt as it was given out at Rome or so mixed with other Bones as our Writers say that it had been a Miracle indeed to have distinguished them afterwards The King called at this time a Meeting of the Clergy of 10 Bishops 8 Archdeacons and 17 Divines and Canonists and made them finish an Explanation of the Christian Religion But this was afterwards digested into a better form as shall be told in its proper place When all these things were known at Rome all the Eloquent Pens there were imploied to represent King Henry as the most Sacrilegious Tyrant that ever was The Pope thunders against the King that made War with Christs Vicar on Earth and his Saints in Heaven and he was compared to the worst Princes that ever reigned to Pharaoh Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar Nero and Diocletian but the Parallel with Julian the Apostate was most insisted on It was said He copied after him in all things save only that his Maners were worse In many of these Cardinal Pool's Stile was pretended to be known and they were all at least much encouraged by him which provoked the King to hate him most Implacably The Pope went further for now he published all those Thunders with which he had threatned him three Years before He pretended That as God's Vicar he had power to root out and to destroy and had Authority over all the Kings in the World And therefore after he had enumerated all the King's Crimes he required himself to appear within 90 days at Rome either in Person or by Proxy and all his Complices within 60 Days and if he and they did not appear he declared him to have fallen from his Crown and them from their Estates He put the Kingdom under an Interdict and absolved his Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance He declared him and his Complices Infamous and put their Children under Incapacities He required all the Clergy to go out of England within
5 Days after the time prefixed should expire leaving only so many as might serve for Baptizing Children or giving the Sacrament to such as died in Penitence He charged all his Subjects to rise in Arms against him and that none should assist him He absolved all other Princes from their Confederacies with him and obtested them to have no more Commerce with him He required all Christians to make War on him and to seize on the Persons and Goods of all his Subjects and make Slaves of them He charged all Bishops to publish the Sentence with due Solemnities and ordained it to be affixed at Rome Tournay and Dunkirk This was first given out the 30 of August 1535 but it had been all this while suspended till the Suppression of the Monasteries and the burning of Becket's Bones did so inflame the Pope that he resolved to forbear going to Extremities no longer So on the 17 of December this Year the Pope published the Bull which he said he had so long suspended at the Intercession of some Princes who hoped that King Henry might have been reclaimed by gentler Methods and therefore since it appeared that he grew still worse and worse he was forced to proceed to his Fulminations By this Sentence it is certain That either the Popes Infallibility must be confessed to be a Cheat put upon the World or if any believe it they must acknowledge that the Power of deposing Princes is really lodged in that Chair For this was not a sudden fit of Passion but was done ex Cathedra with all the Deliberation they ever admit of The Sentence was in some particulars without a Precedent but as to the main Points of deposing the King and absolving his Subjects from their Obedience there was abundance of Instances to be brought in these last 500 Years to shew that this had been all along asserted the Right of the Papacy The Pope writ also to the Kings of France and Scotland with design to inflame them against King Henry And if this had been an Age of Croissades no doubt there had been one undertaken against him for it was held to be as meritorious if not more to make War on him than on the Turk But now the Thunders of the Vatican had lost their force The King got all the Bishops The Bishops of England assert the King's Power and the Nature of Ecclesiastical Offices and Eminent Divines of England to sign a Declaration against all Church-men who pretended to the Power of the Sword or to Authority over Kings and that all that assumed such Powers were Subverters of the Kingdom of Christ Many of the Bishops did also sign another Paper declaring the Limits of the Regal and Ecclesiastical Power that both had their Authority from God for several Ends and different Natures and that Princes were subject to the Word of God as well as Bishops ought to be obedient to their Laws There was also another Declaration made signed by Cromwel the 2 Archbishops 11 Bishops and 20 Divines asserting the Distinction betwen the Power of the Keys and the Power of the Sword The former was not absolute but limited by the Scripture Orders were declared to be a Sacrament instituted by Christ which were conferred by Prayer and Imposition of Hands And that in the New Testament no mention was made of any other Ranks but of Deacons or Ministers and of Priests or Bishops After this the use of all the Inferiour Degrees of Lectures Acolyths c. was laid down These were set up about the beginning of the 3d Century for in the middle of that Age mention is made of them both by Cornelius and Cyprian and they were intended to be degrees of Probation through which Men were to ascend to the higher Functions But the Canonists had found out so many Distinctions of Benefices and that a simple Tonsure qualified a Man for several of them that these Institutions became either a matter of Form only or were made a Colour for Laymen to possess Ecclesiastical Benefices In this and several other Books of that time Bishops and Priests are spoken of as being both one Office In the Ancient Church there were different Ordinations and different Functions belonging to these Offices tho the Superiour was believed to include the Inferiour But in the latter Ages both the School-men Canonists seemed on different grounds to have designed to make them appear to be the same Office and that the one was only a higher degree in the same Order The School-men to magnify Transubstantiation extolled the Office by which that was performed so high and the Canonists to exalt the Pope's Universal Authority deprest the Office of Bishops so low to make them seem only the Pope's Delegates and that their Jurisdiction was not from Christ that by these means these two Offices were thought so near one another that they differed only in degree And this was so well observed at Trent that the Establishing the Episcopal Jurisdiction as founded on a Divine Right was apprehended as one of the fatallest Blows that could have been given to the Papacy This being at this time so commonly received it is no wonder if before that matter came to be more exactly inquired into some of the Reformers writ more carelessly in the Explanations they made of these Offices which is so far from being an Argument that they were upon due enquiry of another mind that it is to be look'd on as a part of the Dregs of Popery flowing from the belief of Transubstantiation and the Pope's Supremacy of which all the Consequences were not so early observed This Year the English Bible was finished The Bible in English and new Injunctions The Translation was sent over to Paris to be printed there for the Workmen in England were not thought able to go about it Bonner was then Embassadour in France and he obtained a Licence of Francis for printing it but upon a Complaint made by the French Clergy the Press was stopt and many of the Copies were seized on and burnt So it was brought over to England and was undertaken and now finished by Grafton Cromwel procured a General Warrant from the King allowing all his Subjects to read it for which Cranmer wrote his thanks to Cromwel and rejoyced to see the day of Reformation now risen in England since the Word of God did shine over it all without a Cloud Not long after this Cromwel gave out Injunctions requiring the Clergy to set up Bibles in their Churches and to encourage all to read them He also exhorted the People not to dispute about the sense of difficult places but to leave that to Men of better Judgments Incumbents were required to instruct the People and teach them the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments in English And that once every Quarter there should be a Sermon to declare the true Gospel of Christ and to exhort the People to Works of Charity and not to trust to
could never gain much Ground after this and indeed many hoped that he should be quickly sent after Cromwell some complained of him in the House of Commons and Informations were brought the King that the chief Encouragement that the Hereticks had came from him The Ecclesiastical Committees imployed by the King A Book of Religion set out by Bishops were now at work and gave the last finishing to a Book formerly prepared but at this time corrected and explained in many Particulars They began with the Explanation of Faith which according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome was thought an implicit believing whatever the Church proposed But the Reformers made it the chief Subject of their Books and Sermons to perswade People to believe in Christ and not in the Church and made great use of those Places in which it was said That Christians are justified by Faith only tho some explained this in such a manner that it gave their Adversaries Advantages to charge them that they denied the necessity of Good Works but they all taught that tho they were not necessary to Justification yet they were necessary to Salvation They differed also in their Notion of Good Works The Church of Rome taught that the Honour done to God in his Images or to the Saints in their Shrines and Relicks or to the Priests were the best sort of Good Works Whereas the Reformers prest Justice and Mercy most and discovered the Superstition of the other The Opinion of the Merit of Good Works was also so highly raised that many thought they purchased Heaven by them This the Reformers did also correct and taught the People to depend meerly upon the Death and Intercession of Christ Others moved subtiller Questions As whether Obedience was an essential part of Faith or only a Consequent of it This was a Nicety scarce becoming Divines that built only on the Simplicity of the Scriptures and condemned the Subtilties of the Schools and it was said that Men of ill Lives abused this Doctrine and thought that if they could but assure themselves that Christ died for them they were safe enough So now when they settled the Notion of Faith The Explanation of Faith they divided it into two sorts The one was a Perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel but the other carried with it a Submission to the Will of God and both Hope Love and Obedience belonged to it which was the Faith professed in Baptism and so much extoll'd by St. Paul It was not to be so understood as if it were a Certainty of our being predestinated which may be only a Presumption since all God's Promises are made to us on Conditions but it was an entire receiving the whole Gospel according to our Baptismal Vows Cranmer took great Pains to state this matter right and made a large Collection of many places all written with his own Hand both out of Antient and Modern Authors concerning Faith Justification and the Merit of Good Works and concluded with this That our Justification was to be ascribed only to the Merits of Christ and that those who are justified must have Charity as well as Faith but that neither of these was the meritorious Cause of Justification After this was stated they made next a large and full Explanation of the Apostles Creed with great Judgment and many excellent practical Inferences the Definition they gave of the Catholick Church runs thus It comprehended all Assemblies of Men in the whole World that received the Faith of Christ who ought to hold an Unity of Love and Brotherly Agreement together by which they became Members of the Catholick Church After this they explained the seven Sacraments In opening these there were great Debates for as was formerly mentioned the method used was to open the Point enquired into by proposing many Queries And of the Sacramenss and every one was to give in his Answer to these with the Reasons of it and then others were appointed to make an Abstract of those things in which they all either agreed or differed The Original Papers relating to these Points are yet preserved which shew with how great Consideration they proceeded in the Changes that were then made Cranmer had at this time some particular Opinions concerning Ecclesiastical Offices That they were delivered from the King as other Civil Offices were and that Ordination was not indispensibly necessary and was only a Ceremony that might be used or laid aside but that the Authority was conveyed to Church-men only by the King's Commission yet he delivered his Opinion in this matter with great Modesty and he not only subscribed the Book in which the contrary Doctrine was established but afterwards published it in a Book which he writ in King Edward's days from whence it appears that he changed his Mind in this Particular Baptism was explained as had been done formerly Penance was made to consist in the Absolution of the Priests which had been formerly declared only to be desirable where it could be had In the Communion both Transubstantiation Private Masses and Communion in one kind were asserted They asserted the Obligation of the Levitical Law about the Degrees of Marriage and the Indissolubleness of that Bond. They set out the Divine Institution of Priests and Deacons and that no Bishop had Authority over another they made a long Excursion against the Pope's Pretensions and for justifying the King's Supremacy They said Confirmation was instituted by the Apostles and was profitable but not necessary to Salvation and they asserted extream Unction to have been commanded by the Apostles for the Health both of Soul and Body Then were the Ten Commandments explained the second was added to the first but the Words For I am the Lord thy God c. were left out It was declared that no Godly Honour was to be done unto Images and that they ought only to be reverenced for their sakes whom they represented therefore the preferring of one Image to another and the making Pilgrimages and Offerings to them was condemned but the censing them or kneeling before them was permitted yet the People were to be taught that these things were done only to the Honour of God Invocation of Saints as Intercessors was allowed but immediate Addresses to them for the Blessings that were prayed for was condemned The strict rest from Labour on the seventh day was declared to be Ceremonial but it was necessary to rest from Sin and Carnal Pleasure and to follow Holy Duties The other Commandments were explained in a very plain and practical way Then was the Lord's Prayer explained and it was asserted that the People ought only to pray in their Vulgar Tongues for exciting their Devotion the more The Angels Salutation to the Virgin was also paraphrased They handled Free-will and defined it to be a Power by which the Will guided by Reason did without constraint discern and choose Good and Evil the former by the help of God's Spirit and
in particular were condemned of Treason for saying that the King was not Supream Head of the Church of England It was then only a Premunire not to swear to the Supremacy but it was made Treason to deny it or speak against it Hall a Secular Priest was at the same time condemned of Treason for calling the King a Tyrant an Heretick a Robber and an Adulterer and saying that he would die as King John or Richard the Third died and that it would never be well with the Church till the King was brought to Pot And that they looked when Ireland and Wales would rise and were assured that three parts of four in England would join with them All these pleaded not Guilty but being condemned they justified what they had said The Carthusians were hanged in their Habits Soon after that three Carthusians were condemned and executed at London two more at York upon the same account for opposing the King's Supremacy Ten other Monks were shut up in their Cells of whom nine died there and one was condemned and hanged These had been all Complices in the Business of the Maid of Kent and tho that was pardoned yet it gave the Government ground to have a watchful Eye over them and to proceed more severly against them upon the first Provocation After these Fisher's Sufferings Fisher and More were brought to their Trials Pope Clements officious Kindness to Fisher in declaring him a Cardinal did hasten his Ruine tho he was little concerned at that Honour that was done him He was tried by a Jury of Commoners and was found guilty of Treason for having spoken against the King's Supremacy but instead of the Common Death in Cases of Treason the King ordered him to be beheaded On the 22th of June he suffered He dressed himself with more then ordinary Care that day for he said it was to be his Wedding-Day As he was led out he opened the New Testament at a Venture and prayed that such a place might turn up as might comfort him in his last Moments The Words on which he cast his Eyes were This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So he shut the Book and continued meditating on these Words to the last On the Scaffold he repeated the Te Deum and so laid his Head on the Block which was severed from his Body He was a learned and devout Man but much addicted to Superstition and too cruel in his Temper against Hereticks He had been Confessor to the King's Grand-Mother and perswaded her to found two Colledges in Cambridge Christ's and St John's in Acknowledgment of which he was chosen Chancelof the University Henry the Seventh made him Bishop of Rochester He would never exchange that for any other He said his Church was his Wife and he would not part with his Wife because she was Poor He was much esteemed by this King till the Suit of the Divorce was set on foot and then he adhered stifly to the Marriage and the Popes Supremacy and that made him too favourable to the Nun of Kent But the Severities of his long Imprisonment together with this bloody Conclusion of it were universally condemned all the World over only Gardiner imploied his Servile Pen to write a Vindication of the King's Proceedings against him It was writ in Elegant Latin but the Stile was thought too Vehement More 's Death It was harder to find matter against Sir Thomas More for he was very cautious and satisfied his own Conscience by not swearing the Supremacy but would not not speak against it He said the Act had two Edges if he consented to it it would damne his Soul and if he spoke against it it would condemn his Body This was all the Message he sent to Fisher when he desired to know his Opinion about it he had also said the same to the Duke of Norfolk and some Counsellors that came to examine him And Rich then the King's Solicitor coming as a private Friend to perswade him to swear the Oath urged him with the Act of Parliament and asked him if he should be made King by Act of Parliament would not he Acknowledge him He answered he would because a King might be made or deprived by a Parliament But the Matter of the Supremacy was a point of Religion to which the Parliament's Authority did not extend it self All this Rich witnessed against him so these Particulars were laid together as amounting to a Denial of the King's Supremacy and upon this he was judged guilty of Treason He received his Sentence with that equal Temper of Mind which he had shewed in both Conditions of Life He expressed great Contempt of the World and much Weariness in living in it His ordinary Facetiousness remained with him to his last Moment on the Scaffold Some censured that as affected and indecent and as having more of the Stoick than the Christian in it But others said that way of Railery had been so Customary to him that Death did not discompose him nor put him out of his ordinary Humour He was beheaded on the 6th of July in the 52d or 53d Year of his Age. He had great Capacities and eminent Vertues In his Youth he had freer thoughts but he was afterwards much corrupted by Superstition and became fierce for all the Interests of the Clergy He wrote much in Defence of all the old Abuses His Learning in Divinity was but ordinary for he had read little more than some of St. Austin's Treatises and the Canon Law and the Master of the Sentences beyond whom his Quotations do seldom go His Stile was Natural and Pleasant and he could turn things very dextrously to make them look well or ill as it served his Purpose But tho he suffered for denying the Kings Supremacy yet he was at first no Zealot for the Pope For he says of himself That when the King shewed him his Book in Manuscript which he wrote against Luther he advised him to leave out that which he had put in it concerning the Pope's Power for he did not know what Quarrels he might have afterwards with the Pope's and then that would be turned against him But the King was perhaps fond of what he had written and so he would not follow that wise Advice which he gave him There were no Executions after this till the Rebellions of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire gave new Occasions to Severity Attainders after the Rebellion and then not only the Lords of Darcy and Hussy but six Abbots and many Gentlemen the chief of whom was Sir Thomas Piercy Brother to the Earl of Northumberland were attainted They had not only been in the Rebellion but had forfeited the General Pardon by their new Attempts after it was proclaimed Yet some said the King took Advantage on very slight Grounds to break his Indemnity But on the other hand it was no Wonder if he proceeded with the utmost Rigour
the German Princes and yet it was very dangerous to begin a War of such Consequence under an Infant King At present they promised within three Months to send by the Merchants of the Still-yard 50000 Crowns to Hamburgh and resolved to do no more till new Emergents should lead them to new Councels The Nation was in an ill condition for a War Divisions in England with such a mighty Prince labouring under great distractions at home the People generally cried out for a Reformation they despised the Clergy and loved the new Preachers The Priests were for the most part both very ignorant and scandalous in their lives many of them had been Monks and those that were to pay them the pensions that were reserved to them at the destruction of the Monasteries till they should be provided took care to get them into some small Benefice The greatest part of the Parsonages were Impropriated for they belonged to the Monasteries and the Abbots had only granted the Incumbents either the Vicarage or some small Donative and left them the Perquisites raised by Masses and other Offices At the suppression of those Houses there was no care taken to provide the Incumbents better so they chiefly subsisted by Trentals other Devices that brought them in some small relief though the Price of them was scandalously low for Masses went often at 2 d. a Groat was a great bounty Now these saw that a Reformation of those abuses took the Bread out of their mouths so their Interests prevailing more with them than any thing else they were zealously engaged against all changes but that same Principle made them comply with every change that was made rather than lose their Benefices Their poverty made them run into another abuse of holding more Benefices at the same time a Corruption of so crying and scandalous a nature that where ever it is practised it is sufficient to possess the People with great prejudices against the Church that is guilty of it there being nothing more contrary to the plainest impressions of reason than that every Man who undertakes a Cure of Souls whom at his Ordination he has vowed that he would instruct feed govern ought to discharge that trust himself which is the greatest and most important of all others The Clergy were incouraged in their Opposition to all changes by the protection they expected from Gardiner Bonner and Tonstall who were Men of great reputation as well as set in high places and above all Lady Mary did openly declare against all Changes till the King should be of Age. But on the other hand Cranmer whose greatest weakness was his over-obsequiousness to King Henry being now at liberty resolved to proceed more vigorously The Protector was firmly united to him so were the young Kings Tutors and he was as much engaged as could be expected from so young a Person for both his knowledge and zeal for true Religion were above his Age. Several of the Bishops did also declare for a Reformation but Dr. Ridley now made Bishop of Rochester was the Person on whom he depended most Latimer was kept by him at Lambeth and did great service by his Sermons which were very popular but he would not return to his Bishoprick choosing rather to serve the Church in a more disengaged manner Many of the Bishops were very ignorant and poor spirited Men raised meerly by Court-favour who wee little concerned for any thing but their Revenues Cranmer resolved to proceed by degrees and to open the reasons of every advance that was made so fully that he hoped by the blessing of God to possess the Nation of the fitness of what they should do and thereby to prevent any dangerous opposition that might otherwise be apprehended The power of the Privy Council had been much exalted in King Henry's time by Act of Parliament and one Proviso in it was that the King's Council should have the same Authority when he was under Age that he himself had at full Age A Visitation of all the Churches so it was resolved to begin with a General Visitation of all England which was divided into six Precincts and two Gentlemen a Civilian a Divine and a Register were appointed for every one of these But before they were sent out May. there was a Letter written to all the Bishops giving them notice of it suspending their Jurisdiction while it lasted and requiring them to preach no where but in their Cathedrals and that the other Clergy should not preach but in their own Churches without Licence by which it was intended to restrain such as were not acceptable to their own Parishes and to grant the others Licences to Preach in any Church of England The greatest difficulty that the Reformers found was in the want of able and prudent Men the most zealous were too hot and indiscreet and the few they had that were Eminent were to be imployed in London and the Universities Therefore they intended to make those as common as was possible and appointed them to preach as Itinerants and Visitors The only thing by which the People could be universally instructed was a Book of Homilies so the twelve first Homilies in the Book still known by that name were compiled in framing which the chief design was to acquaint the People aright with the nature of the Gospel Covenant in which there were two extreams equally dangerous the one was of those who thought the Priests had an infallible secret of saving their souls if they would in all things follow their directions the other was of those who thought that if they magnified Christ much and depended on his Merits they could not perish which way soever they led their lives So the mean between these was observed and the People were taught both to depend on the sufferings of Christ and also to lead their lives according to the rules of the Gospel without which they could receive no benefit by his death Order was also given that a Bible should be in every Church which though it was commanded by King Henry yet had not been generally obeyed and for understanding the New Testament Erasmus's Paraphrase was put out in English and appointed to be set up in every Church His great reputation and learning and his dying in the Communion of the Roman Church made this Book to be preferred to any other since there lay no prejudice to Erasmus which would have been objected to any other Author They renewed also all the Injunctions made by Cromwel in the former Reign which after his fall were but little looked after as those for instructing the people for removing Images and putting down all other customes abused to superstition perstition for reading the Scriptures and saying the Litany in English for frequent Sermons and Catechising for the Exemplary lives of the Clergy and their labours in visiting the sick and the other parts of their function such as reconciling differences and exhorting their people to Charities and
the other Executors had treated with Ambassadours apart had made Bishops and Lord-Lieutenants without their knowledge had held a Court of Requests in his House had embased the Coin had neglected the Places the King had in France had encouraged the Commons in their late Insurrections and had given out Commissions and proclaimed a Pardon without their consent that he had animated the King against the rest of the Council and had proclaimed them Traitors had put his own Servants armed about the King's Person By these it appears the Crimes against him were the effects of his sudden exaltation that had made him too much forget that he was a subject but that he had carried his greatness with much Innocence since no acts of Cruelty Rapine or Bribery were objected to him for they were rather errours and weaknesses than Crimes His embasing the Coin was done upon a common mistake of weak Governments who flye to that as their last refuge in the necessity of their affairs In his Imprisonment he set himself to the study of Moral Philosophy and Divinity and writ a Preface to a Book of Patience which had made great Impressions on him His fall was a great affliction to all that loved the Reformation and that was increased because they had no reason to trust much to the two chief Men of the party against him Southampton and Warwick the one was a known Papist and the other was lookt on as a Man of no Religion and both at the Emperor's Court and in France it was expected that upon this revolution matters of Religion would be again set back into the posture in which King Henry had left them The Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner hoped to be discharged and Bonner lookt to be re-established in his Bishoprick again and all People began to fall off much from the new service but the Earl of Warwick finding the King was zealously addicted to the Reformation quickly forsook the Popish party and seemed to be a mighty promoter of that work A Court of Civilians was appointed to examine Bonner's Appeal and upon their report the Council rejected it and confirmed the Sentence that was past upon him But next The Emperor will not assist them foreign affairs come under their care They suspected that Paget had not dealt effectually with the Emperour to assist them in the preservation of Bulloign so they sent over Sir Tho. Cheyney to try what might be expected from him they took also care of the Garrison and both encreased it and supplied it well Cheyney found the same reception with the Emperour and had the same answer that Paget got The Emperor prest him much that matters of Religion might be again considered and confest that till that were done he could not assist them so effectually as otherwise he would do so now the Council found it necessary to apply to the Court of France for a Peace The Earl of Southampton left the Court in great discontent he was neither restored to his Office of Chancellour nor was he made one of the six Lords that were appointed to have the charge of the King's Person this touched him so much that he died not long after of grief as was believed In November A Session of Parliament a Session of Parliament met in which an Act was past declaring it Treason to call any to the number of Twelve together about any matter of State if being required they did not disperse themselves other Riotous Assemblies were also declared felonious the giving out of Prophecies concerning the King or Council was also made Penal Another Law was made against Vagabonds the former Statute was repealed as too severe and Provisions were made for the relief of the Sick and Impotent and Imploying such as could work The Bishops made a heavy complaint of the growth of Vice and Impiety and that their power was so much abridged that they could not repress it so a Bill was read enlarging their Authority but it was thought that it gave them too much power yet it was so moderated that the Lords past it But the Commons rejected it and instead of it sent up a Bill that impowered XXXII who were to be named by the King the one half of the Temporalty and the other of Spiritualty to compile a body of Ecclesiastical Laws within three years and that these not being contrary to the Common or Statute Law and approved of by the King should have the force of Ecclesiastical Laws of the 32. Four were to be Bishops and as many to be Common Lawyers Six Bishops and six Divines were impowered to prepare a new form of Ordination which being confirmed under the Great Seal should take place after April next Articles were also put in against the Duke of Somerset with a Confession signed by him But some objected that they ought not to proceed The Duke of Somerset fined but restored to favour till they knew whether he had signed it voluntarily or not and some were sent to examine him he acknowledged he had done it freely but protested that his errours had flowed rather from Indiscretion than Malice and denied all treasonable designs against the King or the Realm he was fined in 2000 l. a year in Land and in the loss of all his Goods and Offices He complained of the heaviness of this Censure and desired earnestly to be restored to the Kings favour and promised to carry himself so humbly and obediently that he should make amends for his past follies which was thought a sign of too abject a mind others excused it since the power and malice of his Enemies was such that he was not safe as long as he continued in Prison he was discharged in the beginning of February soon after he had his pardon and did so manage his interest in the King that he was again brought both to the Court and Council in April But if these submissions gained him some favour at Court they sunk him as much in the esteem of the World The Reformation was now A Progress in the Reformation after this confusion was over carried on again with vigour The Council sent Orders over England to require all to conform themselves to the new service and to call in all the Books of the old Offices An Act past in Parliament to the same effect one Earl six Bishops and four Lords only dissenting all the old Books and Images were appointed to be defaced and all prayers to Saints were to be struck out of the Primers published by the late King A Subsidy was granted and the King gave a General Pardon out of which all Prisoners on the account of the State and Anabaptists were excepted In this Session the Eldest Sons of Peers were first allowed to sit in the House of Commons The Committee appointed to prepare the Book of Ordination finished their work with common consent only Heath Bishop of Worcester refused to sign it for which he was called before the
