to that See vacant as his Patent has it by the free resignation of William the former Bishop And the same day being the first of April Ridley was made Bishop of London and Westminster Both were according to the common Form to be Bishops durante vita naturali during Life Proceedings against Gardiner The See of Winchester had been two years as good as vacant by the long imprisonment of Gardiner who had been now above two years in the Tower When the Book of common-Common-Prayer was set out the Lord St. John and Secretary Petre were sent with it to him to know of him whether he would conform himself to it or not and they gave him great hopes that if he would submit the Protector would sue to the King for mercy to him He answered That he did not know himself guilty of any thing that needed mercy so he desired to be tried for what had been objected to him according to Law For the Book he did not think that while he was a Prisoner he was bound to give his Opinion about such things it might be thought he did it against his Conscience to obtain his liberty but if he were out of Prison he should either obey it or be liable to punishment according to Law Upon the Duke of Somersets Fall the Lord Treasurer the Earl of Warwick Sir William Herbert and Secretary Petre were sent to him Fox says this was on the 9th of July but there must be an error in that for Gardiner in his Answer says That upon the Duke of Somersets coming to the Tower he looked to have been let out within two days and had made his farewel Feast but when these were with him a Month or thereabout had passed so it must have been in November the former year They brought him a Paper to which they desired he would set his Hand It contained first a Preface which was an acknowledgment of former faults for which he had been justly punished There were also divers Articles contained in it Some Articles are sent to him which were touching the Kings Supremacy his Power of appointing or dispencing with Holy-days and Fasts that the Book of common-Common-Prayer set out by the King and Parliament was a most Christian and Godly Book to be allowed of by all Bishops and Pastors in England and that he should both in Sermons and Discourses commend it to be observed that the Kings Power was compleat now when under Age and that all owed Obedience to him now as much as if he were thirty or forty years old that the six Articles were justly abrogated and that the King had full Authority to correct and reform what was amiss in the Church both in England and Ireland He only excepted to the Preface and offered to Sign all the Articles but would have had the Preface left out They bid him rather write on the Margent his Exceptions to it so he writ that he could not with a good Conscience agree to the Preface and with that Exception he set his Hand to the whole Paper The Lords used him with great kindness Which he Signed with some Exceptions and gave him hope that his troubles should be quickly ended Herbert and Petre came to him some time after that but how soon is not so clear and pressed him to make the acknowledgment without exception he refused it and said he would never defame himself for when he had done it he was not sure but it might be made use of against him as a Confession Two or three days after that Ridley was sent to him together with the other two and they brought him new Articles In this Paper the acknowledgment was more general than in the former It was said here in the Preface that he had been suspected of not approving the Kings Proceedings and being appointed to preach had not done it as he ought to have done and so deserved the Kings displeasure for which he was sorry The Articles related to the Popes Supremacy New Articles sent to him the suppression of Abbies and Chantries Pilgrimages Masses Images the adoring the Sacrament the Communion in both kinds the abolishing the old Books and bringing in the new Book of Service and that for ordaining of Priests and Bishops the compleatness of the Scripture and the use of it in the Vulgar Tongue the lawfulness of Clergy-mens Marriage and to Erasmus's Paraphrase that it had been on good considerations ordered to be set up in Churches He read all these and said he desired first to be discharged of his imprisonment and then he would freely answer them all so as to stand by it and suffer if he did amiss but he would trouble himself with no more Articles while he remained in Prison since he desired not to be delivered out of his troubles in the way of Mercy but of Justice After that he was brought before the Council and the Lords told him they sate by a special Commission to judge him and so required him to subscribe the Articles that had been sent to him He prayed them earnestly to put him to a Trial for the grounds of his Imprisonment and when that was over he would clearly answer them in all other things but he did not think he could subscribe all the Articles after one sort some of them being about Laws already made which he could not qualifie others of them being matters of Learning in which he might use more freedom In conclusion he desired leave to take them with him and he would consider how to answer them But they required him to subscribe them all without any qualification But he refusing to Sign them which he refused to do Upon this the Fruits of his Bishoprick were sequestred and he was required to conform himself to their Orders within three Months upon pain of deprivation and the liberty he had of walking in some open Galleries Was hardly used when the Duke of Norfolk was not in them was taken from him and he was again shut up in his Chamber All this was much censured as being contrary to the liberties of English-men and the Forms of all legal Proceedings It was thought very hard to put a Man in Prison upon a complaint against him and without any further enquiry into it after two years durance to put Articles to him And they which spoke freely said it savoured too much of the Inquisition But the Canon Law not being rectified and the King being in the Popes room there were some things gathered from the Canon Law and the way of proceeding ex officio which rather excused than justified this hard measure he met with The sequel of this business shall be related in its proper place Latimers advice to the King concerning his Marriage This Lent old Latimer preached before the King The discourse of the Kings marrying a Daughter of France had alarum'd all the Reformers who rather enclined to a Daughter of Ferdinand King of the Romans To a
was expected that he should he sent to the Tower that very day These reports being brought to Cranmer some advised him to fly beyond Seas he said he would not diswade others from that course now that they saw a Persecution rising but considering the station he was in and the hand he had in all the Changes that were made he thought it so indecent a thing for him to fly that no entreaties should ever perswade him to it Cranmer's Declaration Coll. Numb 8. So he by Peter Martyr's advice drew up a Writing that I have put in the Collection in Latin as it was at that time translated The substance of it was to this effect That as the Devil had at all times set on his Instruments by Lies to defame the Servants of God so he was now more than ordinarily busie For whereas King Henry had begun the correcting of the abuses of the Mass which his Son had brought to a further perfection and so the Lords Supper was restored to its first Institution and was celebrated according to the pattern of the Primitive Church now the Devil intending to bring the Mass again into its room as being his own invention had stirred up some to give out that it had been set up in Canterbury by his the said Cranmer's Order and it was said that he had undertaken to sing Mass to the Queens Majesty both at King Edwards Funeral at Paul's and other places and though for these twenty years he had despised all such vain and false reports as were spread of him yet now he thought it not fit to lye under such misrepresentations Therefore he protested to all the World that the Mass was not set up at Canterbury by his order but that a fawning hypocritical Monk this was Thornton Suffragan of Dover had done it without his â—nowledge and for what he was said to have undertaken to the Queen her Majesty knew well how false that was offering if he might obtain her Leave for it to maintain that every thing in the Communion Service that was set out by their most innocent and good Ring Edward was according to Christs Institution and the practice of the Apostles and the ancient Church for many Ages to which the Mass was contrary being full of errors and abuses and although Peter Martyr was by some called an ignorant Man he with him or other four or five such as he should choose would be ready to defend not only their Book of Common Prayer and the other Rites of their Service but the whole Doctrine and Order of Religion set forth by the late King as more pure and more agreeable to the Word of God than any sort of Religion that had been in England for a thousand years before it provided that all things should be judged by the Scriptures and that he Reasonings on both sides should be faithfully written down This he had drawn Published without his knowledg with a Resolution to have made a publick use of it but Scory who had bin Bishop of Chichester coming to him he shewed him the Paper and bad him consider of it Scory indiscreetly gave Copies of it and one of these was publickly read in Cheapside on the fifth of September So on the eighth of that month he was called before the Star-Chamber and asked whether he was the Author of that seditious Bill that was given out in his name and if so whether he was sorry for it He answered that the Bill was truly his but he was very sorry it had gone from him in such a manner But owned by him before the Council for he had resolved to have inlarged it in many things and to have ordered it to be affixed to the doors of Pauls and of the other Churches in London with his hand and Seal to it He was at that time contrary to all mens expectation dismissed Gardiner plainly saw he could not expect to succeed him and that the Queen had designed that See for Cardinal Pool so he resolved to protect and preserve Cranmer all he could Some moved that he should be only put from his Bishoprick and have a small Pension assigned him with a charge to keep within a Confinement and not to meddle with matters of Religion He was generally beloved for the gentleness of his temper so it was thought that proceeding severely with him might Alienate some from them and embroil their affairs in the next Parliament Others objected that if he who had been the chief promoter of Heresy was used with such tenderness it would encourage the rest to be more obstinate And the Queen who had forgot the Services he did her in her Father's time remembring rather that he had pronounced the Sentence of Divorce against her Mother was easily induced to proceed severely So on the thirteenth of September both he and Latimer were called before the Council He and Latimer sent to the Tower Latimer was that day committed but Cranmer was respited till next day and then he was sent to the Tower both for matters of Treason against the Queen and for dispersing of seditious Bills Tylor of Hadlee and several other Preachers were also put in Prison and upon an Information brought against Horn Dean of Duresm he was sent for The Forreigners that were come over upon publick Faith and encouragement The Forreigners sent out of England were better used for Peter Martyr was preserved from the rage of his enemies and suffered to go beyond Sea There was also an Order sent to John a Lasco and his Congregation to be gone their Church being taken from them and their Corporation dissolved And an hundred seventy five of them went away in two Ships to Denmark on the seventeenth of September with all their Preachers except two who were left to look to those few which stayed behind and being engaged in Trade resolved to live in England and follow their Consciences in the matters of Religion in private with the Assistance of those Teachers But a Lasco after a long and hard passage arriving at Denmark was as ill received there as if it had heen a popish Country when they understood that he and his Company were of the Helvetian Confession so that though it was December and a very severe Winter they were required to be gone within two days and could not obtain so much as liberty to leave their Wives or Children behind them till they could provide a place for them From thence they went first to Lubeck then to Wismar and Hamburgh where they found the disputes about the manner of Christs Presents in the Sacrament had raised such violent animosities that after much barbarous usage they were banished out of all those Towns and could find no place to settle in till about the end of March that they came to Friseland where they were suffered to plant themselves Many English fly beyond Sea Many in England seeing the Government was set on severe courses so early did
Ex Libro Concilii Fol. 247. THis day the 17th of March the Lord Chancellor and the rest of the King's Council meeting in his Highness Palace of Westminster heard the Report of the Bishop of Ely who by the said Lords and others of the Council was sent to instruct and comfort the Lord Admiral after the hearing whereof consulting and deliberating with themselves of the time most convenient for the execution of the said Lord Admiral now attainted and condemned by the Parliament They did condescend and agree that the said Lord Admiral should be executed the Wednesday next following betwixt the hours of nine and twelve in the forenoon the same day upon Tower-Hill His Body and Head to be buried within the Tower The King's Writ as in such Cases as heretofore hath been accustomed being first directed and sent forth for that purpose and effect Whereupon calling to the Council-Chamber the Bishop of Ely they willed him to declare this their Determination to the said Lord Admiral and to instruct and teach him the best he could to the quiet and patient suffering of Justice and to prepare himself to Almighty God E. Somerset T. Cantuarien R. Rich Cancel W. St. John J. Russel J. Warwick F. Shrewsbury Thomas Southampton William Paget Anthony Wingfield William Petre. A. Denny Edward North. R. Sadler Number 33. Articles to be followed and observed according to the King's Majesty's Injunctions and Proceedings 1. THat all Parsons Vicars and Curats Ex MS. Dr. Johnson omit in the reading of the Injunctions all such as make mention of the Popish Mass of Chantries of Candles upon the Altar or any other such-like thing 2. Item For an Uniformity that no Minister do counterfeit the Popish Mass as to kiss the Lord's Table washing his Fingers at every time in the Communion blessing his Eyes with the Paten or Sudary or crossing his Head with the Paten shifting of the Book from one place to another laying down and licking the Chalice of the Communion holding up his Fingers Hands or Thumbs joined towards his Temples breathing upon the Bread or Chalice shewing the Sacrament openly before the distribution of the Communion ringing or sacrying Bells or setting any Light upon the Lord's Board at any time And finally to use no other Ceremonies than are appointed in the King's Book of Common Prayers or kneeling otherwise than is in the said Book 3. Item That none buy or sell the Holy Communion as in Trentals and such other 4. Item That none be suffered to pray upon Beads and so the People to be diligently admonished and such as will not be admonished to put from the Holy Communion 5. Item That after the Homily every Sunday the Minister exhort the People especially the Communicants to remember the poor Mens Box with their Charity 6. Item To receive no Corpse but at the Church-yard without Bell or Cross 7. Item That the Common-Prayer upon Wednesdays and Fridays be diligently kept according to the King's Ordinances exhorting such as may conveniently come to be there 8. Item That the Curats every sixth Week at the least teach and declare diligently the Catechism according to the Book of the same 9. Item That no Man maintain Purgatory Invocation of Saints the six Articles Bedrolls Images Reliques Lights Holy Bells Holy Beads Holy Water Palms Ashes Candles Sepulchres Paschal creeping to the Cross hallowing of the Font of the Popish manner Oil Chresme Altars Beads or any other such Abuses and Superstitions contrary to the King's Majesty's Proceedings 10. Item That within any Church or Chappel be not used any more than one Communion upon any day except Christmass-day and Easter-day 11. Item That none keep the Abrogate Holy-days other than those that have their proper and peculiar Service 12. Item That the Church-wardens suffer no buying nor selling gaming or unfitting Demeanour in Church or Church-yards especially during the Common-Prayer the Sermon and reading of the Homily 13. Item That going to the Sick with the Sacrament the Minister have not with him either Light or Bells Number 34. A Paper written by Luther to Bucer concerning a Reconciliation with the Zuinglians An Original Ex M S. Col. C. Ch. Cant. PRimo Ut nullo modo concedamus de nobis dici quod neutri neutros ante Intellexerunt Nam isto Pharmaco non medebimur tanto vulneri cum nec ipsi credamus utrimque hoc verum esse alii putabunt a nobis hoc fingi ut ita magis suspectam reddemus causam vel potius per totum dubiam faciemus cum sit communis omnium ut in tantis animorum turbis scrupulis non expedit hoc nomine addere offendiculum Secundo Cum hactenus dissenserimus quod illi signum nos Corpus Christi asseruerimus plane contrarii Nihilominus mihi videtur utile ut mediam ut novam statuamus sententiam qua illi concedant Christum adesse vere nos concedamus panem solum manducari Considerandum certe est quantam hic fenestram aperiemus in re omnibus communi cogitandi Orientium hinc fontes questionum opinionum * Here a word is wanting it is like it should be Occludendi _____ Ut tutius multo sit illos simpliciter manere in suo signo cum nec ipsi suam nec nos nostram partem multo minus utrique totum orbem pertrahemus in eam sententiam Sed potius irritabimus ad varias Cogitationes ideo vellem potius ut sopitum maneret dissidium in duabus istis sententiis quam ut occasio daretur infinitis questionibus ad Epicurismum profuturis Istis salvis nihil est quod a me peti possit nam ut ego hoc dissidium vellem testis est mihi Christus meus redemptum Corpore Sanguine meo Sed quid faciam Ipsi forte Conscientia bona sunt in altera sententia Feramus igitur eos si sinceri sunt liberabit eos Christus Dominus Ego contra captus sum bona mea Conscientia nisi ipsi mihi sum ignotus in meam sententiam ferant me si non possunt mihi accedere Number 35. The Sentence against Joan of Kent with the Certificate made upon it IN Dei Nomine Amen Nos Thomas Regist Cran. Fol. 175. permissione divina Cantuarien Archiepiscopus totius Angliae primas Metrapolitanus Thomas Smith Miles Willielmus Cooke Decanus de Arcubus Hugo Latimer Sacrae Theologiae Professor Richardus Lyell Legum Doctor illustrissimi invictissimi in Christo Principis Domini nostri Domini Edwardi sexti Dei Gratia Angliae c. per Literas suas Regias Patentes dat duodecimo die mensis Aprilis Anno Regni sui tertio contra te Joannam Bocher alias nuncupatam Joannam de Kente coram nobis super haeretica pravitate juxta secundum Commissionem dicti Domini nostri Regis detectam declaratam ac in ea parte apud bonos graves Notorie Publice
Gestures appointed by the Book of Common Prayer and none other so that there do not appear in them any counterfeiting of the Popish Mass Item That none be admitted to receive the Holy Communion but such as will upon request of the Curat be ready with meekness and reverence to confess the Articles of the Creed Item That none make a Mart of the Holy Communion by buying and selling the Receipt thereof for Mony as the Popish Mass in times past was wont to be Item Whereas in divers places some use the Lord's Board after the form of a Table and some of an Altar whereby Dissention is perceived to arise among the unlearned therefore wishing a godly Unity to be observed in all our Diocess and for that the form of a Table may more move and turn the simple from the old superstitious Opinions of the Popish Mass and to the right use of the Lord's Supper We exhort the Curats Church-wardens and Questmen here present to erect and set up the Lord's Board after the form of an honest Table decently covered in such place of the Quire or Chancel as shall be thought most meet by their discretion and agreement so that the Ministers with the Communicants may have their place separated from the rest of the People and to take down and abolish all other by-Altars or Tables Item That the Minister in the time of the Communion immediately after the Offertory shall monish the Communicants saying these words or such-like Now is the time if it please you to remember the poor Mens Chest with your charitable Almes Item That the Homilies be read orderly without omission of any part thereof Item The Common Prayer be had in every Church upon Wednesdays and Fridays according to the King's Grace's Ordinance and that all such as conveniently may shall diligently resort to the same Item That every Curat be diligent to teach the Catechism whensoever just occasion is offered upon the Sunday or Holy-day and at least every six weeks once shall call upon his Parishioners and present himself ready to instruct and examine the Youth of the same Parish according to the Book of Service touching the same Item That none maintain Purgatory Invocation of Saints the Six Articles Bedrowls Images Reliques Rubrick Primars with Invocation of Saints Justification of Man by his own Works Holy Bread Palms Ashes Candles Sepulchre Paschal creeping to the Cross hallowing of the Fire or Altar or any other such-like abuses and superstitions now taken away by the King's Grace's most Godly Proceedings Item That all Ministers do move the People to often and worthy receiving of the Holy Communion Item That every Minister do move his Parishioners to come diligently to the Church and when they come not to talk or walk in the Sermon Communion or Divine Service-time but rather at the same to behave themselves reverently godly and devoutly in the Church and that they also monish the Church-wardens to be diligent Overseers in that behalf Item That the Church-wardens do not permit any buying selling gaming outragious noise or tumult or any other idle occupying of Youth in the Church Church-porch or Church-yard during the time of Common Prayer Sermon or reading of the Homily Item That no Persons use to minister the Sacraments or in open audience of the Congregation presume to expound the Holy Scriptures or to preach before they be first lawfully called and authorized in that behalf God save the King Number 53. Dr. Oglethorp's Submission and Profession of his Faith I Did never Preach or Teach openly any thing contrary to the Doctrine and Religion set forth by the King's Majesty and authorised by his Grace's Laws since the making and publishing of the same I suppose and think his Grace's Proceedings concerning Religion to be good and godly if they be used accordingly as his Grace hath wil'd they should by his Laws and Instructions And further I suppose the Order and Form of Doctrine and Religion now set forth by his Grace and used in many things to be better and much nearer the usage of the Apostolick and Primitive Church than it was before-times if it be used godly and reverently accordingly as I think it to be meant by his Grace's Highness and his most Honourable Council Namely in these things in prohibiting that none should commune alone in making the People whole Communers or in suffering them to Commune under both kinds in the Catechisation of young Chaplains in the Rudiments of our Faith in having the Common Prayer in English in setting forth the Homilies and many other things which I think very good and Godly if they be used as is aforesaid The lately received Doctrine concerning the Sacrament and namely the Attribute of Transubstantiation I do not like and I think it not consonant to the Scriptures and Ancient Writers although I suppose that there is a certain and an ineffable presence of Christ's Body there which I can neither comprehend nor express because it so far passes the compass and reach of my Wit and Reason wherefore I think it ought to be both ministred and received with a godly and reverent fear and not without great premeditation and examination aforesaid as well of the Minister as of the Receiver 1550. Your Grace's poor well-willer with his Prayer and Service as he is bound Owing Oglethorp Number 54. A Letter from Dr. Smith to Arch-Bishop Cranmer An Original Right honourable and my special good Lord. Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. I Commend me to your Grace most humbly giving to the same thanks as I am bound for your Grace's kindness toward my Sureties for the which you have and shall whiles I live my good Word and Prayer Ignatii Epistolae adhuc extant in Gymnasio Magdalenae If it might please your Lordship I would very gladly see some part of your Collection against my Book De Caelibatu Sacerdotum which I wrote then to try the truth out not to the intent it should be printed as it was against my Will Would God I had never made it because I took then for my chief Ground That the Priests of England made a Vow when they were made which now I perceive is not true My Lord I received my Cap-case c. Sed tribus nummorum meorum partibus sublatis Quod damnum aequo animo est ferendum quod furti revinci non possit qui abstulit My Lord I am glad that your Grace is reported both gentle and merciful of all such which have had to do with you for Religion of this University For my part if ever I may do your Graces basest Servant any pleasure I will do it indeed Si aliter atqui sentio loquor dispeream Ignoscat haec Honoranda Dominatio tam diutinum silentium mihi quippe quod crebrioribus literis posthac pensabo Deus optimus maximus tuam amplitudinem diu servet incolumem Christianae Pietati propagandae ac provehendae Oxonii 28. Tibi addictissimus Richardus Smithaeus
plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a â—acrament and hath given occasion to many Superâ—â—itions The Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an Heavenly and Spiritual Manner And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture and hath given occasion to many Superstitions Since the very Being of humane Nature doth require that the Body of one and the same Man cannot be at one and the same time in many places but of necessity must be in some certain and determinate place therefore the Body of Christ cannot be present in many different places at the same time And since as the Holy Scriptures testify Christ hath been taken up into Heaven and there is to abide till the end of the World it becometh not any of the Faithful to believe or profess that there is a Real or Corporeal presence as they phrase it of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's Ordinance reserved carried about lifted up or worshipped XXIX Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the Lord's Supper The wicked and such as be void of a lively Faith altho they do carnally and visibly press with their Teeth as St. Augustine saith the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX Of both Kinds The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people For both the parts of the Lord's Sacrament by Christ's Ordinance and Commandment ought not to be ministred to all Christian People alike XXX Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross The Offering of Christ once made is a perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the Sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for Sin but that alone Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said That the Priests did offer Christ for the Quick and the Dead to have remission of Pain or Guilt were * blasphemous Fables and dangerous Deceits XXXI A single Life is imposed on none by the Word of God Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the estate of a single Life or to abstain from Marriage Therefore it is lawful for them as for all other Christian Men to Marry at their own discretion as they shall judg thâ— same to serve better to Godliness XXXII Excommunicated Persons are to be avoided That Person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the Unity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole Multitude of the Faithful as an Heathen and Publican until he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Judg that hath Authority thereunto XXXIII Of the Tradition of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one and utterly alike for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countries Times and Mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against God's Word Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and reproved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren Every Particular or National Church hath Authority to ordain change or abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Man's Authority so that all things be done to edifying XXXIV Of the Homilies The second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for the Times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the 6th and therefore we judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People The Names of the Homilies Of the Right Use of the Church Of Repairing Churches Against the Peril of Idolatry Of Good Works c. The Homilies lately delivered and commended to the Church of England by the King's Injunctions do contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and fit to be embraced by all Men and for that cause they are diligently plainly and distinctly to be read to the People XXXV Of the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England The Book lately delivered to the Church of England by the Authority of the King and Parliament containing the manner and form of publick Prayer and the Ministration of the Sacraments The Book of Consecration of Arch-Bishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering Neither hath it any thing that of it self is superstitious and ungodly And therefore whosoever are Consecrated and Ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second Year of the afore-named King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or Ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully Consecrated and Ordered in the said Church of England as also the Book published by the same Authority for ordering Ministers in the Church are both of them very pious as to truth of Doctrine in nothing contrary but agreeable to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel which they do very much promote and illustrate And for that cause they are by all faithful Members of the Church of England but chiefly of the Ministers of the Word with all thankfulness and readiness of mind to be received approved and commended to the People of God XXXVI Of the Civil Magistrates The King of England is after Christ The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Forreign Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended We give not to our Princess the Ministry either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to
