following they were dismist with many rich Presents and an annual pension from the Queen conducted honourably by the Lord Aburgavenny to the Port of Dover and there shipped for Calais filling all places in the way betwixt that and Baden with the report of the magnificence of their entertainment in the Court of England And that the Glories of their entertainment might appear the greater it hapned that Rambouillet a French Ambassador came hither at that time upon two solemnities that is to say to be installed Knight of the Garter in the place and person of that King and to present the Order of St Michael the principal Order of that Kingdom to Thomas Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Leicester The one performed with the accustomed Pomps and Ceremonies in the Chapel of St George at Windsor the other with like State and splendour in the Royal Chapel at Whitehall Such a well tempered piety did at that time appear in the Devotions of the Church of England that generally the English Papists and the Ambassadors of forein Princes still resorted to them But true it is that at that time some zealots of the Church of Rome had begun to slacken their attendance not out of any new dislike which they took at the service but in regard of a Decree set forth in the Council of â—rent prohibiting all resort to the Churches of Hereticks Which notwithstanding the far greater part continued in their first obedience till the coming over of that Roaring Bull from Pope Pius the 5th by which the Queen was excommunicated the subjects discharged from their obedience to the Laws and the going or not going to the Church made a sign distinctive to difference a Roman Catholick from an English Protestant And it is possible enough that they might have stood much longer to their first conformity if the discords brought into the Church by the Zuinglian faction together with their many innovations both in Doctrine and Discipline had not afforded them some further ground for the desertion For in this year it was that the Zuinglian or Calvinian faction began to be first known by the name of Puritans if Genebrard Gualier and Spondanus being all of them right good Chronologers be not mistaken in the time Which name hath ever since been appropriate to them because of their pretending to a greater Purity in the service of God than was held forth unto them as they gave it out in the Common Prayer Book and to a greater opposition to the Rites and Usages of the Church of Rome than was agreeable to the constitution of the Church of England But this Purity was accompanied with such irreverence this opposition drew along with it so much licenciousnesse as gave great scandal and offence to all sober men so that it was high time for those which had the care of the Church to look narrowly unto them to give a check to those disorders and confusions which by their practices and their preachings they had brought into it and thereby laid the ground of that woful schism which soon after followed And for a check to those disorders they published the Advertisement before remembred subscribed by the Archbishop of Canâ—erbury the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Lincoln Rochester and other of her Majesties Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical according to the Statute made in that behalf This was the only present remedy which could then be thought of And to prevent the like confusions for the time to come a Protestation was devised to be taken by all Parsons Vicars and Curates in their several stations by which they were required to declare and promise That they would not preach not publickly interpret but only read that which is appointed by publick authority without special Licence of the Bishop under his Seal that they would read the Service plainly distinctly and audibly that all the people might hear and understand that they would keep the Register book according to the Queens Majesties Injunctions that they would use sobriety in apparel and especially in the Church at Common Prayers according to Order appointed that they would move the Parishioners to quiet and concord and not give them cause of offence and help to reconcile them that be at variance to their utmost power that they would read dayly at the least one Chapter of the Old Testament and another of the New with good advisement to the increase of their knowledge that they would in their own persons use and exercise their Office and Place to the honour of God and the quiet of the Queens subjects within their charge in truth concord and unity as also observe keep and maintain such Order and Uniformity in all external Policy Rites and Ceremonies of the Church as by the Lawes good usages and Orders are already well provided and established and finally that they would not openly meddle with any Artificers occupations as covetously to seek a gain thereby having in Ecclesiastical Livings twenty Nobles or above by the year Which protestation if it either had been generally pressed upon all the Clergy as perhaps it was not or better kept by them that took it the Church might questionlesse have been saved from those distractions which by the Puritan Innovators were occasioned in it Anno Reg. Eliz. 8. A. D. 1565 1566. THus have we seen the publick Liturgy confirmed in Parliament with divers penalties on all those who either did reproach it or neglect to use it or wilfully withdrew their attendance from it the Doctrine of the Church declared in the Book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation and ratified in due form of Law by the Queens authority external matters in officiating Gods publick service and the apparel of the Clergy regulated and reduced to their first condition by the Books of Orders and Advertisements Nothing remaineth but that we settle the Episcopal Government and then it will be time to conclude this History And for the setling of this Government by as good authority as could be given unto it by the Lawes of the Land we aâ—e beholden to the obstinacy of Dr Edmond Bonner the late great slaughter-man of London By a Statute made in the last Parliament for keeping her Majesties Subjects in their due obedience a power was given unto the Bishops to tender and receive the oath of Supremacy of all manner of persons dwelling and residing in their several Diocesses Bonner was then prisoner in the Clink or Marshalsea which being in the Burrough of Southwark brought him within the Jurisdiction of Horn Bishop of Winchester by whose Chancellor the Oath was tender'd to him On the refusal of which Oath he is endicted at the Kings Bench upon the Statute to which he appeared in some Term of the year foregoing and desires that counsel be assigned to plead his cause according to the course of the Court The Court assigns him no worse men than Christopher Wâ—ay afterwards chief Justice of the Common Pleas that famous Lawyer Edmond
Ploydon whose learned Commentaries do sufficiently set forth his great abilities in that Profession and one Mr. Lovelace of whom we find nothing but the name By them and their Advice the whole pleading chiefly is reduced to these two heads to omit the nicities and punctilioes of lesser moment the first whereof was this That Bonner was not at all named in the indictment by the stile and title of Bishop of London but only by the name Dr. Edmond Bonner Clerk Dr. of the Lawes whereas at that time he was legally and actually Bishop of London and therefore the Writ to be abated as our Lawyers phrase it and the cause to be dismissed our of the Court But Ploydon found here that the Case was altered and that this Plea could neither be allowed by Catiline who was then Chief Justice nor by any other of the Bench and therefore it is noted by Chief Justice Dyer who reports the Case with a Non allocatur The second principle Plea was this That Horn at the time when the Oath was tender'd was not Bishop of Winchester and therefore not impowred by the said Statute to make tender of it by himself or his Chancellor And for the proof of this that he was no Bishop it was alleged that the form of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops which had been ratified by Parliament in the time of King Edward had been repealed in the first year of Queen Mary and so remained at Horn's pretended consecration The Cause being put off from Term to Term comes at the last to be debated amongst the Judges at Serjeants Inne By whom the cause was finally put upon the issue and the tryal of that issue Ordered to be committed to a Jury of the County of Surry But then withall it was advised that the decision of the Point should rather be referred to the following Parliament for fear that such a weighty matter might miscarry by a contrary Jury of whose either partiality insufficiency there had been some proof made before touching the grants made by King Edward's Bishops of which a great many were made under this pretence that the Granters were not actually Bishops nor legally possessed of their several Sees According to this sound advice the business comes under consideration in the following Parliament which began on the 30th of September where all particulars being fully and considerately discoursed upon it was first declared That their not restoring of that Book to the former power in terms significant and express was but Casus omissus and Secondly That by the Statute 5th and 6th Edw. 6th it had been added to the Book of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments as a member of it or at least an appendant to it and therefore by 1. Eliz. was restored again together with the said Book of Common Prayer intentionally at the least if not in terminis But being the words in the said Statute were not cleer enough to remove all doubts they did therefore revive it now and did accordingly Enact that all persons that had been or should be made Ordered or Consecrate Archbishops Bishops Priests Ministers of Gods Holy Word and Sacraments or Deacons after the form and order prescribed in the said Book be in very deed and also by authority hereof declared and enacted to be and shall be Archbishops Bishops Priests Ministers and Deacons rightly made Consecrate and Ordered Any Statute Law Canon or any thing to the contrary notwithstanding Nothing else done in this Parliament which concerned the Church not any thing at all in the Convocation by which it was of course accompanied more than the granting of a Subsidy of six shillings in the pound out of all their Benefices and promotions And as for Bonner who was the other party to the cause in question it was determined that neither he nor any other person or persons should be impeached or molested in regard of any refusal of the said Oath heretofore made and hereafter to be made before the end of that Parliament Which favour was indulged unto them of the Laity in hope of gaining them by fair means to a sence of their duty to Bonner and the rest of the Bishops as men that had sufficiently suffered upon that account by the loss of their Bishopricks By this last Act the Church is strongly setled on her natural pillars of Doctrine Government and Worship not otherwise to have been shaken than by the blind zeal of all such furioâ—s Sampsons as were resolved to pull it on their own heads rather than suffer it to stand in so much glory And here it will be time to conclude this History having taken a brief view of the State of the Church with all the abberrations from its first constitution as it stood at this time when the Puritan faction had began to disturb her Order and that it may be done with a greater certainty I shall speak it in the words of one who lived and writ his knowledge of it at this time I mean John Rastel in his answer to the Bishops challenge Who though he were a Papist and a fugitive Priest yet I conceive that he hath faithfully delivered to many sad truths in these particulars Three books he writ within the compass of three years now last past against Bishop Jewel in one of which he makes this address unto him viz. And though you Mr. Jewel as I have heard say do take the bread into your hands when you celebrate solemnly yet thousands there are of your inferiour Ministers whose death it is to be bound to any such external fashion and your Order of celebrating the Communion is so unadvisedly conceived that every man is left unto his private Rule or Canon whether he will take the bread into his hands or let it stand at the end of the table the Bread and Wine being laid upon the table where it pleases the Sexton or Parish-Clerk to set them p. 28. In the Primitive Church Altars were allowed amongst Christians upon which they offered the unbloody sacrifice of Christs body yet your company to declare what followers they are of antiquity do account it even among one of the kinds of Idolaâ—ry if one keep an Altar standing And indeed you follow a certain Antiquity not of the Catholicks but of desperate Hereticks Optatus writing of the Donatists that they did break raze and remove the Altars of God upon which they offered p. 34. and 165. Where singing is used what shall we say to the case of the people that kneel in the body of the Church yea let them hearken at the Chancel dore it self they shall not be much wiser Besides how will you provide for great Parishes where a thousand people are c p. 50. Then to come to the Apostles where did you ever read that in their external behaviour they did wear Frocks or Gowns or four-cornered Caps or that a company of Lay-men-servants did follow them all in one Livery or that at their Prayers
rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX Of Both Kinds 32 The Cup of the Lord is not to be denyed to the Lay People For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs Ordinance and Commandment ought to be ministred to all Christian People alike _____ XXX Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Crosse. The Offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for sin but that alone Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said that the Priests did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt were fables and dangerous deceits XXXI Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Crosse. The offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption c. were blasphemous fables and 33 dangerous deceits XXXI A single Life is imposed on none by the Word of God Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the estate of a single life or to abstain from Marriage XXXII Of the Marriage of Priests Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by Gods Law c. Therefore it is lawful also for them 34 as for all other Christian men to marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to godlinesse XXXII Excommunicated Persons are to be avoided That person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an Heathen and Publican untill he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Judge which hath authority thereunto XXXIII Of Excommunicated Persons how they are to be avoided That person which by open Denunciation of the Church c. XXXIII Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one and utterly like for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countries Times and mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren XXXIV Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies c. Every particular or National Church 35 hath Authority to ordain change or aboâ—ish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Man's Authority so that all things be done to edifying XXXIV Of the Homilies The Homilies lately delivered 36 and commended to the Church of England by the Kings Injunctionâ— do contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and fit to be embraced by all men and for that cause they are diligently plainly and distinctly to be read to the People XXXV Of Homilies The second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joyned under this Article doth contain a godly and wholsome Doctrin and necessary for the times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People The names of the Homilies Of the Right use of the Church Of Repairing Churches Against the Peril of Idolatry Of Good Works c. XXXV Of the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England The Book lately delivered to the Church of England by the Authority of the King and Parliament 37 containing the manner and form of publick Prayer and the ministration of the Sacraments in the said Church of England as also the Book published by the same Authority for Ordering Ministers in the Church are both of them very pious as to â—uth of Doctrine in nothing contrary but agreeable to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel which they do very much promote and illustrate And for that cause they are by all faithful Members of the Church of England but chiefly of the Ministers of the Word with all thankfulness and readiness of mind to be received approved and commended to the People of God XXXVI Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers The Book of Consecration of 38 Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of King Edward the sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering Neither hath it any thing that of it self is superstitious and ungodly And therfore whosoever are Consecrated or ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second year of the afore-named King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully Consecrated and Ordered XXXVI Of the Civil Magistrates The King of England is after Christ 39 the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and Ireland The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Civil Magistrate is ordained and approved by God and therefore are to be obeyed not onely for fear of wrath but for conscience sake Câ—vil or temporal Laws may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences It is lawful for Christian men at the commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars XXXVII Of the Civil Magistrates The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Forein Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government 40 by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended We give not to our Princess the Ministry either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that onely Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptutes by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of this Realm may punish Christian men with death