Aldernay and Sark two small Islands in the Channel which the French desired and at the delivering up of Roxburgh and Aymouth to the Scots then in the hands of the English The Council ordered their Commissioners to insist on these things and to offer to break up their Conference rather than yield to them but if that had no effect on the French then they were to let them go In Conclusion the English after a Protestation by which they reserved to the King all the rights that he had at the beginning of the War agreed to deliver up Bulloign and all the places about it and all the Ordnance in it except what the English had cast for which the French were to pay them four hundred thousand Crowns All the places which the English had in Scotland were to be delivered up and the Forts razed and six Hostages were to be given on both sides for the performance who were the Sons of the men of the greatest quality So was the Peace fully concluded and the Articles were duly performed on both hands The Council approved of the proceedings of their Plenipotentiaries only the Earl of Warwick who had declared himself much against the delivery of Bulloign pretended sickness and was absent At this time the Earl of Warwick ordered a review to be made of all accounts and brought in much money by the Fines of those who were accused for Malversation The Earl of Arundel was fined in 12000 l. Sir James Thynne in 6000 l. and many others of the Protectors creatures in 3000 l. In February Ridley made Bishop of London Ridley was made Bishop of London and Westminster 1000 l. a year of the Rents of the See were assigned him with licence to hold two Prebends Reps Bishop of Norwich resigned upon which Therleby Bishop of Westminster was removed to Norwich and it was intended to re-unite London and Westminster but though they still remained different Sees yet they were now put under one mans care His Patent was not during pleasure but during life It does not appear that there was any design in this Reign to put down Cathedrals for though Westminster Gloucester and Durham were suppressed the two former being united one to London and another to Worcester and the latter being to be divided in two yet in none of these were the Dean and Chapter Lands fallen on Gardiner continued still in prison During the Protectors Ministry some Privy Counsellors dealt with him Gardiners Process to sue to him for mercy and to declare whether he approved the new Service or not But he said he had done no fault and so would not ask Pardon nor would he declare his opinion while he continued a Prisoner lest his Enemies might say he did it only to be set at liberty Upon the Protectors fall he expected he should have been discharged of his Imprisonment and thought it so near that he made a farewel Feast to the Officers in the Tower Some Privy Counsellours were sent to him with Articles acknowledging former offences approving the Book of Common Prayer and asserting the Kings Power when he was under age and his authority to reform abuses in the Church and that the six Articles were justly abrogated He signed the Paper only he wrote on the Margin that he could not confess former offences for he was not convinced of any fault he had done Upon this it was believed that he was to be quickly let out but another Message was sent him that he must confess that he had been justly punished This he plainly refused to do and said he would never defame himself Ridley was sent to him with a new Paper in which the confession of his faults was more softly worded the rest related to the Popes power the suppressing the Abbies and Chantries Pilgrimages Masses Images the Adoration of the Sacrament Communion in both kinds the abolishing the old Books of Service and setting up the new with the Book of Ordinations and the lawfulness of a married Clergy But he said he would sign no more Articles while he continued in Prison and desired that he might be either tried or set at liberty for he asked not Mercy but Justice And being called before the Council and required to sign those Articles he gave them the same answer He said some of these points were already setled by Law others were not so and in these he was at liberty to do as he pleased Upon this his Bishoprick was sequestred and he was required to conform himself within three months under pain of deprivation and the freedome of the Tower was denied him All this was much censured as contrary to Law and the liberties of English men and it was said that it savoured more of a Court of Inquisition than of a legal way of proceeding The Canon Law was not yet rectified so the King being in the Popes room this way ex Officio was excused as grounded upon the forms of the Spiritual Courts There was a discourse on foot of a Marriage between the King and a Daughter of France which grieved the Reformers who rather wisht him to marry Maximilians Daughter who was believed to favour the Reformation and was esteemed one of the best men of the age Old Latimer preached at Court Latimer preaches at Court and warned the King of the ill effects of bad Marriages which were made up only as bargains without affection between the parties and that they occasioned so much Whoring and so many Divorces He also complained of the luxury and vanity of the Age and of many called Gospellers who were concerned for nothing but Abbey and Chantry Lands he also prest the setting up a Primitive Discipline in the Church He preached this as his last Sermon and so used great freedome He complained that the Kings debts were not paid and yet his Officers grew vastly rich He prayed the King not to seek his pleasures too much and charged all about him to be faithful to him The See of Gloucester fell vacant Hooper made Bishop of Gloucester has scruples concerning the Vestments and Hooper was named to it upon which the heats concerning things indifferent that have since that time so fatally rent the Church had their their first rise He had some scruples about the Episcopal Vestments and thought that all those Garments having been Consecrated with much superstition were to be reckoned among the Elements condemned by S. Paul But Ridley justified the use of them and said the Elements condemned by S. Paul were only the Jewish Ceremonies which though the Apostles condemned when they were imposed as necessary for that imported that the Mosaical Law was not yet abrogated and that the Messiah was not come Yet they themselves used them at other times to gain upon the Jews by that Compliance And if Apostles did such things to gain them Subjects ought much more to obey the Laws in matters indifferent And Superstitious Consecrations was as good an Argument for throwing
Duke of Somerset's administration and was set on by the Duke of Northumberland's Party to let the King see how well pleased the Representative of the Nation was with his fall The Sons of the Nobility and Gentry had ordinarily Prebends given them A Bill proposed that Lay-men should not hold Church-dignities under this pretence that they intended to follow their studies and make themselves capable of entring into Orders and this was like to become a great prejudice to the Clergy when so many of the dignities of the Church were in Lay-hands Upon this the Bishops procured a Bill to be past in the House of Lords that none might hold these that was not either Priest or Deacon but at the third reading the Commons threw it out Another Bill past for suppressing the Bishoprick of Durham An Act suppressing the Bishop of Durham and erecting two new Sees the one at Durham and the other at Newcastle the former was to have 2000. and the latter 1000. Marks Revenue there was also a Dean and a Chapter to be endowed at Newcastle Ridley was designed to be made Bishop of Durham But though the secular Jurisdiction of that See was given to the Duke of Northumberland yet the King's death stopt the further progress of this affair Tonstall was deprived as Heath and Day were by a Court of Lay-delegates upon the Informations that had been brought against him of Misprision of Treason and was kept in the Tower till Queen Mary set him at liberty The King granted a General Pardon in which the Commons moved the Lords that some words might be put though that is not usual to be done for Acts of Pardon are commonly past without any Changes made in them After the passing these Acts the Parliament was dissolved on the last of March. For it seems either the Duke of Northumberland was not pleased with the proceedings in the House of Commons or he was resolved to call frequent Parliaments and not continue the same as the Duke of Somerset had done Visitors were sent after this to examine what Plate was in every Church Another Visitation and to leave them one or two Chalices of Silver with Linnen for the Communion-Table and for Surplices and to bring in all other things of value to the Treasurer of the King's Houshold and to sell the rest and give it to the Poor This was a new rifling of Churches by which it seemed some resolved not to cease till they had brought them to a Primitive Poverty as well as the Reformers intended to bring them to a Primitive purity The King set his hand to these Instructions from which some have inferred that he was ill principled in himself when at such an Age he joyned his Authority to such proceedings But he was now so ill that it is probable he set his hand to every thing that the Council sent him without examining anxiously what it might import Skip Bishop of Hereford dying Harley succeeded him and was the last that was promoted by the Kings Letters Patents as Barlow was the first Bishops made by the Kings Patent being removed by them from St. Davids to Bath and Wells The form of the Patent was That the King appointed such a one to be Bishop during his Natural life or as long as he behaved himself well and gave him power to ordain or deprive Ministers to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and perform all the other parts of the Episcopal Function that by the Word of God were committed to Bishops and this they were to do in the King's Name and by his Authority Ferrar was put in St. Davids upon Barlow's removal he was an indiscreet Man and drew upon himself the dislike of his Prebendaries and many complaints were made of him which if true discovered great weakness in him at last he was sued in a Premunire for acting in his own name and not in the King 's in his Courts and was put in Prison where he continued till Morgan that was his chief Accuser being put in his place by Queen Mary condemned him to the Fire which turned all former Censures that he had given occasion for by his simplicity into esteem and compassion By these Patents the Episcopal Power was still declared to flow from Christ they were only presentations to Bishopricks such as other Patrons gave to inferiour Benefices and such as Christian Princes in France and other Kingdoms gave in elder times for Bishopricks Their Courts were ordered to be held in the King's Name but all this was repealed by Queen Mary and when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown instead of reviving this she revived that made in the 25 Hen. 8. by which Bishops were authorised to hold their Courts as they had done formerly and though Queen Mary's repeal of the Statute of this King was afterwards taken away so that this Act seemed thereby to be again in force yet Queen Flizabeth's reviving that made by her Father was understood to be in effect a Repeal of it so that in King James's time when some scruples were started about it the Judges did not think it necessary to make an Explanatory Act to clear the matter for the thing did not seem to admit of any debate A new and fuller Catechism was this Year composed by Poinet and was published with the Kings approbation The state of affairs beyond Sea Affairs in Germany was now quite turned so that the Progress the French had made set the English Council on mediating a Peace The Emperour represented to them the danger the Netherlands were in since the French were Masters of Metz and so could in a great measure divide them from the assistance that they might receive from the Empire therefore he desired that according to the Ancient Leagues between England and the House of Burgundy they would now engage against the French The Council sent over Ambassadours both to the Emperour and the French King to mediate The Emperour was then indisposed but his Ministers complained much that the French had broken with them perfidiously when they were making solemn protestations that they intended to observe the Peace religiously The Germans proposed a League between the Emperour the King of the Romans the King of England and the Princes of the Empire The Emperour moved that the Netherlands might be comprehended within the perpetual League of the Empire but the Princes refused that since those Provinces were like to be the perpetual Seat of War when ever it should break out between France and Spain unless they might have reciprocal advantages for exposing themselves to so much danger and charge The French made extravagant Propositions by which it appeared that their King had a mind to carry on the War They askt the restitution of Millan Sicily Naples and Navarre and the Soveraignty of the Netherlands and that Metz Toul and Verdun should continue under the Protection of France The English would not receive these as Mediators but took them
that could be obtained It was agreed that at the end of eight Years Calais should either be restored or 500000. Crowns should be payed the Queen yet if during that time she made War either on France or Scotland she was to forfeit her right to Calais Aymouth in Scotland was to be rased and all differences on the Borders there were to be determined by some deputed on both sides this being adjusted a General Peace between the Crowns of England France and Spain was concluded and thus the Queen being freed from the dangerous consultations that the continuance of a War might have involved her in was the more at liberty to settle matters at home The first Bill Acts past in Parliament that was brought to try the Temper of the Parliament was for the Restitution of the Tenths and First-fruits to the Crown against this all the Bishops protested but that was all the opposition made to it By it not only that Tax was of new laid on the Clergy but all the Impropriated Benefices which Queen Mary had surrendred were restored to the Crown After this The Commons pray the Queen to marry the Commons made an Address to the Queen desiring her to choose such a Husband as might make both her self and the Nation happy She received this very kindly since they had neither limited her to time nor Nation but declared that as hitherto she had lived with great satisfaction in a single state and had refused the Propositions that had been made her both in her Brothers and Sisters reign so she had no Inclination to change her course of life If ever she did it she would take care that it should be for the good and to the satisfaction of her People She thought she was married to the Nation at her Coronation and looked on her People as her Children and she would be well contented if her Tombstone might tell Posterity Here lies a Queen that reigned so long and lived and dyed a Virgin There was little more progress made in this matter save that a Committee was appointed by both Houses to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen might happen to marry but she sent them a Message to proceed to other affairs and let that alone A Bill for the Recognition of her Title to the Crown was put in Her Title to the Crown acknowledged It was not thought necessary to Repeal the Sentence of her Mothers Divorce for the Crown purged all defects and it was thought needless to look back unto a thing which could not be done without at least casting some reproach on her Father so it was in general words Enacted That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and the Realm she was their lawful Queen and was rightly and lineally descended This was thought a much wiser way than if they examined the Sentence of Divorce that past upon the Confession of a Precontract which must have revived the remembrance of things that were better left in silence Bills were put in for the English Service Acts concerning Religion for reviving King Edward's Laws and for annexing the Supremacy again to the Crown To that concerning the Supremacy two Temporal Lords and nine Bishops with the Abbot of Westminster dissented It was proposed to revive the Law for making the Bishops by Letters-Patents as was in King Edward's time but they choosed rather to revive the Act for Electing them made in the 25. Hen. 8. They revived all Acts made against the Pope's power in King Henry's time and repealed those made by Queen Mary They enacted an Oath for acknowledging the Queen Supream Governour in all causes and over all Persons Those that refused it were to forfeit all Offices that they held either in Church or State and to be under a disability during life If any should advance the authority of a Foreign Power for the first offence they were to be fined or imprisoned for the second to be in a Praemunire and the third was made Treason The Queen was also impowered to give Commissions for Judging and Reforming Ecclesiastical matters who were limited to judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so judged by the authority of the Scriptures or the first four General Councils All Points that were not decided either by express words of Scripture or by those Councils were to be referred to the Parliament and Convocation The Title of Supream Head was changed partly because the Queen had some scruples about it and partly to moderate the opposition which the Popish party might otherwise make to it and the refusing the Oath was made no other way Penal but that all Offices or Benefices were forfeited upon it which was a great mitigation of the severity in King Henry's time The Bishops are said to have made several Speeches against this in the House of Lords but that which goes under the name of Heath's Speech must be a forgery for in it the Supremacy is called a new and unheard of thing which could not have flowed from one that had sworn it so often both under King Henry and King Edward Tonstall came not to this Parliament and he was so offended with the Cruelties of the last Reign that he had withdrawn himself into his Diocess where he burnt none himself upon that it was now thought that he was so much alienated from those Methods that some had great hopes of his declaring for the Reformation Heath had been likewise very moderate nor were any burnt under him Upon the power given the Queen to appoint some to Reform and direct all Ecclesiastical matters was the Court called the High Commission Court founded which indeed was nothing but the sharing that authority which was in one Person in King Henry's time into many hands for that Court had no other authority but that which was lodged formerly in Cromwell as the King's Vicegerent and was now thought too great to be trusted to one Man Great complaints were made of seditious Sermons preached by the Popish Clergy Preaching without Licence forbidden upon which the Queen followed the Precedent that her Sister had made and forbid all Preaching excepting only by such as obtained a Licence under the Great Seal for it She likewise sent an Order to the Convocation requiring them under the pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet the lower House in an Address to the upper House declared for the Corporal Presence and that the Mass was a Propitiatory Sacrifice and for the Supremacy and that matters of Religion fell only under the Cognisance of the Pastors of the Church The greatest part of both Universities had also set their hands to all these Points except the last This it seems A publick Conference about Religion was the rather added by the Clerks of Convocation to hinder a publick Conference which the Queen had appointed between the Bishops and the Reformed Divines It was first
he had done nothing but only pleaded in the King's Name The Clergy pretended they did not prosecute him for his pleading but for some of his Divinity Lectures contrary to the Liberty of the Church which the King was bound to maintain by his Coronation-Oath but the Temporal Lords the Judges and the Commons prayed the King also to maintain the Laws according to his Coronation-Oath and to give Standish his Protection The King upon this being in great perplexity required Veysy afterwards Bishop of Exeter to declare upon his Conscience and Allegiance the truth in that matter His Opinion was against the Immunity so another publick Hearing being appointed Standish was accused for teaching That the Inferiour Orders were not sacred That their Exemption was not founded on a Divine Right but that the Laity might punish them That the Canons of the Church did not bind till they were received and that the study of the Canon Law was useless Of these he denied some and justified other particulars Veysy being required to give his Opinion alledged That the Laws of the Church did only oblige where they were received As the Law of the Celibate of the Clergy received in the West did not bind the Greek Churches that never received it So the exemption of the Clerks not being received did not bind in England The Judges gave their Opinion next which was That those who prosecuted Standish were all in a Premunire So the Court broke up But in another Hearing in the presence of the greatest part of both Houses of Parliament the Cardinal said in the name of the Clergy That tho they intended to do nothing against the King's Prerogative yet the trying of Clerks seemed to be contrary to the Liberty of the Church which they were bound by their Oaths to maintain So they prayed that the matter might be referred to the Pope The King answered that he thought Standish had answered them fully The Bishop of Winchester said he would not stand to his Opinion at his Peril Standish upon that said What can one poor Friar do against all the Clergy of England The Arch-bishop of Canterbury said Some of the Fathers of the Church had suffered Martyrdom upon that account but the Chief-Justice replied That many holy Kings had maintained that Law and many holy Bishops had obeyed it In conclusion the King declared that he would maintain his Rights and would not submit them to the Decrees of the Church otherwise than as his Ancestors had done Warham Arch-bishop of Canterbury desired so long time might be given that they might have an Answer returned from Rome but that was not granted yet a Temper was found Horsey was appointed to be brought to his Trial for Hun's Murder and upon his pleading not guilty no Evidence was to be brought and so he was to be discharged But upon this it was said The Judges were more concerned to maintain their Jurisdiction than to do Justice upon so horrid a Murder so the discontent given by it was raised so much higher and the Crime of a few Murderers was now transferred upon the whole Clergy who had concerned themselves so much in their Preservation and this did very much dispose the Laity to all that was done afterwards for pulling down the Ecclesiastical Tyranny This was the only uneasy stop in this King's Raign The King is much addicted to the Papacy till the suit for his Divorce was commenced In all other points he was constantly in the Pope's Interests who sent him the common Complements of Roses and such other Triffles by which that See had treated Princes so long as Children The King made the Defence of the Popedom an Article in his Leagues with other Princes and Pope Julius having called a General Council to the Lateran in opposition to that which by Lewis the Twelfth's means was held at Pisa The King sent the Bishops of Worcester and Rochester the Prior of St. John's and the Abbot of Winchelcomb to represent the Church of England thereby to give the greater Authority to a pack'd meeting of Italian Bishops and Abbots who assumed to themselves the Title of a Holy and Oecumenical Council But no Complement wrought so much on the King's Vanity as the Title of Defender of Faith sent him by Pope Leo upon the Book which he writ against Luther concerning the Sacraments The Cardinal drew upon himself the hatred of the Clergy Crrdinal Wolsey intends to reform the Clergy by a Bull which impowered him to visit all the Monasteries of England and to dispence with all the Laws of the Church for a Year He also gave out that he intended to reform the Clergy though he forgot that which ought to be the first step of all who pretend to reform others for none could be worse than himself was He lived in great Luxury and in an insolent Affectation of the highest Statepossible many of his Domesticks being men of the first Rank He intended to suppress many Monasteries and thought the best way for doing it with the least Scandal was first to visit them and so to expose their Corruptions But he was afterwards diverted from this yet the design which he laid being communicated to Cromwel that was then his Secretary it was put in Practice toward the end of this Reign when the Monasteries were all suppressed The Convocations were of two sorts The summoning of Convocations some were summoned by the King when Parliaments were called as is in use to this Day only the King did not then prefix a Day but left that to the Arch-bishops Others were called by the Archbishops and were Provincial Synods of which there were but few The Cardinal pretended that the summoning all Convocations belonged to him as Legate so that when Warham had called one he dissolved it after it was met and summoned it of new In that Convocation a great Supply was granted to the King of half a Years Rent of all Benefices payable in five Years for assisting him in his Wars with France and Scotland This was much opposed by the Cardinal's Enemies but it was agreed to at last a Proviso being made that such a heavy tax should never be made a Precedent for the future tho the Grant they made was more likely to become a Precedent than this Proviso to be a Security for the time to come This encreased the Aversion the Clergy had for the Cardinal the Monks were more particularly incensed for they saw he was resolved to suppress their Foundations and convert them to other uses In the days of King Edgar most of the Cathedrals of England were possessed by Secular Priests The State of the Monasteries who were generally married but Dunstan and some other Monks took advantage from the Vices of that Prince to perswade him to make Compensation for them and as he made Laws in which he declared what Compensations were to be made for Sins both by the Rich and Poor so it seems he thought the
Arthur and Katherine the Infanta of Spain She came into England was married in November but on the second of April after the Prince died They were not only bedded in Ceremony the night of the Marriage but continued still to lodg together and the Prince by some indecent Rallery gave Occasion to believe that the Marriage was consummated which was so little doubted that some imputed his too early end to his excess in it After his Death his younger Brother was not created Prince of Wales till ten Months had past it being then apparent that the Princess was not with Child by the late Prince Women were also set about her to wait on her with the Precaution that is necessary in such a Case so that it was generally believed that she was no Virgin when the Prince died Henry the seventh being unwilling to restore so great a Portion as two hundred thousand Ducats proposed a second Match for her with his Younger Son Henry Warham did then object against the Lawfulness of it yet Fox Bishop of Winchester was for it and the Opinion of the Pope's Authority was then so well established that it was thought a Dispensation from Rome was sufficient to remove all Objections Decemb. 1503. so one was obtained grounded upon a desire of the two young Persons to marry together for preserving Peace between the Crowns of England and Spain by which the Pope dispensed with it notwithstanding the Princess's Marriage to Prince Arthur which was as is said in the Bull perhaps consummated The Pope was then in War with Lewis the twelfth of France and so would refuse nothing to the King of England being perhaps not unwilling that Princes should contract such Marriages by which the Legitimation of their Issued epending on the Pope's Dispensation they would be thereby obliged in Interest to support that Authority upon this a Marriage followed the Prince being yet under Age but the same day in which he came to be of Age he did by his Father's Orders make a Protestation that he retracted and annulled his Marriage Henry the seventh at his Death charged him to break it off entirely being perhaps apprehensive of such a return of Confusion upon a controverted Succession to the Crown as had been during the Wars of the Houses of York and Lancaster but upon his Death Henry the Eighth being then eighteen Years of Age married her She bore him two Sons who died soon after they were born and a Daughter Mary that lived to reign after him Matches proposed for his Daughter but after that the Queen contracted some Diseases that made her unacceptable to the King so all hope of any other Issue failing several Matches were proposed for his Daughter the first was with the Dauphin then she was contracted with the Emperor and after that a Proposition was made for the King of Scotland and last of all a Treaty was made with Francis the first either for himself he being then a Widower or for his second Son the Duke of Orleans to be determin'd at his Option upon which the Bishop of Tarbe was sent over Ambassador to conclude it he made an Exception that the Marriage was doubtful and the Lady not legitimate which had been likewise made by the Cortes of Spain by whose Advice the Emperor broke the Contract upon that very account so that other Princes moving Scruples against a Marriage with his Daughter the Heir of so great a Crown the King began to make some himself or rather to publish them for he said afterwards he had them some Years before Yet the Cardinal's hatred to the Emperor was look'd on as one of the secret Springs of the King's Aversion to his Aunt which the King vindicating him in publick afterwards did not remove that being considered only as a Court Contrivance The King seemed to lay the greatest Weight on the prohibition in the Levitical Law of marrying the Brother's Wife The King has some scruples concerning his Marriage and he being conversant in Thomas Aquinas's Writings found that he and the other Schoolmen look'd on those Laws as Moral and for ever binding and that by Consequence the Pope's Dispensation was of no force since his Authority went not so far as to dispence with the Laws of God All the Bishops of England Fisher of Rochester only excepted declared under their Hands and Seals that they judged the Marriage unlawful The ill Consequences of Wars that might follow upon a doubtful Title to the Crown were also much considered or at least pretended It is not probable that the engagement of the King's Affections to any other gave the rise to all this for so prying a Courtier as Wolsey was would have discovered it and not have projected a Marriage with Francis's Sister if he had seen the King prepossessed It is more probable that the King conceiving himself upon the point of being discharged of his former Marriage gave a free scope to his Affections which upon that came to settle on Anne Bolleyn The King had reason enough to expect a quick and favourable dispatch of his business at Rome where Dispensations or Divorces in Favour of Princes used to pass rather with regard to the Merits of the Prince that desired them than of the Cause it self His Alliance seemed then necessary to the Pope who was at that time in Captivity Nor could the Emperour with any good colour oppose his Suit since he had broken his Contract with his Daughter upon the account of the doubtfulness of the Marriage The Cardinal had also given him full Assurances of a good Answer from Rome whether upon the knowledg he had of that Court and of the Pope's temper or upon any promise made him is not certain The Reasons gathered by the Canonists for annulling the Bull of Dispensation upon which the Divorce was to follow in course were grounded upon some false suggestions in the Bull and upon the Protestation which the King had made when he came to be of Age. In a word they were such that a favourable Pope left to himself would have yielded to them without any scruple Anne Bolleyn was born in the year 1507 and went to France at seven years of Age and returned twelve years after to England She was much admired in both Courts and continued to live without any Blemish till her unfortunate Fall gave occasion to some malicious Writers to defame her in all the Parts of her Life She was more beautiful than graceful and more chearful than discreet She wanted none of the Charms of Wit or Person and must have had extraordinary Attractives since she could so long manage such a King's Affection in which her being with Child soon after the Marriage shews that in the whole course of seven years she kept him at a due distance Upon her coming to England the Lord Piercy being then a Domestick of the Cardinals made love to her and went so far as to engage himself some way to
unlawful in it self The Sorbon declares against the Marriage At Paris the Sorbon made their Determination with great Solemnity after a Mass of the Holy Ghost all the Doctors took an Oath to study the Question and to give their Judgment according to their Consciences and after three Weeks study the greater part agreed in this That the King's Marriage was unlawful and that the Pope could not dispense with it At Orleans Angiers and Tholouse they determined to the same purpose Erasmus had a mind to live in quiet and so he would not give his Opinion nor offend either party Grineus was implored to try what Bucer Zuinglius and Oecolampadius thought of the Marriage Bucer's Opinion was The Opinion of the Reformed Divines about it that the Laws in Leviticus did not bind and were not moral Because God not only dispensed but commanded them to marry their Brother's Wife when he died without Issue Zuinglius and Oecolampadius were of another mind and thought these Laws were moral But were of Opinion that the Issue by a Marriage de facto grounded upon a received Mistake ought not to be Illegitimated Calvin thought the Marriage was null and they all agreed that the Pope's Dispensation was of no force Osiander was imploied to engage the Lutheran Divines but they were affraid of giving the Emperour new grounds of displeasure Melanctthon thought the Law in Leviticus was dispensable and that the Marriage might be lawful and that in those matters States and Princes might make what Laws they pleased And though the Divines of Leipsick after much disputing about it did agree that these Laws were moral yet they could never be brought to justify the Divorce with the subsequent Marriage that followed upon it even after it was done and that the King appeared very inclinable to receive their Doctrine So steadily did they follow their Consciences even against their Interests But the Pope was more compliant for he offered to Cassali to grant the King a Dispensation for having another Wife with which the Imperialists seemed not disatisfied The King's Cause being thus fortified Many of the Nobility write to the Pope by so many Resolutions in his Favours he made many members of Parliament in a Prorogation time sign a Letter to the Pope complaining that notwithstanding the great merits of the King the Justice of his Cause and the Importance of it to the safety of the Kingdom yet the Pope made still new Delayes they therefore pressed him to dispatch it speedily otherwise they would be forced to see for other Remedies tho they were not willing to drive things to Extremities till it was unavoidable The Letter was signed by the Cardinal the Archbishop of Canterbury four other Bishops 22 Abbots 42 Peers and 11 Commoners To this the Pope wrote an answer The Pope's Answer He took notice of the Vehemence of their Stile He freed himself from the Imputations of Ingratitude and Injustice He acknowledged the King's great Merits and said he had done all he could in his Favour He had granted a Commission but could not refuse to receive the Queen's Appeal all the Cardinals with one consent judged that an Avocation was necessary Since that time the delays lay not at his door but at the Kings that he was ready to proceed and would bring it to as speedy an Issue as the Importance of it would admit of and for their Threatnings they were neither agreeable to their Wisdom nor their Religion Things being now in such a Posture November the King set out a Proclamation against any that should purchase bring over or publish any Bull from Rome contrary to his Authority and after that he made an Abstract of all the Reasons and Authorities of Fathers or modern Writers against his Marriage to be published both in Latin and English The main stress was laid on the Laws in Leviticus The Arguments for the Divorce of the forbidden Degrees of Marriage among which this was one not to marry the Brother's Wife These Marriages are called Abominations that defile the Land and for which the Canaanites were cast out of it The Exposition of Scripture was to be taken from the Tradition of the Church and by the Universal Consent of all Doctors those Laws had been still looked on as Moral and ever binding to Christians as well as Jews Therefore Gregory the Great advised Austin the Monk upon the Conversion of the English among whom the Marriages of the Brother's Wife were usual to dissolve them looking on them as grievous Sins Many other Popes as Calixtus Zacharias and Innocent the Third had given their Judgments for the perpetual Obligation of those Laws They had been also condemned by the Councils of Neocesarea Agde and the second of Toledo Among Wickliff's condemned Opinions this was one that the Prohibitions of marrying in such degrees were not founded on the Law of God For which he was condemned in some English Councils and these were confirmed by the General Council at Constance Among the Greek Fathers both Origen Basil Chrysostom and Hesychius and among the Latins Tertullian Ambrose Jerome and St. Austine do formerly deliver this as the belief of the Church in their time that those Laws were Moral and still in force Anselm Hugo de sancto Victore Hildebert and Ivo argue very fully to the same purpose the last particularly writing concerning the King of France who had married his Brothers Wife says it was inconsistent with the Law of God with which none can dispence and that he could not be admitted to the Communion of the Church till he put her away Aquinas and all the School-men follow these Authorities and in their way of reasoning they argue fully for this Opinion and all that writ against Wickliff did also assert the Authority of those Prohibitions in particular Waldensis whose Books were approved by Pope Martin the Fifth All the Canonists did also agree with them as Johannes Andreas Panormitan and Ostiensis so that Tradition being the only sure Expounder of the Scripture the Case seemed clear They also proved that a Consent without Consummation made the Marriage compleat which being a Sacrament that which followed after in the Right of Marriage was not necessary to make it compleat as a Priest saying Mass consummates his Orders which yet were compleat without it Many Testimonies were brought to confirm this from which it was inferred that the Queen's being married to Prince Arthur tho nothing had followed upon it made her incapable of a lawful Marriage with the King And yet they shewed what violent Presumptions there were of Consummation which was all that in such Cases was sought for and this was expressed both in the Bull and Breve tho but dubiously in the one yet very positively in the other After that they examined the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation It was a received Maxime that tho the Pope had Authority to dispense with the Laws of the Church yet he could not
