King Edward the 6th by the same Act limited and appointed to remain to the Lady Mary his eldest Daughter and to the Heirs of her Body lawfully begotten And for default of such Issue the Remainder thereof to the Lady Elizabeth by the Name of the Lady Elizabeth his second Daughter and to the Heirs of her Body lawfully begotten with such Conditions as should be limited and appointed by the said late King of worthy memory King Henry the 8th our Progenitor our Great Uncle by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or by his last Will in writing signed with his Hand And forasmuch as the said Limitation of the Imperial Crown of this Realm being limited as is afore-said to the said Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth being illegitimate and not lawfully begotten for that the Marriage had between â—he said late King King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and Great Uncle and the Lady Katherine Mother to the said Lady Mary and also the Marriage had between the said late King King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and Great Uncle and the Lady Ann Mother to the said Lady Elizabeth were clearly and lawfully undone by Sentences of Divorce according to the Word of God and the Ecclesiastical Laws and which said several Divorcements have been severally ratified and confirmed by Authority of Parliament and especially in the 28th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th our said Progenitor and Great Uncle remaining in force strength and effect whereby as well the said Lady Mary as also the said Lady Elizabeth to all intents and purposes are and been clearly disabled to ask claim or challenge the said Imperial Crown or any other of the Honours Castles Manours Lordships Lands Tenements or other Hereditaments as Heir or Heirs to our said late Cousin King Edward the 6th or as Heir or Heirs to any other Person or Persons whatsoever as well for the Cause before rehearsed as also for that the said Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth were unto our said late Cousin but of the half Blood and therefore by the Ancient Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm be not inheritable unto our said late Cousin although they had been born in lawful Matrimony as indeed they were not as by the said Sentences of Divorce and the said Statute of the 28th Year of the Reign of King Henry the 8th our said Progeâ—â—â—or and Great Uncle plainly appeareth And forasmuch also as it is to be thought or at the least much to be doubted that if the said Lady Mary or Lady Elizabeth should hereafter have or enjoy the said Imperial Crown of this Realm and should then happen to marry with any Stranger born out of this Realm that then the said Stranger having the Government and Imperial Crown in his Hands would adhere and practise not only to bring this Noble Free Realm into the Tyranny and Servitude of the Bishops of Rome but also to have the Laws and Customs of his or their own Native Country or Countries to be practised and put in ure within this Realm rather than the Laws Statutes and Customs here of long time used whereupon the Title of Inheritance of all and singular the Subjects of this Realm do depend to the peril of Conscience and the uttersubversion of the Common-Weal of this Realm Whereupon our said late dear Cousin weighing and considering within himself which ways and means were most convenient to be had for the stay of the said Succession in the said Imperial Crown if it should please God to call our said late Cousin out of this transitory Life having no Issue of his Body And calling to his remembrance that We and the Lady Katharine and the Lady Mary our Sisters being the Daughters of the Lady Frances our natural Mother and then and yet Wife to our natural and most loving Father Henry Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Margaret Daughter of the Lady Elianor then deceased Sister to the said Lady Frances and the late Wife of our Cousin Henry Earl of Cumberland were very nigh of his Graces Blood of the part of his Fathers side our said Progenitor and great Uncle and being naturally born here within the Realm And for the very good Opinion our said late Cousin had of our said Sisters and Cousin Margarets good Education did therefore upon good deliberation and advice herein had and taken by his said Letters Patents declare order assign limit and appoint that if it should fortune himself our said late Cousin King Edward the Sixth to decease having no Issue of his Body lawfully begotten that then the said Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Confines of the same and his Title to the Crown of the Realm of France and all and singular Honours Castles Prerogatives Privileges Preheminencies and Authorities Jurisdictions Dominions Possessions and Hereditaments to our said late Cousin K. Edward the Sixth or to the said Imperial Crown belonging or in any wise appertaining should for lack of such Issue of his Body remain come and be to the eldest Son of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten being born into the World in his Life-time and to the Heirs Males of the Body of such eldest Son lawfully begotten and so from Son to Son as he should be of vicinity of Birth of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten being born into the World in our said late Cousins Life-time and to the Heirs Male of the Body of every such Son lawfully begotten And for default of such Son born into the World in his life-time of the Body of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten and for lack of Heirs Males of every such Son lawfully begotten that then the said Imperial Crown and all and singular other the Premises should remain come and be to us by the Name of the Lady Jane eldest Daughter of the said Lady Frances and to the Heirs Males of our Body lawfully begotten and for lack of such Issue then to the Lady Katherine aforesaid our said second Sister and the Heirs Male of her Body lawfully begotten with divers other Remainders as by the same Letters Patents more plainly and at large it may and doth appear Sithence the making of our Letters Patents that is to say on Thursday which was the 6th day of this instant Month of July it hath pleased God to call unto his infinite Mercy our said most dear and entirely beloved Cousin Edward the Sixth whose Soul God pardon and forasmuch as he is now deceased having no Heirs of his Body begotten and that also there remaineth at this present time no Heirs lawfully begotten of the Body of our said Progenitor and great Uncle King Henry the Eighth And forasmuch also as the said Lady Frances our said Mother had no Issue Male begotten of her Body and born into the World in the life-time of our said Cousin King Edward the Sixth so as the said Imperial Crown and other the Premises to the same belonging or in any wise appertaining