is that upon the very first Reports of a Reformation here intended Calvin had offered his Assistance to Arch-Bishop Craenmer as himself confesseth But the Arch-Bishop knew the Man and refused the Offer And it appears in one of Bishop Latimer's Sermons that there was report about this time of Melancthon's coming but it proved onely a Report And though it was thought necessary for the better seasoning of the Vniversities in the Protestant Reformed Religion that Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two eminent Divines of the Foreign Churches should be invited to come over yet the Arch-Bishop's Letter of Invitation sent to Martin Bucer was not written till the twelfth day of October At what time the Liturgie then in hand being the chief Key to the whole Work of Reformation was in very good forwardness and must needs be compleatly finished before he could so settle and dispose his Affairs in Germany as to come for England And though Peter Martyr being either more at Leasure or less engaged or otherwise more willing to accept of the Invitation came many Moneths before the other yet neither do we finde him here till the end of November when the Liturgie had been approved of by the King and Council if it had not also passed the Approbation of both Houses of Parliament Nor was it likely that they should make use of such a Man in composing a Liturgie wherein they were resolved to retain a great part of the Antient Ceremonies who being made Canon of Christ-Church in Oxford and frequently present at Divine Service in that Church could never be prevailed with to put on the Surplice Being left therefore to themselves they were at the more liberty for following the King 's most Godly and most Wise Directions having in the first place an eye and respect to the most sincere and Pure Religion taught by the Scripture and in the second to the Vsages of the Primitive Church and making out of both one convenient and meet Order Rite and Fashion of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments to be had and used in the Realm of Englâ—nd and the Principality of Wales Which being finished they all subscribed their Names unto it but Day of Chichester who would by no means have his Hand in the Subscription as is related in the Register-Book of the Parish of Petwoâ—th But being subscribed by all the rest it was by them with all due Reverence humbly presented to the King by whom it was received to His great Comfort and Quietness of mind as the Statute telleth us And being by him commended to the Lords and Commons then Assembled in Parliament which Parliament took beginning on the fourth day of November they did not onâ—ly give His Highness most hearty and lowly thanks for his Care therein but on peruâ—aâ— of the Book declared it to be done by the aid of the Holy Ghost And therâ—upoâ— considering the Godly Prayers Orders Rites and Ceremonies in the said Book mentioned and also the reasons of Altering of those things which be altered and the retaining those things which be retained together with the Hoâ—our of God and the great Quietâ—ess which by the Grace of God was likely to ensâ—e on suâ—h an Uâ—iform Order in Common Prayer Rites and External Ceremonies to be used in all England and Wales in Calice and the Marches of the â—ame it was Eâ—acâ—ed That all and singular Ministers in any Cathedral or 〈◊〉 Church or other Place within this Realm of England Wales Calce and the Marches of the same or other the King's Dominions should from and after the Feast of Pentecost next coming that Interval being given for the Printing of it be bounden to say and use the Mattens Even-song Celebration of the Lord's Supper â—â—mmonly caâ—â—ed The Mass and Administration of each of the Sacraments and all their Common and Open Prayer in such Order and Form as is mentioned in the same Book and no otherwise with several Penalties therein mentioned to be imposed on all such in their several places as either should willfully refuse to Officiate by it or hinder the Lawfull Exâ—cution oâ— it or speak any thing in Derogation of the said Book or any thing therein contained The passing of this Act gave great Offence to those of the Romish Paâ—ty not that they could except against it in regard either of the Manner or Matter of it which they acknowledged to be Consonant to the Antient Forms but bâ—cause it was communicated to the People in the Vulgar Tongue And this they charged as a gâ—eat Eâ—rour in those Men who had the chief Hand in the Conduct of that Affâ—iâ— becaâ—se that by the Rules thereof the Scriptures were to be read publâ—ckly in the 〈◊〉 Tongue Which what else was it as they said but the committing so much Heavenly Treasure unto Râ—tten Vessels the trusting so much Excellent 〈◊〉 to such Musty Bâ—ttles And being that there are many things in he Divine Offices of the Church quae secreta esse debent as the Cardinal telleth us which ought to have been kept as Secrets from all Vulgar knowledg it must needs be of very ill Conâ—equence to communicate them to all sorâ—s of People But certainly the Holy Ghost was able to direct the Church in â— betâ—er way then such as should be subject unto Man's Exceptions And he directs the Service of the Church to be Officiated in such a Language to which the ignorant and unlearned may say Amen 1 Cor. xiv 9 16. Upon which Words it is observed by Lyra and Aquinas two as great Clerks as any in the Church of Rome That The Publick Service of the Church in the Primitive Times was in the Common Vulgar Language The like affirmed by Doctour Haâ—aing as great a Stickler for that Church and the Doctrines of it as any other of his Time adding withall That it was necessary in the Primitive Times that it should be so and granting also That it were still better that the People had their Service in their own Vulgar Tongue for their better understanding of it So he in Answer to the Challenge made by Bishop Jewel Art 3. Sect. 28 and 33. And theâ—efore having the confession and acknowledgment of the very Adveâ—saâ—y not onely as to the Antiquity but the Fitness also of Celebrating Divine Offices in the Vulgar Language it may be thought a loss both of Time and Travail to press the Argument any further Which nâ—twithstanding for the more perfect clearing of the Point in question it wâ—ll be found upon a very easie seach that the Jews did Celebrate their Divine Offiâ—es Tractatus and Oblationes as the Father hath it most commonly in the Syriack and sometimes in the Hebrew Tongue the natural Languages of that People as is affirmed by St. Ambrose upon 1 Cor. cap. 14. and out of him by Durand in his Rationale Eckius a great Servant of the Popes affirmeth in his Common Places That the Indians have their Service in the Indian Tongue and
circumstances and Punctillioes before laid down This stilled the clamour for the present though it brake out again forty years after and was again stilled by the care and industry of the right Reverend Dr. Bâ—amhall Lord Bishop of Derry in a Book Entituled The Church of England defended against some scandalous and fabulous â—â—pâ—tations cast upon her c. Which cavil for it is no better being thus refelled the other objections of the Adversaries will be easily answered though Barlow and Scory were deprived of their Episcopal Sees yet first the justice and legality of their deprivation was not clear in Law and secondly they neither were nor could be deprived of their Episcopal character which remained in them undefaced as before it was And whilst the character remained they were in a capacity of performing all Episcopal Offices to which they should be called by their Metropolitan or any higher Power directing and commanding in all such matters as concerned the Church And as for Suffragans by which title Hodgskins is Commissionated for the Consecration they were no other than the Chore-Epâ—scopi of the Primitive times Subsidiary Bishops ordained for easing the Diocesan of some part of his burthen By means whereof they were enabled to perform such offices belonging to that sacred function not limited to time and place by the ancient Canons by which a Bishop was restrained in some certain acts of Jurisdiction to his proper Diocess Of this sort there were twenty six in the Realm of England distinguished by the names of such principal Towns as were appointed for their title and denomination The names and number whereof together with the jurisdiction and preheminences proportioned to them the Reader may peruse in the Act of Parliament made in the â—6th year of King Henry the 8th No sooner was this solemnity ended but a new mandate comes for the Confirmation of Dr. Barlow in the See of Chichester and Dr Scory to the See of Hereford to which they had been severally elected in August last And though the not restoring of them to their former Sees might seem to juâ—â—ifie the late Queen Mary in their deprivation yet the Queen wanted not good reasons for their present removal not that she did consult therein her own power and profit as is thought by some but studied rather their content and satisfaction than her own concernments For Baâ—low having wasted the revenue of the Church of Wells could not with any comfort behold a place which he had so spoiled and Scory having been deprived of the See of Chichester under pretence of wanting a just title to it desired not to be put upon the hazard of a second ejction But as for Coverdale he did not only wave the acceptation of Oxon but of any other Church then vacant He was now 72 years old and desired rather to enjoy the pleasure of a private life than be disquieted in his old age with the cares of Government And somewhat might be also in it of a disaffection not to the Calling but the Habit which is to be believed the rather because he attended not at the Consecration in his Cope and Rocher as the others did but in a plain black Coat reaching down to his Ankles And now the rest of the Episcopal Sees begin to fill for on the 21 of the same December Dâ— Edmond Gâ—indall was consecrated to the See of London Dr. Râ—chard Cox to that of Ely Dr. Edwin Sandys to the Church of Worcester Dr. Rowland Merick unto that of Bangor On the 21 of January then next following Dr. Nicholas Bullingham was by the like consecration made Bishop of Lincoln the right learned Mr. John Jewel who afterwards accepted the degree of Doctor Bishop of Sarisbury Dr. Thomas Young Bishop of St. Davids and Mr. Râ—chard Davis Bishop of St. Asaph The 24th of March was honoured with the Consecration of three other Bishops that is to say of Mr. Thomas Bentham to the See of Coventry and Lichfield of Mr. Gilbert Barclay to the See of Wâ—lls and of Dr. Edmund Guest to that of Rochester On the 14th of July comes the consecration of Dr. William Alley to the Church of Exon and that of Mr John Parkhurst to the Church of Norwich on the first of September By which account we find no â—ewer than sixteen Sees to be filled with new Bishops within the compass of the year men of ability in matter of learning and suâ—h as had a good report for the integrity of their lives and conversations Nor was it long before the rest of the Episcopal Sees were supplied with new Pastors as shall be shewn hereafter in due time and place The Queens commission of sarvey had not crossed the Trent which possibly may be the reason why we find no new Bishops in the Province of York and Wâ—nchâ—ster must afford one Michaelmas rent more to the Queens Exchequer before the Lord Treasurer could give way to a new incumbent And now we may behold the face of the Church of England as it was first setled and established under Queen Elizabeth The Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops according to the practice of the best and happiest times of Christianity These Bishops nominated and elected according to the Statute in the 26th of King Henry the 8th and consecrated by the Ordinal confirmed by Parliament in the 5th and 6th years of King Edward the 6th never appearing publickly but in their Rochets nor officiating otherwise than in Copes at the Holy Altar The Priests not stirring out of doors but in their square Caps Gowns or Canonical Coats nor executing any divine Office but in their Surplice avestment set apart for Religious services in the Primitive times as may be gathered from St Chrysostome for the Eastern Churches and from St Hierom for the Western The Doctrine of the Church reduced unto its ancient purity according to the Articles agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1552. The Liturgy conform to the Primitive patterns and all the Rites and Ceremonies therein prescribed accommodated to the honour of God and increase of piety The Festivals preserved in their former dignity observed with their distinct Offices peculiar to them and celebrated with a Religious couâ—cuâ—â—â— of all sorts of people the weekly Fasts the holy time of Lent the Embrâ—â—◠〈◊〉 together with the Fast of the Rogation severely kept by a forbearance of all â—ind of flesh not now by vertue of the Statute as in the time oâ— King Edward but as appointed by the Church in her publick Calender before the Book of Common Prayer The Sacrament of the Lords Supper celebrated in most reverend manner the Holy Table seated in the place of the Altar the people making their due reverence at their first entrance into the Church kneeling at the Communion the Confession and the publick Prayers standing up at the Creed the Gospels and the Gloria Patri and using the accustomed reverence at the name of Jesus Musick retained in all such Churches
her in short time not only to protect her Merchants but command the Ocean Of which the Spaniard found good proof to his great loss and almost to his total ruine in the last 20 years of her glorious government And knowing right well that mony was the â—inew of war she fell upon a prudent and present course to fill her coffers Most of the monies in the Kingdom were of forein coynage brought hither for the most part by the Easterling and Flemish Merchants These she called in by Proclamation â—â—ted the 15th of November being but two dayes before the end of this 3d. year commanding them to be brought to her Majesties Mint there to be coyned and take the stamp of her Royal authority or otherwise not to pass for current within this Realm which counsel took such good effect that monies came flowing into the Mint insomuch that there was weekly brought into the Tower of London for the space of half a year together 8000. 10000. 12000. 16000. 20000. 