of the Temporal Authority the World was then so over-mastered by Superstition and Credulity that not only the whole Spiritual Power but even the Temporal Power of Princes was likely to have fallen into the Pope's hands But the discontented Clergy supported the Secular Power as much as they had before advanced the Papal Tyranny Boniface the 8th had raised his Pretentions to that impudent pitch that he declared all Power both Ecclesiastical and Civil was derived from him and established that as an Article of Faith necessary to Salvation and he and his Successors took upon them to dispose of all Ecclesiastical Benefices by their Bulls and Provisions Upon which Laws were made in England restraining those Invasions on the Crown since those Endowments were made for informing the People of the Law of God and for Hospitality and Acts of Charity which were defeated 25. Ed. 1 as well as the Crown was disinherited by the Provisions which the Popes granted Therefore they condemned them for the future but no Punishment being declared for the Transgressors of that Fact the Courtiers at Rome were not frighted at so general a Law so these Abuses were still continued But in Edward the Third's time 25. Ed. 3 a more severe Law was made by which all that transgressed were to be imprisoned to be fined at pleasure and to forfeit all their Benefices By an other Act they were put out of the King's Protection Several other Confirmations of this were made both in that Reign and under Richard the Second and the former Punishments were extended not only to the Provisors themselves but to all that were imployed by them or took Farms of them and because Licences might be granted by the King for Aliens to hold Benefices in England he did bind himself to grant none Others took both Presentations in England and obtained Provisions from Rome which was likewise condemned The Right of Prefentations was tried only in the King's Courts but the Popes had a mind to take the Cognizance of that to their own Courts upon which the Parliament considering the great Prejudice the Nation was like to suffer and the Subjection that the Crown would fall under resolved to provide effectual Remedies so all the Commons declared they would live and die with the King 16. Ric. 2. and desired him to examine all the Lords whether they would uphold the Regality of the Crown The Temporal Lords declared they would do it But the Spiritual Lords made some difficulty yet in Conclusion they also promised they would adhere to the Crown So a Law passed that if any purchased Translations Excommunications or Bulls from Rome that were contrary to the King or his Crown they and all that brought them over or that received or executed them were declared to be out of the King's Protection and that their Goods and Chattels should be forfeited to the King and their Persons imprisoned And because the Proceedings upon this were by a Writ called from the most material Words of it Premunire facias this Statute carried the name of the Statute of Premunire There was also a Law passed in Henry the Fourth's Reign against some Bulls which the Cistertians had procured and against the high Rates set on Bulls in the Apostolick Chamber and whereas the King had been prevailed with to give Licences for some Bulls by which the Provisors put the Incumbents out of their Benefices these were all declared to be of no force when done in prejudice of the Subjects Rights The Invasions that both the Popes and Kings made upon Elections were by another Law condemned and the Liberty of Elections was again set up But those Kings being more concerned to preserve their own Prerogative than the Rights of their People were often prevailed with to grant Pardons and Licences to those who obtained Provisions at Rome so these were all again condemned in Henry the Fifth's time In all this time 4. Hen. 5. the weakness of the Papacy gave Princes some Advantages which they had not in former Ages for a great while the Popes sate at Avignion where they were much eclipsed of their former Greatness After that a Schism followed between the Popes that sate at Rome and those that still sate at Avignion and the Princes of Christendom being then at liberty to choose which of those they would acknowledg the Popes durst not thunder against those Laws as they had done in former times upon much less Provocation And indeed all the use that the Kings made of them was to oblige the Provisors to come and depend on them for their Licence to execute their Bulls and the King's Authority being joyned with the Popes it was hard for those who were oppressed to resist that double force Nor was there any vigorous Execution made of those Laws otherwayes than to draw Mony from the Provisors For it fell out in this case what is ordinary on all such occasions that Favourites make use of good Laws by which Power is trusted to the Prince for the Protection and Security of the Subjects only for their own ends It was a strange weakness in the Princes of Christendom to take such pains as was done at Constance for healing the Breach in the Papacy for while that continued they reigned in peace and the Clergy was less oppressed than formerly But that being once made up the Popes were beginning again to raise their old Pretentions And Pope Martin the 5th not being willing to engage with so high spirited a King as Henry the 5th was he took Advantage in the Minority of Henry the Sixth's Reign 6. Hen. 6. to propose a Repeal of those Laws and first wrote very severely to Chichely then Archbishop of Canterbury for not opposing the Statute of Provisors that had passed in the former Reign nor standing up for the Rights of St. Peter He therefore exhorted him to imitate his Predecessor Thomas Becket and required him to declare at the next Parliament the unlawfulness of it and that all who obeyed it were under Excommunication He also required him to order the Clergy to preach every where against it Yet Chichely did not proceed so zealously as the Pope expected and therefore he suspended his Legatine Power The Archbishop appealed upon this from the Pope to the next General Council or if none met to the Tribunal of God But the Pope wrote also to the Clergy requiring them to do what in them lay for the repeal of the Statute And in another Letter to the two Archbishops in which in spite to Chicheley York is first named he annulled the Statutes made by Edward the Third and Richard the Second and declared all to be excommunicated that executed them reserving the absolution of them to himself unless they were at the point of death And he required them to publish and affix this his Monitory Brief The Archbishop humbled himself to the Pope and got the other Bishops and the University of Oxford to write in his
Favour to him which they did according to the flattering and vain stile of that Age In his own Letter he says he had not opened the Pope's Brief and so did not know what it contained being required by the King to bring it to him with the Seals intire The Pope wrote also both to the King and Parliament requiring them under the pains of Excommunication and Damnation to repeal those Statutes Upon the meeting of the next Parliament the Archbishop accompanied by several Bishops and Abbots went to the House of Commons and made them a long Speech in the form of a Sermon upon that Text Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods And exhorted them to repeal those Laws against the Pope's power in granting Provisors and with Tears laid out the mischiefs that would follow if the Pope should proceed to Censures But the Commons would not repeal those Laws yet they were left as dead Letters among the Records for no care was taken to execute them The Pope was so far satisfied with Chichely's behaviour that he received him again to favour and restored to him the Legatine Power This being hitherto mentioned by none of our Writers it seemed no impertinent Digression to give this account of it Now were those long forgotten Statutes revived The Clergy sued in a Premunire to bring the Clergy into a Snare It was designed by the terrour of this to force them into an intire Submission and to oblige them to redeem themselves by the grant of a considerable Subsidy They pretended they had erred ignorantly for the King by his favour to the Cardinal seemed to consent if not to encourage that Authority which he then exercised It was a publick Errour and so they ought not to be punished for it To all this it was answered that the Laws which they had transgressed were still in force and so no Ignorance could excuse the Violation of them The Convocation of Canterbury made their Submission and in their Address to the King he was called the Protector and Supream Head of the Church of England but some excepting to that it was added in so far as it is agreeable to the Law of Christ This was signed by Nine Bishops Fifty Abbots and Priors and the greatest part of the Lower House and with it they offered the King a Subsidy to procure his Favour of an 100000 l. and they promised for the future not to make nor execute any Constitutions without his Licence The Convocation of York did not pass this so easily they excepted to the word Head as agreeing to none but Christ Yet the King wrote them a long expostulating Letter and told them with what Limitations those of Canterbury had passed that Title upon which they also submitted and offered him 18840 l. which was also well received and so all the Clergy were again received into the King's Protection and pardoned But when the King's Pardon was brought into the Parliament the Laity complained that they were not included within it for many of them were also obnoxious on the same account in some measure having had Suits in the Legatine Court and they did apprehend that they might be brought in trouble And therefore they addressed to the King and desired to be comprehended within it But the King told them his mercy was neither to be restrained nor forced This put the House of Commons in great trouble but they past the Act And soon after the King sent a Pardon to all his Temporal Subjects which was received with great Joy and they acknowledged that the King had tempered his Greatness with his Clemency in his way of proceeding in this matter In this Session one Rouse that had poisoned a great Pot of Porridge in the Bishop of Rochester's Kitchin of which two had died and many had been brought near Death A Poisoner condemned of Treason was attainted of Treason and condemned to be boiled to death and that was made the Punishment of Poisoning in time to come By this Act the Parliament made a Crime to be Treason that was not so before and punished the Person accordingly which was founded on the Power reserved in the 25th of Edward the 3d to Parliaments to declare in time coming what Crimes were Treason This severe Sentence was executed in Smithfield Rouse accusing none as his Complices tho malicious Persons did afterwards impute that Action of his to a design of Anne Bolleyn upon Fisher's Life but his silence under so terrible a Condemnation shewed he could not charge others with it After the Sessions of Parliament The King departs from the Queen new Applications were made to the Queen to perswade her to depart from her Appeal but she remained fixed in her Resolution and said she was the King's lawful Wife and would abide by it till the Court at Rome should declare the contrary Upon that the King desired her to chuse any of his Houses in the Country to live in and resolved never to see her more The Clergy were now raising the Subsidy A Tumult among the Clergy and the Bishops intended to make the inferiour Clergy pay their share But upon the Bishop of London's calling some few of them together on whom he hoped to prevail and make them set a good Example to the rest all the Clergy hearing of it came to the Chapter-house and forced their way in tho the Bishop's Officers did what they could by Violence to keep them out The Bishop made a Speech setting forth the King's Clemency in accepting such a Subsidy instead of all their Benefices which they had forfeited to him and therefore desired them to bear their share in it patiently They answered that they had not meddled with the Cardinal's Faculties nor needed they the King's Pardon not having transgressed his Laws and therefore since the Bishops and Abbots only were in fault it was reasonable that they only should raise the Subsidy Upon this the Bishop's Officers and They came to very high Words and it ended in Blows But the Bishop quieted them all he could with good Words and dismissed them with a Promise that none should be brought unto question for what had been then done yet he complained to More of it and he put many of them in Prison But the thing was let fall This Year produced a new Breach between the Pope and the Emperour The Pope turns to the Interest of France the Pope pretended to Modeno and Regio as Fiefs of the Papacy but the Emperour judged against him for the Duke of Ferrara Upon this the Pope resolved to unite himself to the Crown of France and Francis to gain him more entirely proposed a Match between his second Son Henry and the Pope's Neece the famous Catherine de Medici which as it wrought much on the Pope's Ambition so it was like to prove a great support to his Family Francis also offered to resign all his Pretentions in Italy
to his Son Henry which was like to draw in other Princes to a League with him who would have been much better pleased to see a King's younger Son among them than either the Emperour or the King of France The King's Matter was now in a fairer way of being adjusted for the Pope's Conscience being directed by his Interests since he had now broken with the Emperour it was probable he would give the King content He saw the danger of losing England The Interest of the Clergy was much sunk and they were in a great measure subjected to the Crown Lutheranism was also making a great Progress and the Pope was out of any danger from the Emperour on whom the whole Power of the Turkish Empire was now fallen drawn in as was believed by the Practices of Francis at the Port tho that did not well agree with his Title of Most Christian King The Princes of Germany took Advantage from this to make the Emperour consent to some further liberty in matters of Religion and to secure themselves they were then also entered into a League with Francis for preserving the Rights of the Empire unto which King Henry was invited All this raised Francis again very high so he was the fittest Person to mediate an Agreement between the King and the Pope and being himself a Lover of Pleasure he was the more easily engaged to serve the King in the accomplishment of his Amours A new Session of Parliament was held A misunderstanding between the House of Commons in which the Laity complained of the spiritual Courts of their way of proceeding ex Officio and not admitting Persons accused to their Purgation But this was not much considered by reason of an ill understanding that fell in between the King and the House of Commons There was a Custom brought in of making such Settlements of Estates that the Heir was not liable to Wards and the other Advantages to which the King or the Great Lords had otherwise a Right by their Tenures So a Bill for regulating that was sent down by the Lords but the Commons rejected it which gave the King great Offence upon that they addressed to the King for a Dissolution since they had been now obliged to a long Attendance The King answered them sharply He said they had rejected a Bill in which he had offered a great Abatement of that which he might claim by Law and therefore he would execute the Law in its utmost severity He told them he had Patience while his Suit was in dependence and so they must have likewise For this Parliament was made up of Men very ill affected to the Clergy so the King kept it still in being to terrify the Court of Rome so much the more All that was remarkable that past in this Session was an Act against Annats An Act against Annats it sets forth that they were founded on no Law they were first enacted to defend Christendom against Infidels and were now kept up as a Revenue to the Papacy and Bulls were not granted till they were compounded for for 800000 Ducats had bin carried out of England to Rome on that account since the beginning of the former Reign The King was bound by his Royal Care of his Subjects to hinder such Oppressions and therefore all that were provided to great Benefices were required not to pay First Fruits for the future under the pain of forfeiting all their Goods and the profits of their Benefices and those that were presented to Bishopricks were appointed to be consecrated tho their Bulls were denied at Rome and they were required to pay no more but 5 per Cent. of the clear Profits of their Sees If the Pope should upon this proceed to censures they required all the Clergy to perform Divine Offices these notwithstanding But by an extraordinary Proviso they referred it to the King to declare at any time between that and Easter next whether this Act should take place or not and the King by his Letters Patents declared that it should take place being provoked by the Pope In January the Pope The Pope writes to the King upon the motion of the Imperialists wrote to the King complaining that notwithstanding a Suit was depending concerning his Marriage yet he had put away his Queen and kept one Anne as his Wife contrary to a Prohibition served on him therefore he exhorted him to live with his Queen again and to put Anne away Upon this the King sent Dr. Bennet to Rome with a large Dispatch The King's Answer in it he complained that the Pope proceeded in that matter upon the Suggestion of others who were ignorant and rash Men the Pope had carried himself inconstantly and deceitfully in it and not as became Christ's Vicar and the King had now for several Years expected a Remedy from him in vain The Pope had granted a Commission had promised never to recal it and had sent over a Decretal Bull defining the Cause Either these were unjustly granted or unjustly recalled If he had Authority to grant these things where was the Faith which became a Friend much more a Pope since he had recalled them If he had not Authority to grant them he did not know how far he could consider any thing he did It was plain that he acted more with regard to his Interests than according to Conscience and that as the Pope had often confessed his own Ignorance in these matters so he was not furnished with Learned Men to advise him otherwise he would not maintain a Marriage which almost all the Learned Men and Universities in England France and Italy had condemned as unlawful He desired the Pope would excuse the Freedom he used to which his Carriage had forced him He would not question his Authority unless he were compelled to it and would do nothing but reduce it to its first and ancient Limits which was much better than to let high it run on headlong and still do amiss This high Letter made the Pope resolve to proceed and end this matter either by a Sentence or a Treaty The King was cited to answer to the Queen's Appeal at Rome in Person or by Proxy so Sir Edward Karme was sent thither in the new Character of the King 's Excusator to excuse the King's Appearance upon such grounds as could be founded on the Canon Law The King cited to Rome excuses himself and upon the Privileges of the Crown of England Bonner that was a forwad and ambitious Man and would stick at nothing that might contribute to his Preferment was sent over with him The Imperialists pressed the Pope much to give Sentence but all the wise Cardinals who observed by the Proceedings of the Parliament that the Nation would adhere to the King if he should be provoked to shake off the Pope's Yoke were very apprehensive of a Breach and suggested milder Counsels to the Pope and the King's Agents assured him that if he
gave the King content the late Act against Annats should not be put in Execution The Cardinal of Ravenna was then considered as an Oracle for Learning in the Consistory Some Cardinals corrupted so the King's Agents resolved to gain him with great Promises but he said Princes were liberal of their Promises till their turn was served and then forgot them so he resolved to make sure work therefore he made Bennet give him a Promise in writing of the Bishoprick of Ely or the first Bishoprick that fell till that was vacant and he also engaged that the King should procure him Benefices in France to the value of 6000 Ducats a Year for the Service he should do him in his Divorce This was an Argument of so great Efficacy with the Cardinal that it absolutely turned him from being a great Enemy to be as great a Promoter of the King's Cause tho very artificially Several other Cardinals were also prevailed with by the same Topicks The King's Agents put in his Plea of Excuse in 28 Articles and it was ordered that three of them should be discussed at a hearing before the Consistory till they should be all examined But that Court sitting once a Week the Imperialists after some of them were heard procured an Order that the rest should be heard in a Congregation or Committee of Cardinals before the Pope for greater Dispatch but Karn refused to obey this and so it was referred back to the Consistory But against this the Imperialists protested and refused to appear any more News were brought to Rome from England that a Priest that had preached up the Pope's Power was cast into Prison and that one committed by the Archbishop for Heresy appealed to the King as supream Head which was received and judged in the King's Courts The Pope made great Complaints upon this but the King's Agents said the best way to prevent the like for the future was to do the King Justice At this time a Bull was granted for suppressing some Monasteries and erecting new Bishopricks out of them Chester was to be one and the Cardinal of Revenna was so pleased with the Revenue designed for it that he laid his hand upon it till Ely should happen to fall vacant In conclusion the Pope seemed to favour the King's Plea Excusatory upon which the Imperialists made great Complaints But this amounted to no more save that the King was not bound to appear in Person Therefore the Cardinals that were gained advised the King to send over a Proxy for answering to the merits of the Cause and not to lose more time in that Dilatory Plea and they having declared themselves against the King in that Plea before the bargain had been made with them could with the better credit serve him in the other So the Vacation coming on it was resolved by the Cardinals neither to admit nor reject the Plea But both the Pope and the Colledg wrote to the King to send over a Proxy for determining the matter next Winter Bonner was also sent to England to assure the King that the Pope was now so much in the French Interest that he might confidently refer his matter to him but whereas the King desired a Commission to judg in partibus upon the place it was said that the Point to be judged being the Pope's Authority to dispense with the King's Marriage that could not be referred to Legates but must needs be judged in the Consistory At this time a new Session of Parliament was called in England The Clergy gave in an Answer to the Complaints made of them by the Commons in the former Sessions A Session of Parliament But when the King gave it to the Speaker he complained that one Temse a Member of their House had moved for an Address to the King that the Queen might be again brought back to the Court The King said it touched his Conscience and was not a thing that could be determined in that House He wished his Marriage were good but many Divines had declared it unlawful He did not make his Suit out of Lust or foolish Appetite being then past the Heats of Youth he assured them his Conscience was troubled and desired them to report that to the House Many of the Lords came down to the House of Commons and told them the King intended to build some Forts on the Borders of Scotland to secure the Nation from the Inroads of the Scots and the Lords approving of this sent them to propose it to the Commons upon which a Subsidy was voted but upon the breaking out of the Plague the Parliament was prorogued before the Act was finished The Oaths which the Bishops swore both to the Pope and the King At that time the King sent for the Speaker of the House of Commons and told him he found that the Prelates were but half Subjects for they swore at their Consecration an Oath to the Pope that was inconsistent with their Allegiance and Oath to the King By their Oath to the Pope they swore to be in no Council against him nor to disclose his Secrets but to maintain the Papacy and the Regalities of S. Peter against all Men together with the Rights and Authorities of the Church of Rome and that they should honourably entreat the Legats of the Apostolick See and observe all the Decrees Sentences Provisions and Commandments of that See and yearly either in Person or by Proxy visit the Thresholds of the Apostles In their Oath to the King they renounced all Clauses in their Bulls contrary to the King 's Royal Dignity and did swear to be faithful to him and to live and die with him against all others and to keep his Counsel acknowledging that they held their Bishopricks only of him By these it appeared that they could not keep both those Oaths in case a Breach should fall out between the King and the Pope But the Plague broke off the Consultations of Parliament at this time Soon after Sir Thomas More seeing a Rupture with Rome coming on so fast More quits his Office desired leave to lay down his Office which was upon that conferred on Sir Tho. Audley He was satisfied with the King 's keeping up the Laws formerly made in Opposition to the Papal Incroachments and so had concured in the Suit of the Premunire but now the matter went further and so he not being able to keep pace with the Counsels returned to a private Life with a Greatness of Mind equal to what the ancient Greeks or Romans had expressed on such Occasions Endeavours were used to fasten some Imputations on him in the Distribution of Justice but nothing could be brought against him to blemish his Integrity An Enterveiw followed between the Kings of France and England to which An Interview between the King of France England Ann Bolleyn now Marchioness of Pembrook was carried In which after the first Ceremonies and Magnificence was over Francis promised Henry to
of the Clergy empowered to abrogate or regulate them as they should see Cause This was confirmed in Parliament and the Act against Appeals to Rome was renewed and an Appeal was allowed from the Archbishop to the King upon which the Lord Chancellor was to grant a Commission for a Court of Delegates A Proviso was added that till the Committee of 32 should settle a Regulation of the Canons those then in force should still take place except such as were contrary to the King's Prerogative or the Laws But this last Proviso tho it seemed reasonable to give the Spiritual Courts some Rules till the 32 should finish their Work made that it came to nothing for it was thought more for the Greatness of the King's Authority and it subjected the Bishop's Courts more to the Prohibitions of the Temporal Courts to keep this whole matter in such General Terms than to have brought it to a Regulation that should be fixed and constant Another Act past An Act for the Election of Bishops for regulating the Elections and Consecrations of Bishops condemning all Bulls from Rome and appointing that upon a Vacancy the King should grant a Licence for an Election and should by a missive Letter signify the Person 's Name whom he would have chosen And within twelve Days after these were delivered the Dean and Chapter or Prior and Convent were required to return an Election of the Person named by the King under their Seals The Bishop Elect was upon that to swear Fealty and a Writ was to be issued out for his Consecration in the usual manner After that he was to do Homage to the King upon which both the Temporalities and Spiritualities were to be restored and Bishops were to exercise their Jurisdiction as they had done before All that transgressed this Act were made guilty of a premunire A private Act past depriving Cardinal Campegio and Jerome de Ghinuccii of the Bishopricks of Salisbury and Worcester the Reasons given for it are because they did not reside in their Diocesses for Preaching the Laws of God and keeping Hospitality but lived at the Court of Rome and carried 3000 l. a Year out of the Kingdom The last Act of a publick Nature The Attaindor of the Nun of Kent tho relating only to private Persons of which I shall give an account was concerning the Nun of Kent and her Complices It was the first occasion of shedding any Blood in this Quarrel and it was much cherished by all the Superstitious Clergy that adhered to the Queen's Interests and the Pope's The Nun and many of her Complices came to the Lord's Bar and confessed the whole matter Among the Concealers of this Treason Sir Thomas More and Fisher were named the former wrote upon that a long Letter to Cromwel giving him a particular account of all the Conversation he had at any time with the Nun He acknowledged he had esteemed her highly not so much out of any regard he had to her Prophesies but for the Opinion he conceived of her Holiness and Humility But he adds that he was then convinced That she was the most false dissembling Hypocrite that had been known and guilty of most detestable Hypocrisy and divellish dissembled Falshood He also believed that she had Communication with an evil Spirit Concerning this Letter a curious Discovery has been made In Queen Mary's time More 's Works were published and among them other Letters of his to Cromwel relating to that long one which he wrote concerning the Nun were printed but that was left out of which More kept a Copy and gave it to his Daughter Roper that Copy was in the MS. out of which the rest were published and out of that I have transcribed it The design of suppressing it seems to be this It is probable there might have been some thoughts in Queen Mary's time to Canonize the Nun since she was called a Martyr for her Mother's Marriage and there was no want of Miracles to justify it Therefore a Letter so plain and full against her was thought fit to be kept out of the way This Justification of Mores prevailed so far that his Name was struck out of the Bill The Act contains a Narrative of that whole Story which is in short this Elizabeth Barton of Kent fell in some Trances it seems they were Hysterical Fits and spake such things as made those about her think she was inspired of God The Parson of the Parish Master hoping to draw Advantages from this gave Archbishop Warham notice of it who ordered him to observe her carefully and bring him an account of what should follow But she had forgot all that she said in her Fitts when they were over Yet the Priest would not let it go so but perswaded her that she was inspired and taught her so to counterfeit those Trances that she became very ready at it The matter was much noised about and the Priest intended to raise the credit of an Image of the B. Virgins that was in his Church that so Pilgrimages and Offerings might be made to it by her means He associated to himself one Bocking a Monk of Canterbury and they taught her to say in her Fits that the B. Virgin appeared to her and told her she could not be well till she visited that Image She spake many good Words against ill Life and spake also against Heresy and the King's Suit of Divorce then depending and by many strange motions of her Body she seemed to be inwardly possessed A day was set for her cure and before an Assembly of 2000 People she was carried to that Image and after she had acted her Fitts all over she seemed of a sudden quite recovered which was ascribed to the Intercession of the Virgin and the Virtue of that Image She entered into a Religious Life and Bocking was her Ghostly Father There were wiolent Suspicions of Incontinence between them but the esteem she was in bore them down Many thought her a Prophetess and Warham among the rest A Book was also written of her Revelations and a Letter was shewed all in Letters of Gold pretended to be writ to her from Heaven by Mary Magdalene She pretended that when the King was last at Calais she was carried invisibly beyond Sea and brought back again and that an Angel gave her the Sacrament and that God revealed to her that if the King went on in his Divorce and married another Wife he should fall from his Crown and not live a Month longer but should die a Villain 's Death Many of the Monks of the Charter-House and the Observant Friers with many Nuns and B. Fisher came to give credit to this and set a great value on her and grew very insolent upon it for Frier Peyto preaching in the King's Chappel at Greenwich denounced the Judgments of God upon him and said tho others as lying Prophets deceived him yet he in the name of God told him that Dogs should lick
his Blood as they had done Ahabs The King bore this patiently but ordered one Dr. Corren to preach next Sunday and to answer all that he had said who railed against Peyto as a Dog and a Traitor Peyto had gone to Canterbury but Elston a Franciscan of the same House interrupted him and called him one of the lying Prophets that went about to establish the Succession of the Crown by Adultery and spoke with such Vehemence that the King himself was forced to command him silence And yet so unwilling was the King to go to Extremities that all that was done upon so high a Provocation was that they were called before the Council and rebuked for their Insolence But the Nun's Confederates publishing her Revelations in all the parts of the Kingdom she and Nine of her Complices were apprehended in November last Year and they did all without any Rack or Torture discover the whole Conspiracy and upon that were appointed to go to St. Pauls and after a Sermon preached upon that Occasion by the Bishop of Bangor they repeated their Confession in the Hearing of the People and were sent to ly Prisoners in the Tower But it was given out That all was extorted from them by Violence and Messages were sent to the Nun desiring her to deny all that she had confessed which made the King judge it necessary to proceed to further Extremities So she and six of her chief Complices were Attainted of Treason And the Bishop of Rochester and five more were Attainted of Misprision of Treason But at the Intercession of Q. Ann as it is exprest in the Act all others that had been concerned with her were pardoned This was as black an Imposture as any ever was and if it had fallen out in a darker Age in which the World went mad after Visions the King might have lost his Crown by it The Discovery of this disposed all to look on older Stories of the Trances of Monastical People as Contrivances to serve base ends and did make way for the ruine of that Order of Men in England but all that was at present done upon it was that the Observants were put out of their Houses and mixt with the other Franciscans and the Austin Friers were put in their rooms When all these Acts were passed the King gave his Assent to them on the 29th of March and prorogued the Parliament till November The Members of both Houses swore to the Oath of Succession on the day of the Prorogation On the 20th of April The Oath of Succession sworn followed the Execution of the Nun and her Complices at Tyburn where she freely acknowledged her Impostures and the Justice of the Sentence and laid the blame on those that suffered with her who because the thing was profitable to them praised her much and tho they knew that all was feigned yet gave out that it was done by the working of the Holy Ghost and she concluded her Life begging both God's and the King's Pardon Upon the first Discovery of this Cheat Fisher in some Trouble Cromwell sent Fisher's Brother to him to reprove him for his Carriage in that Business and to advise him to ask the King's Pardon for the Encouragement he had given to the Nun which he was confident the King would grant him But Fisher excused himself and said he had done nothing but only tried whether her Revelations were true or not He confessed that upon the Reports he had heard he was induced to have a high Opinion of her and that he had never discovered any Falsehood in her It is true she had said some things to him concerning the King's Death which he had not revealed but he thought it was not necessary to do it because he knew she had told it to the King her self she had named no Person that should kill the King but had only denounced it as a Judgment of God on him and he had reason to think that the King would have been offended with him if he had spoken of it to him and so he desired to be no more troubled with that matter But upon that Cromwell wrote him a sharp Letter he shewed him that he had proceeded rashly in that Affair being so partial in the matter of the King's Divorce that he easily believed every thing that seemed to make against it he shewed him how necessary it was to use great Caution before extraordinary things should be received or spread about as Revelations since otherwise the Peace of the World should be in the hands of every bold or crafty Impostor yet in conclusion he advises him again to ask the King's Pardon for his Rashness and he assures him that the King was ready to forgive that and every thing else by which he had offended him But Fisher was obstinate and would make no Submission and so included within the Act yet it was not executed till a new Provocation drew him into further Trouble And is very obstinate The Secular and Regular Clergy did every where swear the Oath of Succession which none did more zealously promote than Gardiner who before the 6th of May got all his Clergy to swear it and the Religious Orders being apprehensive of the King's Jealousies of them took care to remove them by sending in Declarations under the Seals of their Houses that in their Opinion the King 's present Marriage was lawful and that they would always acknowledg him Head of the Church of England that the Bishops of Rome had no Authority out of his own Diocess and that they would continue obedient to the King notwithstanding his Censures that they would preach the Gospel sincerely according to the Scriptures and the Tradition of the Catholick Doctors and would in their Prayers pray for the King as Supream Head of the Church of England A meeting of the Council-sate at Lambeth More and heâ— refuse the Oath to which many were cited in order to the swearing the Oath among whom was Sir Thomas More and Fisher More was first called on to take it he answered that he neither blamed those that made the Acts nor those that swore the Oath and that he was willing to swear to maintain the Succession to the Crown but could not take the Oath as it was conceived Fisher made the same Answer but all the rest that were cited before them took it More was much press'd to give his Reasons against it but he refused to do that for it might be called a disputing against Law yet he would put them into Writing if the King would command him to do it Cranmer said if he did not blame those that took it it seems he was not perswaded it was a Sin and so was only doubtful of it but he was sure he ought to obey the Law if it was not sinful so there was a Certainty on the one hand and only a Doubt on the other and therefore the former ought to determine him this he confessed did