for it but the Author's word and Poets must make Circumstances as well as more signal Contrivances to set off their Fables But there was no occasion for Bucer's saying this since he never declared against the Corporal Presence but was for taking up that Controversy in some general Expressions So it was not suitable to his Opinion in that Matter for him to talk so loosely of the Scriptures And is it credible that a Story of this nature should not have been published in Queen Mary's Time and been made use of when he was condemned for an Heretick and his Body raised and burnt But our Author perhaps did not think of that 15. He says Pag. 191. Peter Martyr was a while in suspence concerning the Eucharist and stayed till he should see what the Parliament should appoint in that Matter P. Martyr argued and read in the Chair against the Corporal Presence four Years before the Parliament medled with it For the second Common-Prayer Book which contained the first publick Declaration that the Parliament made in this Matter was enacted in the fifth Year of King Edward and Peter Martyr from his first coming to England had appeared against it 16. He said The first Parliament under King Edward Pag. 193. appointed a new Form to be used in ordaining Priests and Bishops who till that time had been Ordained according to the Old Rites save only that they did not swear Obedience to the Pope This is a further Evidence of our Author's care in searching the printed Statutes since what was done in the Fifth Year of this Reign he represents as done in the First His Design in this was clear he had a mind to possess all his own Party with an Opinion that the Orders given in this Church were of no force and therefore he thought it a decent piece of his Poem to set down this Change as done so early since if he had mentioned it in its proper place he knew not how to deny the validity of the Orders that were given the first four Years of this Reign which continued to be conferred according to the old Forms 17. He says The Parliament did also at the same time Ibid. confirm a new Book of common-Common-Prayer and of the Administration of the Sacraments This is of a piece with the former for the Act confirming the Common-Prayer Book which is also among the Printed Statutes passed not in this Session of Parliament but in a second Session a Year after this These are Indications sufficient to shew what an Historian Sanders was that did not so much as read the Publick Acts of the Time concerning which he writ 18. He says They ordered all Images to be removed Ibid. and sent some lewd Men over England for that effect who either brake or burnt the Images of our Saviour the Blessed Virgin and the Saints therein declaring against whom they made War and they ordered the King's Arms three Leopards and three Lillies with the Supporters a Dog and a Serpent to be set in the place where the Cross of Christ stood thereby owning that they were no longer to worship Jesus Christ whose Images they broke but the King whose Arms they set up in the room of those Images In this Period there is an equal mixture of Falshood and Malice 1. The Parliament did not order the removal of Images It was done by the King's Visitors before the Parliament sat 2. The total removal of Images was not done the first Year only those Images that were abused to Superstition were taken down and a Year after the total removal followed 3. They took care that this should be done regularly not by the Visitors who only carried the King's Injunctions about it but by the Curats themselves 4. They did not order the King's Arms to be put in the place where the Cross had stood It grew indeed to be a custom to set them up in all Churches thereby expressing that they acknowledged the King's Authority reached even to their Churches but there was no Order made about it 5. I leave him to the Correction of the Heraulds for saying the King's Arms are Three Leopards when every Body knows they are three Lions and a Lion not a Dog is one Supporter and the other is a Dragon not a Serpent 6. By their setting up the King's Arms and not his Picture it is plain they had no thought of worshipping their King but did only acknowledg his Authority 7. It was no less clear that they had no design against the Worship due to Jesus Christ nor that inferiour respect due to the Blessed Virgin and Saints but intended only to wean the People from that which at best was but Pageantry but as it was practised was manifest Idolatry And the painting on the Walls of the Churches the Ten Commandments the Creed the Lord's Prayer with many other passages of Scripture that were of most general use shewed they intended only to cleanse their Churches from those mixtures of Heathenism that had been brought into the Christian Religion Pag. 193. 19. He says They took away the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ that they might thereby give some colour to the converting of the Sacred Vessels to the King's use They took away no part of the Institution of Christ for they set it down in the Act past about it and recited all the words of the first Institution of the Sacrament they only condemned private Masses as contrary to Christ's Institution They did not convert the Holy Vessels to the King's use nor were they taken out of the Churches till five Years after this that the Necessities of the Government either real or pretended were alleged to excuse the taking away the superfluous Plate that was in Churches But this was not done by Act of Parliament but by Commissioners empowred by the King who were ordered to leave in every Church such Vessels as were necessary for the Administration of the Sacraments Ibid. 20. He says The Parliament ordered the Prayers to be in the Vulgar Tongue and upon that he infers that the Irish the Welsh and the Cornish-men were now in a much worse condition than before since they understood no English so that the Worship was to them in a Tongue more unknown than it had formerly been The Parliament made no such Order at this Time the Book of Common Prayer was set out first by the King's Authority and ratified by the subsequent Session of Parliament There was also a Design which though it was then accomplished yet it was done afterwards of translating the Liturgy into these Tongues but still the English was much more understood by all sorts of Men among them than the Latin had been 21. He says The Office of the Communion Pag. 194. appointed by this Parliament differed very little from the Mass save that it was in English The Error of the Parliaments appointing the new Offices runs through all he says on this
are two Sacraments which are not bare Tokens of our Profession but effectual Signs of Gods good Will to us which strengthen our Faith yet not by vertue only of the Work wrought but in those who receive them worthily The 27th That the vertue of these does not depend on the Minster of them The 28th That by Baptism we are the adopted Sons of God and that Infant Baptism is to be commended and in any ways to be retained The 29th That the Lords Supper is not a bare Token of love among Christians but is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is contrary to Scripture and hath given occasion to much Superstition that a Body being only in one place and Christs Body being in Heaven therefore there cannot be a real and bodily Presence of his Flesh and Blood in it and that this Sacrament is not to be kept carried about lifted up nor worshiped The 30th That there is no other Propitiatory Sacrifice but that which Christ offered on the Cross The 31st That the Clergy are not by Gods command obliged to abstain from Marriage The 32d That Persons rightly excommunicated are to be looked on as Heathens till they are by Penance reconciled and received by a Judge competent The 33d It is not necessary that Ceremonies should be the same at all times but such as refuse to obey lawful Ceremonies ought to be openly reproved as offending against Law and Order giving scandal to the weak The 34th That the Homilies are godly and wholesom and ought to be read The 35th That the Book of common-Common-Prayer is not repugnant but agreeable to the Gospel and ought to be received by all The 36th That the King is Supream Head under Christ that the Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in England that the Civil Magistrate is to be obeyed for Conscience sake that Men may be put to death for great offences and that it is lawful for Christians to make War The 37th That there is not to be a community of all Mens Goods but yet every Man ought to give to the Poor according to his ability The 38th That though rash swearing is condemned yet such as are required by the Magistrate may take an Oath The 39th That the Resurrection is not already past but at the last day Men shall rise with the same Bodies they now have The 40th That departed Souls do not die nor sleep with their Bodies and continue without sense till the last day The 41st That the Fable of the Millenaries is contrary to Scripture and a Jewish dotage The last condemned those who believe that the damned after some time of suffering shall be saved Thus was the Doctrine of the Church cast into a short and plain Form in which they took care both to establish the positive Articles of Religion and to cut off the errors formerly introduced in the time of Popery or of late broached by the Anabaptists and Enthusiasts of Germany avoiding the niceties of School-men or the peremptoriness of the Writers of Controversie leaving in matters that are more justly controvertible a liberty to Divines to follow their private Opinions without thereby disturbing the Peace of the Church There was in the Ancient Church a great simplicity in their Creeds and the Exposition of the Doctrine But afterwards upon the breaking out of the Arrian and other Heresies concerning the Person of Jesus Christ as the Orthodox Fathers were put to find out new Terms to drive the Hereticks out of the equivocal use of these formerly received so they too soon grew to love niceties and to explain Mysteries with Similies and other subtilties which they invented and Councils afterwards were very liberal in their Anathematismes against any who did not agree in all Points to their Terms or ways of Explanation And though the Council of Ephesus decreed That there should be no Additions made to the Creed they understood that not of the whole Belief of Christians but only of the Creed it self and did also load the Christian Doctrine with many Curiosities But though they had exceeded much yet the School-men getting the management of the Doctrine spun their Thread much finer and did easily procure Condemnations either by Papal Bulls or the Decrees of such Councils as met in these times of all that differed from them in the least matter Upon the progress of the Reformation the German Writers particularly Osiander Illiricus and Amstorfius grew too peremptory and not only condemned the Helvetian Churches for differing from them in the manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament but were severe to one another for lesser Punctilio's and were at this time exercising the patience of the great and learned Melancton because he thought that in things of their own Nature indifferent they ought to have complied with the Emperor This made those in England resolve on composing these Articles with great temper in many such Points Only one Notion that has been since taken up by some seems not to have been then thought of which is That these were rather Articles of Peace than of Belief so that the subscribing was rather a Compromise not to teach any Doctrine contrary to them than a Declaration that they believed according to them There appears no reason for this conceit no such thing being then declared so that those who subscribed did either believe them to be true or else they did grosly prevaricate The next Business in which the Reformers were employed this Year common-prayer- Some Corrections made in the Common-Prayer-Book was the correcting the Common-Prayer-Book and the making some Additions with the changing of such Particulars as had been retained only for a time The most considerable Additions were That in the daily Service they prepared a short but most simple and grave Form of a general Confession of sins in the use of which they intended that those who made this Confession should not content themselves with a bare recital of the Words but should joyn with them in their Hearts a particular Confession of their private sins to God To this was added a General Absolution or Pronouncing in the Name of God the pardon of sin to all those who did truly repent and unfeignedly believe the Gospel For they judged that if the People did seriously practise this it would keep up in their thoughts frequent reflections on their sins and it was thought that the pronouncing a Pardon upon these Conditions might have a better effect on the People than that absolute and unqualified Pardon which their Priests were wont to give in Confession By which Absolution in times of Popery the People were made to believe that their sins were thereupon certainly forgiven than which nothing could be invented that would harden them into a more fatal security when they thought a full Pardon could be so readily purchased But now they heard the terms on which they could only expect it every day promulgated to them The other
Addition was also made upon good consideration in the Office of the Communion to which the People were observed to come without due seriousness or preparation therefore for awakening their Consciences more feelingly it was ordered that the Office of the Communion should begin with a solemn pronouncing of the Ten Commandments all the Congregation being on their Knees as if they were hearing that Law a-new and a stop to be made at every Commandment for the Peoples devotion of imploring mercy for their past offences and Grace to observe it for the time to come This seemed as effectual a Mean as they could devise till Church-penitence were again set up to beget in Men deep reflections on their sins and to prepare them thereby to receive that Holy Sacrament worthily The other Changes were the removing of some Rites which had been retained in the former Book such as the use of Oyl in Confirmation and Extream Unction the Prayers for Souls departed both in the Communion-Service and in the Office of Burial the leaving out some Passages in the Consecration of the Eucharist that seemed to favour the Belief of the Corporal Presence with the use of the Cross in it and in Confirmation with some smaller variations And indeed they brought the whole Liturgy to the same Form in which it is now except some inconsiderable variations that have been since made for the clearing of some Ambiguities An Aâ—count of kneeling in the Communion In the Office of the Communion they added a Rubrick concerning the posture of kneeling which was appointed to be still the gesture of Communicants It was hereby declared that that gesture was kept up as a most reverent and humble way of expressing our great sense of the Mercies of God in the death of Christ there communicated to us but that thereby there was no adoration intended to the Bread and Wine which were gross Idolatry nor did they think the very Flesh and Blood of Christ were there present since his Body according to the nature of all other Bodies could be only in one place at once and so he being now in Heaven could not be corporally present in the Sacrament This was by Queen Elizabeth ordered to be left out of the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book since it might have given offence to some otherwise inclinable to the Communion of the Church who yet retained the belief the Corporal Presence But since his present Majesties Restoration many having excepted to the Posture as apprehending some thing like Idolatry or Superstition might lie under it if it were not rightly explained that Explication which was given in King Edwards time was again inserted in the Common-Prayer-Book For the Posture it is most likely that the first Institution was in the Table-gesture which was lying along on one side But it was apparent in our Saviours Practice that the Jewish Church had changed the Posture of that Institution of the Passover in whose room the Eucharist came For though Moses had appointed the Jews to eat their Paschal Lamb standing with their Loins girt with Staves in their Hands and Shooes on their Feet yet the Jews did afterwards change this into the Common-Table-Posture of which change though there is no mention in the Old Testament yet we see it was so in our Saviours time and since he complied with the common Custom we are sure that Change was not criminal It seemed reasonable to allow the Christian Church the like Power in such things with the Jewish and as the Jews thought their coming into the Promised Land might be a Warrant to lay aside the Posture appointed by Moses which became Travellers best so Christ being now exalted it seemed fit to receive this Sacrament with higher Marks of outward respect than had been proper in the first Institution when he was in the state of Humiliation and his Divine Glory not yet so fully revealed Therefore in the Primitive Church they received standing and bending their Body in a posture of Adoration But how soon that Gesture of kneeling came in is not so exactly observed nor is it needful to know But surely there is a great want of ingenuity in them that are pleased to apply these Orders of some later Popes for kneeling at the Elevation to our kneeling when ours is not at one such part which might be more liable to exception but during the whole Office by which it is one continued Act of Worship and the Communicants kneel all the while But of this no more needs to be said than is exprest in the Rubrick which occasioned this Digression Thus were the Reformations both of Doctrine and Worship prepared To which all I can add of this Year is Some Orders given to the Kings Chaplains that there were six eminent Preachers chosen out to be the Kings Chaplains in Ordinary two of those were always to attend at Court and four to be sent over England to preach and instruct the People In the first year two of these were to go into Wales and the other two into Lancashire the next year two into the Marches of Scotland and two into York-shire the third year two into Devon-shire and two into Hamp-shire and the fourth year two into Norfolk and two into Kent and Sussex These were Bill Harle Pern Grindal Bradford the Name of the sixth is so dashed in the Kings Journal that it cannot be read These it seems were accounted the most zealous and readiest Preachers of that time who were thus sent about as Itinerants to supply the defects of the greatest part of the Clergy who were generally very faulty The Business of the Lady Mary was now taken up with more heat than formerly The Emperors earnest sute The Lady Mary continued to have Mass said in her Chappel that she might have Mass in her House was long rejected for it was said that as the King did not interpose in the matters of the Emperors Government so there was no reason for the Emperor to meddle in his Affairs Yet the state of England making his friendship at that time necessary to the King and he refusing to continue in his League unless his Kinswoman obtained that favour it was promised that for some time in hope she would reform there should be a forbearance granted The Emperors Ambassadors pressed to have a License for it under the Great Seal It was answered That being against Law it could not be done Then they desired to have it certified under the Kings Hand in a Letter to the Emperor but even that was refused So that they only gave a Promise for some time by word of mouth and Paget and Hobby who had been the Ambassadors with the Emperor declared they had spoke of it to him with the same limitations But the Emperor who was accustomed to take for absolute what was promised only under conditions writ to the Lady Mary that he had an absolute Promise for the free exercise of her Religion and so she pretended this when she
them but if their Divines had any scruple in which they desired satisfaction with a humble and obedient mind they should be heard And for a safe Conduct he thought it was a distrusting the Council to ask any other than what was already granted Soon after this there arrived Ambassadors from Strasburg and from other five Cities and those sent from the Duke of Saxe were on their Journey so the Emperor ordered his Ambassadors to study to gain time till they came and then an effectual course must be taken for compassing that about which he had laboured so long in vain to bring it to a happy conclusion And thus this Year ended The Parliament was opened on the 23d of January 1552. A Session of Parliament and sate till the 15th of April So I shall begin this Year with the account of the Proceedings in it The first Act that was put into the House of Lords was for an Order to bring Men to Divine Service which was agreed to on the 26th and sent down to the Commons who kept it long before they sent it back On the 6th of April when it was agreed to the Earl of Darby the Bishops of Carlisle and Norwich and the Lords Sturton and Windsor dissented The Lords afterwards brought in another Bill for authorizing a new Common-Prayer-Book according to the Alterations which had been agreed on the former Year This the Commons joyned to the former and so put both in one Act. By it was first set forth That an Order of Divine Service being published common-prayer- An Act authorizing the new common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book many did wilfully abstain from it and refused to come to their Parish-Churches therefore all are required after the Feast of All-hallows next to come every Sunday and Holy-day to common-Common-Prayers under pain of the Censures of the Church And the King the Lords Temporal and the Commons did in Gods Name require all Arch-bishops Bishops and other Ordinaries to endeavour the due execution of that Act as they would answer before God for such Evils and Plagues with which he might justly punish them for neglecting that good and wholesome Law and they were fully authorized to execute the Censures of the Church on all that should offend against this Law To which is added That there had been divers doubts raised about the manner of the Ministration of the Service rather by the curiosity of the Ministers and Mistakers than of any other worthy Cause and that for the better explanation of that and for the greater perfection of the Service in some places where it was fit to make the Prayer and fashion of Service more earnest and fit to stir Christian People to the true honouring of Almighty God therefore it had been by the Command of the King and Parliament perused explained and made more perfect They also annexed to it the Form of making Bishops Priests and Deacons and so appointed this new Book of Service to be every where received after the Feast of All-Saints next under the same Penalties that had been enacted three years before when the former Book was set out Which was much censured It was upon this Act said by the Papists That the Reformation was like to change as oft as the Fashion did since they seemed never to be at a Point in any thing but new Models were thus continually framing To which it was answered That it was no wonder that the corruptions which they had been introducing for above a thousand years were not all discovered or thrown out at once but now the business was brought to a fuller perfection and they were not like to see any more material Changes Besides any that would take the pains to compare the Offices that had been among the Papists would clearly perceive that in every Age there was such an encrease of additional Rites and Ceremonies that though the old ones were still retained yet it seemed there would be no end of new improvements and additions Others wondred why the execution of this Law was put off so long as till the end of the Year All the account I can give of this is that it was expected that by that time the new Body of the Ecclesiastical Laws which was now preparing should be finished and therefore since this Act was to be executed by the Clergy the day in which it was to be in force was so long delayed till that Reformation of their Laws were concluded An Act concerning Treasons On the 8th of February a Bill of Treasons was put in and agreed to by all the Lords except the Lord Wentworth It was sent down to the Commons where it was long disputed and many sharp things were said of those who now bore the sway that whereas they who governed in the beginning of this Reign had put in a Bill for lessening the number of such offences now they saw the change of Councils when severer Laws were proposed The Commons at last rejected the Bill and then drew a new one which was passed By it they Enacted That if any should call the King or any of his Heirs named in the Statute of the 35th of his Fathers Reign Heretick Schismatick Tyrant Infidel or Usurper of the Crown for the first offence they should forfeit their Goods and Chattels and be imprisoned during pleasure for the second should be in a Praemunire for the third should be attainted of Treason but any who should advisedly set that out in printing or writing was for the first offence to be held a Traitor And that those who should keep any of the Kings Castles Artillery or Ships six days after they were lawfully required to deliver them up should be guilty of Treason that Men might be proceeded against for Treasons committed out of the Kingdom as well as in it They added a Proviso That none should be Attainted of Treason on this Act unless two Witnesses should come and to their face averr the Fact for which they were to be tried except such as without any violence should confess it and that none should be questioned for any thing said or written but within three Months after it was done This Proviso seems clearly to have been made with relation to the Proceeding against the Duke of Somerset in which the Witnesses were not brought to averr the Evidence to his Face and by that means he was deprived of all the benefit and advantage which he might have had by cross examining them It is certain that though some false Witnesses have practised the Trade so much that they seem to have laid off all shame and have a brow that cannot be daunted yet for the greatest part a bright serenity and cheerfulness attends Innocence and a lowring dejection betrays the Guilty when the Innocent and they are confronted together On the 3d of March a Bill was brought into the Lords for Holy-days and Fasting days and sent down to the Commons on the 15th of March An Act about Fasts and Holy-days by
of Marriage But all separation from Bed and Board except during a Trial was to be taken away The 11th was about Admission to Ecclesiastical Benefices Patrons were to consider the choice of the Person was trusted to them but was not to be abused to any sacrilegious or base ends if they did otherwise they were to lose their right for that time Benefices were not to be given or promised before they were void nor let lie destitute above six Months otherwise they were to devolve to the Bishop Clergy-men before their Ordination were to be examined by the Arch-deacons with such other Triers as the Bishop should appoint to be assistant to them and the Bishop himself was to try them since this was one of the chief things upon which the happiness of the Church depended The Candidate was to give an Oath to answer sincerely upon which he was to be examined about his Doctrine chiefly of the whole Points of the Catechisme if he understood them aright and what knowledge he had of the Scriptures they were to search him well whether he held Heretical Opinions None was to be admitted to more Cures than one and all Priviledges for Pluralities were for ever to cease nor was any to be absent from his Cure except for a time and a just cause of which he was to satisfie his Ordinary The Bishops were to take great care to allow no absence longer than was necessary every one was to enter upon his Cure within two Months after he was Instituted by the Bishop Prebendaries who had no particular Cure were to preach in the Churches adjacent to them Bastards might not be admitted to Orders unless they had eminent Qualities But the Bastards of Patrons were upon no account to be received if presented by them Other bodily defects unless such as did much disable them or made them very contemptible were not to be a barr to any Beside the Sponsions in the Office of Ordination they were to swear that they had made no agreement to obtain the Benefice to which they were presented and that if they come to know of any made by others on their account they should signifie it to the Bishop and that they should not do any thing to the prejudice of their Church The 12th and 13th were about the renouncing or changing of Benefices The 14th was about purgation upon common fame or when one was accused for any crime which was proved incompleatly and only by presumptions The Ecclesiastical Courts might not re-examine any thing that was proved in any Civil Court but upon a high scandal a Bishop might require a Man to purge himself otherwise to separate him from Holy things The Form of a Purgation was to swear himself innocent and he was also to have four Compurgators of his own Rank who were to swear that they believed he swore true upon which the Judge was to restore him to his Fame Any that were under suspicion of a Crime might by the Judge be required to avoid all the occasions from which the suspition had risen But all superstitious Purgations were to be rejected The 15th 16th 17th and 18th were about Dilapidations the Letting of the Goods of the Church the confirming the former Rules of Election in Cathedrals or Colledges and the Collation of Benefices And there was to be a Purgation of Simony as there should be occasion for it The 19th was about Divine Offices In the Mornings on Holy-days the Common-Prayer was to be used with the Communion-Service joyned to it In Cathedrals there was to be Communion every Sunday and Holy-day where the Bishop the Dean and the Prebendaries and all maintained by that Church were to be present There was no Sermon to be in Cathedrals in the Morning lest that might draw any from the Parish Churches but only in the Afternoons In the Anthems all Figured Musick by which the Hearers could not understand what they sung was to be taken away In Parish Churches there were only to be Sermons in the Morning but none in the Afternoon except in great Parishes All who were to receive the Sacrament were to come the day before and inform the Minister of it who was to examine their Consciences and their Belief On Holy-days in the Afternoon the Catechism was to be explained for an hour After the Evening-Prayers the Poor were to be looked to and such as had given open scandal were to be examined and publick Penitence was to be enjoyned them and the Minister with some of the Ancients of the Parish were to commune together about the state of the People in it that if any carried themselves indecently they might be first charitably admonished and if that did not prevail subjected to severer Censures but none were to be excommunicated without the Bishop were first informed and had consented to it Divine Offices were not to be performed in Chappels or private Houses lest the Churches should under that pretence be neglected and Errors more easily disseminated excepting only the Houses of Peers and Persons of great Quality who had numerous Families but in these all things were to be done according to the Book of common-Common-Prayer The 20th was about those that bore Office in the Church Sextons Church-wardens Deacons Priests and Rural Deans This last was to be a Yearly Office he that was named to it by the Bishop being to watch over the manners of the Clergy and People in his Precinct was to signifie the Bishops pleasure to them and to give the Bishop an account of his Precinct every sixth Month. The Arch-deacons were to be general Visitors over the Rural Deans In every Cathedral one of the Prebendaries or one procured by them was thrice a week to expound some part of the Scriptures The Bishops were to be over all and to remember that their Authority was given to them for that end that many might be brought to Christ and that such as had gone astray might be restored by Repentance To the Bishop all were to give obedience according to the Word of God The Bishop was to preach often in his Church was to Ordain none for Rewards or rashly was to provide good Pastors and to deprive bad ones he was to visit his Diocess every third year or oftener as he saw cause but then he was to do it at his own charge he was to have yearly Synods and to confirm such as were well instructed His Family was to consist of Clergy-men whom he should bring up to the Service of the Church so was St. Austins and other Ancient Bishops Families constituted This being a great means to supply the great want of good and faithful Ministers Their Wives and Children were also to avoid all levity or vain dressing They were never to be absent from their Diocesses but upon a publick and urgent cause and when then grew sick or infirm they were to have Coadjutors If they became scandalous or heretical they were to be deprived by the Kings Authority The Arch-bishops