on the Dead or cast the burthen of it wholly upon her Sister But she assured them if ever she married she would make such a Choice as should be to the satisfaction and good of her People She did not know what credit she might yet have with them but she knew well she deserved to have it for she was resolved never to deceive them Her People were to her in stead of Children and she reckoned her self married to them by her Coronation They would not want a Successor when she died and for her part she should be well contented that the Marble should tell Posterity HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN She took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her hearty thanks for the care the Commons had of her The Journals of the House of Lords are imperfect so that we find nothing in them of this matter yet it appears that they likewise had it before them for the Journals of the House of Commons have it marked that on the fifteenth of February there was a Message sent from the Lords desiring that a Committee of thirty Commoners might meet with twelve Lords to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen should marry The Committee was appointed to treat concerning it but it seems the Queen desired them to turn to other things that were more pressing for I find nothing after this entred in the Journals of this Parliament concerning it On the ninth of February the Lords past a Bill for the Recognizing of the Queens Title to the Crown They recognize her Title to the Crown It had been considered whether as Queen Mary had procured a former Repeal of her Mothers Divorce and of the Acts that passed upon it declaring her Illegitimate the like should be done now The Lord Keeper said The Crown purged all defects and it was needless to look back to a thing which would at least cast a reproach on her Father the enquiring into such things too anxiously would rather prejudice than advance her Title So he advised that there should be an Act passed in general words asserting the lawfulness of her descent and her Right to the Crown rather than any special Repeal Queen Mary and her Council were careless of King Henry's Honour but it became her rather to conceal than expose his Weakness This being thought both Wise and Pious Council the Act was conceived in general Words That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and of the Realm she was their lawful Queen and that she was rightly lineally and lawfully descended from the Royal Blood and that the Crown did without all doubt or ambiguity belong to her and the Heirs to be lawfully begotten of her Body after her and that they as representing the Three Estates of the Realm did declare and assert her Title which they would defend with their Lives and Fortunes This was thought to be very wise Council for if they had gone to repeal the Sentence of Divorce which passed upon her Mothers acknowledging a Precontract they must have set forth the force that was on her when she made that Confession and that as it was a great dishonour to her Father so it would have raised discourses likewise to her Mothers prejudice which must have rather weakned than strengthened her Title And as has been formerly observed this seems to be the true reason why in all her Reign there was no Apology printed for her Mother There was another Act passed for the restoring of her in Blood to her Mother by which she was qualified as a private Subject to succeed either to her Grand-fathers Estate or to any others by that Blood But for the matters of Religion the Commons began The Acts that were passed concerning Religion and on the fifteenth of February brought in a Bill for the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church On the 21st a Bill was read for annexing the Supremacy to the Crown again and on the 17th of March another Bill was brought in confirming the Laws made about Religion in King Edwards time and on the 21st another was brought in That the Queen should have the Nomination of the Bishops as it had been in King Edwards time The Bill for the Supremacy was past by the Lords on the 18th of March the Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute and the Bishops of London Winchester Worcester Landaffe Coventry and Litchfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting But afterwards the Commons annexed many other Bills to it as that about the Queens making Bishops not according to the Act made in King Edwards time but by the old way of Elections as it was Enacted in the 25th Year of her Fathers Reign with several Provisoes which passed in the House of Lords with the same dissent By it all the Acts past in the Reign of King Henry for the abolishing of the Popes Power are again revived and the Acts in Queen Maries time to the contrary are repealed There was also a Repeal of the Act made by her for proceeding against Hereticks They revived the Act made in the first Parliament of King Edward against those that spoke irreverently of the Sacrament and against private Masses and for Communion in both kinds And declared the Authority of Visiting Correcting and Reforming all things in the Church to be for ever annexed to the Crown which the Queen and her Successors might by her Letters Patents depute to any Persons to exercise in her Name All Bishops and other Ecclesiastieal Persons and all in any Civil Imployment were required to swear that they acknowledged the Queen to be the Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions that they renounced all Forreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and true Allegiance Whosoever should refuse to swear it was to forfeit any Office he had either in Church or State and to be from thenceforth disabled to hold any Imployment during Life And if within a Month after the end of that Session of Parliament any should either by discourse or in writing set forth the Authority of any Forreign Power or do any thing for the advancement of it they were to forfeit all their Goods and Chattels and if they had not Goods to the value of twenty Pounds they were to be Imprisoned a whole year and for the second offence they were to incur the Pains of a Praemunire and the third offence in that kind was made Treason To this a Proviso was added That such Persons as should be Commissioned by the Queen to Reform and Order Ecclesiastical Matters should judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so Judged by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or by any other General Council in which such Doctrines