22000 l. of silver plate and as much more in Pistols and other gold of Spanish coins which were great sums according to the standard of those early dayes and therefore no small profit to be growing to her by the coynage of them The Genevians slept not all this while but were as busily imployed in practising upon the Church as were the Romanists in plotting against the Queen Nothing would satisfie them but the nakedness and simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Franckfort and the Presbyteries of Geneva According to the pattern which they saw in those mounts the Church of England is to be modell'd nor would the Temple of Jerusalem have served their turn if a new Altar fashioned by that which they found at Damascus might not have been erected in it And they drove on so fast upon it that in some places they had taken down the steps where the Aâ—tar stood and brought the Holy Table into the midst of the Church in others they had laid aside the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers in the administration of Baptism and left the answering for the child to the charge of the father The weekly Fasts the time of Lent and all other dayes of abstinence by the Church commanded were looked upon as superstitious observations No fast by them allowed of but occasional only and then too of their own appointing And the like course they took with the Festivals also neglecting those which had been instituted by the Church as humane inventions not fit to be retained in a Church reformed And finally that they might wind in there outlandish Doctrines with such forein usages they had procured some of the inferiour Ordinaries to impose upon their several Parishes certain new books of Sermons and Expositions of the holy Scripture which neither were required by the Queens Injunctions nor by Act of Parliament Some abuses also were discovered in the Regular Clergy who served in Churches of peculiar or exempt jurisdiction Amongst whom it began to grow too ordinary to marry all such as came unto them without Bains or Licence and many times not only without the privity but against the express pleasure and command of their Parents For which those Churches past by the name of Lawlesse Churches in the voice of the people For remedy whereof it was found necessary by the Archbishop of Canterbury to have recourse unto the power which was given unto him by the Queens Commission and by a clause or passage of the Act of Parliament for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church c. As one of the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical he was authorized with the rest of his associates according to the Statute made in that behalf To reform redresse order correct and amend all such Errours Heresies Schisms abuses offences conâ—empts and enormities whatsoever as might from time to time arise in the Church of England and did require to be redressed and reformed to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and conservation of the peace and unity of the Kingdom And in the passage of the Act before remembred it was especially provided That all such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof should be retained and be in use as were in the Church of England by authority of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th until further Order should be therein taken by authority of the Queens Majesty with the advice of her Commissioners Appointed Ordered under the Great Seal of England for Causes Ecclesiastical or of the Metropolitan of this Realm And also if there shall happen any contempt or irreverence to be used in the Ceremonies or Rites of the Church by the misusing of the Orders of the said Book of Common Prayer the Queens Majesty might by the like advice of the said Commissioners or Metropolitan Ordain or publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as should be most for the advance of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Fortified and assured by which double power the Archbishop by the Queens consent and the advice of some of the Bishops Commissionated and instructed to the same intent sets forth a certain book of Orders to be diligently observed and executed by all and singular persons whom it might concern In which it was provided That no Parson Vicar or Curate of any exempt Church commonly called Lawless Churches should from thenceforth attempt to conjoin by solemnization of Matrimony any not being of his or their Parish Church without sufficient testimony of the Bains being ask'd in the several Churches where they dwel or otherwise were sufficiently licenced That there should be no other dayes observed for Holy days or Fasting dayes as of duty and commandment but only such Holy dayes as be expressed for Holy dayes in the Calendar lately set forth by the Queens authority and none other Fasting dayes to be so commanded but as the Lawes and Proclamations of the Queens Majesty should appoint that it should not be lawful to any Ordinary to assign or enjoyn the Parishes to buy any Books of Sermons or Expositions in any sort than is already or shall be hereafter appointed by publick Authority that neither the Curates or Parents of the children which are brought to Baptism should answer for them at the Font but that the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers should be still retained and finally that in all such Churches in which the steps to the Altar were not taken down the said steps should remain as before they did that the Communion Table should be set in the said place where the steps then were or had formerly stood and that the Table of Gods Precepts should be fixed upon the wall over the said Communion Board Which passage compared with that in the Advertisements published in the year 1565. of which more hereafter make up this construction that
exercise of his Bulls and Faculties Peitow the new Cardinal Legate puts himself on the way to England when the Queen taking to her self some part of her fathers spirit commands him at his utmost peril not to adventure to set foot upon English ground to which he readily inclined as being more affected unto Cardinal Pole than desirous to shew himself the servant of another mans passion In the end partly by the Queens mediation the intercession of Ormaenete the good successes of the French in the taking of Calais but principally by the death of Peitow in the April following the rupture was made up again and Pole confirmed in the possession of his former powers The fear of running the like hazard for the time to come made him appear more willing to connive at his under Officers in shedding the blood of many godly and religious persons than otherwise he would have been Whereupon followed the burning of ten men in the Diocess of Canterbury on the 15th of January whereof two suffered at Ashford two at Riâ— and the other six in his own Metropolitan City and possibly the better to prepare the Pope towards this Attonement the Queen was moved to issue her Commission of the month of February directed to the Bishop of Ely the Lords Windsor North and seventeen others by which the said Commissioners or any thâ—eâ— or more of them were impowred to enquire of all and singular Heretical opinions Lollardies Heretical and seditious books concealâ—ents contempts conspiracies and all false tales rumours seditious or slanderous words c. As also seize into their hands all manner of Heretical and seditious Books Letters and Writings wheresoever they or any of them should be found as well in Printers houses and shops as elsewhere willing them and every of them to search for the same in all places according to their discretions And finally to enquire after â—ll such persons as obstinately do refuse to receive the blessed Sacrament of the Altar to hear Mass or coâ—e to their Parish Churches and all such as refuse to go on Procession to take holy bread or holy water or otherwise misuse themselves in any Church or hallowed place c. The party so offending to be proceeded against according to the Ecclesiastical Lawes or otherwise by fine or imprisonment as to them seemed best But the Commissioners being many in number persons of honour and imployment for the most part of them there was little or nothing done in pursuance of it especially as to the searching after prohibited books the number whereof increasing every day more and more a Proclamation was set forth on the 6th of June to hinder the continual spreading of so great a mischief Which Proclamation was as followeth viz. Whereas divers books filled with Hersie Sedition and Treason have of late been dayly brought into this Realm out of forein Countries and places beyond the seas and some covertly printed within this Realm and cast abroad in sundry parts thereof whereby not only god is dishonoured but also incouragement given to disobey lawful Princes and Governours the King and Queens Majesties for redress hereof do by their present Proclamation declare and publish to all their subjects that whosoever shall after the Proclamation hereof be found to have any of the said wicked and seditious books or finding them do not forthwith burn the same without shewing or reading the same to any other persons shall in that case be reputed and taken for a rebel and shall without further delay be executed for that offence according to the order of Martial Law Which Proclamation though it were very smart and quick yet there was somewhat of more mercy in it than in another which came out in the very same month at the burning of seven persons in Smithfield published both at Newgate where they were imprisoned and at the stake where they were to suffer whereby it was straightly charged and commanded That no man should either pray for or speak to them or once say God help them A cruelty more odious than that of Domitian or any of the greatest Tyrants of the elder times in hindering all entercourse of speech upon some jealousie and distrusts of State between man and man Which Proclamation notwithstanding Bentham the Minister of one of the London Congregations seeing the fire set to them turning his eyes unto the people cried and said We know they are the people of God and therefore we cannot chuse but wish well to them and say God strengthen them and so boldly he said Almighty God for Christs sake strengthen them With that all the people with one consent cryed Amen Amen the noise whereof was so great and the cryers so many that the Officers knew not whom to seize oâ— or with whom they were to begin their accusation And though peradvâ—nture it may seem to have somewhat of a miracle in it that the Protestants should have a Congregation under Bonner's nose yet so it was that the godly people of that time were so little terrified with the continual thoughts of that bloody Butcher that they maintained their constant meetings for religious offices even in London it self in one of which Congregations that namely whereof Bentham was at this time Minister there assembled seldome under 40. many times 100. and sometimes 200. but more or less as it stood most with their conveniency and safety The Ministers of which successively were Mr Edward Scambler after Bishop of Peterborough Mr Thomas Foule of whom I find nothing but the name Mr John Rough a Scot by Nation convented and condemned by Bonner and suffering for the testimony of a good conscience December 20. After whom followed Mr Augustine Bernher a moderate and learned man And finally Mr Thomas Bentham before mentioned who continued in that charge till the death of Queen Mary and was by Queen Elizabeth preferred to the See of Lichfield Anno 1589. By the encouragement and constant preaching of which pious men the Protestant party did not only stand to their former principle but were resolved to suffer whatsoever could be laid upon them rather than forfeit a good conscience or betray the cause They had not all the opportunity of such holy meetings but they meâ— frequently enough in smaller companies to animate and comfort one another in those great extremities Nor sped the Queen much better in her Proclamation of the sixth of June concerning the suppression of prohibited Books but notwithstanding all the care of her Inquisitors many good Books of true Christian Consolation and good Protestant Doctrine did either find some Press in London or were sent over to their brethren by such learned men as had retired themselves to their several Sanctuaries their places of Retreat which not improperly may be called their Cities of Refuge which we have seen already amongst which I find none but Embden in the Lutheran Countries the rigid Professors of which Churches abominated nothing more than an English Protestant because they
Appellation had been so entituled Which appeares more plainly by a particular of the Robes and Ornaments which were preparing for the day of this Solemnity as they are entred on Record in the book called The Catalogue of Honour published by Thomas Mills of Canterbury where it appeares also that they were prepared only but never used by reason of the Kings death which prevented the Sollemnities of it The ground of this Error I conceive first to be taken from John Stow who finding a creation of some Noble men and the making of many Knights to relate to the 18 day of October supposed it to have been done with reference to the Creation of a Prince of Wales whereas if I might take the liberty of putting in my own conjecture I should conceive rather that it was done with Reference to the Princes Christning as in like manner we find a creation of three Earles and five to inferiour Titles at the Christning of the Princesse Mary born to King James after his coming into England and Christened upon Sunday the fifth of May. 1604. And I conceive withall that Sir Edward Seimour Vicount Beauchamp the Queenes elder brother was then created Earle of Hartford to make him more capable of being one of the Godfathers or a Deputy-Godfather at the least to the Royall Infant the Court not being then in a condition by reason of the mournfull accident of the late Queenes death to show it selfe in any extraordinary splendour as the occasion had required at another time Among which persons so advanced to the Dignity and degree of Knighthood I find Mr. Thomas Seimour the Queenes youngest brother to be one of the number of whom we shall have frequent occasion to speak more fully and particularly in the course of this History No other alteration made in the face of the Court but that Sir William Pawlet was made Treasurer and Sir John Russell Comptroller of his Majesties Houshold on the said 18th day of October which I conceive to be the day of the Princes Christning both of them being principall Actors in the Afâ—aires and troubles of the following times But in the face of the Church there appeared some lines which looked directly towards a Reformation For besides the surrendring of divers Monasteries and the executing of some Abbots and other Religious Persons for their stiffenesse if I may not call it a perversenesse in opposing the Kings desires there are two things of speciall note which concurred this year as the Prognosticks or â—ore-runners of those great events which after followed in his Reign For it appeares by a Memoriall of the Famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton that Grafton now made known to Cromwell the finishing of the English Bible of which he had printed 1500. at his own proper charges amounting in the totall to 500. p. desiring stoppage of a surreptitions Edition in a lesse Letter which else would tend to his undoing the suit endeared by Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury at whose request Cromwell presents one of the Bibles to the King and procures the same to be allowed by his Authority to be read publiquely without comptrole in all his Dominions and for so doing he receives a letter of thanks from the said Arch-Bishop dated August the 13th of this present year Nor were the Bishops and Clergy wanting to advance the work by publishing a certain book in the English Tongue which they entituled The Institution of a Christian Man in which the Doctrine of the Sacraments the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Commandments were opened and expounded more perspicuously and lesse abhorrent from the truth then in former times By which clear light of Holy Scripture and the principall duties of Religion so laid opâ—n to them the people were the better able to discerne the errors and corruptionâ— of the Church of Rome From which by the piety of this Prince they were fully Freed And for a preamble thereunto the Rood of Boxley commonly called the Rood of Grace so Artificially contrived by reason of some secret wires in the body or concavities of it that it could move the eyes the lips c. to the great wonder and astonishment of the common people was openly discovered for a lewd imposture and broke in pieces at St. Pauls Cross on Sunday the 24. of February the Rood of Bermondsey Abby in South-work following the same fortune also within six dayes The next year brings an end to almost all the Monasteries and Religious houses in the Realme of England surrendered into the Kings hands by publâ—que instruments under the seales of all the severall and respective Convents and those surrenderies ratified and confirmed by Act of Parliament And this occasionally conduced to the future peace and quiet of this young Prince by removing out of the way some Great Pretenders who otherwise might have created to him no small disturbance For so it happened that Henry Earle of Devâ—nshire and Mary wife of Exceter descended from a daughter of King Edward the fâ—urth and Henry Pole Lord Mountacute descended from a daughter of George Duke of Clarence the second brother of that Edward under colour of preventing or revenging the Dissolution of so many famous Abbyes and religious houses associated themselves with Sir Edward Nâ—vill and Sir Nicholas Carew in a dangerous practise against the person of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom By whose endictment it appeares that it was their purpose and designe to destroy the King and advance Reginald Pole one of the younger brothers of the said Lord Mountacute of whom we shall hear more in the course of this History to the Regalâ— Throne Which how it could consist with the Pretensions of the Marquisse of Exceter or the Ambition of the Lord Mountacute the elder brother of this Reginald it is hard to say But having the Chronicle of John Speed to justifie me in the truth hereof in this particular I shall not take upon me to dispute the point The dangerous practise of which Persons did not so much retard the worke of Reformation as their execution did advance it to this year also appertaineth the suppressing of Pilgrimages the defacing of the costly and magnâ—ficent shrines of our Lady of Walsingham Ipswich Worcester c and more particularly of Thomas Becket once Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This last so rich in Jewells of most inestimable value that two great chests were filled with the spoyles thereoâ— so heavy and capacious as is affirmed by Bishop â—oodwin that each of them required no fewer then eight men to carry them out of the Church nothing inferiour unto Gold being charged within them More modestly in this then Sanders that malitious Sycophant who will have no lesse then twenty six waine load of silver Gold and precious stones to be seised into the Kings hands by the spoyle of that Monument Which proceedings so exasperated the Pope then being that without more delay by his Bull of January 1. he deprived the King
