thereof Some of the Lutherans had given out on the former ground That the English had deservedly suffered the greatest Hardships both at home and abroad because they Writ and Spake so irreverently of the Blessed Sacrament Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Lutherans detesting an English Protestant Nothing occurring more in this Queens Reign as to these matters of Religion we will now give an Account of the years when these Changes were made with an Addition of some works of Piety done by Her and in Her time IN the First year of this Queens Reign All Bishops that had been deprived in the time of King Edward the Sixth were restored to their Bishopricks and the new removed Also this year on the Twenty seventh of August the Service was sung in Latin in St. Paul's Church The Pope's Authority being likewise by Act of Parliament restored in England and the Mâ—…ss Commanded in all Churches to be used In her Second year the Realm is Absolved and Reconciled to the Church of Rome and First Fruits and Tenths restored to the Clergy In her Third year Eight hundred English Protestants sorsook the Kingdom who fell into great Confusions amongst themselves being in other Countries In her Fourth year Monasteries were be gun to be re-edified In her Fifth year great endeavors were used by Sectaries to raise Sedition by Seditious Books and unlawful Meetings or Conventicles In her Sixth year She built Publick Schools in the University of Oxford Which being decayed in tract of time and of no beautiful Structure when they were at the best were taken down In place whereof but upon a larger extent of Ground was raised that Goodly and Magnificent Fabrick which we now behold Works of Piety The Queen restored a great part of the Abbey-Lands that were in her Possession In her First year Sir Thomas white then Mayor Erected a College in Oxford called S. John's College He also Erected Schools at Bristow and Reading and gave Two thousand pounds to the City of Bristow to purchase Lands the profits whereof to be employed for the benefit of young Clothiers In her Third year died Sir John Gresham late Mayor of London who Founded a Free-School at Holt in Norfolk and gave to every Ward in London Ten pounds to be distributed to the Poor Also to Maids-Marriages Two hundred pounds Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham Erected a goodly Library in Cambridge storing it with many Excellent both Printed and Written Books He also bestowed much upon Building at Durham at Alnewick and at Tunbridge Thus Sir Richard Baker Here you have had a short View of the great Zeal and Piety that was in this Nation during the Reign of this Queen And this delivered from the mouths of her Enemies the most zealous Protestants This Account being here ended we will now proceed to relate what Changes were made as to Religion in Queen Elizabeths time Wherein the Scene was totally Altered She following the Example of her Father and Brother in going on with the Destructions and Confusions begun by them The Last Part Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning A Fourth Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth A Preamble BEfore we begin this Queens Reign we will following Dr. Heylyn's order first make a Relation out of him of the various Fortunes of her Mother Anne Boleign of whom thus he writes in his History of Reformation pag. 86. Anne Boleign from her tender years was brought up in the Court of France Who returning into England was preferred to be Maid of Honor to Queen Catherine In whose Service the King falls in Love with her But so long concealed his Affections that there was a great League contracted betwixt her and the young Lord Peircy Son to the Earl of Northumberland But that being broken off by the endeavors of Cardinal Wolsey and the King laboring for a Divorce from Queen Catherine that he might Marry her that also was sought to be obstructed by the Cardinal Which being understood by Mrs. Anne Boleign she seeks all ways for his destruction and prevailed so far with the King that he was presently Indicted and Attainted of a Praemunire and not long after by the Counsel of Thomas Cromwel who had sormerly been the Cardinals Solicitor in his Legatine Court envolves the whole Clergy in the same Crime with him And by perswasion of this man he requires of the said Clergy to acknowledge him for Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and to make no new Canons and Constitutions not to Execute any such when made by his consent And having thus brought his own Clergy under his Command he was the less solicitous how his matters went in the Court of Rome concerning his Divorce Whereupon he privately Marries Mistris Anne Boleign And a long time after to wit Three or Four Months after the Birth of the Princess Elizabeth began a Parliament in which the Kings first Marriage was declared Unlawful and the Succession of the Crown settled upon His Issue by this Second Marriage An Oath being devised in maintenance of the said Succession and not long after Moor and Fisher were Executed for refusing to take that Oath The New Queen being thus settled and considering that the Pope and She had such different Interests that they could not subsist together She resolved to suppress his Power what she could But finding that the Pope was too well entrenched to be dislodged upon a sudden it was advised by Cromwel to begin with taking in the Outworks first which being gained it would be no hard matter to beat him out of his Trenches In order whereunto a Visitation is begun in which a diligent Enquiry was to be made into all Abbey's Priories and Nunneries within the Kingdom an Account of which Visitation and the Dâ—…ssolution of Abbeys hath been formerly given in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth But the New Queen for whose sake Cromwel had contrived that Plot did not live to see this Dissolution For such is the uncertainty of Humane