had yet received of him only 300000 Crowns but he had good security for the rest and the Merchants were bound to pay him 100000 lib. Sterling and therefore he demanded a little more time of them All this was printed soon after at Strasburgh by the English there in a Book which they sent over to England in which both the Address made by the Commons in Parliament and this Answer of the Emperour 's to the Towns is mentioned And that whole Discourse which is in the form of an Address to the Queen the Nobility and the Commons is written with such gravity and simplicity of Stile that as it is by much the best I have seen of this time so in these publick Transactions there is no reason to think it untrue For the things which it relates are credible of themselves and though the sum there mentioned was very great yet he that considers that England was to be bought with it will not think it an extraordinary price In that Discourse it is further said that as Gardiner corrupted many by Bribes so in the Court of Chancery Common Justice was denied to all but those who came into these Designs Having thus given an account of what was done in the Parliament I shall next shew how the Convocation proceeded The Proceedings of the Convocation Bonner being to preside in it as being the first Bishop of the Province of Canterbury appointed John Harpsfield his Chaplain to preach who took his Text out of the twentieth of the Acts verse 20 Feed the Flock He run out in his bidding Prayers most profusely on the Queens Praises comparing her to Deborah and Esther with all the servilest flatteries he could invent next he bid them pray for the Lady Elizabeth but when he came to mention the Clergy he enlarged in the praises of Bonner Gardiner Tonstal Heath and Day so grosly that it seems the strains of flattering Church-men at that time were very course and he run out so copiously in them as if he had been to deliver a Panegyrick and not to bid the Beads In his Sermon he inveighed against the late Preachers for not observing Fasts nor keeping Lent and for their Marriages which he severely condemned Weston Dean of Westminster was presented Prolocutor by the lower House Disputes concerning the Sacrament and approved of by Bonner Whether any of the Bishops that had been made in King Edwards time sat among them I do not know But in the lower House there was great opposition made There had been care taken that there should be none returned to the Convocation but such as would comply in all points But yet there came six Non-compliers who being Deans or Arch-Deacons had a right to sit in the Convocation These were Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester Philips Dean of Rochester Haddon Dean of Exeter Cheyney Arch-deacon of Hereford Ailmer Arch-deacon of Stow and Young Chanter of St. Davids Weston the Prolocuter proposed to them on the 18th of October that there had been a Catechism printed in the last year of King Edwards Reign in the name of that Synod and as he understood it was done without their consents which was a pestiferous Book and full of Heresies There was likewise a very abominable Book of Common Prayer set out it was therefore the Queens pleasure that they should prepare such Laws about Religion as she would ratifie with her Parliament So he proposed that they should begin with condemning those Books particularly the Articles in them contrary to the Sacrament of the Altar and he gave out two questions about it Whether in the Sacrament upon the Sanctification of the Bread and Wine all their substance did not vanish being changed into the Body and Blood of Christ and Whether the natural Body of Christ was not corporally present in the Eucharist either by the Transubstantiation of the Elements into his Body and Blood or by the Conjunction of Concomitance as some expressed it The House was adjourned till the 20th on which day every Man was appointed to give in his Answer to these Questions All answered and subscribed in the affirmative except the six before mentioned Philpot said whereas it was given out that the Catechism was was not approved by the Convocation though it was printed in their name it was a mistake for the Convocation had authorised a number of Persons to set forth Ecclesiastical Laws to whom they had committed their Synodal Authority So that they might well set out such Books in the name of the Convocation He also said that it was against all order to move Men to subscribe in such points before they were examined and since the number of these on the one side was so unequal to those on the other side he desired that Dr. Ridley Mr. Rogers and two or three more might be allowed to come to the Convocation This seemed very reasonable So the lower House proposed it to the Bishops They answered that these persons being Prisoners they could not bring them but they should move the Council about it A Message also was sent from some great Lords that they intended to hear the Disputation so the House adjourned till the 23d There was then a great appearance of Noblemen and others The Prolocutor began with a Protestation that by this Dispute they did not intend to call the Truth in doubt to which they had all subscribed but they did it only to satisfie the objections of those few who refused to concur wtih them But it was denied to let any Prisoners or others assist them for it was said that that being a Dispute among those of the Convocation none but Members were to be heard in it Haddon and Ailmer foreseeing they should be run down with clamour and noise refused to dispute Young went away Cheyney being next spoke to did propose his Objections that St. Paul calls the Sacrament Bread after the Consecration that Origen said it went into the Excrement and Theodoret said the Bread and Wine did not in the Sacrament depart from their former Substance Form and Shape Moreman was called on to answer him He said that St. Paul calling it Bread was to be understood thus the Sacrament or Form of Bread To Origens Authority he answered nothing but to Theodoret he said the word they render Substance stood in a more general signification and so might signifie accidental Substance Upon this Ailmer who had resolved not to Dispute could not contain himself but said the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not be so understood for the following words of Form and Shape belonged to the Accidents but that only belonged to the Substance of the Elements Upon this there followed a Contest about the signification of that word Then Philpot struck in and said the occasion of Theodorets writing plainly shewed that was a vain Cavil for the Dispute was with the Eutychians whether the Body and humane Nature of Christ had yet an Existence distinct from the Divine
had been left out in his second Liturgy as favouring the Corporal Presence too much and in stead of them these words were ordered to be used in the distribution of that Sacrament Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving and Drink this in remembrance that Christs Blood was shed for thee and be thankful They now joyned both these in one Some of the Collects were also a little altered and thus was the Book presented to the House But for the Book of Ordination it was not in express terms named in the Act which gave an occasion afterwards to question the lawfulness of the Ordinations made by that Book But by this Act the Book that was set out by King Edward and confirmed by Parliament in the fifth Year of his Reign was again authorized by Law and the Repeal of it in Queen Maries time was made void So the Book of Ordinations being in that Act added to the Book of common-Common-Prayer it was now legally in force again as was afterwards declared in Parliament upon a Question that was raised about it by Bonner The Bill that was put in on the 15th of February concerning the new Service being laid aside a new one was framed and sent up by the Commons on the 18th of April and debated in the House of Lords Debates about the Act of Ueiformity Heath made a long Speech against it rather Elegant than Learned He enlarged much on the several Changes which had been made in King Edward's time he said that both Cranmer and Ridley changed their Opinions in the matter of Christ's presence he called Ridley the most notably learned Man that was of that way These Changes he imputed to their departing from the Standard of the Catholick Church he complained much of the robbing of Churches the breaking of Images and the Stage-Plays made in mockery of the Catholick Religion Upon all these Reasons he was against the Bill The Bishop of Chester spake also to it He said the Bill was against both Faith and Charity that Points once defined were not to be brought again into question nor were Acts of Parliament Foundations for a Churches Belief he enlarged on the Antiquity of their Forms and said it was an insolent thing to pretend that our Fathers had lived in Ignorance The Prophets oftentimes directed the Israelites to ask of their Fathers Matters of Religion could not be understood by the Laity It was of great consequence to have their Faith well grounded Jeroboam made Israel to Sin when he set up a new way of Worship and not only the Orthodox but even the Arrian Emperours ordered that points of Faith should be examined in Councils Gallio by the light of Nature knew that a Civil Judge ought not to meddle with matters of Religion In the Service-Book that was then before them they had no Sacrifice for their Sins nor were they to adore Christ in the Host and for these reasons he could not agree to it but if any thought he spoke this because of his own concern or pittied him for what he might suffer by it he would say in the words of our Saviour Weep not for me Weep for your selves After him spake Fecknam Abbot of Westminster He proposed three Rules by which they should judge of Religion it 's Antiquity its constancy to it self the influence it had on the Civil Government he said the old Religion began in the time of King Lucius according to Gildas the Book now proposed was not used before the two last years of King Edward the one was always the same the other was changed every second year as appeared in the point of the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament there had been great Order and Obedience in Queen Maries Reign but now every where great Insolences were committed by the People with some very indecent Prophanations of the most holy things he recommended to them in St. Austines words the adhering to the Catholick Church the very name Catholick which Hereticks had not the confidence to assume shewed their Authority The Consent of the whole Church in all Ages with the perpetual Succession of Pastors in St. Peter's Chair ought to weigh more with them than a few new Preachers who had distracted both Germany and England of late Thus I have given the substance of their Speeches being all that I have seen of that side I have seen none at all on the other side tho it is not probable but some were made in defence of the Service as well as these were against it But upon this Occasion I shall set down the substance of the second Paper which the Reformed Divines had prepared on the second point for the Conference about the Authority of every particular Church to change or take away Ceremonies I do not put it in the Collection because I have not that which the Papists prepared in Opposition to it But the heads of this Paper were as followeth Arguments for the Changes made in the Service It is clear by the Epistles which St. Paul writ to the Corinthians and other Churches that every Church has Power in it self to order the Forms of their Worship and the administration of the Sacraments among them so as might best tend to Order Edification and Peace The like Power had also the seven Angels of the Churches to whom St. John writ And for the first three Ages there was no General Meeting of the Church in Synods but in those times the neighbouring Pastors and Bishops by mutual advice rather than Authority ordered their affairs and when Heresies sprung up they condemned them without staying for a General Determination of the whole Church There were also great differences among them in their Customs as about observing Lent and Easter Ceremonies grew too soon to a great number When Errors or Abuses appeared private Bishops reformed their own Diocesses So those who came in the room of Arrian Bishops even when that Heresie was spread over all the East and the See of Rome it self was defiled with it yet reformed their own Churches Ambrose finding the custom of Feasting in Churches on the Anniversaries of the Martyrs gave occasion to great Scandals took it away Even in Queen Maries time many of the old Superstitions of Pilgrimages and Reliques which had been abolish'd in King Henry's time were not then taken up again from which they argued that if some things might be altered why not more So that if there was good reason to make any Changes it could not be doubted but that as Hezekiah and Josiah had made by their own power so the Queen might make Reformations which were not so much the setting up of new things as the restoring of the state of Religion to what it was anciently which had been brought in by consent of Parliament and Convocation in King Edward's time The Rules they offer'd in this Paper about Ceremonies were that
That against Law he held a Court of Request in his House and did enforce divers to answer there for their Freehold and Goods and did determine of the same 8. That being no Officer without the advice of the Council or most part of them he did dispose Offices of the King's Gift for Mony grant Leases and Wards and Presentations of Benefices pertaining to the King gave Bishopricks and made sales of the King's Lands 9. That he commanded Alchimie and Multiplication to be practised thereby to abase the King's Coin 10. That divers times he openly said That the Nobility and Gentry were the only cause of Dearth whereupon the People rose to reform Matters of themselves 11. That against the mind of the whole Council he caused Proclamation to be made concernig Inclosures whereupon the People made divers Insurrections and destroyed many of the King's Subjects 12. That he sent forth a Commission with Articles annexed concerning Inclosures Commons High-ways Cottages and such-like Matters giving the Commissioners authority to hear and determine those causes whereby the Laws and Statutes of the Realm were subverted and much Rebellion raised 13. That he suffered Rebels to assemble and lie armed in Camp against the Nobility and Gentry of the Realm without speedy repressing of them 14. That he did comfort and encourage divers Rebels by giving them Mony and by promising them Fees Rewards and Services 15. That he caused a Proclamation to be made against Law and in favour of the Rebels that none of them should be vexed or sued by any for their Offences in their Rebellion 16. That in time of Rebellion he said That he liked well the Actions of the Rebels and that the Avarice of Gentlemen gave occasion for the People to rise and that it was better for them to die than to perish for want 17. That he said The Lords of the Parliament were loath to reform Inclosures and other things therefore the People had a good cause to reform them themselves 18. That after declaration of the Defaults of Bulloign and the Pieces there by such as did survey them he would never amend the same 19. That he would not suffer the King's Pieces of Newhaven and Blackness to be furnished with Men and Provision albeit he was advertised of the Defaults and advised thereto by the King's Council whereby the French King was emboldned to attempt upon them 20. That he would neither give Authority nor suffer Noblemen and Gentlemen to suppress Rebels in time convenient but wrote to them to speak the Rebels fair and use them gently 21. That upon the 5th of October the present Year at Hampton-Court for defence of his own private Causes he procured seditious Bills to be written in counterfeit Hands and secretly to be dispersed into divers parts of the Realm beginning thus Good People intending thereby to raise the King's Subjects to Rebellion and open War 22. That the King's Privy-Council did consult at London to come to him and move him to reform his Government but he hearing of their Assembly declared by his Letters in divers places that they were high Traitors to the King 23. That he declared untruly as well to the King as to other young Lords attending his Person That the Lords at London intended to destroy the King and desired the King never to forget but to revenge it and desired the young Lords to put the King in remembrance thereof with intent to make Sedition and Discord between the King and his Nobles 24. That at divers times and places he said The Lords of the Council at London intended to kill me but if I die the King shall die and if they famish me they shall famish him 25. That of his own head he removed the King so suddenly from Hampton-Court to Windsor without any provision there made that he was thereby not only in great fear but cast thereby into a dangerous Disease 26. That by his Letters he caused the King's People to assemble in great numbers in Armour after the manner of War to his Aid and Defence 27. That he caused his Servants and Friends at Hampton-Court and Windsor to be apparelled in the King's Armour when the King's Servants and Guards went unarmed 28. That he intended to fly to Gernsey or Wales and laid Post-horses and Men and a Boat to that purpose Number 47. A Letter written by the Council to the Bishops to assure them That the King intended to go forward in the Reformation By the KING RIght Reverend Father in God Right trusty and well-beloved Regist Cran. Fol. 56. we greet you well Whereas the Book entituled the Book of Common Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church after the use of the Church of England was agreed upon and set forth by Act of Parliament and by the same Act commanded to be used of all Persons within this our Realm Yet nevertheless we are informed that divers unquiet and evil-disposed Persons sithence the apprehension of the Duke of Somerset have noised and bruited abroad That they should have again their old Latin Service their Conjured Bread and Water with such-like vain and superfluous Ceremonies as though the setting forth of the said Book had been the only Act of the said Duke We therefore by the advice of the Body and State of our Privy-Council not only considering the said Book to be our Act and the Act of the whole State of our Realm assembled together in Parliament but also the same to be grounded upon the Holy Scripture agreeable to the Order of the Primitive Church and much to the re-edifying of our Subjects to put away all such vain expectation of having the Publick Service the Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies again in the Latin Tongue which were but a preferment of Ignorance to Knowledg and Darkness to Light and a preparation to bring in Papistry and Superstition again have thought good by the advice aforesaid to require and nevertheless straitly do command and charge you That immediately upon the receipt hereof you do command the Dean and Prebendaries of your Cathedral Church the Parsons Vicar or Curat and Church-wardens of every Parish within your Diocess to bring and deliver unto you or your Deputy any of them for their Church or Parish at such convenient place as you shall appoint all Antiphonals Missals Graylles Processionals Manuels Legends Pies Portasies Journals and Ordinals after the use of Sarum Lincoln York or any other private use And all other Books of Service the keeping whereof should be a lett to the using of the said Book of Common Prayers and that you take the same Books into your hands or into the hands of your Deputy and them so to deface and abolish that they never after may serve either to any such use as they were provided for or be at any time a lett to that godly and uniform Order which by a common Consent is now set forth And if
more _____ at the Mass that they do always communicate with the Executor in both kinds And for her Highness Conscience till then if there be some other devout sort of Prayer or Memory and the _____ or Mass Quest 6. What Noblemen be fit to be made privy to those Proceedings before it be opened to the whole Council Answer The Marquess Northampton the Earl of Bedford the Earl of Pembrook Lord John Gray Quest 7. What Allowance the Learned Men shall have for the time they are about to renew the Book of Common Prayers and Order of certain Ceremonies and Service in the Church and when they shall meet Answer Being so many Persons as must attend still upon it two Messes of Meat is thought yet indifferently to suffice for them and their Servants The Place is thought most meet either in some set Place or rather at Sir Thomas Smith's Lodging in Cannon-Row At one of those Places must Provision be laid in of Wood of Coal and Drink Number 2. Dr. Sand's Letter to Dr. Parker concerning some Proceedings in Parliament An Original Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. YE have rightly considered that these times are given to taking and not to giving for ye have stretched forth your hand further than all the rest They never asked us in what state we stand neither consider that we want and yet in the time of our Exile were we not so bare as we are now brought but I trust we shall not linger here long for the Parliament draweth towards an end The last Book of Service is gone through with a Proviso to retain the Ornaments which were used in the first and second Year of King Edward until it please the Queen to take other order for them our gloss upon this Text is that we shall not be forced to use them but that others in the mean time shall not conveigh them away but that they may remain for the Queen After this Book was past He was Dean of Windsor and Peterb in Q. Mary's Time Boxall and others quarrelled with it that according to the order of the Scripture we had not gratiarum actio for saith he Christus accepit panem gratias egit but in the time of Consecration we give no Thanks This he put into the Treasurers Head and into Count de Soreus Head and he laboured to alienate the Queen's Majesty from confirming of the Act but I trust they cannot prevail Mr. Secretary is earnest with the Book and we have ministred Reasons to maintain that part The Bill of Supreme Government of both the Temporality and Clergy passeth with a Proviso that nothing shall be judged hereafter which is not confirmed by the Canonical Scriptures and four General Councils Mr. Lever wisely put such a scruple into the Queen's Head A Minister at Frankfort much commended by Calvin to be followed as an Example that she would not take the Title of Supream Head The Bishops as it is said will not swear unto it as it is but rather lose their Livings The Bill is in hand to restore Men to their Livings how it will speed I know not The Parliament is like to end shortly and then we shall understand how they mind to use us We are forced through the vain Bruits of the lying Papists to give up a Confession of our Faith to shew forth the Sum of that Doctrine which we profess and to declare that we dissent not amongst our selves This Labour we have now in hand on purpose to publish that so soon as the Parliament is ended I wish that we had your Hand unto it Ye are happy that ye are so far from this tossing and gross Alterations and Mutations for we are made weary with them but ye cannot long rest in your Cell ye must be removed to a more large Abbey and therefore in the mean time take your pleasure for after ye will find but a little Nihil est statutum de conjugio Sacerdotum sed tanquam relictum in medio Lever was married now of late The Queen's Majesty will wink at it but not stablish it by Law which is nothing else but to bastard our Children Other things another time Thus praying you to commend me to your Abbesses I take my leave of you for this present hastily at London April ult 1559. Yours Edwin Sands Number 3. The first Proposition upon which the Papists and Protestants Disputed in Westminster-Abbey With the Arguments which the Reformed Divines made upon it It is against the Word of God and the Custom of the Primitive Church to use a Tongue unknown to the People in Common-Prayers and Administration of the Sacraments BY these words the Word we mean only the written Word of God Ex M. S. Col. C. Ch. Cant. or Canonical Scriptures And by the Custom of the Primitive Church we mean the Order most generally used in the Church for the space of five hundred Years after Christ in which Times lived the most notable Fathers as Justin Ireneus Tertullian Cyprian Basil Chrysostom Hierome Ambrose Augustine c. This Assertion above-written hath two parts First That the use of a Tongue not understood of the People in common Prayers of the Church or in the Administration of the Sacraments is against God's Word The second That the same is against the Use of the Primitive-Church The first part is most manifestly proved by the 14th Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians almost throughout the whole Chapter in the which Chapter St. Paul intreateth of this Matter ex professo purposely And although some do cavil that St. Paul speaketh not in that Chapter of Praying but of Preaching yet it is most evident to any indifferent Reader of Understanding and appeareth also by the Exposition of the best Writers That he plainly there speaketh not only of Preaching and Prophesying but also of Prayer and Thanksgiving and generally of all other publick Actions which require any Speech in the Church or Congregation For of Praying he saith I will pray with my Spirit and I will pray with my Mind I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with my Mind And of Thanksgiving which is a kind of Prayer Thou givest Thanks well but the other is not edified And how shall he that occupieth the room of the Vnlearned say Amen to thy giving of Thanks when he understandeth not what thou sayest And in the end ascending from Particulars to Universals concludeth That all things ought to be done to Edification Thus much is clear by the very words of St. Paul and the Ancient Doctors Ambrose Augustine Hierome and others do so understand this Chapter as it shall appear by their Testimonies which shall follow afterward Upon this Chapter of St. Paul we gather these Reasons following 1. All things done in the Church or Congregation ought to be so done as they may edify the same But the use of an Unknown Tongue in Publick Prayer or Administration of Sacraments doth