such things as your Majesty willed me to be done And first where your Majesty's Pleasure was to have the Names of such Persons as your Highness in times past appointed to make Laws Ecclesiastical for your Grace's Realm The Bishop of Worcester promised me with all speed to enquire out their Names and the Book which they made and to bring the Names and also the Book unto your Majesty which I trust he hath done before this time And as concerning the ringing of Bells upon Alhallow-day at Night and covering of Images in Lent and creeping to the Cross he thought it necessary that a Letter of your Majesty's Pleasure therein should be sent by your Grace unto the two Arch-Bishops and we to send the same to all other Prelats within your Grace's Realm And if it be your Majesty's Pleasure so to do I have for more speed herein drawn a Minute of a Letter which your Majesty may alter at your Pleasure Nevertheless in my Opinion when such things be altered or taken away there would be set forth some Doctrine therewith which should declare the Cause of the Abolishing or Alteration for to satisfy the Conscience of the People For if the Honouring of the Cross as creeping and kneeling thereunto be taken away it shall seem to many that be ignorant that the Honour of Christ is taken away unless some good teaching be set forth withal to instruct them sufficiently therein which if your Majesty command the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester with other your Grace's Chaplains to make the People shall obey your Majesty's Commandment willingly giving thanks to your Majesty that they know the Truth which else they would obey with murmuration and grutching And it shall be a satisfaction unto all other Nations when they shall see your Majesty do nothing but by the Authority of God's Word and to the setting forth of God's Honour and not diminishing thereof And thus Almighty God keep your Majesty in his Preservation and Governance From my Mannor at Beckisbourn the 24th of January 45. Your Graces most bounden Chaplain and Beadsman POSTSCRIPT I Beseech your Majesty that I may be a Suitor unto the same for your Cathedral Church of Canterbury who to their great unquietness and also great Charges do alienate their Lands daily and as it is said by your Majesty's Commandment But this I am sure that other Men have gotten their best Lands and not your Majesty Wherefore this is mine only Suit That when your Majesty's Pleasure shall be to have any of their Lands that they may have some Letter from your Majesty to declare your Majesty's Pleasure without the which they be sworn that they shall make no Alienation And that the same Alienation be not made at other Mens pleasures but only to your Majesty's Use For now every Man that list to have any of their Lands make suit to get it into your Majesty's Hands not that your Majesty should keep the same but by Sale or Gift from your Majesty to translate it from your Grace's Cathedral Church unto themselves T. Cantuarien The Draught of a Letter which the King sent to Cranmer against some superstitious Practices To the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury FOrasmuch as you as well in your own Name as in the Name of the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester and other our Chaplains and Learned Men whom We appointed with you to peruse certain Books of Service which We delivered unto you moved Us that the Vigil and ringing of Bells all the Night long upon Alhallow-day at Night and the covering of Images in the Church in the time of Lent with the lifting up the Veil that covereth the Cross upon Palm-Sunday with the kneeling to the Cross at the same time might be abolished and put away for the Superstition and other Enormities and Abuses of the same First Forasmuch as all the Vigils of our Lady and the Apostles and all other Vigils which in the beginning of the Church were Godly used yet for the manifold Superstition and Abuses which after did grow by means of the same they be many Years past taken away throughout all Christendom and there remaineth nothing but the name of the Vigil in the Calendar the thing clearly abolished and put away saving only upon Alhallows-day at Night upon which Night is kept Vigil Watching and ringing of Bells all the Night long Forasmuch as that Vigil is abused as other Vigils were Our pleasure is as you require That the said Vigil shall be abolished as the other be and that there shall be no watching nor ringing but as be commonly used upon other Holy-days at Night We be contented and pleased also That the Images in Churches shall not be covered as hath been accustomed in times past nor no Veil upon the Cross nor no kneeling thereto upon Palm-Sunday nor any other time And forasmuch as you make no mention of creeping to the Cross which is a greater abuse than any of the other for there you say Crucem tuam adoramus Domine and the Ordinal saith Procedant Clerici ad crucem adorandum nudis pedibus And after followeth in the same Ordinal Ponatur Crux ante aliquod Altare ubi a populo adoretur which by your own Book called A Necessary Doctrine is against the Second Commandment Therefore Our Pleasure is That the said creeping to the Cross shall likewise cease from hence-forth and be abolished with the other Abuses before rehearsed And this We will and straitly command you to signify unto all the Prelats and Bishops of your Province of Canterbury charging them in Our Name to see the same executed every one in his Diocess accordingly FINIS A COLLECTION OF RECORDS c. BOOK II. Number 1. The Proclamation of Lady Jane Grayes Title to the Crown JANE by the Grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland under Christ in Earth the Supream Head To all our most Loving Faithful and Obedient Subjects and to every of them Greeting Whereas our most dear Cousin Edward the 6th late King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and in Earth Supream Head under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland by his Letters Patents signed with his own Hand and sealed with his Great Seal of England bearing date the 21st day of June in the seventh Year of his Reign in the presence of the most part of his Nobles his Councellors Judges and divers other grave and sage Personages for the profit and surety of the whole Realm thereto assenting and subscribing their Names to the same hath by the same his Letter Patents recited That forasmuch as the Imperial Crown of this Realm by an Act made in the 35th Year of the Reign of the late King of worthy memory King Henry the 8th our Progenitor and great Uncle was for lack of Issue of his Body lawfully begotten and for lack of Issue of the Body of our said late Cousin