shake him a little but he said he thought in his Conscience that it would be a Sin in him and offered to take his Oath upon that and that he was not led by any other Consideration The Abbot of Westminster told him he ought to think his Conscience was misled since the Parliament was of another Mind an Argument well becoming a rich ignorant Abbot But More said if the Parliament of England was against him yet he believed all the rest of Christendom was on his side In conclusion both he and Fisher declared that they thought it was in the Power of the Parliament to settle the Succession to the Crown and so were ready to swear to that but they could not take the Oath that was tendred to them for by it they must swear to maintain all the Contents in the Act of Succession and in it the King 's former Marriage was declared unlawful to which they could not assent Cranmer press'd that this might be accepted for if they once swore to maintain the Succession it would conduce much to the Quiet of the Nation but sharper Counsels were more acceptable so they were both committed to the Tower and Pen Ink and Paper was kept from them The old Bishop was also hardly used both in his Cloaths and Diet he had only Rags to cover him and Fire was often denied him which was a Cruelty not capable of any Excuse and was as barbarous as it was imprudent In Winter another Session of Parliament was held the first Act that pass'd Another Session of Parliament declared the King to be the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and appointed that to be added to his other Titles and it was enacted that he and his Successors should have full Authority to reform all Heresies and Abuses in the Spiritual Jurisdiction By an other Act they confirmed the Oath of Succession which had not been specified in the former Act tho agreed to by the Lords They also gave the King the first Fruits and Tenthes of Ecclesiastical Benefices as being the Supream Head of the Church for the King being put in the Pope's room it was thought reasonable to give him the Annats which the Popes had formerly exacted The Temporalty were now willing to revenge themselves on the Spiritualty and to tax them as heavily as they had formerly tyrannized over them Another Act past declaring some things Treason one of these was the denying the King any of his Titles or the calling him Heretick Schismatick or Usurper of the Crown By another Act Provision was made for setting up 26 Suffragan Bishops over England for the more speedy Administration of the Sacraments and the better Service of God It is also said they had been formerly accustomed to be in the Kingdom The Bishop of the Diocess was to present two to the King and upon the King 's declaring his choice the Archbishop was to consecrate the Person and then the Bishop was to delegate such parts of his Charge to his Care as he thought fitting which was to last during his Pleasure These were the same that the Ancients called the Chorepiscopi who were at first the Bishops of some Villages but were afterwards put under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of the next City They were set up before the Council of Nice and continued to be in the Church for many Ages but the Bishops devolving their whole Spiritual Power to them they were put down and a Decretal Epistle was forged in the name of P. Damasus condemning them The great Extent of the Diocesses in England made it hard for one Bishop to govern them with that Exactness that was necessary these were therefore appointed to assist them in the discharge of the Pastoral Care In this Parliament Subsidies were granted payable in three Years with the highest Preamble of their Happiness under the King's Government all those 24 Years in which he had reigned that Flattery could dictate Fisher and More by two special Acts were attainted of Misprision of Treason five other Clerks were in like manner condemned all for refusing to swear the Oath of Succession The See of Rochester was declared void yet it seems few were willing to succeed such a Man for it continued vacant two Years This Severity against them was censured by some as Extream since they were willing to swear to the Succession in other Terms so that it was merely a point of Conscience in which the common Safety was not concerned at which they stuck and it was thought the prosecuting them in this manner would so raise their Credit that it might endanger the Government more than any Opposition which they could make But now that the King entered upon a new Scene The Progress the New Doctrines made in England it will be necessary to open the Progress that the new Opinions had made in England all the time of the King's Suit of Divorce During Wolsey's Ministry those Preachers were gently used and it is probable the King ordered the Bishops to give over their enquiring after them when the Pope began to use him ill for the Progress of Heresy was always reckoned up at Rome among the Mischiefs that would follow upon the Pope's denying the King's Desires But More coming into Favour he offered new Counsels he thought the King 's proceeding severely against Hereticks would be so meritorious at Rome that it would work more effectually than all his Treatnings had done so a severe Proclamation was issued out both against their Books and Persons ordering all the Laws against them to be put in Execution Tindall and some others at Antwerp were every Year either translating or writing Books against some of the received Errors and sending them over to England But his Translation of the New Testament gave the greatest Wound and was much complained of by the Clergy as full of Errors Tonstall then Bp of London being a Man of great Learning and Vertue which is generally accompanied with much Moderation returning from the Treaty of Cambray to which More and he were sent in the King's Name as he came through Antwerp dealt with an English Merchant that was secretly a Friend of Tindall's to procure him as many of his New Testaments as could be had for Mony Tindall was glad of this for being about a more correct Edition he found he would be better enabled to set about it if the Copies of the Old were sold off so he gave the Merchant all he had and Tonstall paying the Price of them got them in his hands and burnt them publickly in Cheapside This was called a burning of the Word of God and it was said the Clergy had reason to revenge themselves on it for it had done them more Mischief than all other Books whatsoever But a Year after this the second Edition being sinished great Numbers were sent over to England and Constantine one of Tindall's Partners hapned to be taken so More believing that some of the
the King's Marriage with Queen Anne Then the lower House made an Address to the upper House complaining of 67 Opinions that they found were much spread in the Kingdom they were either the Tenets of the old Lollards or the new Reformers or of the Anabaptists and many of them were only unsavoury and indiscreet Expressions which might have flowed from the Heat and Folly of some rash Zealots who by petulant Jeers and an Affectation of Wit had endeavoured to disgrace both the received Doctrines and Rites They also complained of some Bishops who were wanting in their Duty to suppress such Abuses which was understood as a Reflection on Cranmer Shaxton and Latimer It was hoped that Cranmer was now declining by Queen Ann's Fall and the other two who were raised by her would not have stood long if he had been once disgraced yet they premised to this a Protestation that they intended to do nothing that might displease the King whom they acknowledged to be their Supream Head and they were resolved to obey his Laws and they renounced the Pope's Authority with all his Laws All these Projects failed for Cranmer was now fully established in the King's Favour Cromwell was sent to them with a Message from the King That they should reform the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the Rules set down in Scripture which ought to be preferred to all Glosses or Decrees of Popes There was one Alesse a Scotch-man whom Cromwell entertained in his House and he being appointed to deliver his Opinion largely shewed that there was no Sacraments instituted by Christ but Baptism and the Lord's Supper Stokesly answered him in a long Discourse upon the Principles of the School-Divinity upon which Cranmer took occasion to shew the Vanity of that sort of Learning and the Uncertainty of Tradition and that Religion had been so corrupted in the latter Ages that there was no finding out the Truth but by resting in the Authority of the Scriptures Fox Bishop of Hereford seconded him and told them the World was now awake and would be no longer imposed on by the Niceties and dark Terms of the Schools for the Laity now did not only read the Scriptures in the vulgar Tongues but searched the Originals themselves therefore they must not think to govern them as they had been in the Times of Ignorance Among the Bishops Cranmer Goodrick Shaxton Latimer Fox Hilsey and Barlow prest a Reformation but Lee Arch-bishop of York Stokesly Tonstall Gardiner Longland and several others opposed it as much But the Contest had been sharper if the King had not sent some Articles to them to be considered of by them so they whose chief Design it was to recommend themselves to Preferment by the easiness of their Compliance with him in all Points did agree on the following Particulars 1. Articles of Religion agreed on That the Bishops and Preachers ought to instruct the People according to the Scripture the three Creeds and the four first General Councils 2. That Baptism was necessary to Salvation and that Children ought to be baptized for the pardon of Original Sin and obtaining the Holy Ghost 3. That Penance was necessary to Salvation and that it consisted in Confession Contrition and Amendment of Life with the External Works of Charity to which a lively Faith ought to be joyned and that Confession to a Priest was necessary where it might be had 4. That in the Eucharist under the forms of Bread and Wine the very Flesh and Blood of Christ was received 5. That Justification was the Remission of Sins and a perfect Renovation in Christ and that not only outward good Works but inward Holiness was absolutely necessary As for the outward Ceremonies the People were to be taught that it was meet to have Images in Churches but they ought to avoid all such Superstition as had been usual in time past and not to worship the Image but only God 2. That they were to honour the Saints but not to expect those things from them which God only gives 3. That they might pray to them for their Intercession but all Superstitious Abuses were to cease and if the King should lessen the number of Saints Days they ought to obey him 4. That the use of the Ceremonies was good and that they contained many Mystical Significations that tended to raise the mind towards God such were Vestments in Divine Worship Holy Water Holy Bread the carrying of Candles and Palms and Ashes and creeping to the Cross and the Hallowing the Font with other Exorcisms 5. That it was good to pray for departed Souls and to have Masses and Exequies said for them but the Scriptures having neither declared in what Place they were nor what Torments they suffered that was uncertain and to be left to God therefore all the Abuses of the Pope's Pardons or saying Masses in such or such Places or before such Images were to be put away These Articles were signed by Cromwel the two Arch-bishops sixteen Bishops fourty Abbots and Priors and fifty of the lower House to them the King added a Preface declaring the Pains that he and the Clergy had been at for the removing the Differences in Religion that were in the Nation and that he approved of these Articles and required all his Subjects to accept them with the like Unanimity with which they were consented to and he would be thereby encouraged to take further Pains in the like Matters for the future When these things were published They are variously censured those that desired a Reformation tho they did not approve of every Particular yet were well pleased to see things brought under Examination and since some things were at this time changed they did not doubt but more Changes would follow they were glad that the Scriptures and the Ancient Creeds were made the Standards of the Faith without adding Tradition and that the nature of Justification and the Gospel-Covenant were rightly stated that the immediate Worship of Images and Saints was condemned and that Purgatory was left uncertain but the necessity of Auricular Confession and the Corporal Presence the doing Reverence to Images and praying to Saints were of hard Digestion to them yet they were glad to see some grosser Abuses removed and a Reformation once set on foot The Popish Party were sorry to see four Sacraments past over in silence and the Trade about Purgatory put down and were very apprehensive of the Precedent of bringing matters of Religion under debate which would bring on other Alterations When these things were known beyond Sea the Court of Rome made great use of them to let all Princes see the necessity of adhering to the Holy See for no sooner did England depart from that than it began to change the Doctrine likewise The Germans on the other hand said This was a Political Daubing for satisfying all Parties and that it savoured not of the Sincerity that became the Professors of True Religion to
allow of so many Errours To this it was answered That our Saviour did not deliver all things to his Disciples till they were able to bear them And the Apostles did not abolish all the Rites of Judaism at once but by a gentle Progress intended to wean those that were converted to the Christian Religion from them The Clergy were to be drawn by slow and easy Steps out of their Ignorance and Superstition whereas the driving on things with precipitated hast might spoil the whole Design and alienate those who by slower Methods might be gained and it might also much endanger the Peace of the Nation At the same time other things were in Consultation tho not finished Other Alterations proposed Cranmer offered some Queries to shew the Cheats that had been put on the World as that Priestly Absolution without Contrition was of more efficacy than Contrition was without it and that the People trusted wholly to outward Ceremonies in which the Priests encouraged them because of the gain they made by them That the exemption of Clergy-men was without good ground that Bishops did ordain without due care and previous trial and that the dignified Clergy misapplied their Revenues and did not reside on their Benefices he also desired that the other four Sacraments might be enquired into but these things were not at this time taken under any further consideration It is true Confirmation seems to have been examined The Method in which they made their Enquiries was this the Point to be examined was brought under so many Heads in the form of Queries and to these every one gave his Answer with his Reasons so I find two Papers the one of Cranmer's the other of Stokesly's on this Head the former runs wholly upon Scripture-Authority and he thinks it was not instituted by Christ but was done by the Apostles by that extraordinary Effusion of the Holy Ghost that rested on them The other founds his Opinion for its being a Sacrament on the Tradition of the Church but nothing was determined in this point Cranmer did at this time offer another Paper to the King exhorting him to proceed to a further Reformation and that nothing should be determined without clear Proofs from Scripture for the departing from that Rule had been the Occasion of all the Errours that had been in the Church Many things were now acknowledged to be Errours for which some not long before had suffered Death He therefore proposed several points to be discussed as whether there was a Purgatory Whether departed Saints ought to be invocated or Tradition be believed Whether Images ought to be considered only as Representations of History And whether it was lawful for the Clergy to marry He prayed the King not to give Judgment in these points till he heard them well examined And for the last he offered that if those who would defend the lawfulness of it should not in the Opinion of indifferent Judges prove their Opinion to be true they should be willing to suffer Death but if they proved it all that they desired was that the King would leave them to the Liberty which God had allowed them in that matter But all this was carried no further at this time The Pope had issued out a Summons for a General Council at Mantua and had cited the King to it From this the King did appeal to a General Council rightly constituted So a motion being made by Fox that the Convocation should deliver their Sense in this Particular They drew up a Paper in which they set forth the great Good that might follow in a General Council rightly called but that nothing could be more mischievous than one called on private malice according to what Nazianzen observed of the Councils in his time And they thought neither the Pope nor any one Prince had sufficient Authority to call one but that all Princes who had an entire and supream Government over all their Subjects ought to concur to it This was signed by them all on the 20th of July and so was the Convocation dismiss'd Two days before it brake up Cromwel was made the King's Vicegerent in Ecclesiastical Matters of which some Account was formerly given Soon after this The King protests against a Council called by the Pope the King published a long and sharp Protestation against the Council summoned by the Pope he denied that he had any Authority to summon any of his Subjects He shewed that the place was neither proper nor safe and that no good could be expected from any Council in which the Pope presided since the regulating his Power was one of the chief occasions that the World had for a Council And while Christendom was in such Distractions and the Emperour and the King of France were engaged in War it was not a fit time for one to be called The Pope had refused it long and this Conjuncture was chosen in which the Bishops could not come to it that so a packt meeting of Italian Bishops might do what they pleased under the name of a General Council But the World would be no longer cozened No credit was due to a Pope's safe Conduct for they had often broken their Oaths as to himself in particular And notwithstanding his former kindness to that See they had been for three Years stirring up all the Princes in Christendom against him He protested against all Councils called by the Pope but declared He would be ready to concur with other Christian Princes for calling one when it should be convenient And in the mean while he would maintain all the Articles of the Faith and lose his Life and Crown sooner than suffer any of them to be put down Three Years after this the King made a new Protestation to the same effect when the Council was summoned to meet at Vincenza Reginald Pool began at this same time to raise that Opposition to the King Cardinal Pool writes against the King which proved so fatal to all his Family He was by his Mother descended from the Duke of Clarence Brother to Edward the Fourth and was by his Father likewise the King 's near Kinsman To this high Quality there was joined a great Sweetness of Temper and a Disposition for Letters which the King cherished much and gave him the Deanry of Exeter and some other Preferments in order to the carrying on of his Studies being resolved to advance him to the highest Dignities in the Church He lived many Years both at Paris and Padua In the latter of these he joined himself to a Society of Learned Men that gave themselves much to the Study of Eloquence and of the Roman Authors among whom were Contareno Bembo Caraffa and Sadoletti all afterwards honoured with the Scarlet but Pool was esteemed the most Eloquent of of them all When he was at Paris he first incurred the King's Displeasure for he refused to joyn with those whom he imploied in order to the procuring the Determinations of the
French Universities for the Divorce Yet after that he came to England and was present when the Convocation declared the King to be their Supream Head And it is probable that he joined in it for he kept his Deanry some Years after this which it is not likely would have been granted him if he had not done that The King suffered him after that to go beyond Sea but could never draw him over again Some time afterwards he wrote plainly to the King that he condemned both his Divorce and his Separation from the Apostolick See The King upon that sent him a Book writ by Sampson Bishop of Chichester in defence of these things and that set him on writing his Book de Vnione Ecclesiastica which was printed this Year It was full of sharp Reflections on the King whom he compared to Nebuchadnezzar It tended much to depress the Regal and to exalt the Papal Authority And in Conclusion he addressed himself to the Emperour praying him rather to turn his Arms against the King than the Turk It was very Eloquently wrote but there was little Learning or Reasoning in it and it was full of Indecencies in the Language that he bestowed not only on Sampson but on the King The King required him to come over but that was not to be expected after he had made such a step So he devested him of all his Dignities but that recommended him to a Cardinal's Hat Stokesly and Tonstal wrote him a long and learned Letter in the King's Vindication Gary diner wrote also his Book de vera Obedientia to which Bonner prefixed a vehement Preface against the Pope's Power and for justifying the King's Supremacy The King's anger at Pool could not reach him but it fell Heavy on his Kindred Visitors were appointed to survey all the lesser Monasteries The lesser Monasteries cited in They were required to carry along with them the Concurrence of the Gentry near them and to examine the estate of their Revenues and Goods and take Inventories of them and to take their Seals into their keeping They were to try how many of the Religious would take Capacities and return to a Secular Course of Life and these were to be sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Lord Chancellour for them and an Allowance was to be given them for their Journey But those who intended to continue in that state were to be sent to some of the great Monasteries that lay next A Pension was also to be assigned to the Abbot or Prior during Life And of all this they were to make their report by Michaelmass And they were particularly to examine what Leases had been made all the last Year The Abbots hearing of what was coming on them had been raising all the Mony they could and so it was intended to recover what was made away by ill Bargains There were great Complaints made of the Proceedings of the Visitors of their Violencies and Briberies and perhaps not without reason Ten Thousand of the Religious were set to seek for their Livings with Forty Shillings and a Gown a Man Their Goods and Plate were estimated at an 100000 l. And the valued Rents of their Houses was 32000 l. but was really above ten times so much The Churches and Cloisters were in most places pulled down and the Materials sold This gave a general Discontent Which gave a general Discontent and the Monks were now as much pitied as they were formerly hated It was thought strange to see the King devour what his Ancestors had dedicated to the Honour of God and his Saints The Nobility and Gentry who provided for their younger Children or Friends by putting them in those Sanctuaries were sensible of their Loss The People who had been fed at the Abbot's Tables and as they travelled over the Country found the Abbies to be places of Reception to Strangers saw what they were to lose But the more Superstitious who thought their Friends must now ly still in Purgatory without that Relief which the Masses procured them were out of measure offended at these Proceedings The Books that were published of the Disorders in these Houses had no great effect on the People For it was said There was no reason to destroy whole Houses for the sake of some vicious Persons who ought to have been driven out of them and punished But to remove this general discontent Cromwel advised the King to sell these Lands at very easy Rates to the Nobility and Gentry and to oblige them to keep up the wonted Hospitality This would both be grateful to them and would engage them to assist the Crown in the Maintenance of the changes that had been made since their own Interests would be Interwoven with the Rights of Crown and the commoner sort whose grudges lay chiefly in their Stomachs for the want of the good Dinners they used to find would be easily pacified if these were still kept up And upon a Clause in the Act empowering the King to found anew such Houses as he should think fit there were 15 Monasteries and 16 Nunneries new founded It seems these had been more regular than the rest so that for a while they were reprived till the General Suppression came that they fell with the rest They were bound to obey such Rules as the King should send them and to pay him Tenths and first Fruits But all this did not so pacify the People but there was still a great out-cry The Clergy studied much to inflame the Nation and built much on this That an Heretical Prince deposed by the Pope was no more to be acknowledged which had been for 500 Years received as an Article of Faith and was decreed in the same Council that Established Transubstantiation and had been received and caried down from Gregory the Seventh's time who pretended that it was a part of the Papal Power to depose Kings and give away their Dominions and had it been oft put in Practice in almost all the Parts of Europe and some that had been raisers of great Sedititions had been Canonized for it The Pope had summoned the King to appear at Rome and answer for putting away his Queen and taking another Wife for the Laws he had made against the Church and for putting the Bishop of Rochester and others to death for their not obeying them if he did not appear nor reform these things he excommunicated and deprived him absolved his Subjects from their Obedience dissolved his Leagues with Forreign Princes and put the Kingdom under an Interdict But tho the force of these Thunders was in this Age much abated yet they had not quite lost their Strength and the Clergy resolved to make the most of them that could be Some Injunctions which were given by Cromwell Injunctions given by the King increased this ill Disposition They were to this Effect All Church-men were required every Sunday for a quarter of a Year and twice every Quarter after that to preach against
new Opinions Fox Bishop of Hereford Treaties with the German Princes died at this time He had been much imploied in Germany and had setled a League between the King and the German Princes The King was acknowledged the Patron of their League and he sent them over 100000 Crowns a Year for the support of it There was a Religious League also proposed but upon the turn that followed in the Court upon Queen Ann's Death that fell to the ground and all that was in put their League relating to Religion was That they should joyn against the Pope as the common Enemy and set up the true Religion according to the Gospel But the Treaty about other Points was afterwards set on foot The King desired Melanchthon to come over and several Letters passed between them but he could not be spared out of Germany tho he was then invited both to France and England The Germans sent over some to treat with the King the Points they insisted most on were the granting the Chalice to the People and the putting down private Masses in which the Institution seemed express the having the Worship in a known Tongue which both common sense and the Authority of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians seemed to justify much The third was The Marriage of the Clergy for they being extream sensible of the Honour of their Families reckoned that could not be secured unless the Priests might marry Concerning these things their Ambassadours gave a long and learned Memorial to the King to which an Answer was made penned by Tonstall in which the things they complained of were justified by the ordinary Arguments Upon Fox's Death Bonner was promoted to Hereford and Stokesly dying not long after he was translated to London Cromwell thought that he had raised a Man that would be a faithful Second to Cranmer in his Designs of Reformation who indeed needed help not only to ballance the Opposition made him by other Bishops but to lessen the Prejudices he suffered by the Weakness and Indiscretion of his own Party who were generally rather Clogs than Helps to him Great Complaints were brought to the Court of the rashness of the new Preachers who were flying at many things not yet abolished Upon this Letters were writ to the Bishops to take care that as the People should be rightly instructed so they should not be offended with too many Novelties Thus was Cranmer's Interest so low that he had none to depend on but Cromwell There was not a Queen now in the King's Bosom to support them and therefore Cromwell set himself to contrive how the King should be engaged in such an Alliance with the Princes of Germany as might prevail with him both in Affection and Interest to carry on what he had thus begun And the Beauty of Anne of Cleve was so represented to him that he set himself to bring about that Match A Parliament was summoned to the 28th of April The Act of the six Articles in which twenty of the Abbots sate in Person On the 5th of May a Motion was made that some might be appointed to draw a Bill against Diversity of Opinions in matters of Religion these were Cromwell Cranmer the Bishops of Duresme Ely Bath and Wells Bangor Carlile and Worcester they were divided in their Minds and tho the Popish Party were sive to four yet the Authority that Cromwell and Cranmer were in turned the Ballance a little but after they had met eleven days they ended in nothing Upon that the Duke of Norfolk proposed the six Articles The first was for the Corporal Presence 2. For Communion in one kind 3. For observing the Vows of Chastity 4. For private Masses 5. For the Celibate of the Clergy And the sixth was for Auricular Confession Against most of these Cranmer argued several days It is not like he opposed the first both because of that which he had declared in Lambert's Case so lately and in his own Opinion he was then for it but he had the Words of the Institution and the constant Practice of the Church for twelve Ages to object to the second and for the third since the Monks were set at Liberty to live in the World it seemed hard to restrain them from Marriage and nothing did so effectually cut off their Pretensions to their former Houses as their being married would do For the fourth if private Masses were useful then the King had done very ill to suppress so many Houses that were chiefly founded for that end the Sacrament was also by its first Institution and the Practice of the Primitive Church to be a Communion and all those private Masses were invented to cheat the World For the fifth it touched Cranmer in the quick for it was believed that he was married but the Arguments used for that will be found in the next Book For Auricular Confession Lee Gardiner and Tonstal press'd much to have it declared necessary by the Law of God Cranmer argued against this and said it was only a good and profitable thing The King came often to the House in Person and disputed in these Points for the greatest part he was against Cranmer but in this particular he joyned with him Tonstall drew up all the Quotations brought from Antient Authors for it in a Paper which he delivered to the King the King answered in a long Letter written with his own Hand in which he shewed that the Fathers did only advise Confession but did not impose it as necessary and so it was concluded in general only that it was necessary and expedient On the 24th of May the Parliament was prorogued a few days but by a Vote it was provided that the Bills should continue in the state they were then in At their next meeting two Committees were appointed to draw the Bill of Religion Cranmer was the chief of the one and Lee of the other both their Draughts were carried to the King and were in many places corrected with his own Hand in some Parts he writ whole Periods a new That which Lee drew was more agreeable to the King's Opinion so it was brought into the House Cranmer argued three days against it and when it came to the Vote the King who was much set on having it past desired him to go out but he excused himself for he thought he was bound in Conscience to vote against it But the rest that opposed it were more compliant and it also passed without any considerable Opposition in the House of Commons and was assented to by the King The Substance of it was That the King being sensible of the good of Union and of the mischief of Discord in points of Religion had come to the Parliament in Person and opened many things of high Learning there and that with the assent of both Houses he set forth these Articles 1. That in the Sacrament there was no Substance of Bread and Wine but only the Natural Body and Blood of Christ