separate and divide themselves from the Sacred Unity of Christ's Holy Spouse the Church as St. Augustine plainly saith Quicunque ille est qualiscunque ille est Christianus non est qui in Ecclesia Christi non â—est that is Whosoever he be whatsoever degree or condition he be of or what qualities soever he hath though he should speak with the Tongues of Angels speak he never so holily shew he never so much Vertue yet is he not a Christian Man that is guilty of that Crime of Schsm and so no Member of that Church Wherefore this is an evident Argument Every Christian Man is bound upon pain of Damnation by the plain words of God uttered by St. Paul to avoid the horrible Sin of Schism The changing of the service-Service-Book out of the Learned Tongue it being universally observ'd through the whole Church from the beginning is a cause of an horrible Schism wherefore every good Christian Man is bound to avoid the change of the Service Now to confirm that we said before and to prove that to have the Common Prayer and Ministration of the Sacraments in English or in other than is the Learned Tongue let us behold the first Institution of the West Church and the Particulars thereof And first to begin with the Church of France Dyonisius St. Paul's Scholar who first planted the Faith of Christ in France Martialis who as it is said planted the Faith in Spain And others which planted the same here in England in the time of Eleutherius And such as planted the Faith in Germany and other Countries And St. Augustine that converted this Realm afterwards in the time of Gregory almost a thousand Years ago It may appear that they had Interpreters as touching the Declaration and Preaching of the Gospel or else the Gift of Tongues But that ever in any of these West Churches they had the Service in their own Language or that the Sacraments other than Matrimony were ministred in their own Vulgar Tongue that does not appear by any Ancient Historiographer Whether shall they be able ever to prove that it was so generally and thereby by continuance in the Latin the self-same Order and Words remain still whereas all Men do consider and know right-well that in all other inferiour and barbarous Tongues great change daily is seen and specially in this our English Tongue which in quovis Seculo fere in every Age or hundred Years there appeareth a great change and alteration in this Language For the proof whereof there hath remained many Books of late in this Realm as many do well know which we that be now Englishmen can scarcely understand or read And if we should so often as the thing may chance and as alteration daily doth grow in our Vulgar Tongue change the Service of the Church what manifold Inconveniences and Errors would follow we leave it to all Mens Judgments to consider So that hereby may appear another invincible Argument which is the Consent of the whole Catholick Church that cannot err in the Faith and Doctrine of our Saviour Christ but is by St. Paul's saying the Pillar and Foundation of all Truth Moreover the People of England do not understand their own Tongue better than Eunuchus did the Hebrew of whom we read in the Acts that Philip was commanded to teach him and he reading there the Prophesy of Esay Philip as it is written in the 8th Chapter of the Acts enquired of him Whether he understood that which he read or no He made answer saying Et quomodo possum si non aliquis ostenderit mihi in which words are reproved the intollerable boldness of such as will enterprize without any Teacher yea contemning all Doctors to unclasp the Book and thereby instead of Eternal Food drink up deadly Poison For whereas the Scripture is misconstrued and taken in a wrong sense that it is not the Scripture of God but as St. Hierom saith Writing upon the Epistle to the Galathians it is the Scripture of the Devil And we do not contend with Hereticks for the Scripture but for the true sense and meaning of the Scripture We read of Ceremonies in the Old Testament as the Circumcision the Bells and Pomegranates of Aaron's Apparel with many other and kinds of Sacrifices which all were as St. Paul saith unto the Hebrews Justitia Carnis and did not inwardly justify the Party before God that objected in Protestation of their Faith in Christ to come And although they had the knowledg of every Fact of Christ which was signified particularly by those Ceremonies And it is evident and plain that the High Priest entred into the inner Part of the Temple named Sanctum Sanctorum whereas the People might not follow nor lawful for them to stand but there where they could neither see nor hear what the Priest either said or did as St. Luke in the first Chapter of his Gospel rehearseth in the History of Zachary Upon Conference of these two Testaments may be plainly gathered this Doctrine That in the School of Christ many things may be said and done the Mystery whereof the People knoweth not neither are they bound to know Which things that is that the People did not hear and understand the Common Prayer of the Priest and Minister it is evident and plain by the practice of the Ancient Greek Church and that also that now is at Venice or else-where In that East Church the Priest standeth as it were in a Travice or Closet hang'd round about with Curtains or Vails apart from the People And after the Consecration when he sheweth the Blessed Sacrament the Curtains are drawn whereof Chrysostom speaketh thus Cum Vela videris retrahi tunc superne Coelum aperiri cogita When thou seest the Vails or Curtains drawn open then think thou that Heaven is open from above It is also here to be noted That there is two manners of Prayings one Publick another Private for which cause the Church hath such considerations of the Publick Prayer that it destroyeth not nor taketh away the Private Prayer of the People in time of Sacrifice or other Divine Service which thing would chance if the People should do nothing but hearken to answer and say Amen Besides the impossibility of the Matter whereas in a great Parish every Man cannot hear what the Priest saith though the Material Church were defaced and he left the Altar of God and stood in the midst of the People Furthermore If we should confess that it were necessary to have Common Prayer in the Vulgar Tongue these two Heresies would follow upon it that Prayer profiteth no Man but him that understandeth it and him also that is present and heareth it and so by consequent void was the Prayer for St. Peter in Prison by the Church abroad Now consider the Practice of this Realm If we should grant the Service to be in English we should not have that in the same form that it is in now being in Latin
two several times that is to say the Sundays next following Easterday and St. Michael the Arch-Angel or on some other Sunday within one month after those Feasts immediately after the Gospel FOrasmuch as it appertaineth to all Christian Men but especially to the Ministers and the Pastors of the Church being Teachers and Instructers of others to be ready to give a Reason of their Faith when they shall be thereunto required I for my part now appointed your Parson Vicar or Curat having before my Eyes the Fear of God and the Testimony of my Conscience do acknowledg for my self and require you to assent to the same I. First That there is but one living and true God of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the maker and preserver of all Things And that in Unity of this God-head there be three Persons of one Substance of equal Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. I believe also whatsoever is contained in the Holy Canonical Scriptures In the which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to Salvation by the which also all Errors and Heresies may sufficiently be reproved and convicted and all Doctrine and Articles necessary to Salvation established I do also most firmly believe and confess all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds The Nicene Creed Athanasius Creed and our Common Creed called the Apostles Creed for these do briefly contain the principal Articles of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy Scriptures III. I do acknowledg also that Church to be the Spouse of Christ wherein the Word of God is truly taught the Sacraments orderly ministred according to Christ's Institution and the Authority of the Keys duly used And that every such particular Church hath authority to institute to change clean to put away Ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical Rites as they be superfluous or be abused and to constitute other making more to Seemliness to Order or Edification IV. Moreover I confess That it is not lawful for any Man to take upon him any Office or Ministry either Ecclesiastical or Secular but such only as are lawfully thereunto called by their High Authorities according to the Ordinances of this Realm V. Furthermore I do acknowledg the Queen's Majesty's Prerogative and Superiority of Government of all Estates and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within this Realm and other her Dominions and Countries to be agreable to God's Word and of right to appertain to her Highness in such sort as is in the late Act of Parliament expressed and sithence by her Majesty's Injunctions declared and expounded VI. Moreover touching the Bishop of Rome I do acknowledg and confess that by the Scriptures and Word of God he hath no more Authority than other Bishops have in their Provinces and Diocesses And therefore the Power which he now challengeth that is to be the Supream Head of the Universal Church of Christ and so to be above all Emperors Kings and Princes is an usurped Power contrary to the Scriptures and Word of God and contrary to the Example of the Primitive Church and therefore is for most just Causes taken away and abolished in this Realm VII Furthermore I do grant and confess That the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set sorth by the Authority of Parliament is agreeable to the Scriptures and that it is Catholick Apostolick and most for the advancing of God's Glory and the edifying of God's People both for that it is in a Tongue that may be understanded of the People and also for the Doctrine and Form of ministration contained in the same VIII And although in the Administration of Baptism there is neither Exorcism Oil Salt Spittle or hallowing of the Water now used and for that they were of late Years abused and esteemed necessary Where they pertain not to the substance and necessity of the Sacrament they be reasonably abolished and yet the Sacrament full and perfectly ministred to all intents and purposes agreeable to the Institution of our Saviour Christ IX Moreover I do not only acknowledg that Privat Masses were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church I mean publick Ministration and receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest alone without a just number of Communicants according to Christ's saying Take ye and eat ye c. But also that the Doctrine that maintaineth the Mass to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead and a mean to deliver Souls out of Purgatory is neither agreeable to Christ's Ordinance nor grounded upon Doctrine Apostolick But contrary-wise most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Redemption of our Saviour Christ and his only-sufficient Sacrifice offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross X. I am of that mind also That the Holy Communion or Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the due obedience to Christ's Institution and to express the vertue of the same ought to be ministred unto the People under both kinds And that it is avouched by certain Fathers of the Church to be a plain Sacrilege to rob them of the Mystical Cup for whom Christ hath shed his most precious Blood seeing he himself hath said Drink ye all of this Considering also That in the time of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as Cyprian Hierom Augustine Gelasius and others six hundred Years after Christ and more both the Parts of the Sacrament were ministred to the People Last of all As I do utterly disallow the extolling of Images Reliques and feigned Miracles and also all kind of expressing God Invisible in the form of an Old Man or the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove and all other vain worshipping of God devised by Man's fantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures As wandering on Pilgrimages setting up of Candles praying upon Beads and such-like Superstition which kind of Works have no promise of Reward in Scripture but contrary-wise Threatnings and Maledictions So I do exhort all Men to the Obedience of God's Law and to the Works of Faith as Charity Mercy Pity Alms devout and fervent Prayer with the affection of the Heart and not with the Mouth only Godly Abstinence and Fasting Chastity Obedience to the Rulers and Superior Powers with such-like Works and godliness of Life commanded by God in his Word which as St. Paul saith hath Promises both of this Life and of the Life to come and are Works only acceptable in God's sight These things above-rehearsed though they be appointed by common Order yet do I without all compulsion with freedom of Mind and Conscience from the bottom of my Heart and upon most sure persuasion acknowledg to be true and agreeable to God's Word And therefore I exhort you all of whom I have Cure heartily and obediently to embrace and receive the same That we all joining together in unity of Spirit Faith and Charity may also at length be joined together in the Kingdom of God and that
King Henry at his Death but two Years before Ibid. 5. He says On the 27th of February two days before the King was crowned the Protector persuaded the King to create many new Peers who were all Hereticks except Dudley Earl of Warwick Our Author by this shew of exactness would persuade the Reader that he had considered Dates and the smallest particulars with the care that became an Historian But he little thought that any would come after him and examine what he said By this Account the King must have been crowned the first of March but it was done Feb. 20. and the Peers were created on the 16th of February four days before They were not all Hereticks for he forgot that Wriothesley was at the same time made Earl of Southampton which he afterwards insinuates was done upon another account But all those Creations were in persuance of King Henry's Designs and in obedience to his latter Will Ibid. 6. He says They forced Wriothesley to resign his Office and turned both him and the Earl of Arundel out of the Council because they were Catholicks Wriothesley was turned out upon no account of Religion but for putting the Great Seal to a Commission that was against Law according to the Opinion which the Judges declared under their hands without any Warrant from the Council himself acknowledging the justice of the Sentence The Earl of Arundel was not turned out of the Council on the contrary in the Patent by which the Protector held his Office that passed after the Chancellor was removed he is named to be one of the Privy Council 7. He says Pag. 179. The Protector would needs force all the Clergy to submit in every thing to the King's Orders and sets down the Form in which the King writ to Arch-Bishop Cranmer In this nothing was done but what was begun by King Henry and to which all the Clergy even his beloved Bonner not excepted had formerly submitted So this was no new thing set up by the Protector it being only the renewing the Bishops Patents in the new King's Name And this was no part of the Reformation for it was done only to awe the Popish Bishops but was soon after laid aside What he sets down as a Letter of King Edward's to Cranmer is the Preamble of the Patent he took out So little did this Writer know the things that truly make to the advantage to the Cause which he designed to assert 8. He says The New Protector among the first things he did Pag. 180. restrained all Preaching and silenced all the Bishops and Pastors so that none were licensed to preach but the Lutherans and Zuinglians The first Injunctions set out in the King's Name required all Bishops to preach at least four times a Year in their Diocesses and to keep Learned Chaplains who might be able to preach and should be often much employed in it And thus Matters stood the first Year of this Reign In the beginning of the second Year upon complaints made of the rashness of some Preachers a Proclamation was put out that none should preach without a License from the King or the Arch-Bishops or the Bishop of the Diocess except Incumbents in their own Parishes Afterwards there was for some little time a total prohibition of Preaching but that was to last for a short while till the Book of Common Prayer which was then a preparing should be finished This was equally made on both hands for the Prohibition was universal without exception so falsly has our Author stated this Matter which one would think he ignorantly drew from what Queen Mary did applying it to this Reign for she upon her coming to the Crown did prohibit all Preaching excepting only such as were licensed to it by Gardiner under the Great Seal 9. He says Latimer was turned out of the Bishoprick of Worcester Pag. 181. by King Henry upon suspicion of Heresy Latimer did freely resign his Bishoprick upon the passing of the Act of the six Articles with which he could not comply with a good Conscience 10. He says The Protector put Cox and Cheek about the King Pag. 182. that they might corrupt his Mind with Heretical Doctrines These were put about him three Years before by King Henry's Order as that young King himself informs us in his Journal Pag. 184. 11. He says The Heads of the Colleges were turned out and the Catholick Doctors were forbid to preach I do not find one Head of a College in either University was turned out for though they generally loved the Old Superstition yet they loved their Places much better And indeed the whole Clergy did so readily conform themselves to every Change that was made that it was not easy to find Colours for turning out Bonner and Gardiner All Preachers had the liberty of their own Pulpits except for a very little while Ibid. 12. He says They decried the School Divinity and the Works of Lombard Aquinas and Scotus and so threw all Learning out of the Schools They could not do that more than Sir Thomas More Erasmus and other Popish Writers had done before them who had expressed their scorn of that way of Treating Divine Matters so copiously that it was no wonder it was much despised Those Writers had by a set of dark and barbarous Maxims and Terms so intangled all the Articles of Faith and imposed by the World on an appearance of saying somewhat when really they said nothing and pretending to explain Religion they had so exposed it that their way of Divinity was become equally nauseous and ridiculous Pag. 186. 13. He says Bucer and Peter Martyr being brought out of Germany did corrupt the Universities and entertained the Youth with Discourses of Predestination Reprobation and a fatal necessity of things This was so far from being much taught that on the contrary in one of the Articles of Religion the curious Enquiries into those abstruse Points was by Publick Authority forbid Bucer and Martyr read for most part in the Chairs upon the Mass and the other Corruptions of the Popish Worship They also declared St. Austin's Doctrine about Grace but I do not find they ever medled with Reprobation Pag. 190. 14. After a long Invective which is to pass as a piece of his Wit and Poetry he says Bucer was inclined to become a Jew and was descended from Jewish Parents and that the Lord Paget had heard him say That the Corporal Presence was so clear in the Scripture that no Man could deny it who believed the Gospel but for his part he did not believe all that was said in the New Testament concerning our Saviour This is as sutable to our Author's Honesty as can be Bucer was never accused of this by any of his Enemies as long as he lived No Man in that Age writ with a greater sense of the Kingdom of Christ than he did And for the Story of the Lord Paget we have nothing
Offices and the Parties so refusing were subjected to no other Danger nor was the Oath to be put to them a second Time It is true if any did assert the Authority of any Forreign Potentate that was more penal Yet that was not as our Author represents it for the first Offence there was a forfeiture of ones Goods or in case of Poverty one Years Imprisonment the second Offence brought the Offender within a Premunire and the third was Treason 5. He says The Change that was made Pag. 258. of the Title of Supream Head into that of Supream Governor deceived many yet others thought that the Queen might have thereby assumed an Authority for Administring the Sacraments but to clear all Scruples she in the first Visitation ordered it to be thus explained that she thereby pretended to no more Power than what her Father and Brother had exercised In the first Visitation ordered by the Queen there was an Injunction given Explanatory to the Oath of Supremacy declaring that she did not pretend to any Authority for the Ministry of Divine Service in the Church and challenged nothing but what had at all times belonged to the Crown of England which was a Soveraignty over all manner of Persons under God so that no Forreign Power had any Rule over them and so was willing to acquit such as took it in that sense of all the Penalties in the Act. So that it is plain she assumed nothing but the Royal Authority and was ready to accept of such Explications as might clear all Ambiguities 6. He reckons among the Laws that were made this for one Pag. 259. that Bishops should hold their Sees only during the Queen's Pleasure and exercise no other Authority but only as they derived it from her The Laws he reckons were those made by King Henry now revived but this Law is falsly recited in both the parts of it for the Bishops were to hold their Sees as all others do their Free-holds without any dependence on the Queen's Pleasure and were to exercise their Jurisdiction in their own Names and according to the Ecclesiastical Laws and were not forced to take Commissions to hold their Bishopricks during the Queen's Pleasure as had been done both in King Henry and King Edward's Time Pag. 263. 7. After a long discourse against the Queen's Supremacy he says The Laws concerning it and other Points of Religion did pass with great difficulty in the House of Lords all the Bishops opposing them and those Noblemen in particular who had gone to Rome upon the Embassy Queen Mary sent thither did very earnestly disswade it It is true all the Bishops did oppose them tho both Tonstal Heath Thirleby and some others had consented to and written for King Henry's Supremacy which was at least as to the manner of expressing it of a higher strain than that to which the Queen did now pretend They had also submitted to all the Changes that had been made in King Edward's Time For the Temporal Lords none dissented from the Act of Supremacy but the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Viscount Montacute so the opposition was small where so few entred their Dissents and of these only the Viscount Montacute had been at Rome sent thither by Queen Mary It is true the Marquess of Winchester and the Lords Morley Stafford Dudley Wharton Rich and North dissented from the Bill for the Book of Common Prayer and some other Acts that related to the Reformation but these being but few in number were far short of those that were for them and it is clear the Queen left the Peers wholly to their freedom since the Marquess of Winchester notwithstanding his Dissent continued to hold that great Office of Lord Treasurer in which he had been put in King Edward's Time and which he had kept all Queen Mary's Reign till his Death fourteen Years after this this may perhaps be justly censured as looking too like a remissness in the Matters of Religion when he that dissented to the Reformation was yet so long employed in the greatest Trust in the Kingdom but certainly this is none of the Claws to know the Lioness by 8. He says The Queen gave the Earl of Arundel some hopes that she would marry him and so perswaded him to consent to the Laws now made but afterwards slighted him and declared she would live and die a Virgin The Journals of Parliament shew how false this is for the Address was made to the Queen persuading her to marry to which she made the Answer set down by our Author on the 6th of February and the Act of Supremacy with the other Acts concerning Religion passed in April thereafter so that the Queen after so publick a Declaration of her unwillingness to marry could not have deluded the Earl of Arundel with the hopes of it Ibid. 9. He says She wrought on the D. of Norfolk by promising him a Dispensation in the Business of his Marriage which he could not obtain of the Pope It is not like the Duke of Norfolk was denied any such Dispensation from Rome nor are there any Dispensations granted in England for marrying in the forbidden Degrees Cousin Germans are the nearest that may marry The obtaining a License for that at Rome is a matter of course so the Fees are but paied and the Law allows that to all in England Nor are there any Dispensations in Matrimonial Matters except concerning the Time the Place or the asking of Banes and it is not likely these were ever denied to any at Rome As for his long Excursion concerning that Duke's Death it not falling within the compass of my History I shall not follow him in it 10. He says The Protestants desired a publick Disputation Pag. 266. so the Queen commanded the Bishops to make ready for it they refused it a great while since that seemed to make the Faith of the Church subject to the judgment of the ignorant Laity but at last they were forced to yield to it and the Points were Communion in both kinds Prayer in a known Tongue and the like The Act of Council has it otherwise By it we see that the Arch-Bishop of York being then a Privy Councellor did heartily agree to it and undertook that the rest of his Brethren should follow the Orders that were made by the Council concerning it tho it is not to be denied but some of the Bishops were secretly dissatisfied with it as they had good reason since a publick Disputation was like to lay open the weakness of their Cause which was never so safe as when it was received in gross without descending to troublesome Enquiries concerning it The Communion in both kinds was not one of the Articles 11. He says Bacon a Lay-man was Judg Ibid. the Arch-Bishop of York sitting next to him only for forms-sake Bacon was not Judg the whole Privy-Council were present to order the Forms of the Debate and he as the first of
Christs Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament Upon which many of the Assembly that were indiscreetly hot on both sides cried out some approving and others disliking it Of the Kings Authority under Age and of the Power of the Council in that Case he said not a word and upon that he was imprisoned The occasion of this was the Popish Clergy began generally to have it spread among them that though they had acknowledged the Kings Supremacy yet they had never owned the Councils Supremacy That the Council could only see to the execution of the Laws and Orders that had been made but could not make new ones and that therefore the Supremacy could not be exercised till the King in whose Person it was vested came to be of Age to consider of Matters himself Upon this the Lawyers were consulted who did unanimously resolve that the Supremacy being annexed to the Regal Dignity was the same in a King under Age when it was executed by the Council that it was in a King at full Age and therefore things ordered by the Council now had the same Authority in Law that they could have when the King did act himself But this did not satisfie the greater part of the Clergy Some of whom by the high Flatteries that had been given to Kings in King Henry's time seemed to fancy that there were degrees of Divine Illumination derived unto Princes by the anointing them at the Coronation and these not exerting themselves till a King attained to a ripeness of understanding they thought the Supremacy was to lie dormant while he was so young The Protector and Council endeavoured to have got Gardiner to declare against this but he would not meddle in it How far he might set forward the other Opinion I do not know These Proceedings against him were thought too severe and without Law but he being generally hated they were not so much censured as they had been if they had fallen on a more acceptable Man And thus were the Orders made by the Council generally obeyed many being terrified with the usage Gardiner met with from which others inferred what they might look for if they were refractory when so great a Bishop was so treated The next thing Cranmer set about was the compiling of a Catechisme or large instruction of young Persons in the Grounds of the Christian Religion In it he reckons the two first Commandments but one Cranmer sets out a Catechisme though he says many of the Ancients divided them in two But the division was of no great consequence so no part of the Decalogue were suppressed by the Church He shewed that the excuses the Papists had for Images were no other than what the Heathens brought for their Idolatry who also said they did not worship the Image but that only which was represented by it He particularly takes notice of the Image of the Trinity He shews how St. Peter would not suffer Cornelius and the Angel would not suffer St. John to worship them The believing that there is a vertue in one Image more than in another he accounts plain Idolatry Ezekias broke the Brazen Serpent when abused though it was a Type or Image of Christ made by Gods command to which a miraculous Vertue had been once given So now there was good reason to break Images when they had been so abused to superstition and Idolatry and when they gave such scandal to Jews and Mahometans who generally accounted the Christians Idolaters on that account He asserts besides the two Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper the Power of reconciling Sinners to God as a third and fully owns the Divine Institution of Bishops and Priests and wishes that the Canons and Rites of publick Penitence were again restored and exhorts much to Confession and the Peoples dealing with their Pastors about their Consciences that so they might upon knowledge bind and loose according to the Gospel Having finished this easie but most useful work he dedicated it to the King And in his Epistle to him complains of the great neglect that had been in former times of Catechising and that Confirmation had not been rightly administred since it ought to be given only to these of Age who understood the Principles of the Christian Doctrine and did upon knowledge and with sincere minds renew their Baptismal Vow From this it will appear that from the beginning of this Reformation the Practice of the Roman Church in the matter of Images was held Idolatrous Cranmer's zeal for restoring the Penitentiary Canons is also clear and it is plain that he had now quite laid aside those singular opinions which he formerly held of the Ecclesiastical Functions for now in a Work which was wholly his own without the concurrence of any others he fully sets forth their Divine Institution All these things made way for a greater Work which these selected Bishops and Divines who had laboured in the setting forth of the Office of the Communion were now preparing which was the entire Reformation of the whole Service of the Church In order to this they brought together all the Offices used in England In the Southern Parts A General Reformation of all the Offices of the Church is set about those after the use of Sarum were universally received which were believed to have been compiled by Osmund Bishop of Sarum In the North of England they had other Offices after the use of York In South-Wales they had them after the use of Hereford In North-Wales after the use of Bangor And in Lincoln another sort of an Office proper to that See In the Primitive Church when the extraordinary Gifts ceased the Bishops of the several Churches put their Offices and Prayers into such a Method as was nearest to what they had heard or remembred from the Apostles And these Liturgies were called by the Apostles Names from whose Forms they had been composed as that at Jerusalem carried the Name of St. James and that of Alexandria the Name of St. Mark though those Books that we have now under these Names are certainly so interpolated that they are of no great Authority But in the fourth Century we have these Liturgies first mentioned The Council of Laodicea appointed the same Office of Prayers to be used in the Mornings and Evenings The Bishops continued to draw up new Additions and to put old Forms into other Methods But this was left to every Bishops care nor was it made the Subject of any publick Consultation till St. Austins time when in their dealings with Hereticks they found they took advantages from some of the Prayers that were in some Churches Upon this he tells us it was ordered that there should be no Prayers used in the Church but upon common advice after that the Liturgies came to be more carefully considered Formerly the Worship of God was a pure and simple thing and so it continued till Superstition had so infected the Church that those Forms were thought too naked