22th day of March next following Upon this ground were buâ—lt the Statutes prohibiting all Appeales to Rome and for determining all Ecclesiasticall suites and controversies within the Kingdom 24. Hen. 8. cap. 1â— That for the manner of declaring and consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 20. and the prohibiting the payment of all impositions to the Court of Rome and for obtaining all such dispensations from the see of Canterbury which formerly were procured from the Popes of Rome 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 21. and finally that for declaring the King to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England and to have all Honours and Preheminences and amongst others the first-fruits and tenths of all Ecclesiasticall promotions within the Realm which were annexed unto that Title In the forme of consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rule by which they excercised their Jurisdiction there was no change made but what the transposition of the Supreme Power from the Pope to the King must of necessity infer For whereas the Bishops and Clergy in the Convocation An. 1532. had bound themselves neither to make nor execute any Canons or Constitutions Ecclesiasticall but as they were thereto enabled by the Kings Authority it was by them desired assented to by him and confirmed in Parliament that all such Canons and Constitutions Synodall and Provinciall as were before in use and neither Repugnant to the Word of God the kings Prerogative Royall or the known Lawes of the Land should remaine in force till a review thereof were made by thirty two Persons of the Kings appointment Which review not having been made from that time to this all the said old Canons and Constitutions so restrained and qualified do still remaine in force as before they did For this Consult the Act of Parliament 25. Hen. 8. Cap. 1. And this and all the rest being setled then followed finally the Act for extinguishing the Power of the Pope of Rome 28. Hen. 8 Cap. 10. which before we mentioned In order to a Reformation in points of Doctrine he first directed his Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation Aâ—no 1537. to compile a Book containing The Exposition of the Creed the Lords Prayer the Avemary and the Ten Commandements together with an Explication of the use and nature of the seven Sacraments More cleerely in it self and more agreeable to the Truth of Holy Scripture then in former times which book being called The Institution of a Christian Maâ— was by them presented to the King who liked thereof so well that he sent it by Doctor Barlow Bishop of St. Davids to King James the fifth hoping thereby to induce him to make the like Reformation in the Realm of Scotland as was made in England though therein he was deceived of his expectation But this Book having lien dormant for a certain time that is to say as long as the six Articles were in force was afterwards corrected and explained by the Kings own hand and being by him so corrected was sent to be reviewed by Archâ—Bishop Cranmer by him referred with his own emendations on it to the Bishopâ— and Clergy then Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1543. and by them Approved VVhich care that Godly Prelate took as himselfe confesseth in a Letter to a friend of his bearing date January 25. because the book being to come out by the Kings Censure and Judgement he would have nothing in the same which Momus himselfe could Reprehend VVhich being done it was published shortly after by the name of a Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian man with an Epistle of the Kings Prefixt before it in which it was commended to the Perusall of all his subjects that were Religiously disposed Now as the first book was ushered in by an injunction published in Sâ—ptember An. 1536. by which all Curates were required to Teach the people to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Aveâ—ary and the Ten Commandements in the English Tongue â—o was the second countenanced by a Proclamation which made way unto it bearing date May the sixth 1541 whereby it was commanded that the English Bible of the Larger Vollumne should publiquely be placed in every Parish-Church of the Kings Dominions And here we are to understand that the Bible having been Translated into the English Tongue by the great paines of William Tyndall who after suffered for Religion in the Reigne of this King was by the Kings Command supprest and the reading of it interdicted by Proclamation the Bishops and other Learned men advising the reâ—traint thereof as the times then stood But afterward the times being changed and the People better fitted for so great a benefit the Bishops and Clergy Assembled in their Convocation Anno 1536. humbly petitioned to the King that the Bible being faithfully Translated and purged of such Prologues and Marginall Notes as formerly had given offence might be permitted from thenceforth to the use of the people According to which Godly motion his Majesty did not only give Order for a new Translation but in the Interim he permitted Cromwell his Viccar Generall to set out an Injunction for providing the whole Bible both in Latine and English after the Translation then in use which was called commonly by the name of Matthews Bible but was no other then that of Tyndall somewhat altered to be kept in every â—arish Church throughout the Kingdome And so it stood but not with such a Generall observation as the case required till the finishing of the new Translation Printed by Grafton countenanced by a learned Preface of Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Authorised by the Kings Proclamation of the sixth of May as before was said Finally that the people might be better made acquainted with the Prayers of the Church it was appointed a little before the Kings going to Bolloigne Anno 1545. that the Lâ—tany being put into the same forme almost in which now it stands should from thenceforth be said in the English Tongue So farr this King had gone in order to a Reformation that it was no hard matter for his Son or for those rather who had the Managing of Affaires during his Minority to go thorough with it In Reference to the Regall State he added to the Royal Stile these three Glorious Attributes that is to say Defender of the Faith The Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and King of Ireland In what manner he obtained the Title of Supreme Head conferred upon him by the Convocation in the year 1530. and confirmed by Act of Parliament in the 26 yeare of his Reign hath been showne before That of Defender of the Faith was first bestowed upon him by Pope Leo the tenth upon the publishing of a Book against Martin Luther which Book being presented unto the Pope by the hands of Doctor Clark afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells hath been preserved ever since amongst the choisest Rarities of the Vatican Library Certain it is that the Pope was so well pleased
without some intermissions by the King deceased and therefore to be put in Execution with the greater safety For though the young King by Reason of his tender Age could not but want a great proportion of His Father's Spirit for carrying on a work of such weight and moment yet he wanted nothing of that power in Church-concernment which either Naturally was inherent in the Crown Imperial or had been Legally vested in it by Acts of Parliament Neither could His Being in Minority nor the Writings in His Name by the Lord Protectour and the Rest of the Council make any such difference in the Case as to invalidate the Proceedings or any of the Rest which followed in the Reformation For if they did the Objection would be altogether as strong against the Reformation made in the Minority of King Josias as against this in the Minority of the present King That of Josias being made as Josephus telleth us by the Advice of the Elders as this of King EDVVARD the Sixth by the Advice of the Council And yet it cannot be denyed but that the Reformation made under King Iâ—sias by Advice of His Council was no less pleasing unto God nor less valid in the Eys of all His Subjects then those of Jeboshaphat and Hezekiah in their Riper years who perhaps acted singly on the strength of their Own Judgements onely without any Advice Now of Josias we are told by the said Historian That When He grew to be twelve years old He gave manifest Approbation of His Piety and Justice For He drew the People to a conformable Course of Life and to the Detestation and Abolishing of Idols that were no Gods and to the Service of the Onely True God of their Fore-Fathers And considering the Actions of His Predecessours He began to Rectifie them in that wherein they were deficient with no less Circumspection then if He had been an Old Man And that which He found to be Correspondent and Advisedly done by them that did He both maintain and imitate All which things He did both by Reason of His Innated Wisdom as also by the Aâ—moâ—shment and Council of His Elders in following orderly the Laws not onely in matters of Religion but of Civil Politie Which puts the Parallel betwixt the two young Kings in the Case before us above all Exception and the Proceedings of King Edward or His Council rather beyond all Dispute Now whereas Question hath been made whether the twenty fourth Injunction for Labouring on the Holy Day in time of Harvest extend as well to the Lord's Day as the Annual Festivals The matter seems to any well-discerning eye to be out of Question For in the third Chapter of the Statute made in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the Sixth when the Reformation was much more advanced then it was at the present the Names and Number of such Holy Days as were to be observed in this Church are thus layed down That is to say All Sundaies in the year the Feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphany c. with all the Rest still kept and there named particularly And then it followeth in the Act That it shall and may be lawfull for every Husband-man Labourer Fisher-man and to all and every other person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be upon the Holy-Days afore-said in Harvest or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require to Labour Ride Fish or Work any kind of work at their free-will and Pleasure any thing in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding The Law being such there is no question to be made in point of practice nor consequently of the meaning of the King's Injunction For further opening of which Truth we finde that not the Country onely but the Court were indulged the Liberty of attending business on that day it being Ordered by the King amongst other things That the Lords of the Council should upon Sundays attend the publique Affairs of this Realm dispatch Answers to Letters for good order of State and make full dispatches of all things concluded the Week before Provided alwaies That they be present at Common Prayer and that on every Sunday-Night the King's Secretary should deliver him a Memorial of such things as are to be debated by the Privy Council in the week ensuing Which Order being compared with the words of the Statute may serve sufficiently to satisfie all doubts and scruples touching the true intent and meaning of the said Injunction But as this Question was not startled till the Later Times when the Lord's Day began to be advanced into the Reputation of the Jewish Sabbath so was there nothing in the rest of the said Injunctions which required a Commentary Some words and Passages therein which seem absurd to us of this present Age being then clearly understood by all and every one whom they did concern Published and given in charge by the Commissioners in their several Circuits with great Zeal and Chearfullness and no less readily Obeyed in most parts of the Realms both by Priests and People who observed nothing in them either new or strange to which they had not been prepared in the Reign of the King deceased None forwarder in this Compliance then some Learned men in and about the City of London who not long since had shewed themselves of a contrary Judgement Some of them running before Authority and others keeping even pase with it but few so confident of themselves as to lagg behind It was Ordered in the twenty first That at the time of High Mass the Epistle and Gospel should be read in the English Tongue and That both at the Mattens and Even-Song a Chapter out of the New Testament should be also read And for Example to the rest of the Land the Complime being a part of the Evening Service was sung in the King 's Chapel on Mâ—nday in the Easter-week then falling on the eleventh of April in the English Tongue Doctour Smith Master of Whittington-College in London and Reader in Divinity at the King's-College at Oxford afterwards better known by the name of Christ-Church had before published two Books One of them written In Defence of the Mass The other endeavouring to prove That unwritten Verities ought to be believed under pain of Damnation But finding that these Doctrines did not now beat according to the Pulse of the Times he did voluntarily retract the said Opinions declaring in a Sermon at Saint Paul's Cross on Sunday the fifteenth of May that his said former Books and Teachings were not only erroneous but Heretical The like was done in the Moneth next following by Doctour Pern afterwards Master of Peter-House in Cambridge who having on Saint George's day delivered in the Parish-Church of Saint Andrew Vndershaft for sound Catholick Doctrine That the Pictures of Christ and of the Saints were to be adored upon the seventeenth day of June declared himself in the
partâ—kers of the Holy Communion Which Exhortation beginning with these Words Dearly-beloved in the Lord â—ye coming to this Holy Communion c. is in effect the last of those which afterwards remained in the Publick Liturgie Then followed the Invitation thus You that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins c. proceeding to the General Confession the Absolution the Comfortable Sentences out of Holy Scripture and so unto the Prayer of Humble Address We do not presume to come to this Table c. the Distribution of the Sacrament to the People present continuing still upon their knees and finally dismissing them In the Peace of God Which Godly Form being presented to the King and the Lords of the Council and by them exceeding well approved was Published on the eighth of March together with his Majestie 's Proclamation Authorising the same and Commanding all His Loving Subjects to conform unto it in this Manner following By the King EDWARD by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and Ireland in Earth the Supreme Head To All and Singular Our Loving Subjects Greeting For so much as in Our High Court of Parliament lately holden at Westminster it was by Vs with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons there Assembled most Godly and agreeable to Christ's Holy Institution Enacted That the most Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ should from henceforth be commonly Delivered and Ministred unto all Persons within Our Realm of England and Ireland and other Our Dominions under both Kinds that is to say of Bread and Wine except necessity otherwise require lest every man fantasying and devising a sundry way by himself in the Vse of this most Blessed Sacrament of Vnity there might thereby arise any unseemly or ungodly Diversity Our pleasure is by the Advice of Our most Dear Vncle the Duke of Sommerset Governour of Our Person and Protectour of Our Realms Dominions and Subjects and other Our Privy Council that the said Blessed Sacrament be Ministred unto Our People â—nely after such Form and Manner as hereafter by Our Authority with the Advice before-mentioned is set out or declared Willing every man with due Reverence and Christian Behaviour to come to this Holy Sacrament and most Blessed Communion lest that by the unworthy receiving of such high Mysteries they become guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord and so eat and drink their own Damnation but rather diligently trying themselves that they so come to this Holy Table of Christ and so be partakers of this Holy Communion that they may dwell in Christ and have Christ dwelling in them And also with such Obedience and Conformity to receive this Our Ordinance and most Godly Direction that we may be incouraged from Time to Time further to travail for the Râ—formation and setting forth of such Godly Orders as may be most to God's Glory the Edifying of Our Subjects and for the Advancement of true Religion which is thething We by the help of God most earnestly endeavoured to bring to effect Willing all Our Loving Subjects in the mean time to stay and quiet themselves with this Our Direction as men content to follow Authority according to the bounden Duty of Subjects and not enterprising to run before and so by their Rashness become the greatest Hinderers of such things as they more arrogantly then Godly would seem by their own Private Authority most hotly to set forward We would not have Our Subjects so much to mistake Our Judgement so much to mistrust Our Zeal as though we either would not discern what were to be done or would not do all things in due time God be praised We know both what by his Word is meet to be redressed and have an earnest mind by the Advice of Our most Dear Vncle and other of Our Privy Council with all diligence and convenient speed so to set forth the same as it may most stand with God's Glory and edifying and quietness of Our People Which We doubt not but all Our Obedient and Loving Subjects will quietly and reverendly tarry for The next Care was to see the said Order put in execution of which the Lords of the Council discharged the King and took the whole Burthen on themselves For causing a sufficient Number of the Printed Copies to be sent to each Bishop in the Realm they there withall directed Letters to them Requiring and in Hiâ— Majestie 's Name Commanding them and every of them to have an earnest Diligence and carefull Respect both in their own Persons and all their Officers and Ministers for causing the said Books to be so delivered to every Parson Vicar and Curate in their several Diocesses that they may have sufficient time well to instruct and advise themselves for the Distribution of the most Holy Communion according to the Order of the said Book before Easter following and that by the good Means of them the said Bishops they may be well directed to use such Good Gentle and Charitable Instructions to their simple and unlearned Parishioners as may be to their good Satisfaction Letting them further know that as the said Order was set forth to the intent there should be in all parts of this Realm and among all men one Vniform manner quietly used so that the Execution thereof did very much stand in the Diligence of them and others of their Vocation who therefore were again required to have a diligent respect unto it as they tendred the King's pleasure and would answer the contrary Which Letter bearing Daâ—e on the thirteenth of March was subscribed by the Arch-Bishop Cranmer the Lord Chancellour Rich the Earl of Arundel the Lords St. John and Russel Mr. Secretary Petre Sir Anthony Wingfield Sir Edward North and Sir Edward â—otton In Obedience unto whose Commands as all the Bishops did not perform their parts alike Gardiner of Winchester Bonner of London Voysie of Exeter and Sampson of Coventry and Lich-field being more backward then the rest so many Parish-Priests not being willing to Advance so good a Work laboured to disaffect the People to the present Government And to that end it was endeavoured in their Sermons to possess their Auditours with an ill opinion of the King as if he did intend to lay strange Exactions on the Subject by forcing them to pay half a Crown a piece for every one who should be Married Christened or Buried For Remedy whereof it was Ordered by Proclamation bearing Date the twenty fourth of April That none should be permitted to Preach but such as were Licenced under the Seals of the Lord Protectour or the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury In the next place we must attend the King's Commissioners dispatched in the beginning of March into every Shire throughout the Realm to take a Survey of all Colleges Free-Chapels Chanteries and Brother-Hoods within the compass of the Statute or Act of Parliament