2. That Christ was entirely in each kind and so Communion in both was not necessary 3. That Priests by the Law of God ought not to marry 4. That Vows of Chastity taken after the Age of 21 ought to be kept 5. That Private Masses were lawful and useful 6. That Auricular Confession was necessary and ought to be retained Such as did speak or write agaist the first of these were to be burned without the benefit of Abjuration and it was made Felony to dispute against the other five and such as did speak against them were to be in a Premunire for the first Offence the second was made Felony Married Priests that did not put away their Wives were to be condemned of Fellony in those that lived incontinently the first Offence was a Premunire and the second Felony Women that offended were to be punished as the Priests were Those that contemned Confession and the Sacrament and abstained from it at the accustomed times were for the first Offence in a Premunire the second was Felony Proceedings were to be made in the Forms of Common Law by Presentments and a Jury and all Church-men were charged to read the Act in their Churches once a Quarter This Act was received with great Joy by all the Popish Party Censures past upon it they reckoned that now Heresy would be extirpated and that the King was as much engaged against it as he was when he writ against Luther this made the Suppression of the Monasteries pass much the easier The poor Reformers were now exposed to the Rage of their Enemies and had no Comfort from any part of it but one that they were not delivered up to the Cruelty of the Ecclesiastical Courts or the Trials ex Officio but were to be tried by Juries yet the denying the benefit of Abjuration was a Severity without a Precedent and was a forcing Martyrdom on them since they were not to be the better for their Apostacy It was some Satisfaction to the married Clergy that the incontinent Priests were to be so severely punished which Cromwell put in and the Clergy knew not how they could decently oppose it Upon the passing the Act the German Ambassadours being set on to it by those that favoured their Doctrine in England desired an Audience of the King and told him of the Grief with which their Masters would receive the News of this Act and therefore earnestly press'd him to stop the Execution of it The King answered that he found it necessary to have the Act made for repressing the Insolence of some People but assured them it should not be put in Execution except upon great Provocation When the Princes heard of the Act they writ to the King to the same purpose they warned him of many Bishops that were about him who in their Hearts loved Popery and all the old Abuses and took this method to force the King to return back to the former Yoke hoping that if they once made him cruel to all those they called Hereticks it would be easy to bring him back to submit to that Tyranny which he had shaken off and therefore they proposed a Conference between some Divines of both sides in order to an Agreement of Doctrine The King was only concerned upon State Maxims to keep up their League in Opposition to the Emperour but they still press'd a Religious as well as a Civil League After the Act of the six Articles An Act for suppressing the Monasteries the Act for suppressing the Monasteries was brought in and tho there were so many Abbots sitting in the House none of them protested against it By it no Monastery was suppressed but only the Resignations made or to be made were confirmed and the King 's Right founded either on their Surrenders Forfeitures or Attainders of Treason was declared good in Law Houses surrendred were to be managed by the Court of Augmentations but those seized on by Attainders were to come to the Exchequer All Persons except the Founders and Donors were to have the same Rights to the Lands belonging to these Houses that they had before this Act was made All Deeds and Leases made for a Year before this to the prejudice of these Houses were annulled and all the Churches belonging to them and formerly exempted were put under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop or of such as should be appointed by the King This last Proviso has produced a great Mischief in this Church for many that purchased Abby-Lands had this Clause put in their Grants that they should be the Visitors of the Churches and by this they continue still exempted from the Episcopal Jurisdiction and this has emboldened many to break out into great Scandals which have been made use of by prejudiced Men to cast an Obloquy on the Church tho this Disorder proceeds only from the want of Authority in the Bishops to censure them A Question was raised upon this Suppression whether the Lands should have reverted to the Donors or been escheated to the Crown By a Judgment of the Roman Senate in Theodosius's time all the Endowments of the Heathenish Temples were given to the Fisc and tho the Heirs of the Donors pretended to them yet it was said that by the Gifts that their Ancestors made they were totally alienated from them and their Heirs When the Order of the Templers was suppressed their Lands went to the Lord by an Escheat This might seem reasonable in Endowments that were simple Gifts without any Conditions But the Grants to Religious Houses were of the nature of Covenants given in consideration of the Masses that were to be said for them and their Families and therefore it was inferred that when the Cheat of redeeming Souls out of Purgatory was discovered and these Houses were suppress'd then the Lands ought to revert to the Heirs of the Donors and upon that account it was thought necessary to exclude them by a special Proviso Another Bill was brought in An Act for new Bishopricks empowering the King to erect new Bishopricks by his Letters Patents it was read three times in one day in the House of Lords The Preamble set forth that the ill Lives of those that were called Religious made it necessary to change thir Houses to better Uses for teaching the Word of God instructing of Children educating of Clerks relieving of old infirm People the endowing of Readers for Greek Latine and Hebrew mending of High-ways and the bettering the Condition of the Parish Priests and for this end the King was empowered to erect new Sees and to assign what Limits and Divisions and appoint them what Statutes he pleased I have seen the first Draught of this Preamble all written with the King 's own Hand and indeed he used extraordinary Care in corecting both Acts of Parliament and Proclamations with his own Hand All Papers in matters of Religion that were set out by publick Authority in this Reign were revised by him and in many places large
Author of it would certainly be hanged So when the Secretary came to ask for it and said it was the Arch-bishop's Book the other that was an obstinate Papist refused to give it and reckoned that now Cranmer would be certainly ruined but the Secretary acquainting Cromwell with it he called for him next day and chid him severely for presuming to keep a Privy-Counsellours Book and so he took it out of his Hands thus Cranmer was delivered out of this Danger Shaxton and Latimer not only resigned their Bishopricks but being presented for some Words spoken against the six Articles they were put in Prison where they lay till a recantation discharged the one and the King's Death set the other at liberty There were about 500 others presented on the same account but upon the Intercessions of Cranmer Cromwell and others they were set at liberty and there was a stop put to the further Execution of the Act till Cromwell fell The Bishops of the Popish Party took strange Methods to insinuate themselves into the King's Confidence Bishops hold their Sees at the King's Pleasure for they took out Commissions by which they acknowledged That all Jurisdiction Civil and Ecclesiastical flowed from the King and that they exercised it only at the King's Courtesy and as they had of his Bounty so they would be ready to deliver it up when he should be pleased to call for it and therefore the King did empower them in his stead to ordain give Institution and do all the other parts of the Episcopal Function which was to last during his Pleasure and a mighty charge was given them to ordain none but Persons of great Integrity good Life and well learned for since the Corruption of Religion flowed from ill Pastors so the Reformation of it was to be expected chiefly from good Pastors By this they were made indeed the King's Bishops in this Bonner set an Example to the rest but it does not appear that Cranmer took out any such Commission all this Reign Now came on the total Dissolution of the Abbies All the Monasteries supprest 57 surrenders were made this Year of which 30 are yet extant of these 37 were Monasteries and 20 were Nunneries and among them 12 were Parliamentary Abbies which were in all 28 Abington St. Albans St. Austin's Canterbury Battell St. Bennets in the Holm Bardeny Cirencester Colchester Coventry Croyland St. Edmundsbury Evesham Glassenbury Gloceste Hide Malmsbury St. Mary's in York Peterborough Ramsey Reading Selby Shrewsbury Tavestock Tewkesbury Thorney Waltham Westminster and Winchelcomb When all had thus resigned Commissioners were appointed by the Court of Augmentations to seize on the Revenues and Goods belonging to these Houses to establish the Pensions that were to be given to every one that had been in them and to pull down the Churches or such other parts of the Fabrick as they thought superfluous and to sell the Materials of them When this was done others began to get Hospitals to be surrendred to the King Thirleby being Master of St. Thomas Hospital in Southwark was the first that set an Example to the rest he was soon after made a Bishop and turned with every Change that followed till Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and then he refused to comply tho he had gone along with all the Changes that were made in King Edward's time The valued Rents of the Abby-Lands as they were then let was 132607 l. 6 s. 4 d. but they were worth above ten times so much in true value The King had now in his hand the greatest Advantage that ever King of England had both for enriching the Crown and making Royal Foundations But such was his Easiness to his Courtiers and his Lavishness that all this melted away in a few Years and his Designs were never accomplished he intended to have founded 18 new Bishopricks but he founded only six Other great Projects did also become abortive In particular one that was designed by Sir Nicholas Bacon which was a Seminary for States-men he proposed the crecting a House for Persons of Quality or of extraordinary Endowments for the study of the Civil Law and of the Latine and French Tongues of whom some were to be sent with every Ambassadour beyond Sea to be improved in the Knowledg of Forreign Assairs in which they should be imploied as they grew capable of them And others were to be set to work to write the History of the Trasactions abroad and of Assairs at home This was to supply one Loss that was like to follow on the Fall of Abbies for in most of them there was kept a Chronicle of the Times These were written by Men that were more credulous than judicious and so they are often more particular in the recital of Trifles than of important Affairs and an invincible Humour of lying when it might raise the Credit of their Order or House runs through all their Manuscripts All the Ground that Cranmer gained this Year in which there was so much lost was a Liberty that all private Persons might have Bibles in their House the managing of which was put in Cromwell's Hands by a special Patent Gardiner opposed it vehemently and built much on this that without Tradition it was impossible to understand the meaning of the Scriptures and one day before the King he challenged Cranmer to shew any Difference between the Scriptures and the Apostles Canons It is not known how Cranmer managed the Debate but the Issue of it was this The King judged in his Favours and said He was an old experienced Captain and ought not to be troubled by fresh Men and Novices The King was now resolved to marry again and both the Emperour and the King of France proposed Matches to him but they came to no Effect The Emperour endeavoured by all means possible to separate the King from the Princes of the Smalcaldick League and the Act of the six Articles had done that already in a great measure for they complained much of the King's Severity in those Points which were the principal Parts of their Doctrine such as Communion in both kinds Private Masses and the Marriage of the Clergy Gardiner studied to animate the King much against them he often told him it was below his Dignity to suffer dull Gâ—rrâ—ans to dictate to him and he suggested that they who would not acknowledg the Emperours Supremacy in the matters of Religion could not be hearty Friends to the Authority which the King had assumed in them But the Germans did not look on the Emperour as their Soveraign but only as the Head of the Empire and they did believe that every Prinee in his Dominions and the Diet for the whole Empire had sufficient Authority for making Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs but what other Considerations could not induce the King to was like to be more powerfully carried on by the Match with Anne of Cleve which was now set on foot There had been a Treaty between her Father and
received the new Opinions Seaton a Dominican the King's Confessor preaching in Lent set out the Nature of true Repentance and the Method to it without mixing the Directions which the Friars commonly gave on that Subject and when another Friar shewed the defectiveness of what he had taught he defended himself in another Sermon and reflected on those Bishops that did not preach and called them dumb Dogs But the Clergy would not meddle with him till they found him in ill Terms with the King and the freedom he used in reproving him for his Vices quickly alienated the King from him upon which they resolved to fall on him but he withdrew into England and wrote to the King taxing the Clergy for their Cruelty and praying him to restrain it One Forrest an ignorant Benedictine was accused for having spoken Honourably of Patrick Hamilton and was put in Prison In Confession to a Friar he acknowledged he thought he was a good Man and that the Articles for which he was condemned might be defended The Friar discovered this and it was received as Evidence and upon it he was condemned and burnt Divers others were brought into the Bishop's Courts of whom the greatest part abjured but two were more resolute one Gourley denied Purgatory and the Pope's Authority another was David Smiton who being a Fisherman had refused to pay the Tithe of his Fish and when the Vicar came to take them he said the Tithe was taken where the Stock grew and therefore he threw the tenth Fish into the Sea For this and other Opinions he was condemned and they were both burnt at one Stake Several others were accused of whom some fled to England and others went over to Germany The Changes made in England raised in all the People a curiosity of searching into matters of Religion and that was always fatal to Superstition Pope Clement the 7th wrote earnestly to the King of Scotland to continue firm to the Catholick Faith Upon which he called a Parliament and made new Laws for maintaining the Pope's Authority and proceeding against Hereticks yet the Pope could not engage him to make War on England King Henry sent Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to him with some Books that were written in Defence of his Proceedings and desired him to examine them Impartially He also proposed the Enterview at York and a Match between him and Lady Mary the King 's eldest Daughter and promised that he should be made Duke of York and Lord Lieutenant of the whole Kingdom Yet the Clergy diverted him from this and perswaded him to go in Person to France and court the Daughter of that King Magdalene He married her in January 1537 but she died in May. She had been bred in the Queen of Navarre's Court and so was well disposed towards the Reformation Upon her Death the King married Mary of Guise she was a Branch of the Family of all Europe that was most zealously addicted to the old Superstition and her Interest joined with the Clergy's engaged the King to become a violent Persecuter of all that were of another mind The King was very expensive both in his Pleasures and Buildings and had a numerous Race of Bastards A Persecution set on foot in Scotland so that he came to want Mony much The Nobility proposed to him the seizing on the Abbey-Lands as his Uncle had done The Clergy on the other hand advised him to proceed severely against all suspected of Heresy By which means according to the Lists they shewed him he might raise 100000 Crowns a Year They also advised him to provide his Children to Abbies and Priories and represented to him That if he continued stedfast in the old Religion he would still have a great Party in England and might be made the Head of a League which was then in Project against King Henry This so far prevailed with him that as he made four of his Sons Abbots and Priors so he gave way to the persecuting Spirit of the Clergy Upon which many were cited to answer for Heresy of these many abjured and some were banisht A Canon Regular a Secular Priest two Friars and a Gentleman were burnt Forrest the Canon Regular had been reproved by his Ordinary the Bishop of Dunkell for meddling with the Scriptures too much He told him he had lived long and had never known what was in the Old or New Testament but contented himself with his Portoise and Pontifical and that he might come to repent it if he troubled himself with such Fancsies The Archbishop of Glasgow was a very moderate Man and disliked cruel Proceedings Russel a Friar and Kennedy a young Man of 18 Years of Age were brought before him they expressed wonderful Joy and a steady Resolution in their Sufferings And after a long dispute between Russel and the Bishop's Divines Russel concluded This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness go on and fill up the Measures of your Iniquities The Archbishop was unwilling to give Sentence he said he thought these Executions did the Church more Hurt than Good But those about him told him He must not take a Way different from the rest of the Bishops and threatned him so that he pronounced Sentence They were burned but they gave such Demonstrations of Patience and Joy as made no small Impression on all that saw it or heard of it Among those that were in trouble George Buchanan was one who at the King's Instigations had writ a very sharp Poem against the Franciscans but was now abandoned by him He made his Escape and lived 20 Years in Forraign Parts and at last returned to do his Country Honour and what by his Immortal Poems what by his History of Scotland he shewed both how great a Master he was in the Roman Tongue and how true a Judge he was both in Wit and in the Knowledge of Human Affairs if Passion had not corrupted him towards the end of his History that he is justly to be reckoned the greatest and best of the Modern Writers So much of the Affairs of Scotland the Author 's Native Country King Henry stayed not long at York The Queen 's ill Life is discovered since his Nephew came not to him He set out a Proclamation there inviting all that had been of late oppressed to come in and make their Complaints and he promised to repair them This was done to cast the Load of all past Errours upon Cromwel The King was mightily wrought on by the Charms of his Wife so that on the First of November he gave publick thanks to God for the happy Choice he had made But this did not last long for the next day Cranmer came and gave him an account of the Queen 's ill Life which one Lassells had revealed to him as having learnt it from his Sister She had been very lewd before her Marriage both with one Deirham and one Mannock Cranmer by the Advice of the other Privy Counsellors put this in Writing
Bishops and the Psalter and other Rudiments of Religion in English All Church-men that preached contrary to that Book for the first Offence were only required to recant for the second to abjure and carry a Faggot but were to be burnt for the third the Laity for the third Offence were only to forfeit their Goods and Chattels and to be liable to perpetual Imprisonment but they were to be proceeded against within a Year The Parties accused were not allowed Witnesses for their Purgation The Act of the six Articles was confirmed and it was left free to the King to change this Act or any Proviso in it There was also a new Act past giving Authority to the King's Proclamations and any nine Privy Counsellours were empowered to proceed against Offenders To this the Lord Mountjoy dissented and it is the only Instance of any Protestation against any of the publick Acts that past in this whole Reign By the Act about Religion as the Laity were delivered from the fear of Burning so the Clergy might not be burnt but upon the third Conviction The Act being also put entirely in the King's Power he had now the Reformers all at mercy for he could bind up the Act or execute it as he pleased and he affected this much to have his People depend entirely upon him The League offensive and defensive for England and Calais and for the Netherlands was sworn by the King and the Emperour and Assurances were given that tho the King would not declare Lady Mary legitimate upon which the Emperour insisted much yet she should be put in the Succession to the Crown next Prince Edward The Emperour was glad thus to engage the Kings of England and France in a War by which the Germans were left without Support and so he resolved to carry on his great design of making himself Master of Germany In Scotland the Earl of Arran Affairs in Scotland Hamilton next in Blood to the young Queen was established in the Government during the Queen's Minority he was a Man of great Vertue and much inclined to the Reformation but was soft and easie to be wrought on King Henry sent Sir Ralph Sadler to him to induce him to set forward the Match and to offer him Lady Elizabeth to his Son It was agreed and confirmed in Parliament that the Young Queen should be bred in Scotland till she was ten Years old the King of England sending a Nobleman and his Lady with others not exceeding twenty to wait on her and after that Age she was to be sent to England and in the mean while six Hostages were to be given but all the Clergy headed by Cardinal Beaton set themselves much against this The Queen-Mother opposed it much and it was also said a Match with the French would be more for the Interest of the Nation who being at so great a distance could not oppress them so easily as the English might for if the French opprest them the English would be ready to protect them but if they came under the Yoke of England they could expect no Protection from any other Prince This meeting with that Antipathy that was then formed between the two Nations and being inflamed by the Clergy turned the People generally to prefer a Match with France to that which was proposed for the Prince of Wales The French sent over the Earl of Lennox to make a Party against the Governour they sent also over the Governour 's Base-Brother afterwards made Arch-bishop of St. Andrews to take him out of the hands of the English and he made him apprehend great danger if he went on in his Opposition to the Interests of Rome that he would be declared illegitimate as being begotten in a second Marriage while the first that was annulled because of a Precontract did subsist for if the annulling the first should be reversed then the second could be of no force and if that were once done the Earl of Lennox who was next to him in blood would be preferred to him These threatnings joyned with his Brother 's Artifices had their full Effect on him for he turned off wholly from the Interests of England and gave himself up to the French Councils When it was thus resolved to break the Match with England the Lords that had left Hostages for their faithful performing the Promises they made to King Henry were little concerned either in their own Honour or in the safety of their Hostages only the Earl of Cassilis thought it was unworthy of him to break his Faith in such a manner so he came into England and put himself in King Henry's Hands who upon that called him another Regulus but used him better for he gave him his Liberty and a Noble Present and sent him back with his Hostages but resolved to take a severe Reparation of those who had failed him in that Kingdom At the same time he began the War with France one of the Reasons he gave for it was that Francis had failed in the matter of shaking off the Pope's Authority and advancing a Reformation in which he had promised to second him The King married Katherine Parre Some burnt at Windsor Widow to Nevill Lord Latimer She secretly favoured the Reformation but could not divert a Storm which fell then on a Society at Windsor Person a Priest Testwood and Marbeck two Singing-men and Filmer one of the Town were informed against by Dr. London who had insinuated himself much into Cromwel's Favour and was eminently zealous in the Suppression of the Monasteries But now he made his Court no less dextrously to the Popish Party Gardiner moved in Council That a Commission might be granted for searching all suspected Houses for Books written against the six Articles So the four before mentioned were found to have some of them and upon that account were seized on Sir Philip Hobbey and Dr. Hains Dean of Exeter were also put in Prison There was a Concordance of the Bible and some Notes upon it in English found written by Marbeck which was look'd on as the Work of some learned Man for it was known that he was illiterate Marbeck said the Notes were his own gathered by him out of such Books as he fell on And for the Concordance he said he compiled it by the help of a Latin Concordance and an English Bible tho he understood little Latin He had brought it to the Letter L. This seemed so incredible that it was look'd on only as a Pretence to conceal the true Author so to try him they gave him some Words of the Letter M and shut him up with a Latin Concordance and an English Bible and by his Performance in that they clearly saw that the whole Work was his own and were not a little astonished at the Ingeniousness and Diligence of so poor a Man When the King heard of it he said Marbeck was better imployed than they were that examined him So he was preserved tho the other
three were condemned for some Words which they had spoken against the Mass and upon that were burnt Dr. London and Simonds an Attorney had taken some Informations against several Persons of Quality at Court and intended to have carried the Design very high But a great Pacquet in which all their Project was disclosed by them being intercepted they were sent for and examined about it but they denied it upon Oath not knowing that their Letters were taken and were not a little confounded when their own Hand-writing was shewed them So they were convicted of Perjury and were set on a Pillory and made ride about with their Faces to the Horses Tails and Papers on their Breasts in three several Places which did so affect Dr. London that he died soon after Cranmer 's Ruine is designed The chief thing aimed at by the whole Popish Party was Cranmer's Ruine Gardiner imploied many to infuse it into the King that he gave the chief Encouragement to Heresy of any in England and that it was in vain to lop off the Branches and leave the Root still growing The King till then would never hear the Complaints that were made of him But now to penetrate into the depth of this Design he was willing to draw out all that was to be said against him Gardiner reckoned that this Point being gained all the rest would follow And judged that the King was now alienated from him and so more Instruments and Artifices than ever were now made use of A long Paper of many Particulars both against Cranmer and his Chaplains was put in the King's hands So upon this the King sent for him and after he had complained much of the Heresy in England he said He resolved to find out the chief Promoter of it and to make him an Example Cranmer wished him first to consider well what Heresy was that so he might not condemn those as Hereticks who stood for the Word of God against Humane Inventions Then the King told him franckly That he was the Man complained of as most guilty and shewed him all the Informations that he had received against him Cranmer confessed he was still of the same mind that he was of when he opposed the six Articles and submitted himself to a Trial He confessed many things to the King in particular that he had a Wife but he said he had sent her out of England when the Act of the six Articles past and expressed so great a Sincerity and put so entire a Confidence in the King that instead of being ruined he was now better established with him than formerly The King commanded him to appoint some to examine the Contrivance that was laid to destroy him He answered That it was not decent for him to nominate any to judge in a Cause in which himself was concerned Yet the King was positive so so he named some to go about it and the whole secret was found out It appeared that Gardiner and Dr. London had been the chief Sticklers and had encouraged Informers to appear against him Cranmer did not press the King to give him any Reparation for he was so noted for his readiness to forgive Injuries and to do Good for Evil that it was commonly said that the best way to obtain his Favour was to do him an Injury of this he gave signal Instances at this time both in Relation to some of the Clergy and Laity by which it appeared that he was acted by that meek and lowly Spirit that became all the Followers of Christ but more particularly one that was so great an Instrument in reforming the Christian Religion and did in such eminent Acts of Charity shew that he himself practised that which he taught others to do A Parliament was now called The Act of the Succession in which the great Act of Succession to the Crown past By it the Crown was first provided to Prince Edward and his Heirs or the Heirs by the King 's present Marriage after them to Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth and in case they had no Issue or did not observe such Limitations or Conditions as the King should appoint then it was to fall to any other whom the King should name either by his Letters Patents or by his last Will signed with his Hand An Oath was appointed both against the Pope's Supremacy and for the maintaining Succession according to this Act which all were required to take under the pains of Treason It was made Treason to say or write any thing contrary to this Act or to the Slander of any of the King's Heirs named in it By this tho the King did not Legitimate his Daughters yet it was made Criminal for any to object Bastardy to them Another Act past qualifying the Severity of the Act of the six Articles none were to be imprisoned but upon a Legal Presentment except upon the King's Warrant None was to be challenged for Words but within a Year nor for a Sermon but within 40 Days This was made to prevent such Conspiracies as had been discovered the former Year Another Act past renewng the Authority given to 32 to reform the Ecclesiastical Law which Cranmer promoted much and to set it forward he drew out of the Canon Law a Collection of many things against the Regal and for the Papal Authority with several other very Extravagant Propositions to shew how Indecent a thing it was to let a Book in which such things were continue still in any credit in England But he could not bring this to any good Issue during this Reign Another Act past discharging all the King's Debts and they also required such as had received payment to bring back the Money into the Exchequer This was taxed as a piece of gross Injustice and it was thought strange that since the King had done this once before he could have the credit to raise more Mony and be tempted to do it a second time A General Pardon was granted out of which Heresy was excepted The King was now engaged in a War The King makes War on France and Scotland both with France and Scotland and to make his Treasure hold out the longer he embased the Coin in a very Extraordinary manner The Earl of Hartford was sent with an Army by Sea to Scotland he landed at Grantham a little above Leith He burnt both Leith and Edinburgh but he neither staied to take the Castle of Edinburgh nor did he Fortify Leith but only wasted the Country all the Way from that to Berwick He did too much if it was intended to gain the Hearts of that Nation and too little if it was intended to subdue them for this did only inflame their Spirits more by which they were so united in their Aversion to England that the Earl of Lennox who had been cast off by France and was gone over to the English Interest could make no Party in the West but was forced for his own Preservation to fly into
King that he resolved to reward those he intended to raise another way and he appointed that Estate to be kept entire and the Kings distemper increasing on him he at last came to a resolution that the E. of Hartford should be made a Duke be made both Earl Marshal and Lord Treasurer the Earl of Essex a Marquess Lisle and Wriothesly Earls and Seimour Rich Sheffield St. Leger Willoughby and Danby Barons with Revenues in Lands to every one of them and the Earl of Hartford was to have the first good Deanery and Treasurership and the four best Prebends that should fall in any Cathedral But though the King had resolved on this and had ordered Paget to propose it to the Persons concerned yet his Disease increased so fast on him that he never finished it and therefore he ordered his Executors to perform all that should appear to have been promised by him The greatest part of this was also confirmed by Denny and Herbert to whom the King had talked of it and had shewed the design of it in writing as it had been agreed between Paget and him So the Executors being concerned in this themselves it may be easily supposed that they determined to execute this part of their trust very faithfully Yet the King being then like to be engaged in Wars they resolved neither to lessen his Treasure nor Revenue but to find another way for giving the Rewards intended by the King which was afterwards done by the sale and distribution of the Chantry Lands The Castle of St. Andrews was then much pressed so they sent down by Balnaves the Agent of that party 1180 l. for the pay of the Garrison they gave also pensions to the chief supporters of their Interest in Scotland to some 250 to others 200 l. or less according to their interest in the Countrey The King received the Ceremony of Knighthood from the Protector and Knighted the Mayor of London the same day The grant of so many Ecclesiastical Dignities to the Earl of Hartford Lay-men had Ecclesiastical Dignities was no extraordinary thing at that time for as Cromwel had been Dean of Wells so diverse other Lay-men were provided to them which was thus excused because there was no cure of Souls belonging to them and during vacancies even in times of Popery the Kings had by their own Authority by the Right of the Regale given Institution to them so that they seem'd to be no Spiritual imployments and the Ecclesiasticks that had enjoyed them had been a lazy and sensual sort of men so that their abusing those Revenues either to luxury or to the enriching their kindred by the spoils of the Church had this effect that the putting them in Lay hands gave no great scandal and that the rather because a simple tonsure qualified a man for them by the Canons These foundations were at first designed for a Nursery to the Diocess in which the young Clergy were to be educated or for a retreat to those who were more speculative and not so fit for the service of the Church in the active parts of the Pastoral care so it had been an excellent design to have reformed them and restored them to the purposes for which they were at first intended And it was both against Magna Charta and all Natural Equity to take them out of the hands of Church-men and give them to those of the Laity But it was no wonder to see men yet under the influence of the Canon Law commit such errors At the same time an accident fell out Some take down Images that made way for great changes the Curate and Church-wardens of St. Martins in London were brought before the Council for removing the Crucifix and other Images and putting some Texts of Scripture on the Walls of their Church in the places where they stood They Answered That they going to repair their Church removed the Images and they being rotten they did not renew them but put places of Scripture in their room They had also removed others which they found had been abused to Idolatry Great pains was taken by the Popish party to punish them severely for striking terrour into others but Cranmer was for the removing of all Images which were set up in Churches expressly contrary both to the Second Commandment and to the practice of the Christians for diverse ages Arguments for and against it And though in compliance with the gross abuses of Paganism there was very early much of the Pomp of their worship brought into the Christian Church yet it was long before this crept in At first all Images were condemned by the Fathers then they allowed the use of them but condemned the worshipping of them and afterwards in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries the worshipping of them was after a long contest both in the East and West in which there were by turns General Councils that both approved and condemned them at last generally received and then the reverence for them and for some in particular that were believed to be more wonderfully enchanted was much improved by the cheats of the Monks who had enriched themselves by such means And it was grown to such a height that Heathenism it self had been guilty of nothing more absurd towards its Idols and the singular vertues in some Images shewed they were not worshipp'd only as Representations for then all should have equal degrees of veneration paid to them And since all these abuses had risen meerly out of the bare use of them and the setting them up being contrary to the command of God and the nature of the Christian Religion which is simple and Spiritual it seemed most reasonable to cure the disease in its root and to clear the Churches of Images that so the people might be preserved from Idolatry These Reasons prevail'd so far that the Curate and Wardens were dismissed with a Reprimand they were required to beware of such rashness for the future and to provide a Crucifix and till that could be had they were ordered to cause one to be painted on the Wall Upon this Dr. Ridley being to preach before the King inveighed against the superstition towards Images and Holy Water and there was a general disposition over all the Nation to pull them down which was soon after effected in Portsmouth Upon that Gardiner made great complaints he said the Lutherans themselves went not so far for he had seen Images in their Churches he argued from the Kings face on the Coyn and Great Seal for the use of Images and that the Law of Moses did no more bind in this particular than in that of abstaining from Blood He distinguished between Image and Idol as if the one which he said was only condemned was the representation of a False God and the other of the True and he thought that as words conveyed by the Ear begat devotion so Images by the conveyance of the Eye might have the same effect on the mind He also