Affairs that when she thought her Self most Secure and free from Danger She became most obnoxious to the ruine prepared for Her It had pleased God upon the Eighth of January to put an end unto the Calamities of the Virtuous but unfortunate Queen unto whose Bed she had succeeded The News whereof she entertained with such contentment that she caused her self to be apparelled in lighter Colours than was agreeable to the season or the sad occasion Whereas if she had rightly understood her own Condition She could not but have known that the long Life of Queen Catherine was to be her best preservation against all changes which the King 's loose Affections or any other Alteration in the Affairs of State were otherwise like to draw upon her But this Contentment held not long For within Three Weeks after She fell in Travail in which she miscarried of a Son to the extreme discontent of the
submitting themselves to the King for being found guilty of a Premunire were the first that called him Supreme Head of the Church yet with this restriction So far as it was according unto Gods Word and not otherwise In his Four and twentieth year an Act of Parliament was made That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome In his Twenty sixth year an Act was made which Authoriz'd the King to be Supreme Head of the Church of England and the Authority of the Pope to be abolish'd and then also was given to the King the First Fruits and Tenths of all Spiritual Livings and this Year were many put to death Papists for denying the Kings Supremacy Protestants for denying the Real Presence in the Sacrament nor is it credible what numbers suffered death for these two Causes in the last Ten Years of the Kings Reign of whom if we should make particular mention it would reach a great way in the Book of Martyrs In his Eight and twentieth Year the Lord Cromwel was made Vicar General under the King over the Spirituality and at least Four Hundred Monasteries were suppress'd and all their Lands and Goods conferred upon the King by an Act of Parliament In his One and thirtieth Year was set forth by the Bishops the Book of the Six Articles and all the rest of the Monasteries were conferred upon him Lastly In his Thirty fifth Year all Colleges Chantries and Hospitals were given to him Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here you have had a short view of the Beginning and sad Effects of this Prodigious Change of Religion begun by King Henry the Eighth A Further PROSECUTION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning a Second Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of King EDWARD the Sixth A Preamble THIS is a Summary Account of this King's Reign as to these matters of Religion taken out of the Preface of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Where after a brief Narration of King Henry the Eighth's Deserting the Pope he gives this following Account of his Son King Edward the Sixth The Relation whereof begins thus Next comes his Son Edward the Sixth upon the Stage whose Name was made use of to serve Turns withal and his Authority abused to his own undoing In his First year the Reformation was resolved on but on different ends endeavoured by some Bishops and others of the Lower Clergy and promoted with the like Zeal and Industry but not with like Integrity by some great Men about the â—…rt Who under Colour of removing corruptions out of the Church had cast their eyes upon the Spoil of Shrines and Images though still preserved in the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches and the improving their own Fortunes by the Chantry Lands All which they most Sacrilegiously divided amongst themselves without admitting the poor King to share with them though nothing but the filling his Coffers by the Spoil of the one and the Encrease of his Revenue by the fall of the other was openly pretended in the Conduct of it But to speak no more of this the work chiefly intended was vigorously carried on by the King and his Counsellors as appears by the Doctrinals in the Book of Homilies and by the Practical part of Christian Piety And here the business might have rested if Calvin's Pragmatical Spirit had not interposed He first began to quarrel at some passages in the Liturgy and afterwards never left Soliciting the Lord Protector and practising by his Agents on the Court the Country and the Universities till he had laid the first Foundation of the Zuinglian Faction who laboured nothing more than Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline to which they were encouraged by nothing more than some improvident Indulgence granted unto John Alasco who bringing with him a mixed multitude of Poles and Germans obtained the Priviledge of a Church for himself and his distinct in Government and Form of Worship from the Church of England This much animated the Zuinglian Gospellers to practice first upon the Church who being Countenanced if not Headed by the Earl of Warwick who then began to undermine the Lord Protector first quarrelled the Episcopal Habit and afterwards enveighed against Caps and Surplices against Gowns and Tippets But fell at last upon the Altars which were left standing by the Rules of the Liturgy The touching upon this string made excellent Musick to most of the Grandees of the Court who had before cast many an envious eye on those costly Hangings that massy Plate and other Rich and Precious things which adorned those Altars And what need all this wast said Judas when one poor Chalice only and perhaps not that might have served the turn Beside there was no small spoil to be made of Copes in which the Priest Officiated at the Holy Sacrament Some of them being made of Cloth of Tissue Cloth of Gold and Silver or Embroydred Velvet the meanest being made of Silk or Sattin with some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomely converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets to their Tables Coverlets to their Beds or Cushions for their Chairs and Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Council-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seizing on the Premises for the King's use But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a booty and the Commissioners to put a cheat upon the Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the Lords and Gentry of the Country who thought the Altar-cloths together with the Copes and Plate of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others This Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgy but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which conjuncture of Affairs King Edward the Sixth died From the begining of whose Reign the Reformation began All that was done in order to it under King Henry the Eighth seemed but accidental only and by the by rather designed on Private Ends than out of any settled purpose of a Reformation and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the great Work was carried on with a constant hand the Clergy cooperating with the King and the Council for the effecting of it But scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edward died whose Death I cannot reckon for an infelicity to the Church of England For being ill principled in himsels and easily enclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute
and every Act or Acts of Parliament concerning Doctrine and matters of Religion and all and every Article Branch Sentence and Matter Pains and Forfeitures in the same contained By which repeal all Men seem to have been put into a liberty of reading Scripture and being in a manner their own Expositors and of entertaining what Opinions in Religion best pleased their fancies and promulgating such Opinions as they entertained So that the English enjoyed that liberty which the Romans are affirmed by Tacitus to have enjoyed without control in the times of Nerva that is to say A liberty of being of what Opinion they pleased and of speaking freely their Opinions wheresoever they listed There was also an Act passed Entituled An Act against such as speak against the Sacrament of the Altar And to say truth it was but time that some provision should be made to suppress that Irreverence and Profaneness with which the Blessed Sacrament was at that time handled by too many of those who seemed most ignorantly Zealous of Reformation For they reproached it with such names and so unbecoming the mouths of Christians that they were never taken up by the Turks and Infidels There was another Act passed for the Receiving the Communion in both kinds yet with these Provisoes notwithstanding If necessity did not otherwise require as in the Case of sudden Sickness and other such like Extremities in which it was not possible that Wine could be provided for the use of that Sacrament nor the sick Man depart in peace without it And Secondly That the permitting this Liberty to the People of England should not be looked upon as a condemning of any other Church or Churches or their Practices in which the contrary is observed Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these acts of Parliament Another Act of Parliament The next great Business was the Retrieving of a Statute made in the Twenty seventh year of King Henry the Eighth By which all Chantries Colleges Free-Chappels and Hospitals were given to the King But he died before he had taken many of them into his Possession And the Grandees of the Court not being willing to lose so Rich a Booty it was set on foot again and carried in this present Parliament In which were Granted to the King all Chantries Colleges Free-Chappels Hospitals Fraternities Brotherhoods and Gilds not already seized on by his Father with all their Lands and Goods which being sold at a low rate enriched many and ennobled some And therefore made them firm in maintaining the change Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the ground of maintaining this Change of Religion Of Chantries Now as concerning the Nature of these Chantries here given to the King something hath been said out of Mr. Dugdale in the Reign of Henry the Eighth But it will not be amiss in this place to set down what Dr. Heylyn says concerning them pag. 51. His words are these THese Chantries consisted of Salaries to one or more Priests to say Mass daily for the Souls of their deceased Founders and their Friends Which not subsisting of themselves were generally Incorporated and united to some Parochial Collegiate or Cathedral Church no fewer than Forty seven being Founded in St. Paul's Free Chappels which though ordained for the same intent with others yet were independent of stronger Constitution and richer Endowment though therein they fell short of the Colleges which exceed them both in the beauty of their Buildings the number of their Priests maintained by them and the proportion of Revenue allotted to them Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these Foundations made for Praying for the Dead A Sermon Preached Now concerning the Suppressing of these Chantries it was Preached at Mercers-Chappel in London by one Dr. Cromer a Man that wished well to the Reformation That if Trentals and Chantry-Masses could avail the Souls in Purgatory then the Parliament did not well in giving away Colleges Chantries c. which served principally for that purpose But if the Parliament did well in dissolving and bestowing them on the King which he thought that no Man could deny then was it a plane case that such Chantries and private Masses did confer no Relief on the Souls in Purgatory Which Dilemma though it were unanswerable yet was the matter so handled by the Bishops seeing how much the Doctrine of the Church was concerned therein that they brought him to a Recantation at St. Paul's-Cross in the June next following this Sermon being Preached in Lent where he confessed himself to have been seduced