the rest it was Ordered That none should be presented unto any Benefice in the King's Donation either as in the Right of His Crown or by Promotion Wardship Lapse c. till he had Preached before the King and thereby passed Hâ—s Judgment and Approbation And it was much about this time that Sermons at the Court were increased also For whereas formerly there were no Sermons at the Court but in time of Lent and possibly on some â—ew of the greater Festivals in which reâ—pect six Chaplains were sufficient to attend in Ordinary it was now Ordered That from thenceforth there should be Sermons every Sunday for all such as were so disposed to resort unto But the Great business of this Year was the taking down of Altars in many places by the Publick Authorâ—ty which in some few had formerly been pulled down by the irregular forwardness of the Common People The Principal Motive whereunto was in the first place the Opinion of some dâ—slikes which had been taken by Calvin against the Liturgie and the desire of those of the Zuinglian Faction to reduce this Church unto the Nakedness and Simplicity of those Transmarine Chuâ—ches which followed the Hâ—lveâ—ian or Calvinian Forms For the Advancement of which Work it had been Preached by Hooper above-mentioned before the King about the bâ—ginning of this year That It would be very well that it might please the Magistrate to tuâ—n the Altars into Tables according to the first Institution of Christ and thereby to take away the falâ—e perswâ—sion of the People which they have of Sacrifices to be done upon the Altars Because said he as long as Altars remain both the ignorant People and the ignorant and evill-perswaded Priâ—st will dream always of Sacrifice This was â—nough to put the thoughts of the Alteration into the Head of some Great Men about the Court who thereby promised themselves no small Hopes of Profit by the disfurnishing of the Altars of the Hangings Palls Plate and other Rich Vtensils which every Parish more or less had provided for them And that this Consideration might prevail upon thâ—m as much as any other if perhaps not more may be collected from an Eâ—quiry made about two years after In which it was to be interrogated What Jewels of Gold and Silver or Silver Crosses Candlâ—sticks Censers Chalices Câ—pes and other Vâ—stments were then remaining in any of the Cathedral or Parochial Churches or otherwise had been embezelled or taken away the leaving â—f one Chalice to every Church with a Cloath or Covering for the Câ—mmunion-Table being thought sufficient The matter being thus resolved on a Letter comes to Bishop Ridley in the name of the King Signed with His Royal Signet but Subscribed by Sommerset and other of the Lords of the Council concerning the taking down of Altars and setting up Tables in the stead thereof Which Letter because it relates to somewhat which was done before in some of the Churches and seems onâ—ly to pretend to an Vniformity in all the rest I shall here subjoyn that bâ—ing the Chief Ground on which so great an Alteration must be supposed to have been raised Now the Tenour of the said Letter is as followeth RIght-Reverend Father in God Right-Trusty and Well-Beloved We Greet You well Whereas it is câ—me to â—ur Knâ—wlâ—dge that being the Altars within the more part of the Churches of the Realm upon Good and Godly Considerations are takâ—n down there doth yet remain Altars standing in divers other Churches by occasion wheâ—eof â—uch Variâ—nce and Contention ariseth amongst sundry of Our Subjects which if good Foâ—e-sight were not had might perhaps engenâ—er great Hurt and Inconvenience We let you wit that minding to have all â—ccasions of 〈◊〉 taken away which many times groweth by thâ—se and sâ—ch lâ—ke Diversities and considering that amongst other thiâ—gs belongiâ—g to Our 〈…〉 anâ— Care We do account the greatest to be to mâ—intain the câ—mmon Quiet of Our Reâ—lm We have thought Good by the Advice of Ouâ— Câ—urcil to reqâ—ire You and nevertheless especially to Charge aâ—d Câ—mmâ—nd You for the avoidiâ—g of all mâ—tters of further 〈…〉 about the standing or taâ—ing away of the said 〈◊〉 to give 〈◊〉 Order thâ—â—ughout all Your Diocess that with alâ— Dilâ—gence all the Altars in every Church or Chapel as well in places Exempted as not Exempted within Your said Dioceâ—s be taken â—own and in stead of them a Table to be set up in some convenâ—ent part of the Chancel within every such Church or Châ—pâ—l to serve for the Ministration â—f the Blâ—sted Communion And to the intent the same may be done without the Offence of such Our Loving Subjects as be not yet so well perswaded in that behalf as We â—ould wish We send unto You herewith certain Considerations Gathered and Collected that makâ— for the purpose The which and such others as You shall think meet to be set forth to perswade the weak to embrace Our Procâ—edings in this paâ—t We pray You cause to be declared to the People by some discreet Preachers in such places as You shall thiâ—k â—eet before the taking down of the said Altars so as both the weak Consciences of others mâ—y be instructed and satisfied as much as mâ—y be and this Our Pleasure the more quietly Executed For the better doing whereof We require You to open the foreâ—said Considerations in that Our Cathedral Church in Your own Person if You conveniently may or otherwâ—â—e by Your Chancellour or other Grave Preacher both there and in such other Markâ—t-Towns and most Notable Places of Your Diocess as You may think most requisite Which Letter bearing Date on the twenty fourth of November in the fourth year of the King was Subscribed by tâ—e Duke of Sommerset the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Admiral Clinton the Earls of Warwick Bedford and Wiltshire the Bishop of Ely the Lords Wentworth and North. Now tâ—e Effect of the said Reasons mentioned in the last part of this Letter were First â—o move the People from the Superstitioâ—s Opinions of the Popish Mass unto the right Use of the Lora's Supper The Use of an Altar being to Sacrifice upâ—n and the Use of a Table to Eat upon and therefore a Table to be fâ—r more 〈◊〉 for Our feeding on Him who was once onely Crucified and Offered for us Secondly That in the Book of common-Common-Prayer the name of Altaâ— the Lord's Board and Table are used indifferently without prescâ—ibing any thing in the Form thereof For as it is called a Table and the Lord's Board in reference to the Lord's Supper which is there Administred so it is called an Altar also in reference to the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanks-giving which is there â—fferâ—d unto God And so the changing the Altars into Tables nâ—t to be any way repugnant to the Rules of the Liturgie The third Reason seems to be no other then an Illustration of the First for taking away the superstitious Opinion out of the Minds of the People touching the Sacrifice of
the Mass which was not to be Celebrated but upon an Altar The Fourth That the Altars were Erected for the Sacrifices of the Law which being now ceased the Form of the Altar was to cease together with them The Fifth That as Christ did Institute the Sacrament of his Body and Blood at a Table and not at an Altar as appeareth by the three Evangelists so it is not to be found that any of the Apostles did ever use an Altar in the Ministration And finally That it is declared in the Preface to the Book of common-Common-Prayer That If any Doubt arise in the Use and Practising of the said Book that then to appease all such Diversity the Matter shall be referred unto the Bishop of the Diocess who by his Discretion shall take Order for the quieting of it The Letter with these Reasons being brought to Ridley there was no time for him to dispute the Commands of the one or to examine the Validity and Strength of the other And thereupon proceeding shortly after to his first Visitation he gave out one Injunction amongst others to this Effect That Those Churches in his Diocess where the Altars do remain should conform themselves unto those other Churches which had taken them down and that instead of the multitude of their Altars they should set up one decent Table in every Church But this being done a question afterwards did arise about the Form of the Lords Board some using it in the Form of a Table and others in the Form of an Altar Which being referred unto the Determination of the Bishop he declared himself in favour of that Posture or Position of it which he conceived most likely to procure an Vniformity in all his Diocess and to be more agreeable to the King 's Godly Proceedings in abolishing divers vain and superstitious Opinions about the Mass out of the Hearts of the People Upon which Declaration or Determination he appointed the Form of a Right Table to be used in his Diocess and caused the Wall standing on the back side of the Altar in the Church of Saint Paul's to be broken down for an Example to the rest And being thus a leading Case to all the rest of the Kingdom it was followed either with a swifter or a slower Pase according as the Bishops in their several Diocesses or the Clergie in their several Parishes stood affected to it No Universal Change of Altars into Tables in all parts of the Realm till the Repealing of the First Liturgie in which the Priest is appointed To stand before the middest of the Altar in the Celebration and the establishing of the Second in which it is required That The Priest shall stand on the North side of the Table had put an end to the Dispute Nor indeed can it be supposed that all which is before affirmed of Bishop Ridley could be done at once or acted in so short a Space as the rest of this year which could not give him time enough to Warn Commence and carry on a Visitation admitting that the Inconveniency of the Season might have been dispensed with And therefore I should rather think that the Bishop having received His Majestie 's Order in the end of November might cause it to be put in Execution in the Churches of London and Issue out his Mandates to the rest of the Bishops and the Arch-Deacons of his own Diocess for doing the like iâ— other Places within the compass of their several and Respective Jurisdictions Which being done as in the way of Preparation his Visitation might proceed in the Spring next following and the whole Business be transacted in Form and Mâ—nner as before laid down And this may be beleived the rather because the changing of Altars into Tables is made by Holinshead a Diligent and Painfull Writer to be the Work of the next year as questionless it needs must be in all Parts of the Realm except London and Westminster and some of the Towns and Villages adjoyning to them But much less can I think that the Altar-wall in Saint Paul's Church was taken down by the Command of Bishop Ridley in the Evening of Saint Barnaby's Day this present year as is affirmed by John Stow. For then it must be done five Moneths before the coming out of the Order from the Lords of the Council Assuredly Bishop Ridley was the Master of too great a Judgment to run before Authority in a Business of such Weight and Moment And he had also a more high Esteem of the Blessed Sacrament then by any such unadvised and precipitate Action to render it less Venerable in the Eyes of the Common People Besides whereas the taking down of the said Altar Wall is said to have been done â—n the first Saint Barnâ—â—y's Day which was kept Holy with the Church that Circumstance is alone sufficient to give some Light to the Mistake The Liturgie whâ—ch appointed Saint Barnaby's Day to be kept for an Holy-Day was to be put in Execution in all parts of the Realm at the Feast of Whitsun-tide 1549 and had actually been Officiated in some Churches for some Weeks before So that the first Saint Barnaby's Day which was to be kept Holy by the Rules of that Liturgie must have been kept in that year also and consequently the taking down oâ— the said Altar-Wall being done â—n the Evening of that day must be supposed to have been done above ten Moneths before Bishop Ridley was Translâ—ted to the See of London Let therefore the keeping Holy of the first Saint Barnaby's Day be placed in the year 1549 the Issuing of the Order from the Lords of the Council in the year 1550 and the taking down of the Altar-Wall on the Evening of Saint Barnaby's Day in the year 1551. And then all Inconveniences and Contradictions will be taken away which otherwise cannot be avoided No change this year amongst the Peers of the Realm or Principal Officers of the Court but in the Death of Thomas Lord Wriothesly the first Earl of South-hampton of that Name aâ—d Family who died at Lincoln-Place in Holâ—born on the thirtieth day of July leaving his Son Henry to succeed him in his Lands and Honours A Man Unfortunate in his Relations to the two Great Persons of that Time deprived of the Great Seal by the Duke of Sommerset and removâ—d from his Place at the Council-Table by the Earl of Warwick having first served the Turns of the one in lifting him into the Saddle and of the other in dismounting him from that High Estate Nor finde I any great Change thiâ— year amongst the Bishops but that Doctour Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rechester was Transloted to the See of London on the twelfth of April and Doctoâ—r John Pâ—ynet Consâ—crated Bishop of Rochester on the twenty sixth of June By which Account he must needs be the first Bishop which received Episcopal Consecration according to the Foâ—m of the English Ordinal as Farrars was the fiâ—st who was advanced