thought a vertue might be both in them and in Holy Water as well as there was in Christ's Garments Peter's Shadow or Elisha's Staffe And there might be a Vertue in Holy Water as well as in the Water of Baptism He also mentioned the Vertue that was in the Cramp-Rings blessed by the late King which he had known to be much esteemed and sought after and he hoped their young King would not neglect that gift But to these things which Gardiner wrote in several Letters the Protector perhaps by Cranmer's direction wrote answer that the Bishops had formerly argued much in another strain that because the Scriptures were abused by the vulgar Readers therefore they were not to be trusted to them and so made a pretended abuse the ground of taking away that which by Gods special appointment was to be delivered to all Christians This did hold much stronger against Images that were forbidden by God The Brazen Serpent set up by Moses by Gods own direction was broken when abused to Idolatry for that was the greatest corruption of Religion possible And the Civil respect payed to the Kings Image on a Seal or on the Coyn did not justifie the dotage upon Images But yet the Protector acknowledged he had reason to complain of the forwardness of the people that broke down Images without authority This was the first step that was made in this Reign towards a Reformation of which the sequel shall appear afterwards Orders were sent to the Justices of the Peace to look well to the Peace and Government of the Nation to meet often and every six weeks to advertise the Protector of the state of the County to which they belonged The Funerals of the deceased King were performed with the ordinary Ceremonies at Windsor The Kings Funeral One thing gave those that hated him some advantages his Body was carried the first day to Sheen which had been a Nunnery and there some of the moisture and fat dropt through the Coffin and to make it a compleat accomplishment of Peyto's denunciation that Dogs should lick his Blood it was said the Dogs next day licked it This in a Corpulent man was so far from a wonder that it had been a wonder if it had been otherwise and was a certain sign of nothing but the Plummers carelesness and their weakness and malice that made such Inferences from it The King left six hundred pounds a year to the Church of Windsor for Priests to say Mass for his Soul every day and for four Obits a year and Sermons and distribution of Alms at every one of them and for a Sermon every Sunday and a maintenance for thirteen poor Knights which was setled upon that Church by his Executors in due form of Law The Pomp of this Endowment now in a more Inquisitive Age led people to examine the usefulness of Soul Masses and Obits Soul Masses examined Christ appointed the Sacrament for a commemoration of his Death among the living but it was not easie to conceive how that was to be applied to departed Souls For all the good that they could receive seemed only applicable to the prayers for them but bare Prayers would not have wrought so much on the people nor would they have payed so dear for them It was a clear project for drawing in the wealth of the World into their hands In the Primitive Church there was a Commemoration of the Dead or an Honourable Remembrance of them made in the daily Offices and for some very small faults their names were not mentioned which would not have had done if they had looked upon that as a thing that was really a relief to them in another state But even this custome grew to be abused and some inferred from it that departed Souls unless they were signally pure passed through a Purgation in the next life before they were admitted to Heaven Of which St. Austin in whose time the opinion was beginning to be received says that it was taken up without any sure ground in Scripture But what was wanting in Scripture proof was supplied by Visions Dreams and Tales till it was generally received King Henry had acted like one that did not much believe it for he was to expect no good usage in Purgatory from those Souls whom he had deprived of the Masses that were said for them in Monasteries by destroying those Foundations Yet it seems he intended to make sure work for himself so that if Masses could avail the departed Souls he resolved to have his share of it and as he gratified the Priests by this part of his Endowment so he pleased the people by appointing Sermons and Alms to be given on such days Thus he died as he had lived swimming between both perswasions And it occasioned no small debate when men sought to find out what his opinions were in the controverted points of Religion For the esteem he was in made both sides study to justifie themselves by seeming to follow his sentiments the one party said he was resolved never to alter Religion but only to cut off some abuses and intended to go no further than he had gone They did therefore vehemently press the others to innovate nothing but to keep things in the state in which he left them till his Son should come of Age But the opposite party said that he had resolved to go a great way further and particularly to turn the Mass to a Communion and therefore Religion being of such consequence to the Salvation of Souls it was necessary to make all the haste in Reformation that was fitting and decent The Coronation But now the diversions of the Coronation took them off from more serious thoughts The Protector was made Duke of Somerset the Earl of Essex Marquess of Northampton the Lords Lisle and Wriothesley Earls of Warwick and Southampton Seimour Rich Willoughby and Sheffield were made Barons In order to the Kings Coronation the Office for that Ceremony was reviewed and much shortned One remarkable alteration was that formerly the King used to be presented to the people at the corners of the Scaffold and they were asked If they would have him to be their King Which looked like a rite of an Election rather than a Ceremony of Investing one that was already King This was now changed and the people were desired only to give their assents and good will to his Coronation as by the duty of Allegiance they were bound to do On the twentieth of February he was Crowned and a General Pardon was proclaimed out of which the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pool and some others were excepted The Chancellour The Chancellour turned out who was lookt on as the head of the Popish party gave now an advantage against himself which was very readily laid hold on He granted a Commission to the Master of the Rolls and three Masters of Chancery of whom two were Civilians to execute his Office in the Court of Chancery as if he were
present only their Decrees were to be brought to him to be Signed before they should be Inrolled This being done without any authority from the Protector and the other Executors was thought a high Presumption since he did hereby devolve on others that trust which was deposited in his hands Upon this some Lawyers complained to the Protector and they seem'd also apprehensive of a design to change the Common Laws which was occasioned by the Decrees made by the Civilians that were more suted to the Imperial than to the English Laws The Judges being desired to give their opinions made report That what the Chancellour had done was against Law and that he had forfeited his place and might be imprisoned for it during pleasure But he carried it high he threatned both the Judges and Lawyers and when it was urged that he had forfeited his place he said he had it from the late King who had likewise named him one of the Executors during his Sons minority But it was answered That the major part had power over any of the rest otherwise one of them might rebel and pretend he could not be punished by the rest He being driven out of that was more humble and acknowledged he had no Warrant for granting the Commission he thought by his Office he might lawfully do it he asked Pardon for his offence and desired he might lose his place with as little disgrace as was possible and then it was resolved on by the rest to take the Seal from him and to Fine him as they should afterwards think fit So he being suffered to go home with the Seal the Lord Seimour and some others were sent to demand it of him He was also confined to his house and kept under the terrour of an Arbitrary Fine But upon giving a Bond of 4000 l. to be payed upon demand he was freed from his confinement Yet he was not put out of the trust of the King and the Government for it seems the Council did not look on that as a thing that was in their power to do Soon after this the Protector took a Patent for his Office under the Great Seal March Protectors Patent then in the keeping of the Lord St. John by which he was confirmed in his Authority till the King should be eighteen years of Age he was also authorized to bring in new Councellours besides those enumerated in the Patent who are both the Executors and the Councellours nominated by the late King The Protector with so many of the Council as he thought meet were empowered to administer the affairs of the Kingdom but the Council was limited to do nothing without his Advice and Consent And thus was he now as well established in his Authority as Law could make him He had a Negative on the Council but they had none on him and he could either bring his own creatures into it or select a Cabinet Council out of it as he pleased And the other Executors having now delivered up their Authority to him were only Privy Councellors as the rest were without retaining any singular authority peculiar to them as was provided by King Henry's Will The first business of consequence that required great consideration The affairs of Germany was the Smalcaldick War then begun between the Emperor and the Princes of that League the effects of which if the Emperor prevailed were like to be not only the extirpating of Lutheranism but his being the absolute Master of Germany which the Emperor chiefly designed in order to an Universal Monarchy but disguised it to other Princes to the Pope he pretended that his design was only to extirpate Heresie to other Princes he pretended it was only to repress some Rebels and denied all design of suppressing their new Doctrines which he managed so artificially that he divided Germany it self and got some Lutheran Princes to declare for him and others to be Neutrals and having obtained a very liberal supply for his Wars with France and the Turk for which he granted an Edict for liberty of Religion he made Peace with both those Princes and resolved to imploy that Treasure which the Germans had given him against themselves That he might deprive them of their chief Allies he used means to engage King Henry and Francis the First in a War but that was chiefly by their Interposition composed And now when the War was like to be carried on with great Vigour they lost both those Princes for as Henry died in January so Francis followed him into another World in March following Many of their Confederates began to capitulate and forsake them and the divided command of the Duke of Saxe and the Landgrave of Hesse lost them great advantages the former year in which it had been easie to have driven the Emperor out of Germany but it fell often out that when the one was for engaging the other was against it which made many very doubtful of their success The Pope had a mind to engage the Emperor in a War in Germany that so Italy might be at quiet and in order to that and to Imbroil the Emperor with all the Lutherans he published his Treaty with him that so it might appear that the design of the War was to extirpate Heresie though the Emperor was making great protestations to the contrary in Germany He also opened the Council of Trent which the Emperor had long desired in vain but it was now brought upon him when he least wished for it for the Protestants did all declare that they could not look upon it as a free General Council The Council of Trent since it was so entirely at the Popes devotion that not so much as a Reformation of some of the grossest abuses that could not be justified was like to be obtained unless clogged with such Clauses as made it ineffectual Nor could the Emperor prevail with the Council not to proceed to establish the doctrine and condemn Heresie but the more he obstructed that by delays the more did the Pope drive it on to open the eyes of the Germans and engage them all vigorously against the Emperor yet he gave them such secret assurances of tollerating the Ausburg Confession that the Marquess of Brandenburg declared for him and that joyned with the hopes of the Electorate drew in Maurice of Saxe The Count Palatine was old and feeble the Archbishop of Colen would not make resistance but retired being condemned both by Pope and Emperor and many of the Cities submitted And Maurice by falling into Saxe forced the Elector to separate from the Landgrave and return to the defence of his own Dominions This was the state of the affairs in Germany so it was a hard point to resolve on what answer the Protector should give to the Duke of Saxe's Chancellor whom he sent over to obtain an Aid in Money for carrying on the War It was on the one hand of great importance to the safety of England to preserve
Falsid the Scots engaged with them in Parties but lost 1300 men The two Armies came in view the English consisted of fifteen thousand Foot and three thousand Horse and a Fleet under the Command of the Lord Clinton sailed along by them as they marched near the Coast the Scottish Army consisted of thirty thousand and a good train of Artillery The Protector sent a Message to the Scots inviting them by all the Arguments that could be invented to consent to the Marriage and if that would not be granted he desired engagements from them that their Queen should be contracted to no other person at least till she came of age and by the advice of the Estates should choose a Husband for herself This the Protector offered to get out of the War upon Honourable terms but the Scottish Lords thought this great Condescension was an effect of fear and believed the Protector was straitned for want of Provisions so instead of publishing this offer they resolved to fall upon him next day And so all the return that was made was That if the Protector would march back without any act of Hostility they would not fall upon him One went officiously with the Trumpeter and challenged the Protector in the Earl of Huntley's name to decide the matter by their Valour but the Protector said he was to fight no way but at the head of his Army yet the Earl of Warwick accepted the challenge but Huntley had given no order for it On the twentieth of September the Armies engaged In the beginning of the action a shot from the Ships killed a whole lane of men and disordered the High-landers so that they could not be made to keep their Ranks The Battel of Musselburgh The Earl of Angus charged bravely but was repulsed and the English broke in with such fury on the Scots that they threw down their Arms and fled Fourteen thousand were killed fifteen hundred taken Prisoners among whom was the Earl of Huntley and five hundred Gentlemen Upon this the Protector went on and took Leith and some Islands in the Frith in which he put Garrisons and left Ships to wait on them he sent some Ships to the mouth of Tay and took a Castle Broughty that commanded that River If he had followed this blow and gone forward to Striveling to which the Governour with the small remainders of his Army had retired and where the Queen was it is probable in the consternation in which they were he might have taken that place and so have made an end of the War But the party his Brother was making at Court gave him such an Alarm that he returned before he had ended his business And the Scots having sent a Message desiring a Treaty which they did only to gain time he ordered them to send their Commissioners to Berwick and so marched back He took in all the Castles in Merch and Teviotdale and left Garrisons in them and made the Gentry swear to be true to the King and to promote the Marriage He entred into Scotch ground the second of September and returned to England on the twenty ninth with the loss only of sixty men and brought with him a great deal of Artillery and many Prisoners This success did raise his reputation very high and if he had now made an end of the War it had no doubt establish'd him in his authority The Scots sent no Commissioners to Berwick but instead of that they sent some to France to offer their Queen to the Dauphin and to cast themselves on the protection of that Crown and so the Earl of Warwick whom the Protector left to treat with them returned back The Protector upon this great success summoned a Parliament to get himself established in his power The Visitors had now ended the Visitation The success of the Visitation and all had submitted to them and great Inferences were made from this that on the same day on which the Images were burnt in London their Army obtained that great Victory in Scotland But all sides are apt to build much on Providence when it is favourable to them and yet they will not allow the Argument when it turns against them Bonner at first protested that he would obey the Injunctions if they were not contrary to the Laws of God and the Ordinances of the Church but being called before the Council he retracted that and asked Pardon yet for giving terrour to others he was for some time put in Prison upon it Gardiner wrote to one of the Visitors before they came to Winchester that he could not receive the Homilies and if he must either quit his Bishoprick or sin against his Conscience he resolved to chuse the former Upon this he was called before the Council and required to receive the Book of Homilies but he excepted to one of them that taught that Charity did not justifie contrary to the Book set out by the late King confirmed in Parliament He also complained of many things in Erasmus's Paraphrase And being pressed to declare whether he would obey the Injunctions or not he refused to promise it and so was sent to the Fleet. Cranmer treated in private with him and they argued much about Justification Gardiner thought the Sacraments justified and that Charity justified as well as Eaith Cranmer thought that only the merits of Christ justified as they were applied by Faith which could not be without Charity so the question turned much on a different way of explaining the same thing Gardiner objected many things to Erasmus's Book particularly to some passages contrary to the power of Princes it was answered That Book was not chosen as having no faults but as the best they knew for clearing the difficulties in Scripture Cranmer offered to him that if he would concur with them he should be brought to be one of the Privy Council but he did not comply in this so readily as he ordinarily did to such offers Upon the Protectors return he wrote to him complaining of the Councils proceedings in his absence and after he had given his objections to the Injunctions he excepted to this that they were contrary to Law and argued from many precedents that the Kings authority could not be raised so high and that though Cromwel and others endeavoured to perswade the late King that he might govern as the Roman Emperours did and that his Will ought to be his Law yet he was of another opinion and thought that it was much better to make the Law the Kings Will. He complained also that he was hardly used that he had neither Servants Physicians nor Chaplains allowed to wait on him and that though he had a Writ of Summons he was not suffered to come to the Parliament which he said might bring a Nullity on all their Proceedings But he lay in Prison till the Act of General Pardon past in Parliament set him at liberty Many blamed the severity of these proceedings as contrary both to Law
and Equity and said that all people even those who complained most of arbitrary power were apt to usurp it when they were in authority And some thought the delivering the doctrine of Justification in such nice terms was not sutable to the plain simplicity of the Christian Religion Lady Mary was so alarmed at these proceedings that she wrote to the Protector that such changes were contrary to the honour due to her Fathers Memory and it was against their duty to the King to enter upon such points and endanger the publick Peace before he was of Age. To which he wrote answer That her Father had died before he could finish the good things he had intended concerning Religion and had expressed his regret both before himself and many others that he left things in so unsetled a state and assured her that nothing should be done but what would turn to the Glory of God and the Kings Honour He imputed her Writing to the importunity of others rather than to her self and desired her to consider the matter better with an humble Spirit and the assistance of the Grace of God The Parliament was opened the fourth of November A Parliament meets and the Protector was by Patent authorized to sit under the Cloath of State on the Right hand of the Throne and to have all the Honours and Priviledges that any Unkle of the Crown either by Father or Mothers side ever had Rich was made Lord Chancellour The first Act that past five Bishops only dissenting An Act of Repeal was A Repeal of all Statutes that had made any thing Treason or Felony in the late Reign which was not so before and of the six Articles and the authority given to the Kings Proclamations as also of the Acts against Lollards All who deni'd the Kings Supremacy or asserted the Popes for the first offence were to forfeit their goods for the second were to be in a Pramunire and were to be attainted of Treason for the third But if any intended to deprive the King of his Estate or Title that was made Treason none were to be accused of Words but within a month after they were spoken they also repealed the power that the King had of annulling all Laws made till he was twenty four years of age and restrained it only to an annulling them for the time to come but that it should not be of force for the declaring them null from the beginning Another Act past with the same dissent An Act about the Sacrament for the Communion in both kinds and that the people should always communicate with the Priest and by it irreverence to the Sacrament was condemned under severe penalties Christ had instituted the Sacrament in both kinds and S. Paul mentions both In the Primitive Church that custome was universally observed but upon the belief of Transubstantiation the reserving and carrying about the Sacrament were brought in this made them first endeavour to perswade the World that the Cup was not necessary for Wine could neither keep nor be carried about conveniently but it was done by degrees the Bread was for some time given dipt as it is yet in the Greek Church but it being believed that Christ was entirely under either kind and in every crumb the Council of Constance took the Cup from the Laity yet the Bohemians could not be brought to submit to it so every where the use of the Cup was one of the first things that was insisted on by those who demanded a Reformation At first all that were present did communicate and censures past on such as did it not And none were denied the Sacrament but Penitents who were made to withdraw during the Action But as the devotion of the World slackned the people were still exhorted to continue their Oblations and come to the Sacrament though they did not receive it and were made believe that the Priest received it in their stead The name Sacrifice given to it as being a holy Oblation was so far improved that the World came to look on the Priests officiating as a Sacrifice for the dead and living From hence followed an infinite variety of Masses for all the accidents of humane life and that was the chief part of the Priests trade but it occasioned many unseemly jests concerning it which were restrained by the same Act that put these down Another Act past without any dissent An Act concerning the nomination of Bishops That the Conge d'elire and the Election pursuant to it being but a shadow since the person was named by the King should cease for the future and that Bishops should be named by the Kings Letters Patents and thereupon be consecrated and should hold their Courts in the Kings name and not in their own excepting only the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Court And they were to use the Kings Seal in all their Writings except in Presentations Collations and Letters of Orders in which they might use their own Seals The Apostles chose Bishops and Pastors by an extraordinary gift of discerning Spirits and proposed them to the approbation of the people yet they left no rules to make that necessary In the times of Persecution the Clergy being maintained by the Oblations of the people they were chosen by them But when the Emperours became Christians the Town Councils and eminent men took the Elections out of the hands of the Rabble And the Tumults in popular Elections were such that it was necessary to regulate them In some places the Clergy and in others the Bishops of the Province made the choice The Emperours reserved the Confirmation of the Elections in the great Sees to themselves But when Charles the Great annexed great Territories and Regalities to Bishopricks a great change followed thereupon Church-men were corrupted by this undue greatness and came to depend on the humours of those Princes to whom they owed this great encrease of their wealth Princes named them and invested them in their Sees But the Popes intended to separate the Ecclesiastical State from all subjection to Secular Princes and to make themselves the heads of that State at first they pretended to restore the freedom of Elections but these were now ingrossed in a few hands for only the Chapters chose The Popes had granted thirty years before this to the King of France the nomination to all the Bishopricks in that Kingdome so the King of Englands assuming it was no new thing and the way of Elections as King Henry had setled it seemed to be but a Mockery so this change was not much condemned The Ecclesiastical Courts were the Concessions of Princes in which Trials concerning Marriages Wills and Tithes depended so the holding those Courts in the Kings name was no Invasion on the Spiritual Function since all that concerned Orders was to be done still in the Bishops name only Excommunication was still left as the Censure of those Courts which being a Spiritual Censure ought to have been reserved to
of Portugal's Brother but it was let fall soon after She refused to acknowledge the Laws made when the King was under age and carried herself very high for she knew well that the Protector was then afraid of a War with France and that made the Emperours Alliance more necessary to England Yet the Council sent for the Officers of her houshold and required them to let her know that the Kings Authority was the same when he was a child as at full age and that it was now lodged in them and though as they were single persons they were all inferiour to her yet as they were the Kings Council she was bound to obey them especially when they executed the Law which all Subjects of what rank soever were bound to obey Yet at present they durst go no further for fear of the Emperours displeasure So it was resolved to connive at her Mass The Reformation of the greatest Errours in Divine Worship being thus established Disputes concerning Christs presence in the Sacrament Cranmer proceeded next to establish a form of Doctrine the chief point that hitherto was untouched was the presence of Christ in the Sacrament which the Priests magnified as the greatest Mystery of the Christian Religion and the chief priviledge of Christians with which the simple and credulous vulgar were mightily affected The Lutherans received that which had been for some Ages the Doctrine of the Greek Church that in the Sacraments there was both Bread and Wine and also the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ The Helvetians lookt on it only as a Commemoration of the Death of Christ The Princes of Germany were at great pains to have these reconciled in which Bucer had laboured with great Industry But Luther being a man of a harsh temper did not easily bear contradiction and was too apt to assume in effect that Infallibility to himself which he condemned in the Pope Some took a middle way and asserted a Real Presence but it was not easie to understand what was meant by that expression unless it was a real application of Christs death so that the meaning of Really was Effectually But though Bucer followed this method Pet. Martyr did in his Lectures declare plainly for the Helvetians So Dr. Smith and some others intended publickly to oppose and affront him and challenged him to a dispute about it which he readily accepted on these conditions That the Kings Council should first approve of it and that it should be managed in Scripture terms For the strength of those Doctors lay in a nimble managing of those barbarous and unintelligible terms of the Schools which though they sounded high yet really they had no sense under that So all the Protestants resolved to dispute in Scripture terms which seemed more proper in matters of Divinity than the Metaphysical language of School men The Council having appointed Dr. Cox and some others to preside in the dispute Dr. Smith went out of the way and a little after fled out of England But before he went he wrote a very mean submission to Cranmer Other Doctors disputed with Peter Martyr concerning Transubstantiation but that had the common fate of all publick disputes for both sides gave out that they had the better At the same time there were also disputes at Cambridge which were moderated by Ridley that was sent down thither by the Council He had fallen on Bertrams Book of the Sacrament and wondred much to find so celebrated a Writer in the ninth Century engage so plainly against the Corporal Presence This disposed him to think that at that time it was not the received belief of the Church He communicated the matter to Cranmer and they together made great Collections out of the Fathers on this head and both wrote concerning it The substance of their Arguments was Arguments against the Corporal Presence That as Christ called the Cup the Fruit of the Vine so S. Paul called the other Element Bread after the Consecration which shews that their natures were not changed Christ speaking to Jews and substituting the Eucharist in the room of the Paschal Lamb used such expressions as had been customary among the Jews on that occasion who called the Lamb the Lords Passeover which could not be meant literally since the Passeover was the Angels passing by their Houses when the first born of the Egyptians were killed So it being a commemoration of that was called the Lords Passeover and in the same sense did Christ call the Bread his Body Figurative expressions being ordinary in Scripture and not improper in Sacraments which may be called Figurative actions It was also appointed for a Remembrance of Christ and that supposes absence The Elements were also called by Christ his Body broken and his Blood shed so it is plain they were his Body not as it is glorified in Heaven but as it suffered on the Cross And since the Scriptures speak of Christs continuance in Heaven till the last day from thence they inferred that he was not Corporally present And it was shewed that the eating Christs Flesh mentioned by S. John was not to be understood of the Sacrament since of every one that did eat it is said that he has Eternal life in him So that was to be understood only of receiving Christs doctrine and he himself shewed it was to be meant so when he said that the Flesh profited nothing but his words were Spirit and Life So that all this was according to Christs ordinary way of teaching in Parables Many other Arguments were brought from the nature of a body to prove that it could not be in more places than one at once and that it was not in a place after the manner of a Spirit but was always extended They found also that the Fathers had taught that the Elements were still Bread and Wine and were the Types the Signs and Figures of Christs Body not only according to Tertullian and S. Austin but to the Ancient Liturgies both in the Greek and Roman Churches But that on which they built most was that Chrysostome Gelasius and Theodoret arguing against those who said that the humane nature in Christ was swallowed up by its Union to his Godhead They illustrated the contrary thus as in the Sacrament the Elements are united to the Body of Christ and yet continue to be the same that they were formerly both in Substance Nature and Figure So the Humanity was not destroyed by its Union with the Word From which it appeared that it was then the received opinion that the Elements were not changed and therefore all those high expressions in Chrysostome or others were only strains and figures of Eloquence to raise the devotion of the people higher in that holy action But upon those expressions the following Ages built that opinion which agreeing so well with the Designs of the Priests for establishing the authority of that Order which by its Character was qualified for the greatest performance that
of the soyl among the Tenants The Protector was a great friend to the Commons and complained much of the Oppression of the Landlords There was a Commission issued out to enquire concerning Inclosures and Farms and whether those who purchased the Abbey Lands and were obliged to keep up Hospitality performed it or not and what encouragement they gave to Husbandry but this turned to nothing So the Commons rose every where yet in most of the Inland Counties they were easily dispersed and it was promised that their grievances should be redressed The Protector against the Councils mind set out a Proclamation against all new Inclosures and for indemnifying the People for what was past Commissioners were also sent every where to hear and determine all Complaints but the power that was given to them was so arbitrary that the Landlords called it an Invasion of Property when their Rights were thus subjected to the pleasure of such Men. The Commons understanding that the Protector was so favourable to them were thereby the more encouraged and it was afterwards objected to him that the Convulsions England fell in soon after was chiefly occasioned by his ill Conduct in which he was the more blamed because he acted against the mind of the greatest part of the Council The Rebellion in Devonshire June 10. In Devonshire the Insurrection was more formidable the superstition of the Priests joining with the rage of the Commons so they became quickly 10000. strong The Lord Russel was sent against them with a small force and was ordered to try if the matter could be composed without blood but Arundel a Man of Quality commanding the Rebels they were not a loose body of People easily dissipated They sent their Demands to Court That the old Service and Ceremonies might be set up again that the Act of the six Articles and the Decrees of General Councils might be again in force that the Bible in English should be called in that Preachers should pray for the Souls in Purgatory that Cardinal Pool should be restored that the half of the Abbey Lands should be restored to found two Abbeys in every County and that Gentlemen of 100. Marks a Year might have but one Servant and they desired a safe Conduct for their Chief Leaders in order to the Redress of their particular Grievances afterwards they moderated their desires only to points of Religion Cranmer writ a large Answer to these shewing the Novelty and Superstition of those Rites and Ceremonies and of that whole way of worship of which they were so fond and that the amendments and changes had been made according to the Scriptures and the Customes of the Primitive Church and that their being fond of a Worship which they understood not and being desirous to be kept still in ignorance without the Scriptures shewed their Priests had greater power over them than the common reason of all Mankind had as for the six Articles that Act had never past if the King had not gone in Person to the Parliament and argued for it yet he soon saw his error and was slack in executing it After that there was a high threatning Answer sent them in the King's name charging them for their Rebellion and blind obedience to their Priests In it the King's authority under Age was largely set forth for by the pretence of the Kings Minority the People generally were made believe that their rising in Arms was not Rebellion In Conclusion they were earnestly invited to submit to the Kings mercy as others had done whom the King had not only pardoned but had redressed their just Grievances At the same time the like spirit of rage inflamed the Commons in Norfolk they pretended nothing of Religion And in Norfolk but only to destroy the Gentry and put new Counsellors about the King they were led by one Ket a Tanner and in a few days grew to be 20000. They encamped near Norwich and committed great out-rages Parker afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury went in among them and with great freedom inveighed against their Rebellion and Cruelty and warned them of the Judgments of God that would fall on them for which he was in great danger of his life Ket was now their Prince and in imitation of the ancient Druids he did Justice upon complaints brought before him under an Oak called from thence the Oak of Reformation The Marquess of Northampton was sent against them with Orders to keep at a distance and cut off their provisions There was at the same time a rising likewise in Yorkshire where the Commons being incouraged by some pretended Prophecies run together and committed acts of great barbarity on some Gentlemen The French begin a War The French King hearing of all this resolved to take his advantage and regain Bulloigne three days before he marched with his Army the English Embassadour pressing him upon the Intimations that were given him of his designs he assured him on the faith of a Gentleman that he would not begin a War till he first gave warning But many Princes reckon it a part of their Prerogative to be exempted from such ties by which only poor Subjects ought to be fettered All these things falling upon the Government at once it may be easily imagined they were under no small consternation A Fast was proclaimed at Court where Cranmer preached with great freedom and vehemence he laid out before them their vitious and ill lives particularly of those who pretended a love to the Gospel and set before them the Judgments of God that they might look for and inlarged on the fresh example of the Calamities of Germany and intimated the sad apprehensions he had of some terrible stroke if they did not repent and amend their lives The Rebels in Devonshire besieged Exeter The Rebels every where routed the Citizens resisted their assaults but could not so easily resist the assaults that hunger made on them for they were not provided for a Siege They were reduced at last to great extremities which made the Lord Russel after he had got such supplies as he judged necessary resolve to fall upon them They possessed themselves of a Bridge behind him both to inclose him and to hinder others from joyning with him but he marched back and did quickly beat them from it with the loss of 600. of their Men and by that essay he perceived how easie a work it would be to disperse them he upon that marched forward to Exeter and beat the Rebels from a Bridge that opened his way to their Camp killing a 1000. of them upon which they raised the Siege and retired in great disorder to Lanceston he pursued them as long as they kept in a body and great numbers of them were killed some of their Leaders and Priests were taken and hanged So happily was that Rebellion subdued without any loss on the Kings side But the Marquess of Northampton was not so successful in Norfolk he marched into Norwich The Rebels