a natural effect of that belief to have the Sacrament carried by the Priest himself with some Pomp and Adoration The Ancients thought it more decent and sutable to the Communion of Saints to consecrate the Elements only in the Church and to send Portions to the Sick thereby expressing their Communion with the rest The Reformers considering these things steered a middle course They judged the Sacraments necessary where they could be had as appointments instituted by Christ and though they thought it more expedient to have all Baptisms done in the Church at the Fonts than in private Houses thereby signifying that the Baptized were admitted to the fellowship of that Church yet since our Saviour had said That where two or three are gathered together he will be in the midst of them they thought it savoured too much of a Superstition to the Walls or Fonts of Churches to tie this Action so to these that where Children either through infirmity or the sharpness of Weather could not be without danger carried to Church they should be denied Baptism But still they thought publick Baptism more expressive of the Communion of the Saints so that they recommended it much and only permitted the other in Cases of necessity This has since grown to a great abuse many thinking it a piece of state to have their Children Baptized in their Houses and so bringing their pride with them even into the most Sacred Performances There may be also a fault in the Ministers who are too easily brought to do it But it is now become so universal that all the endeavours of some of our Bishops have not been able to bring it back to the first design of not Baptizing in private Houses excepting only where there was some visible danger in carrying the Children to Church As for the other Sacrament it was thought by our Reformers that according to the mind of the Primitive Church none should be denied it in their extremities it never being more necessary than at that time to use all means that might strengthen the faith and quicken the devotion of dying Persons it being also most expedient that they should then profess their dying in the Faith and with a good Conscience and in Charity with all Men Therefore they ordered the Communion to be given to the Sick and that before it were so given the Priest should examine their Consciences and upon the sincere profession of their Faith and the confession of such sins as oppressed their Consciences with the doing of all that was then in their power for the compleating of their Repentance as the forgiving injuries and dealing justly with all People he should give them the Peace of the Church in a formal Absolution and the Holy Eucharist But that they might avoid the pomp of vain Processions on the one hand and the indecencies of sending the Sacrament by common Hands on the other they thought it better to gather a Congregation about the Sick Person and there to consecrate and give the Sacrament to that small Assembly where as Christs Promise of being in the midst of two or three that were gathered together in his Name should have put an end to the weak exceptions some have made to these private Communions so on the other hand it is to be feared that the greater part retain still too much of the Superstition of Popery as if the Priests Absolution with the Sacrament and some slight sorrow for sin would be a sure Pass-port for their admittance to Heaven which it is certain can only be had upon so true a Faith as carries a sincere Repentance with a change of Heart and Life along with it for to such only the Mercies of God through the Merits of Jesus Christ are applied in all ordinary Cases To all this they prefixed a Preface concerning Ceremonies The Preface to the Book of common-Common-Prayer the same that is still before the Common-Prayer-Book In which Preface they make a difference between those Ceremonies that were brought in with a good intent and were afterwards abused and others that had been brought in out of vanity and superstition at first and grew to be more abused The one they had quite rejected the other they had reformed and retained for decency and edification Some were so set on their old Forms that they thought it a great matter to depart from any of them others were desirous to innovate in every thing between both which they had kept a mean The burthen of Ceremonies in St. Austins days was such that he complained of them then as intolerable by which the state of Christians was worse than that of the Jews but these were swelled to a far greater number since his days which did indeed darken Religion and had brought Christians under a heavy Yoke Therefore they had only reserved such as were decent and apt to stir up Mens Minds with some good signification Many Ceremonies had been so abused by superstition and avarice that it was necessary to take them quite away But since it was fit to retain some for decency and order it seemed better to keep those which were old than to seek new ones But these that were kept were not thought equal with Gods Law and so were upon just causes to be altered they were also plain and easie to be understood and not very subject to be abused Nor did they in retaining these condemn other Nations or prescribe to any but their own People And thus was this Book made ready against the next meeting of Parliament In it the use of the Cross was retained Reflections made on the new Liturgy since it had been used by the ancient Christians as a publick declaration that they were not ashamed of the Cross of Christ Though they acknowledged this had been strangely abused in the later Ages in which the bare use of the Cross was thought to have some Magical Vertue in it And this had gone so far that in the Roman Pontifical it was declared that the Crosier Staff was to be worshiped with that supream degree of Adoration called Latria But it was thought fit to retain it in some parts of Worship and the rather because it was made use of among the People to defame the Reformers that they had no Veneration for the Cross of Christ And therefore as an outward expression of that in the Sacrament of Baptism and in the Office of Confirmation and in the consecration of the Sacramental Elements it was ordered to be retained but with this difference that the Sign of the Cross was not made with the opinion of any vertue or efficacy in it to drive away evil Spirits or to preserve one out of dangers which were thought Vertues that followed the use of it in the Roman Church for in Baptism as they used the Sign of the Cross they added an Adjuration to the evil Spirit not to violate it and in the making it said Receive the Sign of the Cross both in
would consent to it so if he had married her without that the possibility of succeeding to the Crown was cut off by King Henry's Will And this Attempt of his occasioned that Act to be put in which was formerly mentioned for declaring the marrying the Kings Sisters without consent of Council to be Treason Seeing he could not compass that design he resolved to carry away the King to his House of Holt in the Country and so to displace his Brother and to take the Government into his own hands For this end he had laid in Magazines of Arms and listed about 10000 Men in several Places and openly complained that his Brother intended to enslave the Nation and make himself Master of all and had therefore brought over those German Soldiers He had also entred into Treaty with several of the Nobility that envied his Brothers greatness and were not ill pleased to see a breach between them and that grown to be irreconcilable To these he promised that they should be of the Council and that he would dispose of the King in Marriage to one of their Daughters the Person is not named The Protector had often told him of these things and warned him of the danger into which he would throw himself by such ways but he persisted still in his designs though he denied and excused them as long as was possible Now his restless ambition seeming incurable he was on the 19th of Jan. sent to the Tower The original Warrant Jan. 19. The Admiral sent to the Tower Signed by all the Privy Council is in the Council-Book formerly mentioned where the Earl of Southampton Signs with the rest who was now in outward appearance reconciled to the Protector On the day following the Admirals Seal of his Office was sent for and put into Secretary Smiths Hands And now many things broke out against him and particularly a Conspiracy of his with Sir W. Sharington Vice-Treasurer of the Mint at Bristol who was to have furnished him with 10000 l. and had already coined about 12000 l. false Money and had clipt a great deal more to the value of 40000 l. in all for which he was attainted by a Process at Common Law and that was confirmed in Parliament Fowler also that waited in the Privy Chamber with some few others were sent to the Tower Many complaints being usually brought against a sinking Man the Lord Russel the Earl of Southampton and Secretary Petre were ordered to receive their Examinations And thus the Business was let alone till the 28 of Feb. in which time his Brother did again try if it were possible to bring him to a better temper And as he had since their first breach granted him 800 l. a year in Land to gain his friendship so means were now used to perswade him to submit himself and to withdraw from Court and from all employment But it appeared that nothing could be done to him that could cure his ambition or the hatred he carried to his Brother And therefore on the 22d of Feb. a full report was made to the Council of all the things that were informed against him consisting not only of the Particulars formerly mentioned but of many foul misdemeanours in the discharge of the Admiralty several Pirates being entertained by him who gave him a share of their Robberies and whom he had protected notwithstanding the Complaints made by other Princes by which the King was in danger of a War from the Princes so complaining The whole Charge consists of 33 Articles which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 31. The Particulars as it is entred in the Council-Book were so manifestly proved not only by Witnesses but by Letters under his own Hand that it did not seem possible to deny them Yet he had been sent to and examined by some of the Council but refused to make a direct Answer to them or to Sign those Answers that he had made So it was ordered that the next day all the Privy Council except the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Sir John Baker Speaker to the House of Commons who was engaged to attend in the House should go to the Tower and examine him On the 23d the Lord Chancellor with the other Councellors went to him and read the Articles of his Charge and earnestly desired him to make plain Answers to them excusing himself where he could and submitting himself in other things and that he would shew no obstinacy of Mind He answered them That he expected an open Trial and his Accusers to be brought face to face All the Councellors endeavoured to perswade him to be more tractable but to no purpose At last the Lord Chancellor required him on his Allegiance to make his Answer He desired they would leave the Articles with him and he would consider of them otherwise he would make no Answer to them But the Councellors resolved not to leave them with him on those terms On the 24th of Feb. it was resolved in Council that the whole Board should after Dinner acquaint the King with the state of that Affair and desire to know of him whether he would have the Law to take place and since the thing had been before the Parliament whether he would leave it to their determination so tender they were of their young King in a Case that concerned his Unkles Life But the King had begun to discern his seditious temper and was now much alienated from him The Council desired the King to refer the Matter to the Parliament When the Councellors waited on him the Lord Chancellor opened the Matter to the King and delivered his Opinion for leaving it to the Parliament Then every Councellor by himself spake his mind all to the same purpose Last of all the Protector spake he protested this was a most sorrowful business to him that he had used all the means in his power to keep it from coming to this extremity but were it Son or Brother he must prefer his Majesties safety to them for he weighed his Allegiance more than his Blood and that therefore he was not against the request that the other Lords had made and said if he himself were guilty of such offences he should not think he were worthy of life and the rather because he was of all Men the most bound to his Majesty and therefore he could not refuse Justice The King answered them in these words Who consented to it We perceive that there are great things objected and laid to my Lord Admiral my Unkle and they tend to Treason and We perceive that you require but Justice to be done We think it reasonable and We Will that you proceed according to your Request Which words as it is marked in the council-Council-Book coming so suddenly from his Graces Mouth of his own motion as the Lords might well perceive they were marvellously rejoyced and gave the King most hearty praise and thanks yet resolved that some of both Houses
lose their Degree in the Church This was soon received over all the Western Church and Arguments were found out afterwards by the Canonists to prove the necessity of continuing it from Davids not being suffered to build the Temple since he was a Man of Blood and from the qualification required by St. Paul in a Bishop That he should be no striker since he seemed to strike that did it either in Person or by one whom he deputed to do it But when afterwards Charles the Great and all the Christian Princes in the West gave their Bishops great Lands and Dominions they obliged them to be in all their Councils and to do them such Services as they required of them by vertue of their Tenures The Popes designing to set up a Spiritual Empire and to bring all Church-lands within it required the Bishops to separate themselves from a dependance on their Princes as much as it was possible And these Laws formerly made about Cases of Blood were judged a Colour good enough why they should not meddle in such Trials so they procured these Cases to be excepted But it seems Cranmer thought his Conscience was under no tie from those Canons and so judged it not contrary to his Function to Sign that Order The Parliament was on the 14th of March Prorogued to the 4th of Nov. the Clergy having granted the King a Subsidy of 6 s. in the Pound to be paid in three Years Subsidies granted by the Clergy and Laity In the Preamble of the Bill of Subsidy they acknowledged the great quietness they enjoyed under him having no Let nor Impediment in the Service of God But the Laity set out their Subsidy with a much fuller Preamble of the great happiness they had by the true Religion of Christ declaring that they were ready to forsake all things rather than Christ as also to assist the King in the Conquest of Scotland which they call a part of his Dominion therefore they give 12 d. in the Pound of all Mens Personal Estates to be paid in three Years But now to look into Matters of Religion there was A New Visitation immediately after the Act of Vniformity pass'd a new Visitation which it is probable went in the same Method that was observed in the former There were two things much complained of the one was that the Priests read the Prayers generally with the same tone of Voice that they had used formerly in the Latin Service so that it was said the People did not understand it much better than they had done the Latin formerly This I have seen represented in many Letters and it was very seriously laid before Cranmer by Martin Bucer The course taken in it was that in all Parish Churches the Service should be read in a plain audible Voice but that the former way should remain in Cathedrals where there were great Quires who were well acquainted with that Tone and where it agreed better with the Musick that was used in the Anthems Yet even there many thought it no proper way in the Letany where the greatest gravity was more agreeable to such humble Addresses than such a modulation of the Voice which to those unacquainted with it seemed light and for others that were more accustomed to it it seemed to be rather use that had reconciled them to it than the natural decency of the thing or any fitness in it to advance the devotion of their Prayers But this was a thing judged of less importance It was said that those who had been accustomed to read in that Voice could not easily alter it but as those dropt off and died others would be put in their places who would officiate in a plainer Voice Some of the old Abuses coninued in the new Service Other Abuses were more important Some used in the Communion-Service many of the old Rites such as kissing the Altar crossing themselves lifting the Book from one place to another breathing on the Bread shewing it openly before the distribution with some other of the old Ceremonies The People did also continue the use of their praying by Beads which was called an Innovation of Peter the Hermite in the 12th Century By it ten Aves went for one Pater Noster and the reciting these so oft in Latin had come to be almost all the devotion of the Vulgar and therefore the People were ordered to leave that unreasonable way of Praying it seeming a most unaccountable thing that the reciting the Angels Salutation to the Blessed Virgin should be such a high piece of Divine Worship And that this should be done ten times for one Prayer to God looked so like preferring the Creature to the Creator that it was not easie to defend it from an appearance of Idolatry The Briests were also ordered to exhort the People to give to the Poor The Curates were required to preach and declare the Catechism at least every sixth Week And some Priests continuing secretly the use of Soul Masses in which for avoiding the censure of the Law they had one to communicate with them but had many of these in one day It was ordered that there should be no selling of the Communion in Trentals and that there should be but one Communion in one Church except on Easter-day and Christmas in which the People coming to the Sacrament in greater numbers there should be one Sacrament in the Morning and another near Noon And there being great abuses in Churches and Church-yards in which in the times of Popery Markets had been held and Bargains made that was forbid chiefly in the time of Divine Service or Sermon Collection Number 33. These Instructions which the Reader will find in the Collection were given in charge to the Visitors Cranmer had also a Visitation about the same time in which the Articles he gave out are all drawn according to the Kings Injunctions By some Questions in them they seem to have been sent out before the Parliament because the Book of Service is not mentioned but the last Question save one being of such as contemned married Priests and refused to receive the Sacrament at their hands I conceive that these were compiled after the Act concerning their Marriage was past but before the Feast of Whit-Sunday following for till then the Common-Prayer-Book was not to be received There were also Orders sent by the Council to the Bishop of London to see that there should be no special Masses in St. Pauls Church which being the Mother-Church in the chief City of the Kingdom would be an example to all the rest and that therefore there should be only one Communion at the great Altar and that at the time when the high Mass was wont to be celebrated unless some desired a Sacrament in the Morning and then it was to be celebrated at the high Altar Bonner who resolved to comply in every thing sent the Councils Letter to the Dean and Residentiaries of St. Pauls to see it obeyed
Church received that Sacrament frequently and in both kinds To the sixth Baptism in Cases of necessity was to be administred at any time but out of these Cases it was fit to do it solemnly and in the Ancient Church it was chiefly done on the Eves of Easter and Whit-Sunday of which usage some Footsteps remained still in the old Offices To the seventh these were late superstitious devices Images were contrary to the Scriptures first set up for remembrance but soon after made Objects of Worship To the eight The old Service had many ludicrous things in it the new was simple and grave If it appeared ridiculous to them it was as the Gospel was long ago foolishness to the Greeks To the ninth The Scriptures say nothing of it it was a superstitious Invention derogatory to Christs death To the tenth The Scriptures are the Word of God and the readiest way to confound that which is Heresie indeed To the eleventh These were ignorant superstitious and deceitful Persons To the twelfth Pool had been attainted in Parliament for his spiteful Writings and Doings against the late King To the thirteenth It was foolish and unreasonable one Servant could not do a Man's business and by this many Servants would want employment To the fourteenth This was to rob the King and those who had these Lands of him and would be a means to make so foul a Rebellion be remembred in their Prayers To the fifteenth These were notorious Traitors to whom the Kings Council was not to submit themselves After this they grew more moderate and sent eight Articles They make new Demands 1. Concerning Baptism 2. About Confirmation 3. Of the Mass 4. For reserving the Host 5. For Holy Bread and Water 6. For the old Service 7. For the single Lives of Priests 8. For the Six Articles and concluded God save the King for they were His both Body and Goods To this there was an Answer sent in the Kings Name on the 8th of July so long did the Treaty with them hold in which Which were also rejected after Expressions of the Kings affection to his People he taxes their rising in Arms against him their King as contrary to the Laws of God He tells them That they are abused by their Priests as in the Instance of Baptism which according to the Book might necessity requiring it be done at all times that the Changes that had been set out were made after long and great consultation and the Worship of this Church by the advice of many Bishops and Learned Men was reformed as near to what Christ and his Apostles had taught and done as could be and all things had been setled in Parliament But the most specious thing that misled them being that of the Kings Age it was shewed them that his Blood and not his Years gave him the Crown and the state of Government requires that at all times there should be the same Authority in Princes and the same Obedience in the People It was all penned in a high threatning Style and concluded with an earnest Invitation of them to submit to the Kings Mercy as others that had risen had also done to whom he had not only shewed Mercy but granted Redress of their just grievances otherwise they might expect the utmost severity that Traitors deserved But nothing prevailed on this enraged Multitude whom the Priests inflamed with all the Artifices they could imagine and among whom the Host was carried about by a Priest on a Cart that all might see it But when this Commotion was thus grown to a Head The Rebellion in Norfolk headed by Ket a Tanner the Men of Norfolk rose the 6th of July being led by one Ket a Tanner These pretended nothing of Religion but only to suppress and destroy the Gentry and to raise the commons and to put new Councellors about the King They encreased mightily and became 20000 strong but had no Order nor Discipline and committed many horrid outrages The Sheriff of the County came boldly to them and required them in the Kings Name to disperse and go home but had he not been well mounted they had put him cruelly to death They came to Moushold Hill above Norwich and were much favoured by many in that City Parker afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury came among them and preached very freely to them of their ill Lives their Rebellion against the King and the Robberies they daily committed by which he was in great danger of his Life Ket assumed to himself the Power of Judicature and under an old Oak called from thence the Oak of Reformation did such Justice as might be expected from such a Judge and in such a Camp The Marquess of Northampton was sent against them but with Orders to keep at a distance from them and to cut off their Provisions for so it was hoped that without the shedding much Blood they might come to themselves again When the news of this Rising came into York-shire the Commons there rose also A Rising in York-shire being further encouraged by a Prophecy That there should be no King nor Nobility in England that the Kingdom should be ruled by four Governours chosen by the Commons who should hold a Parliament in commotion to begin at the South and North Seas This they applied to the Devon-shire Men on the South Seas and themselves on the North Seas They at their first rising fired Beacons and so gathered the Country as if it had been for the defence of the Coast and meeting two Gentlemen with two others with them they without any provocation murdered them and left their naked Bodies unburied The French fall into the Bullognese At the same time that England was in this Commotion the News came that the French King had sent a great Army into the Territory of Bulloigne so that the Government was put to most extraordinary straits A Fast at Court where Cranmer preached Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab. There was a Fast proclaimed in and about London Cranmer preached on the Fast-day at Court I have seen the greatest part of his Sermon under his own Hand and it is the only Sermon of his I ever saw It is a very plain unartificial Discourse no shews of Learning or conceits of Wit in it but he severely expostulated in the Name of God with his Hearers for their ill Lives their Blasphemies Adulteries mutual Hatred Oppression and Contempt of the Gospel and complained of the slackness in punishing these sins by which the Government became in some sort guilty of them He set many Passages of the Jewish Story before them of the Judgments such sins drew on and of Gods Mercy in the unexpected deliverances they met with upon their true Repentance But he chiefly lamented the scandal given by many who pretended a zeal for Religion but used that for a Cloak to disguise their other Vices He set before them the fresh Example of Germany where People generally
of some Opinions should be declared Felony it passed with them but was laid aside by the Lords 1550. A Bill for the Form of Ordaining Ministers was brought in to the House of Lords and was agreed to the Bishops of Duresme Carlisle Worcester Chichester and Westminster protesting against it The Substance of it was An Act about the Forms of giving Orders That such Forms of Ordaining Ministers as should be set forth by the advice of six Prelates and six Divines to be named by the King and authorized by a Warrant under the Great Seal should be used after April next and no other On the second of January a Bill was put in against the Duke of Somerset An Act about the Duke of Somerset of the Articles formerly mentioned with a Confession of them Signed by his Hand This he was prevailed with to do upon assurances given that he should be gently dealt with if he would freely confess and submit himself to the Kings mercy But it was said by some of the Lords that they did not know whether that Confession was not drawn from him by force and that it might be an ill President to pass Acts upon such Papers without examining the Party whether he had subscribed them freely and uncompelled so they sent four Temporal Lords and four Bishops to examine him concerning it And the day following the Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield made the Report that he thanked them for that kind Message but that he had freely subscribed the Confession that lay before them He had made it on his Knees before the King and Council and had Signed it on the 13th of December He protested his offences had flowed from rashness and indiscretion rather than malice and that he had no treasonable design against the King or his Realms So he was fined by Act of Parliament in 2000 l. a year of Land and he lost all his Goods and Offices Upon this he wrote to the Council acknowledging their favour in bringing off his Matter by a Fine he confess'd that he had fall'n into the frailties that often attend on great Places but what he had done amiss was rather for want of true Judgment than from any malicious meaning he humbly desired they would interpose with the King for a moderation of his Fine and that he might be pardoned and restored to favour assuring them that for the future he should carry himself so humbly and obediently that he should thereby make amends for his former follies This was much censured by many as a sign of an abject Spirit others thought it was wisely done in him once to get out of Prison on any terms since the greatness of his former condition gave such jealousie to his Enemies that unless he had his pardon he would be in continual danger as long as he was in their hands So on the 6th of February he was set at liberty giving Bond of 10000 l. for his good behaviour and being limited that he should stay at the Kings House of Sheen or his own of Zion and should not go four Miles from them nor come to the King or the Council unless he were called He had his Pardon on the 16th of February and carried himself after that so humbly that his behaviour with the Kings great kindness to him did so far prevail that on the 10th of April after he was restored into favour and sworn of the Privy-Council And so this storm went over him much more gently than was expected but his carriage in it was thought to have so little of the Hero that he was not much considered after this The Reformation is set on vigorously But to go on with the business of the Parliament reports had been spread that the old Service would be again set up and these were much cherished by those who still loved the former superstition who gave out that a change was to be expected since the New Service had been only the Act of the Duke of Somerset Upon this the Council wrote on Christmas day a Letter to all the Bishops of England to this effect That whereas the English Service had been devised by Learned Men according to the Scripture and the use of the Primitive Church therefore for putting away those vain expectations all Clergy-men were required to deliver to such as should be appointed by the King to receive them all Antiphonales Missals Grayles Processionals Manuals Legends Pies Portuasses Journals and Ordinals after the use of Sarum Lincoln York or any other private use requiring them also to see to the observing one uniform Order in the Service set forth by the common consent of the Realm and particularly to take care that there should be every where provision made of Bread and Wine for the Communion on Sunday This will be found in the Collection But to give a more publick declaration of their zeal Collection Number 46. an Act was brought into Parliament about it and was agreed to by all the Lords except the Earl of Darby the Bishops of Duresme Coventry and Litchfield Carlisle Worcester Westminster and Chichester and the Lords Morley Stourton Windsor and Wharton By it not only all the Books formerly mentioned were to be destroyed but all that had any Image that had belonged to any Church or Chappel were required to deface it before the last of June and in all the Primers set out by the late King the Prayers to the Saints were to be dashed out There was also an Act for a Subsidy to be payed in one year for which there was a Release granted of a Branch of the Subsidy formerly given Last of all came the Kings general Pardon out of which those in the Tower or other Prisons on the account of the State as also all Anabaptists were excepted Thus were all Matters ended and on the first of February the Parliament was prorogued Only in the House of Commons there was a Debate that deserves to be remembred It seems that before this time the Eldest Sons of Peers were not Members of the House of Commons and Sir Francis Russel becoming by the death of his elder Brother Heir apparent to the Lord Russell it was on the 21st of Jan. carried upon a Debate That he should abide in the House as he was before So it is entred in the Original Journal of the House of Commons which was communicated to me by Mr. Surle and Mr. Clark in whose Hands it is now and is the first Journal that ever was taken in that House But it may be expected that I should next give an account of the Forms of Ordination now agreed on Twelve were appointed by the Council to prepare the Book among whom Heath Bishop of Worcester was one but he would not consent to the Reformations that were proposed in it So on the 8th of February he was called before the Council and required to agree to that which all the rest had consented to But he could not be