Elizabeth to the See of York as also Doctour Rowland Merick preferred by the same Queen to the See of Bangor though they appeared not visibly in the Information which was made against him In which I finde him charged amongst other things for Celebrating a Marriage without requiring the Married Persons to receive the Communion contrary to the Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-Book for going ordinarily abroad in a Gown and Hat and not in a Square Cap as did the rest of the Clergy for causing a Communion-Table which had been placed by the Official of Caer-marthen in the middle of the Church the High Alltar being then demolished to be carried back into the Chancel and there to be disposed of in or near the place where the Altar stood for suffering many Superstitious Uâ—ages to be retained amongst the people contrary to the Laws in that behalf But chiefly for exercising some Acts of Episcopal Jurisdiction in his own name in derogation of the King's Supremacy and grounding his Commissions for the exercise thereof upon foreign and usurped Authority The Articles fifty six in number but this last as the first in Rank so of more Danger to him then all the reâ—t preferred against him but not prosecuted as long as his great Patron the Duke of Sommerset was in place and Power But he being on the sinking hand and the Bishop too stiff to come to a Compliance with those whom he esteemed beneath him the Suit is followed with more noise and violence then was consistent with the credit of either Party The Duke being dead the four Knights Executed and all his Party in Disgrace a Commission is Issued bearing Date the ninth of March to enquire into the Merit of the Articles which were charged against him On the return whereof he is Indicted of a Prâ—â—munire at the Assizes held in Caer-marthen in the July following committed thereupon to Prison where he remained all the rest of King Edward's time never restored to Liberty till he came to the Stake when all his Sufferings and Sorrows had an end together But this Business hath carried us too far into the next year of this King to the beginning whereof we must now return Anno Regni Edw. Sexti 6o. An. Dom. 1551 1552. WE must begin the sixth year of the King with the fourth Session of Parliament though the beginning of the fourth Session was some days before that is to say on the twenty third day of January being the next day after the Death of that Great Person His Adversaries possibly could not do it sooner and found it very unsafe to defer it longer for fear of being over-ruled in a Parliamentary way by the Lords and Commons There was Summoned also a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury to begin upon the next day after the Parliament Much business done in each as may appear by the Table of the Statutes made in the one and the passing of the Book of Articles as the Work of the other But the Acts of this Convocation were so ill kept that there remains nothing on Record touching their Proceedings except it be the names of such of the Bishops as came thither to Adjourn the House Onely I finde a Memorandum that on the twenty ninth of this present January the Bishoprick of Westminster was dissolved by the King's Letters Patents by which the County of Middlesex which had before been laid unto it was restored unto the See of London made greater then in former times by the Addition of the Arch-Deaconry of St. Alban's which at the dissolution of that Monastery had been laid to Lincoln The Lands of Westminster so dilapidated by Bishop Thirlby that there was almost nothing left to support the Dignity for which good service he had been preferred to the See of Norâ—ich in the year foregoing Most of the Lands invaded by the Great men of the Court the rest laid out for Reparation to the Church of St. Paul pared almost to the very quick in those days of Rapine From hence first came that significant By-word as is said by some of Robbing Peter to pay Paul But this was no Business of that Convocation though remembred in it That which most specially doth concern us in this Convocation is the settling and confirming of the Book of Articles prepared by Arch-Bishop Cranmer with the assistance of such Learned men as he thought fit to call unto him in the year last past and now presented to the consideration of the rest of the Clergy For that they were debated and agreed upon in that Convocation appears by the Title of the Book where they are called Aâ—ticuli de quibus in Synodo Londinensi An. Dom. 1552 c. that is to say Articles Agreed upon in the Synod of London An. 1552. And it may be concluded from that Title also that the Convocation had devolved their Power on some Grand Committee sufficiently Authourised to Debate Conclude and Publish what they had Concluded in the name of the rest For there it is not said as in the Articles Published in Queen Elizabeth's time An. 1562. That they were agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole-Clergy in the Convocation holden at London but that they were agreed upon in the Synod of London by the Bishops and certain other Learned Men inter Episcopos â—lios Eruditos viros as the Latin hath it Which seems to make it plain enough that the debating and concluding of the Articles contained in the said Book was the Work onely of some Bâ—shops and certain other Learned men sufficiently empowered for that end and purpose And being so empowered to that end and purpose the Articles by them concluded and agreed upon may warrantably be affirmed to be the Acts and Products of that Convocation Confirmed and Published for such by the King's Authority as appears further by the Title in due form of Law And so it is resolved by Philpot Arch-Deacon of Winchester in behalf of the Catechism which came â—ut An. 1553. with the Approbation of the said Bishops and Learned men Against which when it was objected by Doctour Weston Prolocutour of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary that the said Catechism was not set forth by the Agreement of that House it was Answered by that Reverend and Learned man That The said House had granâ—ed the Authority to make Ecclesiastical Laws unto certain Persons to be appointed by the King's Majesty and therefore whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws they or the most part of them did set forth according to the Statute in that behalf provided might be well said to be done in the Synod of London And this may also be the Case of the Book of Articles which may be truly and justly said to be the Work of that Convocation though many Members of it never saw the same till the Book was published in regard I still use Philpot's words in the Acts and Mon. Fol.
1282. that they had a Synodal Authority unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as to them seemed to be nâ—câ—ssary or convenient for the use of the Church Had it been otherwise King Edward a most Pious and Religious Prince must needs be looked on as a Wicked and most Lewd Impostour in putting such an horrible Cheat upon all His Subjects by Fathering these Articles on the Convocation which begat them not nor ever gave consent unto them And yet it is not altogether improbable but that these Articles being debated and agreed upon by the said Commitee might also pass the Vote of the whole Convocation though we finde nothing to that purpose in the Acts thereof which either have been lost or were never Registred Besides it is to be observed that the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publick Tenents of the Church in point of Doctrine which certainly She had not done had they been commended to Her by a less Authority then a Convocation Such hand the Convocation had in canvasing the Articles prepared for them and in concluding and agreeing to so much or so many of them as afterwards were published by the King's Authority in the name thereof But whether they had any such hand in Reviewing the Liturgie and passing their Consent to such Alterations as were made therein is another Question That some necessity appeared both for the Reveiwing of the whole and the altering of some Parts thereof hath been shew'd before And it was shewed before by whose Procurement and Sollicitation the Church was brought to that necessity of doing somewhat to that Purpose But being not sufficiently Authorised to proceed upon it because the King 's sole Authority did not seem sufficient they were to stay the Leasure and Consent of the present Parliament For being the Liturgie then in force had been confirmed and imposed by the King in Parliament with the Consent and Assent of the Lords and Commons it stood with Reason that they should not venture actually on the Alteration but by their permission first declared And therefore it is said expresly in the Act of Parliament made this present year That The said Order of Common Service Entituled The Book of common-Common-Prayer had been Perused Explained and made fully perfect not single by the King's Authority but by the King with the Assent of the Lords and Commons More then the giving of their Assent was neither required by the King nor desired by the Prelats and less then this could not be fought as the Case then stood The signifying of which Assent enabled the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy whom they had taken for their Assistants to proceed to the Digesting of such Alterations as were before considered and resolved on amongst themselves and possibly might receive the like Authority from the Convocation as the Articles had though no such thing remaining upon Record in the Registers of it But whether it were so or not certain it is that it received as much Authority and Countenance as could be given unto it by an Act of Parliament by which imposed upon the Subject under certain Penalties Imprisonments Pecuniarie Mulcts c. which could not be inflicted on them by Synodical Acts. The Liturgie being thus Settled and Confirmed in Parliament was by the King's Command translated into French for the Use of the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and such as lived within the Marches and Command of Calais But no such Care was taken for Wales till the fifth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth nor of the Realm of Ireland from that time to this King Henry had so far prepared the Way to a Reformation as His own Power and Profit was concerned in it to which Ends he excluded the Pope's Authority and caused Himself to be declared Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of Ireland by Act of Parliament And by like Acts he had annexed to the Crown the Lands of all Monasteries and Religious Orders together with thetwentieth Part of all the Ecclesiastical Promotions within that Kingdom and caused the like Course to be settled for the Electing and Consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops as had been done before in England Beyond which as he did not go so as it seems King Edward's Council thought not fit to adventure further They held it not agreeable to the Rules of Prudence to have too many Irons in the Fire at once nor safe in Point of Policy to try Conclusions on a People in the King's Minority which were so far tenacionsly addicted to the Superstitions of the Church of Rome and of a Nature not so tractable as the English were And yet that Realm was quiet even to Admiration notwithstanding the frequent Embroilments and Commotions which so miserably disturbed the Peace of England which may be reckoned for one of the greatest Felicities of this King's Reign and a strong Argument of the Care and Vigilancy of such of His Ministers as had the chief Direction of the Irish Affairs At the first Payment of the Money for the Sale rather then the Surrendry of Bulloign eight thousand pounds was set apart for the Service of Ireland and shortly after out of the Profits which were raised from the Mint four hundred men were Levied and sent over thither also with a Charge given to the Governours that the Laws of England should be Carefully and Duly administred and all such as did oppose suppressed by Means whereof great Countenance was given to those who embraced the Reformed Religion there especially within those Counties which are called commonly by the name of the English Pale The Common-Prayer-Book of England being brought over thither and used in most of the Churches of the English Plantation without any Law in their own Parliaments to impose it on them But nothing more conduced to the Peace of that Kingdom then that the Governours for the most part were men of such Choice that neither the Nobility disdained to endure their Commands nor the inferiour sort were oppressed to supply their Wants Besides which as the King drew many men from thence to serve him in his Wars against France and Scotland which otherwise might have disturbed the common Peace so upon notice of some great Preparations which were made in France for the Assistance of the Scots he sent over to guard the Coast of Ireland four Ships four Barks four Pinnaces and twelve Victuallers By the Advantage of which Strength He made good three Havens two on the South-side toward France and one toward Scotland which afterwards made themselves good Booties out of such of the French as were either cast away on the Coast of Ireland or forced to save themselves in the Havens of it For the French making choice rather of their Passage by Saint George's Chanel then by the ordinary Course of Navigation from France to Edenborough fell from one Danger to another and for fear of being
Christians should cease from all other kinde of Labours and apply themselves onely and wholely unto such Holy Works as properly pertain to True Religion that the said Holy Works to be performed upon those Days are more particularly to hear to learn and to remember Almighty God's great Benefits his manifold Mercies his inestimable Gracious Goodness so plentifully poured upon all his Creatures rendring unto him for the same our most hearty thanks That the said Days and Times are neither to be called or accounted Holy neither in the Nature of the time or day nor for any of the Saints sakes whose Memories are preserved by them but for the Nature and Condition of those Godly and Holy Works with which onely God is to be Honoured and the Congregation to be Edified That the Sanctifying of the said Days consisteth in separating them apart from all prophane uses and Dedicated not to any Saint or Creature but onely to the Worship of God That there is no certain time nor definite number of days appointed by Holy Scripture but that the appointment of the time as also of the days is left to the Liberty of Christ His Church by the Word of God That the days which from thenceforth were to be kept as Holy days in the Church of England should be all Sundays in the Year the Feast of the Circumcision the Epiphany the Purification of the Blessed Virgin c. with all the rest recited at the end of the Calender in the publick Liturgy That the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. shall have Authority to punish the Offenders in all or any of the Premisses by the usual censures of the Church and to impose such penance on them as to them or any of them shall seem expedient and finally that notwithstanding any thing before declared it shall and may be lawfull for any Husbandman Labourer Fisherman c. to labour ride fish or work any kind of work on the foresaid Holy days not onely in the time of Harvest but at any other time of the year when need shall require with a Proviso for the Celebrating of St. Georg's Feast on the two and twenty three and twenty and four and twentieth Days of April yearly by the Knights of the Right Honourable Order of the Garter or by any of them Which Declaration as it is agreeable in all points to the Tenour of approved Antiquity so can there nothing be more contrary to the Doctrine of the Sabbatarians Which of late time hath been Obtruded on the Church Then for the number of the Fasts It is Declared that from that time forwards every Even or Day going before any of the aforesaid Days of the Feasts of the Nativity of Our Lord of Easter of the Ascension of our Lord Pentecost of the Purification and the Annunciation of the aforesaid Blessed Virgin of All-Saints of all the said Feasts of the Apostles other then of St. John the Evangelist and of St. Philip and Jacob shall be fasted and Commanded to be kept and observed and that none other Even or Day shall be Commanded to be Fasted For Explication of which last Clause it is after added that the said Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend to abrogate or take away the Abstinence from Flesh in Lent or on Fridays and Saturdays or any other appointed pointed to be kept for a Fasting-Day but onely on the Evens of such other Days as formerly had been kept and observed for Holy and were now abrogated by this Act. And for the better suppressing or preventing of any such Fasts as might be kept upon the Sunday it was Enacted in the same according to the Practice of the Elder Times that when it shall chance any the said Feasts the Eves whereof are by this Statute to be kept for Fasting-Days to fall upon the Munday that then the Saturday next before shall be Fasted as the Eve thereof and not the Sunday Which Statute though repealed in the first of Queen Mary and not revived till the first year of the Reign of King James yet in Effect it stood in Force and was more punctually observed in the whole time of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign then after the Reviver of it Such course being taken for the due observing of Days and Times the next care was that Consecrated Places should not be Prophaned by Fighting and Quarrelling as they had been lately since the Episcopal Jurisdiction and the Ancient Censures of the Church were lessened in Authority and Reputation And to that end it was Enacted in this present Parliament that if any Persons whatsoever after the first day of May then next following should quarrel chide or brawl in any Church or Church-yard he should be suspended ab ingressu Ecclesiae if he were a Lay-man and from his Ministration if he were a Priest that if any Person after the said time should smite or lay violent hands upon another he should be deemed to be Excommunicate ipso facto and be excluded from the Fellowship and Company of Christ's Congregation and finally that if any Person should strike another with any weapon in the Church or Church-yard or draw his sword with an intent to strike another with the same and thereof be lawfull convicted he should be punished with the loss of one of his Ears c. A seasonable severity and much conducing to the Honour both of Church and State There were some Statutes also made for taking away the benefit of Clergy in some certain Cases for making such as formerly had been of any Religious Order to be Heritable to the Lands of their Ancestours or next of Kindred to whom they were to have been Heirs by the Common Law for Confirming the Marriages of Priests and giving them their â—ives and Children the like Capacities as other Subjects did enjoy whereof we have already spoke in another place There also passed another Act that no Person by any means should lend or forbear any Sum of Mony for any manner of Vsury or encrease to be received or hoped for above the sum lent upon pain to forâ—eit the sum so lent and the encrease and to suffer imprisonment and make fine at the King's pleasure But this Act being found to be prejudicial to the â—rade of the Kingdom first discontinued of it self and was afterwards repealed in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth This Parliament ending on the fifteenth of April gave time enough for Printing and Publishing the Book of common-Common-Prayer which had been therein Authorised the time for the Officiating of it being fixed on the Feast of All-Saints then next ensuing Which time being come there appeared no small Alteration in the outward Solemnities of Divine Service to which the people had been formerly so long accustomed For by the Râ—brick of that Book no Copes or other Vestures were required but the Surplice onely whereby the Bishops were necessitated to forbear their Crosses and the Prebends of St. Paul's and other Churches occasioned to leave off their