having a great Party in the Town which was a place of no strength fell in upon him next day and drove him out of it 100. of his Men were killed and thirty taken Prisoners Upon this they were much lifted up but the Earl of Warwick coming thither with 6000. Men that were prepared to be sent to Scotland they after some skirmishes with him were forced to retire for they had wasted all the Countrey about so that their Provisions failed them but Warwick followed them close and killed great numbers and dispersed them Ket and some of their Leaders were taken and hanged in Chains The news of this going to Yorkshire the Rebels there that had not exceeded 3000. accepted the offer of pardon that was sent them and some of the more factious that were animating them to make new commotions were taken and hanged On the 21. of August the Protector published a General Pardon in the Kings name of all that had been done before that day Many of the Council opposed this and judged it better to keep the Commons under the lash but the Protector thought that as long as such Members continued in such fears it would be easie to raise new disorders so he resolved though without the Majority of the Council to go through with it This disgusted the Council extreamly who thought he took too much upon him A Visitation of Cambridge followed soon after this A Visitation of Cambridge Ridley was the chief of the Visitors When he found that a design was laid to suppress some Colledges under pretence of uniting them to others and to convert some Fellowships that were provided for Divines to the study of the Civil Law he refused to go along in that with the other Visitors and particularly opposed the suppression of Clare Hall which they began with He said the Church was already too much robbed and yet some Mens ravenousness was not satisfied It seemed the design was laid to drive both Religion and Learning out of the Land therefore he desired leave to be gone The Visitors complained of him to the Protector and imputed his concern for Clare-Hall to his partiality for the North where he was born that being a House for the Northern Counties Upon that the Protector wrote him a chiding Letter but he answered it with the freedom that became a Bishop who was resolved to suffer all things rather than sin against his Conscience and the Protector was so well satisfied with him that the Colledge was preserved There was at this time an end put to a very foolish Controversie that had occasioned some heat concerning the pronunciation of the Greek Tongue which many used more suitably to an English than a Greek accent Cheek being the Professor of Greek had taught the truer Rules of Pronunciation but Gardiner was an Enemy to every thing that was new and so he opposed it much in King Henry's time and Cheek was made leave the Chair but both he and Sir Tho. Smith wrote in Vindication of his Rules with so much Learning that all People wondred to see so much brought out upon so slight an occasion but Gardiner was not a Man to be wrought on by reason Now the matter was setled and the new way of pronunciation took place and that the rather because the Patrons of it were in such power the one being the King's Tutor and the other made Secretary of State and that Gardiner who opposed it was now in the Tower So great an Influence has Greatness in supporting the most speculative and indifferent things Bonner was now brought in trouble Bonners Process It was not easie to know how to deal with him for he obeyed every Order that was sent him and yet it was known that he secretly hated and condemned all that was done and as often as he could declare that safely he was not wanting by such ways to preserve his interest with the Papists And though he obeyed the Orders of Council yet he did it in so remiss a manner that it was visible that it went against the grain August So he was called before the Council and charged with several particulars That whereas he used to officiate himself on the great Festivals he had not done it since the New Service was set out that he took no care to repress Adultery and that he never Preached So they ordered him to officiate every Festival to Preach once a quarter and to begin within three weeks and Preach at S. Pauls and to be present at every Sermon when he was in health and to proceed severely against those who withdrew from the new Service and against Adulterers They required him to set forth the heinousness of Rebellion and the nature of true Religion and the indifference of outward Ceremonies and particularly to declare that the Kings Authority was the same and as much to be obeyed before he was of age as after On the first of September he Preacht he said nothing of the power of Kings under Age and spoke but little to the other points but enlarged much on the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament Hooper and W. Latimer two of his hearers informed against him So a Commission was granted to Cranmer Ridley the two Secretaries of State and May Dean of S. Pauls to examine that matter and to imprison or deprive him as they should see cause for it They were also authorized to proceed in the summary way of the Spiritual Courts He was summoned to Lambeth where he carried himself with great disrespect and disingenuity towards the Delegates and gave the Insormers very soul language and in his whole discourse he behaved himself like one that was disturbed in his Brain When the Commission was read he made a Protestation against it reserving to himself power to except to diverse things in it He said the Informers were Hereticks and only prosecuted him because he had taught the presence of Christ in the Sacrament At the next meeting Secretary Smith was there who was not present at the first So upon that account Bonner protested against him he also charged Heresie on his Accusers who were thereby under Excommunication and so not capable to appear in any Court He denied that any Injunctions had been given him under the Kings hand or Signet he said he had preached against the late Rebels which implied that the Kings power was compleat though he was under age It was answered to this that the Court might proceed ex Officio without Informers And that the Injunctions concerning the heads of which he was required to treat in his Sermon were read to him by one of the Secretaries and were given him by the Protector and they were afterwards called for and that Article about the Kings power under age was by Order of Council added and the Paper was delivered to him by Secretary Smith At a third appearance the Informers offered to vindicate themselves of the charge of Heresie but after some scurrilous language given
without consent of the Parliament of Paris and of the States but the Emperor had a more unlimited power in making Treaties As for the business of Bulloign the Bishop of Arras said it was taken after the Emperor's Treaty with England and so was not included in it nor could the Emperor comprehend it within it without breach of his Faith and Treaties with France which was so contrary to the Emperor's honour that it could not be done For the honour of a Prince is a good excuse when he has no mind to engage in a deceitful or unjust War but it is often forgotten when the Circumstances are more favourable Paget after several other Conferences found there was nothing more to be expected of the Emperor so he returned back to England It was upon that proposed in Council whether since by the Treaty with France Bulloign was to be delivered up within a few Years it were not better to prevent a new War and a Siege the issue of which was like to prove very dangerous and to enter into a Treaty for doing it presently and if at the same time it were not more advisable to make an end of the War in Scotland since there was no possibility of compassing the Marriage for which it was first begun Upon this A Faction against the Protector all the Protector 's Enemies took off the Mask and declared themselves against it The Earl of Southampton and the Earl of Warwick were the chief sticklers the one hated him for turning him out of his Office and the other hoped to be the chief Man in business if he should fall Many things concurred to raise the Protector many Enemies his partiality to the Commons provoked the Gentry his cutting off his Brothers head and building a Magnificent Palace in the Strand upon the ruines of some Bishops Houses and Churches and that in a time both of War and Plague disgusted the People The Clergy hated him not only for his promoting the changes made in Religion but for his possessing himself of so many of the Bishops best Mannors his entertaining foreign Troops both Germans and Italians though done by the consent of Council yet gave a general distast and that great advancement he was raised to wrought much both on himself and others for it raised his pride as much as it provoked the envy of others The Privy Counsellors complained that he was become so Arbitrary in his proceedings that he little regarded the opposition that was made by the Majority of the Council to any of his designs All these things concurred to beget him many Enemies and except Cranmer who never forsook his friend and Paget and Smith all turned against him so they violently opposed the proposition for a Treaty with France they also complained that the Places about Bulloign were lost by his carelesness and by his not providing them well and that he had recalled the Garrison out of Hadington and they put him in mind of the conditions upon which he was first made Protector by which he was limited to do nothing but by their advice though he had since that taken out a Patent which cloathed him with a far greater power Upon Pagets return when it was visible that nothing could be expected from the Emperor he prest them much to consent to a Treaty with France but it was said that he had secretly directed Paget to procure no better answer that so he might be furnished with an excuse for so dishonourable an Action therefore they would not give way to it The Protector carried the King to Hampton Court Which turns to a publick breach October and put many of his own Creatures about him which increased the Jealousies so Nine of the Privy Council met at Ely-House and assumed to themselves the Authority of the Council and Secretary Petre being sent by the King to ask an account of their meeting instead of returning joyned himself to them They made a large Declaration of the Protector 's ill government and bad designs and of his engaging the King to set his hand to Letters for raising Men and for dispersing Seditious Papers therefore they resolved to see to the safety of the King and Kingdom Both the City of London and the Lieutenant of the Tower declared for them They also sent Letters all over England desiring the assistance of the Nobility and Gentry Seven more Privy Counsellors came and joyned with them They wrote to the King complaining of the Protector 's obstinacy and his refusing to hearken to their Counsels though the late King had left the Government of his Person and Kingdom to them in common and the Protector was advanced to that dignity by them upon conditions which he had little regarded therefore they desired the King would construct well of their Intentions and proceedings The Protector had removed the King from Hampton Court as being an open place to Windsor which had some more defence about it and had armed some of his own Servants and set them about the King's Person which heightned the Jealousies of him yet seeing himself abandoned by all friends except a few and finding the Party against him was formed to such a strength that it would be in vain to struggle any longer he offered to submit himself to the Council So a Proposition of a Treaty was set on foot and the Lords at London were desired to send two of their number with their Propositions and a Passeport was sent them for their safety Cranmer and the other two writ to the Council to dispose them to an agreement and not to follow Cruel Counsels Many false reports as is usual on such occasions were carried of the Protector as if he had threatned that if they intended to put him to death the King should dye first which served to increase the prejudices against him The Council writ to Cranmer and Paget charging them to look well to the Kings Person that he should not be removed from Windsor and that the Duke of Somerset's Servants might be put from him and his own sworn Servants admitted to wait they also protested that they would proceed with all the moderation and favour towards the Duke of Somerset that was possible The Council understanding that all things were prepared as they had desired sent first three of their number to see that the Duke of Somerset and some of his Creatures Smith Stanhop Thynne Wolf and Cecil should be confined to their Lodgings and on the 12th of October the whole Council went to Windsor and made great protestations of their duty to the King which he received favourably and assured them he took all that they had done in good part The Duke of Somerset with the rest of his friends The Protector 's fall except Cecil who was presently inlarged were sent to the Tower and many Articles were objected to him That he being made Protector with this condition that he should do nothing but by the consent of
Laws and Orders of Council but that he would acknowledge no fault not having committed any The things objected to him were that he refused to set out in his Sermon the King's power when he was under Age and had affronted the Preachers whom the King had sent to his Diocess that he had been negligent in executing the King's Injunctions and refused to confess his fault or ask the King pardon and it was said that the Rebellions raised in England might have been prevented if he had timously set forth the King's authority he answered that he was not required to do it by any Order of Council but only in a private discourse yet Witnesses being examined upon those particulars the Delegates proceeded to sentence of deprivation against him notwithstanding his Appeal to the King in Person and he was appointed to lie still in the Tower where he continued till Queen Mary discharged him Nothing was pretended to excuse the severity of these proceedings but that he having taken out a Commission for holding his Bishoprick only during the King's pleasure he could not complain when that was intimated to him and if he had been turned out meerly upon pleasure without the Pomp of a Process the matter might have been better excused Poinet was put in his See and had 2000. Marks in Lands assigned him for his subsistence Story was put in Rochester and upon Veysy's resignation Coverdale was made Bishop of Exeter The scruples that Hooper made were now so far satisfied that he was content both to be consecrated in his Vestments and to use them when he preached before the King or in his Cathedral but he was dispensed with upon other occasions By this time the greater number of the Bishops were Men that heartily received the Reformation The Articles of Religion agreed on so it was resolved now to proceed to a settlement of the Doctrine of the Church many thought that should have been done in the first place But Cranmer judged it was better to proceed slowly in that matter he thought the Corruptions in the Worship were to be begun with since while they remained the addresses to God were so defiled that thereby all People were involved in unlawful compliances he thought speculative Opinions might come last since errours in them were not of such ill consequence and he judged it necessary to lay these open in many Treatises and Disputes before they should proceed to make alterations that so all People might be before-hand satisfied with what should be done So now they framed a Body of Articles which contained the Doctrine of the Church of England they were cast into forty two Articles and afterwards some few alterations being made in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign they were reduced to XXXIX which being in all Peoples hands need not be much inlarged on In the Ancient Church there was at first a great simplicity in their Creeds but afterwards upon the breaking out of Heresies concerning the Person of Christ equivocal senses being put on the terms formerly used new ones that could not be so easily eluded were invented A humour of explaining Mysteries by similies and niceties and of passing Anathema's on all that did not receive these did much over-run the Church and though the Council of Ephesus decreed that no new additions should be made to the Creed yet that did not restrain those who loved to make all their own conceits be received as parts of the Faith The Fathers were carried too far with this curiosity but the Schoolmen went farther and spun the Thread much finer they condemned every thing that differed from their Notions as Heretical Many of the Lutherans had retained much of that peremptoriness and were not easie to those who differed from them In England great care was taken to frame these Articles in the most comprehensive words and the greatest simplicity possible Changes made in the Common-prayer-book When this was setled they went about the review of the Common-prayer-Book In the daily service they added the Confession and Absolution that so the worship of God might begin with a grave and humble Confession conceived in general words but to which every one ought to joyn a secret confession of his particular sins after which a solemn declaration of the mercy of God according to the terms of the Gospel was to be pronounced by the Priest This was thought much better than the giving Absolution in such formal words as I absolve thee which begat in the undiscerning Vulgar an Opinion that the Priest had authority to pardon sin and that made them think of nothing so much as how to purchase it at his hands and it proved as it was managed the greatest Engine that ever was for overthrowing the power of Religion In the Communion-Service they ordered a recital of the Commandments with a short devotion between every one of them judging that till Church-Discipline were restored nothing could more effectually awaken such as came to receive it to a due seriousness in it than the hearing the Law of God thus pronounced with those stops in it to make the People reflect on their offences against it The Chrism the use of the Cross in consecrating the Eucharist Prayers for the Dead and some expressions that favoured Transubstantiation were laid aside and the Book was put in the same Order and Method in which it continues to this day excepting only some inconsiderable variations that have been made since A Rubrick was added to the Office of the Communion explaining the reason of kneeling in it that it was only as an expression of due reverence and gratitude upon the receiving so particular a mark of the favour of God but that no adoration was intended by it and that they did not think Christ was corporally present in it In Queen Elizabeth's time this was left out that such as conformed in other things but still retained the belief of the Corporal Presence might not be offended at such a Declaration It was again put in the Book upon his present Majesties Restoration for removing the Scruples of those who excepted to that posture Christ did at first institute this Sacrament in the ordinary Table-gesture Moses appointed the Paschal Lamb to be eaten by the People standing with staves in their hands they being then to begin their march yet that was afterwards changed by the Jews who did eat it in the posture common at Meals which our Saviour's practice justifies so though Christ in his state of Humiliation did Institute this Ordinance in so familiar a posture yet it was thought more becoming the reverence due to him in his Exaltation to celebrate it with greater expressions of humility and devotion The Ancient Christians received it standing and bowing their Body downward Kneeling was afterwards used as a higher expression of devout worship but great difference is to be made between the adoration practised in the Church of Rome in which upon lifting up the Host all fall down
condemned But of all these it was resolved that only Northumberland Gates and Palmer should suffer Heath was appointed to attend on Northumberland And Execution and to prepare him for death He then professed he had been always of the old Religion in his heart and had complied against his Conscience in the former times but whether that was true or whether it was done in hopes of life as it cannot be certainly known so it shews he had little regard to Religion either in his life or at his death But he was a Man of such a temper that it was resolved to put him out of a capacity of revenging himself on his Enemies On the 22. of August he and the other two were beheaded There past some expostulation between Gates and him each of them accusing the other as the Author of their ruine But they were seemingly reconciled and professed they forgave one another He made a long Speech confessing his former ill life and the Justice of the Sentence against him He exhorted the People to stand to the Religion of their Ancestors to reject all Novelties and to drive the Preachers of them out of the Nation and declared he had temporised against his Conscience and that he was always of the Religion of his Fore-fathers He was an extraordinary Man till he was raised very high but that transported him out of measure and he was so strangely changed in the last passages of his life that it encreased the Jealousies that were raised of his having hastned King Edward's death and that the horrors of that Guilt did so haunt him that both the Judgment and Courage he had expressed in the former parts of his life seemed now to have left him Palmer was little pitied for he was believed the betrayer of his former Master the Duke of Somerset and was upon that service taken into Northumberland's confidence There was no strict enquiry made into King Edward's death King Edwards Funeral all the honour done his Memory was that they allowed him Funeral Rites On the 8th of August he was buried at Westminster and the Queen had an Exequie and Masses for him at the Tower Day was appointed to preach the Sermon in it he praised the King but inveighed severely against the administration of affairs under him It had been resolved to bury him according to the old Forms but Cranmer opposed that and prevailed that he should be buried according to the form then setled by Law and he himself did officiate and ended the solemnity with a Communion all which it may be supposed he did with a very lively sorrow having both loved the King beyond expression and looking on his Funeral as the Burial of the Reformation and as a step to his own On the 22. of August the Queen declared in Council That though she was fixed in her own Religion yet she would not Compel others to it but would leave that to the motions of God's Spirit and the labours of good Preachers The day after that Bonner went to Saint Pauls and Bourn that was his Chaplain preached he extolled Bonner much and inveighed against the sufferings he was put to Upon this a Tumult was raised for the People could not hear reflections made on King Edward some flung stones at him and one threw a Dagger at the Pulpit with such force that it stuck fast in the wood Rogers and Bradford were present who were in great esteem with the People so they stood up and quieted them and conveyed Bourn safe home This was a very welcome Accident to the Papists and gave them a colour to prohibit preaching by a Publick Inhibition in the Queen's Name in which she declared That her Religion was the same that it had been from her Infancy but that she would compel none of her Subjects in matters of Religion till publick Order should be taken in it by common Assent She required her People to live quietly not to use the terms of Papist or Heretick or other reproachful speeches and that none should Preach without Licence she also charged them not to punish any on the account of the late Rebellion but as they should be authorised by her She would be sorry to be driven to execute the severity of the Law but was resolved not to suffer Rebellious doings to go unpunished This gave great occasion to censure and was thought a Declaration not for her Fathers Religion but for Popery since it was that which she professed from her Infancy It was also observed that she limited her promise of not compelling others till Publick Order should be taken in it the meaning of which was till a Parliament could be brought to concur with her The restraint upon Preaching without Licence was justified from what had been done in King Edward's time though then at first all might preach in their own Churches without it It was only necessary if they preached any where else Bishops had also the power of Licensing in their Dioceses and the total restraint that followed afterwards lasted but a short while But now all the Pulpits were put under an Interdict till the Preachers should obtain a Licence from Gardiner and that he resolved to grant to none but those that would Preach as he should direct them The Queen 's threatning to proceed against such as were guilty of the late Rebellion struck a general terrour in the City of London for the greatest part had been in some measure concerned in it In Suffolk the people thought their Services and the Queens promises gave them a Title to own their Religion more avowedly Severe proceedings against the men of Saffolk and others But orders were sent to the Bishop of Norwich to execute the Queens Injunctions and to see that none should preach that had not obtained a Licence Upon this some of those that had merited most came and put the Queen in mind of her Promise But she sent them home with a cold Answer and told them they must learn to obey her and not pretend to govern her And one that had spoken more confidently than the rest was set in a Pillory for it three days as having said words that tended to defame the Queen This was a sad Omen of a severe Government in which the claiming of Promises went for a crime Bradford and Rogers were also seized on and it was pretended that the authority they shewed in quieting the Tumult was a sign that they had raised it Gardiner Bonner Tonstal Heath and Day were restored to their Bishopricks they had all Appealed to the King before Sentence had past against them so Commissions were given to some Civilians to examine the grounds of these Appeals and they made report that they were good and so that the Sentences against them were null Gardiner had authority given him to grant Priests Licences to preach in any Church as he should appoint By this the Reformed were not only silenced but their Churches and Pulpits were cast open to
stopt it might provoke him to recal his power He knew all this flowed from the Emperour who would perhaps advise her to follow such Political Maximes as himself was governed by but his ill success in the business of the Interim might well frighten others from following such Counsels And he was afraid that Carnal Policy might govern her too much and that so she would fall from her simplicity in Christ He desired her to take Courage and to depend on God and advised her to go her self to the Parliament having before-hand prepared some to second her and to tell them that she was touched in Conscience with a sense of the sin of Schism and that therefore she desired the Act of Attainder that stood against him might be Repealed and that he might be invited to come over and reconcile them to the Apostolick See And she might assure them that all necessary caution should be used to prevent the Nations being brought under a thraldome to the Papacy But the Queen was now possest with Gardiner's Counsels and look'd on Pool's advices as more candid than prudent Gardiner perswaded her that though he was a good and learned man yet he understood not the present genius of the Nation and Pool lookt on Gardiner as a man of no Conscience and that he was more conversant in Intrigues of State than touched with any sense of Religion But the Emperour was convinced that Gardiner's Methods were surer and preferred them to Pool's When the Treaty of the Queens Marriage came to be known The Parliament opposes the match and is dissolved the House of Commons was much alarmed at it and they sent their Speaker with twenty of their Members with an Address to her not to marry a stranger And they were so inflamed that the Court judged it necessary to dissolve the Parliament Gardiner upon this let the Emperour know that the jealousies which were taken up on the account of the Match were such that except very extraordinary conditions were offered it would occasion a general Rebellion He also writ to him that great sums must be sent over both to gratifie the Nobility and to enable them to carry the Elections to the next Parliament in opposition to such as would stand against them As for Conditions it was resolved to grant any that should be demanded for the Emperour reckoned that if his Son were once married to her it would be easie for him to govern the Councils as he pleased And for Money there was 400000 pound ordered to be divided up and down the Nation at the discretion of Gardiner and the Emperours Ambassadours A great part of it was payed in hand and the rest was brought over with the Prince This the Emperour borrowed from some of the Free Towns of Germany and when they were pressing him for the re-payment of it about a year after he for his excuse told them the charge he had been at for his Sons Marriage but that he hoped to be re-imbursed from England which was thus bought and sold by a practising Bishop and a corrupted House of Commons Gardiner did also make use of his power as Chancellour to force all people to comply with him for there was no favour nor common Justice shewed in his Court of Chancery to any others With the Parliament a Convocation met Harpsfield preached to them A Convocation meets and disputes about the Sacrament he flattered the Queen and the Bishops that had been deprived in the late times with a zeal that shewed how fervently he aspired to preferment He inveighed against the late times with great sharpness so that his Sermon was divided between Satyr and Panegyrick Six of the Reformed Divines were qualified by their dignities to sit in the lower House being either Deans or Arch-Deacons Deacons who were Philpot Philips Haddon Cheyney Ailmer and Young They made a vigorous opposition to a motion that was proposed for condemning the Catechism and Common-Prayer-Book that had been set out in King Edward's time and particularly the Articles against Transubstantiation To this all agreed except those six It was pretended that the Catechism was not set out by authority of Convocation To which Philpot answered That the Convocation had deputed some to compose it and so it was on the matter their work A disputation was proposed concerning the Sacrament though all the rest of the Convocation subscribed the Conclusion first which was complained of as a preposterous method The six desired that Ridley and Rogers with some others might be suffered to come and join with them but that was refused since they were no members and were then in Prison On the twenty third of October the dispute began many of the Nobility and others being present Weston was Prolocutor he opened it with a Protestation that they went not to dispute as calling the Truth in question but only to satisfie the objections of a few Haddon Ailmer and Young foresaw that it was resolved to run them down with numbers noise so at first they refused to dispute and the last of them went away Cheyney argued from St. Paul's calling the Sacrament Bread Origen's saying that it nourished the Body and Theodoret's saying that the Elements did not depart from their former substance form and shape Moreman answered that Theodoret's words were to be understood of an accidental substance It was replied that form and shape belonged to the accidents but substance belonged to the nature of the Elements Philpot shewed that the occasion of his using these words was to prove against the Entychians that there was a true humane nature in Christ notwithstanding its union with the Godhead which he proved by this simile that the Elements in the Eucharist remained in their nature so this must be understood of the substance of Bread and Wine But to this no answer was made and when he seemed to press it too far he was commanded to be silent Haddon cited many passages out of the Fathers to shew that they believed Christ was still in Heaven and that the Sacrament was a memorial of him till his second coming He also asked whether they thought that Christ did eat his own natural Body and when that was confessed he said it was needless to dispute with men who could swallow down such an absurdity The disputation continued several days Philpot made a long Speech against the Corporal presence but was oft interrupted for they told him that he might propose an Argument but they would not hear him make Harangues He undertook to prove before the Queen and her Council that the Mass as they had it was no Sacrament at all and that the body of Christ was not present in it and if he failed in it he would be content to be burnt at the Court Gate After some short time spent in citing passages out of the Fathers Philpot was commanded to hold his peace otherwise they would send him to Prison He claimed the priviledge of the House for