of these is in French It is a Collection of many Passages out of the Old Testament against Idolatry and the worshiping of Images which he dedicated to his Unkle being then Protector the Original under his own hand lies in Trinity Colledge in Cambridge from whence I copied the Preface and the Conclusion which are printed in the Collection after his Journal Ridley visits his Diocess There was nothing else done of moment this Year in relation to the Church save the Visitation made of the Diocess of London by Ridley their new Bishop But the exact time of it is not set down in the Register It was according to King Edwards Journal some time before the 26th of June for he writes that on that day Sir Jo. Yates the high Sheriff of Essex was sent down with Letters to see the Bishop of Londons Injunctions performed which touched the plucking down of Superaltaries Altars and such like Ceremonies and Abuses so that the Visitation must have been about the beginning of June The Articles of it are in Bishop Sparrows Collection They are concerning the Doctrines and Lives and Labours and Charities of the Clergy viz. Whether they spake in favour of the Bishop of Rome or against the use of the Scripture or against the Book of common-Common-Prayer Whether they stirred up Sedition or sold the Communion or Trentals or used private Masses any where Whether any Anabaptists or others used private Conventicles with different Opinions and Forms from these established Whether there were any that said the wickedness of the Minister took away the effect of the Sacraments or denied Repentance to such as sinned after Baptism Other Questions were about Baptisms and Marriages Whether the Curates did visit the Sick and bury the Dead and expound the Catechisme at least some part of it once in six weeks Whether any observed abrogated Holy-days or the Rites that were now put down Collection Number 52. To these he added some Injunctions which are in the Collection Most of them relate to the old Superstitions which some of the Priests were still inclinable to practise and for which they had been gently if at all reproved by Bonner Such were washing their Hands at the Altar holding up the Bread licking the Chalice blessing their Eyes with the Patten or Sudary and many other Relicks of the Mass The Ministers were also required to charge the People oft to give Alms and to come oft to the Communion and to carry themselves reverently at Church But that which was most new was that there having been great Contests about the Form of the Lords Board whether it should be made as an Altar or as a Table He orders all Altars to be turned to Tables for the Communion Therefore since the Form of a Table was more like to turn the People from the Superstition of the Popish Mass and to the right use of the Lords Supper he exhorted the Curates and Church-wardens to have it in the fashion of a Table decently covered and to place it in such part of the Quire or Chancel as should be most meet so that the Ministers and Communicants should be separated from the rest of the People and that they should put down all By-Altars There are many Passages among Ancient Writers that shew their Communion-Tables were of Wood and that they were so made as Tables that those who fled into Churches for Sanctuary did hide themselves under them The Name Altar came to be given to these generally because they accounted the Eucharist a Sacrifice of Praise as also a Commemorative Sacrifice of the Oblation which Christ made of himself on the Cross From hence it was that the Communion-Table was called also an Altar But now it came to be considered whether as these terms had been on good reason brought in to the Church when there was no thought of the corruptions that followed so if it was not fit since they did still support the belief of an expiatory Sacrifice in the Mass and the opinion of Transubstantiation and were always but Figurative Forms of Speech to change them and to do that more effectually to change the Form and Place of them Some have fondly thought that Ridley gave this Injunction after the Letter which the Council writ to him in the end of November following But as there was no fit time to begin a Visitation after that time this year so the Stile of the Injunctions shews they were given before the Letter The Injunction only exhorts the Curates to do it which Ridley could not have done in such soft words after the Council had required and commanded him to do it So it appears that the Injunctions were given only by his Episcopal Power And that afterwards the same matter being brought before the Council who were inform'd that in many Places there had been Contests about it some being for keeping to their old Custom and others being set on a change the Council thought fit to send their Letter concerning it to Ridley in the beginning of November following The Letter sets out that Altars were taken away in divers Places upon good and godly considerations but still continued in other Places by whiâ—h there rose much contention among the Kings Subjects therefore for avoiding that they did charge and command him to give substantial order through all his Diocess for removing all Altars and setting up Tables every where for the Communion to be administred in some convenient part of the Chancel And that these Orders might be the better received there were Reasons sent with the Letters which he was to cause discreet Preachers to declare in such Places as he thought fit and that himself should set them out in his own Cathedral if conveniently he could The Reasons were to remove the People from the superstitious Opinions of the Popish Mass and because a Table was a more proper Name than an Altar for that on which the Sacrament was laid And whereas in the Book of common-Common-Prayer these terms are promiscuously used it is done without prescribing any thing about the Form of them so that the changing the one into the other did not alter any part of the Liturgy It was observed that Altars were erected for the Sacrifices under the Law which ceasing they were also to cease and that Christ had instituted the Sacrament not at an Altar but at a Table And it had been ordered by the Preface to the Book of common-Common-Prayer that if any doubt arose about any part of it the determining of it should be referred to the Bishop of the Diocess Upon these Reasons therefore was this change ordered to be made all over England which was universally executed this year There began this year a Practice which might seem in itself not only innocent but good Sermons on working days forbidden of preaching Sermons and Lectures on the week days to which there was great running from neighbouring Parishes This as it begat emulation in the Clergy so it was
from it This was a fatal step to the Emperor thus to trust a Prince who was of a different Religion and had a deep resentment of the injury he had done him in detaining his Father-in-law the Landgrave of Hesse Prisoner against the Faith he had given him But the Emperor reckoned that as long as he had John Duke of Saxe in his Hands Maurice durst not depart from his Interests since it seemed an easie thing for him to repossess the other of his Dominions and Dignity Thus was the crafty Emperor deluded and now put that upon which the compleating of his great designs depended into the Hands of one that proved too hard for him at that in which he was such a Master Cunning and Dissimulation 1551. The Compliance of the Popish Clergy In these Consultations did this Year end In the beginning of the next Year there was a great complaint brought against Dr. Oglethorp afterwards Bishop of Carlisle under Queen Mary and now President of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford But he to secure himself from that part of the Complaint that related to Religion being accused as one that was against the new Book of Service and the Kings other Proceedings Signed a Paper Coâ—lection Number 53. which will be found in the Collection in which he declared That he had never taught any thing openly against those but that he thought them good if well used and that he thought the order of Religion now set forth to be better and much nearer the use of the Apostolical and Primitive Church than that which was formerly and that in particular he did approve of the Communion in both kinds the Peoples communicating always with the Priest the Service in English and the Homilies that had been set forth and that he did reject the lately received Doctrine of Transubstantiation as being not agreeable to the Scriptures or to Ancient Writers but he thought there was an inconceivable Presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament and that therefore it should be received not without great examination before-hand So compliant was he now though he became of another mind in Queen Maries time yet then he was more moderate than the greatest part of those who did now comply most servily In particular Dr. Smith had written a Book for the Caelibate of Priests and had opposed all the Changes that had been made He was brought to London upon the Complaints that were sent up against him from Oxford but after a whiles imprisonment he was set at liberty giving Surety for his good behaviour and carried himself so obediently after it that Cranmer got his Sureties to be discharged upon which he writ him a Letter as full of acknowledgment as was possible Collection Number 54. which is in the Collection He protested he should retain the sense of it as long as he lived he wished that he had never written his Book of the Caelibate of Priests which had been printed against his Will he found he was mistaken in that which was the foundation of it all that the Priests of England had taken a Vow against Marriage he desired to see some of the Collections Cranmer had made against it It seems Cranmer was enquiring after a MS. of Ignatius's Epistles for he tells him They were in Magdalen Colledge Library he acknowledged the Arch-bishops great gentleness toward all those who had been complained of for Religion in that University and protested that for his own part if ever he could serve his basest Servant he would do it wishing that he might perish if he thought otherwise than he said and wished him long Life for the propagation and advancement of the Christian Doctrine Soon after he writ another Letter to Cranmer in which he cited some Passages out of Austin concerning his Retractations and professes he would not be ashamed to make the like and to set forth Christs true Religion and called in St. Pauls words God to be a Witness against his Soul if he lied He had also in the beginning of this Reign made a Recantation Sermon of some Opinions he had held concerning the Mass but what these were King Edwards Journal from whence I gather it does not inform us Day Bishop of Chichester did also now so far comply as to preach a Sermon at Court against Transubstantiation though he had refused to set his Hand to the Book of common-Common-Prayer before it was enacted by Law For the Principle that generally run among the Popish Party was that though they would not consent to the making of such Alterations in Religion yet being made they would give obedience to them which Gardiner plainly professed and it appeared in the practice of all the rest This was certainly a gross sort of compliance in those who retained the old Opinions and yet did now declare against them and in the Worship they offered up to God acted contrary to them which was the highest degree of prevarication both with God and Man that was possible But Cranmer was always gentle and moderate He left their private Consciences to God but thought that if they gave an external obedience the People would be brought to receive the Changes more easily whereas the proceeding severely against them might have raised more opposition He was also naturally a Man of Bowels and Compassion and did not love to drive things to extremities he considered that Men who had grown old in some errors could not easily lay them down and so were by degrees to be worn out of them Only in the Proceedings against Gardiner and Bonner he was carried beyond his ordinary temper But Gardiner he knew to be so inveterate a Papist and so deep a Dissembler that he was for throwing him out not so much for the Particulars objected to him as upon the ill Character he had of him Bonner had also deceived him so formerly and had been so cruel a Persecutor upon the Statute of the Six Articles and was become so brutal and luxurious that he judged it necessary to purge the Church of him And the Sees of London and Winchester were of such consequence that he was induced for having these well supplied to stretch a little in these Proceedings against those dissembling Bishops In the end of February he lost his friend Martin Bucer Bucers Death on whose assistance he had depended much in what remained yet to be done Bucer died of the Stone and Griping of the Guts on the 28th of February He lay ill almost all that Month and expressed great desire to die Bradford who will be mentioned in the next Book with much Honour waited most on him in his sickness He lamented much the desolate State of Germany and expressed his apprehensions of some such stroke coming upon England by reason of the great dissoluteness of the Peoples Manners of the want of Ecclesiastical Discipline and the general neglect of the Pastoral Charge He was very patient in all his pain which grew violent on him he lay oft
whom it was passed and had the Royal Assent In the Preamble it is set forth That Men are not at all times so set on the performance of Religious Duties as they ought to be which made it necessary that there should be set times in which labour was to cease that Men might on these days wholly serve God which days were not to be accounted holy of their own nature but were so called because of the Holy Duties then to be set about so that the Sanctification of them was not any Magical Vertue in that time but consisted in the dedicating them to Gods Service that no day was dedicated to any Saint but only to God in remembrance of such Saints that the Scripture had not determined the number of Holy-days but that these were left to the liberty of the Church Therefore they Enact That all Sundays with the days marked in the Calendar and Liturgy should be kept as Holy-days and the Bishops were to proceed by the Censures of the Church against the disobedient A Proviso was added for the observation of St. George's Feast by the Knights of the Garter and another That Labourers or Fisher-men might if need so required work on those days either in or out of Harvest The Eves before Holy-days were to be kept as Fasts and in Lent and on Fridays and Saturdays abstinence from Flesh was Enacted but if a Holy-day fell to be on a Mâ—nday the Eve for it was to be kept on Saturday since Sunday was never to be a Fasting-day But it was generally observed that in this and all such Acts the People were ready enough to lay hold on any relaxation made by it but did very slightly observe the stricter parts of it so that the liberty left to Trades-men to work in cases of necessity was carried further than it was intended to a too publick profanation of the time so sanctified and the other parts of it directing the People to a conscientious observing of such times was little minded On the 5th of March a Bill concerning the relief of the Poor was put into the House of Lords the Form of passing it has given occasion to some to take notice that though it is a Bill for taxing the Subjects yet it had its first birth in the Lords House and was agreed to by the Commons By it the Church-wardens were empow'red to gather charitable Collections for the Poor and if any did refuse to contribute or did disswade others from it the Bishop of the Diocess was to proceed against them On the 9th of March the Bishops put in a Bill for the security of the Clergy from some ambiguous words that were in the submission which the Convocation had made to King Henry in the 21st year of his Reign by which they were under a Praemunire if they did any things in their Courts contrary to the Kings Prerogative which was thought hard since some through ignorance might transgress Therefore it was desired that no Prelate should be brought under a Praemunire unless they had proceeded in any thing after they were prohibited by the Kings Writ To this the Lords consented but it was let fall by the Commons There was another Act brought in for the Marriage of the Clergy which was agreed to by the Lords An Act for the Marriagé of the Clergy the Earls of Shrewsbury Darby Rutland and Bath and the Lords Abergaveny Stourton Mounteagle Sands Windsor and Wharton protesting against it The Commons also passed it and it was assented to by the King By it was set forth That many took occasion from words in the Act formerly made about this matter to say that it was only permitted as Usury and other unlawful things were for the avoiding greater evils who thereupon spake slanderously of such Marriages and accounted the Children begotten in them to be Bastards to the high dishonour of the King and Parliament and the Learned Clergy of the Realm who had determined that the Laws against Priests Marriages were most unlawful by the Law of God to which they had not only given their Assent in the Convocation but Signed it with all their Hands These slanders did also occasion that the Word of God was not heard with due reverence whereupon it was Enacted That such Marriages made according to the Rules prescribed in the Book of Service should be esteemed good and valid and that the Children begot in them should be inheritable according to Law The Marquess of Northampton did also put in a Bill for confirming his Marriage which was passed only the Earl of Darby the Bishops of Carlisle and Norwich and the Lord Stourton dissented By it the Marriage is declared lawful as by the Law of God indeed it was any Decretal Canon Ecclesiastical Law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding This occasioned another Act That no Man might put away his Wife and marry another unless he were formerly divorced to which the Bishop of Norwich dissented because he was of opinion that a Divorce did not break the Marriage-Bond But this Bill fell in the House of Commons being thought not necessary for the Laws were already severe enough against such double Marriages By another Act the Bishoprick of Westminster was quite suppressed and re-united to the See of London but the Collegiate Church with it s exempted Jurisdiction An Act against Usury was still continued Another Bill was put in against Usury which was sent from the Lords to the Commons and passed by both and assented to By it an Act passed in Parliament in the 37th year of the late Kings Reign That none might take above 20 per Cent. for Money lent was repealed which they say was not intended for the allowing of Usury but for preventing further inconveniences and since Usury was by the Word of God forbidden and set out in divers places of Scripture as a most odious and detestable vice which yet many continued to practise for the filthy gain they made by it therefore from the first of May all Usury or gain for Money lent was to cease and whosoever continued to practise to the contrary were to suffer imprisonment and to be fined at the Kings pleasure This Act has been since repealed and the gain for Money lent has been at several times brought to several regulations It was much questioned whether these Prohibitions of Usury by Moses were not judicial Laws which did only bind the Nation of the Jews whose Land being equally divided among the Families by Lot the making gain by lending Money was forbid to them of that Nation yet it did not seem to be a thing of its nature sinful since they might take encrease of a Stranger The not lending Money on use was more convenient for that Nation which abounding in People and being shut up in a narrow Country they were necessarily to apply themselves to all the ways of Industry for their subsistence so that every one was by that Law of not lending upon use forced
the best and perfectest Pieces of that nature that I have seen The Original is yet extant under his own Hand in Scotland a Copy of it was shewed me by one descended from him from which I shall discover many considerable Passages though the Affairs in which he was most employed were something later than the time of which I am to write But to return to Ireland Upon the Peace made with France and Scotland things were quieted there and Sir Ant. St. Leiger was in August 1550. again sent over to be Deputy there For the Reformation it made but a small progress in that Kingdom It was received among the English but I do not find any endeavours were used to bring it in among the Irish This Year Bale was sent into Ireland He had been a busie Writer upon all occasions and had a great deal of Learning but wanted Temper and did not write with the decency that became a Divine or was sutable to such matters which it seems made those who recommended Men to preferment in this Church not think him so fit a Person to be employed here in England But the Bishoprick of Ossery being void the King proposed him to be sent thither So in August this Year Dr. Goodaker was sent over to be Bishop of Armagh and Bale to be Bishop of Ossery There were also two other who were Irish Men to be promoted When they came thither the Arch-bishop of Dublin intended to have consecrated them according to the old Pontifical for the new Book of Ordination had not been yet used among them Goodaker and the two others were easily perswaded to it but Bale absolutely refused to consent to it who being assisted by the Lord Chancellor it was carried that they should be ordained according to the new Book When Bale went into his Diocess he found all things there in dark Popery but before he could make any Reformation there King Edwards death put an end to his and all such designs In England nothing else that had any relation to the Reformation passed this Year A Change made in the Order of the Garter unless what belongs to the change made in the Order of the Garter may be thought to relate to it On the 23d of April the former Year being St. George's day a Proposition was made to consider the Order and Statutes since there was thought to be a great deal of superstition in them and the Story upon which the Order was founded concerning St. George's fighting with the Dragon looked like a Legend formed in the darker Ages to support the humour of Chivalry that was then very high in the World And as the Story had no great credibility in it self so it was delivered by no Ancient Author Nor was it found that there had been any such Saint there being among Ancient Writers none mentioned of that Name but George of Alexandria the Arrian Bishop that was put in when Athanasius was banished Upon this motion in the former Year the Duke of Somerset the Marquess of Northampton and the Earls of Wilt-shire and Warwick were appointed to review the Statutes of the Order So this Year the whole Order was changed and the Earl of Westmorland and Sir Andrew Dudley who were now to be installed were the first that were received according to the new Model which the Reader will find in the Collection King Edwards Remains Number 23. as it was translated into Latin out of the English by the King himself written all with his own Hand and it is the third Paper after his Journal The Preamble of it sets forth the noble design of the Order to animate great Men to gallant Actions and to associate them into a Fraternity for their better encouragement and assistance but says it had been much corrupted by superstition therefore the Statutes of it were hereafter to be these It was no more to be called the Order of St. George nor was he to be esteemed the Patron of it but it was to be called the Order of the Garter The Knights of this Order were to wear the Blew Ribond or Garter as formerly but at the Collar in stead of a George there was to be on one side of the Jewel a Knight carrying a Book upon a Sword point on the Sword to be written Protectio on the Book Verbum Dei on the Reverse a Shield on which should be written Fides to express their resolution both with offensive and defensive Weapons to maintain the Word of God For the rest of the Statutes I shall refer the Reader to the Paper I mentioned But this was repealed by Queen Mary and so the old Rules took place again and do so still This design seems to have been chiefly intended that none but those of the Reformed Religion might be capable of it since the adhering to and standing for the Scriptures was then taken to be the distinguishing Character between the Papists and the Reformers This is the sum of what was either done or designed this Year with relation to Religion As for the State there was a strict enquiry made of all who had cheated the King in the suppression of Chantries or in any other thing that related to Churches from which the Visitors were believed to have embezeled much to their own uses and there were many Sutes in the Star-Chamber about it Most of all these Persons had been the Friends or Creatures of the Duke of Somerset and the enquiry after these things seems to have been more out of hatred to him than out of any design to make the King the richer by what should be recovered for his use But on none did the Storm break more severely than on the Lord Paget Paget degraded from being a Knight of the Garter He had been Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster and was charged with many misdemeanours in that Office for which he was fined in 6000 l. But that which was most severe was that on St. George's Eve he was degraded from the Order of the Garter for divers offences but chiefly because he was no Gentleman neither by Fathers side nor Mothers side His chief offence was his greatest Vertue He had been on all occasions a constant Friend to the Duke of Somerset for which the Duke of Northumberland hated him mortally and so got him to be degraded to make way for his own Son This was much censured as a barbarous Action that a Man who had so long served the Crown in such publick Negotiations and was now of no meaner Blood than he was when King Henry first gave him the Order should be so dishonoured being guilty of no other fault but what is common to most Courtiers of enriching himself at his Masters cost for which his Fine was severe enough for the expiation But the Duke of Northumberland was a Person so given up to violence and revenge that an ordinary disgrace did not satisfie his hatred Sir Ant. St. Leiger another Knight of the Order
be as wise sober gentle and temperate as any Prince that ever was in England and if he did not prove so he was content that all his Hearers should esteem him an impudent Lyar. The State of the Court continued in this posture till the next Parliament But great Discontents did now appear every-where The severe Executions after the last rising the Marriage with Spain and the overturning of Religion concurred to alienate the Nation from the Government This appeared no where more confidently than in Norfolk where the People reflecting on their Services thought they might have the more leave to speak There were some malicious Rumours spread that the Queen was with Child before the King came over This was so much resented at Court that the Queen writ a Letter to the Justices there which is in the Collection to enquire into those false Reports and to look to all that spread false News in the County Coll. Numb 14. The Earl of Sussex upon this examined a great many but could make nothing out of it It flowed from the officiousness of Hopton the new Bishop of Norwich who thought to express his Zeal to the Queen whose Chaplain he had long been by sending up the Tales of the Country to the Council Table not considering how much it was below the Dignity of the Government to look after all vain Reports Bonner's Carriage in his Visitation This Summer the Bishops went their Visitations to see every thing executed according to the Queen's Injunctions Bonner went his with the rest He had ordered his Chaplains to draw a Book of Homilies with an Exposition of the Christian Religion He says in his Preface to it that he and his Chaplains had compiled it but it is likely he had only the Name of it and that his Chaplains composed it Yet the greatest and indeed the best part of it was made to their hands for it was taken out of the Institution of a Christian Man set out by King Henry only varied in those Points in which it differed from what they were now about to set up So that concerning the Pope's Power since it was not yet established he says nothing for or against it The Articles upon which he made his Visitation will be found in the Collection Coll. Numb 15. and by these we may judg of all the other Visitations over England In the Preface he protests he had not made his Articles out of any secret grudg or displeasure to any but meerly for the discharge of his Conscience towards God and the World The Articles were Whether the Clergy did so behave themselves in Living Teaching and Doing that in the judgment of indifferent Men they seemed to seek the Honour of God of the Church and of the King and Queen Whether they had been Married or were taken for Married and whether they were Divorced and did no more come at their Wives or whether they did defend their Marriages Whether they did reside keep Hospitality provide a Curat in their absence And whether they did devoutly celebrate the Service and use Processions Whether they were suspect of Heresy Whether they did haunt Ale-houses and Taverns Bowling-Allies or suspect Houses Whether they favoured or kept company with any suspect of Heresy Whether any Priest lived in the Parish that absented himself from Church Whether these kept any privat Conventicles Whether any of the Clergy was Vicious blasphemed God or his Saints or was guilty of Simony Whether they exhorted the People to Peace and Obedience Whether they admited any to the Sacrament that was suspect of Heresy or was of an ill Conversation an Oppressor or Evil-Doer Whether they admitted any to preach that were not licensed or refused such as were Whether they did officiate in English Whether they did use the Sacraments aright Whether they visited the Sick and administred the Sacraments to them Whether they did marry any without asking the Banes three Sundays Whether they observed the Fasts and Holy-Days Whether they went in their Habits and Tonsures Whether those that were ordained schismatically did officiate without being admitted by the Ordinary Whether they set Leases for many Years of their Benefices Whether they followed Merchandise or Usury Whether they carried Swords or Daggers in Times or Places not convenient Whether they did once every quarter expound to the People in the Vulgar Tongue the Apostles Creed Ten Commandments the Two Commandments of Christ for loving God and our Neighbour the Seven Works of Mercy Seven deadly Sins Seven principal Vertues and the Seven Sacraments These were the most considerable Heads on which he visited One thing is remarkable that it appears both by these No Reordination of those ordained in King Edwards Time and the Queen's Injunctions that they did not pretend to re-ordain those that had been ordained by the New Book in King Edward's Time but to reconcile them and add those things that were wanting which were the Anointing and giving the Priestly Vestments with other Rites of the Roman Pontifical In this Point of re-ordaining such as were ordained in Heresy or Schism the Church of Rome has not gone by any steady Rule For though they account the Greek Church to be guilty both of Heresy and Schism they receive their Priests without a New Ordination Yet after the time of the Contests between Pope Nicolaus and Photius and much more after the outragious heats at Rome between Sergius and Formosus in which the dead Bodies of the former Popes were raised and dragged about the Streets by their Successors they annulled the Ordinations which they pretended were made irregularly Afterwards again upon the great Schism between the Popes of Rome and Avignon they did neither annul nor renew the Orders that had been given But now in England though they only supplied at this time the Defects which they said were in their former Ordination yet afterwards wheâ— they proceeded to burn them that were in Orders they went upon the old Maxim That Orders given in Schism were not valid 〈◊〉 they did not esteem Hooper nor Ridley Bishops and therefore only dâ—grâ—ded them from Priesthood though they had been ordained by their own Forms saving only the Oath to the Pope but for those who were ordained by the new Book they did not at all degrade them supposing noâ—â—hey had no true Orders by it Bonner in his Visitation took great care to see all things were every where done according to the old Rules which was the main thing intended other Points being put in for form When he came to Hadham he prevented the Doctor who did not expect him so soon by two hours so that there was no ringing of Bells which put him in no small disorder And that was much encreased when he went into the Church and found neither the Sacrament hanging up nor a Rood set up thereupon he fell a railing swearing most intemperately calling the Priest an Heretick a Knave with many other such goodly words The