by naughty Books contrary to the Doctrine then received in the Church But the current of these times have run another way and Cromer might now have Preached that safely for which before he had been brought into so much trouble Thus far Dr. Heylyn as to these Chantries An Act of Parliament for the Election of Bishops BUt that which made the greatest Alteration and threatned most danger to the State Ecclesiastical was The Act Entituled An Act for the Election of Bishops and what Seals and Stiles shall be used by Spiritual Persons c. In which it is Ordained That Bishops should be made by the Kings Letters Patents and not by the Election of the Dean and Chapters and that all their Processes and Writings should be made in the King's Name only with the Bishops Teste added to and Sealed with no other Seal but the Kings or such as should be Authorized and appointed by him In the composing of which Act there was more danger couched than at first appeared By the last branch thereof it was plain and evident That the intent of the Contrivers was by degrees to weaken the Authority of the Episcopal Order by forcing them from their strong hold of Divine Institution and making them no other than the King's Ministers only his Ecclesiastical Sheriffs as a Man might say to execute his Will and disperse his Mandates And of this Act such use was made That the Bishops of those times were not in a capacity of Conferring Orders but as they were thereunto impowered by special Licence The tenor whereof if Saunders be to be believed was in these words to wit The King to such a Bishop Greeting Whereas All and All manner of Jurisdiction as well Ecclesiastical as Civil flows from the King as from the Supreme of all the Body c. We therefore Give and Grant to you Full Power and Licence to continue during our good Pleasure of conferring Orders within your Diocess and promoting fit Persons unto Holy Orders even to that of Priesthood Which being looked upon by Queen Mary not only as a dangerous Diminution of the Episcopal Power but as likewise an odious Innovation in the Church She caused this Act to be Repealed in the First year of her Reign There was also in the first branch more contained than did appear For though it seem'd to aim at nothing but that the Bishops should depend wholly upon the King for their Preferment yet the true drift of that Design was
having been so dilapidated by Bishop Thirlby that there was almost nothing left to support the Dignity most of the Lands were invaded by the Great Men of the Court the rest laid out for the Reparation of the Church of St. Paul's pared almost to the very quick in those days of Rapine From hence came that significant By-word of Robbing Peter to pay Paul There was Summoned also this year a Convocation of the Bishops in which was Settled and Confirm'd the Book of Articles prepared by Archbishop Cranmer and his Assistants There was likewise set out a new Book of Common-Prayer upon the setting out this Book there appear'd no small Alterations in the outward Solemnities of Divine Service to which the People had been formerly so long accustom'd For by the Rubrick of the Book no Copes or other Vestments were requir'd but the Surplice only whereby the Bishops were necessitated to forbear their Crosses and the Prebends of St. Paul's and other Churches occasion'd to leave off their Hoods To give a beginning hereto Ridley Bishop of London officiated the Divine Service in his Rochet only without Cope or Vestment And not long after the upper Quire in St. Paul's Church where the High Altar stood was broken down and all the Quire there about and the Communion-Table was plac'd in the lower part of the Quire where the Priest sang the Daily Service What hereupon ensued of the rich Ornaments and Plate wherewith every Church was furnish'd after its proportion we shall see shortly when the Kings Commissioners shall be sent abroad to seize upon them in his Name for their own Commodity At this time the Psalms of David were composed in English Meeter by John Hopkins following the Example of Beza who translated them to be fitted unto several Tunes which hereupon began to be sung in private Houses and by degrees to be taken up in all Churches of the French and other Nations which follow'd the Genevian Platform Hopkins's Composition likewise although it was full of Barbarity and Botching yet notwithstanding was first allowed for private Devotion and by little and little brought into the use of the Church allowed to be sung before and after Morning and Evening-Prayer and also before and after Sermons afterwards Printed and bound up with the Common-Prayer-Book and at last added at the end of the Bible But in some tract of time as the Puritan Faction grew in strength and confidence it prevailed so far in most places as to thrust the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis quite out of the Church Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning these strange Changes CHAP. XI Of the Kings being engaged in Debt notwithstanding the vast Treasures he had gotten by his former Sacrileges and of one of his last Sacrileges in Pillaging of Churches Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 7. Dr. Heylyn pag. 131. Such was the Rapacity of the Times and the unfortunateness of the Kings condition that his Minority was abused to many Acts of Spoyl and Rapine even to the high degree of Sacrilege to the raising of some and enriching of others without any manner of improvement to his own Estate For notwithstanding the great and almost inestimable Treasures which must needs come in by the spoyl of so many Shrines and Images the Sale of the Lands belonging to Chantries Colleges Free-Chappels c. and the Dilapidating of the Patrimony of so many Bishopricks and Cathedral Churches he was nevertheless not only plunged in Debr but the Crown-lands are much diminish'd and empair'd since his coming to it Besides which spoyls there