Hoods To give a beginning hereunto Bishop Ridley then Bishop of London obediently conforming unto that which he could not hinder did the same day Officiate the Divine Service of the Morning in his Rochet onely without Cope or Vestment he Preached also at St. Paul's Cross in the afternoon the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Companies in their best Liveries being present at it the Sermon tending for the most part to the setting forth of the said Book of common-Common-Prayer and to acquaint them with the Reason of such Alterations as were made therein On the same day the New Liturgie was executed also in all the Churches of London And not long after I know not by what strange forwardness in them that did it the Upper Quire in St. Paul's Church where the High-Altar stood was broken down and all the Quiâ—e thereabout and the Communion-Table was placed in the Lower Part of the Quiâ—e where the Priest sang the Dayly Service What hereupon ensued of the Rich Ornaments and Plate wherewith every Church was furnished after its proportion we shall see shortly when the King's Commissioners shall be sent abroad to seise upon them in His Name for their own Commodity About this time the Psalms of David did first begin to be Composed in English Meeter by one Thomas Sternhold one of the Grooms of the Privy-Chamber who Translating no more then thirty seven left both Example and Encouragement to John Hopkins and others to dispatch the rest A Device first taken up in France by one Clement Marot one of the Grooms of the Bed-Chamber to King Francis the First who being much addicted to Poetry and having some acquaintance with those which were thought to have enclined to the Reformation was perswaded by the Learned Vatablus Professour of the Hebrew Tongue in the University of Paris to exercise his Poetical Fancies in Translating some of David's Psalms For whose satisfaction and his own he Translated the first fifty of them and after flying to Geneva grew acquainted with Beza who in some tract of time Translated the other hundred also and caused them to be fitted unto several Tunes which â— hereupon began to be Sung in private houses and by degrees to be taken up in all the Churches of the French and other Nations which followed the Genevian Plat-form Marot's Translation said by Strada to have been ignorantly and perversely done as being but the Work of a man altogether unlearned but not to be compared with that Barbarity and Botching which every where occurreth in the Translation of Sternhold and Hopkins Which notwithstanding being first allowed for private Devotion they were by little and little brought into the use of the Church Permitted rather then Allowed to be Sung before and after Sermons afterwards Printed and bound up with the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book and at last added by the Stationers at the end of the Bible For though it be expressed in the Title of those Singing Psalms that they were set forth and allowed to be Sung in all Churches before and after Morning and Evening Prayer and also before and after Sermons yet this Allowance seems rather to have been a Connivance then an Approbation No such Allowance being any where found by such as have been most Industrious and concerned in the search thereof At first it was pretended onely that the said Psalms should be Sung before and after Morning and Evening Prayer and also before and after Sermons which shews they were not to be intermingled in the Publick Liturgie But in some tract of time as the Puritan Faction grew in strength and confidence they prevailed so far in most places to thrust the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis quite out of the Church But of this more perhaps hereafter when we shall come to the Discovery of the Puritan Practices in the Times succeeding Next to the business of Religion that which took up a great part of the Publick Care was the Founding and Establishing of the new Hospital in the late dissolved House of Grey-Friers near New-gate in the City of London and that of St. Thomas in the Borough of Soâ—thwark Concerning which we are to know that the Church belonging to the said House together with the Cloysters and almost all the Publick Building which stood within the Liberties and Precincts thereof had the good Fortune to escape that Ruin which Generally befell all other Houses of that Nature And standing undemolished till the last Times of King Henry it was given by him not many days before His Death to the City of London together with the late dissolved Priory called Little St. Bartholomew's which at the Suppression thereof was valued at 305. pounds 6. s. 7. d. In which Donation there was Reference had to a Double End The one for the Relieving of the Poor out of the Rents of such Messuages and Tenements as in the Grant thereof are contained and specified The other for Constituting a Parish-Church in the Church of the said dissolved Grey-Friers not onely for the use of such as lived within the Precincts of the said two Houses but for the Inhabitants of the Parishes of Saint Nicholas in the Shambles and of Saint Ewines scituate in Warwick-Lane-end near New-gate Market Which Churches with all the Rents and Profits belonging to them were given to the City at the same time also and for advancing the same ends together with five hundred Marks by the year for ever the Church of the Grey-Friers to be from thenceforth called Christ-Church Founded by King Henry the Eighth All which was signified to the City in a Sermon Preached at Saint Paul's Cross by the Bishop of Rochester on the thirteenth of January being no more then a Fortnight before the death of the King so that He wanted not the Prayers of the Poor at the Time of His Death to serve as a Counter-Ballance for those many Curses which the poor Monks and Friers had bestowed upon Him in the Time of His Life In pursuance of this double Design the Church of the said Friers which had before served as a Magazine or Store-house for such French-Wines as had been taken by Reprise was cleansed and made fit for Holy uses and Mass again sang in it on the thirteenth day of January before remembred resorted to by such Parishioners as were appointed to it by the King's Donation After which followed in the first years of King Edward the Sixth the taking down of the said two Churches and building several Tenements on the Ground of the Churches and Church-Yards the Rents thereof to be imployed for the further maintenance and Relief of the poor living and loytering in and about the City to the great Dishonour of the same But neither the first Grant of the King nor these new Additions being able to carry on the work to the end desired it happened that Bishop Ridley preaching before the King did much insist upon the settling of of some constant course for Relief of the Poor Which
Sermon wrought so far upon Him that He caused the Bishop to be sent for gave him great Thanks for his good Exhortation and thereupon entred into Communication with him about the devising of some Coâ—rse by which so great and good a Work should be brought to pass His Advice was That Letters should be written to the Lord Mayour and Aldermen for taking the Business into Consideration in Reference to such Poor as swarmed in great numbers about the City To which the King so readily hearkened that the Letters were dispatched and Signed before He would permit the Bishop to go out of His Presence Furnished with these Letters and Instructions the Bishop calls before him Sir Richard Dobbs then Lord Mayour of London with so many Aldermen as were thought fit to be advised with in the present Business By whom it was agreed upon That a General Contribution should be made by all wealthy and well-affected Citizens towards the Advancement of a work so necessary for the publick good For the effecting whereof they were all called to their Parish-Churches where by the said Lord Mayour their several Aldermen and other grave Citizens they were by Eloquent Orations perswaded how great and how many Commodities would ensue unto them and their City if the Poor of divers sorts were taken from out their Streets Lanes and Allyes and were bestowed and provided for in several Hospitals It was therefore moved that every man would signifie what they would grant towards the preparing and furnishing of such Hospitals as also what they would contribute weekly towards their Maintenance untill they were furnished with a more Liberal Endowment Which Course prevailed so far upon them that every man subscribed according to his Ability and Books were drawn in every Ward of the City containing the Sum of that Relief which they had contributed Which being delivered unto the Mayour were by Him humbly tendred to the King's Commissioners on the seventeenth of February This good Foundation being lai'd a Beginning was put to the Reparation of the decayed Buildings in the Gray-Friers on the twenty sixth of July for the Reception of such poor fatherless Children as were then to be provided for at the publick Charge The like Reparation also made of the Ruinous Buildings belonging to the late dissolved Priory of Saint Thomas in the Burough of Southwark which the Citizens had then newly bought of the King to serve for an Hospital of such Wounded Sick and Impotent Persons as were not fit to be intermingled with the Sound The Work so diligently followed in both places at once that on the twenty third of November the sick and maimed People were taken into the Hospital of Saint Thomas and into Christ-Hospital to the number of four hundred Children all of them to have Meat Drink Lodging and Cloths at the Charge of the City till other means could be provided for their future Maintainance And long it was not before such further Means was provided for them by the Bounty and Piety of the King then drawing as near unto his End as his Father was when he lai'd the first Foundation of that Pious Work For â—earing with what chearfulness the Lord Major and Aldermen had conformed themselves to the effect of His former Letters and what a great advance they had made in the Work commanded them to attend Him on the tenth of April gave them great thanks for their Zeal and forwardness and gave for ever to the City his Palace of Bridewel erected by King Henry the Eight to be employed as a relieving house for such Vagabounds and thriftless Poor as should be sent thither to receive Chastisement and be forced to labour For the better maintainance whereof and the more liberal Endowment of the other Hospitals before remembred it was suggested to him that the Hospital founded in the Savoy by King Henry the seventh for the Relief of Pilgrims and Travellers was lately made the Harbour or relieving Place for Loytereâ—s Vagabonds and Strumpets who sunned themselves in the Fields all Day and at Night found entertainment there The Master and Brethren of the House are thereupon sent for to the King who dealt so powerfully and effectually with them that they resigned the same into His Hands with all the Lands and Goods thereunto belonging Out of which He presently bestowed the Yearly Rent of Seven Hundred Marks with all the Beds Bedding and other Furniture which he found therein towards the maintainance of the said Work-House and the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark The Grant whereof He confirmed by His Letters Patents bearing Date the 26th of June adding thereunto a Mort-Main for enabling the City to purchase Lands to the value of four thousand Marks per annum for the better maintainance of those and the other Hospitals So that by the Donation of Bridewel which He never built and the suppression of the Hospital in the Savoy which He never endowed He was entituled to the Foundation of Bridewel St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas without any charge unto himself But these last Passages concerning the Donation of Bridewel the suppression of the Hospital in the Savoy and the Endowment of the said three Houses with the Lands thereof hapned not till the year ensuing Anno 1553. though lai'd unto the rest in the present Narrative in regard of the Dependence which it hath on the former Story Nothing else memorable in the course of this present Year but the coming of Cardanus the death of Leland and the preferment of Doctor John Taylor to the See of Lincoln The See made void by the death of Doctor Henry Holbeach about the beginning of August in the former year and kept void by some powerful men about the King till the 26th of June in the year now present At what time the said Doctour Taylor who before had been Dean of that Church was Consecrated Bishop of it During which interval the Patrimony of that great and wealthy Bishoprick one of the richest in the Kingdom was so dismembred in it self so parcelled and marked out for a Prey to others that when the New Bishop was to be restored unto his Temporals under the Great Seal of England as the Custom is there was none of all his Maours reserved for him but his Manour of Bugden together with some Farms and Impropriations toward the support of his Estate The rest was to be raised out of the profits perquisits and emoluments of his Jurisdict â— on yet so that nothing was to be abated in his Tenths and first-fruits which were kept up according to the former value As for John Leland for whose death I finde this year assigned he had his Education in Christ's Colledg in Cambridg Being a man of great parts and indefatigable industry he was imployed by King Henry the Eight to search into the Libraries and Collect the Antiquities of Religious Houses at such time as they lay under the fear of suppression Which work as he performed with more
Injunctions Anno 1559. Not giving such a general satisfaction to that groundless cavil as was expected and intended the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation of the year 1562. by the Queens authority and consent declared more plainly that is to say That they gave not to their Princess by vertue of the said Act or otherwise either the ministring of Gods word or Sacraments but that only Prerogâ—tive which they saw to have been given alwaies to all godly Princes in holy Scripture by God himself that is to say that they should 〈◊〉 all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborne and evil doers By all which if the cavils of the Adversary be not fully answered it would be known upon what reason they should question that in a soverain Queen which they allow in many cases to a Lady Abbess For that an Abbess may be capable of all and all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction even to the dâ—nouncing of that dreadful sentence of Excommunication and that thâ—y may lawfully exercise the same upon all such as live within the verge of their authority is commonly acknowledged by their greatest Canonists First for suspension it is affirmed by their Glosse that an Abbess may suspend such Clerks as are subject to her both from their Benefice and Office And questionless either to suspend a Clerk or to bring his Church under the sentence of an Interdict is one of the chief parts of Ecclesiastical or spiritual Censures Nor have they this authority only by way of delegation from the Pope in some certain cases as is affirmed by Aquinas Durandus ' Sylvâ—ster Dominicus Soto and many other of their Schoolmen but in an ordinary way as properly and personally invested them which is the general opinion of their greatest Canonists Next for the Sacraments it is sufficiently known that the ministration of Baptism is performed by Midwives and many other women as of common course not only as a thing connived at in extreme necessity but as a necessary duty in which they are to be instructed against all emergencies by their Parish Priests for which we have the testimony of the late Lord Legate in the Articles published by him for his visitation And finally for excommunication it is affirmed by Palladanus and Navarre none of the meanest in the Pack that the Pope may grant that power to a woman also higher than which there can be none exercised in the Church by the sons of men And if a Pope may grant these powers unto a woman as to a Prioress or Abbess or to any other there can be then no incapacity in the Sex for exersing any part of that jurisdiction which was restored unto the Crown by this Act of Parliament And if perhaps it be objected that a Lady Abbess is an Ecclesiastical or