Extremity and Rigour And on the 25th there was a solemn Procession through London there went first 160 Priests all in their Copes eight Bishops next and last of all came Bonner himself carrying the Host to thank God for reconciling them again to his Church and Bonefires were burning all the Night And to keep up a constant remembrance of it it was ordered that St. Andrew's day should be still observed as the Anniversary of it and be called The Feast of the Reconciliation and Processions with all the highest Solemnities they at any time use were to be on that day They begin with Rogers and others But now they turned wholly to the Prosecution of the Hereticks There had been thirty of them taken at a Meeting near Bow Church where one Rose a Minister gave them the Communion according to the English Book of Service so they were all put in Prison On the 22d of January Rogers with others were brought before the Council He had been a Prebendary of Pauls and in a Sermon after the Queen was come to London had zealously asserted the Doctrine he had formerly preached and as it has been shewn was confined to his House upon the Tumult that had been at Pauls He was much pressed to fly over into Germany but he would not hearken to it though the Necessities of ten Children were great Temptations He was esteemed one of the most Learned of the Reformers so that when those of the Convocation were required to Dispute they desired that Ridley and he might be suffered to come and join with them It was resolved to begin with him and some others at the Council-Board to see if they could be easily brought over He was accordingly brought before the Council where being asked by Gardiner Whether he would knit himself to the Catholick Church and receive the Pope as the Supream Head He said He knew no other Head of the Church but Christ and for the Pope Who refusing to comply he had no more Authority in England than any other Bishop either by the Word of God or the Authority of the Church for 400 Years after Christ But they objecting that he had acknowledged King Henry to be Supream Head He answered He never acknowledged him so to be Supream as to forgive Sins bestow the Holy Ghost or be a Judg above the Word of God But as he was going to explain himself Gardiner pressed him to Answer plainly He Objected to Gardiner That all the Bishops had for many Years preached against the Pope Gardiner said They were forced to it by the Cruelty of the Times but they would Argue no more with him Now Mercy was offered if he rejected it Justice must come next Rogers said If they had been pressed to deny the Pope's Power by Cruelty would they now by the same Motives force others to acknowledg it for his part he would never do it Other ten were called in one after another and only one of them by the Lord Effingham's Favour was let go upon a general Question if he would be an Honest Man but all the rest answering resolutely were sent back to Prison and were kept much stricter than formerly none being suffered to come near them On the 28th of January the Bishops of Winchester London Duresm Were judged Salisbury Norwich and Carlisle sat in St. Mary Overies in Southwark where Hooper was first brought before them It needs not to be doubted but Bonner remembred that he had informed against him when he was deprived in King Edward's Time He had been summoned to appear before the Queen soon after she came to the Crown and it was pretended he owed her great Sums of Mony Many advised him not to appear for that it was but a pretence to put him and a great many more in Prison where they would be kept till Laws were made to bring them out to a Stake But he would not with-draw so now he and Mr. Rogers were singled out and begun with They were asked Whether they would submit or not they both refused to submit Rogers being much pressed and continuing firm in his Resolutions Gardiner said It was vain-glory in him to stand out against the whole Church He protested it was his Conscience and not Vain-glory that swayed him for his part he would have nothing to do with the Antichristian Church of Rome Gardiner said by that he condemned the Queen and the whole Realm to be of the Church of Antichrist Rogers said The Queen would have done well enough if it had not been for his counsel Gardiner said the Queen went before them in those Counsels which proceeded of her own motion Rogers said He would never believe that The Bishop of Carlisle said they could all bear him witness to it Rogers said they would all witness for one another Upon that the Comptroller and Secretary Bourn being there stood up in Court and attested it Then they asked Rogers What he thought of the Sacrament He said It was known he had never medled in that Matter and was suspected by some to be of a contrary Opinion to many of his Brethren but yet he did not allow of their Corporal Presence He complained that after he had been confined half a Year in his House they had kept him a Year in Newgate without any Fault for they could not say he had broken any of their Laws since he had been a Prisoner all the while so that meerly for his Opinion they were now proceeding against him They gave Hooper and him time till next morning to consider what they would do but they continuing in their former Resolution were declared obstinate Hereticks And Condemned and appointed to be degraded and so to be delivered into the Sheriffs hands Hooper was only degraded from the Order of Priesthood Then Rogers desired he might be suffered to speak with his Wife concerning his ten Children They answered She was not his Wife and so denied it Upon this they were led away to Newgate On the 4th of February early in the morning Rogers was called upon to make ready for Smithfield He was so fast asleep that he was not easily awakened he put on his Cloaths carelesly being as he said Rogers Martyrdom so soon to lay them off When he was brought to Bonner to be degraded he again renewed his desire to see his Wife but could not obtain it He was led to Smithfield where he was not suffered to make any Speech to the People so in a few words he desired them to continue in that Doctrine which he had taught them and for which he had not only patiently suffered all the bitterness and cruelty that had been exercised on him but did now most gladly resign up his Life and give his Flesh to the consuming Fire for a testimony to it He repeated the 51 Psalm and so fitted himself for the Stake A Pardon was brought if he would recant but he chose to submit to that severe but short
and is now put into the Volumes of the Councils The Heads of Pools Reformation The first Decree is that there should be constantly a remembrance of the Reconciliation now made with Rome in every Mass besides a Procession with other Solemnities on the Anniversary of it He also confirmed the Constitutions of Otho and Otho bonus forbidding the reading of all Heretical Books and set forth the Catholick Faith in the words of that Exposition of it which P. Eugenius sent from the Council of Florence to those of Armenia The 2d was for the careful administring and preserving of the Sacraments and for the puting away of all Feasting in the Festivities of the Dedications of Churches The 3d exhorts the Bishops to lay aside all secular Cares and give themselves wholly to the Pastoral Office and to reside in their Diocess under the highest pains Their Chanons are also required to reside and also other Clergy Men. All Pluralities of Benefices with Cure are simply condemned and those who had more Benefices with cure were required within two months to resign all but one otherwise it was to be declared that they had forfeited them all The 4th is that whereas the residence of Bishops could not be of great use unless they became truly Pastors to their Flock which was chiefly done by their preaching the Word of God that had been contrary to the Apostles Practice much neglected by many therefore he requires them to preach every Sunday or Holy day or if they were disabled to find other fit Persons to do it And they were also in private to instruct and exhort their People and all the other inferior Clergy and to endeavour to perswade them to the Catholick Faith or if need were to use threatnings And because of the great want of good Preachers the Cardinal declared he would take care there should be Homilies set out for the instruction of the Nation In the mean while every Bishop was to be sending such as were more eminent in preaching over their Diocess thereby to supply the defects of the rest The 5th is about the lives of the Bishops that they should be most strict and exemplary that they should lay aside all Pride and Pomp should not be clothed in Silk nor have rich Furniture and have frugal Tables not above three or four dishes of Meat and even so many he rather allows considering the present time than approves that at their Table the Scriptures or other good Books should be read mixed with pious discourses that they should not have too great numbers of Servants or Horses but that this Parsimony might appear not to flow from Avarice they were to lay out the rest of their Revenues on the Poor and for breeding young Scholars and other works of Piety All the same Rules he sets to the inferior Clergy with a due proportion to their Stations and Profits The 6th is about giving Orders They were not to be rashly given but upon a strict previous Examen Every one that was to be Ordained was to give in his Name a long time before that there might be time to inquire carefully about him The Bishops were charged not to turn over the Examination upon others and think their work was only to lay on their hands but were to examine diligently themselves and not superficially And to call to â—heir assistance such as they knew to be pious and learned and in whom they might confide The 7th was about conferring Benefices which in some sort came also within that charge Lay hands suddenly on no Man They were to lay aside all partialty in their choice and seek out the most deserving and to make such as they put in Benefices bind themselves by Oath to reside The 8th was against giving the Advousons of Benefices before they were vacant The 9th was about Simony The 10th against the Alienations of any of the Goods of the Church The 11th was that in every Cathedral there should be a Seminary for supplying the Diocess of whom two Ranks were to be made the one of those who learned Grammar the other of those who were grown up and were to be ordained Acholyths and these were to be trained up in Study and Vertue till they were fit to serve in the Church And a Tax of the fourth peny was laid on the Clergy for their maintenance The 12th was about Visitations These were all finished agreed to and published by him in February next Year In these Decrees mention is made of Homilies which were intended to be published Ex Manuscr Col. C.C. Cant. and among Arch-Bishop Parker's Papers I find the Scheme he had of them was thus laid He designed four Books of Homilies The first of the controverted points for preserving the People from Error The 2d for the Exposition of the Creed and ten Commandments the Lords Prayer the Salutation of the Virgin and the Sacraments The 3d. was to be for the Saints dayes and the Sundays and Holy days of the year for explaining the Epistles and Gospels and the fourth was concerning Vertues and Vices and the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church By all these it may appear how well tempered this Cardinal was He never set on the Clergy to Persecute Hereticks Pool's Designs for Reforming the Church but to reform themselves as well knowing that a strict exemplary Clergy can soon overcome all Opposition whatsoever and bear down even truth it self For the common People are generally either so ignorant or so distracted with other affairs that they seldom enter into any exact discussion of speculative points that are disputed among Divines but take up things upon general notions and prejudices and none have more influence on them than the scandals or strict lives of Church-men So that Pool intending to correct all those laid down good Rules to amend their lives to throw out those crying scandals of Pluralities and Non-residence to oblige Bishops to be exact in their Examinations before Orders and in conferring Benefices on the most deserving and not to be biassed by partial affections In this last thing himself was a great Example For tho he had an only Brother so I find him called in one of the Cardinals Commissions to him with some others tho I believe he was a Bastard Brother David that had continued all King Henry's time in his Arch-Deaconry of Darby he either to punish him for his former compliance or to shew he had no mind to raise his kindred did not advance him till after he had been two years in England and then he gave him only the Bishoprick of Peterborough one of the poorest of the Bishopricks which considering his nâ—arness to the Crown and high Birth was a very small preferment But above all that Design of his to have Seminaries in every Cathedral for the planting of the Diocess shews what a wise prospect he had of the right methods of recovering a Church which was over-run as he judged with Heresie It
and Queen and be obedient to their Superiors both Spiritual and Temporal according to their duties It is plain this was so contrived that they might have Signed it without either prevaricating or dissembling their Opinions for it is not said That they were to be subject to the Church of Rome but to the Church of Christ and they were to be obedient to their Superiors according to their duties which was a good reserve for their Consciences I stand the longer on this that it may appear how willing the Cardinal was to accept of any shew of submission from them and to stop Bonners rage Upon this they were set at liberty But Bonner got three Men and two Women presented to him in London in January and after he had allowed them a little more time than he had granted others they standing still firm to their Faith were burnt at Smithfield on the 12th of April After that White the new Bishop of Winchester condemned three who were burnt on the third of May in Southwark one of these Stephen Gratwick being of the Diocess of Chichester appealed from him to his own Ordinary whether he expected more favour from him or did it only to gain time I know not but they brought in a Counterfeit who was pretended to be the Bishop of Chichester as Fox has printed it from the account written with the Man 's own Hand and so condemned him On the seventh of May three were burnt a Bristol On the 18th of June two Men and five Women were burnt at Maidston and on the 19th three Men and four Women were burnt at Canterbury fourteen being thus in two days destroyed by Thornton and Harpsfield in which it may seem strange that the Cardinal had less influence to stop the Proceedings in his own Diocess than in London but he was now under the Popes disgrace as shall be afterwards shewn On the 22d of June six Men and four Women were burnt at Lewis in Sussex condemned by White for Christopherson Bishop Elect of Chichester was not yet consecrated On the 13th of July two were burnt at Norwich On the second of August ten were burnt at Colchester six in the Morning and four in the Afternoon they were some of those who had been formerly discharged by the Cardinals Orders but the Priests in the Country complained that the mercy shewed to them had occasioned great disorders among them Hereticks and the favourers of them growing insolent upon it and those who searched after them being disheartned so now Bonner being under no more restraints from the Cardinal new Complaints being made that they came not to Church condemned them upon their Answers to the Articles which he objected to them At this time one George Eagle a Taylor who used to go about from place to place and to meet with those who stood for the Reformation where he prayed and discoursed with them about Religion and from his indefatigable diligence was nicknamed Trudge-over was taken near Colchester and was condemned of Treason for gathering the Queens Subjects together though it was not proved that he had ever stirred them up to Rebellion but did it only as himself always protested to encourage them to continue stedfast in the Faith he suffered as a Traitor On the fifth of August one was burnt at Norwich and on the 20th a Man and a Woman more were burnt at Rochester One was also burnt at Litchfield in August but the day is not named The same Month a Complaint was brought to the Council of the Magistrates of Bristol that they came seldom to the Sermons at the Cathedral so that the Dean and Chapter used to go to their Houses in Procession with their Cross carried before them and to fetch them from thence upon which a Letter was written to them requiring them to conform themselves more willingly to the Orders of the Church to frequent the Sermons and go thither of their own accord On the 17th of September three Men and one Woman were burnt at Islington near London and on the same day two Women were burnt at Colchester On the 20th a Man was burnt at Northampton and in the same Month one was burnt at Laxefield in Suffolk On the 23d a Woman was burnt at Norwich There were seventeen burnt in the Diocess of Chichester about this time one was a Priest thirteen were Lay-men and three Women but the day is not marked On the 18th of November three were burnt in Smithfield On the 12d of December John Rough a Scotchman was burnt whose suffering was on this occasion On the 12th of December there was a private Meeting of such as continued to Worship God according to the Service set out by King Edward at Islington where he was to have administred the Sacrament according to the Order of that Book The new Inquisitors had corrupted one of this Congregation to betray his Brethren so that they were apprehended as they were going to the Communion But Rough being a Stranger it was considered by the Council whether he should be tried as a Native He had a Benefice in York-shire in King Edwards days so it was resolved and signified to the Bishop of London that he should be proceeded against as a Subject Thereupon Bonner objected to him his condemning the Doctrine of the Church and setting out the Heresies of Cranmer and Ridley concerning the Sacrament and his using the Service set out by King Edward that he had lived much with those who for their Heresies had fled beyond Sea that he had spoken reproachfully of the Pope and Cardinals saying That when he was at Rome he had seen a Bull of the Popes that licensed Stews and a Cardinal riding openly with his Whore with him with several other Articles The greatest part of them he confessed and thereupon he with a Woman that was one of the Congregation was burnt in Smithfield And thus ended the Burnings this Year seventy nine in all being burnt These severities against the Hereticks made the Queen shew less pity to the Lord Stourton The Lord Stourton hanged for Murder than perhaps might have been otherwise expected He had been all King Edwards time a most zealous Papist and did constantly dissent in Parliament from the Laws then made about Religion But he had the former Year murdered one Argall and his Son with whom he had been long at variance and after he had knock'd them down with Clubs and cut their Throats he buried them fifteen Foot under ground thinking thereby to conceal the Fact but it breaking out both he and four of his Servants were taken and indicted for it He was found guilty of Felony and condemned to be hanged with his Servants in Wilt-shire where the Murder was committed On the sixth of March they were hanged at Salisbury All the difference that was made in their Deaths being only thus That whereas his Servants were hanged in common Halters one of Silk was bestowed on their Lord. It seemed an indecent thing
the future it was ordered That no Priest or Deacon should marry without allowance from the Bishop of the Diocess and two Justices of the Peace and the Consent of the Womans Parents or Friends All the Clergy were to use Habits according to their Degrees in the Universities the Queen declaring that this was not done for any Holiness in them but for Order and Decency No Man might use any Charm or consult with such as did All were to resort to their own Parish Churches except for an extraordinary Occasion Inn-Keepers were to sell nothing in the Times of Divine Service None were to keep Images or other Monuments of Superstition in their Houses None might Preach but such as were licensed by their Ordinary In all Places they were to examine the Causes why any had been in the late Reign Imprisoned Famished or put to Death upon the pretence of Religion and all Registers were to be searched for it In every Parish the Ordinary was to name three or four discreet Men who were to see that all the Parishioners did duly resort on Sundays and Holy-days to Church and those who did it not and upon admonition did not amend were to be denounced to the Ordinary On Wednesdays and Fridays the Common Prayer and Litany was to be used in all Churches All slanderous words as Papist Heretick Schismatick or Sacramentary were to be forborn under severe pains No Books might be printed without a License from the Queen the Arch-Bishop the Bishop of London the Chancellor of the Universities or the Bishop or Arch-Deacon of the Place where it was printed All were to kneel at the Prayers and to shew a Reverence when the Name of Jesus was pronounced Then followed an Explanation of the Oath of Supremacy in which the Queen declared that she did not pretend to any Authority for the ministring of Divine Service in the Church and that all that she challenged was that which had at all times belonged to the Imperial Crown of England that she had the Soveraignty and Rule over all manner of Persons under God so that no Forreign Power had any Rule over them and if those who had formerly appeared to have Scruples about it took it in that sence she was well-pleased to accept of it and did acquit them of all Penalties in the Act. The next was about Altars and Communion-Tables she ordered that for preventing of Riots no Altar should be taken down but by the consent of the Curat and Church-Wardens that a Communion-Table should be made for every Church and that on Sacrament days it should be set in some convenient Place in the Chancel and at other Times should be placed where the Altar had stood The Sacramental Bread was ordered to be round and plain without any Figure on it but somewhat broader and thicker than the Cakes formerly prepared for the Mass Then the form of bidding Prayer was prescribed with some variation from that in King Edward's Time for whereas to the Thanksgiving for God's Blessings to the Church in the Saints departed this Life a Prayer was added That they with us and we with them may have a glorious Resurrection now those words they with us as seeming to import a Prayer for the Dead were left out For the Rule about Church-men Marrying Reflections made on the Injunctions those who reflected on it said They complained not of the Law but as St. Jerom did in the making a Law in his Time they complained of those that had given occasion for it Ministers wearing such Apparel as might distinguish them from the Laity was certainly a means to keep them under great restraint upon every indecency in their Behaviour laying them open to the Censures of the People which could not be if they were habited so as that they could not be distinguished from other Men and humane nature being considered it seems to be a kind of Temptation to many when they do but think their Disorders will pass unobserved Bowing at the Name of Jesus was thought a fit expression of their grateful acknowledging of our Saviour and an owning of his Divinity And as standing up at the Creed or at the Gloria Patri were solemn expressions of the Faith of Christians So since Jesus is the Name by which Christ is expressed to be our Saviour it seemed a decent piece of acknowledging our Faith in him to shew a Reverence when that was pronounced not as if there were a peculiar sanctity or vertue in it but because it was his proper Name Christ being but an Appellation added to it By the Queen's care to take away all words of Reproach and to explain the Oath of Supremacy not only clearing any ambiguity that might be in the words but allowing Men leave to declare in what sense they swore it the moderation of her Government did much appear in which instead of inventing new Traps to catch the Weak which had been practised in other Reigns all possible care was taken to explain things so that they might be as comprehensive to all Interests as was possible They reckoned if that Age could have been on any terms separated from the Papacy though with allowance for many other superstitious Conceits it would once unite them all and in the next Age they would be so educated that none of those should any more remain And indeed this Moderation had all the effect that was designed by it for many Years in which the Papists came to Church and to the Sacraments But afterwards it being proposed to the King of Spain then ready to engage in a War with the Queen upon the account of her supporting of the Vnited Provinces that he must first divide England at home and procure from the Pope a Sentence against the Queen and a condemnation of such Papists as went to the English Service and that for the maintaining and educating of such Priests as should be his Tools to distract the Kingdom he was to found Seminaries at Doway Lovain and St. Omers from whence they might come over hither and disorder the Affairs of England The prosecution of those Counsels rais'd the Popish Party among us which has ever since distracted this Nation and has oftner than once put it into most threatning convulsive Motions such as we feel at this day The first high Commission After the Injunctions were thus prepared the Queen gave out Commissions for those who should visit all the Churches of England in which they lost no time for the New Book of Service was by Law to take place on St. John Baptist's day and these Commissions were signed that same day Coll. Num. 7. One of those Commissions which was for the Arch-Bishoprick and Province of York is put into the Collection It was granted to the Earls of Shrewsbury and Derby and some others among whom Dr. Sands is one The Preamble sets forth That God having set the Queen over the Nation she could not render an account of that Trust without