were many other helps and some great ones too of keeping him before-hand and full of Money had they been used to his Advantage The Lands of divers of the Halls and Companies of London were charged with Annual Pensions for the finding of such Lights Obits and Chantry-Priests as were Founded by the Donors of them For the redeeming whereof they were constrained to pay the Sum of Twenty thousand Pounds to the use of the King Other vast Sums likewise came to him upon several accounts yet notwithstanding all this he is now found to be much over-whelmed with Debt It must now be his care and the endeavors of those who plunged him into it to find the speediest way for his getting out In order to which the main Engin at this time for the advancing Money was the Speeding of a Commission into all parts of the Realm under pretence of selling such of the Lands and Goods of Chantries c. that remained unfold but in plain truth it was to seize upon all Hangings Altar-Cloths Fronts Parafronts Copes of all sorts with all manner of Plate Jewels Bells and Ornaments which were to be found in any Cathedral or Parochial Church to which rapacity the demolishing of the former Altars and placing the Communion Table in the middle of the Quires or Chancels of every Church as was then most used gave a very great hint by rendring all such Furniture rich Plate and other costly Utensils in a manner useless And that the business might be carried on with as much advantage to the King as might be he gave out certain Instructions under his hand by which the Commissioners were to regulate themselves in their proceedings to the advancement of the Service Now we cannot doubt but they were punctual and exact in the execution which cannot be better discerned than by that which is reported of their doings in all parts of the Realm and more particularly in the Church of St. Peter in Westminster more richly furnished by reason of the Pomps of Coronations Funerals and such like Solemnities than any other in the Kingdom Unto this Church they left no more then two Cups with covers all gilt one white Silver Pot three Hearse-Cloths twelve Cushions one Carpet for the Table eight Stall-Cloths for the Quire three Pulpit-Cloths nine little Carpets for the Dean's Stall two Table-Cloths The rest of all the rich Furniture Massy Plate and whatsoever else was of any value which questionless must amount to a very great Sum was seized on by the said Commissioners The like was done generally in all other parts of the Realm But notwithstanding this great care of the King on the one side and the double diligence of his Commissioners on the other the Booty did not prove so great as was expected In all great Fairs and Markets there are some fore-stallers who get the best penny-worths to themselves and suffer not the richest and most gainful Commodities to be openly sold. And so it was here For there were some who were as much before-hand with the Commissioners in Embezzelling the said Plate Jewels and other Furniture as the Commissioners did intend to be with the King in keeping always most part of it unto themselves For when the Commissioners came to execute their Powers in their several Circuits they neither could discover All or recover much of that which had been made away Some things being utterly embezzelled
vacant There was one Scambler made Bishop of Peterborough But during the vacancy thereof Sir William Cecill possessed himself of the Mannors in Soak which belonged unto it And for Scambler's readiness to confirm the same Mannors to him he preferred him to the See of Norwich Dr Thomas Young Bishop of St. Davids was translated to the See of York which was done in an unlucky hour to that City For scarce was he setled in that See when he pulled down the Goodly Hall and the greatest part of the Episcopal Palace in the City of York which had been built with so much care and cost by one of his Predecessors in the year 1090 Whether it were for Covetousness to make Money of the Materials of it or out of sordidness to avoid the charge of Hospitality let them guess that will But neither the filling up of those vacant Sees nor the Queens Proclamation for the Banishing of Sectaries could free the Land from those dangerous Inmates or preserve the Church from the Contagion of their poysonous Doctrines A short Note concerning St. Paul's Church Dr. Heylyn in the same page The Zuinglian Gospellers or those of the Genevian party rejoyced much at a most lamentable accident which hapned to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul on the Fourth of June on which day a fearful Fire first shewed it self near the top of the Steeple and from thence burnt down the Spire to the Stone-work and Bells and raged so terribly that within the space of Four hours the Timber and Lead of the whole Church and whatsoever else was combustible in it were burnt and consumed Now when Men began to cast about to find out what might be the occasion of this misfortune The generality of the Zuinglian or Genevian party affirmed it to be a just Judgment of God upon an old Idolatrous Fabrick not throughly Reformed and purged from its Superstitions and would have been content that all other Cathedrals in the Kingdom had been so destroyed The Emperors Zeal Dr. Heylyn pag. 142. The Emperor Ferdinand being informed of these Confusions of Religion in England perswaded the Queen by his Letters to return to the old Religion and not relinquish the Communion of so many Catholick Kings and Princes and Her own Ancestors also nor to prefer Her singular judgment and the judgment of a few private Persons and those not of the most Learned neither before the Judgment and Determination of the Church of Christ. And that if She were resolved to persist in her own Opinion at least that She would deal favourably with so many Reverend and Religious Prelates as She kept in Prison and that meerly for adhering unto that Religion which himself professed