spiritual person in regard of her office which cannot be affirmed of Queens Pope Gregory himself will come in to help us by whom it was not thought unfit to commit the cognisance of a cause concerning the purgation of a Bishop who stood charged with some grievous crime to Brunichildis or Brunholi Queen of France of which although the Gloss upon the Decretals be pleased to say That the Pope stretched his power too far in this particular yet Gregory did no more therein but what the Popes may do and have done of late times by their own confession so little ground there is for so great a clamour as hath been made by Bellarmine and other of the Popish Jesuites upon this occasion Now for the better exercising and enjoying of the jurisdiction thus recognised unto the Crown there are two Clauses in the Act of great importance the first whereof contains an Oath for the acknowledgment and defence of this Supremacy not onely in the Queen but her heirs and successors the said Oath to be taken by all Archbishops Bishops and all other Ecclesiastical persons and also by all temporal Judges Justiciaries Mayors or any other temporal Officers c. For the refusal whereof when lawfully tendred to them by such as were thereto commissionated under the great Seal of England every such person so refusing was actually to stand deprived of his or their Eâ—clesiastical Preferments or other temporal office of what sort soever onely it was provided that the Oath should not be imposed on any of the temporal Peers of whose fidelity the Queen seemed willing to assure her self without any such tye though this exemption was esteemed by others but a piece of cunning the better to facilitate the passing of that Act amongst them which otherwise they might have hindred But this provision was not made till the following Parliament though for the reason before mentioned it was promised now By the last Clause it was enacted That it should and might be lawful to the Queen her heirs and Successors by Letters Patents under the great Seal of England to assigne name and authorise when and as often as her Highness her Heirs or Successors should think convenient such persons being natural born Subjects to them to exercise use and occupie under her Highness her Heirs and Successors all manner of Jurisdictions Privileges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within the Realms of England and Ireland or any other her Highness Dominions or Countries and to visit reform repress order correct and amend all such errors heresies schisms abuses offences contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction or can or may lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and conservation of the peace and unity of this Realm With a Proviso notwithstanding that nothing should from thenceforth be accounted for Heresie but what was so adjudged in the holy Scripture or in one of the four first General Councils or in any other National or Provincial Council determining according to the word of God or finally which should be so adjudged in the time to come by the Court of Parliament first having the assent of the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation This was the first foundation of that famous Court of High Commission the principal Bulwark and Preservative of the Church of England against the practices and assaults of all her Adversaries whether Popish or Puritan And from hence issued that Commission by which the Queens Ministers proceeded in their Visitation in the first year of her Reign for rectifying all such things as they found amiss and could not be redressed by any ordinary Episcopal power without the spending of more time than the exigencies of the Church could then admit of There also past another Act for recommending and imposing the Book of common-Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments according to such alterations and corrections as were made therein by those
required subscription of the rest in their several places threatning no less than deprivation to such as wilfully refused and obstinately persisted in that refusal Many there were whoâ— bogled at it as they all did but did it not so perversely nor in such great numbers as when their faction was grown strong and improved to multitudes Some stumbled at it in regard of the first clause added to the 20th Article about the Authority of the Church others in reference to the 36th touching the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops some thought they attributed more authority to the Supream Magistrate over all persons and causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil than could consist with that Autocratie and Independency which Calvin arrogated unto his Presbyteries and other Churches of that platform And others looked upon the Homil es as beggarly rudiments scarce milk for Babes but by no means to be served in for a stronger stomach In general thought by the Genevians and Zuinglian Gospellers to have too much in them of the Pope or too little of Calvin and therefore not to be subscribed by any who desired the reputation of keeping a good conscience with faith unfeigned Of which number none so much remarkable as father John Fox the Marâ—yrologist who had before appeared in the Schism at Franckfort and left that Church when Cox had got the better in it to retire to Geneva being now called on to subscribe that the opinion which was had of his parts and piety might advance the service he is said to have appeared before the Bishop but whether before the Archbishop or his own Diocesan is not much material with the New-Testament in Greek To this said he I will subscribe and it this will not serve take my Prebend of Salisbury the onely preferment which I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you This refractory answer for it was no better might well have moved the Bishop to proceed against him as he did against some others who had stood on the same refusal but kissing goes by kindness as the saying is and so much kindness was shewed to him that he both kept his resolution and his place together which whether it might not do more hurt to the Church than that preferment in the Church did advantage him I think no wise man will make a question for commonly the exemption or indemnity of some few particulars confirms the obstinacy of the rest in hope of being privileged with the like indemnity And therefore it was well observed by Bishop Bancroft when King James proposed the writing of a Letter to the Bishop of Chester for respiting some Ministers of his Diocess from a present conformity That if this purpose should proceed the copy of those Letters would fly over the Kingdom and then others would make the same request for some friends of theirs and so no fruit would follow of the present Conference but that all things would be worse than before they were But Queen Elizabeth was not drawn so easily to the like indulgencies for which she received her own just praises from the Pen of an Adversary Harding by name in his Epistle Dedicatory prefixed before his Answer to the Bishops Apology commends her earnest zeal and travail in bringing those disordered Ministers into some order of decent apparel which yet some of them wanted reason to apply themselves to And Sanders who seldom speaks well of her first informs his Reader What bickerings there were in England about the Rochet and other Vestments of the Clergy that many of the opposite party regarded not the Queens judgment in it but sent for counsel and advice to Germany France Savoy and Switzerland but specially to Theodore Beza and Peter Martyr but finally that notwithstanding the advice of the one and the addresses of the other the Queen proceeded vigorously to the deprivation of all such persons as wilfully opposed her order made in that behalf It seems by this that our Genevians for the greater countenancing of their inconformity had stirred up the most eminent Divines of the Gallick and Helvetian Churches to declare in favour of their doings And it appears also by remembrances in some Authors that Calvin apprehending some neglect from Mr. Secretary Cecil in making either no return or a return which signified nothing to his first addresses had laid aside his care of the Church of England for which he could expect no thanks from the Bishops or had received so little from the greaâ— men of the Court But Peter Martyr while he lived conceived himself to have some interess in this Church in which he had enjoyed such a good preferment but more in some particular persons and members of it who seemed to depend upon his judgment and to ask counsel of him as their surest Oracle In which how much he countenanced that faction in King Edward's time both by his practice and his pen and what encouragement he gave them in this present Reign hath been shewn before how much out-gone by Theodore Beza who next usurped a super-intendency over all the Churches of this Island may be seen hereafter All that shall now be said of either of them or of all together shall be briefly this that this poor Church might better have counted their best helps in points of Doctrine than have been troubled with their intermedlings in matter of Discipline More modestly then so dealt Bullinger and Gualter two Divines of Suitzerland as eminent in all points of learning as the best amongst them who being sollicited by some some zealous brethren to signifie their judgment in the present controversie about the Aparel of the Clergy return an approbation of it but send the same inclosed in several Letters to Sandys Horn and Gryndal that they might see that neither of them would engage in the affairs of this Church without the privity of the Governors and Rulers of it To bring this quarel to an end or otherwise to render all opponents the more inexcusable the Queen thought fit to make a further signification of her Royall pleasure not grounded onely on the Soveraign Power and Prerogative Royal by which she published her Injunctions in the first year of her Reign but legally declared by her Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical according to the Acts and Statutes made in that behalf for then it was to be presumed that such as had denyed obedience to her sole commands would at least give it to the Laws The Archbishop is thereupon required to consult together with such Bishops and Commissioners as were next at hand upon the making of such Rules and Orders as they thought necessary for the peace of the Church with reference to the present condition and estate thereof Which being accordingly performed presented to the Queen and by her approved the said Rules and Orders were set forth and published in a certain book entituled Advertisements partly for due order in the publick Administration of the common-Common-Prayers and using the
till the end of that Parliament the interval between the end of the Parliament the deprivation of the old Bishops and the consecration of the new was to be taken up in the executing of such surveys and making such advantages of them as most redoâ—nded to the profit of the Queen and her Courtiers Upon whiâ—h ground as all the Bishops Sees were so long kept vacant before any one of them was filled so in the following times they were kept void one after another as occasion served till the best Flowers in the whole Garden of the Church had been câ—lled out of it There was another Clause in the said Statutes by which the patrimony of the Church was as much dilapidaâ—ed sede plena as it was pulled by this in the times of vacancy for by that Clause all Bishops were restrained from making any Grants of their Farms and Mannors for more than twenty one years or three lives at the most except it were unto the Queen her Heirs and Successors But either to the Queen or to any of her Heirs and Successors and under that pretence to any her hungry Courtiers they might be granted in Fee farm or for a Lease of fourscore and nineteen years as it pleased the Parties By which means Credinton was dismembered from the See of Exon the goodly mannor of Sherborn from that of Salâ—sbury many fair mannors alienated for ever from the rich Sees of Winchester Elie and indeed what not But to proceed unto the Consecration of the new Archbishop the first thing to be done after the passing of the Royal Assent for ratifying of the election of the Dean and Chapter was the confirming of it in the Court of the Arches according to the usual form in that behalf Which being accordingly performed the Vicar General the Dean of the Arches the Proctors and Officers of the Court whose presence was required at this Solemnity were enteâ—tained at a dinner provided for them at the Nags head Tavern in Cheapside for which though Parker paid the shot yet shall the Church be called to an after reâ—koning Nothing remains to expedite the Consecration but the Royal Mandat which I find dated on the sixth of December directed to Anthony Ktâ—ching Bishop of Landaff William Barlow late Bishop of Bath and Wells Lord Elect of Chichester John Scory late Bishop of Chichester Lord Elect of Hereford Miles Coverdale late Bishop of Exeter John Hodgskins Suffragan of Bedford John Suffragan of Thetford and John Bale Bishop of Osserâ—â— in the Realm of Ireland requiring them or any of them at the least to proceed unto the consecration of the right reverend Matthew Parker lately elected to the Metropolitical See of Canterbury The first and the two last either hindred by sickness or by some other lawfull impediment were not in a condition to attend the service whiâ—h notwithstanding was performed by the other four on Sunday the seventeenth of that Month according to the Ordinal of King Edward the sixth then newly printed for that purpose the Ceremony performed in the Chapel at Lambeth house the East end whereof was hanged with rich Tapestry and the floor covered with red cloth the Morning Service read by Pearson the Archbishops Chaplain the Sermon preached by Doctor Scâ—â—y Lord Elect of Hereford on those words of St. Peter The Elders which are among you â— exhort c. 1 Pet. 5. 1. The Letters Parents for proceeding to the Consecration publickly read by Doctor Dale the Act of Consecration legally performed by the imposition of the hands of the said four Bishops according to the antient Canons and King Edward's Ordinal and after all a plentiful dinner for the entertainment of the company which resorted thither amongst whom Charls Howard eldest son of William Lord Effingham created afterwards Lord Admiral and Earl of Notingham hapned to be one and after testified to the truth of all these particulars when the reality and form of this Consecration was called in question by some captious sticklers for the Church of Rome For so it was that some sticklers for the Church of Rome having been told of the dinner which was made at the Nags head Tavern at such time as the election of the new Archbishop was confirmed in the Arches raised a report that the Nags head Tavern was the place of the Consecration And this report was countenanced by another slander causing it to be noised abroad and published in some seditious Pamphlets that the persons designed by the Queen for the several Bishopricks being met at a Tavern did then and there lay hands upon one another without Form or Order The first calumny fathered on one Keale once Hebrew Reader in the University of Oxford and Chaplain unto Bishop Bonner which last relation were sufficient to discredit the whole tale if there were no other evidence to disprove the same And yet the silence of all Popish Writers concerning this Nags head-Consecration during the whole Reign of Queen Elizabeth when it had been most material for them to insist upon it as much discrediteth the whole figment as the Author of it The other published by Dr. Nicholas Sanders never more truly Dr. Sâ—anders than in that particular in his pestilent and seditious Book Entituled De Schismate Anglicano whose frequent falshoods make him no fit Author to be built upon in any matter of importance Yet on the credit of these two but on the first especially thâ— Tale of the Nags-head-Consecration being once taken up was generally exposed to sale as one of the most vendible commodities in the writings of some Romish Pâ—iests and Jesuits as Champney's Fitzsimons Parson Kellison c. They knew right well that nothing did more justifie the Church of England in the eye of the world than that it did preserve a succession of Bishops and consequently of all other sacred Orders in the ministration Without which as they would not grant it to be a Church so could they prove it to be none by no stronger Argument than that the Bishops or the pretended Bishops rather in their opinion were either not consecrate at all or not canonically consecrated as they ought to be And for the gaining of this point they stood most pertinaâ—iously on the fiction of the Nags-head Tavern which if it could be proved or at least believed there was an end of the Episcopal succession in the Church of England and consequently also of the Church it self For the decrying of this clamour and satisfying all opponents in the truth of the matter it was thought fit by Dr. George Abbot then Archbishop of Canterbury to call before him some of the Priests and Jesuits that is to say Fairecloth Leake Laithwaite and Collins being then prisoners in the Clinck Who being brought to Lambeth on the 12th of May 1613. were suffered in the presence of divers Bishops to peruse the publick Registers and thereby to satisfie themselves in all particulars concerning the Confirmation and Consecration of Archbishop Parker according to the