Laws of God and the Practice of the Universal Church to declare their Bishopricks void as they were indeed already void And thus were seven of the Reformed Bishops turned out at a dash It was much censured that those who had married according to a Law then in force which was now only repealed for the future should be deprived for it and this was a new severity for in former times when the Popes were most set against the Marriage of the Clergy it was put to their option whether they would part with their Wives or with their Benefices but none were summarily deprived as was now done The other Bishops without any form of Process or special matter objected to them were turned out by an Act of meer Arbitrary Government And all this was done by vertue of the Queens being Head of the Church which though she condemned as a sinful and sacrilegious power yet she now imployed it against those Bishops whose Sees were quickly filled with Men in whom the Queen confided Goodrick died this Year It seems he complied with the change now made otherwise he that put the Seal to Lady Jane's Patents could not have escaped the being questioned for it He was an ambitious Man and so no wonder if earthly considerations prevailed more with him than a good Conscience Scory that was Bishop of Chichester renounced his Wife and did Penance for his Marriage but soon after he fled beyond Sea and returned in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign so that his Compliance was the effect of his weakness and fears Barlow resigned Bath and Wells and a Book of recantation was published in his name containing severe reflections both on the Reformers and on the Reformation it self but it is not certain whether it was writ by him or was only a forgery put out in his Name for if he turned so heartily as the strain of that Book runs it is not likely that he would have been put from his Bishoprick but he fled beyond Sea yet it seems both Scory and he gave great offence by their behaviour for though they were the only surviving Reformed Bishops when Queen Elizabeth succeeded yet they were so far from being promoted that they were not so much as restored to their former Sees but put in meaner ones By all these deprivations and resignations there were sixteen new Bishops made which made no small change in the face of the English Church Now the Old Service was every where set up in which Bonner made such hast that before the Royal Assent was given to the Bill for it he began the Old Service and Processions The first opening of it was somewhat strange for it being on Saint Katherine's day the Quiristers went up to the Steeple and sung the Anthem there according to the Custom for that Day Great numbers of the Clergy were summarily deprived for being Married they were estimated by Parker to be 12000. and most of them were judged upon common fame without any Process but a Citation and many being then in Prison yet were Censured and put out for Contumacy and held guilty Many Books were written against the Marriage of the Clergy and the accusing them of Impurity and sensuality on that account was one of the chief Topicks used by the Popish Clergy to disgrace the Reformers which made some recriminate too indecently and lay open the filthiness of the Unmarried Clergy and those that were called Religious who led most irregular lives in particular it was said Bonner had no reason to be a friend to that state for he was the Bastard of a Bastard and his Father though a Priest begat him in Adultery On the 2d of April a Parliament met A new Parliament but the most considerable Members were before-hand corrupted by Gardiner who gave them Pensions some 200. and others 100 l. a Year for their Voices The first Act that past was declaratory that all the Prerogatives and Limitations which by Law belonged to the Kings of England were the same whether the Crown fell into the hands of a Male or a Female The secret of this was little known some were afraid there was an ill design in it and that it being declared that she had all the authority which any of her Progenitors ever had it might be inferred from thence that she might pretend to a right of Conquest A proposition to make the Queen absolute and so seize on the Estates of the English as William the Conqueror had done But it was so conceived that the Queen was put under the fame limitations as well as acknowledged to have the same Prerogatives with her Progenitors The secret of this was afterwards discovered A projecting Man that had served Cromwell and loved to meddle much had been deeply engaged both in Lady Jane's business and in the late Insurrection and was now in danger of his life so he made application to the Emperour's Ambassadour and by his means obtained his Pardon He offered a Project that the Queen should declare that she succeeded to the Crown by the Common-Law but was not tied by the Statute-Law which did only bind Kings and therefore a Queen was not obliged by it thus she might pretend to be a Conqueror and rule at pleasure and by this means might restore both Religion and the Abbey-Lands and be under no restraint This the Ambassadour brought to the Queen and prayed her to keep it very secret But she disliked it yet she sent for Gardiner and charged him to give her his Opinion of it sincerely as he would answer to God for it at the Great Day He read it carefully and told her it was a most pernicious contrivance and beg'd her not to listen to such Plat-forms which might be brought her by base Sycophants Upon that she burnt the Paper and charged the Ambassadour not to bring her any more such Projects This gave Gardiner great apprehensions of the mischiefs that Spanish Counsels might bring on the Nation and so he procured the Act to be made by which the Queen was bound by the Law as much as her Ancestors were He also got an Act to be past ratifying the Articles of the Marriage with strong clauses for keeping the Government entirely in the Queen's hands that so Philip might not take it on him as Henry the VII had done when he married the Heir of the House of York for as he set up a Title in his own Name and kept the Government in his own hands so the Spaniards began to reckon a descent from John of Gaunt which made Gardiner the more cautious and it must be confessed that the preserving the Nation out of the hands of the Spaniards was almost only owing to his care and wisdom The Bishoprick of Durham was again restored after a vigorous resistance made by those of Gateside near Newcastle The Attainders of the Duke of Suffolk and Fifty-eight more for the late Rebellion were confirmed The Commons sent up four several Bills
to be favourable to the work he came for the Queen sent two Lords Paget and Hastings for him Both King and Queen rode in state to Westminster and each had a Sword of state carried before them The first Bill that past was a Repeal of Pool's Attainder it was read by the Commons three times in one Day and the Bill was passed without making a Session by a short Prorogation He came over and entred privately to London on the 24th of November for the Pope's authority not being yet acknowledged he could not be received as a Legate His Instructions were full besides the authority commonly lodged with Legates which consists chiefly in the many Graces and Dispensations that they are impowered to grant though it might be expected that they should come rather to see the Canons obeyed than broken only the more scandalous abuses were still reserved to the Popes themselves whose special Prerogative it has always been to be the most Eminent Transgressors of all Canons and Constitutions Pool made his first Speech to the King and Queen The Nation is reconciled to the See of Rome and then to the Parliament in the Name of the Common Pastor inviting them to Return to the Sheepfold of the Church The Queen felt a strange emotion of joy within her as he made his Speech which she thought was a Child quickned in her Belly and the flattering Court Ladies heightned her belief of it The Council ordered Bonner to sing Te Deum and there were Bonefires and all other publick demonstrations of joy upon it The Priests said that here was another John Baptist to come that leapt in his Mother's Belly upon the Salutation from Christ's Vicar Both Houses agreed on an Address to the King and Queen that they would intercede with the Legate to reconcile them to the See of Rome and they offered to repeal all the Laws they had made against the Pope's authority in sign of their repentance Upon this the Cardinal came to the Parliament He first thanked them for repealing his Attainder in recompence of which he was now to reconcile them to the Body of the Church He made a long Speech of the Conversion of the Britains and Saxons to the Faith and of the Obedience they had payed to the Apostolick See and of the many favours that See had granted the Crown of which none was more Eminent than the Title of Defender of the Faith The ruine of the Greek Church and the distractions of Germany and the Confusions themselves had been in since they departed from the Unity of the Church might convince them of the necessity of keeping that bond entire In Conclusion he gave them and the whole Nation a Plenary Absolution The rest of the Day was spent in singing Te Deum and the Night in Bonefires The Act repealing all Laws made against the Popes authority was quickly past only it stuck a little by reason of a Proviso which the House of Lords put in for some Lands which the Lord Wentworth had of the See of London w th the Commons opposed so much that after the Bill was offered to the Royal assent it was cut out of the Parchment by Gardiner They did enumerate and repeal all Acts made since the 20th of Hen. 8. against the Pope's authority but all foundations of Bishopricks and Cathedrals all Marriages tho' contrary to the Laws of the Church all Institutions all Judicial Processes and the settlements made either of Church or Abbey-Lands were confirmed The Convocation of Canterbury had joyned their Intercession with the Cardinal that he would confirm the right of the present Possessors of those Lands Upon which he did confirm them but he added a heavy charge requiring those that had any of the Goods of the Church to remember the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazzar for profaning the holy Vessels though they were not taken away by himself but by his Father and that at least they would take care that such as served the Cures should be sufficiently maintained all which was put in the Act and confirmed by it and it was declared that all Suits concerning those Lands were to be tried in the Civil Courts and that it should be a Praemunire if any went about to disturb the Possessors by the pretence of an Ecclesiastical power They also declared that the Title of Supream Head of the Church did never of right belong to the Crown enacted that it should be left out of Writs in all time coming All Exemptions granted to Monasteries and now continued in Lay-hands were taken away and all Churches were made subject to Episcopal Jurisdiction except Westminster Windsor and the Tower of London The statute of Mortmain was repealed for 20. years to come and all things were brought back to the state in which they were in the 20th year of King Henry's reign The Lower House of Convocation gave occasion to many clauses in this Act by a Petition which they made to the Upper-house consenting to the settlement made of Church and Abbey Lands and praying that the Statute of Mortmain might be repealed and that all the Tithes might be restored to the Church they proposed also some things in relation to Religion for the condemning and burning all Heretical Books and that great care should be had of the Printing and venting of Books that the Church should be restored to its former Jurisdiction that Pluralities and Non-residence might be effectually condemned and all Simoniacal pactions punished that the Clergy might be discharged of paying first-fruits and Tenths that Exemptions might be taken away that all the Clergy should go in their Habits and that they should not be sued in a Praemunire till a Prohibition were first served and disobeyed that so they might not be surprised and ruined a second time By another Bill all former Acts made against Lollards were revived The Commons offered another Bill for voiding all Leases made by married Priests but it was laid aside by the Lords Thus were the Pensioners and aspiring Men in the House of Commons either redeeming former faults or hoping to merit highly by the forwardness of their Zeal By another Bill several things were made Treason and it was declared that if the Queen died before the King and left any Children the King should have the Government in his hands till they were of Age and during that time the conspiring his Death was made Treason but none were to be tried for words but within six Months after they were spoken Another Act past declaring it Treason in any to pray for the Queens death unless they repented of it and in that case they were to suffer Corporal punishment at the Judges discretion A severe Act was also passed against all that spread lying Reports of the King the Queen the Peers Judges or great Officers Some were to lose their Hands others their Ears and others were to be fined according to the degree of their offence And thus all affairs were
Princes Both Ferdinand and the Duke of Bavaria appointed the Chalice to be given to the Laity in their Dominions at which the Pope stormed highly and threatned to depose them for that was his common stile when he was displeased with any Prince Charles the Fifth's Resignation The Resignation of Charles the Fifth which was begun this Year and compleated the next drew the Eyes of all Europe upon it He had enjoyed his Hereditary Dominions Forty years and the Empire Thirty six He had endured great Fatigues by the many Journies he had made Nine into Germany six into Spain seven into Italy four through France he was ten times in the Netherlands made two Expeditions to Africk and was twice in England and had crossed the Sea eleven times He had unusual success in his Wars he had taken a Pope a King of France and some German Princes Prisoners and had a vast accession of Wealth and Empire from the West-Indies but now as success followed him no more so he was much afflicted with the Gout and grew to be much out of love with the Pomp and Vanities of this World and so seriously to prepare for another Life He resigned all his Dominions with a greatness of mind that was much superiour to all his other Conquests He retired to a private Lodge of seven Rooms that he had ordered to be built for him in the confines of Portugal He kept only twelve Servants to wait upon him and reserved for his Expence 100000. Crowns Pension In this retreat he lived two years His first year was spent chiefly in Mechanical Inventions in which he took great pleasure from that he turned to the cultivating his Garden in which he used to work with those hands that now preferred the grafting and pruning Tools to Scepters and Swords But after that he addicted himself more to study and Devotion and did often discipline himself with a Cord. It was also believed that in many points he came to be of the Opinion of the Protestants before he died His Confessor was soon after his death burnt for Heresie and Miranda Archbishop of Toledo that conversed much with him at this time was clapt into Prison on the same suspicions At the end of two years he died having given a great Instance of a mind surfeited with the Glories of this World that sought for quiet in a private Cell which it had long in vain searched after in Palaces and Camps In March next Year came on Cranmer's Martyrdom Cranmer's sufferings In September last Brooks Bishop of Glocester came down with authority from Cardinal Pool to judge him with him two Delegates came to assist him in the King and Queen's Name When he was brought before them he payed the respect that was due to those that sat in the King and Queen's Name but would shew none to Brooks since he sat there by an authority derived from the Pope which he said he would never acknowledge He could not serve two Masters and since he had sworn Allegiance to the Crown he could never submit to the Pope's authority He also shewed that the Pope's power had been as unjustly used as it was ill grounded that they had changed the Laws setled by Christ which he instanced in denying the Chalice in the Worship in an unknown Tongue and in their pretences to a power to depose Princes he remembred Brooks that he had sworn to maintain the King's Supremacy and when he studied to cast that back on him as an invention of his he told him that it was acknowledged in his Predecessor Warham's time and that Brooks had then set his hand to it Brooks and the two Delegates Martin and Scory objected many things to him as that he had flattered King Henry that so he might be preferred by him and that he had condemned Lambert for denying the Presence in the Sacrament and had been afterwards guilty of the same Heresie himself But he vindicated himself from all aspirings to the See of Canterbury which appeared visibly by the slowness of his motions when he was called over out of Germany to be advanced to it for he was seven Weeks on his Journey He confessed he had changed his Opinion in the matter of the Sacrament and acknowledged that he had been twice married which he thought was free to all Men and was certainly much better than to defile other Men's Wives After much discourse had past on both sides Brooks required him to appear before the Pope within Eighty Days and answer to the things that should be objected to him he said he would do it most willingly but he could not possibly go if he were still kept a Prisoner In February this Year 14 Febr. Bonner and Thirleby were sent to degrade him for his Contumacy in not going to Rome when he was all the while kept in Prison He was clothed with all the Pontifical Robes made of Canvas and then they were taken from him according to the Ceremonies of degradation in which Bonner carried himself with all the Insolence that might have been expected from him Thirleby was a good natured Man and had been Cranmer's particular friend and performed his part in this Ceremony with great expressions of sorrow and shed many tears at it In all this Cranmer seemed very little concerned he said it was gross Injustice to condemn him for not going to Rome when he was shut up in Prison but he was not sorry to be thus cut off even with all this Pageantry from any relation to that Church he denied the Pope had any authority over him so he appealed from his Sentence to a free General Council But now many Engines were set on work to make him recant both English and Spanish Divines had many Conferences with him He Recants and great hopes were given him not only of Life but of Preferment if he would do it and these at last had a fatal effect upon him for he signed a Recantation of all his former Opinions and concluded it with a Protestation that he had done it freely only for the discharge of his Conscience But the Queen was resolved to make him a Sacrifice to her resentments she said it was good for his own Soul that he repented but since he had been the chief spreader of Heresie over the Nation it was necessary to make him a publick Example so the Writ was sent down to burn him and after some stop had been made in the Execution of it now Orders came for doing it suddenly This was kept from Cranmer's knowledge for they intended to carry him to the Stake without giving him any notice and so hoped to make him dye in despair yet he suspecting somewhat writ a long Paper containing a Confession of his Faith such as his Conscience and not his fears had dictated He was on the 21. He Repents and is burnt of March carried to St. Maries where Dr. Cole preached and vindicated the Queen's Justice in condemning Cranmer
the Zuinglians with so much Artifice that a Conference which was appointed for setling matters of Religion was broken up without any good effect Only it discovered a common practice of the Popish party in engaging those that divided from them into heats and animosities one against another by which their strength was not only much weakned but their Zeal instead of turning against the Common Enemy turned upon one another But yet the many Experiments that have been made of this have not been able to infuse that moderation and prudence in many of the Reformed Churches which might have been expected In France the numbers of the Reformed increased so much that 200. assembled in St. Germains one of the Suburbs of Paris to receive the Communion This was observed by the People of the Neighbourhood and a Tumult was raised the Men for most escaped but 160. Women and some few Men were taken of these six Men and one Woman were burnt and most horrid things were published of that Meeting and among other Calumnies it was said they sacrificed and eat a Child All these were confuted in an Apology Printed for their Vindication The German Princes and the Cantons interposed so effectually and their Alliance was then so necessary to the Crown of France that a stop was put to further severities The Pope complained much of that and of some Edicts that the King had set out annulling Marriages without consent of Parents and requiring Churchmen to reside at their Benefices as Invasions on the Spiritual Authority The beginning of the next Year was famous by the loss of Calais The Duke of Guise sat down before it on the 1. of January Calais and other places taken by the French The Garrison consisted but of 500. Men so that two Forts about it of which the one commanded the Avenue to it by Land and the other commanded the Harbour were easily taken for the Lord Wentworth that was Governour could not spare Men enough to defend them The French drew the Water out of the Ditches and made the Assault and carried the Castle which was thought Impregnable After that the Town could do little so it was surrendred and the Governour with 50. Officers were made Prisoners of War Thus was this Important place which the English had kept 210. Years lost in a Week and that in Winter From this the Duke of Guise went to besiege Guines which had a better Garrison of 1100. Men but they were much disheartned by the loss of Calais they retired into the Castle and left the Town to the French but yet they beat them once out of it The French after a long Battery gave the Assault and forced them to Capitulate The Souldiers as at Calais had leave to go away but the Officers were made Prisoners of War The Garrison that was in Hammes seeing themselves cut off from the Sea and lost abandoned the Place before the French summoned them The loss of Calais raised great complaints against the Council and they to excuse themselves cast the blame on the Lord Wentworth and ordered a Citation to be made of him when he was a Prisoner with the French his Defence was not fit to be heard otherwise it had been easie for the Council to have brought him over He had not above the fourth part of that number that was necessary to defend the place and in time of War had no more than were usually kept there in times of Peace of this both he and Sir Edward Grimston that was Controuler gave full and timely advertisements but had not those Supplies sent them that were necessary They both came over in Queen Elizabeth's time and offered themselves to Trial and were acquitted Grimston was unwilling to pay the great Ransom that was set on him so after two years Imprisonment he made his escape out of the Bastile came to England and lived till the 98. year of his Age. He was Great-grand-father to Sir Harbottle Grimston the Author 's Noble Patron and Benefactor The French after this took Sark a little Island in the Channel but it was ingeniously retaken by a Fleming who pretended that he desired to bury a Friend of his that had died aboard his ship in that Island the French were very careful to search the Men that came ashore that they should have no Arms about them but did not think of looking into the Coffin which was full of Arms and when they thought the Seamen were burying their dead Friend they armed themselves and took all the French that were in the Castle The Ingeniousness rather than the Importance of this makes it worth the mentioning The discontent that the loss of Calais gave to the English Great discontents In England was such that the Queen could not hope ever to overcome it and it sunk so deep in her mind that it hastned her death not a little Both sides took upon them to draw Arguments from this loss The Reformers said it was a Judgment on the Nation for the contempt of the true Religion and the Cruelties that had been of late practised The Papists said the Hereticks had found such shelter and connivence there that no wonder the place was lost Philip sent over and offered his assistance to go and retake the place before the Fortifications should be repaired if the English would send over a Force equal to such an undertaking but they upon an Estimate made of the Expence that this and a War for the next Year would put them to found it would rise to 520000 l. Sterling and as the Treasure was exhausted and could not furnish such a Sum so they had no reason to expect such liberal Supplies from the People The Bishops were afraid lest the continuance of the War should make it necessary to proceed more gently against Hereticks and thought it better to sit down with the loss of Calais than hazard that they seemed confident that within a Year they should be able to clear the Kingdom of Heresie and therefore moved that preparations might be made for a War to begin the Year after this The Parliament assembled for which the Abbot of Westminster and the Prior of St. The Parliament meets John of Jerusalem had their Writs and sat in it The Lords desired a Conference with the Commons concerning the safety of the Nation and upon that a Subsidy a Tenth and a Fifteenth were given by the Laity and the Clergy gave eight shillings in the Pound to be payed in four Years The Abbot of Westminster moved that the Priviledges of Sanctuary might be again restored to his House but that was laid aside The procurers of wilful Murder were denied the benefit of the Clergy but great opposition was made to it in the House of Lords A Bill was brought in confirming the Letters Patents which the Queen had granted or might grant This related to the Foundations of Religious Houses but one Coxley opposed this and insinuated that perhaps the
condemned to be burnt as detestable Hereticks in general Words In the same Act by which they were condemned four other were attainted of Treason for being confederated with Reginald Pool and for intending to surprize Calais and as there was a strange mixture in their Condemnation so the like was in their Executions for Abel Featherston and Powell that were attainted in the same Parliament for owning the Pope's Supremacy were executed with them and were coupled together in the Hurdles in which they were carried to Smithfield the King in this affecting an extravagant Appearance of Impartiality in his Justice Barnes being tied to the Stake And burnt went over the Articles of the Creed and declared his Belief of them all and that he abhorred the impious Opinions of some German Anabaptists He asserted the necessity of Good Works but ascribed Justification wholly to the Merits of Christ he professed all due Reverence to the Saints but said he saw no Warrant to pray for them he asked the Sheriff and the People if they knew for what they were condemned and what Heresies they were accused of but none made Answer he prayed God to forgive all that sought their Death and in particular Gardiner if he had done it then prayed for the King and the Prince and expressed his Loyalty to the King that he believed all his just Laws were to be obeyed for Conscience sake and that in no Case it was lawful to resist him he sent some Desires to the King as that he would apply the Abby-Lands to good Uses and the Relief of his poor Subjects that he would punish the Contempt of Marriage that was so common and would put a stop to the Liberty many took of casting off their Wives and living in Whoredom that Swearers might be punished and that since the King had begun to set forth the Christian Religion that he would go on with it for a great deal remained yet to be done he asked the Forgiveness of all People whom he might have at any time offended and so turned and prepared himself for Death then the other two spoke to the same purpose they declared their Faith and exhorted the People to a good Life and mutual Love and they all prayed and embraced one another after that the Fire was set to The Constancy they expressed together with the Gentleness of their Deportment towards their Enemies made great Impressions on the Spectators and cast a heavy Imputation on Gardiner as the Procurer of their Deaths tho he justified himself in an Apology which he printed in which he denied any other Accession to it but giving his Vote to the Bill of Attainder Bonner began now to shew himself in his own Colours He had courted Cromwell more than any Person whatsoever yet the very day after his Disgrace he shewed his Ingratitude for Grafton that had printed the Bible and was much in Cromwell's Favour upon that account meeting Bonner expressed his Sorrow for Cromwell's being sent to the Tower but the other answered that it had been good he had been there much sooner Grafton saw his Error in speaking so freely and went from him but some Verses being printed in Cromwell's Praise Bonner informed the Council what Grafton had said to him and so thought it was probable he had printed them yet he had so many Friends that he was let go He procured many to be indicted upon the Act of the six Articles but an Order came from the King to stop further Proceedings yet he pick'd out one Instance which did equally discover his brutal Cruelty and his want of Judgment One Mekins not above fifteen Years old had said somewhat against the Corporal Presence and in Commendation of Dr. Barnes The Witnesses differed in their Evidence one swore he had said the Sacrament was only a Ceremony the other swore he had said it was only a Signification so two Grand Juries returned an Ignoramus on the Bill upon which he fell into a fit of Cursing and violent Rage and he made the second Grand Jury go aside and consider better of it they being terrified found the Bill and he was condemned to be burnt but hoping to be preserved by what he should say at the Stake he railed at Barnes and praised Bonner much yet that did not save him Two were burnt at Salisbury and two at Lincoln upon the same Statute besides great Numbers that were put in Prison In the end of this Year New Sees founded the King began to endow the new Bishopricks Westminster was the first in which he endowed a Bishoprick a Deanry 12 Prebendaries a Quire and other Officers The Year after this he endowed Chester Glocester and Peterborough but in these Cathedrals he only endowed six Prebendaries two Years after he likewise endowed Oxford and Bristol The Foundations had Preambles are almost the same with that of the Act of Parliament that empowred him to erect them he promoted the Bishops to those Sees by a special Writ tho that was to go thereafter in the way of Election as it was in the other Sees he also converted the Priories of Canterbury Winchester Duresme Worcester Ely Rochester and Carlile into Collegiate Churches consisting of Deans and Prebendaries But as all this came much far short of what the King had at first intended so the Channel in which those Foundations run differed much from what Cranmer had projected whose Interest was so low at Court that his Opinion was not now regarded as it had been formerly He intended to have restored the Cathedrals to what they had been at first to be Colleges and Nurseries for the Diocess and to have set up Readers of the Learned Tongues and of Divinity in them that so a considerable number of young Clerks might have been trained up under the Bishop's Eye both in their Studies and in a Course of Devotion to be by him put afterwards in Livings according to their Merit and Improvements The want of such Houses for the strict Education of those who are to serve in the Church has been the occasion of many fatal Consequences since that time by the Scandals which Men initiated to the Sacred Functions before they were well prepared for them have given the World The Popish Party beyond Sea censured these Endowments both as being a very defective Restitution of the Lands that had been invaded and as an Invasion on the Spiritual Authority when the King divided Diocesses and removed Churches from one Jurisdiction and put them under another To which it was answered That as their Practices against the King had put him to such a charge that he could not execute what he at first intended so both the Roman Emperours and other Christian Kings had regulated and divided the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and made Primates and Patriarchs as they pleased Ely in England was taken out of Lincoln only by the King and his Parliament tho P. Nicolaus did officiously send a Confirmation of it that being an Art of
the Papacy to offer Confirmations unsought and afterwards to found a Right on such a Precedent So that the receiving a Confirmation was made to pass for an acknowledgment of an Authority in that See to grant it upon which the Popes afterwards pretended that such things could not be done without their consent Here the Series of the King 's Advances towards a Reformation ends what he did after this was by Starts backwards or forwards as the humour took him Nor was he steady in his Councils in State-Affairs He had no Minister about him that had an Ascendent over him Sickness and Years increased his Imperious Temper so that his Counsellors had a hard task to please him and many Errours were committed by him A new Impression of the Bible was at this time finished The Bible set up in Churches And the King required all Parishes to provide one of them by the next All-hallowtide under the pain of 40 s. a Month after that till they had got one The People were also charged not to dispute about it nor to disturb Divine Service by reading it during the Mass but to read it humbly and reverently for their Instruction and Edification Six of these were set up in divers Places of St. Pauls But Bonner being afraid of the Mischief they might do posted up near them an Admonition to the People That none should read them with vain Glory and corrupt Affections or draw Multitudes about them when they read them But great numbers gathered about those that read and such as had good Voices used to be reading them aloud a great part of the Day Many set their Children to School and when they had learn'd to read they carri'd them to Church to read the Bibles some began likewise to argue from them particularly against taking away the Chalice in the Communion and the Worship in an unknown Tongue Upon which Bonner set up a new Advertisement and threatned to remove them if these abuses were not corrected And upon the Complaints made of those things the free use of the Scriptures was afterwards much restrained This Year the King added to his former Foundations two Collegiat Churches at Burton upon Trent and Thornton consisting of a Dean and four Prebendaries apiece Cranmer observing the Excesses in Bishops Tables by which under the name of Hospitality so much was consumed in great Entertainments that they were disabled from more necessary and profitable Acts of Charity made a Regulation that an Archbishop should not have above six Dishes of Meat and four of Banquet a Bishop not above five of Meat and four of Banquet a Dean or Arth-deacon not above four and two of the one and the other and Inferiour Church-men might not have above two Dishes But this did not take effect and Sumptuous Tables still continued tho the Revenues were much impaired and thus besides the other ill Effects of these a great part of the Church-rents goes for Entertaining the Rich which should be applied to the Poor This Summer the King went to York to meet his Nephew the King of Scotland who promised him an Enterview there He was an Extraordinary Prince The Affairs of Scotland a great Patron both of Learning and Justice but out of measure addicted to his Pleasures The Clergy of Scotland were very Apprehensive of his seeing his Uncle lest King Henry might have perswaded him to follow the Copy he had set to his Neighbours and they used such perswasions that these seconded by a Message from France diverted the King from his purpose Here I shall digress a little to give an account of the State of Scotland at this time The long Alliance between Scotland and France made that Paris was the place where the Learned of that Nation had their Education Yet after the Year 1412 Learning came to have more footing there and Universities were set up in several Episcopal Sees At the same time some of Wickliff's Followers began to creep into Scotland and one Resby an Englishman was burnt 1407 for teaching some Opinions contrary to the Pope's Authority Some Years after that Paul Craw an Hussite and Bohemian was burnt for infusing the Opinions of that Party into some at St. Andrews About the end of that Century Lollardy as it was then called was spread into many parts of the Diocess in Glasgow For which several Persons of Quality were accused But they answered the Archbishop of that See with such Assurance that he dismissed them having admonish'd them to content themselves with the Faith of the Church and to beware of new Doctrines The same Spirit of Ignorance Immorality and Superstition had over-run the Clergy there that was so much complained of in the other parts of Europe only it may be supposed that in Nations less Polite and Learned it was in Proportion greater then it was elsewhere The total neglect of the Pastoral Care and the gross Scandals of the Clergy possessed the People with such Prejudices against them that they were easily disposed to hearken to new Preachers Patrick Hamilton nobly born Nephew by his Father to the Earl of Aran and to the Duke of Albany by his Mother was bred up on design to be highly preferred and had an Abby given him for prosecuting his Studies He went to travel and in Germany grew acquainted with Luther and Melancthon and being possessed with their Opinions he returned to Scotland and laid open the Errours and Corruptions then received in the Church He was invited to St. Andrews to confer concerning these Points upon which he was condemned and put in Prison Articles were objected to him and upon his refusing to abjure them Beaton Archbishop of St Andrews with the Archbishop of Glasgow 3 Bishops and 5 Abbots condemned him as an obstinate Heretick and delivered him to the Secular Power and ordered the Execution to be that Afternoon for the King had gone in Pilgrimage to Ross and they were afraid lest upon his Return Hamilton's Friends might have interceeded effectually for him He was tied to the Stake and expressed great Joyes in his Sufferings since by these he was to enter into Everlasting Life A Train of Powder being fired it did not kindle the Fewel but only burnt his Face So a stop was made till more Powder was brought and in that time the Friars call'd oft to him to recant and pray to the Virgin and to say the Salve Regina One Frier Campbel was very officious among the rest who had been oft with him in Prison He answered him That he knew he was not an Heretick and had confess'd it to him in private and he charged him to answer for that to God By this time the Gun-powder was brought and the Fire was kindled and he died often repeating these Words Lord Jesus receive my Soul Campbel became soon after Frantick and died within a Year Both these laid together made great Impressions on the People And now that these Points began to be inquired into many