And finally he entreas her most earnestly That she would set apart some Churches to the use of the Catholicks where they might freely exercise their Religion A Nuncio sent to the Queen Dr. Heylyn in the same page Pope Pius also sent his Nuncio to the Queen with whom he conceived himself to stand upon terms of Amity It had been much laboured by the Guises and Spanish-faction to divert him from it by telling him That it would be an undervaluing of his Power and Person to send a Nuncio into England or to any other Princes of the same Perswasions who openly professed a Separation from the Church of Rome To which he made this prudent and pious answer That he would humble himself even to Heresie it self in regard whatsoever was done to gain Souls to Christ did beseem that See Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XI Of the Contest between the Church of England and the Presbyterians and how they sought to undermine the said Church Dr. Heylyn pag. 144. THe Genevians slept not all this while but were busily employed in practising against the Church of England nothing being able to satisfie them but the nakedness and simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Frankfort and the Presbyteries of Geneva And they drove on so fast upon it that in some places they had taken down the steps where the Altar stood and brought the Table into the midst of the Church In others they laid aside the Ancient use of God-fathers and God-mothers in the Administration of Baptism and left the answering for the Child to the charge of the Father the Weekly Fasts the time of Lent and all other Days of Abstinence were look'd upon as Superstitious observations No Fast by them allowed of but occasionally only and them too of their own appointing And the like course they took also with Festival Days neglecting those which had been instituted as Human Inventions not fit to be retained in a Reformed Church And finally that they might bring in their Outlandish Doctrines with such Foreign usages they had procured some of the inferior Ordinaries to impose upon their several Parishes certain new Books of Sermons and Expositions of the Holy Scripture To stop these proceedings the Arch-Bishop with Advice of some of the Bishops set forth a Book of Orders But notwithstanding these Orders the Calvinists drive on their designs as appears by this following Relation of Dr. Heylyn pag. 154. The Genevians had already begun to blow the Coals and brought Fuel to them But it was only for the Burning of Caps and Rochets The Common-Prayer-Book was so fortified by Act of Parliament that there was no assaulting of it And as to Episcopal Government it was so interwoven and incorporated with the Laws of the Land so twisted in with the Prerogative of the Crown and the Royal Interest that they must first be in a capacity of trampling on the Laws and the Crown together before they could attempt the destruction of it But Caps and Tippets Rochets and Lawn-sleeves and Canonical Coats seemed to be built upon no better Foundation than Superstitious custom some old Popish Canon or at the best some Temporary Injunction of the Queens devising which could not have the Power and effect of Law This Game they had in chase in King Edwards time which now they are resolved to follow to the very last The obstinacy of these Men in matter of Ceremony prompted the Bishops to make tryal of their Orthodoxy in Points of Doctrine Whereupon the Articles of Religion lately agreed upon were required to be subscribed to in all places with threatning no less than Deprivation to such as willfully refused Many there were that boggled at it as they all did but yet not so perversly nor in such great numbers as when their faction was grown strong and improved to multitudes Some stumbled at it in regard of the first clause added to the Twentieth Article about the Authority of the Church Others in reference to the Thirty Sixth touching the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops Some thought they Attributed more Authority to the Supream Magistrate over all Persons and Causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil than could consist with that Independency which Calvin arrogated unto his Presbyters and other Churches of the
Platform And others looked upon the Homilies as beggerly Rudiments scarce Milk for Babes But by no means to be looked upon as Meat for a stronger stomack In general thought by the Genevians and Zuinglian Gospellers to have too much in them of the Pope or too little of Calvin and therefore no way to be subscribed unto Of which number none so much remarkable as Father John Fox the Martyrologist who had before appeared in the Schism at Frankfort and left that Church when Cox had got the better in it to retire to Geneva Who being now called upon to subscribe that the opinion which was had of his parts and Piety might advance the work he is said to have appeared before the Bishop carrying the New-Testament in Greek with him before whom he spake these words To this Book I will subscribe and if this will not serve take my Prebend'ry at Salisbury the only Preferment which I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you But notwithstanding this refractory Answer so much kindness was shewed to him that he both kept his resolution and place together The Genevians for the greater countenanceing of their inconformity had stirred up the most eminent Divines of the French and Zuinglian or Helvetian Churches to declare in favour of their doings And it appears also by remembrances in some Authors that Calvin apprehending some neglect from Mr. Secretary Cecill in making either no return or a return which signified nothing to his first Addresses had laid aside his care of the Church of England But Peter Martyr whilst he lived conceived himself to have some Interest in this Church in which he had enjoyed such a good preferment but more in some particular Persons