Keep and to fill the space between the Keep and the said outward Wall with the foresaid Bullwark and to raise the Old Keep that it might defend the Town Also he was bid to make Parson's Bullwark where it is now round without Flankers both pointed and also with six Flankers to bear hard to the Keep Atwood and Lambert were sent to take view of Allderny Silly Jernsey Gernsey and the Isle of Gitto. The Duke of Somerset with five others of the Council went to the Bishop of Winchester to whom he made this Answer I having deliberately seen the Book of common-Common-Prayer although I would not have made it so my self yet I find such things in it as satisfieth my Conscience and therefore I will both execute it my self and also see other my Parishioners to do it This was subscribed by the foresaid Counsellors that they heard him say these words 16. The Lord Marquess Mr. Herbert the Vicedam Henandie and divers other Gentlemen went to the Earl of Warwick's where they were honourably received and the next day they ran at the Ring a great number of Gentlemen 19. I went to Debtford being bidden to Supper by the Lord Clinton where before Supper I saw certain Men stand upon the end of a Boat without holding of any thing and ran one at another till one was cast into the Water At Supper Monsieur Vicedam and Henandie supped with me After Supper was there a Fort made upon a great Lighter on the Thames which had three Walls and a Watch-Tower in the midst of which Mr. Winter was Captain with forty or fifty other Souldiers in Yellow and Black To the Fort also appertained a Gallery of Yellow Collour with Men and Ammunition in it for defence of the Castle Wherefore there came four Pinaces with their Men in White handsomely dressed which intending to give assault to the Castle first drove away the Pinace and after with Clods Squibs Canes of Fire-Darts made for the nonce and Bombards assaulted the Castle and at length came with their Pieces and burst the outer Walls of the Castle beating them off the Castle into the second Ward who after issued out and drove away the Pinaces sinking one of them out of which all the Men in it being more than twenty leaped out and swam in the Thames Then came the Admiral of the Navy with three other Pinaces and won the Castle by Assault and burst the top of it down and took the Captain and under Captain Then the Admiral went forth to take the Yellow Ship and at length clasped with her took her and assaulted also her top and won it also by compulsion and so returned home 20. The Mayor of London caused the Watches to be encreased every night because of the great Frays and also one Alderman to see good Rule kept every night 22. There was a privy search made through all Sussex for all Vagabonds Gipsies Conspirators Prophesiers all Players and such like 24. There were certain in Essex about Rumford went about a Conspiracy which were taken and the Matter stayed 25. Removing to Greenwich 23. Sir John Yates Sheriff of Essex went down with Letters to see the Bishop of London's Injunctions performed which touched plucking down of Superaltaries Altars and such like Ceremonies and Abuses 29. It was appointed that the Germans should have the Austin-Friars for their Church to have their Service in for avoiding of all Sects of Anabaptists and such-like 17. The French Queen was delivered of a third Son called Monsieur d' Angoulesme 13. The Emperor departed from Argentin to Augusta 30. John Poynet made Bishop of Rochester and received his Oath July 5. There was Mony provided to be sent into Ireland for payment of the Souldiers there and also Orders taken for the dispatch of the Strangers in London 7. The Master of Arskin passed into Scotland coming from France Also the French Ambassador did come before Me first after shewing the Birth of Monsieur d' Angoulesme afterward declaring That whereas the French King had for my sake let go the Prisoners at St. Andrews who before they were taken had shamefully murdered the Cardinal he desidered that all Scots that were Prisoners might be delivered It was answered That all were delivered Then he moved for one called the Arch-Bishop of Glasgow who since the Peace came disguised without Pasport and so was taken It was answered That we had no Peace with Scotland such that they might pass our Countrey and the Master of Erskin affirmed the same 8. It was agreed that the 200 that were with Me and 200 that were with Mr. Herbert should be sent into Ireland Also that the Mint should be set a set a work that it might coin 24000 l. a Year and so bear all my Charges in Ireland for this Year and 10000 l. for my Coffers 9. The Earl of Warwick the Lord Treasurer Sir William Herbert and the Secretary Petre went to the Bishop of Winchester with certain Articles signed by Me and the Council containing the confessing of his Fault the Supremacy the establishing of Holy Days the abolishing of six Articles and divers other whereof the Copy is in the Council-Chest whereunto he put his Hand saving to the Confession 10. Sir William Herbert and Secretary Petre were sent unto him to tell him I marvelled that he would not put his Hand to the Confession To which he made answer That he would not put his Hand to the Confession for because he was Innocent and also the Confession was but the Preface of Articles 11. The Bishop of London the Secretary Petre Mr. Cecil and Goderick were commanded to make certain Articles according to the Laws and to put in the Submission 12. It was appointed That under the Shadow of preparing for the Sea-Matters there should be sent 5000 l. to the Protestants to get their good Will 14. The Bishop of Winchester did deny the Articles that the Bishop of London and the other had made 13. Sir John Yates was sent into Essex to stop the going away of the Lady Mary because it was credibly informed that Scipperus should steal her away to Antwerp divers of her Gentlemen were there and Scipperus a little before came to see the Landing-places 16. It was appointed that the two hundred with the Duke of Somerset and two hundred with the Lord Privy-Seal and four hundred with Master St. Legier should be sent to the Sea-Coast 17. It was agreed that on Wednesday next We should go in one day to Windsor and dine at Sion 18. It was thought best that the Lord Bowes should tarry in his Wardenship still and the Earl of Warwick should tarry here and be recompensed 19. The Bishop of VVinchester was sequestred from his Fruits for three months 20. Hooper was made Bishop of Glocester The Merchants were commanded to stay as much as they could their Vent into Flanders because the Emperour had made many streight Laws against them that professed the Gospel 21. A Muster was
Proceedings therein and in all things committed to our Charge shall be such as shall be able to answer the whole World both in honour and discharge of our Consciences And where your Grace writeth that the most part of the Realm through a naughty Liberty and Presumption are now brought into such a Division as if we Executors go not about to bring them to that stay that our late Master left them they will forsake all Obedience unless they have their own Will and Phantasies and then it must follow that the King shall not be well served and that all other Realms shall have us in an Obloquy and Derision and not without just cause Madam as these words written or spoken by you soundeth not well so can I not perswade my self that they have proceeded from the sincere mind of so vertuous and so wise a Lady but rather by the setting on and procurement of some uncharitable and malicious Persons of which sort there are too many in these days the more pity but yet we must not be so simple so to weigh and regard the Sayings of ill-disposed People and the Doings of other Realms and Countries as for that Report we should neglect our Duty to God and to our Soveraign Lord and Native Country for then we might be justly called evil Servants and Masters and thanks be given unto the Lord such hath been the King's Majesty's Proceedings our young Noble Master that now is that all his faithful Subjects have more cause to render their hearty thanks for the manifold Benefits shewed unto his Grace and to his People and Realm sithence the first day of his Reign until this hour than to be offended with it and thereby rather to judg and think that God who knoweth the Hearts of all Men is contented and pleased with his Ministers who seek nothing but the true Glory of God and the Surety of the King's Person with the Quietness and Wealth of his Subjects And where your Grace writeth also That there was a Godly Order and Quietness left by the King our late Master your Graces Father in this Realm at the time of his Death and that the Spiritualty and Temporalty of the whole Realm did not only without compulsion fully assent to his Doings and Proceedings specially in Matters of Religion but also in all kind of Talk whereof as your Grace wrote ye can partly be witness your self at which your Graces Sayings I do something marvel For if it may please you to call to your remembrance what great Labours Travels and Pains his Grace had before he could reform some of those stiff-necked Romanists or Papists yea and did not they cause his Subjects Rise and Rebel against him and constrained him to take the Sword in his hand not without danger to his Person and Realm Alas why should your Grace so shortly forget that great Outrage done by those Generations of Vipers unto his Noble Person only for God's Cause Did not some of the same ill kind also I mean that Romanist Sect as well with his own Realm as without conspire oftentimes his Death which was manifestly and oftentimes proved to the confusion of some of their privy Assisters Then was it not that all the Spiritualty nor yet the Temporalty did so fully assent to his Godly Orders as your Grace writeth of Did not his Grace also depart from this Life before he had fully finished such Orders as he minded to have established to all his People if death had not prevented him Is it not most true that no kind of Religion was perfected at his Death but left all uncertain most like to have brought us in Parties and Divisions if God had not only helpt us And doth your Grace think it convenient it should so remain God forbid What regret and sorrow our late Master had the time he saw he must depart for that he knew the Religion was not established as he purposed to have done I and others can be witness and testify and what he would have done further in it if he had lived a great many know and also I can testifie And doth your Grace who is learned and should know God's Word esteem true Religion and the knowledg of the Scriptures to be new-fangledness and fantasie For the Lord's sake turn the Leaf and look the other while upon the other side I mean with another Judgment which must pass by an humble Spirit through the Peace of the Living God who of his infinite Goodness and Mercy grant unto your Grace plenty thereof to the satisfying of your Soveraign and your most noble Hearts continual desire Number 16. Certain Petitions and Requests made by the Clergie of the Lower House of the Convocation to the most Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Grace and the residue of the Prelats of the Higher House for the furtherance of certain Articles following FIrst Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet That Ecclesiastical Laws may be made and established in this Realm by thirty two Persons or so many as shall please the King's Majesty to name and appoint according to the effect of a late Statute made in 35th Year of the most noble King and of most famous Memory King Henry the 8th So that all Judges Ecclesiastical proceeding after those Laws may be without danger and peril Also that according to the Ancient Custom of this Realm and the Tenour of the King 's Writ for the summoning of the Parliament which be now and ever have been directed to the Bishops of every Diocess the Clergy of the Lower House of the Convocation may be adjoined and associate with the Lower House of the Parliament or else That all such Statutes and Ordinances as shall be made concerning all Matters of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical may not pass without the sight and assent of the said Clergy Also that whereas by the Commandment of King Henry the 8th certain Prelats and learned Men were appointed to alter the Service in the Church and to devise other convenient and uniform Order therein Who according to the same Appointment did make certain Books as they be informed Their Request is That the said Books may be seen and perused by them for a better expedition of Divine Service to be set forth accordingly Also that Men being called to Spiritual Promotions or Benefices may have some Allowance for their necessary Living and other Charges to be sustained and born concerning the same Benefices in the first Year wherein they pay the first Fruits Whether the Clergy of the Convocation may liberally speak their Minds without danger of Statute or Law Number 17. A second Petition to the same purpose Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet WHere the Clergy in this present Convocation assembled have made humble suit unto the most Reverend Father in God my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the other Bishops That it may please them to be a Mean to the King's Majesty and Lord Protector 's Grace
you shall find any Person stubborn or disobedient in not bringing in the said Books according to the tenour of these our Letters that then ye commit the said Person to Ward unto such time as you have certified us of his misbehaviour And we will and command you that you also search or cause search to be made from time to time whether any Book be withdrawn or hid contrary to the tenour of these our Letters and the same Book to receive into your Hands and to use all in these our Letters we have appointed And further whereas it is come unto our knowledg that divers froward and obstinate Persons do refuse to pay towards the finding of Bread and Wine for the Holy Communion according to the Order prescribed in the said Book by reason whereof the Holy Communion is many times omitted upon the Sunday These are to will and command you to convent such obstinate Persons before you and then to admonish and command to keep the Order prescribed in the said Book and if any shall refuse so to do to punish them by Suspension Excommunication or other Censures of the Church Fail you not thus to do as you will avoid our Displeasure Westminst Decemb. 25. Regni tertio Thom. Cantuarien Rich. Chanc. Will. St. John J. Russel H. Dorset W. Northampton Number 48. Cardinal Woolsey's Letters to Rome for procuring the Popedom to himself upon Pope Adrian's death Ex MS. Col. Cor. C. Cant. MY Lord of Bath Mr. Secretary and Mr. Hannibal I commend me unto you in my right hearty manner letting you wit That by Letters lately sent unto me from you my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal dated at Rome the 14th day of September Which Letters I incontinently shewed unto the King's Grace his Highness And I have been advertised to our great discomfort That the said 14th day it pleased Almighty God to call the Pope's Holiness unto his Infinite Mercy whose Soul Jesu pardon News certainly unto the King's Grace and to me right heavy and for the universal weal or quiet of Christendom whereunto his Holiness like a devout and virtuous Father of Holy Church was very studious much displeasant and contrarious Nevertheless conforming our selves to the Pleasure of Almighty God to whose Calling we all must be obedient the Mind and Intention of the King's Highness and of me both is to put some helps and furtherances as much as conveniently may be that such a Successor unto him may now by the Holy College of Cardinals be named and elected as may with God's Grace perform atchieve and fulfil the good and vertuous Purposes and Intents concerning the Pacification of Christendom whereunto our said late Holy Father as much as the brevity of the time did suffer was as it should seem minded and inclined which thing how necessary it is to the state of Christs Religion now daily more and more declining it is facil and easie to be consider'd and surely amongst other Christian Princes there is none which as ye heretofore have perfectly understood that to this purpose more dedicated themselves to give Furtherance Advice and Counsel than the Emperor and the King's Grace who as well before the time of the last Vacation as sithence by Mouth and by Letters with Report of Ambassadors and otherwise had many sundry Conferences Communications and Devices in that behalf In which it hath pleased them far above my merits or deserts of their goodness to think judg and esteem me to be meet and able for to aspire unto that Dignity persuading exhorting and desiring me that whensoever opportunity should be given I should hearken to their Advice Counsel and Opinion in that behalf and offering unto me to interpone their Authorities Helps and Furtherances therein to the uttermost In comprobation whereof albeit the Emperor now being far distant from these Parts could not nor might in so brief time give unto the King's Grace new or fresh confirmation of his Purpose Desire and Intent herein Yet nevertheless my Lady Margaret knowing the inclination of his mind in this same hath by a long discourse made unto me semblable Exhortation offering as well on the Emperor's behalf as on her own that as much shall by them be done to the furtherance thereof as may be possible Besides this both by your Letters and also by particular most loving Letters of the Cardinal 's de Medicis Sanctorum Quatuor Campegius with credence show'd unto me on their behalf by their Folks here resident I perceive their good and fast minds which they and divers other their Friends owe unto me in that matter And finally the King's Highness doth not cease by all the gracious and comfortable means possible to insist that I for manifold notable urgent and great respects in any wise shall consent that his Grace and the Emperor do set forth the thing with their best manner The Circumstances of whose most entire and most firm mind thereunto with their bounteous godly and beneficial Offers for the Weal of Christendom which his Grace maketh to me herein is too long to rehearse For which Causes albeit I know my self far unmeet and unable to so high a Dignity minding rather to live and die with his Grace in this his Realm doing Honour Service Good or Pleasure to the same than now mine old days approaching to enter into new things yet nevertheless for the great zeal and perfect mind which I have to the exaltation of the Christian Faith the honour weal and surety of the King's Grace and the Emperor and to do my Duty both to Almighty God and to the World I referring every thing to God's disposition and pleasure shall not pretermit to declare unto you such things as the King's Highness hath specially willed me to signify unto you on his Grace's behalf who most effectually willeth and desireth you to set forth the same omitting nothing that may be to the furtherance thereof as his special trust is in you First Ye shall understand that the mind and entire desire of his Highness above all earthly things is That I should attain to the said Dignity having his perfect and firm hope that of the same shall ensue and that in brief time a general and universal Repose Tranquillity and Quietness in Christendom and as great Renown Honour Profit and Reputation to this Realm as ever was besides the singular comfort and rejoice that the King's Grace with all his Friends and Subjects should take thereof who might be well assured thereby to compone and order their great Causes and Affairs to their high Benefit Commodity and most Advantage For this and other great and urgent Causes the Pleasure of his Highness is That like-as ye my Lord of Bath and Mr. Hannibal have right prudently and discreetly begun so ye all or as many of you as be present in the Court of Rome and continue your Practices Overtures Motions and Labours to bring and conduce this the King 's inward Desire to perfect end
in the possession of the Temporality that it may please your good Lordships by your discreet Wisdoms to foresee and provide that by this our Grant nothing pass which may be prejudicial or hurtful to any Bishop or other Ecclesiastical Person or their Successors for or concerning any Action Right Title or Interest which by the Laws of this Realm are already grown or may hereafter grow or rise to them or any of them and their Successors for any Lands Tenements Pensions Portions Tithes Rents Reversions Service or other Hereditaments which sometime appertained to the said Bishops or other Ecclesiastical Persons in the Right of their Churches or otherwise but that the same Right Title and Interest be safe and reserved to them and every of them and their Successors according to the said Laws And further whereas in the Statute passed in the first Year of Edward the Sixth for the suppressing of all Colleges c. Proviso was made by the said Statute in respect of the same Surrender that Schools and Hospitals should have been erected and founded in divers parts of this Realm for the good education of Youth in Vertue and Learning and the better sustentation of the Poor and that other Works beneficial for the Common-Weal should have been executed which hitherto be not performed according to the meaning of the said Statute it may please your good Lordships to move the King 's and the Queen 's most Royal Majesty and the Lord Cardinal to have some special consideration for the due performance of the Premises and that as well the same may the rather come to pass as the Church of England which heretofore hath been hononourably endowed with Lands and Possessions may have some recovery of so notable Damages and Losses which she hath sustained It may please their Highness with the assent of the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled and by Authority of the same to repeal make frustrate and void the Statute of Mortmayn made in the seventh Year of Edward the First otherwise intituled de Religiosis and the Statute concerning the same made the 15th Year of King Richard the Second And all and every other Statute and Statutes at any time heretofore made concerning the same And forasmuch as Tythes and Oblations have been at all times assigned and appointed for the sustentation of Ecclesiastical Ministers and in consideration of the same their Ministry and Office which as yet cannot be executed by any Lay Person so it is not meet that any of them should perceive possess or enjoy the same That all Impropriations now being in the hands of any Lay Person or Persons and Impropriations made to any secular use other than for the maintenance of Ecclesiastical Ministers Universities and Schools may be by like Authority of Parliament dissolved and the Churches reduced to such State as they were in before the same Impropriations were made And in this behalf we shall most humbly pray your good Lordships to have in special Consideration how lately the Lands and Possessions of Prebends in certain Cathedral Churches within this Realm have been taken away from the same Prebends to the use of certain private Persons and in the lieu thereof Benefices of notable value impropriated to the Cathedral Churches in which the said Prebends were founded to the no little decay of the said Cathedral Churches and Benefices and the Hospitality kept in the same Farther Right Reverend Fathers we perceiving the godly forwardness in your good Lordships in the restitution of this noble Church of England to the pristine State and Unity of Christ's Church which now of late Years have been grievously infected with Heresies perverse and schismatical Doctrine sown abroad in this Realm by evil Preachers to the great loss and danger of many Souls accounting our selves to be called hither by your Lordships out of all parts of the Province of Canterbury to treat with your Lordships concerning as well the same as of other things touching the State and Quietness of the same Church in Doctrine and in Manners have for the furtherance of your godly doing therein devised these Articles following to be further considered and enlarged as to your Lordships Wisdoms shall be thought expedient Wherein as you do earnestly think many things meet and necessary to be reform'd so we doubt not but your Lordships having respect to God's Glory and the good Reformation of things amiss will no less travel to bring the same to pass And we for our part shall be at all times ready to do every thing as by your Lordships Wisdoms shall be thought expedient 1. We design to be resolved Whether that all such as have preach'd in any part within this Realm or other the King and Queen's Dominions any Heretical Erroneous or Seditious Doctrine shall be called before the Ordinaries of such Places where they now dwell or be Benefic'd and upon examination to be driven to recant openly such their Doctrine in all Places where they have preach d the same And otherwise Whether any Order shall be made and Process to be made herein against them according to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church in such Case used 2. That the pestilent Book of Thomas Cranmer late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury made against the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and the Schismatical Book called The Communion Book and the Book of Ordering of Ecclesiastical Ministers all suspect Translations of the Old and New Testament the Authors whereof are recited in a Statute made the Year of King Henry the Eighth and all other Books as well in Latin as in English concerning any Heretical Erroneous or Slanderous Doctrine may be destroyed and burnt throughout this Realm And that publick Commandment be given in all Places to every Man having any such Books to bring in the same to the Ordinary by a certain day or otherwise to be taken and reputed as a favourer of such Doctrine And that it may be lawful to every Bishop and other Ordinary to make enquiry and due search from time to time for the said Books and to take them from the Owners and Possessors of them for the purpose abovesaid 3. And for the better repress of all such pestilent Books That Order may be taken with all speed that no such Books may be printed uttered or sold within this Realm or brought from beyond the Seas or other parts into the same upon grievous pains to all such as shall presume to attempt the contrary 4. And that the Bishops and other Ordinaries may with better speed root up all such pernicious Doctrine and the Authors thereof We desire that the Statutes made Anno quinto of Richard the Second Anno secundo of Henry the Fourth and Anno secundo of Henry the Fifth against Hereticks Lollards and false Preachers may be by your Industrious Suit reviv'd and put in force as shall be thought convenient And generally that all Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Ordinaries may be restored to their Pristine
enabling of their own Judgments to treat and conclude of such Laws as might depend thereupon This also being thought very reasonable was signified to both Parties and so fully agreed upon And the day appointed for the first Meeting to be the Friday in the Forenoon being the last of March at Westminster Church where both for good Order and for Honour of the Conferences by the Queen's Majesty's Commandment the Lords and others of the Privy-Council were present and a great part of the Nobility also And notwithstanding the former Order appointed and consented unto by both Parties yet the Bishop of Winchester and his Colleagues alleadging that they had mistaken that their Assertions and Reasons should be written and so only recited out of the Book said Their Book was not then ready written but they were ready to Argue and Dispute and therefore they would for that time repeat in Speech that which they had to say to the first Proposition This variation from the former Order and specially from that which themselves had by the said Arch-Bishop in writing before required adding thereto the Reason of the Apostle that to contend with words is profitable to nothing but to the subversion of the Hearer seemed to the Queen's Majesty somewhat strange and yet was it permitted without any great reprehension because they excused themselves with mistaking the Order and argued that they would not fail but put it in writing and according to the former Order deliver it to the other Part. And so the said Bishop of Winchester and his Colleagues appointed Dr. Cole Dean of Pauls to be their Utterer of their Minds who partly by Speech only and partly by reading of Authorities written and at certain times being informed of his Colleagues what to say made a declaration of their Meanings and their Reasons to the first Proposition Which being ended they were asked by the Privy Council If any of them had any more to be said and they said No. So as then the other Part was licensed to shew their Minds which they did accordingly to the first Order exhibiting all that which they meant to propound in a Book written Which after a Prayer and Invocation made most humbly to Almighty God for the enduing of them with his Holy Spirit and a Protestation also to stand to the Doctrine of the Catholick Church builded upon the Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Prophets and the Apostles was distinctly read by one Robert Horn Batchelor in Divinity late Dean of Duresm And the same being ended with some likelyhood as it seemed that the same was much allowable to the Audience certain of the Bishops began to say contrary to their former Answer that they had now much more to say to this Matter wherein although they might have been well reprehended for such manner of cavillation yet for avoiding any more mistaking of Orders in this Colloquie or Conference and for that they should utter all that which they had to say it was both ordered and thus openly agreed upon of both Parts in the full Audience that upon the Monday following the Bishops should bring their Minds and Reasons in Writing to the second Assertion and the last also if they could and first read the same and that done the other Part should bring likewise theirs to the same and being read each of them should deliver to other the same Writings And in the mean time the Bishops should put in writing not only all that which Doctor Cole had that day uttered but all such other Matters as they any otherwise could think of for the same and as soon as might possible to send the same Book touching the first Assertion to the other part and they should receive of them that Writing which Master Horn had there read that day and upon Monday it should be agreed what day they should exhibit their Answer touching the first Proposition Thus both parts assented thereto and the Assembly was quietly dismissed And therefore upon Monday the like Assembly began again at the Place and Hour appointed and there upon what sinister or disordered meaning is not yet fully known though in some part it be understanded the Bishop of Winchester and his Colleagues and specially Lincoln refused to exhibit or read according to the former notorious Order on Friday that which they had prepared for the second Assertion and thereupon by the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal they being first gently and favourably required to keep the Order appointed and that taking no place being secondly as it behoved pressed with the more earnest request they neither regarding the Authority of that Place nor their own Reputation nor the Credit of the Cause utterly refused that to do And finally being again particularly every one of them apart distinctly by Name required to understand their Opinions therein they all saving one which was the Abbot of Westminster having some more consideration of Order and his Duty of Obedience than the other utterly and plainly denied to have their Book read some of them as more earnestly than other some so also some others more indiscreetly and irreverently than others Whereupon giving such Example of Disorders Stubbornness and Self-will as hath not been seen and suffered in such an Honourable Assembly being of the two Estates of this Realm the Nobilities and Commons besides the Persons of the Queen's Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council the same Assembly was dismissed and the Godly and most Christian Purpose of the Queen's Majesty made frustrate And afterwards for the contempt so notoriously made the Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln who have most obstinately disobeyed both Common Authority and varied manifestly from their own Order specially Lincoln who shewed more folly than the other were condignly committed to the Tower of London and the rest saving the Abbot of VVestminster stand bound to make daily their personal appearance before the Council and not to depart the City of London and VVestminster until further Order be taken with them for their Disobedience and Contempt N. Bacon Cust Sigill F. Shrewsbury F. Bedford Pembrok E. Clynton G. Rogers F. Knollys W. Cecill A. Cave Number 6. An Address made by some Bishops and Divines to Queen Elizabeth against the Use of Images To the Queen 's most Excellent Majesty WE knowing your gracious Clemency and considering the necessity of the Matter that we have to move the one doth encourage us and the other compel us as before to make our humble Petition unto your Highness and to renew our former Suit not in any respect of self-will stoutness or striving against your Majesty God we take to Witness for with David we confess that we are but as Canes mortui aut Pulices in comparison But we do it only for that fear and reverence which we bear to the Majesty of Almighty God in whose Hands to fall 't is terrible for it lieth in his Power to destroy for ever and to cast both Body and Soul into Hell Fire