and Members of it who seemed to depend upon his judgment and to ask counsel of him as their surest Oracle in which how much he countenanced the Faction in King Edward's time both by his Practice and Pen and what encouragement he gave them in this present Reign hath been shewn before But how much he was out-gone by Beza who next usurped a Super-intendency over all the Churches of this Island may be seen hereafter All that shall now be said of either of them or of altogether shall be briefly this That this poor Church might better have wanted their best helps in Points of Doctrine than have been troubled with their intermedlings in matter of Discipline Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Calvinists Dr Heylyn having little or nothing in the Fourth and Fifth year of this Queens Reign that belongs to the matter of these Notes we will pass to the 6th year CHAP. XII Of one Cartwright a great Promoter of Presbytery and of the Earl of Leicester and the death of Calvin Anno Reg. Eliz. 6. Dr. Heylyn pag. 164. THis Summer in a Progress the Queen came to Cambridge where were sown the seeds of those Divisions and Combustions with which the Church of England hath been continually distracted to this very day For so it happened that one Preston and Cartwright were appointed to hold a Disputation In which the First was both liked and rewarded by Her the Other receiving neither reward nor commendation Which so incensed the proud man that he retired to Geneva Where having throughly informed himself in all particulars both of Doctrine and Discipline wherein the Churches of that Platform differed from the Church of England he returned home with an intent to repair his credit or rather to get himself a name by raising such a fire and such combustions in the Church of England as never were to be extinguished but by the immediate hand of Heaven The next considerable Action which followed on the Queens Reception at Cambridge was the preferring of Sir Robert Dudley the Second Son then living of the Duke of Northumberland to the Titles of Lord Denbigh and Earl of Leicester She had before Elected him into the Order of the Garter made him Master of her Horse and Chancellor of the University of Oxon suffered him to carry a great sway in all Affairs both of Court and Council and given unto him the fair Mannor of Denbigh being conceived to be one of the goodliest Territories in England And now She adds unto these Honors the goodly Castle and Mannor of Kenelworth part of the parrimony of the Duchy of Lancaster Advanced unto which height he engrossed unto himself the disposing of all Offices in the Court and State and of all Preferments in the Church proving in fine so unappeasable in his Malice and unsatiable in his Lusts so Sacrilegious in his Rapines so false in Promises and treacherous in point of Trust And finally so destructive of the Rights and Proprieties of particular Persons that his Little Finger lay heavier on the English Subjects than the Loins of all the Favourites of the Two last Kings And that his Monstrous Vices most insupportable in any other but himself might either be connived at or not complained of he cloaks them with a seeming zeal to the true Religion and made himself Head of the Puritan Faction Who spared no pains in seting forth his praises upon all occasions Nor was he wanting to caress them after such a manner as he found most agreeable to those Holy Hypocrites using no other language in his Speech and Letters than pure Scripture-phrase in which he was become so dextrous as if he had received the same Inspirations with the Sacred Pen-men But notwithstanding the viciousness of this man yet the Queen laboured further to advance him even to a Marriage with the Queen of Scots As appears by this Relation of Dr. Heylyn pag. 169. Queen Elizabeth kept a Stock still going in Scotland the returns whereof redounded more to her own security than to the profit and advantage of the Church of England The Queen of Scots being now a Widow possessed of that Kingdom and next Heir to this Queen Elizabeth proposes to her a Marriage with the Earl of Leicester whom she pretended to have raised to those Eminent Honors to make him in some sort capable of a Queens Affections Which Proposition proved agreeable to neither party the Queen of Scots disdaining the unequal offer and Leicester dealing under-hand with Randolph the English Resident to keep her still in that aversness having given himself a hope of Marrying Queen Elizabeth interpreting all her Favors to proceed in order to it I had not spoken so much of this Earl of Leicester but that he seemed to have been born for the destruction of the Church of England as will appear by what shall be here said concerning the Presbyterians in this Queens Reign But leaving this Court-Meteor to be gazed on by unknowing men we will now conclude this Sixth year with that which was very advantageous to the Church of England to wit the Death of Calvin By whose Authority if he had lived longer much more Disorders and Confusions must have necessarily succeeded For his Name was much Reverenced not only by
those of his own party but by many others grave and moderate men who did not look at first into the dangers which ensued upon it His Platform at Geneva was made the only Pattern by which all Reformed Churches were to frame their Government His Writings were made the only Rule by which all Students in Divinity were to square their judgments Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning Cartwright Leicester and Calvin CHAP. XIII The first Origine of the name Puritan and of the Protestation devised to hinder the Disorders caused by this Sect. Anno Reg. Eliz. 7. Dr. Heylyn pag. 172. THis year the Zuinglian or Calvinian Faction began to be first known by the name of Puritans Which name hath ever since been appropriated to them because of their pretending to a greater Purity in the Service of God than was held forth unto them as they gave it out in the Common-Prayer-Book and to a greater opposition to the Rites and Usages of the Church of Rome than was agreeable to the Constitution of the Church of England But this Purity was accompanied with such Irreverence this opposion drew along with it so much licentiousness as gave great scandal and offence to all men So that it was high time to give a check to those Disorders and Confusions which by their practises and their Preachings they had produced and thereby laid the ground of that woful Schism which soon after followed For the preventing these Disorders for the future a Protestation was devised to be taken by all Parsons Vicars and Curates by which they were required to declare and promise 1. That they would not preach nor publickly interpret but only read that which was appointed by publick Authority 2. That they would use sobriety in Apparel and especially in the Church at Common Prayers according to Order appointed 3. That they would not openly medle with any Artificers Occupation as covetously to seek a Gain thereby having in Ecclesiastical Livings Twenty Nobles or above by the year Which Protestation if it either had been generally pressed upon all the Clergy as perhaps it was not or been better kept by them that took it the Church might questionless have been saved from those Distractions which by the Puritan-Innovators were occasioned in it Thus far Dr. Heylyn concerning this strange Reformation of the Church of England Doctor Heylyn having Prosecuted his History of the Reformation of the Church of England until the Eighth year of Queen Elizabeths Reign was not willing to wade any further into the Confusions of those times and therefore makes this following Conclusion of it CHAP. XIV The Order of the Establishment of this New Church and of the strange Disorder it was at this time brought unto by the Puritan Faction Dr. Heylyn's Conclusion of his History THus we have seen the publick Liturgy confirmed in Parliament with divers Penalties on all those who either did reproach it or neglect to use it or wilfully with-draw their attendance from it The Doctrine of the Church declared in the Book of Articles External matters in Officiating God's Publick Service and the Apparel of the Clergy regulated by the Book of Orders and Advertisements the Episcopal Government setled The Church of England is therefore now fixed on her Natural Pillars of Doctrine Government and Worship not otherwise to have been shaken than by the blind zeal of such furious Sampsons as were resolved to pull it on their own heads rather than to suffer it to stand And here it will be time to conclude this History having taken a brief view of the State of this Church with all the Aberration from its first Constitution as it stood at this time when the Puritan Faction had begun to disturb its Order And that this may be manifested with a greater certainty I will speak it in the words of one who lived and writ his knowledge of it at this time I mean John Rastel in his Answer to the Bishops Challenge Who though he were a Papist and a Priest yet I conceive he hath faithfully delivered too many sad Truths in these particulars Three Books he writ within the compass of Three years against Bishop Jewel In one of which he makes this Address unto him And though you Mr. Jewel as I have heard say do take the Bread into your hands when you celebrate solemnly yet thousands there are of your inferior Ministers who esteem it as death to be bound to any such External Fashion And your order of Celebrating the Communion is so unadvisedly conceived that every man is left unto his private Rule or Canon whether he will take the Bread into his hands or let it stand at the end of the Table where it pleases the Sexton or Parish-Clerk to set them pag. 28. Thus as to the Communion now as to Altars he hath these words In the Primitive Church Altars were used amongst Christians upon which they offered the unbloody Sacrifice of Christ's Body yet your Company to declare what Followers they are of Antiquity do account i even among one of the kinds of Idolatry if an Altar be kept standing And indeed you follow a certain Antiquity not of Catholicks but of desperate Hereticks Optatus writing of the Donatists says That they did break raze and remove the Altars of God pag. 34. 165. Now as to the Objection of Praying in an unknown Tongue he writes thus Where Singing is used what shall we say to the case of the People that kneel in the Body of the Church Yea let them hearken at the Chancel-door it self they shall not be much wiser Besides how will you provide for great Parishes where there are a Thousand People An Objection of the Presbyterians Then to come to the Apostles Where do you read that in External Behavior they did wear Frocks or Gowns or Four corner'd Caps Or That at their Prayers they sate in sides fell prostrate or sung Te Dâ—…um or looked towards the South Or wore Copes of Tâ—…ssue or Velvet with a thousand more such questions pag. 446. The next question he asks him is Where the Church of God so well ordered with excellent men of Learning and Piety was ever constrained to suffer Coblers Weavers Tinkers Tanners Card-makers Tapsters Fiddlers Goalers and others of like Profession not only to enter into Disputation with her but also to climb up into Pulpits and to keep the place of Priests c. pag. 2. Or That any Bag-pipers Horse-coursers or Jaylors were admitted then into the Clergy pag. 162 Or that any Bishop then did Swear by his Honor when in his Visitation he would warrant his Promise to some poor Prisoner-Priest under him or not satisfied with his imprisoning did cry out and call upon the Prince not disposed that way to put them to most cruel deaths Or That refused to wear a white Rocket Or To be distinguished from the Laity by some decent Priests Apparel pag. 162. Or Gathered a Benevolence of his Clergy to set him up in his Houshold pag. 163.